September 2017 Update

It's been a long summer preparing ReportMagic 2.8 for launch. Lots of exciting new features, including:

Sample reports

We've never really shown off our own work, but that all changes this month.  Our puntastic new Sample ("Sam Bell") Customer ("Khaztu Mehhyr") report available from our Home Page shows off a number of key ReportMagic features, including:

• Beautiful, pixel-perfect branding
• Graphs
• Conditional section inclusion
• [ForEach:] and [RepeatRow:] looping
• A good cross-section of our LogicMonitor macros

Improved connections page

With several new connection types, dynamic connection status and direct debug console access we have given the Connections page a real overhaul.

Where a debug console exists, you can even connect directly, even for our new connection type:

Agent connections

Yes, finally you can now report on in-house systems, including direct database connections. We might focus on the cloud, but most enterprises still operate using internal databases.  This this feature, you can now include internal data in your cloud reports! We have thought very carefully about the security model for this feature - here are the highlights:

• In order to ensure the highest levels of security, we don't want to know your internal system credentials. With the initial release, the Agent runs as a Windows Service and installs via an MSI installer. You can complete the entire Agent installation process without giving us any credentials.
• Running as a windows service using a domain account that you create, you are in complete control of locking down what that user can and cannot do.
• Restrict the user to specific databases, tables and views using standard SQL Server security.

Contact us if you would like to discuss why cloud reporting on internal systems can still be secure.

Execute SQL directly within ReportMagic

You can now run queries directly on an SQL database within ReportMagic.

To do this, ensure that the ReportMagic Agent is installed on a server where SQL Server is also present. Then from Admin menu, click Connections and add an Agent connection. Now you're all set to run queries on the SQL database directly in ReportMagic. Do this by clicking Launch Console next to your connection name.

For example, using the Agent console, the following returns the Title column from the BloggerPosts table by performing a query directly and seamlessly with the database:

!sql
database=reportmagic;server=.;integrated security=sspi
select Title from BloggerPosts

We have also provided a set of Agent macros to make reporting easy for you. These macros are [Agent.SqlGraph], [Agent.SqlTable], [Agent.SqlValue] and [Agent.SqlValues]. Use the [Agent.SqlGraph:] and [Agent.SqlTable:] macros to easily tabulate and graph one-off reports. Like all macros, you can save them in a report template and run them as part of report schedules.

For example, within Report Studio the [Agent.SqlTable] macro can be used to the same effect as the direct query shown above:

[Agent.Connection:name=Agent on TEST]

Title only: [Agent.SqlTable: sql="SELECT Title FROM BloggerPosts", connectionString="Server=.;Database=ReportMagic;Trusted_Connection=True;", timeoutMs=30000]

All table data: [Agent.SqlTable: sql="SELECT * FROM BloggerPosts", connectionString="Server=.;Database=ReportMagic;Trusted_Connection=True;", timeoutMs=30000]

Why not get started using the Agent console or try out these new macros in ReportStudio?

Beautiful dashboards

It is now possible to perfectly brand your dashboards. You have full control over all aspects of CSS. Our up-coming Roles-based access control will mean that your customers can be given secure access to their data.

Marketing and documentation

We're on a big acquisition drive at present and one thing we know we've never done well is marketing.  We're starting a big marketing drive in 2018, so we have completely re-vamped all our marketing and documentation content.  We hope you'll agree, it is now much easier to find what you are looking for.  Further improvements to our "search everything" search bar are on the way, making help even easier to find.

Hundreds of bugfixes

OK, so we went a little feature crazy this year... We have spent the summer hunting down and squashing a large number of bugs.  As we move towards 2018, killing the remaining few blighters is top of our list.

Improved Navigation

Two new convenient features were added to the ReportMagic file system.  Select a folder containing your report macro files, right-click and select "Create Report Schedule" to open the create schedule dialog with the file path already set, and select an html, docx or txt file, right-click and select "Open in Report Studio" to do just that, so you can work on the file.