BannerArgos

Presentations: my next Argos presentation will be at ABUG May 28th
at the Arkansas Tech University, Lake Point Conference Center (Russellville).

Registration for the May 28th one day ABUG event is now open!
Go to Arkansas Banner Users Group Registration.

News:

March 27, 2009 - Just back from Summit and Pre-Summit. Thanks to everyone that attended my sessions.

The preview of the Argos release (the 3.5 Alpha) looked very good. I want to have it as soon as possible.

February 26, 2009 - Finally getting to review some of the new features of 3.2. The new searchable log is very helpful for administrators:

February 21, 2009 - Argos 3.2 is live and doing well.

February 6, 2009 - Testing Argos 3.2

January 22, 2009 - Looking forward to a new Argos version release
Argos 3.2 is rumored to be very near release.

December 8, 2008 - Summit and Argos Pre-Summit 2009
I will be presenting variations of Moving into the Argos Community at both Summit and the Argos Pre-Summit. The Pre-Summit version is more directed to those that already have Argos. Both presentations introduce the Argos Community, available training, and rapid startup information.

Ease of use
No added fees for additional users
A rapid startup with little IT investment
Flexible training options and
Good support.

These are, in my opinion, the most important requirements for your reporting tool.

Specific features are not nearly as important as these few key requirements. As for a long list of feature specifications, I would discount the importance of those. All of the reporting tools on the market can do pretty much the same things.

With programming tools, there is always another way to do a task. You should not let one vendor state your selection criteria in terms of their product unless you really want them to be the only one to meet your specs.

Ease of use
I thought getting from scratch to a working Argos report was pretty simple. Under a couple of hours form the get-go and I had Argos installed and a new report with headings, footers, page counts, etc. Now compare that to my first SQL*Plus report, which took me many, many hours to get to my first acceptable completed report.

I find that it is much harder to get a programmer to use a new tool than it is to get an end-user to climb onboard. Programmers have more invested in their old ways (I would love to still be using PL/I). End-users just want quick and easy results.

With a new Report Viewer, someone that just runs reports, I just sent them a webpage link that tells them how to quickly add an Argos link into Luminis. They already know how to run Windows apps, so they need next to no help from me on getting into or using Argos.

I can monitor usage, so I can tell that the users are actually using the reports. I do get a question from about one in ten new users. Most of them just jump in and start using the reports.

Programmers and fairly technical end-users take a little more encouragement. I send them to about an hour of on-line (free) recorded training. Sure, they will not learn every feature of the product in an hour, but in that short time they will learn enough to convince themselves that making the switch is worthwhile.

How many reporting tools could let a new user create useful reports in an hour? Argos can.

No added fees for additional users
I do not know the prices of the competing tools, but I would expect Argos to be on the low end of the comparison. MS Access is “free”, but it is missing a lot of features. Argos is licensed for an unlimited number of users. Good thing when someone wants to take your in-house report public (that happened here).

A rapid startup with little IT investment
For testing, I installed a free, full featured demo copy, downloaded dozens of pre-written reports, and began testing it in a couple of hours. Now, it takes longer to get it installed in a computing center environment because of the added controls and delays with split responsibilities. Still, startup goes fairly quickly because most of Argos’ setup and administration can be done outside of the computing center.

Flexible training options
I never had much use for the long and expensive training sessions that most vendors favor. Argos will do formal training on-site for a fee, but I much prefer the free on-line, on-demand recorded training. Some of our developers attend the free on-line live training sessions. I personally have a hard time dedicating a block of time for training; I rather like the pause feature on the recorded sessions, but then I am more inclined to search the Evisions Knowledge Base for a solution. It is secured, but not impossible to actually use like some other archives.

Good support
Evisions’ support seems to be well regarded. I get quick responses and problem resolutions from them.

