Release 5.3

ADVIZOR Analyst Edition 5.3 Release Notes

May 8, 2008

ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc ADVIZOR Version 5.31 Copyright 2000 - 2008, ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This (ReleaseNotes.htm) file contains product information for ADVIZOR Analyst Edition 5.3 products. These release notes are available on the installation image as well as in the install directory for the product(s) you have installed.

These Release Notes apply to all ADVIZOR products, including Server AE, unless otherwise specified in the document.

Index

• New in this Release

• Platform Notes

• Installation Instructions

• Databases Supported

• Known Problems and Hints

• Technical Support

New in this Release:

• Features and Enhancements

  • Performance of all aspects of ADVIZOR has been significantly improved. Data loading is 2 to 3 times faster. Project startup (after data is loaded) is 2 times faster. Selections on charts in ADVIZOR are 3 times faster. Extracted data stored in a project (in the ".advm" format) is 30-40% smaller.

  • The Data Workshop has been reorganized and improved. Buttons are now available leading to all major data functions. A new Data Usage Explorer gives an overview of all tables, links, and computed fields. It shows if they are used or unused, and if used shows the page and chart that they are used by. This can help you identify what needs to be modified when updating a project for data changes. Individual links can now be viewed in detail and modified directly, without going through the Data Link Wizard. Both color and selection links can be created at the same time. Problems related to accessing, modifying and refreshing data have been fixed.

  • When tables are linked via selection links, rows in one table that are not matched in the other table may be represented by a bar in a bar chart. This is useful for representing a parent/child relationship between tables where the parent table represents entities and the child table has a 1:N relationship with a subset of the parent table. This feature is activated using the Property Grid for a bar chart by giving the name of the "parent" table. Bi-directional selection links must exist between the tables. The name of the bar representing unmatched rows may be specified.

  • The contents of Data Sheets and Summary Sheets may be exported in ADVIZOR client to a file, formatted as a tab separated text file (".txt") or comma separated ".csv" file. A ".csv" file may be read directly by a number of spreadsheet programs, such as Microsoft Excel. This provides a convenient way to get just desired fields for currently selected rows. This feature is not yet available from ADVIZOR Server, although equivalent functionality can be provided via the "Data Integration" feature.

  • When data is stored with the project (in the ".advm" form), the current selection state is also saved and restored with the project.

  • Project files (.ADV and .ADVM) saved by version 5.3 ADVIZOR Analyst Edition applications have a new format and cannot be opened by prior versions of Analyst Edition applications.

  • When accessing a project via ADVIZOR Server, the browser is now responsive and shows progress during startup.

  • Goal lines are now supported in Line Charts as well as in Bar Charts.

  • The color scheme used in Heat Maps has been improved.

• Fixes

  • ADVIZOR Analyst previously consumed memory if left unattended, ultimately leading to a crash if memory was exhausted.

  • The "inclusive" flag on chart filters was reversed.

  • Formats in the Date Parser are now marked to show which can be ordered correctly in ADVIZOR charts.

  • Custom color bins ordered incorrectly in charts.

  • 5.31 Update: Fields can now be created with the Date Parser from joined fields or a rollup table, and can be saved in ADVM project files.

  • 5.31 Update: New Line Charts now default to Label order.

  • 5.31 Update: Data Wizard now handles file names like "file.TXT" and "file.name.csv" properly.

  • 5.31 Update: Color Legend "red X" failures corrected.

  • 5.31 Update: Data Usage Explorer correctly shows charts for all pages.

  • 5.31 Update: Selection links no longer override Excluded state on selection.

  • 5.31 Update: Progress indicator added for IE browser clients of ADVIZOR Server AE.

  • 5.31 Update: Text Filter changes now propagated consistently across Selection Links.

  • 5.31 Update: List of Data Links now includes tables created by Data Constellation and Map charts.

  • 5.31 Update: Minimum date of 1/1/0000 now enforced for Histogram, Scatterplot brushing.

  • 5.31 Update: Projects with Rollup and Data Constellation tables can now be saved to ADVM files.

  • 5.31 Update: Excel and Access data sources can now be edited properly.

  • 5.31 Update: Projects can be saved and re-opened properly on Windows Vista.

  • 5.31 Update: Application window can now be resized extremely small without error.

  • 5.32 Update: Text Filters applied properly in projects with multiple linked tables.

Platform Notes

Client Requirements

Operating Systems

• Microsoft Windows XP SP1

• Microsoft Windows Vista .

  • Installation must be done with Administrative privileges. Do this by right clicking on the installer and selecting “Run as administrator” from the popup menu.

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1.

  • The 64 bit version of Windows Server 2003 is strongly recommended for dealing with larger volumes of data and larger numbers of sessions in ADVIZOR Server.

