ABC Softwork Blog

Vi har opdateret ABC Analyzer og ABC Viewer de seneste par dage. Det har desværre været nødvendigt at opdatere mere end vi bryder os om – men sådan er det også i denne branche. Når man laver fejl skal man rette dem.

Vi har udsendt en ny opdatering med en masse nye features i starten af februar og dette har forsaget nogle problemer. Så hurtigt som vi identificerer problemer, som er kritiske for vores brugeres daglige anvendelse, sender vi opdateringer ud til vores software! I det forgangne år har vi hos ABC Softwork investeret i at forbedre vores udviklingsproces og testprocedure for at forhindre situationer som denne – men nogle gange er det en blanding af specielle data og specielt miljø, der får fejl til at opstå.

Vi vil gerne undskylde for den ulejlighed som disse opdateringer forsager – men samtidigt slå fast at vi fortsat vil rette fejl der forhindrer vores brugere (dig!) i at bruge vores fantastiske software.

Michael Banzon, CTO hos ABC Softwork

We have been updating ABC Analyzer and ABC Viewer the last couple of days. To be honest we’ve had a few more updates than we would’ve liked – but that is how this business works. When we make mistakes we correct them.

We released a new feature update at the beginning of february and this caused some problems to emerge. As soon as we find and identify issues in our critical to our users operations we send out updates to the software! During the past year ABC Softwork has invested in refining the process to eliminate possible problems pre-release to prevent these situations – but sometimes it is a mix of data and operating conditions that cause errors.

We would like to apologize for the inconvenience of frequent updates – but make it clear that we will continue to fix errors that prevent our loyal users (you!) from using our great software.

Michael Banzon, CTO at ABC Softwork

Today we released a new version of ABC Analyzer which brings the version number to 4.3.4.

This release address several memory usage and performance issues in the program.

On wednesday (May 4th) we did an emergency release of ABC Analyzer patching an error in version 4.3.1. This new version include a small fix for an issue in the Excel integration module concerning export of Excel files.

Today we have released ABC Analyzer 4.3.1.

This release offers improvements and resolves issues in the software to provide and ensure a stable continued high quality user experience. The update contains a total of 88 resolved issues spanning minor new features and bug fixes. We hope that our users will enjoy this release as much as we do. It is our pleasure to deliver the leading categorization platform.

Here is a summarized list of resolved issues:

• Certain issues regarding interaction with Excel file formats has been addressed. An installation of Excel/Office 2007 or Office 2007 Data Access Driver is required to successfully read files in Excel format.
• A copyright notice for all third party libraries has been inserted in to splash.
• The MyReport view will now remember locked columns when adding data from new reports.
• The splash screen has been changed.
• Excel files are now written using a new method. This will ensure the highest possible level of compatibility with current and future versions of Microsoft Office.
• The timeout period when connecting and retrieving data through ODBC has by default been doubled relative to the system specific setting. A new choice in the user interface will allow connections with no timeout at all. This feature should be used with caution.
• It is now possible to lock several columns at a time in the report views.
• The click report view will now remember locked columns when creating new click reports.
• The filter creation dialog will now sort alphabetically when displaying values from text columns.
• An issue where a false positive on repeated ID when creating combined ID has been resolved.
• The “Include negative” choice is now default turned “on” on all relevant views.
• Values in grid cells are now adjusted in the same way as the default Excel adjustment.
• Date fields containing “0″ will no longer be reported as an error. These will silently be given a default value.
• The possibility of creating conflicting category names in the custom design has been removed.
• It is no longer possible to delete columns from the various grids. This feature is removed due to the complications involved in getting the removed columns back into the grid.
• ABC Project files are now packed correctly to ensure future platform capabilities.
• A dialog with a “please wait” text has been inserted when loading files.
• When project files are loaded a dialog box showing progress is now displayed.
• When templates are loaded a dialog box showing progress is now displayed.
• When data is updated a dialog box showing progress is now displayed.

A more descriptive post of certain key features and improvements can be found here.

