Custom Report Writing Help
Hi All,
I’m trying to modify a report to include serial custom fields (in an excel format) to use the data outside of Flex.
Ideally I was hoping that the inventory export report would work and I could add some columns on the end but that one is not available to modify etc. - (So I’ve reached out to Flex and requested a feature to include/have the option to add custom fields on it)
So far I’ve only done some basic modifications to reports so my knowledge here is very limited.
I have found a report ‘Inventory asset depreciation’ which appears to be close in terms of layout - I just want to change some of the choices to be custom fields, but the language for the dataset query is SQL and has limited parameters.
I have an XML file datasource with the serial custom fields on it but that’s xpath2 and I don’t seem to be getting anywhere combining the two.
Can I have two query languages on one report? - I’m guessing no here and need to find a solution!
Does anyone know what I can do?
Thanks
-
Hi Nick-
Yes it is possible to have a report using both xpath2 and SQL queries but it's not pretty and only works under certain conditions. For what you are trying to do, a straight SQL report is likely the way to go.
Square Wave can create custom reports to your exact spec, or advise you on the best way to create it yourself if you're that particular kind of masochist ;-p
Contact me on bigs@squarewave.com.au to discuss further.
Best,
Bigs
Endorsed Flex Consultant
www.squarewave.com.au -
Hi Nick,
It _is_ possible to use two queries in a report, but it is not a simple process. There are two options for an "easy solution." One is to find a data-producer-based report and modify it since you're aware of how/where to locate the custom field data within the XML. The second is to add (learn?) the necessary SQL to modify the query in the depreciation report.
If you want to try having two queries, an example you can look at is the Customer Analysis report or the Invoice Summary List. Further examples can be found by searching all of the embedded reports for `subDataset`; this is the tag Jasper uses to define secondary queries.
Last, you always have the option of outsourcing this. Flex offers an in-house service and most of our endorsees also provide a custom reports service. From experience, I can say that this is not a difficult request on its face, but that's not always the case when actually developing the report, so I can't honestly say what to expect in that regard.
-
Thanks for the responses everyone.
At the moment we have parked this idea as it would be a report we only needed once or twice a year when we do annual testing.
At the moment it's not worth the cost of outsourcing, plus the curious part of myself would like to get my head around the whole report writing thing at some point.
Please sign in to leave a comment.
Comments
3 comments