QueryPlus version 3.22 is scheduled for release on 1/15/2009. It has quite a few useful enhancements, and is the first QueryPlus upgrade to not require a database upgrade. That's right, it is all contained in a single, user-downloadable installer! Here are the release notes:

1.      Modified the file (.qpe) that exported QueryPlus reports are saved in to make them much smaller. This modification is completely backwards compatible and will not alter saved reports in any way.

2.      Added the ability to back-up all QueryPlus reports to any network directory with one action. During the process, QueryPlus checks for characters prohibited by Windows are used in the report name (/\:*?"<>'|) and prompts the user to fix any report names as required.

3.      Expanded the criteria drop-box (equals, greater than, etc) on the Filter Wizard so that all choices are visible without scrolling the box. (I know, what took so long to do THAT?)

4.      Fixed a bug that was causing an error when a field that was included in sorting was deleted.

5.      Added titles ‘Available Fields’ and ‘Selected Fields’ to the list boxes on the Fields screens.

6.      Fixed a bug that was causing the order of the fields in the Selected Fields list box to be reset to alphabetical (on the Column Name field) when a saved report was opened. The Selected Fields list box – and hence the query dataset – will retain the column order that was saved.

7.      Added the ability to click and hold the ‘Move Up’  and ‘Move Down’  buttons on the Fields screen to move a field multiple rows.

8.      Added a ‘log-out’ report from QueryPlus to the QualCorp QueryPlus server.

9.      Added code to reload the Reports slide-out menu on the main screen when switching between AMS360 and AFW databases.

10.  On opening the Filter Wizard, the field highlighted in the Selected Fields list will also be highlighted in the Filter Wizard.

11.  Added the ability to choose what happens when double-clicking a field in the Selected Fields list.
The user makes a choice in the Fields window and this preference is saved for that user.
The choices:

a.       Remove the field from the Selected Fields list

b.      Open the Filter Wizard with the selected field highlighted

12.  Revised the save and close process to make it work when multiple reports are open. Users will be presented with a dialog box for each open report, where they can edit the report’s name, change the Report Group it is assigned to, and choose to ‘Save and Continue’ or ‘Save and Close’.

13.  Made the report saving process sensitive to whether a report has been modified or not – the save prompt will only appear if the report has been modified.

14.  Added User-level security, enabling QueryPlus Administrator to selectively grant or deny access to any report. Users are assigned to one or more User Groups, each Report belongs to one Report Group, and each User Group is granted access to one or more Report Groups.

15.  Removed the ‘Add All Fields’  button from the Fields screen. While the ability to add more than 10,000 fields to a query – and even to potentially run the query -  is an interesting display of QueryPlus’s capabilities, it has no practical application. Furthermore, if the button is clicked in error (or as an experiment), it takes several minutes to load the fields, and there isn’t a ‘cancel’ function available.

A QueryPlus user received a request from ‘Mahogany Row’ for a list of Customers who left the Agency in 2008.

Here are the fields to use for this query:

Use these filters:  

Customer Open Policy Count – Is Null (Returns all Customers with no open (active/in-force) Policies)

Customer Latest Policy Expiration Date – between 1/1/2008 and (today’s date)

Adding the Customer Total Invoice Amount for Past Year enables the query to show the relative dollar ‘value’ of each Customer, perhaps helping decide which Customers to re-market. 

As always, be sure to test the output of this (and every) query to make sure that Agency practices and/or database inconsistencies don’t affect the output.

From a recent Qualcorp, Inc. press release:

 During a recent demonstration of QueryPlus, a prospective client asked to see a query that displayed Business Auto about vehicles and the geographical location they are garaged in. They were interested because they were unable to obtain this information through their AMS360 interface reports.  

A quick check of the QueryPlus available fields list showed that the garage data was not available in a query linked to the vehicle data. Due to the nature of the AMS360 database, this is not unusual, because many of the tables can be linked to any other table in the database, which means there are almost an infinite number of potential links – and fields – possible.  

Since the list of available fields in QueryPlus is already rather long – over 10,000 fields – Qualcorp has not attempted to link every possible combination of tables and fields, mainly because ‘almost infinite’ is a very large and unmanageable number, particularly in a list box on a computer screen. 

The success of the demonstration – and the contract – hung in the balance, but Qualcorp was able to design, implement, test and distribute the required fields to the demonstration computer’s QueryPlus application within a few minutes. The prospective customer was able to witness not only the power of QueryPlus, but also the ability of the QueryPlus support team to respond to user’s requests for new connectivity. 

The AMS databases are massive and extremely complex. QueryPlus provides a window into your data, and the QueryPlus support team is right there with you every step of the way. 

<<< End press release >>> 

These fields are now available for both AMS360 and AFW. The available fields are:  

QueryPlus AFW users should note that there are 3 fields in the Business Auto Vehicle table that may contain some of the same information:  

These fields do not contain any data in the DailyQuerier’s test databases, so it is impossible to determine if they are or are not used by any individual agency. Here’s a tip: run the query with BOTH the Business Auto Garage fields AND the Business Auto Vehicle Garage fields, then review the dataset to determine if your agency’s database has data in one or both locations. Then be sure to verify which location has the correct data, if they are different.