Workbench - Service - Web

The Captell release schedule is based on getting minor functionality improvements out on a quarterly basis with a major release annually. The latest release is always available to be downloaded from this page.  Our aim is to provide a reporting solution to IT managers that meets their requirements, to this aim we will endeavour to satisfy requirements as soon as possible and therefore release new versions frequently.

When downloading and installing upgrades of Captell please ensure you download all components upgraded on the same day, this will ensure component dependencies are met.

Before you can access the download you will need to contact Captell Developments for a download

user-id
and
password

To download a production release click the links to the right.

Click here to download BETA releases.

 Workbench change log

6.10.1

12 September 2008

• Removal of the Save As Archive menu, this functionality has been moved to the new BUILD menu.

• Log not correctly showing task name, fixed.

• Service monitor now defaults to starting the scheduler in a paused state.

• Support for chart themes included.  This allows basic formatting of chart colours and fonts etc to be stored and applied to any existing or new charts.  Specification of a default theme can be made to apply a theme against any new chart created.

• Previously, charts embedded into documents that have been deleted or renamed wound not be refreshed, however; the previous chart image would be left in the document.  From this release  these charts will be replaced with a notice indicating the chart could not be found, for instance "MCHART:test\3D BAR with Dynamic Charts not found in database". The notice is plain text however it retains it's link to the missing object so if the chart is recreated the text will be replaced with the correct chart on the next refresh.

• Query text substitution using the --# facility now correctly handles nested variables i.e. a query
  --#var1=select #var2 from table
  --#var2=system
  #var1
  will first replace #var1 (the third line) with select #var2 from table
  then it will replace the #var2 with system        

• New Run Now command from the Task List popup menu will start the task immediately.  On completion the task will reschedule according to it's scheduling specifications.

• Task cancelling is now more responsive.  Two new task list commands provided to simplify management, Cancel Task stop the running task, Delete Task stops the running task and removes it from the task list.

• Text based source data that has spaces at the end of column names previously was imported with the spaces intact, i.e. the columns in the database retained the spaces.  This causes problems with charting those columns so from this release trailing and leading spaces are trimmed from column names.

• Changes made to the way images (charts and traffic lights etc.) are stored in documents to dramatically reduce the size of the saved document in the database.  For example the "Sample Charts" document reduced in stored size from 17.8MB down to 667KB.  This change has also significantly reduced the time taken to load documents for editing.  To effect this change for existing documents, they should be edited then saved, the save operation will convert the image types, note: there is no need to refresh the objects before saving.

• New functions for use in Captell queries, dbo.CAP_SPLIT_ALL(@sep,@s) splits the string @s using the delimiter @sep retuning each substring as a separate row in a table.  dbo.CAP_SPLIT(@sep,@s,@n) splits the string @s using the delimiter @sep and returns the @n th part. CAP_COUNT_CHARS(@s,@c) counts the occurances of the character @c in the string @s.

• Prior to this release the #CAP_TL control string included in a query would result in a traffic light object being embedded in the query when included in a document.  The subsequent refresh of that query in the document resulted in firstly the query refreshing then all the traffic lights.  The subsequent refresh of traffic lights is not required as the query refresh operation has already accomplished this and therefore in this release the #CAP_TL traffic lights do not retain their links to the database.

• The increment between major ticks on a gauge chart can now be changed via the Increment value of the Left Axis definition.

• #CAP_CHARTNAME  included in chart headers or footers will be replaced with the name of the chart including folder.

• #CAP_QVALUE(TableOrQueryName,RowNumber,ColumnName,FormatString) included in chart headers or footers will result in the formatted value formatted value from Columnname and RowNumber being substituted into the chart on publication or presentation.

• New Build and Publication menus on document definition facility allows for the generation of document images.  The File--> Save Archive menu facility has been replaced with the Build and Publication menus.  Publication menu allows for the scheduled generation of document images.

