Version 7 Release 7.05
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Table of Contents for Coordinated Compound and Burst Reports. PDF
coordinated compound reports defining the Table of Contents page
or Bookmarks based on BY field entries can be coordinated (MERGE=ON)
to generate a report segmented by the primary sort key.
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DB_EXPR Function: Inserting an SQL Expression Into a Request. The DB_EXPR
function inserts a native SQL expression exactly as entered into
the native SQL generated for a FOCUS or SQL language request.
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Creating a Subquery or Sequential File With HOLD FORMAT SQL_SCRIPT. When
used in a request against a relational data source, the HOLD FORMAT
SQL_SCRIPT command generates the SQL SELECT statement needed to execute
the current query and stores it in the application folder as a file
with a .sql extension along with the Master File and Access File
pair that describes the SQL answer set.
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DB_INFILE Function: Testing Values Against a File or an SQL Subquery. The
DB_INFILE function compares one or more field values in a source
file to values in a target file. It returns the value 1 (TRUE) if
the set of source fields matches a set of values from the target
file. Otherwise, the function returns zero (FALSE). DB_INFILE can be
used anywhere a function can be used in a WebFOCUS request, such
as in a DEFINE or a WHERE phrase.
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Embedding TrueType Fonts Into WebFOCUS PDF Reports Generated in Windows. WebFOCUS
can embed the following TrueType fonts into PDF output files generated
in Windows:
- Courier New.
- Lucida Sans Unicode
(normal style only is available).
- Tahoma (normal and
bold styles are available).
- Times New Roman.
- Trebuchet MS.
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Support for Column Totals in Accordion by Row Reports. Accordion
by Row reports (ON TABLE SET EXPANDBYROW ON) now display the grand
total row as an anchor row below the data. This anchor row displays
above the report and page footings aligned to the left margin of
the report.
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Styling Tags for SUBTOTAL and GRANDTOTAL Lines. The tag is
the text that is displayed in the left-most portion of each SUBTOTAL
and GRANDTOTAL row in a report. The tag is used to identify the
type of data represented within this row. The text used to generate
this tag can be customized by adding an AS name to the SUBTOTAL
syntax.
Version 7 Release 7.04
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New Graph Output Format for HTML5 Graphs. WebFOCUS
supports a graph output format that takes advantage of the new HTML5
standard. The charts are rendered in the browser as high quality
interactive vector graphics using a built-in JavaScript engine.
You can use the SET AUTOFIT command to make the HTML5 graph output
resize to fit into the container in which it is placed.
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Inserting Images Into EXL07 Workbook Headers and Footers. WebFOCUS
supports the insertion of images into Excel headers and footers
and the definition of key page settings within the Excel Worksheet
Page Setup to support the placement of these images in relationship
to the overall worksheet and Excel generated page breaks.
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EXL07 Template Enhancements. To
support expanded template file types, the template file name attribute
has been enhanced to allow for the inclusion of the file extension.
If no extension is specified within the template name, the file extension
will default to .XLTX.
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ROWOVERFLOW Enhancements for EXL07 and EXL2K. ROWOVERFLOW is
supported with EXL07 report output. The new ROWLIMIT StyleSheet
attribute sets the maximum number of rows before the report overflows
to a new Worksheet. The ROWOVERFLOW=PBON attribute includes internal
WebFOCUS page breaks in EXL2K and EXL07 report output.
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Using EXL2K Formula With Prefix Operators. EXL2K
FORMULA output supports prefix operators that are used on summary
lines generated by WebFOCUS commands such as SUBTOTAL and RECOMPUTE.
Where a corresponding formula exists in Excel, these prefix operators
are translated into the equivalent Excel summarization formula.
The results of prefix operators used directly against retrieved
data continue to be passed to Excel as values, not formulas.
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Expanded Browser and Device Support for Images in HTML Documents. In
prior releases of WebFOCUS, images and graphs were included in HTML
and DHTML reports through the creation of a single Web archive file
(.mht) containing the report and embedded images. Single Web archive
files are only supported by Internet Explorer. In Release 7.7.04
Reporting Server, a new encoding facility has been introduced to
embed images and graphs directly into an HTML or DHTML .htm file.
