R-Tag

 4/1/2018 Version 17.0 released

R-Tag Viewer and Scheduler
 - Added support for Active Directory. You can add Active Directory groups to R-Tag roles and use Active directory users instead of creating R-Tag users

 - Added support for email Distribution groups. Define groups of users, emails and Active directory groups and use them to send emails. For example create a distribution group Senior Management and set multiple scheduled jobs to send emails to this group. When a new manager is added to the team just add the contact info to the Senior Management  distribution group and the manager will start receiving all important reports

 - Added export to E-book (extension EPUB) and Open Document Format (extension ODT)

 - Added "watch folder". When a password protected file with report / job settings and parameters is saved in this folder R-Tag scheduler will use the data and run the report / job. This is useful when it is necessary to run reports from custom applications. This is added as an alternative of using command prompt parameters. The command prompt approach has security issues since it is easy to tamper and to run reports without permissions. It also may cause memory and concurency issues since for each report the custom application will start a separate copy of the reporting software. 
 
 - New Query editor to allow creating queries for Advanced dashboards using visual interface

 - Added central connection management and connection types. Now it is possible to save and reuse partial connection. 

 - Improved scheduler service using the calendar interface. Better support for multi-threading

 - Scheduler filter to show/hide task fore some jobs

 
 - New scheduler service for short period tasks to avoid flooding the calendar with per second and per minute tasks

 - New export options for PDF files allowing to set document and signature properties

 - New export options for Excel files allowing to set columns auto fit, max size, page size, header, footer, document security, insert data inside a template etc

R-Tag Documentation and Search

 - Added a new task type for R-Tag Scheduler to automate refreshing reports' metadata. 


 - Generate reports SQL even without access to the report database  

 - New formatting options for reports' and subreports' SQLs 

 - New formatting options for reports' formulas
 


R-Tag Version Control
- New engine to compare reports versions approx 100 times faster than the previous one. A sample comparisson , which was taking 4 seconds with the old engine took 28 miliseconds with the new engine.  

- Find report similarities. Thanks to the new faster compare engine it is possible to run comparisson for similarities. You can find all reports in a folder and the percentage of similarity to a current report in just few secconds

- Performance updates for export to Excel and scheduled tasks processing

- Adding multiple login options for Crystal reports server and BOE

- Bug fixes

- Applying changes to R-Tag Crystal reports assemblies to allow R-Tag to work on a terminal server without Crystal reports license

 9/14/2016 Version 15.0 released

- Scheduler service detects dependencies by other services and waits until they are started on computer restart . In case of database connection drop the service will check continuously for connection and will try to refresh the data as soon as connection is restored. Email will be send in case of connection or issue at service start.

- Catalog. New system to assign additional information to reports: tasks, owners, statuses, tags, description , summary

   1. Ticketing system. Create tasks, assign them to reports and developers, set start date, estimate and due date

       Allows developers to save time spent on each tasks, set task status, add notes, emails and documents to internal document management an associate them with the task. This system is linked to R-Tag Version Control for Crystal Reports and allows to link development tasks with internal report changes

  2. Report tags system. Create your own tags and assign them to reports , search and filter reports by tags

- Advanced settings for PDF and Excel files. New option for custom file extension

- New dynamic values dropdown. Blue dot marker is replaced with a regular button. This resolves the problem with occasional hanging on slow systems. Dropdown is resizable

- Relative dates support first day, last day, days from the beginning, days before the end

- Support for quarters in relative dates. Here is how to set 3 days before the end of the previous quarter

- Added Report description tooltip allowing to show quickly additional information.

 3/06/2016 Version 14.3 released

- Added export to Excel 2007 with formatting and optional gridlines for Crystal reports.

- Added export to Word 2007 for Crystal reports.

- Added option to refresh Crystal reports in Version control without checking out the whole folder. R-Tag will check the local version and will compare it with the database version to find if the file was changed without checking out first. Then you will be able to import the new files and they will be imported to the Version control as new versions giving you the option to compare and find the differences with older versions. This option is useful when synchronizing files changed by developers outside the company or when it is necessary to manage Crystal reports updated by vendors.