NOTE: ADVIZOR software is able to use up to 3GB of memory on 32-bit versions of Windows, and 4GB on 64-bit versions of Windows. Access to more than 2 GB of memory on a 32-bit version of Windows requires the boot configuration to be modified; see http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb613473(VS.85).aspx for details.

Browser

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or Internet Explorer 7.

Other Software

• Features interfacing to Microsoft Office applications require Office 2000 or later. Formats specific to Microsoft Office 2007 are not currently supported, however.

Hardware

• Any current, business-focused PC or laptop.

  • This excludes computers with low-end, entry level processors.

• 1 GB of RAM or greater (See Note below). At least 2GB is required for larger volumes of data, about 750K rows.

• Graphics display processor with at least 256MB of video RAM

  • Either shared or dedicated video RAM is acceptable

  • Always use the most recently available drivers for the graphics display processor (contact the vendor to obtain them)

• Video display resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater

• Video display color depth of 16 million colors

• CD-ROM drive

• Mouse or compatible pointing device

NOTE: For a given dataset, performance of the ADVIZOR Analyst software is dependent on:

• Amount of RAM

• CPU

  • Processor speed

  • Processor architecture/technology

  • Amount of cache

  • Number of cores

in that order. Multiple cores are currently only used by ADVIZOR Server.

When deciding on a computer to use or buy, opt first for as much RAM as possible within economic constraints; however, once the amount of RAM has been decided, opt for the fastest and most powerful CPU that satisfies economic constraints.

The amount of RAM required is highly dependent on your application data. The minimum amount of RAM is determined primarily by:

• The amount and type of data being loaded into memory

  • The number of rows

  • The number of fields

  • The type of data in each field

  i. Alphanumeric (string) ii. Numeric or Date

• Your particular ADVIZOR Analyst application design

As a rough estimate of the amount of RAM required for your data, find the file size of each data file you intend to load when the data is in the form of a text file and sum the file sizes.

Additional RAM will be required for your intended ADVIZOR Analyst application; however, in most cases the RAM required for data will be the most significant contributor.

ADVIZOR can use up to 3GB of RAM on 32 bit versions of Windows, and up to 4GB of RAM on 64 bit versions of Windows.

Beyond these general guidelines and within economic constraints, more RAM and faster processors will almost always maximize your ADVIZOR Analyst application's performance. Consider provisioning any PC or laptop with future expansion in mind.

OLAP clients

• At least SP4 for MS OLAP Services including msolap80.dll from that SP

Server Requirements

Following are the minimum requirements for server products:

Operating Systems

• Windows Server 2003

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server SP3

Other

• IIS 5.0, or newer, installed and running prior to installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework

Hardware

• Any current, server class computer (See note below)

  • Typically, at least a dual processor configuration will be required

    • To service the expected number of users

      • Multiple users accessing the same project increase the overall processor utilization

        -To execute several different projects simultaneously

• At least 2GB of RAM; 4GB is preferred for larger projects.

  • Each distinct project accessed by users requires its own memory space

    • RAM should be increased as the number of distinct projects accessed grows

  • Multiple users accessing the same project do so with minimal additional RAM overhead

• No graphics display processor is required

• Segmenting projects to additional servers must be considered as the user and project load grows

NOTE: In general, it is recommended that the ADVIZOR Server software run on its own server hardware.

Beyond these general guidelines and within economic constraints, more RAM and more and faster processors will almost always maximize your ADVIZOR Server's performance. Consider provisioning any server hardware with future expansion in mind.

Client Internet Browser Software

• Internet Explorer 6.0, or later

• ADVIZOR Server software does not support the use of any other browser

NOTE: If the server also has the database software installed, consider using a multiprocessor system. Some databases such as Microsoft SQL Server take advantage of multiprocessor capabilities to improve performance. Networking delays may also be reduced by having the database on the same system.

Installation Instructions

1. Prior to installing ADVIZOR Analyst/X, remove prior versions of ADVIZOR Publisher or Analyst Pro using Add/Remove Programs.

2. Insert the CDROM into your CD drive. Double click on Setup.exe in the root directory on the CD.

   • Special notes for installing on Vista: installation must be done with Administrative privileges. Do this by right clicking on the installer and selecting “Run as administrator” from the popup menu. After the installation has finished, run a Command Prompt as administrator and execute the command "regsvr32 C:\Program Files\ADVIZOR Solutions\Analyst\KxDCOM3.dll".

3. If you are instructed to remove a prior version of an ADVIZOR Analyst Edition product, proceed as directed, or use the operating system's "Add/Remove Software" facility.

