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Roxana Popistaşu IT staff Roxana-Maria.Popistasu@bnl.etat.lu. ARC – Make the best out of your Report Studio. ARC – Why Report Studio?. Query Studio ad hoc queries simple reports and charts Report Studio advanced reports and charts ( multiple-page, multiple-query )
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Roxana PopistaşuIT staffRoxana-Maria.Popistasu@bnl.etat.lu ARC – Make the best out of your Report Studio
ARC – Why Report Studio? • Query Studio • ad hoc queries • simple reports and charts • Report Studio • advanced reports and charts (multiple-page, multiple-query) • specific needs (complex prompts and filters) • greater flexibility in calculating and formatting results • re-use
Report Studio • Challenges • complexity of the tool* • little ExLibris documentation* • knowledge of the underlying database • difficulty dealing with error messages (+ access to the log files on the ARC server) “CM-REQ-4342 The client did something wrong.”“You do not have permission to use Report Studio. Report Studio is shutting down. For more information, contact the administrator.” * IBM training: Cognos Report Studio (3 days)
ALEPH & ARC • Environment • ALEPH: v18 • (ARC) Report Studio: v8.2
Report design - tips & tricks • Use: • headers & footers(“Menu: Structure -> Page Header and Footer...”) – for information that applies to the entire report and that appears on every page • blocks and tables (“Toolbox: Insertable Objects”)– for horizontal alignment, respectively horizontal and vertical alignment in layout • (!) blocks and table cells do not add space between objects => insert a text object with “space” character(s) • images (for logos etc.) only when not saving the report as an Excel file
Report design - advanced Conditional formatting • conditional styles • better identify exceptional or unexpected results • conditional layouts • multilingual reports • multiformatreports (pdf, Excel, html etc.)
Crosstabs • Crosstab reports are used to show the relationships between three or more query items. • Crosstab reports show data in rows and columns with information summarized at the intersection points.
Crosstabs – tips & tricks • In crosstabs only measures (no texts, no dates) can be used for the body (intersection of rows & columns) • In order to add more than one measure for a crosstab insert all fields at the same time either as rows or as columns and do not use a default measure • There is no grouping with crosstabs (that is done automatically when creating the crosstab). • A list can be transformed into a crosstab, but not the other way around. • Nested crosstabs can be created by adding more than one item to rows or columns.
Filters • By creating filters certain conditions are defined around query items in order to report on a specific subset of data. • The filter applies to all rows in the list / crosstab / chart etc.
Filters – tips & tricks • For filters you can use: • constants (typed or selected from the data available in ARC), data items, parameters (prompt values) etc. • Filters can be: • optional (for prompts), required or disabled (for test purposes) • detail (on an item) or summary (on aggregate data – totals etc.) filters • (!) Detail filters work with the rows at the database level (before any aggregation): the values are chosen according to the filter and only afterwards combined.
Prompts Prompts are used in order to ask the user for a report specification. They function as filters. Prompts are useful for: • running the same report with different parameters • creating Report Views and schedules
ARC - Report views • Report views ≈ different outputs of the same report • the same report specification as the source report • different properties: prompt values, schedules, delivery methods, run options, languages, and output formats • Example: • report: “Loans per month” • possible report views: “BnL - Loans per month (pdf)”, “BnL - Loans per month (xls)”, “Uni - Loans per month (yearly)”, “Uni - Loans per month (trimester)”
Schedules & jobs • When scheduling a report several options can be set. • Scheduling works with reports & report views. • For multiple reports that need to run at the same time, schedules can be grouped in a job. • (!) Several report views for the same report can be added to a job, with different prompt values / languages / output or delivery options, but they need to have different names.
ARC - Report Studio Questions, remarks, suggestions? Roxana Popistaşu Roxana-Maria.Popistasu@bnl.etat.lu