There are a number of options in the QuickDesigner toolbar that allow you to apply formats or add/remove elements from the report (specific options are discussed later in this chapter). However, when you make a change to a report element the changes are not automatically reflected in the report in the lower portion of the screen.

In order to improve performance the report will only be updated by user direction. To update the report and see any changes that you have implemented in the report, click the Refresh Report button on the end of the toolbar.

This will re-load the report with any changes that you have specified.

QuickDesigner allows you to change font, color, and border properties for report elements.

Like with Report Designer, you can set the data formatting for formulas and column fields in the QuickDesigner. To bring up the data formatting dialog, click the Data Formatting Icon on the toolbar. The dialog will open in a new window.

Data Format Dialog

The drop-down list at the top of the dialog allows you to select data formatting for columns or formulas. Each of the buttons on the dialog allows you to select formatting for the different data types either numeric, string, logical (Boolean), or date/time.

QuickDesigner allows you to add a number of different elements into the report. Most are accessed from the insert elements dialog. To access this dialog, click the Insert Elements button on the toolbar. The dialog will open in a new window.

Insert Elements Dialog

The following elements can be added/modified from this dialog:

3.10.2.3.1. Text Variables

EDAB allows you to specify certain variables within text that allow for run time substitution based on certain values/objects in the chart. For example, if your chart uses a parameterized query as the data source, you could use the &<parameterName> variable to display which parameter value(s) were selected at runtime.

To insert a variable to a report, click on the Insert Report Elements icon. Place the text cursor to the place where you want put the variable (report title, report footer, or group footer text field) to and then click on the Variables button. This will bring up a dialog with a list of variables you can use and allow you to select one to add to the title or one of the two footers.

Insert Elements Dialog

The following text variables are supported:

&date

This displays the date when the report was last refreshed/exported/opened.

&time

This displays the time when the report was last refreshed/exported/opened.

&<paramName>

If the report contains a parameter with this name, this will display the value selected for that parameter.

3.10.2.3.2. Inserting/Editing Aggregations

QuickDesigner allows you to specify column aggregation and grouping options for the report when you first create it. For more about this option, see Section 3.9.1 - Report Mapping Options. In addition, you can also set and edit the column aggregations and grouping from the toolbar. To do this, click the Change Mapping/Grouping button on the QuickDesigner toolbar and the grouping dialog will open.

Grouping Dialog

This left side of the dialog lists all of the report columns with their selected aggregation. The right side contains the currently selected grouping (row break) columns. You can add or remove grouping using the buttons in the dialog, as well as change the nesting order using the up or down arrows.

To set column aggregation, click the Select Aggregation button below the column list on the left-hand side. This will open a new dialog allowing you to select the aggregation for the columns in the report.

Column Aggregation Dialog

The top drop-down list contains all the columns in the report. The lower list contains all the available aggregation options. To set the aggregation for a column, select it in the upper list, and set the desired aggregation in the lower list. Once you have finished, click Ok and the dialog will close. The new aggregations will be reflected in the column list.

Once you have finished specifing all grouping/aggregation changes, click Ok in the grouping dialog and the changes will be saved.

3.10.2.3.3. Inserting/Editing Charts

In addition to creating stand-alone charts, the QuickDesigner interface allows you to add charts to report. Charts added to reports in QuickDesigner can only share the same data source as the report, they cannot have an independent data source. To add or edit charts in a report, click the Insert/Edit Charts button on the toolbar. A dialog will open allowing you to specify options for the report's charts.

Insert/Edit Charts Dialog

The left side of the dialog contains a list of all the charts currently defined in the report. The following options can be set for each of the charts, by selecting it in the list, and manipulating the other elements in the dialog:

Report Section:

A report can be divided into several sections:

Report Header:

This section is like the title of the report. It appears only once at the top of the report.

Page Header:

Any element placed in this section will appear at the top of every page of the report.

Table Header:

This section serves as a header to the detail or data section of the report. By default, it only appears once in the report.

Group Header:

This section appears in reports with data containing row breaks inserted (i.e. summary break report). It repeats at the top of each grouping within the report.

Table Data:

This is the main section of the report that contains most of the data. Data columns that have been selected for the report are placed in this section, and repeated for each entry in the column.

Group Footer:

This section appears on reports with data containing row breaks inserted (i.e. summary break report). It repeats at the bottom of each grouping within the report.

Table Footer:

This section serves as the footer to the detail or data section of the report. By default, it appears only once in the report.

Page Footer:

Any element placed in this section will appear at the bottom of every page of the report.

Report Footer:

This is the last summary or footer section of the report. It only appears once at the end of the report.

This option allows you to select into which report section the chart should be placed. Users have the option of placing the chart in the Table Header/Footer section, or any of the Group Header/Footer sections if the report uses grouping.

Include Section Data:

This option allows you to use group aggregations as data in your chart. The aggregations available for use depend on which report section the chart is placed. You will be able to use any group aggregation located in the same section as the chart or any inner sections.

Chart Position:

If more than one chart is placed in a report section, this option allows you to select which position a specific chart could occupy. Charts in the same section are always placed side-by-side, so position number 1 refers to the far left-hand side of the section, while each subsequent number refers to the position directly to the right of the previous chart.

Space Between Charts:

If more than one chart is placed in a report section, this option allows you to define how much space (in in or cm) should be placed in between of the charts. This argument will apply to all sections of the report, it cannot be set for individual charts.

