Feature updates and bug fixes – 2015 and earlier

March 2015 #

Category Description
Multi-step reporting The “auto fill previous step data” checkbox was producing incorrect output, along with significantly worsened performance. This bug is now fixed. Read more.
User interface “Check all” box in picklist and multi-select filter selections – see screen shot below.
Filtering Multi-line strings in the filter builder when matching string fields via “is among”, “is not among”, “contains any of” and “does not contain any of”. This lets us copy/paste a column from an Excel sheet and match all the values in one shot. Read more.
Document generation
  • In the document merge popup, when sending email, we now show a progress report. Also, the mail sending is done in batches of 5, thus mitigating when generating PDF attachments.
  • Better support for IE 10 and 11.
  • Docx merge now supports non-Word-style merge fields surrounded by angle brackets, for things like Google Docs documents and DrawLoop compatibility. Read more.
  • Docx merge now includes the ability to group the generated sublists and to calculate totals and subtotals. Read more.

January 2015 #

Category Description
Data import Users can now set up their own alternate keys when importing and updating data. Read more.
Filtering Initial filters are now supported. Read more.
Data management Enable retrieving deleted records via the connection settings popup (Settings – Connection settings), using the queryAll() call. Read more.
User interface Tabular views are now horizontally scrollable, in addition to being vertically scrollable.

December 2014 #

Category Description
All reports We show a horizontal scroll bar that scrolls the header area as well, making the report much more usable.
All reports Click a row on the table to highlight/select it. This makes the report easier to use when having to scroll horizontally.
Multi-step reports We now have a “Show this step’s records in column blocks” feature. The calculated fields feature is enhanced to play nice with this new feature. Read more.
Document generation When merging to generate a single docx from a bunch of records in from a filtered object (rather than from a report or multi-step report), the output is sorted according to the display field of the object, if that display field is used in the merge template. If it isn’t, the sort order depends on the other fields used in the merge, so it’s a bit unpredictable.
Filtering Support for ‘contains any of’ and ‘does not contain any of’ operators for string fields. Read more.
Filtering Textareas instead of textboxes in the filter editor, as well is in the filter logic box of the filter editor, to accommodate large data values
Functionality The license management UI is available. Read more.

November 2014 #

Category Description
Data management Support for importing and exporting Apsona Item records for moving between sandbox and production. Read more.
Document generation Generate code for the merge button from the merge actions detail panel, i.e., Settings – Merge actions and clicking the merge action you want.

October 2014 #

Category Description
Document generation Support for generating address labels. Read more.
Multi-step reports Calculated fields are now supported. Read more.

September 2014 #

Category Description
Multi-step reports Visualforce page generation is now available for reports and multi-step reports, both as top-level pages and as related lists.
User interface Somewhat improved UI, using the full width for wide screens
Filtering "Me (logged-in user)" as an option in all lookups that point to the User object (e.g., Owner, Created By, Modified By). This allows better sharing of filters between users.

August 2014 #

Category Description
Document generation Support for generating PDF-format files from Word templates.
Multi-step reports When exporting a multi-step report to XLS format, an ID columns in the report will be given links to their records in Salesforce so that if the user clicks the Excel cell, the record will open in Salesforce in a browser.
User interface In any grid that shows checkboxes (e.g., tabular or console view), you can shift-click to select multiple records.
Document generation If a single template variable appears in a line (e.g., the business name in an address block containing name, business name and address), and the business name is empty, the merge action will collapse the empty space so that there will be no blank line.
Document generation A "create a copy" checkbox in step 3 now lets us clone an existing merge action
Document generation Support for user-specified date formats when generating documents.

June 2014 #

Category Description
Reporting Multiple calculated fields, even interspersed among regular fields, are now supported for simple (single-step) reports
Multi-step reports We now show the list of multi-step reports sorted by modified date descending, with modified date being the leftmost column.