• Excel table source type now allows storing the source filename along with the data during table update.

• Captell log displaying routines changes to utilise SQL Server (NOLOCK) facility to reduce blocking likelihood during periods of rapid logging.

• Captell log now includes stack trace for better diagnostic purposes.

• Enhancements to Update Table Server functionality, Captell service is now triggered to perform the update rather than it waiting until the next scheduled iteration.

• New menu option on the VIEW menu of Captell Workbench to cause the task list to automatically refresh every 10 seconds.  Hovering the mouse over the task list pauses the refresh.

• Support for the Demand Technology NTSMF data source type dropped.  NTSMF provides facilities that write the data directly to SQL Server.  A SQL Server pass through type table definition should be created to process this data with Captell.

• Error thrown when Cancel clicked on Clear Log prompt, Fixed.

• Error thrown editing lollypop sample chart fixed

• Removal of the Windows Log scraping process, this retrieved Captell messages from the Windows Event Log, it proved to be problematic and not a lot of value.  The windows log should be viewed via the Event Viewer windows utility.

• Inclusion of SQL Server 2005 with Service Pack 2 in the Captell workbench installation package.

• Enhancements to the Captell Service Monitor, Ability to connect to the service using a different userid, ability to pause and resume the scheduler process , tasks currently underway will continue to completion.  Fixed issue where the CAPTELL_SERVICE.TXT file could not be edited on remote machines.  This file controls which databases the service is to process, it contains a list of SQL Server instance and database names, it is now edited via the service rather than attempting to directly edit the file.

• Enhancements to Captell options allow specification of default chart size for web publication, all charts without overriding size specifications will use the default settings when being displayed through the Captell web interface.  Enhancements to chart publication specification to allow overriding the default chart sizes.  Captell Web interface has also been enhanced to allow specification of chart sizes on the chart URL.

• Upgraded Charting engine fixing minor bugs.

• Changes to the way the Captell splash screen is presented.

• Pressing after starting Captell now defaults to the button on the Captell signon screen.

• Additional ADMIN option to control the Captell service's ability to start tasks in the task table that are in any state.  If the services fails due to say power failure than tasks may be in any state.  This new option causes the service to start any task it finds in any state other than RECORDED.  If not set then only tasks in the SCHEDULED state are started.  With the option set tasks that fail will be started continuously until they are successful. The service wont start already running tasks because it only processes the task list once all tasks have finished successfully or otherwise.  Thrashing is prevented by the Loop Delay option, which sleeps the service the specified number of minutes between iterations.

6.9.1

18 January 2008

• Occasionally SQL Server throws as error "General Network Error" which is a sort of catch all for when the connection between a client and SQL Server can't be made or is lost and SQL Server doesn't know why. Legitimate reasons for this may include physical failure of a network component. This error is occasionally returned to Captell; we have found that SQL Server will throw this error if it is asked to accept a lot of connections simultaneously and if the platform running SQL Server is very busy. This typically happens during summary table update where a lot of tables are being updated together which correspondingly also drives up CPU and Memory utilisation on the server, we believe this to be an issue with SQL Server. In this release of Captell we have implemented retry logic whenever Captell asks SQL Server for a connection, in most cases this gets around the issue by obtaining the connection on the second or third attempt (Captell will now attempt to obtain a connection 10 times with a 2 second delay between attempts). NOTE: this error will still be thrown for legitimate reasons; for instance, when connected to a domain (typically on a laptop), if you subsequently disconnect while keeping Captell workbench open you will receive this error because SQL Server is no longer able to validate your security credentials.

6.9.0

14 January 2008

• Correct problem with Oracle data source

• Correct messages generated when refreshing documents containing charts without data

• The Query and Pivot definition windows as well and the Query, Pivot and Table data viewing windows now show the elapsed time of the executing objects.

• Excel source table types now correctly process the input SQL.

• The contents of tables that have been created with a primary key can now be edited directly from the View table window.  Tables without primary keys defined cannot be edited.

