Technical Desk - Report
Writer Basics(1)
Commence
now includes a powerful Report Writer
utility, that can be used to view your Commence data in a custom report format.
The Report Writer utility allows you to create advanced, formatted
reports, including headings, various fonts and graphics.
This article focuses on the basics of Report Writer. It
covers how to create a report, how to launch the Report Designer, and
provides an overview of the controls and properties which are accessible
through the Report Designer.
Support for the Report Writer is fully detailed in the
Commence User Manual (pages 45-56). There are many features that can be taken advantage
of, and some of the basic ones will be covered in this article. Some of the more advanced features will be discussed
in the next issue of CRMtimes. Please note that Commence and Advanced
User Systems only support the features which are documented in the
User Manual.
The Report Writer utility is bundled with Commence and
consists of two components, the Report Viewer and the Report
Designer.
Report Viewer
If you want to do some work with reports, the first
thing you have to do is create a report using the Report Viewer.
Creating a report using
Report Viewer
-
Select Views
-> Open/Manage Views from the menu. Click Create New.
The New View dialog box will appear.
-
In the View As radio
group, choose Report Viewer.
-
From the category
list box, highlight the category that contains the data for the new
view. Click View to open the new report.
-
A New View window
will open
-
Select Customise
-> Design View to begin formatting the report.
-
Fields: This tab lets you select which
fields will be displayed in the report viewer
-
Filter/Sort: This tab lets you set filters
and sorts for the report viewer
-
Design: This tab takes you to the Commence
Report Designer so you can design your report layout and configure other report attributes
-
On the Design tab,
click Launch Designer. You will be prompted to save the new
report viewer.
Enter a View Name and click Save.
Note: The report viewer may be saved to the View
Bar or Views Menu along with your other Commence views.
-
After saving the
report viewer, the Commence Report Designer will launch.
Selecting Which Fields Appear In The Report
To select which fields will be displayed in the
Report Viewer:
-
After selecting Customise
-> Design View, click the Fields tab.
-
From this window,
you can choose which fields will be included in the Report Viewer.
-
When you have
finished adding fields, you may click OK to save your changes
and close the window.
There are two columns shown on the Design View -
Fields dialog box. The first column, shown on the left-hand-side of
the form (Fields In Report), indicates all fields that are
included (i.e. visible) in the current Report Viewer design. The
column in the area on the right of the form (Fields Not In Report)
are those fields NOT included in the current Report design.
To select which fields will be included in a Report
Viewer, proceed as indicated below.
- this option adds a field to the end
of the list of fields included in the Report View. Simply
highlight the desired field in the Fields Not In Report column,
and press the <-- Append Field button. The field name will now be
listed at the end of the Fields In Report column.
Insert Field - this option can be used
interchangeably with Append Field for the Report Viewer. The field
layout will be determined in the Commence Report Designer.
Remove Field --> - this option is used to
remove the selected field from the list of Fields In Report.
NOTE: Double-click on a field in the list of
Fields
In Report to remove the field,
Double-click on a field in the list of Fields
Not In Report to add the field to the Report
Filtering And Sorting Reports
The items in the report viewer can be filtered and
sorted as with
any other Commence view.
Setting a filter will determine which items are
displayed in the finished report. Likewise, setting the sort order
will affect the order in which those items appear in the finished
report.
To filter and/or sort the items in the Report Viewer:
-
After selecting Customise -> Design View,
click the Filter/Sort tab.
-
Press the Filter button on this screen if
you wish to define a filter. The standard Filter dialog will appear.
-
Press the Sort button on the Filter/Sort
screen to apply a sort to the items in the Report Viewer.
A modified version of the Sort Fields dialog for the
Report Viewer will appear:
-
From here, select what fields are to be used for
the sort and whether the sort on the field is to be in Ascending (A
- Z) or Descending (Z - A) order.
-
When you have finished your changes, you may
click OK to save your changes and close the window.
NOTE: In order to see the changes you have
made you must both save the changes to the sort order above and
refresh the report. To refresh the report you can either close the report and re-open
it or a better method is to click on the refresh
button in the report viewer as shown below.
NOTE: With
Report Writer reports, Group
Headers and Group Totals fields are managed from in the Report Designer.
However you also need to ensure that the data in the report is sorted
appropriately for the Group Headers and Totals to work correctly.