This encoding in the .htm file can be read by most non-Internet
Explorer browsers and Internet Explorer 9. Internet Explorer 8 can
only read small images less than 32K. SET HTMEMBEDIMG is the command
designed to ensure that all WebFOCUS reports can be accessed from
any browser or device.
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Enhancement to HFREEZE Support. The
HTML HFREEZE reporting feature supports blank column titles. The
vertical HFREEZE scroll bar will be aligned with the first row of
report data.
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Accordion By Row Enhancements. Accordion
By Row reports support reports that use the PRINT display command
and pop-up descriptions.
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SET ACROSSTITLE=SIDE Enhancements. The
SET ACROSSTITLE=SIDE command is supported for HTML, EXL2K, and EXL07
report output. In prior releases, only PDF report output was supported.
The command also supports the BACKCOLOR StyleSheet attribute for
the ACROSS titles.
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Conditional Styling Based on ACROSS Values. WebFOCUS
supports using ACROSS values to define conditional styling within
the report. ACROSS values can now be used as part of the conditional
expressions used to define styling attributes for each cell in the
table.
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Enhancements to SET DROPBLNKLINE. The
DROPBLNKLINE parameter controls whether blank lines display in a
WebFOCUS report. With the options provided, you can affect blank
lines that are automatically generated in different locations within a
report. You can choose to drop the blank lines around subtotals,
subheadings, and subfootings, as well as certain data lines that
may be blank and appear as blank lines on the report output. Additionally,
when using borders, you can select to remove blank lines inserted
around the headings and footings. You can eliminate these blank
lines from the report output using the SET DROPBLNKLINE options.
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Reformatting Sort Fields. When
displaying a vertical (BY) sort column or horizontal (ACROSS) sort
row on report output, you can reformat the sort field values by specifying
the new format in the sort phrase. The reformatting affects only
the sort field value as displayed on the sort row or column. That
is, if the field used as a sort field is referenced in a heading,
subheading, footing, subfooting, or summary line, it displays with
its original format.
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Defining a Holiday File. Some
date functions that calculate business days use a holiday file to
define days that are considered holidays. These days are not counted
in calculations based on business days. By default, the holiday
file has a file name of the form HDAYxxxx.err and is on your path
or, on z/OS under PDS deployment, is a member named HDAYxxxx of
a PDS allocated to DDNAME ERRORS. In your procedure or request,
you must issue the SET HDAY=xxxx command to identify the file or
member name. Alternatively, you can define the file to have any
name and be stored anywhere or, on z/OS under PDS deployment, allocate
the holiday file as a sequential file of any name or as member HDAYxxxx
of any PDS.
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Including Sort Objects in the Master File. You
can now define sort phrases and attributes in a Master File and
reference them by name in a request against the Master File. The
entire text of the sort object is substituted at the point in the
TABLE request where the sort object is referenced.
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Reading Selection Values From a File Using WHERE. Instead
of typing literal test values in a WHERE phrase, you can store them
in a file and refer to the file in the report request. You can then
select records based on equality or inequality tests on values stored
in the file.
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SQL.Function Syntax for Direct DBMS Function Calls. The
SQL adapters can pass virtual fields that call certain SQL scalar
functions to the relational engine for processing. This enables
you to use SQL functions in a request even when they have no equivalent
in the WebFOCUS language. The function must be row-based and have
a parameter list that consists of a comma-delimited list of column
names or constants. In order to reference the function in an expression,
prefix the function name with SQL. If the virtual field is in the
Master File, both TABLE requests and those SQL requests that qualify
for Automatic Passthru (APT) can access the field. If the virtual
field is created by a DEFINE FILE command, TABLE requests can access
the field. The function name and parameters are passed without translation
to the relational engine.
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Creating and Using a Master File Profile. This
release introduces a profile that you can reference in the Master
File and is executed during Master File processing. The Master File
profile (MFD_PROFILE) is a FOCEXEC that suspends processing of the
Master File for a request, executes, and then returns to processing
of the Master File. The profile can be used for many purposes but
is especially useful for setting the values of global variables
defined in the Master File, creating a lookup file for Master File
DEFINE commands or DBA attributes, and creating a DBAFILE, which
can be derived from an external data source and used to restrict
access during execution of any request that references the Master
File.