• Updated help file

• Update PDF Captell Users Guide & Reference

• Resolved issues with the automatic generation of MS Word documents

• Resolved issue whereby a query would timeout irrespective of the timeout parameter.

• Resolved issue with bar charts occasionally drawing bars incorrectly to the right of the chart

• Removal of the row warning limit when viewing query, table or pivot output or when executing query or pivots in their respective report object editors. Progress on the number of records returned from the executing command is now displayed and the use may cancel the execution at any time. If the execution is cancelled the rows returned thus far are displayed.
  Captell Service manager dialog correctly enables the menu if the service has not been installed.

• Improvements to Captell Service table update processes to reduce the likelihood of timeouts against the database.

• Improvements to database connection processes which reduce the incidence of waiting for pooled connections.

• Improvements to task scheduling, when service based tasks start other tasks as in Summary table updates, these tasks are listed on the task list as separate entities.

• New Restart menu for task list which resets the status to scheduled, forcing the Captell service to restart the task next iteration.

• Simple text substitution allowed in queries, include commented lines of the form --#varname = value and Caltell will replace any occurance of #varname in the SQL text with value. Creates an easier method of creating and reusing query templates. The template can now effectively have parameters.

• Captell Pivot facility is now in production status

• Captell pivots can now be dragged to a Query name field to create a template query selecting all from the pivot.

• Captell pivot will now correctly process columns of the form "planned(disk)".

• Queries based on pivots now correctly show all columns and column changes whenever the pivot changes, or indeed if the data source the pivot is based on.

• Ability to schedule archiving of the captell log implemented.

• Changes to the way the Captell log is presented, firstly all fields stored in the CAP_LOG table are now displayed, secondly archived logs are now "^" delimited text files.

• Improvements in the performance of loading archived log files.

• Removal of the requirement to specify a domain/userid for the ASP task

• Simplified signon screen only showing integrated security by default, includes button to list servers in local network.

• The Document editor now accepts common editing short cuts such as CTRL C, CTRL X, CTRL V etc.

• The query editor dialog now supports common editing short cuts such as CTRL C, CTRL X, CTRL V, also provided are find and replace facilities CTRL F, CTRL R.

• The edit Inuse flag was left set for Tables and Queries if they were opened for edit then closed without any changes being made.

• Failed Before or After table update scripts resulted in the task remaining on the task list, this has been resolved.

• Upgraded charting engine with improved graphic quality, especially with curved lines. Many other minor fixes.

• Improved performance of SQL Server Pass through source type tables by allowing the specification of batch sizes in the Captell Table Options dialog this improves overall update performance and reduces virtual memory requirements. Captell collects "Batch size" number of records in memory before posting all in a single batch to the server for update.

• Restructuring of the Captell main window menus to allow for the Tools menu to contain the Administration menu and a new menu for Report Object Assistants which assist with the automatic creation of certain classes of Captell Report Objects.

• SQL Server Pass through source type tables can now read data from a SQL Server Stored Procedure created on the source database. This allows for recording on the source database information pertaining to the last record read so as to reduce the volume of data being processed in each update.

• Support for unique identifier (GUID) data types from source data when updating tables.

• Clicking a text column in either View Table or View Query will present the text in a separate window correctly formatted with line breaks etc.

• Query based tables will now be updated when the Update Tables Local menu is used at the folder level.

• Option on Options --> Tables to delete working tables created during table load process.

• New table definition option that disables the table and prevents all attempt to update the table data.

• Tables or Queries that are used as input to Parameters are now correctly linked on the Captell flow diagram.

• Automatic document archive would fail after first document archive if Ignore Locks option was not set. This has been resolved.

6.8.1

• Two new options on table definitions to control how query meta data and summary tables are handled after a table update. PREVENT META DATA REFRESH stops the automatic refresh of query meta data after this table has been updated and PREVENT SUMMARY TABLE UPDATE prevents the automatic update of any summary tables (i.e. query based tables) that are based on this table.

