Sneak Peek: The Next Release of WebFOCUS InfoAssist

By Matthew Lerner

WebFOCUS 7.6.9 will bring many new features across the product suite. InfoAssist, our cutting-edge ad hoc query tool, contains its fair share of new features that make complex procedures simple. These new features range from Compose, our compound document tool, to live Cube Browsing.  

The new Compose mode (Screen 1) allows you to combine reports, charts, text, and images to create a single document in any one of seven different output types. This includes our brand new Active PDF output, which embeds Active Flex content inside a PDF document. Active PDF makes it extremely easy to print and distribute Active Flex content.

Screen 1

Another new feature is the ability to stack measures. With the click of a button, every measure field is stacked using the FOCUS OVER command. The only difference between the reports shown in Screens 2 and 3 is that Screen 3 has stacked measures. This makes it much easier to compare Cost of Goods Sold for a given product in Q1 and Q4 because the values appear right next to each other.

In WebFOCUS 7.6.9, we extend the Interactive Preview mode to both graphs and cube data sources. Almost all areas of the graph are now active and can be edited by right-clicking (Screen 4).

Screen 2

Screen 3

InfoAssist’s interactive mode provides extensive cube browsing capabilities. Slicing, dicing and drilling are implemented in such a way that it is akin to creating any report in the tool. Drilling is accomplished by simply selecting the next level in the hierarchy metadata (Screen 5). Slicing and dicing is done directly on the canvas via a context menu.

Pivoting is simply done by dragging a dimension or property to the top of the screen output.  You start with pre-aggregated data for a top level of a hierarchy and then filter the hierarchy prior to looking at more detailed levels. When the desired result is achieved, the result may be saved as is or additional parameters can be added to the request.

In WebFOCUS 7.6.7, we gave you the ability to convert from a report to chart or vice-versa with a single click. Now, when you do that conversion instead of getting rid of the report, a new query is created with your chart. Not only is a new query created, but both are opened. WebFOCUS 7.6.9 introduces Multiple Query Mode, which allows you to open or create as many queries as you would like. This is similar to having multiple Word Documents open at once. 

Screen 4

Screen 5

Another great feature, and perhaps one of the most useful, is undo/redo. We have also added an Advanced Filters Dialog that allows you to perform operations such as field-to-field comparisons. For sites with less sophisticated users we have added Global Preferences that allow you to customize InfoAssist.

This customization includes setting default values for things such as format and record limit, indicating whether the user can override certain defaults, and disabling features. At this time this feature is global only, but in the future it will be expanded to a more granular level.  This will allow you to put only the features users need in their hands, making a simple tool even simpler.