Blog

Map View: Importing Overlays & Radial selection (2.8+)

steve — Sun, 12 May 2013 09:18:20 -0400

New in 2.8: import additional datasets into a Map view and show as overlays on top of the chosen base map.

Configurable "Point" overlays show the additional dataset as reference points beneath the main data's markers. The "Spider" option shows links between overlay datapoints and main datapoints, such as linking the sales person to the customer.

"Line" overlays (where the additional dataset is a series of lines, each represented as a series of points) allow you to show routes, for example.

"Area" overlays (as per "Line", but where the path is closed and filled) allow you to show political or administrative areas, areas at risk from natural disaster, or areas within a certain distance of another area or point, for example.

All overlays are highly configurable and can be data-linked to the main datapoints - so overlay data will disappear or re-style as you filter in the sidebar.

You can also use area overlays to select data (by optional join field, or by geometry).

Note that the Map view's "Connect by" menu has also been extended to support equivalent additional functionality such as filled areas.

We have also introduced a Radial selection mode, allowing you to drag from a centre point outwards to select all points accurately within a given distance.

All overlays currently assume WGS84 coordinates.

Pie View (2.8+)

michael — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:55:37 -0400

Pie View new features in 2.8 release

The Pie view has been significantly upgraded in 2.8. There are several examples on the picture below.

1. Changes with how we dividing data into sub-sets and laying it out into multiple plots

In the previous version of the Pie view only "Pane vertically" and "Pane horizontally" options were accessible for creating multiple pie charts that represent sub-divisions of the global data-set split by given Field.

In 2.8 we have two new breakdown+layout types: "Layer" and "Tile".

"Layer" for the Pie view splits the dataset by given field and creates multi-layered pie (another names "multi-level pie", "ring chart").
Please notice the labelling at the bottom which corresponds to the pie concentric rings.

"Tile" arranges the Pie plots in floating or square layout.

2. Changes with measures

In 2.8 we can specify multiple measures for pie segments in one view (in contrast with the previous version where we could specify just one measure).

To show multiple measures we need to create separate Pie plot(s) for each measure, or we need to arrange pies in concentric rings (layered pie) so that each ring represents certain measure.

So in case we have multiple measures we can choose how we want to layout the plots:
1) "Pane" horizontally or vertically;
2) "Tile";
3) "Layer".

All measure related options can be configured from the Measures option (see the picture below).
Please also note that you can also configure to show Statistics there.

3. Changes with the styling
- Improved, neat labelling;
- Doughnut type;
- Other options that adjust font size etc.

4. Changes with the menu

In 2.8 we started to unify the menu system for the Bar, Pie, Radar and Pivot views. So if you go to those view you can quickly adjust needed configuration.

5) Improved brushing

In 2.8 we improved the Pie view brushing. Have a look to the picture and compare with the similar result for the Bar view.

6) Othering

Installation: Omniscope silent activation (2.8+)

mustafa — Tue, 14 May 2013 10:52:08 -0400

Omniscope installer already comes with the option to silently install Omniscope by passing in the "/S" argument to the installer. This allows Administrators to roll out Omniscope throughout the organisation.

Starting from Omniscope 2.8, we have added the ability to activate/deactivate/refresh Omniscope silently, meaning you don't need to physically start the application on the machine to activate/deactivate/refresh your license.

This is designed to let Network Administrators activate/refresh/deactivate Omniscope by sending some commands to the Omniscope launcher.

How to silently install Omniscope:

Start Command prompt
Navigate to the directory that contains OmniscopeInstaller.exe
Run the following command:

"\OmniscopeInstaller.exe /S"

This will Omniscope install Omniscope silently.

How to silently activate Omniscope:

Start Command prompt
Navigate to the Omniscope installation directory. This is a directory where you find the Omniscope.exe and is located typically in:

C:\Program Files (x86)\Visokio Omniscope
OR
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app
Run the following command:

"\Omniscope_console.exe -activate xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx"

Replace the xxxx with the actual license key you are trying to activate. On running the command above, Omniscope will attempt to activate Omniscope silently and any confirmation or errors will be displayed on the console.