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Using Global Amper Variables to Create Dynamic DBA Rules. The
DBA attributes USER and VALUE can be parameterized using global
Dialogue Manager variables. Using this technique, you can create
dynamic DBA rules for the connected user without creating a DBAFILE
that contains rules for all users. You can obtain the user ID of
the connected user and, optionally, a value restriction for that
user and insert them directly into the DBA section of the Master
File. One convenient way to do this is to use a Master File profile.
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DENSE and SPARSE Ranking of Sort Field Values. The
WebFOCUS sort phrases RANK BY and BY {HIGHEST|LOWEST} n sort
the report output and assign rank numbers to the sequence of data
values. When assigning a rank to a data value, by default WebFOCUS
does not skip rank numbers. This means that even when multiple data
values are assigned the same rank, the rank number for the next
group of values is the next sequential integer. This method of assigning
rank numbers is called dense. Some of the relational engines
assign rank numbers using a method called sparse. With sparse
ranking, if multiple data values are assigned the same rank number,
the next rank number will be the previous rank number plus the number
of multiples. You can use the WebFOCUS RANK parameter to control
the type of ranking done by WebFOCUS. In addition, if you are accessing
a relational data source, you can set the ranking method to the
type of ranking done by your relational engine so that the rank
calculation can be optimized. Some relational engines have functions
for both dense and sparse ranking. In this case, either setting
can be optimized.
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Selecting and Assigning Column Titles to ACROSS Values. When
you use the ACROSS COLUMNS phrase to select and order the columns
that display on the report output for an ACROSS sort field, you
can assign each selected column a new column title using an AS phrase.
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Applying Summary Commands to Selected Fields in ACROSS Groups. When
a request has multiple display fields and an ACROSS sort field,
the report output has multiple columns under each ACROSS value.
If you want to apply a summary field to some of the columns for
each ACROSS value, but not others, you can specify the field names
you want summarized. This technique is most useful for report requests
that use the OVER phrase to place the fields on separate rows.
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Preserving Blank Space in Delimited Sequential Files. By
default, when a delimited file is created using HOLD FORMAT DFIX,
trailing blank spaces are removed from alphanumeric data unless
they are included within specified enclosure characters. The PRESERVESPACE
YES option in the HOLD FORMAT DFIX command preserves leading and
trailing blank spaces in the data, even when there is no enclosure
character sequence. Using this option in the HOLD command adds the
attribute PRESERVESPACE=YES in the FORMAT DFIX Access File. In addition,
having PRESERVESPACE=YES in the Access File causes leading and trailing
blank spaces to be preserved when reading a FORMAT DFIX file.
Version 7 Release 7.03
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New Accessibility Parameters for HTML and PDF Report Output. Two
new SET commands have been implemented, which can be issued individually
or together within a procedure (FOCEXEC) to produce Section 508-compliant
report output in either HTML or PDF format. These commands have
been implemented in Report Painter and the Developer Studio Set
tool.
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Restricting Access to Values Using WHERE Criteria. Using
WebFOCUS DBA security, you can restrict access to specific values
in a data source. The RESTRICT=VALUE attribute supports those criteria
that are supported by the IF phrase. The RESTRICT=VALUE_WHERE attribute
supports all criteria supported in a WHERE phrase, including comparison
between fields and use of functions. The WHERE expression is passed
to a configured adapter when possible.
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LCWORD3: Converting a Character String to Mixed-Case. The LCWORD3
function converts the letters in a character string to mixed-case
by converting the first letter of each word to uppercase and converting
every other letter to lowercase. In addition, a single quotation
mark indicates that the next letter should be converted to uppercase
as long as it is neither followed by a blank nor the last character
in the input string. For example, 'SMITH' would be changed to 'Smith'
and JACK'S would be changed to Jack's.
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FIYR: Obtaining the Financial Year. The
FIYR function returns the financial year, also known as the fiscal
year, corresponding to a given calendar date based on the financial
year starting date and the financial year numbering convention.
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FIQTR: Obtaining the Financial Quarter. The
FIQTR function returns the financial quarter corresponding to a
given calendar date based on the financial year starting date and
the financial year numbering convention.
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FIYYQ: Converting a Calendar Date to a Financial Date. The
FIYYQ function returns a financial date containing both the financial
year and quarter that corresponds to a given calendar date. The
returned financial date is based on the financial year starting
date and the financial year numbering convention.
