Creating a Report from a Domain

Like Topics, administrators and data analysts create Domains for reuse to simplify access to data during report design. Domains give report makers more flexibility than Topics in choosing fields from the database and allow filtering of the data before it is included in a report.

A report based on a Domain can prompt the reader for input that determines what data is presented. For example, if a Domain includes all sales data for a company, the report can present detailed information grouped by postal code and prompt the reader to select the geographic area, such as a US state. The report displays only the pertinent information.

For a more complete description of how to create Domains, see section 6.2, “Example of Creating a Domain,” on page 138.

Choosing Ad Hoc Data From a Domain

When you create an Ad Hoc report based on a Domain, the Data Chooser wizard leads you through the steps of choosing fields and filters. The following example shows how to use the Data Chooser to create a simple report from a Domain.

For complete information about the options and settings available for designing reports, see Using the Data Chooser Wizard.

To create a basic report from a Domain:

The Ad Hoc Editor opens the Data Chooser wizard.

The list of the available Domains appears.

The Data Chooser opens to the Select Fields page:

The sets belonging to the Domain appear in Source. You can select whole sets or individual items within a set. A set appears in the Ad Hoc Editor as a set of fields that can be added together to a table.

•     Accounts set: Account Name field.

•     Opportunities set: Drag the whole set, but then drag back the Sales Stage field.

•     Users set: First Name and Last Name fields.

If you move a field from Source to Selected Fields, the field name and the name of its set appear in Fields.

The Data Chooser shows the Pre-filters page; you can set limits on the data that are retrieved and displayed in the table:

The item appears in Filters. If a Domain is configured for secure access, only the fields that you have permission to access are displayed. Other fields might not be visible to you, even though someone else might see them using the same Domain. Conversely, the fields that you can see might include ones that another user can’t see.

The complete filter condition appears in Filters. In this example, the filter selects only the rows of data where the opportunity amount has a value of 10,000 or more.

Note that the display names are shown under Display Label.

If you want to create different reports with the same settings, you can save the settings as a Domain Topic, as described in section Creating Topics from Domains.

The Choose the destination folder dialog box appears.

The Ad Hoc Editor appears, and Fields shows the items selected in See "In this example, expand each set and drag the following fields from Source to Selected Fields:".

In this example:

Drag the Opportunities set to the canvas to add all its fields as columns.

They are added (with the display name) in the order you defined on the Display page in See "In this example, expand each set and drag the following fields from Source to Selected Fields:".

c.

Expand the Accounts set and drag the Account Name item to the Group Control icon .

Notice that all amounts are greater than 10000, as determined by the filter you defined.

As shown in this example, creating an Ad Hoc report based on a Domain gives you more flexibility in selecting data and can subsequently speed up the design of the report itself.

In top right corner of Fields, you can click , then chooseSelect Fields to change the fields used in the report.

The Select Fields window appears, displaying two lists of tables:

•    Selected Fields lists fields that you selected while creating the report.

•    Available Fields lists the other tables in the Domain that you can use in this report. Note that you can select only the tables chosen when you created the topic.

You can expand a set in Available Fields to see its fields; fields that are used on the canvas as filters, or for sorting, appear gray in Selected Fields to indicate that they can’t be removed from the report.

You can drag a table from Available Fields to Selected Fields to add it to the report, or you can drag a table from Selected Fields to Available Fields to remove it from the report.When you remove a table, all the its fields are removed except those that are in use. You can also drag individual fields to add or remove them. If you add or remove a field accidentally, click to undo the change.

Using the Data Chooser Wizard

To design a Domain Topic or an Ad Hoc report based on a domain, use the Data Chooser wizard. To open the Data Chooser wizard, click Create > Ad Hoc Report. Select Domains, click a Domain, and click Choose Data to access the following pages of the Data Chooser wizard:

•    The Select Fields Page – Choose the fields to make available in the Ad Hoc Editor.

•    The Pre-filters Page – Define a filter on any field, with the option of prompting for user input, or to compare fields.

•    The Display Page – Change the order and names of fields that appear in the Ad Hoc Editor.

•    The Save as Topic Page – Save the settings as a Domain Topic.

You must first select some fields on the Select Fields page, but the other three pages are optional and can be completed in any order. Click Table, Chart, or Crosstab at any time to begin designing a report based on the chosen data.

The Select Fields Page

Use this page to choose fields and sets of fields to use in the report or make available in the Domain Topic.

•    The Source panel displays the sets of fields in the Domain. Use and close or expand each set.

•    The Selected Fields panel shows the items you selected. You can move a field or set back and forth between the panels by dragging, double-clicking, or selecting the item and clicking an arrow button, such as .

•    If you move an individual field out of a set, it appears in a set of the same name, for example Accounts, as shown in See "The Select Fields Page of the Data Chooser Wizard". If you do not want sets, use the settings on the Display page.

•    Some Domains define sets that are not joined. When you select a field from such a set, the unjoined sets aren’t available.

The Pre-filters Page

Filters are similar to input controls. You can pre-filter data in the Data Chooser wizard before clicking Table, Chart, or Crosstab to launch the Ad Hoc Editor or before clicking Save as Topic to create a Domain Topic. Pre-filtering data limits the data choices available in a Domain Topic or the fields that ultimately appear in the Ad Hoc report. You also can define a filter on a field that does not appear in the report. The filter is still applied and only data that satisfies all defined filters appear in the final report. For example, you can filter data to select a single country, in which case it doesn’t make sense for the Country field to appear as a row, column, or group. You also can design reports that prompt users for input of data to use as a filter.

