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Continuous improvement to our expression handler, providing more efficient and more accurate results, may expose some rounding differences when using packed fields. Enhancements have improved the accuracy of the calculations when working with packed numbers. Rounding of a packed field is done at the time of storage, thus changing the actual number. This is different from precision-based fields, which round when they are displayed, ensuring that the original number is retained. Therefore, there may be slight rounding differences with packed numbers apparent in this release, but they are an improvement over previous releases.

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A cluster synonym is a Master File in which each segment is added to the cluster by reference using a CRFILE attribute that points to the base synonym. Child segments are joined to their parents using JOIN WHERE expressions.

In prior releases, if a report against a cluster synonym referenced fields only from a single segment, the rules for segment activation were different for equality joins and non-equality joins:

• If the segment was joined to its parent using an equality expression, only the child segment was activated, so only fields from that segment were returned.
• If the segment was joined to its parent using an expression that was not an equality, the parent and child segments were activated, and fields were returned from both segments.

In the current release, only the segment referenced in the request is activated, regardless of the type of join expression used.

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As of Reporting Server 7.7.05M/8.0.09M gen 177, negative values for TOPGAP are respected in PPTX format, as they are in PDF format. Prior to this release, negative values were always handled as zero (0). To maintain the previous behavior in PPTX, set the top gap values to zero (0), rather than negative values.

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As of Release 8.1 Version 05, when a component in a Compound document contains a report that generates an error or attempts to create a HOLD file to be used in other components, but 0 records are produced, error messages will be displayed and processing of the document will be terminated.

(FOC351) INPUT FILE NOT ALLOCATED: HOLD1
(FOC009) INCOMPLETE REQUEST STATEMENT
(FOC3298) ERROR FOUND IN A COMPOUND REPORT
Compound Report is TERMINATING.....
BYPASSING TO END OF COMMAND

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The following are upgrade considerations and product changes for XLSX format:

• Excel date formats begin at 1/1/1900. Dates prior to this date are processed as text fields. In previous releases, dates prior to 1/1/1900 were sent with a negative offset that Excel could not process, resulting in a cell filled with hash marks (####).

  As of WebFOCUS Reporting Server Release 7.7.06M Gen 895, all dates outside of the Excel-supported date limits (1/1/1900-12/30/9999) will be converted to text strings using the defined display format.

• As of WebFOCUS Reporting Server Release 7.7.06M Gen 853, the NODATA display in cells has been enhanced to display symbolic text, instead of values that can be aggregated. For MISSING values, the NODATA symbol will continue to be presented in the cell, but now the formula bar will show an empty cell, instead of a zero (0).
• In previous releases, when there was not enough space under the BY columns to display the full SUBTOTAL TAG text, SUBTOTAL and RECOMPUTE lines within a report displayed across two rows. As of WebFOCUS Reporting Server Release 7.7.06M Gen 801, these SUBTOTAL rows will show on a single line and any TAG text larger than the BY columns will display only what can fit in this space. The full value can be seen in the formula bar.

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The following change in behavior describes how numeric precision in XLSX workbooks is defined in each of the WebFOCUS releases and how changes in this area might affect the numbers generated.

Numeric precision is defined by the number of significant digits retained in the value placed within the workbook. The value displayed in the worksheet cell will always reflect the digits defined in the display format. The value displayed in the formula bar represents the actual number passed from WebFOCUS.

The following table shows how numeric precision has changed across releases for the following sample value and format:

Value

32.123456789876567898

Format

D20.10

WebFOCUS Release	Precision Passed from WebFOCUS to Excel	Formula Bar Display	Cell Display
Prior to Release 8.1 Version 05M	Output preserves up to six (6) decimal places. The values are truncated and rounded based on WebFOCUS calculation rules. Additional digits in the display format are padded with zeros (0).	32.123457	32.1234570000
Release 8.1 Version 05M	Output preserves the number of decimals places defined in the display format plus two (2), to support transformation in formulas and totals. The values are truncated and rounded based on WebFOCUS calculation rules.	32.123456789877	32.1234567899

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A Dialogue Manager variable is a placeholder for a value that will be substituted at run time. In some situations, the value of the variable may not be resolved at the point where the command containing the variable is encountered, unless evaluation is forced by using the .EVAL operator. As of Release 8.1 Version 03, the rules for using the .EVAL operator are enforced more stringently, meaning that some procedures that did not require its use in the past may not run as expected without it now. One example where .EVAL Is now required is in a -IF statement, when the variable is embedded in a label (for example, GOTO AB&label.EVAL). The .EVAL operator is also required any time a variable is included within single quotation marks (').

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Some messages that did not have numbers in prior release now have them and will display where no message displayed previously. You can use the SET WARNING command to change the status of selected messages.

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In prior releases, the NOPRINT option was not respected for fields prefixed with the DST. operator. They appeared on the report output and were propagated to a HOLD file even with SET HOLDLIST=PRINTONLY in effect. This behavior has now changed so that the NOPRINT is respected.

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As of WebFOCUS Release 8.1, the default value for the ACRSVRBTITL parameter, which controls whether to show the column title for a single ACROSS field, has changed from OFF to HIDEONE.

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As of WebFOCUS Release 8.1, the WebFOCUS Client Redirect and Save Report Redirection settings (located in the WebFOCUS drive:\client\wfc\etc\mime.wfs file) for EXL2K file extensions (.xhm and .xht) and .ppt are set to yes. In addition, the WebFOCUS Client file extension for the EXL2K file extensions (.xhm and .xht) is set to the .xls file type associated with Excel. The file type of .xls ensures that the file will be opened in Excel from all browsers.

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As of Release 7.7.x, a compound report will not be created when any of its component reports fail. To safeguard against issues caused by components dependent on earlier components that might return zero records, you can use Dialogue Manager to capture the record count of the initial hold file and skip over the dependent component when no file was generated by the earlier component.