6.8.0

• Update parameters dialog now only populates drop down lists when the down arrow is clicked not when the dialog is presented, this greatly increases the performance of parameter processing and allows the drop down values of one parameter to be controlled bay another. Consider parameters of Division, Branch and Section, the user selects a Division then the Branch list should only contain Branches for that division.

• Changed the text inserted into a query when a parameter is dragged and dropped to (Select dbo.cap_parm('?????')) as the inclusion of the "Select" improves performance by forcing the parameter value to be resolved only once instead of for each record in the input data.

• Improvements in performance when applying conditional formatting to large tables or queries embedded in documents via the #CAP_FM facility.

• null values in data being used as source for parameter drop down lists are now automatically removed.

• Facilities provided that allow for the automatic generation of PDF or MS Word documents from a Captell document based on rows in a driving query or table. The columns in the driver are mapped to parameters in use by the document and a new document archive is generated for each row in the driver. Captell substitutes from the driver values into the parameters, refreshes all document objects and then generates the image.

• Document archive images can now be created in either PDF or MS word format.

• Browse button on the JET table source type to simplify finding JET/MS Access databases.

• Report object Import and Export dialogs now show the object currently being imported or exported

• The "Release for Viewing" status on a document is now correctly reflected through to any associated document images

6.7.15

• For new table definitions, Keep Rejected Records will no longer be the default.

• Maximum allowed length of SQL query text increased from 8000 characters to 2^31-1 characters (lots)

• On the Captell Query definition window if a query is executing then clicking the View results tab will not initiate another execution of the query.

• Task list messages improved when running Query Based table updates.

• Looping problem that occurred when Keep Rejected Records flag was set has been resolved.

• Parameters once published with a Captell Query could not be removed from the Editable Parameters list, this has now been resolved.

• If a chart was created with two or more series and two or more series had an associated chart function defined with them, Captell would only remember the function definition from the first series, this has now been resolved.

• Update disposition correctly retained for Query Based tables.

• #CAP_BYVALUE correctly translated when Dynamic charts included in documents

6.7.12

• Images inserted into documents are now embedded in the document rather than just linked, in this way the image will be moved with the exported document

• During table update processing for wildcarded NTSMF and TEXT source data, query meta data will be refreshed and summary tables (query based tables) will be updated after each individual text file has been processed if the update disposition is set to REPLACE, if the update disposition is set to APPEND or UPDATE these processes will run after the last source file has been processed

• During table update, warning messages about nulls in primary key fields are now only written to the log, they are not displayed during the update.

• Input SQL provided with a table source definition is now executed before primary keys are created or duplicate records and/or duplicate key values are removed.

• When opening a chart for editing the chart image is no longer automatically refreshed with the latest data, this greatly improves the performance when opening charts for editing.  The Refresh menu on the chart definition dialog may be used to manually refresh the chart image with the latest data.

• CNTL Z in the query SQL text editor will now undo the previous changes

• #CAP_BYVALUE and #CAP_BYNAME strings found in chart headers and footers will be replaced with the dynamic charts driving "by" values.  #CAP_BYVALUE will be replaced by the value from the driving column #CAP_BYNAME will be replaced by the column name.  The default footer which included the charts driving values will no longer be created.

• DBO.CAP_ROUND_TIME(datetime,minutes) returns a datetime value rounded down to the specified minutes.

• Input SQL on table source definitions can now have [INPUT_FILE] (includes the square brackets) or INPUT_FILE (doesn't include the square brackets) as the source

• DBO.CAP_GET_DATEPART(date) returns the date portion of a datetime value, i.e. time portion zeroed out.

• DBO.CAP_GET_TIMEPART(date,ms) returns the time portion of a datetime value, with or without the milliseconds.

• Delete All Selected context menu in the Captell Document definition dialog that will allow deleting all selected text in a document including any embedded report objects.