- Added options for advanced settings when running reports from external applications and BAT files. You can provide encrypted connection, default values etc. 

- Added additional export options for SSRS reports. Now it is possible to export to Excel 2007, Word 2007, CSV and XML with data

 10/26/2015 Version 14.1 released

- Added buttons to control tree nodes state. Changed the way how Refresh button works. It preserves the nodes states now.

Bug fixes

 - Fixed a bug, with button data not showing documentation for reports imported in Documentation and Search.

 10/26/2015 Version 14.0 Beta released

- Added user account and workstation management.  This makes possible to transfer R-Tag license from one computer to another.

- Added the ability to add attachments to Crystal version control notes. This allows to attach emails, requests , external documentation and samples to each version note. Video demonstrating this feature is available here.

Attachments will be added to the internal Document management.

- Added the ability to open Excel, PDF, Word, HTM and Text files using R-Tag as a viewer. This might be useful on servers where MSOffice is not installed. 

 07/03/2015 Version 12.5 released

Updated user interface to simplify creation of jobs and scheduled tasks.

  - Added the option to schedule report directly , without creating a job first

  - When adding new report to the job, the job  step name will be set automatically from the report name

  - When adding a new scheduler task the Subject will be set automatically from the Job or Report name

  - Added the option to schedule Report or Job directly from the Report/Job tree

 06/15/2015 Released new video How to use R-Tag with SAP BOE

This video shows how to use SAP BOE reports in R-Tag. R-Tag will allow you to use default values for parameters, dynamic file names, export to multiple Excel tabs, advanced Excel tables and pivoting, Dynamic Dashboards and Version Control. 

 05/01/2015 Version 12 released

- SAP BOE reports were added to report Search and Version Control. You can track changes in reports now and you can search them for tables, expressions etc . It is also possible to add SAP BOE reports to jobs to take advantage of advanced R-Tag features like dynamic export file names, export to multiple worksheets in Excel, extend reports with Dynamic Dashboards, combine multiple reports in one excel file with multiple worksheets or a PDF file etc.

 02/15/2015 Version 11 released

- Added ability to run SAP BOE reports

 10/15/2014 Version 10.1 released

- Added "Action Before" for reports and jobs. This feature allows to run some SQL or code commands before to run the report or the job. You can use it to prepare some data and to run the report(s) against it or you can clean existing files before to generate them again. This action will resolve the issue with jobs which are running a report multiple times and export each copy to a new worksheet in the same excel file. Export to multiple worksheets was available since version 5, but because each report was adding a new worksheet to an existing excel file the file was growing until deleted manually. Another option was to create a workflow and delete the file before to run step 1 of the job, but this was pretty complicate. Creating a command to delete the excel file in "Actions Before" is simple and will allow you to delete the file before start the job.

- Added the possibility to use jobs' and reports' parameters and data row values when creating file names, folders, emails etc. in jobs.

Bug fixes

 - Fixed a bug, which was preventing a newer version of a C# function to be executed without restarting the program. 

- Released R-Tag Report Manager with ability to document and search crystal reports. More information is available from this link: R-Tag Search. Document and search features are available as a feature in R-Tag Crystal Viewer, R-Tag Pro Viewer and also as part of the new Crystal Reports Documentation and Version Control module. In addition of searching Crystal Reports, Documentation and Version Control module allows also to keep versions of the reports, restore old versions and compare differences. Details are available on this page: Version Control

A document explaining the new feature is available from this link: R-Tag Documentation and Search for Crystal Reports

The new features require a new permissions to be added to the roles and to add additional icons for the reports with available metadata. 

Sample screenshot of the documentation screen for Chart report available in SAP Sample reports zip file. 

There is an improved search allowing to find tables, formulas text objects, SQL expressions etc.

You can also search by object name, for example find all picture boxes containing the string "logo" in the name ( as it is shown in the left screenshot bellow)

Another search example is to search by property. The screenshot above (on right) shows how to search for PaperSource. Search by property will generate a result like the one bellow

Since this is presented as a Advanced Dashboard report, It can be exported to Excel, PDF etc, or filtered internally to show just report satisfying complex crierias. For example : show me the list of reports , which name contains "market" and PaperSource value is "auto"  

Bug fixes: 

 - Fixed bug in Dashboards not allowing to load some layouts. 

