FF! 8+ Development Notes

Build 394 is available in full and refreshreleases.

A variety of updates (not as many as we had originally planned for) but lots of fixes including:

1. Disabling and better warnings when users attempt to do things that may cause problems (such as sorting by more than 15 items) or hiding something that isn't shown.

2. The Report a Problem/Suggestion dialog now automatically includes the request definition for easier understandability. You can also access the Report feature from the Help menu.

3. When users modify the layout, the user is warned when they attempt to make changes to things that will not appear properly in the preview area.

4. Reports now automatically switch from portrait to landscape when set to do so.

5. New visual look to the Startup screen.

6. Data dictionary now uses drop-downs for commonly used items.

7. Most Dialogs now position themselves relative to where they were pressed.

8. Fixes for color output and report layouts.

9. Clicking Print now works as expected.

Buld 395 will be focusing on upgrading older installations so users who are having problems with those areas please send us an email at support@foxfirereporting.com.

Thanks
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Here is a list of all existing video tours for Foxfire! 8.0. This list is constantly being updated. All videos use Windows Media Player v9.

Understanding the Sample Database

Designer Tour

Building a Summary Report
Building a Cross-TabReport
Using Excel PivotTables with Foxfire!

Using the Setup Wizard
Understanding Preference Sets and Users
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Foxfire! 8.0 Build 393, inching closer to final release, is now available for download. While there is a "refresh" build available here, we strongly recommend users download the full install which includes some video tours and more.

Full Install

Updates in this version:

1. Printing works again. The print button in the Preview toolbar will now print the report.

2. Summaries may now be added and modified in the Report Summary area. Right-click and choose Add Summary to make changes

3. Choosing Reprint on Header now makes the group header appear on each subsequent page.

4. The Setup Wizard now has an option to automatically go to the Relationship Editor when viewing the page.

5. Sorting is a lot easier with the addition of context-sensitive buttons that show the two different sorts.

6. Cross-Tabs Row and Column summaries now correctly refresh when they are changed in the workbench as opposed to the preview area.

7. Ctrl+S now saves the current request being worked on, much like common Windows applications.

8. A link to the video tours are now directly on the welcome screen.

9. Reports with a lot of columns no longer enter a continuous loop when generating the layout.

10. The Label output option only appears when you are creating labels.

Other minor updates as well.
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Build 392 is now available in full and refresh updates.

Items updated in this version:

1.A number of updates on the Filter area:
- better handling of parentheses
- new items that are canceled are removed correctly from the list
- when deleting, the currently selected item updates to the last one in the list
- dragging group filters around no longer errors out the screen
2. Sorts in Summary Reports are now saved properly.
3. When running a report, if no results are found, users can now re-filter their request directly.
4. When editing a data item that cannot be validated, it no longer turns to Filter Only.
5. The Setup Wizard has been moved to the Tools menu.
6. Excel Chart Output now uses the XLS file extension.
7. Non data-related items in labels (character fields) are no longer able to be hidden.
8. Setup Wizard now requires that you select the type of data you are grabbing from before you use VFP tables (options are free, DBC or DBCX)
9. Users can now cancel a request without waiting for it to run. A partial view will be displayed.
10. The Ask at Runtime dialog for In the List now uses a Mover-style dialog box for better ease of use.
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Build 391 is now available in full and refresh updates.

Items updated in this version:

1. member oTool not found when closing out of preview screen
2. Special processing has been relabeled to custom processing.
3. Sorting by calculated fields is now permitted
4. The preview toolbar uses hot-tracking
5. The Setup Wizard has some cosmetic revisions although more are coming.
6. When using F1 for help, you can access the Help file for easy access.
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The full install for build 390 is now available here.

Updates:
Request Editing/Management

1. The Edit Full Definition button has been moved to the right side of the screen, making the Description field much easier to view.

2. Special Processing has been relabeled to Custom Processing to better describe its purpose.

3. Print Comments now shows properly

4. Output options (such as the output to Screen, Printer, File) are now correctly selected when you change the request format. In previous builds, when you switched from Report to Excel, it would not always correctly change the output format.

5. The Group Options dialog is now directly associated with the Sort/Group dialog. The dialog is now positioned closely to the Sort list and when you click on Next/Previous, the item is highlighted in both the list and the preview area.

6. Cross-tabs now display properly.

7. When you change the appearance of a data item, you can now click Restore Defaults to bring back the original data dictionary definition.

Administrative Options

1. When using the Relationship Finder, the List button is now enabled for viewing all of the relationships.
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Build 390 is available in interim form only. The full install will be updated later tonight with some new sample data.
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