Advanced Reports provide a complete and powerful section-oriented report designer. When you create an Advanced Report, a wizard appears to set the initial report properties:
Select the Data Categories to appear on the report. You will see a list of general categories. Double click a source to add it to the report. When you do so, other categories will be disabled if they are not related to the one(s) already selected. These Data Categories can be changed at any time; the wizard is simply giving you a head start on building the report.
Click Okay in the lower right corner to continue.
Your report will not save automatically as soon as it is created. To save your report and ensure you don't lose changes, select the Save icon. You'll enter the name of the report, an optional description, and file the report in an existing folder.
The report builder screen allows you to define the initial report layout, add filters and sorts, and modify the format of the report.
Report Sections
Advanced Reports are initially created with the following sections:
- Page Header – appears at the top of each page
- Detail – the body of the report
You can also add the following sections by right clicking anywhere in the Section column and choosing Add Section, then the section type:
- Report Header – appears at the top of the report on the first page only, but below the Page Header.
- Report Footer – appears to the end of the whole report
- Page Footer – appears at the bottom of each page
The following Group sections can be created once you have at least one Sort configured in your report:
- Group Header – when you want to group and organize data by a single column. You can have as many group levels as you need.
- Group Footer – appears at the end of each group. Generally used to provide sub-totals for that group.
Individual sections can be expanded with multiple rows. You can also use blank rows in any section to control spacing.
Adding Data
The interactive designer shows you the various report elements. Each cell, row, or column represents a portion of the report with unique properties. Row and column edges can be clicked and dragged to make them wider or narrower, taller or shorter. You can select any header, footer, or data cell and modify its properties using the toolbar icons, most of which should be self-evident. If you double-click on a header, footer, or data cell, you can modify the text or formula in that cell. You can also right-click on any cell or section to see a list of options for that cell or section.
Add data to your report by selecting the appropriate cell, then choose a data field from the data menu on the left side of the screen. In this example, we added a title in the cell above the data. This means that the data will show in that column, with the title as the column header. The title is in a cell which is in the Page Header, which means it will repeat at the top of each page of the report.
Filters and Sorts
Select the Filter icon to specify Filters to limit the data in the report to only the data you want displayed. The data categories you selected initially will appear in the drop-down list. Select the category, then select the filter field. Once you select the filter field, you'll have the option to further specify the properties of the data field.
To specify Filters, select the Filter icon. Double-click a field from the list on the left to move it into the filter panel, then specify filter properties at the bottom. The reporting engine supports many filtering options, as well as AND and OR options to create compound filters. You can also tell the engine to group filters together and to prompt the user at runtime for the filter value(s). Filters can also use formulas and built-in functions.
Click Okay in the lower right corner to continue.
To specify Sorts, select the Sorts icon. Select the field to sort by, then select the Sort Order. You can add as many sort fields as you need from the available sort fields. The sort will begin with the field at the top of the list and move down the list in order. Use the Up and Down carrots to change the order of your sorts. To remove a sort, click the red "X" icon.
Format Cells
Right-click a cell, then click the Format Cells option to control formatting for these cell(s), including numbers, borders and conditional formulas.
Outputting the Report
Click the Run Report button to output the report.
Options in the top left corner allow you to save or export the report in Excel, PDF, RTF (Word), or CSV formats.
Options in the top right corner allow you to navigate through the report. You will also see the total number of pages and a Find box to locate specific text.
If you defined Report Viewer options such as Filters, Sorts, or Column Visibility checkboxes, these are displayed in a vertical panel on the right side.
To close the report view, click the “X” on that tab. Note that the report definition screen will still be open in another tab. If you switch to it and modify the report, then click Run Report again, a second viewer tab will be created; the original one is not updated to show your change; it shows a snapshot of the report data when you initially ran it.
You can also click the Export… drop-down list to select one of the export options. The Ad Hoc Reporting system will generate the report in the appropriate file and save it into the Downloads folder on your local computer.