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FAQ about repSL |
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Frequently Asked Questions
In this page you can find information and answers to the most frequently asked questions about repSL reporting solution.
Other information are available as documentation files in the Download Area.
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What are the differencies between repSL Engine and repSL Developer? |
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With repSL Developer user can define the content of a .rsl script file; it's used every time a new report is to be projected. repSL Develoeper usage within workgroup is reserved to people that know well data sources (DBs, text files, etc...) and know the right way to query them.
repSL Engine is the language interpreter that executes commands listed in a .rsl script so to produce final report document; you have to run Engine every time a report is to be updated with data source queries.
Anyone within workgroup can use repSL Engine, even who has no idea about datasources, their location or access criteria or their schema.
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repSL Engine are repSL Developer parts of a client/server architecture?
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No. Both Engine and Developer are stand-alone applications; they can be executed independently of each other, even on PC with no network connection.
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Is repSL Engine a Web reporting tool?
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Even if repSL Engine can produce HTML based reports, that can be looked up using common browsers within Intranets/Internet, it's not a Web Reporting tool.
Usually Web Reporting requires high hardware/software performances (...i.e. high costs) in order to calculate and show in real-time required information to users. Also, more is the data base size and the number of concurrent users accessing and quering it, more are the required resources.
On the contrary, with repSL Engine HTML documents are created off-line (for example with an automatic scheduling) so that required system resources can be lower and independant of the concurrent users looking up them.
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In order to update reports or automate their creation, is any repSL Engine licence required?
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Actually no. Infact repSL Developer includes all features of repSL Engine. Nevertheless, on the same PC and with a single licence of Developer, is not possible to run simultaneously the Engine and the developing interface. Of course, such a scenario can be suite only to very small corporate activities and not to a wide workgroups.
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Is there any limit to the number of users accessing a report? |
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No. If any report is published in Internet or in a corporate intranet shared folder, it can be looked up by an unlimited number of concurrent users.
Other client/server web reporting tools,
restrict both the number of clients and the number of concurrent clients accessing the server to update reports.
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Can repSL used for purpose different from reporting?
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Yes. Thanks to the many commands and options available, the programming language let compose and schedule DB maintenance scripts, text files parsers and loaders, handy user interfaces for data entry, extract single information from data sources (without creating any document), modify content and layout of other reports, use e-mails to notify the consistency/inconsistency of DB information, the failure of a scheduled process or any other system event, etc...
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How licensing is implemented?
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Licensing of repSL Engine and repSL Developer is implemented on computer. Each licence is coupled with a small USB dongle, required to start software on a single PC. Each repSL Developer licence includes a repSL Engine licence too.
No limit exist to the number of users that can use Engine and Developer and look up reports, and no restriction is applied on hardware supporting repSL application.
Licensing of other reporting tools imposes restrictions to the hardware performances dedicated to report production (i.e. installation of software on too much performing server is not allowed) and to the number of users that can access them.
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Can repSL software installed for a trial?
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Yes. Without any purchase obligation, it's possible to plan a live demo on repSL solutions and install software for a 30 days trial.
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In order to look up reports, are repSL Engine or any other special viewer required? |
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No. repSL Engine is required only for report creation or updating. Since reports are pure MS Excel, MS PowerPoint or HTML files, the only requirement is an installation of MS Office or a simple Internet browser: no ActiveX to register, no client application to distribute, no applet of Virtual Machine to configure!
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How reports can be created or updated? |
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Scripts execution can be decided by user or automatically scheduled.
In the first case execution can started simply double-clicking the .rsl file icon; otherwise user can open Engine RunTime interface and manually select the script file.
Instead scheduling let automatically execute scripts at any given time during day, week, month or on the occasion of particular events, ...executions with a frequency of up a minute are allowed!
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Where are stored the new reports? |
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Reports can be stored into any local or network folder specified into the script. Since created files are common MS Office documents, their management is very simple and does not require particular skill or permission.
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Is there any limitation defining a new report layout? |
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No. Content and layout of reports are completely set using MS Excel or MS PowerPoint. The only resctrictions user can run into are the limits of the two Microsoft applications features (i.e sheets contain a maximum of 65536 rows and 256 columns).