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Retrieving the Current Date or Date-Time Value in Any Valid Format. Dialogue
Manager can return the current date or date and time to a variable
in any valid date or date-time format. To return the current date
or date-time value to a variable, append the date or date-time format
to be returned to &DATE. To suppress trailing blanks,
append the format to &DATX.
Version 7 Release 7.02
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Summarizing Alphanumeric Columns. By
default, subtotals (using the SUBTOTAL and SUB-TOTAL commands) and
recalculations (using the RECOMPUTE and SUMMARIZE commands) only
display values for numeric report columns. However, you can include
alphanumeric columns on these summary lines by either setting SUMMARYLINES=NEW
and specifying the columns you want to display on the summary lines,
or by using the asterisk wildcard character to display all fields
on the summary lines.
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Propagating Mixed-Case Column Titles to a HOLD File. A
report request can display custom column titles on the report output
by using an AS phrase to specify the title. These names can be propagated
as field names to a HOLD Master File by issuing the SET ASNAMES
command. With SET ASNAMES=ON, all column titles are converted to
uppercase when propagated to the HOLD file. To retain mixed-case
column titles as field names, use the SET ASNAMES=MIXED command.
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Column Titles for FML and BY ROWS OVER Requests. By
default, the FOR field in an FML request and the last BY field in
a request with BY ROWS OVER has no column title. You can use the
AS phrase to specify a column title for those fields.
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Passing WebFOCUS Dates to Excel 2000. By
default, when WebFOCUS creates dates in Excel 2000 (EXL2K) format,
the date formats that contain translated values, such as month or
day name, are sent as formatted text, preserving the style defined
for the report field. Numeric dates are passed to Excel 2000 as
standard date values, not as text.
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Passing Dates With Translated Text to Excel 2000. Some
translated dates can be sent to Excel 2000 as standard date values
with format masks, enabling Excel to use them in functions, formulas,
and sort sequences. The SET EXL2KTXTDATE command allows you to specify
that translated dates should be sent as date values with format
masks instead of text values.
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Passing Dates Without a Day Component. Date
formats that do not specify the day value explicitly are defined
as the date value of the first day of the month. Therefore, the
value placed in the cell may be different from the day component value
in the source data field and may produce unexpected results when
used for sorting or date calculations in an Excel formula.
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Passing Date Components for Use in Excel Formulas. Dates
formatted as individual components (for example, D, Y, M, W) are
passed to Excel as numeric values that can be used as parameters
to Excel date functions. The values are passed as general text format
that are recognized by Excel as numbers. These values are passed
to Excel in the same format regardless of the setting for EXL2KTXTDATE.
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Passing Quarter Formats. Date
formats that contain a Quarter component are always passed to Excel
as text strings since Excel does not support Quarter formats.
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Passing Date Components Defined as Translated Text. Date
formats that do not contain sufficient information to present the
valid date result in Excel are not translated to a value, including
formats that do not contain year and/or month information. These
dates will continue to be sent to Excel as text regardless of the
SET EXL2KTXTDATE setting. In the absence of complete information,
the year defaults to the current year, so the value sent would be
incorrect if this type of format was passed as a date value.
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Hiding Null Columns in ACROSS Groups. Report
requests that use the ACROSS sort phrase generate a group of columns
(one for each display field in the request) under each value of
the ACROSS field. In many cases, some of these columns have only
missing or null values. You can use the HIDENULLACRS parameter to
hide the display of ACROSS groups containing only null columns.
If there is a BY field with a PAGE-BREAK option, columns are hidden
on each page of output generated by that PAGE-BREAK option. If the
request contains no BY page breaks, ACROSS groups that are missing
for the entire report are hidden.
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Hiding ACROSS Groups and Columns Within BY Page Breaks. Hiding null
columns is most useful when a BY sort field has the PAGE-BREAK option,
either on the BY phrase itself or in an ON phrase. The change in
value of the BY field determines when a page break is generated
for that BY field. The change in BY field value defines the limits
within which the ACROSS columns will be hidden, even if the BY field
value spans multiple physical pages.
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Generating Summary Lines and Hiding Null ACROSS Columns. If
an entire ACROSS group is hidden, so are the totals generated for
the associated BY field value. If any of the columns for the ACROSS
value contain non-missing data, the ACROSS group will display with
the non-missing columns.