How to silently refresh Omniscope:

It is the same as the above process of trying to activate Omniscope, with the only difference being the command that you run:

"\Omniscope_console.exe -reactivate"

All confirmation and errors will be displayed on the console.

How to silently deactivate Omniscope:

It is the same as the above process of trying to activate Omniscope, with the only difference being the command that you run:

"\Omniscope_console.exe -deactivate"

All confirmation and errors will be displayed on the console.

Useful tip

The console Window will close once you Omniscope has terminated, therefore we suggest that you actually redirect all output to a text file to see what is happening. This can be done by simply using the following command at the end.

> [path to output]\output.txt

For example:

"\Omniscope_console.exe -deactivate" > c:\OmniscopeDeact.txt

Web view: 32 & 64 bit Windows and Mac (2.7+) plus Zoom (2.8+)

antonio — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 05:56:19 -0500

From version 2.7 Alpha b169, the new Omniscope Web view is available on both 32 and 64-bit Windows, and Mac. The new Web view replaces the old one. It has the same features except for the "Shrink" function that we aim to develop in a different way.

Through the Tools menu, 4 features have been added:

Disable scrollbars : If enabled, the Web view will try to disable the embedded browser scrollbars when the web page has been completely loaded. The feature is not enabled by default.
Show statusbar : If enabled, the Web view will show the browser status bar. Not enabled by default.
Follow Highlight/Selection : If disabled, when the Web view is in Link or Web Service mode, it will not navigate to a different link/webservice ignoring the current highlight/selection. Enabled by default.
Provide 'omniscope' global object to scripts : If enabled, the WebView will pass the 'omniscope' global object to the scripts after the webpage has been loaded. Not enabled by default.
Further information

We will use this discussion to post updates on the status and features of the WebView.

If you have feedback, please start a new discussion.

Map View: Geometric buffer operation (2.8+)

steve — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:23:26 -0400

Omniscope 2.8 Beta introduces the Geometric Buffer operation in DataManager.

Use this to transform geographic data imported typically from KML files or ESRI Shapefiles.

It includes the ability to convert point data such as building locations into circular areas representing a specified distance from that location (stored as a series of point records with a shared ID). You might use this to find the areas representing 5km from tube/subway stations, for example.

It also allows you to convert area (polygon) or line (polyline) data such as coastlines or zip code boundaries by enlarging outwards, subtracting inwards, or creating a "channel" either/both sides of the outline, according to a specified distance. You might use this to find the area representing 20 miles from the coast, for example.

The resulting geographic "areas" can be used as an overlay in the Map view.

Please be aware that buffering can multiply the volume of data by several 100 times, since each point can introduce many points to describe the area around the point/line. Also note that while point buffering is true to the Earth's shape, line/area buffering is done in Euclidean space, so is only accurate at the local level and becomes completely inaccurate when you have areas/lines covering a large proportion of the world. Only supports WGS84 coordinates.

Sources: Dropbox/GoogleDrive support (2.8+).

chris — Fri, 10 May 2013 12:17:38 -0400

In Omniscope 2.8 we have added support for DropBox and GoogleDrive.

In the Omniscope file menu you can open (and subsequently save) a DropBox/GoogleDrive file directly by selecting "File > Open online file".

In DataManager, DropBox and GoogleDrive is supported in both the "Data file" source block and the "Data file" publisher block. You can also add a dropbox folder to your DataManager bookmarks by clicking the "Add" button in the bookmarks toolbar and selecting "Folder of files".

DataManager: "Data file" output (2.8+)

chris — Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:56:32 -0400

In Omniscope 2.8 we have combined the "File", "URL" and "Publish on visokio.com" output blocks into a single "Data file output" block. When you open this block you are given the option to specify whether you want to publish to a file, URL or to publish on visokio.com.

Formula Editor improvements and performance analytics (2.8+)

steve — Fri, 03 May 2013 10:09:49 -0400

Omniscope 2.8 includes powerful new tools to help you work with complex or slow-running formulae.