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Can repSL connect to a other DBs than Microsoft SQL Server and Access? |
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Yes. repSL Engine has dedicated dialogs and commands to access Microsoft databases but can simply connect to any other data source accessible via ODBC (Open Database Connectivity): ORACLE, MySQL, dBase, SOLID DB, PostGreSQL, etc...
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Are special permissions required to access data sources? |
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No. Database objects (tables, views, procedures, etc...) containing information to be reported can be accessed with simply read-only permission.
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In order to create reports, is a database schema to be modified? |
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No. No change to DB schema is to be applied; no table, view or any other database object is to be mirrored and no new database power user is to be defined
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Is there any limitation to the database size repSL Engine can connect to? |
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No. repSL Engine can query very wide corporate Data Ware House with the same simple commands used to query a small local MS Access database.
Queries are executed on database server-side and not by the PC running repSL Engine; so, query response time depends on server performance.
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Can repSL be used to execute database maintenance activities? |
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Yes. Provided user has sufficient permissions, repSL Engine can be applied not only for reporting purpose, but also to update a data base. It' possible to upload new information into DB, to remove other ones, to modify the content of tables or the definition of views, execute Stored Procedures, etc...
Thanks to simple dialogs available with language, user can realize repSL applications to make frequent maintenance activities (usually performed on low level only by system administrators) simpler and interactive.
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Can a repSL script content be protected? |
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Yes, thanks to the script ciphering/deciphering features available with repSL Developer.
User can assign a reserved password to his script; without it, no one will be allowed to read the content of the .rsl file (neither via repSL Developer nor via external tools).
However a ciphered file can be normally executed with repSL Engine, even without any password request. Such a solution let the script owner to insert delicated and reserved information into repSL code (logins and passowords, IP addresses, calculation formulas, etc...) sure that no other persons can access them; at the same time, anyone can run the script via repSL Engine.
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Can repSL script execution reserved to a limited set of users? |
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Yes. Script protection can be implemented in two different ways; the first and simplest consists in saving .rsl files into reserver folders which access is managed with common Windows protection criteria. The second one consists in including into script one or more dialogs checking user idenity and the insert of an execution code (of course script content must be protected using ciphering feature).
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Can repSL be used to access remote databases and alter or delete its information? |
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Yes, provided that accessing user has administration or power user permissions to do it.
A read only access to a reduced set of database objects (usual for reports generation) definitely can not damage any database content.
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In reports projecting, what advantages can bring a script language over the common and more friendly wizards? |
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Who commonly use other reporting tools with the aim of show quite complex contents, can confirm that data aggregation and modification criteria available with wizards and dialogs are very limited (often too limited!) and do not match the real user requirements. Often a great effort has to be dedicated in report tuning: configure a lot of graphical elements with uncountable dialogs, set a lot of options on a lot of menus, substitute too complex interrogation with pure SQL code, etc...
Actually, dialogs and wizards are useful only in very simply and standard report projecting.
On the contrary, the main and great advantage of a repSL script is its flexibility and the capability of post-process information with totally user-defined criteria. Very useful is the possibility to manage any data exception independently from each other.
If a few words: script language makes reporting very smart.
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Is a rookie programmer able to compose a repSL script? |
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Yes. Even if first times a repSL script can appear quite difficult to understand, anyone will find out in a short time how it's simple read and create .rsl files.
Infact, thanks to the friendly naming of commands, their complete real-time documentation and, mostly, the availability of many code samples, even a rookie user will have mastery of the language in a very short time.
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Does repSL Developer licence include any documentation about language? |
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Yes. repSL Developer interface makes available Reference and Reference Browser panels; they describe with details each keyword of repSL, showing concepts, syntax and samples.
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In order to correctly install repSL software, is any advanced IT skill required? |
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No. repSL softwares are deployed via automatic installing package and ready immediately; also setup CD includes documentation files to help and guide even rookie users during setup.
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What about the minimum technical requirements in order to install repSL? |
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repSL Engine and repSL Developer can be installed on any class of PC, from laptops to multiprocessor servers, running on MS Windows 2000, XP, 7 32bit, 2003 or 2008 Server.
Minimum suggested system configuration shows a Pentium III CPU or higher, 256 MB of RAM and 80MB on your hard drive. repSL supports MS Office 2000, Office XP, Office 2003 and Office 2007.
An USB port has to be reserved to dongle.
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