The process of setting these headers will be discussed in a future
CRMtimes article.
Report Designer
The Commence Report Designer is used to customise the
report layout for a Report Viewer.
To Customise A Report Using the Report Designer
-
The report viewer window should be the active
window.
-
After selecting Customise -> Design View,
click the Design tab.
-
Click the Launch Designer... button to
open the following dialog:
-
The fields you selected in the report viewer
will be listed in the Fields toolbox on the left hand side of
the screen.
NOTE: Each field in this list
has been bound to a text box, also known as a control, within the
Report Designer. As you customise the properties for each field, you
are actually setting the properties for the control that the field has
been bound to.
-
Use drag and drop to move each field into the
report layout. Fields can be positioned anywhere in the Header, Body,
or Footer of the report. When you drop the field into the report, it
will be displayed as a box and the field label will be changed to txtFieldname
or Field1 indicating that this field is now a text or field
control.
You can add as many copies of the same field to the
report as you want. Just drag and drop the field from the Fields
toolbox to the report again.
-
Each field can be resized to accommodate the
amount of data expected for each field. To resize a field, click on
the edge of the control for that field until handles appear on each
side. A handle can be dragged in two directions to increase or
decrease the field width and height as needed.
-
Additional controls, such as labels, lines and
images can be added to the report.
-
As you design the report, you may click Preview
at the top of the Commence Report Designer window to see what the
report looks like at each stage in the design process.
-
Each field you add to the report has properties
that can be set, such as font and colour. In the Property Toolbox,
select the field you want to customise from the drop-down list. Or
click directly on the field in the report to access the properties for
that field.
-
You can add page numbering to your report using
the field's PageCount summary type. Page numbers are created using a
running summary field.
-
When you are finished designing the report,
click on Save to Commence to save the report viewer layout.
This will also regenerate the report for you - this could take several
minutes for very large reports.
-
Select File -> Exit to close the
Commence Report Designer.
Adding Controls With The Toolbox
The buttons on the toolbox allow you to add various
controls to your report.
Field Property Toolbox
Each field that you add to the report has properties that
can be set. The table below describes these properties.
Shortcut - Some
field properties can be set by clicking on the corresponding shortcut
button on the Format Toolbar.
NOTE: Group Headers and totals are accomplished by setting
the summary functions (e.g., SummaryDistinctField, SummaryFunc,
SummaryGroup, SummaryRunning, and SummaryType).
NOTE: When
using the summary functions with a field, the CanGrow and CanShrink
properties are disabled for the field.
How To Insert A Logo Into A Report
-
Open up the Report that you want to customise
-
Go to Customise > Design View
-
Click on the Design Tab and then click the Launch
Designer... button
-
When the designer opens, select the Image Icon
from Toolbox
-
Move to the position in the report where you want
the logo to appear, you will see the mouse pointer turns into a +
sign. Click and hold down the left mouse button and drag the mouse
diagonally down and to the right and you will see a dotted
rectangle appear. Adjust the size of the rectangle so that it is
approximately the size of the logo and then let go of the mouse
button. You do not need to worry too much about getting it exactly
correct, as you can easily adjust the image size and position later.
NOTE: If you make a mistake by putting the logo in the
wrong part of the report, you can simply delete the Image control
rectangle by selecting it and then hitting the delete key.
-
You will notice that the Properties Toolbox now
shows all the properties for Image1 (the default name) used for
the Image control you have just created. As you can see there are
several properties you can adjust and from a glance you will
notice that the Picture property has (None) assigned to it at the
moment. Click where it says (None) and a little grey box will appear
to the right of the word (None). Click on the grey box and a
dialog box will pop-up allowing you to select a file to use for
the image. Find the file you want to use and click on the open
button. The image will appear in the Image1 rectangle as below.
NOTE: If the image is not displayed correctly in the
rectangle, you can either resize the rectangle so it fits the
image, or you can set the SizeMode property to Stretch and the
image will resize to fit in the rectangle.
-
When you are finished designing the report,
click on Save to Commence to save the report viewer layout.
This will also regenerate the report for you - this could take several
minutes for very large reports.
-
Select File -> Exit to close the
Commence Report Designer.
An Example Report Writer Report
Here is an example of what a Report Writer report can
look like when complete:
In the next issue of CRMtimes, the more advanced features of the
Report Writer will be discussed.
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