April 2014 #

Category Description
Reporting We now allow the user to include among the retrieved fields any lookup fields in objects that are one step away. For example, when building an OpportunityContactRole report, the user has available the Account lookup field in the Opportunity object.
Tabular views Support for field sets in tabular views
Multi-step reports Running a multi-step report now shows a progress report while running
Functionality Caching is now "long-lasting", i.e., cache will only be cleared if either there is a different user name that logs in, or the user does Settings – Clear cache
Functionality Support for printing a report that has been visualized as a calendar.

February 2014 #

Category Description
Finding data records The import facility now includes a "Download match results" button in step 3. This enables you to match a CSV file against your existing Salesforce data and retrieve the record IDs of the matching records without ever having to do an import. This feature is often useful when you want to determine which records in a CSV file contain matching records in your database.
Filtering When creating a filter or specifiying search terms, if you select a date field, you will see more "relative" date options available (Next/Last 180 days, etc).
Functionality The main menu bar now includes a popup immediately to the left of the Settings menu, via which you can select any object and any of the three available views (All records, Tabular view, or Reports) for that object, and manage the contents of that object via the selected view.
Document generation We now support array formulas in Excel merge.

December 2013 #

Category Description
Multi-step reports Resized column widths are now saved
Multi-step reports Lookup fields are now rendered as hyperlinks to the Salesforce record, just like primary keys
Multi-step reports Move-up and Move-down buttons available in the multi-step-report editor, for rearranging steps
Document generation When sending an attached document via email, can now attach that document to the record
Functionality
  • Named field sets in tabular view
  • Tabular view: “Save” button is gray by default, and enabled only when there is something to save
  • Surrogate objects for Attachment
  • Allow UTF-8 character sets in the import wizard
  • Support for multi-currency orgs
  • Linkage via picklists in multi-step reports
  • Apsona Item owner is available for mass-transfering ownership
  • Filters in child tabs
  • Allow Merge buttons in SFDC detail pages
  • “Edit reports” access right available in configurations
  • Exporting batch contents in Batch Gift Entry
  • In-place editing in grids in child tabs
  • Support for Notes as surrogates
  • Little find box in each panel of the filter builder
  • UI for setting the batch size
  • Surrogates for Tasks and Events

October 2013 #

Category Description
User interface
  • In-place editing is now available in grids in child tabs of the “All records” view of every object.
  • A new “find” box is available inside the lists of fields shown in the filter builder, so that you can quickly find the field on which you wish to filter.
Functionality
  • Support for Notes, Tasks and Events: You can now manage the Notes, Tasks and Events associated with any Salesforce object, including importing, filtering and exporting.
  • You can temporarily set the batch size that Apsona uses. This is useful in many practical situations. More details are available.

August 2013 #

Category Description
Features Support for UK-style date formatting in the New Zealand (NZ) locale
Document merge Nested lists are now supported in merging Word documents. More details are available.

June 2013 #

Category Description
Features New add-ons for document merge and batch gift entry are available.

April 2013 #

Category Description
User interface
  • In the date picker that appears when selecting in a date field, we now show the “Today” button/link at the bottom.
  • In any date field, the user can type just a number, to indicate a date in the current month, or a number pair like 3/12 to indicate a date and month in the current year.
Administration The Settings menu now shows an "Apsona Items" menu item, via which you can view and manage all Apsona-related data, such as filters, reports, layouts and import mappings.
Functionality Support for sfdc EmailTemplate, BrandTemplate and CaseHistory objects
Reports Reports can now be printed.

February 2013 #

Category Description
Data import Improved column chooser for tabular views:

  • You can select fields from any object to which there is a lookup from the current object.
  • Select a field via double-click, and remove it via the delete icon in the ‘selected’ list.
Data import When a record is rejected because it is a duplicate of an existing record, the downloaded result used to show null for the record id of the rejected record. Instead, we now show the record id, even though it was rejected. This helps with using the output in a subsequent import.
Administration As an administrator, you can now copy layouts between profiles, via Settings – Set default layouts.