• Facility to have queries embedded in documents contain traffic lights.  The traffic light names are specified as part of the query definition using the #CAP_TL control string

• Conditional formatting for the contents of queries embedded into documents.  Colour, alignment, format string, font and fontsize as well as Bold and Italic and background colour can be specified using the #CAP_FM control string.

• Queries and Tables embedded into documents will now show a properties menu when right clicked.

• Charts inserted into documents will have the "Chart" style applied to them if it exists in the document, if it doesn't exist then the default "[Normal]" style will be applied.  If the Chart style is subsequently created and the charts refreshed the Chart style will be applied instead of the [Normal] style.

• Database Server, Instance and Name are now included in the title of the Captell Explorer window.

• Query definition window SQL Statements will now accept the tab character.

• DBO.CAP_GET_MONTH(date) function returns start of the month that date falls into.

• DBO.CAP_GET_WEEK(date) function returns start of the week that date falls into, sunday being the week start.

• New - Query based tables can now have an update disposition of Update or Replace.

• Template facility in the Captell Query definition dialog allows selection of SQL functions and sample SELECT statements to be included in query text.  Facility also allows specification of your own templates through the "File, Save As template" menu.

• Experimental - PIVOT report object, this new report object can dynamically pivot rows to columns, column to rows and provides a convienient method of summarising.

• Captell did not prompt to save a chart definition after editing some chart attributes such as titles and axis from the chart definition by clicking the object (title, axis etc.).

• Chart series were removed from the chart if they didn't have any data points.  Series without data points are now hidden and not shown in the legend, if at a later stage there are data points available for these hidden series they will become visible again.

• Filter property for single value inserts into Captell documents now correctly honoured.

• Index out of bounds error when defining a MovingAverage function over a chart series when the function period was set to 0.

• Flow diagram correctly shows links between queries and query based tables.

• Flow diagram correctly shows links between documents and archived documents.

• Flow diagram correctly shows links between documents and queries/tables providing single values.

• Flow diagram no longer shows table/query linkages when the table is commented out in the query.

• It was possible to accidentally double click the ok button on the Import Report Objects dialog which resulted in the objects being imported twice.

• Parameters listed for publication with traffic lights could not be removed from the traffic light publication menu.

• Dynamic charts inserted into documents that resulted in the group spanning multiple pages caused the charts to be placed in a single row outside of the page margins, this has been corrected and now charts are placed in a single column.  This will mean that it is now no longer possible to group Dynamic charts in a grid like pattern only a single column is now possible.

• When inserting single values of type decimal from tables or queries into documents the format string wasn't being applied correctly.

• Drag n Drop now supported for traffic light source definition

• Table update sometimes failed when loading data to separate tables from multiple sheets of the same excel workbook.

• Exporting default styles from a document with existing text and/or report objects now clears the text and embedded objects from the default styles document styles.cap.

• Refreshing table of contents would under some circumstances insert additional blank lines.

• Help menu on Captell Chart Properties window now opens Captell Help file.

• Publication menu on Traffic light definition window generated an error if no other traffic light attributes set before being clicked.

• Tab order on traffic light definition dialog.

• Object not set error generated when testing connection to wild carded NTSMF source type.

• Object not set error generated when attempting to save an existing table definition that has had its source type change and the source details not completed.

• Donut chart series type incorrectly reset to PIE type.

• Dynamic series charts with a composite series name did not save or refresh properly.

• Metadata of dependant queries not being updated when the structure of a query was changed.

• When moving from Query Builder tab to Definition tab Captell would lock up if the amount of SQL text was large.

 Service change log

6.10.3

01 October 2008

• Resolution of locking issue between table updates and document builds.  This release prevents document builds from being initiated when table updates are underway

6.10.2

24 September 2008

• Resolution to problem with service not being able to correctly update charts in documents due to installer not registering components properly on some machines.