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Using Column Styling and Hiding Null ACROSS Columns. Column
styling remains attached to the original column, regardless of whether
the column remains in the same place on the report output because
of hiding null columns.
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Hiding Null ACROSS Columns in an FML Request. An
FML request always has a FOR field that defines the order of specific
rows. The FOR field cannot be used to trigger hiding of null ACROSS
columns. However, the request can also have a BY field with a PAGE-BREAK
option and this can be used to hide null ACROSS columns.
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Controlling Column Title Underlining. The
SET TITLELINE command allows you to control whether column titles
are underlined on report output.
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WebFOCUS Amper Autoprompt Facility Field Selection Enhancement. The
WebFOCUS amper auto-prompting facility now enables you to create
a launch page that prompts users to select one or more fields to
apply to each display and sort command in a report request. The
list controls in the autoprompt form display in the order the amper
variables are coded in the procedure (FOCEXEC).
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Adding Static Lists of Display and Sort Fields. In
a static list of fields, you specify the field names and display
values in the select list for the display or sort command.
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Adding Dynamic Lists of Display and Sort Fields. In
a dynamic list of fields, you use the FIND command in the select
list to retrieve field names and display values from a FOCUS data
source.
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Supporting Multiple DST Operators in the Same Request. The
handling of DST operators has been improved to support multiple
DST operators in the same request, and the ability to use DST with
ACROSS.
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Creating Accordion By Row Reports. Accordion
By Row reports are HTML reports that offer an interactive interface
to data aggregated at multiple levels by presenting the sort fields
within an expandable tree. The highest dimension or sort field (BY
value) and the aggregated measures for each value display at the
top of the report. The tree control can be used to open or close
each dimension and view the associated aggregated values. Clicking
the plus sign (+) next to a sort field value opens new rows that
display the next lower level sort field values and subtotals. The
lowest level sort field, when expanded, displays the aggregated
data values.
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Controlling Non-Printed Fields Propagated to a Hold File With SET HOLDLIST=EXPLICIT. The
SET HOLDLIST command controls which fields in the request are propagated
to a HOLD file. The value ALL propagates all fields referenced in
the request, except for NOPRINTed BY fields to the HOLD file, ALLKEYS
propagates all field in the request, including NOPRINTed BY fields
to the HOLD file, the value PRINTONLY does not propagate NOPRINTed
fields to the HOLD file. However, some fields are explicitly specified
with the NOPRINT option in the request and some are implicitly created,
without the user being aware of them. For example, if you reformat
a field, the original version of the field exists in the request
but is NOPRINTed on the output. The PRINTONLY setting for HOLDLIST
does not distinguish between implicit and explicit NOPRINTs.
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Excel 2007 Support. Support
for Excel 2007 is available in this release.
Version 7 Release 7
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Testing For Null Values in Left Outer Join Requests. In WebFOCUS,
the command SET ALL = ON or JOIN LEFT_OUTER specifies a left outer
join. With a left outer join, all records from the host file display
on the report output.
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Ignoring ON Phrases for Absent Fields. To
make report requests flexible, options may be included that are
not needed in every situation. User selections then control the
options used for each execution of the request.
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Increase for the Length of All Fields. The
total length of all fields in a request can be up to 256K.
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Access Restrictions in a Multi-File Structure. The
DBASOURCE parameter determines which security attributes are used
to grant access to multi-file structures. By default, access restrictions
are based on the host file in a JOIN structure or the last file
in a COMBINE structure.
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1024 Segments. The
maximum number of segments supported in a structure is 1024. This
structure can be created by joining or combining data sources.
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Support for 128 Sort Phrases in a Request. The
total number of sort phrases in a single request (the combination
of BY fields and ACROSS fields) is 128. This includes sorts that
may be generated internally as part of report processing, such as
generating a FOCLIST field.
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32 Gigabyte XFOCUS Data Sources. An
XFOCUS data source can consist of up to 1022 partitions. The maximum
size of each individual partition has been increased to 32 gigabytes.
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Increased Length for DEFINE FUNCTION Names. The
maximum length of the name for a DEFINE FUNCTION has been increased
to 64 characters.
