Add/Edit Report Template Dialog

See below for the description of fields and screen areas in the Add Report Template/Edit Report Template dialogs.

This dialog is triggered when you configure report templates (see Configure Report Templates) and you add a new or edit an existing report template.

Report Template Screen Area

Field/Checkbox Name

Description

Name

Enter a name that uniquely identifies the report template. This will appear on the user interface.

Status

You can assign a status to the report template. You can choose from the statuses that you defined under Configure Report Statuses.

Category

You can assign a category to the report template. You can choose from the categories that you defined under Configure Report Categories.

Dashboard Report

Select this checkbox if you want the template be available as a dashboard when navigating to the DASHBOARDS screen. If you select this checkbox, Section Heading, Multimedia Thumbnails and Table of Contents types will be marked with a anomalous sign to indicate that these elements will not be displayed in a dashboard template.

Asset Dashboard

Select this checkbox if you want the template be available as a dashboard on the Dashboard tab of the ASSETS screen.

Comments

Enter any information that you want to be stored with the report template.

Template Definition Screen Area

In the bottom half of the dialog, you can set up the actual design of the report template. This screen area is split into two main parts:

  • On the left-hand side of this screen area, you can see a view of available elements. There are two types of available elements:

    • Elements contains all the visual elements of the report, that is, things that you can display in the report (with the exception of elements group).

    • Sources contains the things you can get data from, these are the links between the database data and the visual elements. Most elements need a source to get data from. A single source can give data to more than one element.

  • On the right-hand side, you’ll see the Report Layout tree showing all the elements currently in the report. This is the area where you design the actual structure of the report template. You can drag and drop the available elements to this screen area or use the toolbar buttons to add or move around elements in the report template. For more information, see

From the toolbar of this screen area, you can perform the following functions:

Toolbar Option

Description

Add/Edit/Delete

Performs the selected operation on the element currently selected in the Report Layout tree. For example, when you select an element and choose Add, it inserts the element to the Report Layout structure above the element that was selected there.

Retrieve Element

You can copy elements or sources from other report templates into this report template. Note that “child” elements will be brought across too, that is, if you copy an element group that contains other elements, all those other elements will be copied in at the same time. Your new element will have “Copy of” prepended to its name. Filter values may not be fully copied across, so check your simple sources’ Filter tabs after copying.

Parameters

This function allows you to configure selection parameters for the report. Each time the user generates the report, they can select values for these parameters before the actual report is generated.

Selection parameters are created when you set up a filter for a Simple Source in your report template (see filter). A selection parameter is also created when you add a Multimedia Thumbnails element to your report parameter, in which case the parameter MergeLastRow is created with a checkbox assigned.

Using this toolbar button, you can configure how these selection parameters actually appear when the user generates the report. Double-click the parameter or select it and choose Edit to make changes. You can configure the following:

  • In the Name field, you can specify the actual text of the selection parameter as it appears on the selection screen.

  • In the Blank Text field, you can enter a hint text to be displayed for the user.

  • In the Order field, you can specify the actual place of the selection parameter among other parameters on the selection screen. For example, if you enter 1, this parameter will appear as the first field on the selection screen.

  • In the Columns field, you can specify the width of the field for the selection parameter. For example, if you enter 2 in this field, the field for this parameter will be two-column wide.

Note

  • Dashboard reports should not use parameters.

  • Asset Dashboard reports should use a parameter that specifies the asset. NEXUS will automatically supply this value to the template based on the user’s selection in the Asset tree when the asset dashboard report is run.

Generate

You can generate output from your report template from here without having to click OK and go back to the Configuration - Templates dialog. Note that when you generate the report with this option, no selection parameters will be displayed even if you have set up parameters for the report. Your report will be generated with the previously selected parameter values. This option is only used for testing.

Move Up

Moves the element selected in the Report Layout tree up by one spot within the same element group. You can also do this with Ctrl-Up arrow.

Move Down

Moves the element selected in the Report Layout tree down by one spot within the same element group. You can also do this with Ctrl-Down arrow.

Tip

You can also move items up and down by drag-dropping them within the Report Layout tree. You can also reparent items by drag-dropping them onto an element group.

Copy/Paste

You can copy an element and paste it to another location within the Report Layout structure.

See also