The Pre-filters page provides powerful functionality for designing reports within the server.

To define a filter:

Choices appear for filtering the selected field:

The Equals comparison operator is selected by default in the comparison operator drop-down. Another drop-down contains account names.

In the Filters panel, a drop-down containing the account names appears from which you can select multiple values.

The account names appear in Selected Values.

By default, the Locked check box is unchecked, making the filter is available to end users when they run the report. On the report page, users can click the Options button to enter a comparison value for this condition; when the user clicks Apply or OK, the report preview refreshes with data that match the condition. The condition is available as a prompt even if the filtered field does not appear in the report. For example, the final report might present data for a single country, but the country is chosen by the user. Once defined, filter prompts can be modified in the Ad Hoc Editor, as explained in Using Input Controls.

Note that when the Locked check box is checked, the filter is unavailable to end users when they run the report. The condition is available in the Ad Hoc Editor, but users can only remove it; they can’t edit it.

Filters shows the filters you have defined.

The Display Page

Use the Display page to change the default label and order of the fields as they should appear in the list of fields in the Ad Hoc Editor. You can always change the field labels and ordering in the Ad Hoc Editor, but setting them here makes them available for reuse in a Domain Topic. See Customize the Display Page.

•    To change the order of fields, click once anywhere in a field’s row and use the Move to top, Move up, Move down, or Move to bottom buttons:

, , ,

Fields may be moved only within their set, but sets as a whole may be also be moved.

•    By default, the field name becomes the display label for the row, column, or measure that you create from the given field. To change the default display label of a field or set, double-click anywhere in the row and type the new label in the text box.

•    Sets and the fields they contain appear in the list of fields in the Ad Hoc Editor. Sets are not used in reports, but can be used to add all their fields at once, expediting report creation.

•    If you don’t want to use sets in the Ad Hoc Editor, select display as a Flat list at the top of the Fields panel. You can now relabel the fields and reorder them.

The Save as Topic Page

On the Save as Topic page, you can enter a name and a description to save the Data Chooser settings as a Domain Topic. Thereafter, you can create different reports from the Domain Topic, using its fields, filters, and display label settings. You can also edit the Domain Topic to change the settings.

•    After you enter a name for the Domain Topic, save it by clicking Table, Chart, or Crosstab from any page in the wizard. The Ad Hoc Editor opens in table, chart, or crosstab mode, respectively, ready to use the fields, filters, and display label settings.

•    By default, Domain Topics are saved in the standard Topics folder. This corresponds to the Ad Hoc Components > Topics location in the repository; JRXML Topics and Domain Topics in this folder appear on the Topics tab when you start a report. Do not modify this folder name.

•    The description text appears with the Domain Topic in the repository and at the bottom of the Topics tab of the Data Chooser wizard. Enter an informative description that helps users identify this Domain Topic.

Creating Topics from Domains

In some circumstances, it is important to create a Topic based on the Domain and data settings you chose. In other circumstances, creating a Topic isn’t necessary. The main consideration is how reports based on the Domain are used. The following table explains the choices:

Access Permissions in Domain Topics

If other users run reports from your Domain Topic and the Domain is configured for security, it is important to consider everyone’s access permissions. You might not have access to all of the fields in the Domain nor to all the data in those fields. There may be fields that can be seen only by other users, and in the fields that you can see, there may be data that is hidden from you. When you save the Domain as a Topic, only the fields that you selected appear in the Domain Topic. When you run a report from the Topic, only the data that you can access in those fields appears. When others run reports from the Topic, they see only fields that they have permission to access.

For example, in a Domain, user Tomas can access fields B-C and data rows 1-3; Anita can access fields C-E and data rows 2‑5. Tomas uses the Data Chooser wizard and saves a Domain Topic based on the Domain. When Tomas and Anita run reports, they see different combinations of fields and the data in them.

Even though Anita has permission to see more fields, they are not available to her because Tomas did not have access to them when he created the Domain Topic. However, Anita does have permission to see more data than Tomas, so when she opens or runs the report, she can see more rows than Tomas can when he views the report. See section The Domain Security File for a technical explanation of data security for Domains. See the note in section 6.5, “Editing a Domain,” on page 157 about the impact of editing a Domain or Domain Topic.

Saving Domain Settings as a Domain Topic

To save settings in the Data Chooser wizard as a Domain Topic:

Do not change the location folder. The default /adhoc/topics folder makes the saved Domain Topic available on the Topics tab when you select Create > Ad Hoc Report.

The new Topic appears in the Ad Hoc Components > Topics folder. While its repository type is Domain Topic, it appears when the Search page is filtered to show reports:

Editing a Domain Topic

You can modify the Domain Topic you created using the Data Chooser wizard.

To edit the settings in a Domain Topic:

Domain Topics are usually kept in the Ad Hoc Components > Topics folder.

The Domain Topic opens in the Data Chooser wizard:

To save changes as a new Domain Topic, navigate to the Save as Topic page and enter identifying information for the new Topic, then click Table, Chart, or Crosstab.