Primary New Features / Capabilities:

 New Data Dictionary Editor (DDE)

Do you wish your report writer knew all about your databases? The new Data Dictionary actually ‘learns’ about your data as you use it!! An entirely new data dictionary automatically catalogs tables, fields and indexes (V9 and prior only had fields), and provides for extended notations, specifications and other information about those reporting elements.

The NEW DDE is tightly integrated within R&R Report Designer. For example, from any field list, you can right-click the field and present the field’s dictionary data entry for view/edit. This feature lets you access or add to the knowledge of and usage about each field. For applicable calculated fields, a single-click action button will add that calculated field to the dictionary for future use; you can even easily share these fields with other users! Context-sensitive “Join Help” is available with a single-click button, based on dictionary & librarian information.

In addition, you can specify default settings for each field that Report Designer will read and apply when you place that field in the layout. Existing dictionary entries may be incorporated using a utility function. Each Librarian User ID has their own dictionary, with entries sharable among users.

SQL and xBase Editions Combined

Each R&R license will now include both xBase and SQL Report Designer licenses, plus the rights to distribute runtime components for either or both. In effect, each R&R V10+ is an R&R Data Warehouse with the updated features from V10.

All utility programs – Report Librarian^tm, Rapid Runner^tm and Data Dictionary Editor – apply to both Report Designer editions and combine the entries from both. (In V9, these programs were entirely separate.) Librarian will list ALL xBase and SQL reports, and launch using that applicable report designer. Create a Rapid Runner report batch that includes both xBase and SQL runtime reports. DDE catalogs table/fields from both xBase and SQL data sources.

This decision greatly simplifies the selection of the R&R product since there is now only one edition, and you can now use R&R with ALL of your data! And, now R&R can report across all of your data, no matter what system it comes from.

Expanded Extraction / Translation / Load (ETL)

Two enhancements to Rapid Runner greatly enhance R&R’s ability to manage your data preparation and storage function.

We have added a new export option to let you append a DBF export file to another DBF file. Using the feature, you can combine many tables into a single table – for example, the sales journals for dozens of retail store locations – whether the source data tables have the same structure or not. You can even use Rapid Runner to run reports based on the combined data file! All of this functionality can be scheduled in Rapid Runner for unattended processing.

Rapid Runner can now combine Xbase & SQL reports within the same 'set'. This new feature lets you say goodbye to stored procedures just to prepare data for reporting! R&R can perform all the ETL functions without a single line of code and delivers the data for reporting (or any other use) right to your desktop or network. Why spend thousands on multiple software programs when R&R does it all?