ADVIZOR Analyst Edition 5.4 Release Notes

March 18, 2009

ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc ADVIZOR Version 5.4 Copyright 2000 - 2009, ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc. All Rights Reserved

This (ReleaseNotes.htm) file contains product information for ADVIZOR Analyst Edition 5.4 products. These release notes are available on the installation image as well as in the install directory for the product(s) you have installed.

Index

  • New in this Release
  • Platform Notes
  • Installation Instructions
  • Databases Supported
  • Known Problems and Hints
  • Technical Support

New in this Release

Features and Enhancements

  • Performance has been improved and memory footprint reduced. The size of projects in memory has been reduced by about 30% on average (depending on which charts are used), and performance has been increased by about 20%.
  • A 64 bit version of ADVIZOR is now available, providing support for significantly larger projects. The 64 bit version of ADVIZOR is supported on Microsoft Vista 64, Windows Server 2003, and Windows Server 2008; we do not support Windows XP64. The 32 bit version of ADVIZOR is still available and can be installed on both 32 bit and 64 bit versions of Windows. The 64 bit version of ADVIZOR is currently limited, however, in that Microsoft Office application data from Excel and Access cannot be read; use the 32 bit version of ADVIZOR for these. Projects with embedded data (.advm files) are portable between both versions.
  • The Expression Builder has been significantly enhanced. It now supports string fields as well as numeric fields, and provides a set of functions that operate on strings: string concatenation, substring replacement, conversion, and matching. Expressions can use any number of fields from a table; previous versions were limited to a maximum of two fields. The missing value can be tested for and created. See the User Guide for more details.
  • The ADVIZOR Text File Reader has been replaced with a new version that better identifies errors encountered in text files, and allows these to be ignored. The previous Text File Reader always silently ignored errors encountered in text files. The "schema.ini" files used to specify custom formats with previous versions of ADVIZOR are no longer supported.
  • Excel and Access Databases from Microsoft Office 2007 are now supported for reading only; export is still to Office 2003 (and earlier) format.
  • An updated version of KXEN is now included. Prediction on classification models (models with a target field that takes two values) now produces the "score" field calculated by KXEN as an output for use in fine tuning the prediction output. See the User Guide for more details.
  • The installation process has been improved, requiring fewer manual steps in completing the installation for ADVIZOR Server.
  • A backup copy of your project, with the suffix "backup", is created when saving a project.

Fixes

Over 50 faults were repaired in this release. In particular, a new graphics driver is used that should result in fewer rendering problems on Microsoft Vista systems.

Platform Notes

Client Requirements

Operating Systems

  • Microsoft Windows XP SP1
  • Microsoft Windows Vista 32 or 64
  • Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP1 or Windows Server 2008.

Browser

  • Microsoft Internet Explorer Internet Explorer 7. Internet Explorer 6 is no longer supported.

Other Software

  • Features interfacing to Microsoft Office applications require Office 2000 or later. Output to formats specific to Microsoft Office 2007 are not currently supported, however.

Hardware

  • Any current, business-focused PC or laptop.
    • This excludes computers with low-end, entry level processors.
  • 2 GB of RAM or greater (See Note below). At least 2GB is required for larger volumes of data, about 750K rows.
  • Graphics display processor with at least 256MB of video RAM
    • Either shared or dedicated video RAM is acceptable
    • Always use the most recently available drivers for the graphics display processor (contact the vendor to obtain them)
  • Video display resolution of 1024 x 768 or greater
  • Video display color depth of 16 million colors
  • CD-ROM drive
  • Mouse or compatible pointing device

NOTE: For a given dataset, performance of the ADVIZOR Analyst software is dependent on:

  • Amount of RAM
  • CPU
    • Processor speed
    • Processor architecture/technology
      • Amount of cache
      • Number of cores

in that order. Multiple cores are currently only used by ADVIZOR Server.

When deciding on a computer to use or buy, opt first for as much RAM as possible within economic constraints; however, once the amount of RAM has been decided, opt for the fastest and most powerful CPU that satisfies economic constraints.

The amount of RAM required is highly dependent on your application data. The minimum amount of RAM is determined primarily by:

  • The amount and type of data being loaded into memory

    • The number of rows
    • The number of fields

    • The type of data in each field

      i. Alphanumeric (string) ii. Numeric or Date

  • Your particular ADVIZOR Analyst application design

As a rough estimate of the amount of RAM required for your data, find the file size of each data file you intend to load when the data is in the form of a text file and sum the file sizes. Additional RAM will be required for your intended ADVIZOR Analyst application; however, in most cases the RAM required for data will be the most significant contributor. Beyond these general guidelines and within economic constraints, more RAM and faster processors will almost always maximize your ADVIZOR Analyst application's performance. Consider provisioning any PC or laptop with future expansion in mind.

Server Requirements

Operating Systems

  • Windows Server 2003
  • Microsoft Server 2008

Use of the 64 bit versions of server operating systems is strongly encouraged for increased memory support.