What users really want
After many years of giving users rather complex reports, I found out that most, especially Financial, users would really rather just have a way to get their Banner queries into Excel. Argos has had this feature since its pre-announcement Beta version (probably because Evisions asked the users what they really wanted in the product). Sure, Argos does standard reports with subtotals, sorts, filters, OLAP Data Cubes, and the like too. All the better reporting tools will do these things. But think about it, not many end-users will ever use the more elaborate capabilities found in these tools. Programmers and rather technical end-users may use them.

One can make a secretary’s day or for that matter most manager’s day by giving them a new report (think on-screen form) and showing them that Right-Clicking nearly instantly gives them the same info in Excel.

I have been pursuing Banner Reporting Solutions for our functional and IT users for years. I have tried giving our users MS Access and SQL*Plus based solutions with some degree of success, but most recently I have placed an emphasis upon Argos for most end-user reporting. The Argos solution has been by far the most successful of my efforts for a Banner Reporting Solution for end-users.

Argos has turned some of my most difficult to please users into personal champions. I never expected that.

The great promise of relational database systems was to give non-IT end-users powerful Ad Hoc reporting. That was a promise that has been very hard to deliver. But, we are getting much nearer to that ideal.

Now, keep in mind that this is not a product or vendor endorsement. We are not allowed to make those. This is only some notes on what I have been doing to support Banner Reporting and should not be taken as an official endorsement.

October 23, 2008 - The Tennessee Summit presentation ppt files
are available in my Scripts Repository. If you need the scripts password, just ask (bknox @t uaex.edu).
I have some notes in the ppt files that would expand upon my presentations and you might find useful. Thanks to the great group attending and to John Tong, Michael Boote, and Pamela Clippard for assisting; and to the Tennessee Board of Regents for inviting me to present at the conference.

October 2, 2008 - Preparing for the Tennessee Summit
I am presenting two sessions for the Tennessee Summit 2008 on Administrative Computing Technologies October 13-14th. One is Argos - Moving into the Community and the other is How your DBA or Database Programmer can Improve your Argos Reporting!

Class Title: Argos ‑ Moving into the Community
Class Description: Searching for THE Banner Reporting Tool your obsession? Mine too!

After building my own Banner reporting tools for years including BannerAccess a MS Access based Banner reporting tool, I found Argos, the Evisions product for Ad Hoc Banner Reporting.

I wanted it from the moment I saw it. Argos was my BannerAccess with all the missing pieces that I never found time to develop.

Learn about our experience installing Argos, joining the Argos User Community, acquiring free community written software, and converting from MS Access.

Class Title: How your DBA or Database Programmer can Improve your Argos Reporting!

Just as Argos provides THE missing Banner Reporting tool, there are ways to fill in some other missing parts and even improve your Argos Reporting. These are things your Database professionals can provide for you, but things they may never realize you are missing.

We can give them a hint or two!
(Centers on Argos, but touches APEX, conversions to Argos, multiple databases, and Batch Scripting.)

October 1, 2008 - A new Banner Server. The easy part was connecting Argos. Stop MAPS/wait for the new server to get on-line/Start MAPS.

September 30, 2008 - 3.1.4 works fine for us.

September 29, 2008 - Luminis and LDAP. With Luminis comes LDAP and the opportunity to move Argos to LDAP. Switching an existing Argos User to LDAP is easy. One caution: If you have Scheduled Reports for that User, any Schedules must be opened and closed to associate the new properties for the Run User with the Schedule.

We currently are running Argos from a Bookmark in Luminis. We have our LDAP via Active Directory. When adding a new user to Luminis, one must sync the ID/pw with Banner (i.e., change the Banner pw). Then the new LDAP user will have their Banner pw available in Argos too as long as the Argos Username is the same as the Banner Username. This is not totally integrated as it would be with a Luminis Channel, but it is not as complex either. I have not seen what is required for a pw change yet (safe from that for a few months).