To get started, open a file with a complex formula, hit Ctrl+F to open Manage Fields, find the blue formula and choose Edit > Edit formula.

Reformat and simplify

These were covered in an earlier post:
http://forums.visokio.com/discussion/1849/formulae-performance-and-usability-improvements-2.8-/p1
To sum up, Reformat allows you to space out and indent your formula into a clean logical hierarchy, and Simplify makes your formula simpler through use of SUBSET and INTERSECT rather than older SUBSETn functions.

Testing and performance analytics

The Test button allows you to perform a test-run, calculating your formula for every record in your data. This has two primary uses:

It allows you to find and fix errors which only occur with particular input data - such as division by zero. If an error occurs, you'll find yourself looking at that record and its error in the editor.
It allows you to identify performance bottlenecks if your formula is under-performing.

After the test run has finished, a side panel will pop-in to the right of the formula editor. (You can resize the formula editor window if needed).

This shows a tree view of your formula. For each tree node, it shows the average time per evaluation, number of evaluations, and total time spent in that node for all records.

You can verify if your formula is being evaluated as you expect, and can find bottlenecks and use this information to consider more efficient formula structures.

New: Linux server version (2.8+)

steve — Thu, 02 May 2013 11:41:29 -0400

After much demand, Omniscope 2.8 is now available for Linux servers.

We are initially supporting 64-bit Ubuntu Server 12.04 LTS and later, and the 64-bit Amazon EC2 AMI.

We are currently not supporting Omniscope Viewer/Desktop nor the Omniscope Server desktop interface. We are only supporting use on systems without a graphical environment, where Omniscope Server runs as a "headless" service. So, for now, Scheduler Task Lists must be configured on another system using a Server+ Edition spare key and the XML Task List configuration files either transferred over to the Linux box or saved in a shared folders.

As per other systems, a license activation key will be required. In this case the key is entered using commands entered into a terminal.

Installation, licensing and service configuration instructions:

http://www.visokio.com/kb/linux-installs

Download:

http://www.visokio.com/download/madagascar?platform=linux

Scheduler: Task List admin improvements (2.8+)

steve — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:48:38 -0400

From 2.8 b839, the Server/Scheduler Task List UI will include an "Enlarge" button which toggles between extra-large and normal Task List display size. This allows you to see longer task names and more tasks at once.

Filtering: Replicated joint query devices (2.8+)

mustafa — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 15:05:27 -0400

Starting from 2.8 we have added the ability to replicate the following devices by clicking the plus (+) button in the Devices visibility picker which is accessible from the Devices button on the Sidebar toolbar, or from the Tools > Devices tab.

Figure 1: Showing duplicated Custom and Search All devices (see attached demo.iok)

Devices which can be replicated:

Search All
Custom search
Saved queries
Yes/No fields

Replicated devices work in the same way as if you had the same query device making a different query. However, both queries are combined together using the AND operator. They provide the same functionality as the original filter device box i.e. you can rename, expand/collapse.

Replicated query/filter devices execute joint queries. For example, if you create two "Search All" devices, one renamed to "Search All 2", and you search for "Alpha" in one device and "Beta" in the other device, then Omniscope will search for data which has both Alpha and Beta anywhere within the same record.

One example of how you might use this is to group different sets of Saved Queries in order to be able to create custom filter devices.

Another example is creating multiple Custom Search devices, one searching a set of address-related fields, another searching a set of name-related fields.

Layout: Sub-tabs (2.8+)

mustafa — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 06:06:18 -0400

We have now added ability to create multiple-level tabs (available from 2.8 b793 onwards), in response to requests on the following thread (Layout - Sub Tab Groupings?).

Figure 1: Showing use of Sub-tabs - Group 1, 2 and 3 are group tabs containing sub-tabs (see attached demo.iok)

You can manage tabs by clicking on "Manage tabs" from the Tab menu, on the main toolbar - see first attached image.

Manage tabs

The editor is a drag and drop editor and allows multi-selection. Multi-selection enabled by holding down Ctrl key and clicking nodes.