4. Holding down the shift key during application startup (while the logo is displayed), will restore the application settings to the "factory default" settings. These setting are sometimes updated when a new release is issued, so its a good practice to do so whenever you have loaded a new version of the software..

5. After installation, confirm the new version is installed by starting the ADVIZOR Analyst Edition Product and looking at menu Help->About Version. Version should be as noted in the following table .

Product	Version Number (Help About...)
ADVIZOR 5.31 Analyst	5.31.3050.18196
ADVIZOR 5.31 Analyst/X	5.31.3050.18182
ADVIZOR 5.31 Desktop Navigator	5.31.3050.18177
ADVIZOR 5.31 Server AE	5.31.3050.18192
ADVIZOR 5.31 Analyst Office	5.31.3050.18166
ADVIZOR 5.31 Analyst/X Office	5.31.3050.18171
ADVIZOR 5.31 SalesAdvizor	5.31.3050.18166

Installing on 64-bit Windows

1. First download the 64-bit ADOMD.NET package from Microsoft's Feature Pack for SQL Server 2005 download page.
2. Double-click on the installer, SQLServer2005_ADOMD_x64.msi.

3. Proceed with installation of the ADVIZOR package.

Installation of ADVIZOR Server AE on Windows Server 2003

1. Stop the IIS server on the target machine.

2. Use Add/Remove Software (found in Control Panel) to remove any prior version of the software.

3. Restart IIS. It must be running when you install.

4. Install the Server AE software.

5. Don't forget to perform the post-installation setup displayed at the end of installation

Installation of ADVIZOR Server AE on Windows Vista

1. Run setup.exe as on other Windows versions.

2. Follow the Post-install instructions, including the procedure for putting the ADV application in a Classic .NET AppPool.

Installation of ADVIZOR Server AE on Windows Server 2003 x64 Edition

1. Run setup.exe as on other Windows versions.

2. In the post-install steps, 32-bit regedit must be invoked as %windir%\syswow64\regedit.

3. Configure IIS 6.0 to run a 32-bit worker process. See the Microsoft Technet article for details.

4. Please contact ADVIZOR Technical Support for any problems with "ADOMD" or data access.

Databases Supported

As of this release, ADVIZOR supports:

• Text files (see note below)

• MS Excel (see note below)

• MS Access (see note below)

• SalesForce.com

• Business Objects WebI (6.5) (see note below)

• MS SQL Server (version 7.0 or later) (see note)

• MS Analysis Services (OLAP) (see note)

• Oracle (version 9i or later)

• Teradata (version V2 R5.0 or later)

and the following ODBC interfaces:

NOTE: ODBC DSN configurations must be defined as "System DSNs"

Oracle drivers

• Microsoft ODBC for Oracle - MSORCL32.DLL

• Oracle in OraClient10g - SQORA32.DLL

  SQL Server driver

• SQL Server - SQLSRV32.DLL

  Pervasive drivers

• Pervasive ODBC Client Interface - W3ODBCCI.DLL

• Pervasive ODBC Engine Interface - W3ODBCEI.DLL

  MySQL driver

• MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver - MYODBC3.DLL (MyODBC-3.51.11-2-win.msi - when used with MySQL version mysql-essential-4.1.13-win32.msi)

For Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and text files, you MUST use the non-ODBC options in the Data Wizard.

Business Objects Installations:

Unified Web Services is a pre-requisite for accessing data from a Webi installation. NOTE that Unified Web Services is not part of the version 6.5 product suite. It is contained within the Business Objects - Crystal Integration Pack v1.0. With BOE XI, the packaging may be different. Contact Business Objects for details

The Unified Web Services connector package consists of a Zip file of J2EE software and a Business Objects PDF to document its installation and use. This information can be sent out upon request. These files (dswsJ2EE_e65_100EN.zip and sdk_web_services_adminEN.pdf) may be obtained from Business Objects.

Support for other database types will require custom development. If interested contact [e-mail]

Known Problems and Hints

• File formats particular to Microsoft Office 2007 are not currently supported.

• Dashboard projects authored on Windows Vista may open with some charts, such as Bar Charts and Scatterplots, not configured.

• If you get an InstallShield error complaining about a missing file in C:\Program Files\InstallShield Installation Information while un-installing an Advizor product, try running the setup.exe file found in the original installation image. This has been noted occasionally on Win2000 systems.

• When using backend integration (Data Integration) on Advizor Server, the tooltip on the data integration button, in the published dashboard, is created from the description that you provide when you publish. If you do not include a description, there will not be a tooltip.

• Do not try publishing using different versions of Analyst/X or Analyst and Server AE. Use the same versions of each product.

