Professional and capable reporting features continue to be a headliner feature of OnTime. Users love the speed, capability, and flexibility of OnTime’s report authoring tools. For years users have enjoyed using the built-in report designer to modify the appearance and content of their reports. We’ve worked hard to ensure that report modification is something that can be done by the average user, not just experts trained in report authoring.
Starting with version 4.4 of OnTime, we are happy to announce the release of a new report authoring environment which has been significantly enhanced. Here are some of the new features available:
Over 520 new fields: There has been a dramatic increase in the number of fields available within the Field List of the report designer. Previously, many reports offered an average of 30 fields. That number has increased to 520+ fields, a staggering 1,633% increase! This significantly increases the flexibility of the report designer by giving users access to the fields they need.
Field List consistency: With the drastic increase in the number of available fields comes another welcome change. These fields are consistent between reports. Previously, a field may be available in one report, but not on another. In other cases, a field could be named differently between reports. To avoid confusion, fields are now equally available across all reports, using the same consistent naming.
Same data structure as API and SDK: Programmers that use the OnTime API or SDK appreciate that they are structured the same. We’ve brought this same consistency to the Field List within the report designer. All fields within reports share the same naming and structure that is found in the API and SDK. This means that once the structure is learned, that same knowledge can be equally applied to other important areas of OnTime.
High DPI support: Users with high display scaling settings will now enjoy a beautifully crisp user interface. Icons have been remastered, and controls will no longer appear blurry.
New report designer: A new streamlined report designer surfaces tools and options intelligent as you need them. For example, tabs may appear with additional features based on the item selected within the report. Confusing wizards and functions have been simplified. The reliability of the designer has been dramatically improved, including improved undo/redo support.
Powerful new use of Expressions: Although expressions have been a part of calculated fields in the past, expressions play a dominant new role in the new report designer. Not only can expressions still be used within a calculated field, but they can also be assigned as the value to many properties across a report. Doing this in the past required complex and problematic scripting. Using expressions for this purposes dramatically simplifies the process. For example, it becomes trivial to set the color of the due date on an invoice to be red if the date is past.
Grouping and sorting: Easily set the grouping and sorting of data displayed in a report. Nested sorting is supported and may use any of the 520+ available fields.
Preview mode and sample data: Previously, to view modifications made to a report, the designer had to be closed, and a new preview window opened. Now a new Preview tab appears in the upper right corner of the report designer. Switching to Preview mode will display the report with all current modifications, even if they are not yet saved. Switch back to the Designer mode to continue modifications. To make Preview mode even better, sample data is used to ensure that all fields display data making it easier to ensure that layout and formatting are correct.
We are confident that users will appreciate the robustness and consistency made possible by these new reporting features. All users of OnTime Professional or higher automatically get these new changes at no additional charge. These enhancements are part of our ongoing commitment to making OnTime better for all of our customers.