New Charts: Funnel, Treemap, and Radar/Web
Three new chart types have recently been added: Funnel, Treemap, and Radar/Web.
Radar charts visualize relationships between different categories.
My personal favorites are the Treemaps. Treemaps show hierarchical data in nested rectangles. The areas indicate size/quantity ratios and are proportional to the corresponding value. It also generates impressive reports in cool colors!
Jochen has already extensively reported on Radar Charts and Treemap Charts.
Another practical improvement is that the number of characters (letters) can now be restricted when grouping table cells. Until now, this was only possible in the Report Server Designer.
Incidentally: If necessary, you can now interrupt the preview in the ad-hoc Designer. While this may not sound particularly spectacular, power users who intensively utilize the ad-hoc Designer will be very pleased when completing complex, lengthy reports.
Variables in Actions
Variables can now be used at various points for actions such as “scheduled reports”. For example, you can dynamically determine the file name of an attachment in a “Send by Email” action. All input fields that support these variables are indicated by the corresponding button (Variables …):
There are various date/time variables as well as those that provide the current properties of the user and the server. Helpful tips for pros: Even basic List & Label formulas can now be used.
Here are a few examples:
| [Year] | Returns the current year |
| [{Upper$(“[UserName]”)}] | List & Label formula, which outputs the name in capital letters |
| [ReportTemplateName] | Name of the report template |
| [UniqueID] | Outputs a unique string of 36 characters |
Salesforce Data Source
Salesforce.com is now among the largest CRM manufacturers and offers its products as a web/cloud solution. The Report Server now provides a simple way to access Salesforce product data. Salesforce.com web services are used here. The data source is also available as a data provider for List & Label 23.
The Report Server is thus continuing to expand its extensive list of data sources.
This is only a portion of the updates for version 23. All improvements introduced in this List & Label version are also available in the Report Server (Designer). For example, also refer to Jochen’s blog post on Virtual Formula Variables
For over 20 years Alexander Horak is engaged in software development and has already worked at combit during his computer science studies. Nowadays, he is Head of Development of the combit Report Server, an ASP.NET MVC based Enterprise Reporting solution. In his spare time he loves soccer and is an active supporter of FC Bayern Munich.