December 2012 #

Category Description
Data import When importing new data records, if a record was rejected because it is a duplicate of an existing record, the result CSV data would only indicate that it was rejected, but would not include the record ID of the matched record. We now include this record id, so that it can be used in a subsequent import. For example, if you are importing Contact and Opportunity records, you would want the contact ID even if the record matched an existing contact, so that you could use that contact ID when importing into OpportunityContactRole.
Multi-step reports
  • When editing the last step of a multi-step report, we now allow the user to select from any available object, not just the ones immediately adjacent to those of previous steps.
  • The columns of the run result data grid can now be resized. But the resized widths are not (yet) remembered between runs.
  • In the “range and sort” tab of the multi-step report editor, you can now sort the records on the fields of the current object as well as the fields in all its parent objects. For example, if you want to create a step for retreiving the top five highest-value Opportunities for each Contact, you would use the OpportunityContactRole as the object from which to retrieve records, and you can order these based on the Amount field in the Opportunity object, which is available via a lookup from OpportunityContactRole. See screen shot below.
Simple reports When a report is run, the toolbar at the top now includes two new buttons, “Back to list” to return quickly to the reports list, and “Run” to run the report again. See screen shot below.
Searching and filtering In the filter creation process, date-time fields can now be matched not only on date but also on time. For example, you can search for records with Created Date on or after 12/13/2012 8:15 am by typing in the date and time specification into the value box. Please keep in mind that Salesforce searches use GMT for matching, not your timezone. See screen shot below.
Mass add-to-campaign The Add-to-Campaign popup now includes all custom fields available in the CampaignMember object. This makes it much more convenient to add campaign member records for organizations who have customized this object. See an example screen shot below.

November 2012 #

Category Description
Multi-step reports
  • When a multi-step report is run, you can “visualize” any of its output blocks as a grouped table, pivoted table or chart.
  • All report columns now include a totals row at the bottom, containing column totals for each numeric- or currency-valued column.
All reports
  • There is now improved support for pivoted views, e.g., from a raw report of opportunities, amounts and close dates, produce a pivoted visualization that summarizes opportunity sums by quarter.
  • Date summarization by Quarter is supported.
Tabular views Apsona’s tabular views can now be embedded in Visual force pages, either as top-level tabs or as related lists. You can generate the code for the Visual Force page from within Apsona for Salesforce. More details are available.

October 2012 #

Category Description
Multi-step reports You can now share multi-step reports with other users. All the multi-step report folders created by other users will be visible, but:

  • if you own a report, you can move it to another folder of yours, edit or delete it.
  • if you do not own a report, you can either run it or clone it into one of your folders.
Data import When importing data into a child object, you can now map the lookup fields to either the record id, the name field, or any field marked either unique, auto-number or external ID in the parent object. For example, in the screen shot below, we see the ACT ID and the External ID fields of the Account object available for mapping when importing Opportunities.
General When retrieving data via SOQL, Apsona now uses Salesforce’s “read only” mode to significantly reduce data retrieval times for large data sets.
General You can now embed Apsona components within Salesforce pages, either as a top-level tab or in related lists. More information is available.

September 2012 #

Category Description
Multi-step reports Report data records are now “auto-filled.” Before this change, data records retrieved by earlier steps would be used as group labels and would not be repeated. For example, if you created a report of Accounts and corresponding Contacts, each Account record would appear only once, aligned with the first contact in the list. This would cause confusion if you sorted on any of the columns. We now “auto-fill” so that this problem does not occur, as in the screens below.
Reports There is now a “Copy from existing filter” feature to enable existing filters to be used in reports, by copying their terms into the report.
Multi-step reports
  • Multi-step reports can now be cloned.
  • When editing a multi-step report, any step in the report can be cloned to produce a copy of that step.

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