Tutorial 1 Stage 1 - Creating a basic report

In this stage you will learn how to :-

1. Create a new report

2. Enter report design mode

3. Set the report title and description

4. Enter the report data access query

5. Set report column labels and formatting

Beginning the Tutorial 1 Stage 1 Report

Select Film Listing - Tutorial 1 Stage 1 from the tutorials menu (Alternatively you can point your browser at the URL http://{SERVER_ADDRESS}/{REPORTICO_INSTALL_DIRECTORY}/run.php?project=tutorials&execute_mode=PREPARE&xmlin=tut1_1_films.xml). You should now enter a pretty empty report front end screen with a title of Set Report Title. You are now ready to start the first stage of building a basic report.

Enter report design mode

In order to access the report configuration screens, click on the Design Report button. You should then see the design screen with selection tabs Format, Query details, Assignments, Criteria and Output.

Press the New Report button. Nothing really seems to happen, but if you were editing a completed report then this button would start from scratch again.

Set the report title

The first configuration task to do is to set the report title by selecting the Format tab and locating the Report Title parameter. Enter the Report Title, say Film List. Then click in the Report Description text box and enter a free text description. Now save your entry by pressing the small Ok button on the right hand side of the format parameters. Every time one or more entries are made on a single screen, the appropriate Ok button must be pressed for them to be saved.

You will now see the correct report title displayed at the top of the screen. Now return to the report entry screen by selecting the Execute option from the Mode drop down list box. You should also see your text description on the right hand side. A report description can tell users what the report shows and how best to run it.

Enter the report data access query

Now return to Design mode to enter the query. Select the Query Details tab. You are presented with the SQL submenu tab which will contain a dummy query. Enter into this box the following query replacing what is already there and press then press the Ok button:

SELECT film.film_id, film.title, category.cat_desc, country.country_name 
FROM reptut_film film, reptut_country country, reptut_category category 
WHERE 1 = 1 AND film.cat_code = category.cat_code
AND film.country_code = country.country_code  
ORDER BY  country.country_name, title

If no error is reported then the query has been accepted. Note that afterwards the query has been slightly modified. Each column is now qualified with a name ( for example you entered film.film_id and the query is now showing film.film_id film_id). Also the ORDER BY section has been modified to include the ASC operator to imply ascending order.

Before continuing to the next section you may wish to try the report as it is. Select Execute mode and when you return to the Execute screen press the Execute button. You should see the report data. You will notice that the column headings are the names of the database columns. We will change these in the next stage. Return to Design mode before continuing.

Set report column labels and formatting

Enter Design mode and select the Query Details tab. Then select the Query Columns sub-tab. You will see the list of data columns relating to the query you have entered. You will now set the column label of the cat_desc column. Click on the cat_desc column and you will see the column parameters. Locate the Column Title field and enter the text Category and then press the second Ok button. You can do this if you wish for each column, capitalizing and altering the column label text. We will now make the film_id column right-justified. Select the film_id column, locate the Justification parameter and change it to right.

Checking Your Report

Now return to execute mode and run the report. You will notice your column labels have improved and the Film Id column is right justified.