Don's Top n Suggested Enhancements for Brio Portal/ReportMart

Copyright © 1998, Ray Ontko & Co.

Today, n = 8.

Brio Portal (formerly ReportMart, from SQRIBE) is Brio's Web-based Report and File distribution solution. Although relatively new, there are a few "wish list" items that have popped up, and so I've gathered them here. As of version 1.5, and in order by most important to least important according to how I feel today (and I reserve the right to change my mind without prior notice) they are...

1. More input type options for jobs.
   1. Radio Buttons with assignable values
   2. Check Boxes with assignable values
   3. "Multiple" Select Lists returning a comma seperated list of values. Ability to add options for both "all", which would return a blank, and "none", which would return the string "none" or "null". Also an optional "where" clause for limiting database selections.

2. A site-map button. Perhaps with the "refresh" and "exit" buttons, that would produce a site-map of all categories the current user has access to, with each category listed hyperlinking to the appropriate place.

3. Environment variable set so that a report can "know" it's running in ReportMart.

4. Better error messaging/handling. Particularly while loading an SPF when the TEMPDIR resides on another file system, which causes a problem with the temporary SPF during TOC adjustment, but results in an excedingly unhelpful error message.

5. Ability to select different (site created) java app for the auto-generation of Job Input forms.

6. WebSQRIBE User Name and Groups available as environment variables to jobs running in ReportMart.

7. More flexibility with the "template" files. Additional generic switches for ws.conf to turn "on" and "off" user added sections of the templates. Better logo placement flexibility. Maybe a "last modified" substitution tag that would insert the last date something was modified/added in the current category.

8. More extensive "permissions" documentation. There can be job output that is only visible to the user that ran it, or to that users "group(s)", but this is not immediately apparent from the documentation.

Fixed in ver 2.0

• Order options for listing items in a category. Allow Name, Type, or Latest Output orders. Possibly include an "assigned" order option for forcing how things are listed?

Acknowledgments

Many thanks to people who have contributed to this list:

Nathan Treadway

Did we leave anything out that you think is a needed enhancement to ReportMart/Brio Portal? Give us your feedback.