August 15, 2008 - Argos 3.1.n Testing

We have been testing with Argos 3.1 since before it was released. This Beta gave us the Reporting API so that our Web based applications could call Argos Reports. I have been anticipating the move of our "real" users to 3.1 since the first day I installed 3.1 Beta. I think we are nearly ready to move to 3.1 as our production version. (I only need a few test users to confirm my good test results with the current Argos 3.1.4 release.)

We have a lot of non-Banner Tables and multiple Oracle Databases (including a mix of Oracle versions). Our home grown Oracle applications are mostly converted FoxPro applications and these have some very non-Banner like constructs. We are moving much of our non-Banner reporting to Argos, because it fits in well with our environment. It is not uncommon for us to Link Databases for a single report. Many applications need information from several other Databases. Argos allows us to move between the Databases as needed.

We have our production server (Windows Server 2003) running with the Oracle 9iR2 OLE DB driver. I have just tested the Oracle 10gR2 OLE DB driver on a desktop. One does need to remove the old 9i OLE DB provider before installing the new one. So far, everything is looking good even with the aging 9i driver.

All the new 3.1 features and improvements are much anticipated and will help our developers' efforts.

Looks like I will get to present an Argos session for the ACT Summit. No details yet.

I have been working on Integrating Argos with Luminis and supporting the reporting for a new Publications System.

We have a significant publishing group and this system allows for both internal "sales" and external sales of our publications. The reporting covers it all, including printing picking lists for the just approved orders during the day. We are using a scheduled direct print of newly approved Orders to our Warehouse and Print Shop. The Scheduled Report uses a DataBlock that selects records for the last couple of hours (since 4 pm the previous day, for the 8 am run). The first run of the new day picks up any late Orders from the previous day.

On other projects: One of our Functional "programmers" has converted several MS Access reports to Argos. While it could take us hours to implement a change to our MS Access production reports, we can change a report in Argos in minutes. Part of that long delay with MS Access was our own doing, but due to our security restrictions, I cannot directly update a MS Access database on our central office file server. FTPing a really large file can take a long time, so even simple changes were a lot of trouble.

With Argos, I can copy a Report/DataBlock, make a test version, and have the user testing it very quickly.

But, the huge project now dominating everything here is Luminis. Concurrent implementation of Active Directory, Luminis IV, Single Sign-On, moving our remaining non-Banner Apps from FoxPro to Oracle, ...

I am also setting up a backup server for Argos. I installed Argos on the backup server, Stopped the MAPS service, replaced the default install database with a copy of our live Argos' database and it should work, right. Well, I don't know yet, because installing the OLE DB driver requires rebooting the server. This is on our live INB server, so rebooting may be a while coming.

One must be careful to disable the Scheduler. I used the previous automated backup files to create the backup Argos' files. I am considering scheduling a Windows script to do this copy automatically just after the early AM MAPS automatic backup. That avoids needing to down MAPS before copying the files. But, first I want to confirm that the backup server works for us.

May 3, 2008 - ABUG is May 5th at UCA in Conway, Arkansas. Evisions' Mike Boote will be presenting an Argos Reporting session.

April 30, 2008 - The code I used to create many of our Banner Table Current Record (Oracle) Views is available in my scripts Repository (see April 21st below for access instructions). We find these to be very useful in providing Ad Hoc Functional users a way to create their own Queries without having to learn Sub-Queries or the many ways to select Current Records in Banner. Just JOIN the Current Record Views and the Query is done. Most Ad Hoc users will be reporting current records only. Usually, I find that Ad Hoc Functional users will need help creating more complex multi-Table Queries that vary by date. These Queries are rather difficult for most programmers.

April 22, 2008 - The ppts for all the Argos Pre-Summit sessions have already been made available for download. These are well worth your time and include some ideas I am sure you have not seen before. From my session I have uploaded the Bonus Materials as a DataBlock and Report in the Argos COOP. You can find it by searching for the Table DUAL. It has not been reviewed yet, so expand your usual search to include all objects. The exported object is also available here.