Group tab

Allows you to group multiple tabs under a single tab. A group tab is shown just like a normal tab.
When group tab is open, a new sub-tab bar will be shown, showing a list of all sub-tabs defined under the main tab (see attached multi-level-group-2.png) with the first tab automatically selected. Moving to Group tab will always open the first tab. Depending on the customer feedback, we might add in future the ability to preserve last selected tab.

Note: Sub-tabs are only visible when the parent (Group) tab is active. For example, if you have two 'normal tabs' and one group tab, containing three sub-tabs, the 'children tabs' of the group tab will become visible only when you navigate to the "Group" tab. It is not possible to create empty group tabs, which do not have sub-tabs.

You can add group tabs by clicking on "Add group tab" from the "Manage tabs" editor.

Blank tab

Clicking "Add blank tab" adds a blank tab in the selected position.

Deleted selected

Allows you to select or multi-select and delete tabs.

Other features

Tab device box was changed to reflect the hierarchical layout.
You can change order of tabs by either moving tabs around on the tab bar or through "Manage tabs".
You can rename tabs by double-clicking Tab in Tab bar, or through Manage tabs by right-clicking or double-clicking a tab.
Clicking on the "+" sign on the tab bar adds a new tab at the same hierarchy level as the selected Tab bar.
There is no limit on how many levels of hierarchy you can have.
You can also hide individual level tab bar from Toolbars > Tab bar > Each tab bar visibility menu.
The next and previous tab buttons go navigate through the logical hierarchy of tabs. For example, if you have four tabs with the second tab being a group tab containing three children. Clicking next on the first tab will take you to the first tab of Group tab, clicking next will take you to the next sub-tab etc. Clicking next on the last sub-tab will take you to the next tab following the main grouped tab and so on.

Example

Devices View - floating filters (2.8+)

mustafa — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:05:06 -0400

Overview

Starting from 2.8 we have added a new view called "Devices". This View has been added as many of you would like to see this available in Omniscope as discussed here (Floating filter devices).

Figure 1: Showing 3 different Devices view each showing use of different style and layout (see attached demo.iok).

The View allows you to show any number filter device which was previously shown only sidebars (Right/Left). This enables you to spread your devices anywhere on the tab rather than having them appear only in Right/Left sidebar. There is no limitation on how many Devices view you can add. You can think of Devices view as unlimited sidebars in form a View which can be places anywhere on the tab.

Devices view is just like a normal view in terms of normal View functionality i.e. you can drag and drop them to different places around just like any other view in Omniscope. The difference is that instead of showing you something about your data (i.e. Graph), it shows devices.

Devices view works in the same way as the sidebars in the sense that a Device can only appear once throughout the tab. There are number layout/styling options available allowing you to customise the View which are described below.

Features

This section describes a list of features available for the view.

Expand and Collapse (All)

You can expand and collapse all the Devices using the Expand/Collapse all button located on the Toolbar.

Layout

There are number of layout options available which allow you to choose how you would like the devices to be be laid out.

Mode: Defines how the devices should laid out within the view.
Column count: Defines the maximum number of columns to create after which the devices will wrap to next line.
Device width: Controls minimum device width when trying to work out how much space to allocate to each device.

Spacing

Margin: Controls the margin around all the devices as a whole.
Between column: Controls the spacing between each column in terms of layout.
Between rows: Controls the spacing between each row in terms of layout.
Fill height: If ticked, all devices height will be adjusted so that all vertical space is filled.
Fill width: If ticked, all devices width will be adjusted so that all horizontal space is filled.

Styling

Allows you to override global style settings for all devices inside the View. You can do this by clicking the "Edit" button next to Devices style.

Other options

All other options which you can see in the sidebar Tools menu are located in View > Tools > Other tab.