You can create a new chart by clicking the New Chart button in the dialog. This will open the chart mapping dialog in a new window, allowing you to select the type, dimension, and mapping options for the new chart. For more information about chart mapping, see Section 3.9.3 - Chart Mapping Options.

You can edit any chart in the report by selecting it in the list and clicking the Edit Chart button. This will open QuickDesigner charting interface in a new window. For more information about editing charts, see Section 3.12 - Charts in QuickDesigner.

Once you have finished editing the chart options, click Ok to save them back to the report.

Quick Designer includes options that allow you to set up an alert on a column or formula. An alert in the report when published in a dashboard will make the report highlighted when the condition is triggered. A report with alert also allows you to set up alert monitoring, which will check the condition periodically and email users when the condition is triggered.

To create an alert, click on the Insert/Edit Alert icon.

Insert/Edit Alert Dialog

In this dialog you can create additional alerts or edit existing ones. To add a new alert, click on the Add button.

Add New Alert Dialog

Here you can create a new alert for your report. First, give the alert a name, this name will be used in the dashboard alert options and the monitoring tool to help you identify the alert. Next, select a column or formula you would like to apply the alert on. You can apply alerts to multiple columns, but each column can only have one alert applied. If you try to apply a new alert to a column which already contains an alert, there will be a message notifying you that this is not possible. Depending on the data type of the column or formula you selected, there will be different conditions available to you. For text fields, you can select from the following list:

For numeric fields, the following options are available.

For datetime fields, the following options are available.

For logical fields, the following options are available.

For most conditions, a single text box is available to the right of the condition allowing you to type in the value to compare against. However, logical conditions will not have any text box because the conditions already contains the values and Between conditions will provide two text boxes instead of one for the begin and end comparison values.

After specifying the condition, you can configure the appearance of the field when the alert is triggered by choosing the background color, font color, and font. Click on each button to open the configuration pop up.

Set Background Color Dialog

Set Font Color Dialog

Set Font Color Dialog

As you change the appearance, the preview bar at the bottom of the alert dialog will change to reflect the current settings.

Alert Preview

Once you are satisfied with the appearance you can click on another column to add additional conditions or click OK to create the alert. The Manage Alerts dialog should now have one or more alerts listed. The dialog will show alert names in black at the top of each section. The fields attached to this alert are displayed with two dashes in front and are colored by their type of field. Column fields will be shown in blue, while formula fields will be shown in green.

If you created a new alert that has the same name as an existing alert, the new alert will be merged with the existing alert and you will see a single entry for the alert name followed by the combination of the fields from the new and existing alerts.

Manage Alert Dialog After Adding Alert

On this dialog, you can also edit existing alerts by selecting the alert or field to edit and clicking on the Edit button. In the edit dialog, you can change the conditions on any existing field, as well as add new fields to an alert.

You can also delete alerts or fields by selecting the undesired alert or field and clicking on the Delete button. If you select a field, only the field will be deleted, the rest of the alert will remain. Once you are done working with alerts, click the Done button to return the report designer. If any fields trigger the alert, you will see the appearance changed immediately.

Report with Formula Alerts Triggered

The QuickDesigner includes several options allowing you to control the size of various elements in the report. To set the element sizes, click the Set Element Bounds button on the toolbar. A dialog will open in a new window.

Set Bounds Dialog

The drop-down list at the top of the dialog contains a list of all the columns in the report. To set the bounds for a column, select it in the list and enter the new dimensions in the dialog. When you have finished, click Ok and the new dimensions will be saved.

	Note
	Dimension changes will be applied to the column, the column header, and any summaries for that column.

3.10.2.5.1. Re-size to Fit Content

Often, you may have a column field that contains data of varying length. In this case, the data may be truncated or there may be a great deal of blank space within the cell when the field is short. To alleviate this problem, you can set the element to resize dynamically to encompass its contents. To do this click Resize Columns to Fit Contents button on the toolbar. A dialog will open in a new window.

Re-size to Fit Content Dialog

The drop-down list at the top of the dialog contains a list of all the columns in the report. To set a column to have variable height, select it from the list and click the Re-size checkbox. Click Ok to close the dialog and save the settings.

QuickDesigner allows you to change the order that column fields appear in the report. To change the column order, select the Column Order button on the toolbar. A dialog will open in a new window.

Column Order Dialog

The dialog contains a list of all the columns in the report. To change the column order, select a column in the list and click on the up or down arrow buttons to change the order. The order from top to bottom in the dialog represents the column order from left to right in the report. It is recommended to modify column order prior to creating charts. If you intend to change the column order after charts have been added to the report, you would need to modify the data mapping for the charts as well.

QuickDesigner also allows you to change the sorting in the report. To set sorting options click the Sorting button on the toolbar. A dialog will open in a new window.

Sorting Dialog

The left-hand side of the dialog contains all the columns in the report. To sort by a column, select it in the left-hand side and click the Add button. You can control the sort priority by selecting a sort-by column in the right-hand side and clicking the up or down arrow buttons to change its position. You can control the direction of the sort by selecting a sort-by column in the right-hand side and clicking the Asc or Desc radio buttons to indicate the direction.

If you have specified levels of grouping in the report and have selected to sort by ungrouped columns, the sorting will happen within the groups in the report.