March 17, 2005
Contour Components publishes 35 new samples for ContourCube 2.0

About ContourCube

ContourCube is a high-performance OLAP component for interactive
reporting and data analysis. It offers embeddable OLAP technology for
Windows and web applications based on relational data. Applications
powered with ContourCube allow users to create numerous nice-formed
screen and printable reports in a minute. User can interact with data:
slice and dice, drill down and roll up, pivot with sub-second response
times and without additional server.

Contour Components are glad to announce 35 new samples for ContourCube
2.0. All samples are published to Contour Components web site free of
charge and are dedicated for learning advanced component features
applicable to your solutions.
The new set contains several examples ported onto 5 programming
languages: Microsoft Visual Basic, C#.NET, Borland Delphi and C++.
Those samples illustrate the usage of unique OLAP features of
ContourCube in real business tasks and applications. With their help,
developers dramatically improve the functionality of their solutions
and make them incredibly more attractive for corporate clients.

So, what are those new samples?

- Graph
Numerous, specifically managerial users, do not like searching through
huge numeric tables. This example illustrates the innovative usage of
ContourCube - graphs embedded right into the cells of the OLAP table,
helping managers instantly understand what is going on with their
business. This approach is a must in creating Executive Information
Systems and specific managerial reports.
The graph may be horizontal bar, color pie or other form convenient for
the user. You may control both its size and quality, which is useful
for combining multiple business values in one graphic item.
Such graphs are defined with formulas expressions, brang up by the new
features in ContourCube 2.0 - cascading conditional formatting and
multidimensional formulae language.
Besides environments listed above, this example is also available for
Microsoft Visual FoxPro.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Download/graph.zip

- Accounting
This example demonstrates the unique feature in ContourCube - creating
balance report in the multidimensional cube. Unlike all other
computations, a balance is obtained as the last amount value of the
previous child time series. We proudly state that no other OLAP
component in the worldwide market is able to perform such calculation.
The large and resource-consuming OLAP servers require that such a
formula implements a long and complex algorithm, whereas in ContourCube
there is a special LAST expression, which may be applied either to all
fields or to individual dimensions, for example, time series. That is
why balancing with ContourCube is so easy and flexible - the same
approach is also applicable for stock balancing and other widely-used
business tasks.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Dow...accounting.zip

- Counting
The quantitative reports are very important for business applications,
such as sales and CRM analysis. ContourCube 2.0 provides a lot of such
useful algorithms, from primitive to the most sophisticated:
* Child items count
* Leaf (bottom) level itms count
* Total count of items in the cube
* Count of source data records
* Calculated count from SQL expression
This set of counts completely fulfills the requirements of the most
business tasks. In addition, all of them may be used to calculate
averages, which are of the top importance for managers and analysts.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Download/counting.zip

- Cash Flow
This example illustrates how ContourCube 2.0 is applicable to one of
the most frequently asked business reports. In the Cash Flow example
user not only sees the current amounts, but also can use it to fulfill
the most specific needs of their clients, such as trends of expenses,
variances of cash-in and cash-out and more.
In particular, this example loads source data directly from Microsoft
Excel workbook. This makes cash flow even easier for the small and
medium companies, keeping their accounting in electronic spreadsheets.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Download/cashflow.zip

- Dynamic Facts
The Dynamic Facts example demonstrates the unique feature in
ContourCube 2.0 - interactive work with formula fields. With this
feature, you may create applications that lets users interactively
define and edit formula columns, just like in Microsoft Escel, but on
the multidimensional Contour cube in place of a plain spreadsheet. This
is a quite revolutionary approach to the data analysis, with higher
degree of interactivity: users can define new calculated fields and
instantly get results in totals of millions of data records.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Dow...namicfacts.zip

- Field Format
This exaple just shows the rich formatting features provided by
ContourCube 2.0: changing font styles, colors, and unconditional fields
formats for creating nice and comprehensive reports for users. The
integrated formatting editor provides users with the possibility of
manually set up the appearance of their reports.
For developers, this example can also be useful as an idea of applying
skins and color schemes to the reports produces with ContourCube.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Dow...ieldformat.zip

- Percents
It is absolutely obvous that percentage data presentation is of the top
importance for business people. That is why ContourCube 2.0 provides
instant switching to percent view, at the same time keeping absolute
values visible. It implements all popular percent calculations needed
by business managers, such as percent by row or column, and percent to
the Grand Total.
The percent to subtotal in a group is of a particular importance for
business users. It is used to determine the sales rate of a good
compared to other goods in the same category. While such algorithm is
at least very untrivial for other OLAP tools in the market, it is
embedded and very easy in ContourCube.
Download this example from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/Download/percents.zip

You will also find over 40 other sample Contour microcubes in our
public online OLAP library. The recently published white paper "30
Ideas Of Using OLAP" will guide you through most of those samples and
give you good ideas on using Contour OLAP solutions in your business.
We appreciate your case studies and suggestions for extending and
improving the library, and invite you to share your experience for the
widest application of OLAP technology.

We remind our previous version customers that they can upgrade their
Contour software for as low as 50% of the initial price. We accept
credit card payment and wire transfers and have numerous official
distributors in all the world. Please don't hesitate to contact us in
regard of special licensing.


Visit ContourCube home page:
http://www.contourcomponents.com/contourcube.htm
Download ContourCube from
http://www.contourcomponents.com/con...e_download.htm
Purchase ContourCube:
http://www.contourcomponents.com/contourcube_order.htm

Contour Components Support Team