08/05/2014 Version 10.0 Beta released - Crystal Reports Documentation and Version Control 

- Released R-Tag Report Manager with Crystal Reports Documentation and Version Control. This module allows you to generate documentation for a whole folder of reports, manage the development by checking out/in reports to one developer and keep track of the changes between the versions. You can find more information and demo videos here: Version Control

Bug fixes:

 - Fixed bug with not working job option "Do not process the step if report is empty". 

- Added button "Email" to the Excel, Word and PDF internal viewers. This button allows quickly to send the current file as an attachment using the default email client   

Bug fixes: 

 - Fixed bug with bad ZIP file when option "compress" is selected for export to local network file 

 - Fixed bug for job reports exported to a zipped PDF or excel file and the result file was failing because it was not able to combine the ZIP files 

 - Fixed bug related to "Delete at the end" option. In some cases the exported file was deleted before the email task and if it was used as an attachment the email was failing.

5/14/2014 Version 9.3 released

- Released R-Tag Report Manager with preview version of Crystal Reports Documentation and Version Control. This module allows you to generate documentation for a whole folder of reports, manage the development by checking out/in reports to one developer and keep track of the changes between the versions.   You can find more information and demo videos here: Version Control

- Added a new ribbon button to use internal viewers when the report is exported to Excel, Word or PDF (list of supported files: XLS, XLSX, CSV, DOC, DOCX, TXT, RTF, PDF, TAB separated, HTML). Added buttons to internal viewers to reopen the currently open file with the default application.

4/30/2014 Version 9.2 released

 - Added functionality to add multiple reports to the system and convert them to use new database connections. The result might be saved and the reports might be used by other applications , which are not able to switch connections on the fly. This feature is similar to what CR Data Source is doing but it is able to handle multiple connections per report. As of now the feature is not available for local database.

4/14/2014 Version 9.1 released

Bug fixes: 

 - Fixed bug when setting multiple connections for one report and the connection type is changed on the fly. For example when the connection is changed from ODBC to OLEDB and there is another connection to an excel file the reports were failing. This fix allows to switch on the fly to OLE DB and avoid creating ODBC DSNs on each machine in the network 

3/23/2014 Version 9.0 released

- Added changes to implement registration for R-Tag Community Edition

- Changed the way how R-Tag scheduler is loading the user credentials. Previous versions were using currently logged user in Windows. Current version is using currently logged user in R-Tag.

Bug fixes: 

 - Missing images in excel files. When the file is produced by exporting multiple reports.

 - Some excel files were not combined correctly ( color gamma was corrupted)

 - Jobs with empty reports were not processed. There is a flag to not process the job (send e-mails etc.)  if the report is empty. The job was not processed no matter what was selected .

 - There are some fixes in multithreading to avoid file locks when multiple reports/jobs are working simultaneously

 - PDF viewer. It was not able to open some PDFs generated by the system

 2/12/2014 Version 8.5 released

- Major upgrade for our scheduling engine. Memory usage by R-Tag Scheduler was reduced significantly, which allows to run it safely on non server machines.

We also added recurrence pattern "Minute", which allows reports to be scheduled every minute ( or every X minutes)

- Added internal viewers for PDF and Excel files. These viewers can be used when you are running R-Tag on a server or a computer where Excel and Adobe reader are not installed. The Excel viewer supports Excel formulas, charts, tables etc.

- Improved multitasking. When generating files R-Tag Report Manager and Scheduler will take safe approach and assign the generated file name to the process who created it. This is important on terminal servers where multiple users may try to generate files with the same name. Single task applications might overwrite files generated by other users, while R-Tag will generate separate files. 

-Improved export to HTML. When exporting to HTML R-Tag will combine text and pictures in a single file. This will allow you to move or attach your file without zipping the folder structure, which is created for the pictures when the fles are exported normally.   

Bug fixes:

- Fixed bug, not allowing users with restricted Windows permissions to run reports

 1/26/2014 Version 8.0 released

- Added support for multiple commands to Dashboards datasource.