Other

  • IIS 5.0, or newer, installed and running prior to installation of the Microsoft .NET Framework

Hardware

  • Any current, server class computer, with multiple processor cores.
  • At least 4GB of memory is preferred. On 64 bit servers, at least 8GB of RAM is recommended.
    • Each distinct project accessed by users requires its own memory space
      • RAM should be increased as the number of distinct projects accessed grows
    • Multiple users accessing the same project do so with minimal additional RAM overhead
  • No graphics display processor is required
  • Segmenting projects to additional servers must be considered as the user and project load grows.

We recommend that the ADVIZOR Server software run on its own server hardware.

Beyond these general guidelines and within economic constraints, more memory and more and faster processors will almost always maximize your ADVIZOR Server's performance. Consider provisioning any server hardware with future expansion in mind.

Installation Instructions

  1. Prior to installing ADVIZOR Analyst/X, remove prior versions of ADVIZOR Publisher or Analyst Pro using Add/Remove Programs.
  2. Insert the CDROM into your CD drive. Double click on Setup.exe in the root directory on the CD.
  3. If you are instructed to remove a prior version of an ADVIZOR Analyst Edition product, proceed as directed, or use the operating system's "Add/Remove Software" facility.
  4. Holding down the shift key during application startup (while the logo is displayed), will restore the application settings to the "factory default" settings. These setting are sometimes updated when a new release is issued, so its a good practice to do so whenever you have loaded a new version of the software.

Databases Supported

  • MS Excel (see note below)
  • MS Access (see note below)
  • SalesForce.com
  • MS SQL Server (version 7.0 or later) (see note)
  • Oracle (version 9i or later)
  • ODBC interfaces to databases:
    • NOTE: ODBC DSN configurations must be defined as "System DSNs" through Windows prior to trying to use them in ADVIZOR.
    • Microsoft ODBC for Oracle - MSORCL32.DLL
    • SQL Server - SQLSRV32.DLL
    • Pervasive drivers
      • Pervasive ODBC Client Interface - W3ODBCCI.DLL
      • Pervasive ODBC Engine Interface - W3ODBCEI.DLL
    • MySQL driver
      • MySQL ODBC 3.51 Driver - MYODBC3.DLL (MyODBC-3.51.11-2-win.msi - when used with MySQL version mysql-essential-4.1.13-win32.msi)

Note: For Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel and text files, you MUST use the non-ODBC options in the Data Wizard.

Known Problems and Hints

  • Microsoft Office data formats (Excel, Access) can only be read with the 32 bit version of ADVIZOR.
  • Tables connected by Selection Links are always updated as if they are in "replace" mode. If the tables are unmatched (not all keys appear in both), creating an "unmatched bar" in a Bar Chart will maintain the unmatched values between the tables when a selection is made.
  • When using "Data Integration" on ADVIZOR Server, the tooltip on the data integration button in the published dashboard is created from the description that you provide when you publish. If you do not include a description, there will not be a tooltip.
  • Do not publish using different versions of Analyst/X or Analyst and Server AE; use the same versions of each product.
  • Some database products, like Microsoft SQL Server, may at times place significant demands on system resources. For this reason, we recommend installing ADVIZOR Server products on a machine other than the database server.
  • As a troubleshooting aid, any logging information may be written to "C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\ADVIZOR Solutions\<product name>\error.log". The operating system's "Application Event" log may also provide useful information.
  • Additional information (available on request)
    • Guide on advanced publishing
    • Guide on branding
    • Guide on audit logging

Technical Support

When submitting a problem to Technical Support, email is the preferred mechanism ([email protected]). In the email, please provide as many of the following as possible:

  • Your name & contact information including phone number
  • The name of the product you are using and its version number
  • Your license key used to install the product
  • A detailed explanation of what you were doing that led up to the problem.
  • Screen shot(s) and/or exact text of any error information
  • C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\ADVIZOR Solutions\<product name>\error.log, if it exists (replace <product name> with Analyst or AnalystX, etc. as applicable to your product)
  • Machine's System Information file created from the "System Information" saved as type ".nfo"
  • Operating system's Application event log in .evt format so that we get the detailed event descriptions
  • If you're having a database access problem, submit all relevant DB information, including DB vendor, DB version, whether the DB is local or remote, whether or not you are able to access the DB using vendor or third party supplied query tools, etc

If you encounter an error/exception and are offered the opportunity to forward diagnostic information, please do so. However, note that you can help reduce the time to resolution by also including details of the actions that led to the event. Our ability to rapidly understand the problem is significantly increased when we know all the details.

If you cannot find answers to your questions using the online help "Table of Contents", "Index" or "Find" tabs, or in this release notes file, have your application license number handy and contact us:

Call the ADVIZOR Solutions, Inc Technical Support line during business hours (8:00 AM - 4:30 PM Central time, Monday - Friday) at +1.630.971.5250

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