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Controlling Collation Sequence. Collation
is defined as a set of rules that apply to the ordering and matching
of all language elements that involve comparison of two values.
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Adding and Configuring Fonts. You
can add and configure PostScript Type 1 fonts to significantly expand
your options for displaying and printing PS and PDF reports, beyond
the basic set of fonts distributed with Adobe Reader.
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Using Overflow Worksheets. The
maximum number of rows supported by Excel 2003 on a worksheet is
65,536 (65K). When you create an EXL2K output file from a WebFOCUS
report, the number of rows generated can be greater than this maximum.
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Drill-Down Hyperlink Tooltips for EXL2K Reports. You
can use the ALT attribute in a StyleSheet for EXL2K report output
to provide informational text (a Tooltip) for a drill-down hyperlink.
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Positioning ACROSS Titles on Report Output. In
a report that uses the ACROSS sort phrase to sort values horizontally
across the page, by default two lines are generated on the report
output for the ACROSS columns.
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Using Distinct Operators on Multiple Fields. This
feature allows the DST operator to be used on more than one field
within a single request and allows the ACROSS horizontal sort to
be used with fields that have the DST operator applied. In requests
with multiple display fields, the DST operator must be used at the
lowest level of aggregation (the last display command in the request).
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Multiple Conditional Headings and Footings. A
TABLE request can have more than one page heading or footing. For
each heading or footing, a WHEN clause against the data being retrieved
can determine whether the heading or footing displays on the report
output.
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Displaying Summary Lines Above the Data. The
SET SUBTOTALS command controls whether summary lines are displayed
above or below the detail lines in a report.
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Selecting Records Without Wildcard Characters. An
IF or WHERE clause in a request selects records based on whether
they satisfy the criteria specified in an expression.
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Displaying Absolute Values. On
certain types of reports, negative values are displayed without
a minus sign (-) or any other indication of a negative value. In
order to suppress the display of a negative indicator on WebFOCUS
report output, you can use the A option with
any numeric format in a DEFINE or COMPUTE command or in the USAGE
format for a field in a Master File. This option affects only the
display, not the stored value.
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TITLE and DESCRIPTION for a Virtual Field. In
a DEFINE FILE command or a DEFINE FUNCTION, you can specify a TITLE
and a DESCRIPTION for each virtual field, just as you can for a
DEFINE in a Master File.
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Converting Fields Using the FPRINT Function. The
FPRINT function converts any type of field except for a text field
to its alphanumeric equivalent for display. The alphanumeric representation
will include any display options that are specified in the format
of the original field.
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Returning a Date Component as an Integer. The
DPART function extracts a specified component from a date field
and returns it in numeric format.
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Dialogue Manager Variable Names Up to 64 Characters. Dialogue Manager
supports labels up to 64 characters long. Label names can consist
of letters, numbers, and underscores. Dialogue Manager labels identify
a section of code in a FOCEXEC that you can branch to as a result
of a -GOTO or -REPEAT command.
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Preventing Procedure Code From Displaying. In
order to protect the privacy of your procedure code, you can use
the SET DEFECHO=NONE command or the -SET &ECHO=NONE command
to prevent the code from displaying for the entire session or connection.
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Reading Master File Fields Into Dialogue Manager Variables. The -READFILE
command reads a file by first reading its Master File and creating
Dialogue Manager amper variables based on the ACTUAL formats for
each field in the Master File.
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Generating a Table of Contents With BY Field Entries for PDF Compound Layout Reports. Using
compound layout syntax, you can generate a Table of Contents for
a PDF compound report.
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Enabling the zIIP Specialty Engine on z/OS. If
your site has a zIIP (System z
Integrated Information Processor)
specialty engine from IBM, you can offload specific categories of workload
from the Central Processors to the zIIP.
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Displaying the Close Option on the WebFOCUS Viewer Control Bar. The
WEBVIEWCLOSE parameter specifies whether to display the Close option
on the WebFOCUS Viewer control bar.
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Controlling the WebFOCUS Viewer Close Message. The WEBVIEWCLMSG
parameter controls whether the WebFOCUS Viewer Close message displays
when the Close option is clicked.
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Rendering Heading and Footing Text. The
EMBEDHEADING parameter controls whether the heading and footing
text is rendered within or outside the chart image.