SUBSET Function formulae - new operators (2.8+)

steve — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 08:25:28 -0400

Newly introduced, the optional 3rd "operator" argument of SUBSET() can now accept text-specific operators (in addition to the implicit default "=" and other existing numerical operators such as ">="):

"contains"
"does-not-contain"
"ends-with"
"starts-with"

For example, this identifies all people whose surname begins "Mac":

SUBSET([Surname], "Mac", "starts-with")

Formulae: SOUNDEX and LEVENSHTEIN fuzzy-matching functions (2.8+)

steve — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 07:24:09 -0400

New functions from 2.8 b704:

SOUNDEX
Converts a word into its American Soundex phonetic code (A-Z non-accented characters only).

LEVENSHTEIN
Evaluates the edit distance between two text values.

Connector: Gemius (2.8+)

chris — Mon, 11 Mar 2013 12:20:57 -0400

We have added a Gemius Connector. This is available in the latest version of Omniscope 2.8 (b665) in the "Feeds" section of the DataManager block list.

Gemius is the largest online research agency in Central and Eastern Europe. Gemius provides data on internet users' behaviour, internet audeience profiles and online advertising campaign effectiveness.

For more info on Gemius see:
http://www.gemius.com

The Gemius connector allows you to download campaign data into Omniscope. The connector currently allows you to specify one or more campaigns and define the date range, dimensions and metrics of your data.

Please let us know if you have any problems,suggestions or questions about this connector.

Connector: Flashtalking (2.8+)

chris — Mon, 16 Jul 2012 06:49:40 -0400

We have added a Flashtalking Connector in Omniscope 2.8. Flashtalking is Europe's largest independent provider of innovative Rich Media & Video Ad Serving. For more information see:
http://www.flashtalking.com/

The Flashtalking connector allows you to select one or more campaigns, a date range, report type (daily, summary or transaction) and report depth (campaign, publisher, placement creative or version). At the moment the Connector returns ALL fields.

Please let us know if you have any questions. If you would like a demonstration of this connector please contact supportATvisokio.com.

Tag View: visualising word clouds (2.8+)

chris — Tue, 19 Feb 2013 04:32:09 -0500

In Omniscope 2.8 you should now see the "Tag view" has now been promoted to the main list of views.

The Tag view allows you to create a tag cloud. It provides a variety of layout and style options to allow you to customise your cloud.

To use the Tag view, firstly select the "Fields" dropdown and pick a text field. Once you have selected the text field you should decide how Omniscope will create the tags. You can choose from "Unique values", "Words" or "Word groups".

Click on the "Style" dropdown in the main toolbar to customise your tag cloud. You can specify the number of tags displayed on screen, the size range and the type of layout.

You can specify the size/colour/fade applied to each tag by selecting an option from the associated drop-down on the main toolbar.

I've attached a couple of screenshots of the Tag view to give you an idea of the type of visualisations possible. Please let us know if you have any questions, comments or suggestions for improvements.

Content View: Additional command links (2.8+)

michael — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 08:19:10 -0500

We added two new command links to the Content View: "Reset variables" and "Calculate automatically".
You can find them in the next nightly release 2.8-alpha b557.

See also initial forum post:
http://forums.visokio.com/discussion/1997/idea-content-view-expanded-command-link-optionss/p1

Web Start: Now supports Web Views (2.8+)

antonio — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 08:45:18 -0400

Available from version 2.8 b268, Omniscope Web Start has been updated to fully support the Web view in all the main OS platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux/Unix)

Using the Omniscope Online customisation page, users can decide whether to include a fully working Web view (through the "Support full Web view" option).

Note that if the option is ticked, the total size of the download will increase, due to the weight of the libraries used to provide the native browser integration.

Integration: Launching Omniscope from other applications (2.7+)

steve — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 08:41:43 -0500

From tonight's build, 2.7 b289, a set of command-line arguments have been added, allowing Omniscope to integrate more easily with 3rd party desktop applications.

6 new options have been added:

dmParamName - the name of a parameter to customise
dmParamValue - the value for that parameter
dmParam2Name - another parameter
dmParam2Value
dmParam3Name - another parameter
dmParam3Value

When opening a file via the command line, by supplying the path to the IOK file, the above options are used to customise DataManager parameters. If the file is configured to "Refresh from source: On open", the data in the file will open up reflecting those parameters. You can use this in combination with database blocks, for example, to customise server-side queries according to user choices in the originating 3rd-party desktop application.

