FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2003
BLUE WORLD ANNOUNCES LASSO REPORTER
Free application speeds process of creating robust reports
Bellevue, WA–April 9, 2003–Blue World Communications, Inc.–pioneers of
the Web Data Engine(tm)–today announced Lasso Reporter 6, a new tool for
quickly creating robust reports from data contained within MySQL databases.
Lasso Reporter is a LassoApp which can be freely used on servers running
Lasso Professional 6, Blue World’s leading Web application server for
creative professionals.
“Collecting large quantities of data is totally useless unless you have a
way in which to easily generate meaningful reports,” said Bill Doerrfeld,
CEO of Blue World. “With Lasso Reporter, knowledge workers have a solution
which makes it very easy to quickly build robust reports from most any set
of data, with zero programming required. By allowing knowledge workers to
take control of data themselves, organizations can dramatically increase
their productivity while reducing IT costs.”
Lasso Reporter empowers business professionals to make sense of data by
building custom reports without having to hire a programmer or utilize
their organization’s limited information technology resources. Lasso
Reporter allows Lasso developers to spend less time building custom reports
for their clients and more time developing innovative solutions.
“Lasso Reporter was born out of a real knowledge management need within our
own company as we migrated from an old workgroup database system to a new
system and no longer had access to intuitive, GUI-based tools for quickly
building reports,” said Bill Doerrfeld. “In fact, the lack of easy
reporting tools is one key reason why many knowledge workers hold off on
migrating their solutions to more robust database systems. With Lasso
Reporter, that barrier is removed. Lasso Reporter brings the same
ease-of-use for report generation found in leading workgroup database
products to MySQL databases.”
Lasso Reporter Overview
Lasso Reporter allows multiple users to log-in to create and securely view
their own private reports and reports for select workgroups. Reports
contain a header, footer and body area where data can be summarized,
sorted, and calculated by individual groups or by the total found set. For
example, a report can be quickly created which groups together and sorts
all records in a specified date range based on a “product” field,
summarizes the total sales for each product, and shows the total number of
units sold for each product. An unlimited number of user-defined custom
reports can be created, and existing reports can be quickly recalled for
edits and enhancements. Lasso Reporter also includes an enhanced multi-user
database browser which makes it easy for different users to securely log-in
and instantly browse data in Lasso-accessible databases.
Lasso Reporter Features
Multi-User Security – Multiple users can log-in to create and view reports
for databases and tables for which they have been granted access in Lasso
Administration. Private reports are easily distinguished from those
accessible to others.
Unlimited Dynamic Reports – An unlimited number of custom report formats
can be created and stored. The content of reports changes dynamically with
each report run as data within the found set changes. Default report
settings enable users to instantly create and publish reports.
Export and Print – Reports can be exported for additional processing in
other applications or printed from within Lasso Reporter.
Custom Queries – Each report can be based on a found set of records
established via multiple queries on several database fields, each
controlled by a full collection of query operators and logical comparison
operators. The query criteria can also be displayed in the report.
Grouping and Sorting – The found set from compound queries can be grouped
(e.g. creating sub-summaries) and sorted in ascending and descending order.
Grouped field summaries can be displayed by themselves or along with all
records within each group.
Date Ranges – Several built-in date range options speed the specification
of precise date ranges. Date ranges for reports may be conveniently
displayed within the header or footer of the report.
Localization Display Options – The preferred display format for dates,
currency, thousands digit separators, and negative numbers can be
customized within global options.
Grand Totals and Sub-Totals – Both leading and trailing grand total
summaries can be inserted within report headers or footers respectively.
Sub-totals and running totals can appear in group section headers and
report columns within the body of the report. Summaries can be calculated
based on averages, sum total, maximum value, minimum value, record count
and more.
Display Options – Labels, field items, header/footer items, group header
items, group column items and more can be individually modified and shown
or hidden as required. The display order and size for items is fully
customizable.
Database Browser – Lasso Reporter includes an enhanced database browser
which allows multiple users to instantly access databases. Based on
permission levels, users can search, add, update or delete records and may
customize how data is displayed.
Quick Installation and Setup – Lasso Reporter is quickly installed simply
by dragging and dropping the Lasso Reporter LassoApp (a single-file
encrypted application) into your Web documents folder. Set up is
accomplished by selecting the “Initialize” button in the Setup area which
automatically creates the preferences table where all report settings are
stored.
Availability
Lasso Reporter 6 is scheduled to ship in late April, 2003. A technology
preview of Lasso Reporter will be showcased during the MySQL Users
Conference and Expo held April 10-12 in San Jose, Calif. Lasso Reporter 6
will be available as a free download from Blue World’s Web site and
requires Blue World Lasso Professional 6 (multi-user or single-user
edition) for Mac OS X, Windows or Linux. Additional information will be
available upon the product’s release.
About Blue World
Blue World Communications (www.blueworld.com) delivers cross-platform
software tools allowing Web developers and designers to quickly build and
serve powerful data-driven Web sites. Blue World provides Lasso
Professional, Lasso Studio and ListSearch.com in fulfillment of its mission
to bring business to the Internet(tm).