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UltraQuest
5.0 (Now available) |
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This exciting new release of UltraQuest delivers major enhancements to UltraQuest
Reporter and UltraQuest Library.
New Features below:
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UltraQuest
Reporter and Library |
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UltraQuest Reporter provides ad-hoc (interactive) reporting to business
users. Through a desktop Java application, the Reporter helps users to access
mainframe database information and generate reports or data extracts. Its
dialogs include an innovative wizard to facilitate building, modifying, and
running reports.
Report processing can be either immediate (online) or delayed (batch). UltraQuest Reporter and Library requests can
be scheduled for batch processing on a recurrent basis dependent on production
or personal schedules. The UltraQuest Scheduler will submit your requests to
batch for execution based on a user-specified frequency (every Friday, the last
day of the month, etc.).
The
output can be delivered in a number of ways, including through email, back to
the Web browser, to mainframe attached printers, or to a holding area which
allows subsequent redistribution to any of the other targets. Supported formats
include HTML, PDF, CSV for products like Excel, Charts and XML. In addition,
UltraQuest Reporter users, if granted publishing rights, may publish reports to
the UltraQuest Library for use by other users.
The UltraQuest Library provides for shared reports. Through the Library, any
user, who is granted access, can view menus of available reports, choose one,
specify run-time options, including prompted parameters and output destinations,
and execute it.
Like UltraQuest Reporter, the processing can be either immediate or delayed, and
the output can be delivered to email, back to the Web browser, to mainframe
attached printers, or to the holding area for subsequent viewing and
redistribution.
The Library provides a much simpler interface for casual users, and does not
require any skills, or software beyond a Web browser.
In addition to reports built within the Reporter, the Library can contain
hand-crafted reports (built with NOMAD or the UltraQuest 4GL), links to
UltraQuest Applications and links to other Web sites and Web pages. Access to
reports, as well as publishing rights, are managed by a catalog of users and
user groups.
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Dashboards |
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Version 5.0 introduces dashboard support to
UltraQuest. A dashboard is a visual display of important information available
on a page or screen that can be understood with a mere glance to help drive
business or other objectives. These visual displays provide an overview and
help pinpoint areas where additional investigation or action needs to be
taken. See sample below.
In addition, the new UltraQuest dashboards not only provide
a wealth of information at a single glance, but they can also be used as a
graphical menu to access related reports. The cells provide summary
information -- in either a chart or a small report. Links associated with the
cell allow the user to call up additional reports, and thus drill down to
related detail. Both the charts and the detail reports, as well as the
entire dashboard, can be built and published using UltraQuest Reporter. Once
published, dashboards can be accessed through the UltraQuest Library. Other
users can reference these dashboards directly through a URL.
Graphical elements in the dashboard, like UltraQuest graphs,
are provided through WebCharts3D from GreenPoint, Inc. You can obtain a
full license for WebCharts3D from Select.
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Oracle Access |
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With this release, the UltraQuest server under
MVS (z/OS) will provide access to Oracle data residing on mid-tier UNIX,
Windows or Linux servers. Users of UltraQuest Reporter or the UltraQuest
Library will be able to report from Oracle data in just the same way that they
currently report from mainframe data sources. Because all reports are
handled by the same UltraQuest server, they will also be able to join Oracle
data with their mainframe data from DB2, VSAM, IMS, IDMS and Teradata, as well
as with your Windows SQL Server data. |
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SQL
Server Access |
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With version 5.0, the UltraQuest server under
MVS (z/OS) will provide access to SQL Server data residing on
Windows servers. Users of UltraQuest Reporter or the UltraQuest
Library will be able to report from SQL Server data in just the same way that they
currently report from mainframe data sources. Because all reports are
handled by the same UltraQuest server, they will also be able to join SQL
Server data with their Oracle data as well as with their mainframe data from DB2,
VSAM, IMS, IDMS and Teradata for more
comprehensive reporting. |
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Images in PDF Output |
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UltraQuest Reporter allows the creation of
stationary for a PDF document. This will allow graphic images to be placed at
the 9 various locations on a page within the document. As stationary, these images
will then appear on every page in the same location of the document. This
allows company logo files, "confidential only" watermarks, and other images to be included in the UltraQuest
PDF output file for report customization. |
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Database Prompted Variables |
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This release allows UltraQuest Reporter users to
run requests against a different version of the same underlying database where
the name of the database may be different but the item names are the same. In
the case of VSAM or QSAM, the database may be the same but the definition of
the DDNAME may need a change e.g. daily and monthly versions of the same file,
or TEST, PROD and QA versions of the same VSAM dataset. This release also provides support for Generation Datasets from within Reporter.
To support these capabilities, "database prompted
variables" will be implemented for non-shared databases. These
variables will be defined as part of the database and stored in the Database
Catalog. When a request is run against a database with a database prompted
variable, either from the UltraQuest Reporter or Library, the user will be
prompted for the appropriate information in order to access the correct
version of the file or database. This prompt will be added to the top of the
prompted parameters list for the request so that the user will continue to see
only one dialog. For Generation Data Sets, it will allow the Reporter user to
specify which generation (e.g. 0, -1, -3) to use within his report request. |
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Browser-based Library Maintenance |
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All UltraQuest Library maintenance can now be
performed via a web browser eliminating the need for a 3270 session. The
Library administration functions of defining groups as well as registering and
managing Library users is available from a web page. |
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Concatenated VSAM |
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UltraQuest Reporter provides support for the
concatenation of multiple VSAM datasets so that they can be accessed for
reporting as one large database/dataset. |
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Improved Session
Manager Support |
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UltraQuest added the ability to identify
individual Session Manger users in the GMTO (Global Master Terminal Operator)
tool. |
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WebCharts3D
Version 5.0 Support |
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Support was added for the latest version of
Greenpoint's WebCharts3D that is used to provide the charting in
UltraQuest. This includes support for a variety of chart type
including their latest Gauge widget commonly used in Dashboards. |
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Time Zone Support in Personal Scheduler |
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Time zone support in the
Personal Scheduler allows Reporter and Library users to schedule a job based
on their own time zone, rather than the server’s time zone (as UltraQuest
currently requires). In addition, the data shown in the Job Information
Summary and Detail Listing pages would be in the time zone of the browser
user.
The UltraQuest administrator would be provided with a method
of specifying all of the possible DST rules that could be used by their
UltraQuest clients. Each user will be able to choose which rule applies to
them on the Registration page.
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Installation Improvements |
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The installation of UltraQuest Reporter has been
changed so that the software and working directing are not both installed
under Program Files. The first stage will install the
software without the creation of a working directory. The software will
be installed, by default, in Program Files folder as before. The
second stage, which occurs when the software is used for the first time by a
user, will determine the working directory. For existing users, files from an
old version can be copied or moved to this new directory.
To keep the installation of two versions of Reporter
separate, the default software directory, working directory and the desktop
and start menu icons will be version specific.
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Improved DB2 Support |
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UltraQuest allows the specification of the
UNSORTED option in Reporter when using DB2 for more efficient DB2 access. |
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Enhanced Email |
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UltraQuest Reporter allows sites to now have more
control of email distributed by the product. Sites can restrict the domains
that are available for email output. This adds a level of security so that
sensitive or confidential information can not be emailed, for example, outside
the company. |
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Learn
More |
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To find out more about how Select Business Solutions can help you either Contact
Us, or visit our Resources area for all the latest related downloads.
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