The Report includes my idea of Standard Format and Content for Banded Reports. This includes logo, Date and Time, page numbering plus identifying and locating information for the report objects. It uses Argos functions to dynamically correct for any moved or renamed DataBlock/Report. This reduces maintenance, saves time, and insures correctly labeled reports. Correctly identifying a report can be a great aid in debugging when someone requests a change or correction to a report you wrote long ago.

While Templates are planned for a future Argos release, it isn't too hard to Copy and Paste now. There are two ways that I know of to accomplish this.

One can Copy the Banded Report Standard and Paste it into a new DataBlock. Just change the dataset in the report and add the columns you need. (One of the participants at the TN Summit gave me this tip.)

Or, one can Copy and Paste the three blocks of content to create a new report. Copying and Pasting all objects at one time for a single block will retain the original formatting. This is especially useful for the Path name positioning as it can become very long (that is why the Database Instance is displaced with very short paths). It is easy to miss an object using this method.

April 21, 2008 - Back from Summit and a very good Argos Pre-Summit. We missed a few of the planned sessions due to the Airline Cancelations, but as expected the Argos folks filled in very well with some great new information.

Argos 3.1 is now officially released. We already have several reports being called by the new optional Report API. It works very well for us and one of our programmers is already calling his Argos Reports from an Oracle Application Express (APEX) generated application. This API will be key to using Argos Reports seamlessly with Luminis.

There are many new Argos enhancements planned for later this year. They are significant enough for an Argos 4.0 release in my opinion. Wish I could share the details, but we were asked to keep them private (because the details may change significantly between now and the release). We did see the current Alpha version and I was impressed.

If you attended my Argos presentation at the pre-Summit, I have some notes in the ppt that would expand upon my presentation and you might find useful. Thanks to the great group attending and to John Tong for his song and dance routine (really, you should see it).

The ppt is available in my scripts Folder. If you need the scripts password, just ask (bknox @t uaex.edu). That Folder also contains my presentations from Summit 2007 and the Charter Argos Pre-Summit.

I will be presenting my 2008 talk at A(rkansas)BUG early next month. ABUG 2008 will be Monday, May 5, 2008 at UCA in Conway, Arkansas.

April 3, 2008 - Very near release (I bet), the new (just updated Argos and MAPS) are looking good. I really like the inserted comment code that identifies the Report name and the DataBlock name. Well done!

March 31, 2008 - Added a Bonus section to my Argos Conference Presentation (Bonus is for tips on dynamically labeling Banded Reports).

Within the API, there are buttons to generate the html code you will need for connecting an Argos Report object with the Calling Web page. An this works well for me. The Report Unique Identifier "key" below, is used to uniquely ID the object. One does need a bit of html knowledge to use this feature, but really that should be expected. This is a Designers Tool.

If no UserName is supplied to the Report API, then it cannot run the report. Clear enough.

First thing you notice is the new Trash Bin! And it works! Only an Administrator can undelete an Object.

I like the new look and feel. (But, this is a Beta. They may change the final design.)

March 14, 2008 - Testing Argos 3.1 Beta. It installs very easily using the same MAPS_ADMIN_INSTALLATION_ Guide.pdf as used for 2.5. There are a few minor differences at some steps, but nothing to be concerned about.

Argos 3.1 has a little different look. I like the new version's look and feel. First thing you notice is a Trash Bin has been added. I have not tried the Restore yet, but I have no doubt that it will be useful. Only an Administrator can do a Restore. But, I bet a non-Administrator can copy and paste?

The DataBlock and Report object (expanded) shows Report Viewer/Report Writer/DataBlock Designer sections.

What is really special about 3.1? The new API support to allow external apps to run Argos reports.

