Click or drag to resize
* Running Reports

[This is preliminary documentation and is subject to change.]

Running reports in a TOPICA application involves these steps:

Establishing context

Running reports is one of the tasks, where the context is crucial.

To run a report, determine what context would be logical. For example, to run a report showing data on patients from one hospital department:

  1. Set the hospital department in context.

  2. You will be presented with a list of reports that may be run in the context. Select the report from this list.

Possible contexts:

Context

How to select and run a report

System context (= no object in context)

Select "System / Reports" from the main manu - always available.

Organizational unit

Select "Reports" tab from sub menu.

Employee / user

Select "Reports" tab from sub menu.

Patient

Select "Reports" tab from sub menu.

Record

Click the printer icon in the top right corner of the form displaying the record. A pop-up window will appear. The contents of this window will depend on the number of reports configured for the type of record (= the table).

Count

Action

0

I.e. NO reports are configured for this table.

An auto-generated default form print view (with data from the selected record) is displayed.

Click the "Print" button or use the browser's print-function to print this "print view".

1

The unique report found is automatically run. Any of the supported report formats is possible.

In case of the "simple" TOPICA built-in report format or a Reporting Services report, the report definition should have attribute AutoSubmit=True (see ReportDefinition). This results in, that the report content is displayed automatically - otherwise the end user must click the "OK" button before the report displays any data.

> 1

I.e. SEVERAL reports are configured for this table.

The TOPICA framework does not know which of these reports the end user would like to run.

Therefore, a list of the available reports is displayed. When the end user clicks one of the reports, it is run (just as if the selected report was the only one - see above).

Selecting the required report

The user interface for selecting a report to run is based on the TOPICA Explorer.

Browse the hierarchy (tree) in the left frame, expanding folders as necessary, until you find the report you want to run. Some folders may be disabled ("dimmed"). This indicates, that reports in the folder are not available to the current user. This is a result of "folder level security" - see Report security - set up by Role Configurator.

When the requested report is located, click the report name in the tree. In the right frame the requested report is run - (see below for input of parameters and submit behavior).

It is possible that a report is selectable in the tree, but a message is displayed in the right frame when the report is selected. This is a result of "report level security" - see Report security - set up by Role Configurator.

Entering parameter values for the report

Most reports are designed to automatically use parameters from the context.

Many reports need some date interval parameters. Therefore, the report start-up form contains a standard mechanism, where the user may enter such a date interval. The user may select among 4 interval types:

Interval

Description

None

No date interval passed to report.

The report will display all data without limiting to any date interval.

Day

User may enter "from date" and "to date", which are sent to the report.

Month

The user may enter "from year and month" and "to year and month".

The first date in the "from month" and the last date in the "to month" are passed to the report.

Year

The user may enter "from year" and "to year".

The first date in "from year" and the last date in "to year" are passed to the report.

Each report may define which interval type(s) are enabled. Each report may also define default values for length of the date interval. For example 30 days ending today, or 12 months ending the current month.

Some reports are designed to prompt the user for additional report specific parameters. These types of parameters are possible:

  • Text

  • CheckBox

  • DropDownList

  • ListBox

The parameters with lead text, default values, etc. are defined in each report by Role Configurator - for details on how to set this up, refer to Developing Reports and TOPICA Report Format.

Each report-specific parameter (except context parameters) generate an input field in the start-up form.

Submit behavior
Note Note

This is valid for TOPICA report format reports - NOT custom reports.

  • Default behavior is, that when an end user has selected a report, a start-up form is displayed. This start-up form displays input fields for any date interval selection and/or report specific parameters (as defined in the report). Only when user clicks the OK button, the report data is displayed.

  • Some reports do not need any parameters (besides the context parameters) - or will most often be run with default values for all parameters. In this case the report may be set up to in "autosubmit" mode. In this mode the report contents is displayed automatically - the user does not have to click the OK button first.

    • If parameters are defined for the report, the user can change the parameter values, click OK, and the report will be refreshed with the new parameters.

See Also