There is a new version of ABC Analyzer underway. We are currently in the final test phase – and if this goes smoothly without any serious errors we will release the new version through our regular update service. The version number will be 4.3.1 which is the direct update from ABC Analyzer 4.2.8.As the version number implies there have been many changes. Most users will see these in their daily use. In this blog post I will try and point out the most important improvements. A full list with description will be made public along with the software release.

General speed improvements
Everything starts during data import. Therefore the import function has been heavily improved in areas of speed and resource usage. That fact is something the rest of the program will benefit from. All the resources that are not used during data import can now be used to deliver better performance throughout the rest of the program. The visibility of this improvement will vary and is heavily dependent of the system and setup on which the software is running – but to put it plainly the excitement was easy to spot among our testers.

Improving ODBC connection
Although used only by few – we have identified a set of key problems using ODBC connections for data import that we are addressing in this release. There are certain timeout issues when connecting and transferring data. These are now solved by doubling the timeout time (typically 30 seconds – although dependent of the system and database). Furthermore we have made it possible to disable timeouts completely which depends on the database implementation. There is a possibility that this setting will not be respected by the database. This setting is not stored in project files or templates which mean that users will have to update their data through the “Change datasource”-function.

Reports with a memory
The two report views have made it possible to lock columns in the view for a long time. This function has now been expanded a bit which allows you to select multiple columns to lock in one go without having the menu disappear between clicks. This will hopefully allow you to save a lot of clicks. The locked columns are also remembered when changing the content of the reports but not when loading data from project files or templates.

Improved Excel integration
Since the release of Microsoft Office 2010 we have been dealing with some issues regarding the integration between Excel and ABC Analyzer. This has resulted in a new and heavily improved integration solution which will improve the compatibility between ABC Analyzer and Excel (current and future releases) and furthermore make integration with Excel compatible programs (like OpenOffice.org) a reality.

Improved project files
Our project file format has been greatly improved. This fact is unfortunately not visible in any way to our end users but described briefly it is now possible to use the project files for a lot more than previously. This is something that we plan to utilize in the near future and we will keep you informed. The changes are made ensuring the backwards compatibly of the format and will not present any integration problems for our users.

Så er der en ny opdatering af ABC Analyzer på vej. Den er netop nu i sin sidste testfase – og såfremt at denne forløber uden at afsløre nye fejl, sender vi den ud via vores opdateringsservice. Versionsnummeret sniger sig op på 4.3.1 – som er den direkte efterfølger af ABC Analyzer 4.2.8.Som versionsnummeret antyder, er der sket rigtig mange ting i udviklingen, som de fleste vil støde på i den daglige brug. Jeg vil i denne blogpost forsøge at opridse nogle af de vigtigste forbedringer, den fulde liste med beskrivelser vil blive gjort tilgængelig i forbindelse med at opdateringen udsendes. (more…)

On June 25th ABC Analyzer 4.2.4 was released. This is a minor release that fixes some issues that have occurred in the software – including but not limited to:

• An issue where creating templates with a specific folder definition wouldn’t allow the user to actually select a folder.
• An issue where updating the Movements Graph view with a different data set would produce an error based on the view selections made on the previous data set.
• Field parsing errors in the imported data can now be ignored when using templates.
• License information can now be read from a static setup file without the need for online verification. To utilize this feature please contact The ABC Softwork Support Dep. for assistance.
• Proxy settings can now be read from a static setup file. To utilize this feature please contact The ABC Softwork Support Dep. for assistance.
• An issue where the output of the FileDate()-function would output the wrong date when using templates.
• An issue where opening a cross table in Excel would result in incorrect sorting of column and/or row names.
• When making a custom categorization setup the “OK” button will trigger the action to make a new categorization.
• The data view window from clicking items in the graph views are now in the front by default.
• Making click reports from the Graph and Movements views now function properly.
• An issue where clicking in the the categories when making a custom design wouldn’t select the category.
• An issue where uncategorized items would produce duplicate rows in the Overview when viewing custom categorizations.
• The new categorization tab now functions properly when selecting various options.