Just Beta tested the Beta's HowTo with Evisions (John Tong and Sal Yu). We walked through the new interface and we tested running a report from a new external web page in about an hour start to finish. It would have taken less time but we could not connect our PCs giving them access to my install (because I am connecting to our Banner Server through a Windows VPN and between that and the Firewalls, no go). Plus, my office is very noisy with my very old PC running as a test "Server". It sounds like a vacuum cleaner running in here. Keying in verbal instructions given over a conference call is really error prone, but we did very well in spite the handicaps. John and Sal are Argos "old timers" and we have worked together on several occasions.

Oh yes, the new API works great. It will require someone a little familiar with html code to set up a new calling web page, but that was anticipated with the nature of what is being done. (Maybe a Wizard some day?) I had no problem cutting and pasting the required code snippet generated by the API.

The Argos Pre-Summit: http://www.evisions.com/summit/ signup is closed. A Full House!

Argos Pre-Summit Session Presentation (Ready for Summit at Last!)

Summit 2008 - Let me know if have an Argos related class and I will post it here:

Argos 3.0 has been released!

Archived Argos 2.5 information

So, I am testing 3.0 on a Desktop machine. Much faster than the one I used to test 2.5. This one is a GB RAM and 2.66MHz.

Got the word today that my Argos Pre-Summit session has officially been accepted.

And also, that the beta API that will allow users to 'call' Argos reports without having to log in and go through the standard client interface is nearly available for me to test.
Why would anyone want to run outside of Argos? Well, it makes Argos look like an extension of the other application in a very transparent way for the user. You might even want to make a report available to non-Argos users. And, there is always the impending move to Luminis (yes, this API is a big part of integrating Argos with Luminis).

Many things happening concurrently. I have been brought into a non-Banner Oracle application under development with the idea of providing the project's reporting using Argos.

So, I jumped in. A new database connection (well, it does have a few links to Banner). That is quick to add. Then, I decided to look into a "standard" design or "template" for the Banded Reports. I found that access to the Argos variables made displaying report names, the current database, the path including the Folder nesting, and of course a page number simple. With this, I when a report object is moved, the displayed info is automatically adjusted. Why does it matter? Well, just try to figure out which object created a paper report that a user is questioning. A few hints are better than a great memory.

September 14, 2007 - So, under an hour from start to finish! Live on Argos 3.0!

This is just a quick test of reporting from the APEX Demo, but it make the point. (This is Argos 2.5, BTW.)

http://www.uaex.edu/bknox/BannerArgos.htm is a personal site maintained by Bruce Knox ( bknox at uaex.edu )
This page is an attempt to comply with the current uaex.edu webpage standards, but it currently does not fully comply.

Disclaimer
Use this information and these scripts at your own risk. As a condition of using these scripts and information from this site, you agree to hold harmless both the University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service and Bruce Knox for any problems that they may cause or other situations that may arise from their use, and that neither the Extension Service nor I will be held liable for those consequences. The scripts and information are provided "as is" without warranty, implied or otherwise. Limitation of liability will be the amount paid to the University of Arkansas specifically for this information. (It was free:)

Any University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture website Disclaimer terms found in conflict with terms of this disclaimer shall over ride and replace the conflicting terms found herein.

Other personal pages/sites that I maintain:
http://www.openMosix.org the website for the openMosix (Open Source) Project hosted on .

Most of the works of art on my pages other than the Extension banner
are used by permission of J. Wilson Spence.

http://www.uaex.edu/bknox/ is my primary personal work related site. It is oriented to Oracle Reporting Solutions in the context of generating bespoken reports from SunGard Higher Education's Banner product.
(I maintain a number of special topic pages with links from this primary site.)

Site mirror

http://www.uaex.edu/bknox/BannerArgos.htm is oriented to Evisions' Argos Reporting product as used with Banner.
Page mirror at BannerArgos

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Events:

News:

The Argos Pre-Summit: http://www.evisions.com/summit/ signup is closed. A Full House!

Argos Pre-Summit Session Presentation (Ready for Summit at Last!)

Argos 3.0 has been released!

Archived Argos 2.5 information