6.10.1

12 September 2008

• Substantial changes to allow for more responsive actions triggered from the workbench.

• Inclusion of ability to build document based on schedule defined during document creation.

6.9.1

18 January 2008

• Occasionally SQL Server throws as error "General Network Error" which is a sort of catch all for when the connection between a client and SQL Server can't be made or is lost and SQL Server doesn't know why. Legitimate reasons for this may include physical failure of a network component. This error is occasionally returned to Captell; we have found that SQL Server will throw this error if it is asked to accept a lot of connections simumtaneously and if the platform running SQL Server is very busy. This typically happens during summary table update where a lot of tables are being updated together which correspondingly also drives up CPU and Memory utilisation on the server, we believe this to be an issue with SQL Server. In this release of Captell we have implemented retry logic whenever Captell asks SQL Server for a connection, in most cases this gets around the issue by obtaining the connection on the second or third attempt (Captell will now attempt to obtain a connection 10 times with a 2 second delay between attempts). NOTE: this error will still be thrown for legitimate reasons; for instance, when connected to a domain (typically on a laptop), if you subsequently disconnect while keeping Captell workbench open you will receive this errir because SQL Server is no longer able to validate your security credentials.

6.9.0

• Incorporates facilities to automatically archive the Captell log.

6.8.1

• Recompiled to utilise updated shared modules.

6.8.0

• Recompiled to utilise updated shared modules.

6.7.15

• Recompiled to utilise updated shared modules.

6.7.12

• Recompiled to utilise updated shared modules.

 Web  change log

6.10.1

12 September 2008

• Redesign on the URL's used to access report objects, provision of a new menu item on each report object window which allows capture of the URL used to show the page. These can be used in your own web interface facilities such as a html page containing IFRAME objects.
• Support for #CAP_FM conditional formatting added, queries containing these formatting controls will not be correctly rendered on the web interface.
• Complete redesign of the Captell web interface to include separate windows for each presented report object, each window now has its own menu for performing tasks with the report.
• Removal of the ShowHelp configuration option, help menu is now always shown on the Captell Web Explorer panel
• Drop down list of databases found in the specified server now provided on signon screen

6.9.2

4 February 2008

• Improvements to click through processing, when repeatedly clicking from one chart to another and back again.

6.9.1

18 January 2008

• Occasionally SQL Server throws as error "General Network Error" which is a sort of catch all for when the connection between a client and SQL Server can't be made or is lost and SQL Server doesn't know why. Legitimate reasons for this may include physical failure of a network component. This error is occasionally returned to Captell; we have found that SQL Server will throw this error if it is asked to accept a lot of connections simultaneously and if the platform running SQL Server is very busy. This typically happens during summary table update where a lot of tables are being updated together which correspondingly also drives up CPU and Memory utilisation on the server, we believe this to be an issue with SQL Server. In this release of Captell we have implemented retry logic whenever Captell asks SQL Server for a connection, in most cases this gets around the issue by obtaining the connection on the second or third attempt (Captell will now attempt to obtain a connection 10 times with a 2 second delay between attempts). NOTE: this error will still be thrown for legitimate reasons; for instance, when connected to a domain (typically on a laptop), if you subsequently disconnect while keeping Captell workbench open you will receive this error because SQL Server is no longer able to validate your security credentials.

6.9.0

• Recompiled to make use of Workbench 6.9.0.12 modules

6.8.0

• Parameters which reside in a subfolder made available to the web user are now correctly presented.

• Horizontal bar and area charts now correctly handle click through axis events.

• Character labels on X axis for vertical charts and Y axis for horizontal charts are now correctly passed through to linked parameters.

• Improved printing facilities.

• All pages presented by Captell Web are now set to NOT CACHE.

3.7.1

• Parameters published with objects that can no longer be found in the database will not cause a web error.

3.7.0

• Parameters which reside in a subfolder made available to the web user are now correctly presented.