Creating a Report
Creating a Report
From the Report Listing page, click on the "New Report" button. Available types of Reports are: Comparison Board, Dashboard, Data View, and Ad-hoc Query (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Report Options
After selecting the type of Report, enter a name, select the Dataset (Datasource for Ad-hoc Queries), and then click "Save" to create the Report.
Comparison Board
Comparison Boards are Reports that allow a side-by-side comparison of a Dataset based on a given Field. When adding a Visual to the Report, one will be created for each comparison point and any change to the configuration of one comparison point will be reflected in the other comparison points (Figure 2).
Figure 2: Comparison Board of orders from year to year
For more information on Comparison Boards, see What is a Comparison Board?
Dashboard
Dashboards are customizable layouts of Visuals that provide a quick overview of the data. Each Visual is customizable by moving, resizing, configuring, and filtering separately from each other. To further customize the Dashboard, apply a global Filter to the Visuals if desired (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Dashboard
For more information on Dashboards, see What is a Dashboard?
Data View
Data Views provide an easy way to view the data within a Dataset. All fields on the Dataset display in the left panel. Clicking them individually or clicking the “Select All” button in the bottom-left of the page will add them to the Data View Report (Figure 4).
Figure 4: Data View
For more information on Data Views, see What is a Data View?
Ad-hoc Query
Ad-hoc Queries do not retain data like Datasets do. Each time an Ad-hoc Query executes, it sends the request to the Datasource and the result set displays inside of Informer. Therefore, Ad-hoc Query results are not available to share in Visuals.
There are two ways to create an Ad-hoc Query; using Native SQL and through the Query Designer.
Native SQL
A Native SQL query is an option for individuals who know how to write native SQL code. This report option allows for more control over a Query’s structure. The SQL statement entered is sent directly to the SQL database “as is” to generate the Query results. Using the Native SQL query removes access to the UI options that the Query Designer provides. However, this is a particularly useful option for migrating pre-existing SQL queries from other systems (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Ad-hoc Query created using Native SQL
Query Designer
For those unfamiliar with writing queries in a native database language (SQL, TCL/ECL, etc.) the query designer is a user-friendly alternative. After a few clicks, Informer 5 will do all the work in the background and translate the Query Designer selections into an executable query that goes to the database for processing (Figure 6).
Figure 6: Ad-hoc Query created using Query Designer