For example, the attached file has two DataManager parameters, "Ticker" and "Limit". Both are used in Record Filter blocks to filter the data in different ways.

Download the attached file to your desktop, and execute the following command in a command window:

"C:\PATH\TO\INSTALLATION\Omniscope.exe" "C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\Desktop\Dm params test.iok" -dmParamName=Ticker -dmParamValue=abbey -dmParam2Name=Limit -dmParam2Value=5

This launches Omniscope and opens the file, with the first 5 Abbey records from the Bond Prices demo dataset loaded into the Omniscope interface.

The path to installation is typically one of:
- C:\Users\YOUR_NAME\AppData\Local\Visokio Omniscope app
- C:\Program Files\Visokio Omniscope
- C:\Program Files (x86)\Visokio Omniscope

Sources: Improved XML data import (2.8+)

richard — Mon, 29 Oct 2012 06:15:39 -0400

As of build 2.8-alpha b367, you can now import data from XML files using your own point-and-click custom definition to convert the (tabular) XML data into a tabular dataset.

1. Add in an XML file using the 'Data file' source and choose 'Definition' as the transform type
2. Edit the definition and using the table, select the tags/attributes to import into the dataset.
3. Choose the tag/attribute ('Record item') which will identify dataset records in the XML data

Additional options include the default labelling format for the dataset fields and previews of the XML and dataset.

Formula performance and usability improvements (2.8+)

steve — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 08:34:49 -0400

INTERSECTION performance

From tonight's build of 2.8, the INTERSECTION, UNION and INVERSE functions now perform as well as the older SUBSET functions and can be used instead in all cases.

So, for example, rather than use the somewhat convoluted:


  SUBSET3(field1, field2, field3, value1, value2, value3, 
          operator1, operator2, operator3)

you can now use the much simpler format:


  INTERSECTION(
    SUBSET(field1, value1, operator1),
    SUBSET(field2, value2, operator2),
    SUBSET(field3, value3, operator3)
  )

as well as using more complex logic such as:


  UNION(
    INVERSE(SUBSET(...)),
    INTERSECTION(
      SUBSET(...), SUBSET(...), ROWINDEXSUBSET(...)
    )
  )

Formula editing

Additionally, the formula editor now has improved UI performance and is easier to read, with contextual highlighting of relevant parts of a formula immediately surrounding the cursor position, allowing you to visualise the formula structure better.

Simplify and Reformat

Two new buttons have been added to the formula editor:

"Simplify" converts complex SUBSET2 to SUBSET5 variants into INTERSECTION-based formulae. In future it may also change use of other legacy functions into their recommended alternatives.

"Reformat" reformats all whitespace in your formula for readability.

Neither of these commands will affect the formula result, but "Simplify" may yield better performance in future.

Performance: Faster aggregation (2.8+)

steve — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 12:31:53 -0400

From tonight's release of 2.8, the aggregation engine in Omniscope has been much improved.

If you are using multi-field aggregations in your views or your data models, these aggregations will be performed significantly faster.

Connector: Google BigQuery data source (2.8+)

chris — Wed, 10 Oct 2012 06:42:32 -0400

Hi -In the latest version of Omniscope 2.8 you will see that we have added a "Google BigQuery" feed.

Google BigQuery is a cloud database that allows you to analyse very large data-sets (apparently billions of rows). The Omniscope feed allows you to download and query data in a similar way to any other database.

At the moment we have only added a BigQuery feed, although in the future we plan to integrate BigQuery into the DataManager bookmarks and also add a BigQuery data publisher.

Please let us know if you have any feedback/ideas/problems using this functionality.

Formulae: "Product" aggregation/measure function (2.8+)

steve — Tue, 09 Oct 2012 05:02:44 -0400

From tonight's build of 2.8 (2.8 b337+) you will be able to choose "Product" alongside "Sum", "Mean", "Range", etc. to apply to numeric fields when aggregating and as measures. You will need to click "Common Functions" in the function menu to reveal it. You will also be able to use SUBSET_PRODUCT in your formulae.

