Copy and Paste, Band to Band and SVG to SVG

As of yesterday morning, it is possible for any Vectoriole user to copy an object and paste the object into a different Band or an entirely different SVG (.VECT).  This is an important step for the SVG Editor.

In the example below, a tan icon of Documents was copied from an Infographics SVG (.VECT), pasted into the Title of a different SVG, then pasted again into the Detail Band.  At this point, we are about to change the color of the 'final' pasted icon.

This capability is useful as more than an exercise in 'look what we can do':

1. Without the ability to Copy & paste between bands and svgs, it would be necessary to dig directly into the SVG xml source.  At best, a time consuming effort.
2. Alignment and 'exactness' from band to band or SVG to subreport will be much simpler and consistent.
3. It now makes sense to begin making a Library of drawn objects, that can be selected and placed as desired.
4. It provides the basis for a Variable data SVG datatype that can be included within Reports as a variable drawn object.  Probably adapt the Rectangle tool as a Container tool.  Said differently, personalized SVG will soon be possible.

 More coming, soon!

A Summary Band needs a Trombone

Summary Bands received an improved instrument last night and our current phase in SVG and Variable Data Editor Alpha will soon be drawing to a close.  We will be introducing a couple of improvements next week that we hope will gather some serious interest in what we've been working toward; the Personalized SVG.  We aren't there yet, but next week will be a big step in that direction.

Anyway, back to Summary Bands; now all you need to do is enable the Summary Band, size it as desired and drag the data field you'd like to have auto-calculated onto the Band.  Go down to Variables, click the Gear and choose from:

1. no calc
2. Sum
3. Average
4. Lowest
5. Highest
6. Standard deviation
7. Variance
8. System
9. First
10. Distinct Count

with others on the way.

 The values can also be setup to be reset by the next incidence of Report, Page, Column or Master.

XLSX now available as Datasource

XLSX is now available as a datasource. This is a big addition to Vectoriole's capabilities.

Without drowning you in too many details, we used Apache POI which is the Java API for Microsoft Documents. As of last week, we were able to use the 1st sheet in an xlsx but as of this morning, can access all sheets within a given xlsx and also assign the 1st row as the header.

Few HR Departments have direct access to their own HRIS and even the HRIS Manager can usually only create Views or run queries on existing Tables. Being able to use xlsx allows much greater freedom in HR report design without needing to get at the underlying DB tables. Of course, Vectoriole is not limited to HR. It could be extremely useful for any department. It's just that my background leans to employee benefits/HR.

In addition, the Grouping band has been enhanced with more control over the output. I'll be putting up examples of the ouput for both of these two new features over the next week.