- Added support for multiple selections to Dashboard filter. Use Control key to select more than one value.

- Added full screen button to the main form, allows to hide the ribbon when you need more real estate.

- Added Import/Export for SQL Report and Advanced Dashboards  layouts. Allows you to export a layout to an external file and import it back to another report

- Added new document explaining how to create Dashboards

Bug fixes:

 9/10/2013 Version 7.5 released

- New report type added: Advanced dashboard. This report supports multiple tabs and is able to combine regular grids, pivot tables, charts and dynamic dashboards. It can be exported to any of the popular file formats (Excel, PDF , Word, HTML etc. ). Export to excel will present the data as one file with multiple worksheets. The report could be added to a job and scheduled like any Crystal, SSRS or SQL Ad-hoc report. It could be combined with the other report types. This report is able also to save the data, so you can open it multiple times and use it even if the database is not available. In order to use the report you need a R-Tag Viewer Pro license.

- Crystal report could be extended with advanced dashboard report. Check this video to see how: Crystal report with advanced dashboard

- Added new report property - Viewer caption. It allows you to set the report tab text in the MDI interface.    

- Added new feature for Crystal reports - retrieve parameter's static values. Useful when you want to import existing static values to R-Tag.  

Bug fixes:

- Fixed incorrect worksheet name when a report is exported to excel and the file does not exist and should be created

  7/11/2013 Version 7.0 released

- Support for hourly schedules in the Scheduler

- Support for multiple connections in one report and in a report with sub-reports

- Extended support for range parameters - now ranges are supported by standard

Ranges support our relative default values. Here are the settings used to get dates above

- Extended support for parameters with multiple values

You can use the regular parameter input to add multiple values for one parameter

- Dashboards

    - Multiple dashboard tabs

    - Export to PDF, Excel, HTML, JPG etc..  

    - Roles permissions will allow you to control who can use each Dashboard.

    - Dynamic filtering and one click export to multiple page PDF and multiple tabs Excel files

    - Export and Import dashboards to R-Tag

 6/14/2013 Dashboards Beta released as a new report type for R-Tag Report Manager

6/2/2013 Version 6.0 released

3/11/2013 Version 5.3 released

 New features:

- Improved export to Excel with formulas. When the grid expression syntax is not directly convertible to an excel formula you can add an excel formula to the grid. No Excel installation is required.

- WYSIWUG pivot table export to Excel. No Excel installation is required.

- Added an option to not refresh Crytal Reports. R-Tag Report Viewer and scheduler will use the saved data. This option might be useful if you don't have connection to the report database or you are tesint the report output.

- Added separate e-mail for error reporting. Until now error reporting was using the e-mail account used to send e-mails. Now you have an option to send the e-mails from one account and to receive the error reports in another one.

Bug fixes:

- Fixed a bug related to reports' fields retrieval. In some cases reports' fields were not available in file and e-mails screens to construct dynamic names.

2/11/2013 Version 5.2.4 released

Bug fixes:

- Fixed a bug, which was not allowing a trial period on some computers with a local database.

1/25/2013 Version 5.2.3 released

New features:

  - Improved method to retrieve Crystal Reports data source for presenting the data in a grid, pivot table or chart

  - Added functionality to open an output files prepared by a job. This allows a job to be used like a report. Run it and you will see the result on the screen. Before it was necessary to send the file by e-mail or to find it and open it manually.

Bug fixes:

  - Fixed a bug when applying a Partial Connection String (just user and password). Thanks to Jan Bos from TXO-Systems for reporting this bug.

12/17/2012 Version 5.2.2 released

New features:

  - Added the ability to use reports' fields inside the file names, folder names, e-mail addresses, subjects and messages. This functionality is useful if you are migrating from an "old school " report viewer / schedule, which is using reports formulas to calculate variables. We do not recommend to use this functionality for new reports because the external datasource and C# code have better performance.

12/13/2012 Version 5.2.1 released

New features:

11/1/2012 Version 5.2 released

Official release for R-Tag Report Manager 32 and 64 bits for Windows 8

Our R-Tag Report Manager Beta for Windows 8 is officially closed. The program started on June 1st and after 5 months testing with group of 20 users in 7 companies we released the regular version.