This is a somewhat specialist-use function and can result in very high, unusuable values. One typical use is investment analysis, where periodic returns (like 1.10 for 10% periodic return) need to be multiplied many times to obtain the return over much longer periods defined as subsets of rows using the SUBSET(X) clause of the the SUBSET_PRODUCT function.

Scheduler: Troubleshooting running as a Windows Service (2.8+)

mustafa — Mon, 13 Aug 2012 07:52:42 -0400

This blog explains how to diagnose what to do if you are having problems trying to run Scheduler as a Windows service.

Make sure you have followed the steps here.
Check the troubleshooting page.
Search the forums for similar issues.
Follow the workflow in the attached PDF to diagnose the problem.

Note: If you are trying to diagnose then the above still applies, however, for point 1 refer to here. Also, when going through the attached PDF workflow you do not need to follow the "Visokio Windows Service" section.

Connector: Facilitate Digital (2.7+)

chris — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:47:27 -0500

We have now introduced a connector to Facilitate Digital.

For more information on Facilitate Digital please visit
http://www.facilitatedigital.com/

The Connector is available in the latest release of Omniscope 2.7. At the moment we have classified it as an experimental features. To see the connector you will need to select "Settings>Advanced>Show experimental features".

The Connector is available in the Feeds section in DataManager, and by selecting "File>Open feed>Facilitate Digital".

At the moment the connector is fairly basic, and allows you to choose an Agency, Advertiser, Campaign, report template, title and date range. Please let us know if you have any additional requirements. For new requirements we may be able to implement them using the existing API, or we may need to speak to Facilitate about implementing the functionality with their API.

Also, please let us know if you encounter any problems using the connector or have any questions.

Chris

Content View: Native Browser JavaScript API (2.8+)

steve — Fri, 24 Aug 2012 13:04:55 -0400

We've been busy working on building a Native Browser API for the Content View in 2.8.

This allows advanced users with JavaScript development skills to effectively build a custom view in Javascript which runs in your system browser, embedded inside the Omniscope Content View, with the page source editable in the Content View as usual.

This is very much work in progress, and subject to change following feedback before we release 2.8 in public beta. Please experiment and post below, but don't build any live reports that depend upon the new behaviour.

But can't I already use Javascript in the Content View?

The Content View already supports Javascript pre-processing. In your page source, you have special <# #> tags indicating the start and end of script fragments. Omniscope then, behind the scenes, executes the Javascript in a browser-less environment to produce the final page text.

This is directly equivalent to the way a PHP/JSP/ASP/etc. web server might "execute" a server-side page to produce the HTML document that is sent to the client. We chose to use Javascript on the "server" side, but note that there is no HTML DOM or browser Window object, for example; this is pure "headless" Javascript.

In this case, the "server" is the Omniscope Content View back-end, in-memory on your desktop, and the "client" is the page renderer, either Java within Omniscope, or a separate native browser process embedded in the Omniscope window.

New source editing enhancements

When editing in "source mode" in the Content View, we now have full syntax highlighting of your page source. This makes scripting and HTML coding much, much easier.

Note that if you're using script pre-processing, advanced formulae, or the native browser, you will only be allowed to use source mode, rather than "design mode" for editing your page.

New menu items in the view's Tools menu:

"Use native browser"

This affects how the HTML page content is rendered, after it has been evaluated (e.g. applying any formula insertion or script pre-processing).

This is deselected by default, matching 2.7 behaviour, meaning the page is displayed using Omniscope's built-in rich text display (via Java, based on HTML 3.2, without any support for in-page Javascript).

When selected, the page is displayed by embedding the system web browser (typically IE on Windows), allowing "client-side" scripts to be executed in the browser's Javascript engine, with full access to the HTML DOM, etc. This allows you to build Javascript interactivity and do other native browser behaviours such as embed media.
"View in external browser"

Click this to open the same page in an external browser. This allows you to debug your page in a full separate browser; we recommend Google Chrome for its developer tools out-of-the-box. The embedded browser, if IE, has very limited support for debugging.

