Well, I've just finished up week 2 at Microsoft, which is going great by the way, but back in DotNetNuke-land a new version of the Reports module has been released! This is basically a version I finished up before leaving for Microsoft and it adds a few new features. The next major release will probably be in a few months, seeing as I can't work on the project while I'm at Microsoft, but until then check this one out.
Here's a short list of the new features implemented:
- "Test Query" button on the Settings page allows Admins to verify that their query will produce results (as well as see exactly how many results are produced)
- "Show Xml Source" button on the Settings page allows Admins to see an Xml representation of the data, in the format used by the XSLT Visualizer (designed to help in the development of XSLT transform documents)
- "Upload SQL File" feature allows Admins to upload a text file containing their SQL script (NOTE: The file itself is not saved, its contents are simply sucked out and placed into the Query field)
- Tweaked Visualizer API to abstract the Visualizer Settings away from the TabModuleSettings table. In previous versions, Visualizers had to manually add their settings to TabModuleSettings, now they can simply manage a Dictionary containing their settings and the framework will save them to the appropriate place (which is still TabModuleSettings)
- SuperUsers can now see the details of a SQL Syntax Error, if one occurs, on the view page of the module instead of a message simply stating that there was an error
- "Add/Remove Extensions" feature allows SuperUsers to install new Visualizers (and other Extensions, in future versions) by simply uploading a ZIP package (package format and details to come in a future blog, along with a complete guide to Visualizer development).
I hope you enjoy the new version, for the next major release the focus will be on the Data Sources Framework which will allow users to pull data into the module from sources other than the current DNN Database. This is a feature that people have been asking about for a long time, and the next release will include a system for doing this.
By the way, I'm not going to be a complete ghost this summer, although my focus will be on Microsoft. Feel free to stop by the Forums and ask questions if you have them, or fire off an email to: andrew DOT nurse AT dotnetnuke DOT com.