New features with this release:

- Added dynamic formatting in SQL Ad-hoc reports. Both normal grid and pivot table support dynamic back and fore colors, font properties. Some examples of usage are: show negative numbers in red; show values in column A which are bigger than corresponding values in column B with blue background etc.

  - Added datasource retrieval for Crystal Reports. When the Crystal report is ready you can click the button "Analyze" and retrieve the source of the report as an Ad-hoc report. The new datasource will contain all the fields, formulas and SQL Expressions used inside the report. After that you can filter it , format it , apply pivoting and create charts. The datasource supports the same layout system as the ad-hoc reports and you can save multiple layouts per report.

This works is as follows.

  1. R-Tag viewer will run the crystal report.

  2. When the user clicks the button "Analyze" the program will retrieve the data used to render the report and will show it in a grid

  3. The user can format and save the layout of the new presentation. The layout will be saved with the crystal report and will be available the next time when the report is used.

This functionality is useful in case you have a lot of old Crystal Reports, which require on the fly filtering or pivoting. Generally, it is possible when you run the report the program to show directly the data in the grid (chart).However because the data is still retrieved by Crystal reports this will not improve the performance. The report will be still rendered behind the scene. If you want to see the data directly in a grid it will be better to recreate the report as an ad-hoc report - this will take just few minutes and will allow you to avoid Crystal rendering. Simple move from Crystal reports to a ad-hoc report might improve the performance dramatically.

10/12/2012 Version 5.1 released

New features:

- Added RTServiceManager tool to control R-Tag Windows Scheduler Service

- Updated scheduler user interface

- Improved method to change the connection to the database on the fly. The new method is the same as the one used in CRDataSource tool and will allow also changes for ODBC server and database.

- Added video Cascading parameters

Bug fixes:

- Fixed a bug when settings are saved with a local database

09/09/2012 Version 5 released

  Windows 8 compatible.

  New features: 

     - Added Impersonation to allow administrator to login as a another user and to check the permissions, reports and jobs availability for this user.

     - Added WUSIWUG editor with spellcheck and full mail merge support for the e-mails. The editor supports Word doc and docx files and is able export the files to PDF. End user is able to create new and to modify the existing mail merge fields.

     - Added filter by summary values in SQL Ad-hoc pivot tables

     - Added a new User password change dialog to the start menu.

     - New version of the RT Scheduler Windows Service released.

     - Added menu item "Report Instructions" to the Report rght click menu. This menu will show to the user the instructions saved with the report. The editor was updated to use the new WUSIWYG editor.

  Bug fixes:

     - Fixed the problem with C# functions dropdown. This is rare bug found on some computers : in some cases the dropdown was hanging

06/15/2012 Added demo video "Why to choose R-Tag Report Manager?"

  Link to the demo video

06/15/2012 CRDataSource can process subfolders

  The tool to set database location in Crystal reports can process a folder with subfolders.

06/14/2012 Released RC version for Windows 8 (both 32 and 64 bits)

   With the release of Windows 8 RC (5/31/2012) it is possible to start preparation for the Windows 8 version of R-Tag Report Manager. Please contact us if you are interested to explore the Windows 8 version. 

06/8/2012 Support for templates for table summaries

   With a single click you can create table totals for all numeric columns. Regular interface will allow you add table summaries to non numeric columns too ( table sumaries may be connected to another column)

06/8/2012 Support for details in pivot tables

  Double click a cell to see the data used for he calculation.

06/1/2012 Support for pivot tables and group summaries for SQL Add-hoc reports.

   Using the new interface you can create multiple layouts and present the same data as normal table, grouped table or pivot table. A chart can be connected to the current pivot table selection 

04/01/2012 Support for a local database. 

 In case you are going to use the software on just one computer you can use local database. Installation is much simpler because SQL Server is not required.

7/6/2011 Added notes associated with documents in Document Management
   You can add multiple HTML notes to documents in Document Management

7/6/2011 Updated single pass bursting

    Single pass bursting process was updated to support multiple reports