Monday, March 24, 2014

What's New in Dodeca 6.7.1?

Last week, we released Dodeca version 6.7.1.4340 which focuses on some new relational functionality. The major new features in 6.7.1 are:
  • Concurrent SQL Query Execution
  • Detailed SQL Timed Logging
  • Query and Display PDF format
  • Ability to Launch Local External Processes from Within Dodeca

Concurrent SQL Query Execution

Dodeca has a built-in SQLPassthroughDataSet object that supports queries to a relational database.  The SQLPassthroughDataSet functionality was engineered such that a SQLPassthroughDataSet object can include multiple queries that get executed and returned on a single trip to the server and several of our customers have taken great advantage of that functionality.  We have at least one customer, in fact, that has some SQLPassthroughDataSets that execute up to 20 queries in a single trip to the server.  The functionality was originally designed to run the queries sequentially, but in some cases it would be better to run the queries concurrently.  Because this is Dodeca, of course concurrent query execution is configurable at the SQLPassthroughDataSet level.

Detailed SQL Timed Logging

In Dodeca version 6.0, we added detailed timed logging for Essbase transactions.  In this version, we have added similar functionality for SQL transactions and have formatted the logs in pipe-delimited format so they can easily be loaded into Excel or into a database for further analysis.  The columns of the log include the log message level, timestamp, sequential transaction number, number of active threads, transaction GUID, username, action, description, and time to execute in milliseconds.

Below is an example of the log message.

Click to enlarge


Query and Display PDF format

The PDF View type now supports the ability to load the PDF directly from a relational table via a tokenized SQL statement.  This functionality will be very useful for those customers who have contextual information, such as invoice images, stored relationally and need a way to display that information.  We frequently see this requirement as the end result of a drill-through operation from either Essbase or relational reports.

Ability to Launch Local External Processes from Within Dodeca

Certain Dodeca customers store data files for non-financial systems in relational data stores and use Dodeca as a central access point.  The new ability to launch a local process from within Dodeca is implemented as a Dodeca Workbook Script method which provides a great deal of flexibility in how the process is launched.

The new 6.7.1 functionality follows closely on the 6.7.0 release that introduces proxy server support and new MSAD and LDAP authentication services.  If you are interested in seeing all of the changes in Dodeca, highly detailed Dodeca release notes are available on our website at http://www.appliedolap.com/resources/downloads/dodeca-technical-docs.