The procedure to build a System Report using the Report wizard is as follows: 1. Right-click any container (such as a folder) in the Management Information
2. In the tree browser located in the wizard’s first dialogue box, look in the Standard Lists, Grouped Lists or Value Counters folder to find the required template, and select it.
3. Click OK.
4. A dialogue box similar to the following is displayed:
5. In the Choose Tables dialogue box, decide whether you wish to work with the underlying SQL-recognised table and column names within the database, or with their user-friendly equivalents, and ensure that the appropriate option is selected. Your setting here will be maintained by default in subsequent wizard dialogue boxes that show the same controls, but you will be free to switch between the two options at any such point.
can be taken and placed into the Selected Tables list. On the Available Tables list, highlight the name of the first, or only, table that you want the report to query, and click Add Table. This table’s name now appears on the Selected Tables list. If you find you have made the wrong selection, simply highlight the table name, click Remove Table and try again, this time using the correct table.
7. If there is a requirement for the report to query more than one table, see the section entitled Querying Multiple Tables in a System Report on page 196 to find out what you have to do at this point.
Counters report can use only one column. To move a column from one list to the other, select it and click the appropriate arrow button.
10. Once all the required columns are listed on the right, you may need to set or unset certain options for some of them.
The Visible option determines whether or not data from each of the table columns selected for usage in the report is to be actually visible in the results. Ensure that this option is enabled for all columns whose data is to be displayed. There are additional settings, described below, that control certain optional aspects of the display of visible data.
The Raw option is relevant to numeric data values that are internally mapped to more user-friendly (textual or formatted) equivalents. Normally, although the numeric columns would be specified in logical comparisons within the
corresponding user-friendly values. However, if you want the raw numeric values to be displayed for a given column (say, for diagnostic purposes), you should enable the relevant Raw option.
The next four options govern whether or not mechanisms are to be activated in the report to calculate value sums, value averages, minimum values and/or maximum values, respectively, for the data relating to each of the numeric columns. Ensure that the appropriate options are enabled for all numeric columns whose data is to be aggregated in these ways.
The No Wrap option determines whether or not the space taken up by the data and heading of each displayed column in the output report should be squashed and the text wrapped around when there are many columns to fit into the results page. If you wish to display a lot of columns, you should consider enabling this option for all of those whose contents will look messy when wrapped around.
If you wish to reposition any table-column entry on the list, select the entry and use the up and down buttons to the right of the list. Top and bottom on this list correspond to left and right, respectively, on the output report. 11. Click Next.
12. The Filter Results dialogue box allows you to enter the criteria (if any) that the report, in its query of the database, is to use for selecting or excluding the records to be processed, thereby filtering the data output. The criteria would comprise one or more valid SQL WHERE clauses. You can create the required filter either by typing out the full text of the WHERE clause(s) in the edit field, or by using the WHERE Builder in the lower part of the dialogue box, which automatically generates each clause for you in the correct syntax. The advantage of using the WHERE Builder is that you will be selecting most clause items from drop-down lists, rather than having to remember them or look them up. Although the WHERE Builder is not quite as flexible as typing your own SQL text, you can always insert extra clause(s) manually as necessary.
Supportworks standard context variable, as used in data-dictionary-based filters for customisation. For example, to refer to the start of today, you would specify the function as _sw_time(startoftoday). A full list of the context variables you can employ within the parentheses is given in an Appendix of the System Customisation Guide. Note that only the time- related variables are valid for report criteria.
For a prompted report, you would refer, in the SQL text, to the input data by means of a variable such as &[uv_arg1] or &[uv_arg2], where 1 represents the first (or only) prompt, 2 represents the second prompt, and so on. In the case of a range prompt, the variable representing the “From” data would be of the form &[uv_argf1], and the variable representing the “To” data would be of the form &[uv_argt1].
For details of how to use the WHERE Builder, see the section entitled Using
the WHERE Builder in a System Report on page 190.
14. There are two versions of the Grouping and Sorting dialogue box that can be displayed: one showing Group checkbox options and a Group Graph field (as illustrated above) and the other without these items. The Group version is displayed in the case of a Grouped List, a Boxed Grouped List or a Grouped Value Counter, while the non-Group version is displayed for a Simple List or a simple Value Counter. Note that the table-column order defined in a previous dialogue box is maintained here. If you are displaying the Group version, select the Group checkbox against the table column by which you want to group the report. For a Grouped Value Counter, there will be only one table column against which to select a Group checkbox.
15. By default, the data displayed on the output report will be sorted (within each group if relevant) in the order in which it will be taken from the database. If you want the data to be sorted on a specific table column, you
against that column. If you then want further sorting to take place within the initial sort, you should select additional checkboxes against the columns concerned. Sorting priority goes from top to bottom on the column list (that is, from left to right on the output report).
16. If the report is to have a main (summary) chart, then select, in the Summary Graph field, the table column on which this is to be calculated.
17. If you are displaying the Group version of the above dialogue box, and the report is to have group-level charts, then select, in the Group Graph field, the table column on which these are to be calculated.
whereas the title is what appears at the top of the report’s output display. If you leave the title field blank, the title will default to the report’s name. Enter an appropriate and accurate name and title for the report in the relevant fields. Note that you can use prompt variables such as &[uv_arg1] in the title field if you wish.
Secondly, this dialogue box allows you to allocate a specific data dictionary, or all data dictionaries, to the report. A specific data dictionary allocation ensures that the report will be visible only to those analysts that have this data dictionary loaded. (For such filtration to work, you must have the relevant criteria set up, for the data dictionary concerned, in a Global Parameters folder called “Reports”, as described in the System
Customisation Guide.) In the Data Dictionary field, select the required data dictionary or leave the setting as All Data Dictionaries.
Thirdly, this dialogue box allows you to specify a theme for the output report. A theme is a preset look-and-feel that you can give to a report, affecting its displayed fonts, colours, borders and background. In the Report Theme field, select the theme you require or leave it at the default setting of <No Theme>.
Lastly, this dialogue box allows you to enable and disable various report options. The options available will differ with the report template. The different sets of possible options are described in the following subsections. 20. Click Finish. The wizard saves the configuration and then terminates. The
new report will now appear at the bottom of the System Reports section of the Management Information and Reporting tree browser. You can move the report to any folder within that section by dragging it with the mouse.