Note that Javascript native dialogs (alert/confirm/prompt) are disabled in the embedded browser, because it can often lead to a complete freeze of the application. You should use alternative Javascript frameworks instead.
"Refresh on change"

By default, the page content is rebuild and the browser refreshed when cell edits or filtering occur. Untick this option to disable. You will need to code in a different means of triggering updates to any data you may have loaded via API / AJAX calls.

Even if ticked, viewing in an external browser will never refresh automatically on change; you will need to manually reload the external browser.

AJAX requests

You can choose to use this native browser option to add some animations or general pizzazz to your Content Views, or more extensively by using the API to request and process data.

We currently provide two APIs. At a low level, an HTTP service is provided should you wish to roll your own AJAX calls and perhaps use different or incompatible JS libraries to those used by the high-level API.

The high-level API is enabled by inserting a pre-processing snippet into your page source in the HTML HEAD tag, and provides Javascript objects and methods to 'call' the enclosing Omniscope Content View.

Low-level API

The page itself is served up by "page.html" within an auto-generated unique URL, which changes each time the view is opened. Use "View in external browser" to see the URL. But you should not need to know this, since the other HTTP services are available in a relative URL to this page. For example, from within "page.html", you can use AJAX and hit the "meta.json" URL (without any further URL qualifiers).

All requests return HTTP status code 200 if successful.

page.html

Returns the page content as text/html after applying pre-processing and evaluating formulas.

No request parameters.
eval.json

Evaluates a JS expression on the back-end, with access to formula functions.

Accepts a POST request with text/plain upload body (NOT regular key/value form data), containing a Javascript expression to evaluate against the Content View's dataset as per "script pre-processing". This can be used to query arbitrary formula functions such as subset_max("fieldname"), for example.

Returns JSON { "result": value } where value is the result of the expression; can be a complex object or array.
meta.json

Retrieves metadata about the view's data.

No request parameters.

Returns JSON { "fieldCount" : 13, "recordCount": 1052, "fieldNames": ["field1","field2",...], "fieldTypes": ["text","text","date","integer","decimal",...] }
cells.json

Retrieves one or more cell values.

Accepts a POST request with the following form key/value pairs:
"fields": a JSON array of field names; if omitted, all fields are retrieved
"firstRow": The first row to retrieve, 0-indexed, must be in-bounds; if omitted, zero is used
"numberOfRows": The number of rows to retrieve; if omitted, all remaining rows are retrieved; automatically capped by the last row in the dataset

Returns JSON { "result": [ [cell00, cell10, cell20], [cell01, cell11, cell21], [cell20, cell21, cell22] ] }
(where the 2-dimensional array's dimensions reflect the filtered data results, doesn't contain a row for field names, and is indexed [column][row]).
edit.json

Writes back one or more cell edits to the data table.

Accepts a POST request with the same key-value pairs as "cells.json", plus:
"data": a JSON two-dimensional array, in the same format as returned by "cells.json" under the "result" property.

Returns the empty JSON {} to indicate success.

This will only work in licensed editions where editing cell data is permissioned - i.e. not in the free Viewer. It will propagate a change to all views, and you will immediately see the result. You will need to untick "Refresh on change" if you want to avoid the same Content View (which originated the call) from reloading your page.

Distribution: Custom Jar now has web browser support (for Web View and Content View) (2.8+)

antonio — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 07:21:50 -0400

You can now embed web browser support and have a fully working Web and Content view in Custom JAR using from the download page (through clicking "Customise" link under the Download button).

Note the following:

Functionality is only available from 2.8 b276.
The total size of the JAR will increase due to the weight of the libraries used to provide the native browser integration.
Custom JAR you create will only be available on our server for the current week. It is recommended that you download this JAR and store it locally.
To embed your own IOK and Branding you must use Omniscope Custom JAR functionality, for more information see here. You must use the new Custom JAR as the source JAR file.