• Regarding configuration of an ODBC data interface: 1. You must ensure you have the proper ODBC drivers for your database per the information under "Databases Supported" (above). 2. You must configure ODBC drivers through the Windows OS prior to trying to use them in ADVIZOR. 3. The ODBC must be configured as a System DSN, not a User DSN.

• Some database products, like Microsoft SQL Server, may at times place significant demands on system resources. For this reason, we recommend installing ADVIZOR Server products on a machine other than the database server.

• ADVIZOR Server AE runs into a couple difficulties that are unique to Windows 2000 systems (these are not problems with Windows XP/2003):

  • ADVIZOR Server AE must be accessed first from an external machine to ensure that permissions are initialized properly.

  • The Publisher application and the Server cannot run simultaneously on the same system. That is, if the Server has opened a project, the Publisher cannot be started, and if the Publisher is running, the Server will not be able to open a project. In order for you to create and publish a project and access it from the Server on the same Windows 2000 machine, you need to follow this sequence:

    1. Make sure the Server is not running (restart IIS from the Computer Management console).

    2. Start the Publisher, open your project, and publish perspectives to http://<servermachine>/ADV.

    3. Close the Publisher application without accessing your published page (don't click on the link to view the page).

    4. From another machine, access http://<servermachine>/ADV/AsiProjectDirectory.aspx and then click on the newly published project.

    5. On the server machine, access http://localhost/ADV and click on the new project.
• As a troubleshooting aid, any logging information may be written to C:\Program Files\ADVIZOR Solutions\Analyst\error.log. The operating system's "Application Event" log may also provide useful information.

• If your views seem incorrect compared to what you know about your data, and you are using a .csv, .txt or .xls data source, check to be sure your data is "clean". For instance, we've noted cases where an excel column is defined to be "number", but one of the entries contains something like 98763X. This may confuse Microsoft's JET driver (used with .csv, .txt, .xls data) and cause what appears to be incorrect data. Similarly, where a column is defined to be a "Date", but there was an entry "-" (someone had put in a "dash" because they didn't know the date value for that entry). You're better off leaving the entry blank.

• If you have problems loading textual data from a .csv or .txt file, you may need to explicitly specify the formatting of the fields in the data. This may be done using a Schema.ini file. The Schema.ini file is a Microsoft convention for specifying data formats when using the JET or ODBC drivers. Further information is available at:

  http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/odbc/htm/odbcjetschema_ini_file.asp

  The following link shows a good example schema.ini file about half way through the article.

  http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;155512
• Loading data using a Schema.ini file: In the Schema.ini file, if you specify that there is no column header in the data file, this will override the ADVIZOR Data Wizard setting for that attribute and will consequently read one less line of data than there actually is. This is a platform software issue beyond our control.

• If you are reading data from a .csv or .txt file that you've used previously with a pre 4.0 version of ADVIZOR, the existence of field type specifications in line 2 of your data may cause incorrect interpretation of some of the field types, or an error during startup of your project. Starting with version 4.0, ADVIZOR uses Microsoft's JET Driver, so type specifications in the second line of data should no longer be used.

• A pre-requisite for accessing data from a Business Objects WebI installation: you must have Business Objects' Unified Web Services installed.

• Additional information (available on request)

  • Guide on advanced publishing

  • Guide on branding

  • Guide on audit logging

Contacting Technical Support

When submitting a problem to Technical Support, email is the preferred mechanism ([e-mail]). In the email, please provide as many of the following as possible:

• Your company name

• Your name & contact information including phone number

• The name of the product you are using and its version number

• Your license key used to install the product

• A detailed explanation of what you were doing that led up to the problem.

• Screen shot(s) and/or exact text of any error information

• C:\Program Files\ADVIZOR Solutions\Product\error.log, if it exists (replace Product with Analyst or AnalystX, etc. as applicable to your product)

• Machine's System Information file created from the "System Information" saved as type ".nfo"

• Operating system's Application event log in .evt format so that we get the detailed event descriptions

• If you're having a database access problem, submit all relevant DB information, including DB vendor, DB version, whether the DB is local or remote, whether or not you are able to access the DB using vendor or third party supplied query tools, etc

Important Note: If you encounter an error/exception and are offered the opportunity to forward diagnostic information, please do so. However, note that you can help reduce the time to resolution by also including details of the actions that led to the event. Our ability to rapidly understand the problem is significantly increased when we know all the details.

If you cannot find answers to your questions using the online help "Table of Contents", "Index" or "Find" tabs, or in this release notes file, have your application license number handy and use one of the following contact methods:

Send email to: [e-mail] (preferred method)

-or-

call the ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc Technical Support line during business hours (8:00 AM - 4:30 PM Central time, Monday - Friday) at +1.630.971.5250