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October 2010

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In this Issue:


JavaScript Skills in Demand – Book Your Training Now

Recent articles in the computer press have highlighted the shortage of software engineers with JavaScript expertise. Unicorn’s Mike Peat is an expert in this field and is increasingly being asked to lead JavaScript training courses and presentations, both here in the UK and abroad. 

The next training event at which Mike will be teaching JavaScript is the AJAX Master Class in Amsterdam from the 19th to the 21st October. The JavaScript part of this course has been recently updated and new material has been incorporated.


Mike Peat Presents at 2010 Corroboree in Tasmania 

Mike Peat’s presentation skills are in high demand at the moment and he was asked to present at the Australian DataFlex User Group (DDUG: DataFlex Developers and Users Group) annual “Corroboree” conference in Hobart, Tasmania this month.

As the 20,000 mile round trip wasn’t entirely convenient for Mike, he instead stayed up (bolstered with even more strong, sugary, black coffee than usual!) and by the magic of the Internet (and GoToMeeting’s software – see http://www.gotomeeting.co.uk/fec/) the attendees were able to see Mike’s presentation, demonstrations and code samples on-screen as they listened to his lecture on “Building Software for the Cloud”.

The only down-side was that the audience were unable to buy Mike drinks in the bar afterwards! Plus the fact that Mike had to give his presentation starting at 11:45pm UK time, but we suspect that he was more concerned to be missing out on the free beers.


Visual Report Writer 2010/1.3 Released

Data Access Worldwide has announced the latest release of Visual Report Writer 2010/1.3 which provides an easy to use interface for building reports for both end-users and developers.

New with Visual Report Writer 2010/1.3 is the Standard Edition, which delivers affordable report writing for end-users who simply want to create and run reports, rather than more complex tasks, e.g., locking, distributing and integrating reports with applications.

Full support is provided for end-users with the ’Report Creation Wizard’, which simplifies the process of creating a report and guides them through tasks such as, selecting data sources, grouping, filtering, summarising and sorting. In addition, the ’visual drag and drop design’ interface enables users to make changes to reports, allowing them to modify layout and underlying functions if desired.

Visual Report Writer 2010 for End-Users

Your organisation’s data and your ability to gain access to it and and understand it are vital. With the introduction of Visual Report Writer Standard Edition, there is now an affordable option for enabling end-users to access the data they need and create easy to understand reports.

Quite simply, Visual Report Writer is the key your users need to produce their own reports, quickly, efficiently and confidently.

The lower cost option of Visual Report Writer Standard Edition, means that report production no longer needs to be restricted to a few chosen developers. Instead of users waiting for their report requests to be processed by others, they can now create their own reports and get the information they want, when they want it? Of course, there are benefits both for your business and developers too, as requests for reports from end users are reduced, developers can focus more time on development tasks. 

Visual Report Writer 2010 for Developers

The Developer Edition is intended for Visual DataFlex Developers who want to embed reports in their Visual DataFlex Applications. The Developer Edition offers full report design capabilities, and reports can be previewed, printed and exported. In addition, Developer Edition offers the following:

  • Integration capabilities in Visual DataFlex Studio 15.1 and 16.0.
  • Visual DataFlex developers are entitled to use the integration library and wizard included with the Visual Report Writer licence to develop integrated reports in their applications.
  • Royalty-free distribution of integrated reports with Visual DataFlex applications. For deployment, the developer can distribute and install the report runtime files in a Visual DataFlex application with no additional runtime cost. Therefore, end-users can view reports, but cannot change reports. If an end-user would like to change a report, purchase of a Visual Report Writer licence is needed.
  • Developers can lock a report with the developer’s Visual DataFlex Studio licence serial-number to prevent an end-user from opening a report in Visual Report Writer. This prevents end-users from looking at the logic of a locked reports and changing reports.
  • To simplify installation, a restricted-use, single-user Visual DataFlex 16.0 Client Licence is installed with Visual Report Writer, if no prior Visual DataFlex Studio, or Visual DataFlex Client Licence already exists on the computer,
  • Visual Report Writer Developer Edition V1.3 can run side-by-side with Visual Report Writer Developer Edition V1.2 and Visual Report Writer Standard Edition V1.3.
  • The .VRW report definition format has not changed between V1.2 and V1.3.

The Differences Between the Editions At a Glance

To help you identify the differences between the two Visual Report Writer Editions, here’s a summary:

Visual Report Writer Edition ComparisonStandardDeveloper
Create reports (.VRW’s)YesYes
Run reports (Preview)YesYes
Print reportsYesYes
Export to CSV, PDF & PicturesYesYes
Lock a report (.VRW)NoYes
Integrate reports in Visual DataFlex AppsNoYes
Free report distribution with VDF/CL AppsNoYes
Needs Web Deployment Kit for webYesYes

Pervasive PSQL v11 Connectivity in Testing

Pervasive have recently announced the release of Pervasive PSQL v11 and  Data Access are currently testing their connectivity kit for this release.


Diary Dates

AJAX Master Class – Amsterdam, The Netherlands

This event takes place on the 19th and 21st October 2010, in Amsterdam.

The AJAX training master class is designed to help you exploit the AJAX Library’s unprecedented flexibility and ease of use for building database applications for the web and is organised into two parts:

  • Part I – JavaScript fundamentals. This will take one and a half days and will be led by Unicorn’s Mike Peat.
  • Part II -Developing solutions based on the AJAX Library for Visual DataFlex. This is conducted by Harm Wibier from Data Access Europe and will take one and a half days.

Synergy 2011 – Orlando, Florida, U.S.A.

The Synergy Conference takes place on the 30th March and 1st April 2011, with two training days on the 28th and 29th March.

This opportunity for meeting with the Data Access development team comes only every two years, and is well worth attending. The event itself will have a space-theme to add to the fun.