Report Form File Functions
When you activate the File item in the Function menu bar at the top of the report form, a series of items will be displayed in the Action menu bar just below. These are the Save, Save As, Save Group, Save Total, Print and Run items.
Save
If the Save function is activated when a previously saved set of report criteria that you own (that is to say, a set of report criteria that you have created and/or have previously edited) is displayed in the report form, the system will "re-save" the criteria and options as they exist at that moment, using the same report name. Any edits or changes that have been made since the last time this report criteria was saved are preserved, and the "old" version will be overwritten.
When the Save function has completed successfully, you will be given a message that reminds you of the Report Category into which the criteria was saved, the Report Name that had been previously assigned to the report (by you or another user), and the Table Name that the system assigns and uses to store and retrieve the report criteria. You must click on the OK button to clear this message.
If the Save function is activated when a new set of report criteria is displayed in the report form (the criteria has never been saved), the system will behave in the same way that it does when the Save As function is activated, prompting you to assign a name to the report criteria.
- If you do not own this previously saved set of report criteria and you are a Report Administrator, the system will re-save the criteria and options as they exist at that moment, using the same report name, and ownership of this set of report criteria is now transferred to you.
- If you do not own this previously saved set of report criteria and you are not a Report Administrator, the system will behave in the same way that it does when the Save As function is activated, prompting you to assign a name to the report criteria.
- A system administrator can grant Report Administrator privileges to individual users through User Maintenance, or to an Millennium Database Group through Group Maintenance.
- If you are logged on as a Millennium system administrator (a system administrator with a User ID that is not sa/MILLORA) and save a report, the report will be owned by 'dbo'.
Save As
If you activate the Save As function, the current set of criteria and options that appear in the report form will be saved with a name that you will be asked to assign. If you began the current procedure by opening (and possibly) editing an existing report criteria, that original report will be unchanged by the Save As function. An additional report will be saved with the new name you assign, which includes any edits you may have made since first opening the report. If you began the current procedure using a report template, the template will be maintained in its original, standard form, and you will be prompted to assign a name to the report you are creating.
- When the Save As function is activated, you will first be asked to assign the report to a Report Category (also known as a standard report library). You may place the report into any of the standard categories (libraries), regardless of any previous association. For example, if you use a template from the Financial category to begin the creation of a report and make any edits that you want, you may then save the report into any Report Category that you want. You are not restricted to the Financial Category. To assign the report to a category, you will be given a pull down list box showing the standard category names. You will click on one to highlight it and then click on the OK button to choose it.
- You will then be prompted to assign the report to a Report Group. To do so, you will be shown a list of the Report Groups defined at your site. Click one to highlight it and click OK.
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Finally, you will be prompted to assign a name to the report criteria. To do so, you will be shown a list of the report names that are already present in that category. This serves as a reminder of those names that have already been used so that you can avoid them, or it allows you to choose one of the named reports that you want to overwrite with your new report criteria. To enter a new name, type the name into the text box to the right of the list of existing names. The report name can be up to 50 characters in length. You cannot start the name with a number or a symbol. Avoid using punctuation, except for the underscore character, in the report name.
To use an existing report name and overwrite the previous criteria, scroll to the name in the list to the left and click on the name to highlight it. Click the Add button to move the name to the text box on the right.
- When the Save As function has completed successfully, you will be given a message that reminds you of the Report Category into which the criteria was saved, the Report Name you assigned to the report, and the Table Name that the system assigns and uses to store and retrieve the report criteria. You must click on the OK button to clear this message.
If you are logged on as a Millennium system administrator (a system administrator with a User ID that is not sa/MILLORA) and save a report, the report will be owned by 'dbo'.
Save Group
The Save Group function is used to store a set of criteria statements for re-use in another report. The item in the action toolbar is enabled when the current criteria contains at least one Group, either mandatory or optional, and one of the Group header lines has been highlighted. In that situation, the Save Group item may be used to save the entire set of criteria statements that belong to that group. You will be prompted to assign a name to the saved set of statements. You may not save individual statements or groups of statements unless they have been defined as a formalized group in the criteria, though you may certainly define a set of statements as a group within the criteria, save the group, and then edit the criteria to remove the group designation, if desired.
These statements are stored in individual rows in the report_criteria table. Fields in that table serve to link the statements and preserve their order when you use them in another report. Since Group designations (Group A, Group B, Mandatory Group, etc.) are dynamic within any set of criteria, the designation for a saved group of statements does not carry over from the original criteria to a new location.
Begin by highlighting a Mandatory Group within a set of criteria and saving it. All of the individual statements from that Mandatory Group are saved with a name that you assign. Next, you might open a different report and use the Add, Saved Criteria action to identify the set of statements that you saved. When you do so, those statements will be 'pasted' into the current report as individual lines of criteria. They will be in the same order as they were when you saved them, but they will not be identified as a distinct Group. If you want for them to be treated as such, you should use the Add, Group or Add, Mandatory Group actions to add the group header and then Add, Saved Criteria to copy in the saved set of statements.
Save Total
The Save Total function is used to store a set of criteria statements that define a Total for re-use in another report. The item in the action toolbar is enabled when the current criteria contains at least one Total and one of the Total header lines has been highlighted. In that situation, the Save Total item may be used to save the entire set of criteria statements that belong to that Total definition. You will be prompted to assign a name to the saved Total.
The individual criteria statements from the Total are stored in individual rows in the report_criteria table. Fields in that table serve to link the statements and preserve their order when you use them in another report. Since the number assigned to each Total (Total 1, Total 2, Total 3, etc.) is dynamic within any set of criteria, the designation for a saved Total does not carry over from the original criteria to a new location.
Begin by highlighting a header Total 3 - Sum, Pledges From 2014 within a set of criteria and saving it. All of the individual statements from that Total are saved as individual rows in the report_criteria table, with a name that you assign. Next, open a different report and use the Add, Saved Criteria action and then the Add Saved Total to identify the definition that you saved. When you do so, those statements will be 'pasted' into the current report with a Total heading that includes the same descriptive information as the original, but a number that is consistent with the location of the Total in the new report. Therefore, if there are no other Totals in the report at the time, the header would read, Total 1 - Sum, Pledges 2014. It would be followed by the defining criteria statements.
The Print function is available to allow you to view and print all the details of the report criteria. Note that this refers to the specifications of the report, not the data that is formatted and published following the run of the report. When you click on the Print item in the action menu bar, the details will be displayed as an HTML page, in the large display area to the right. You may view the details on the page, and if you want to send that page to the printer, you may right click within the display and then choose the Print command from the resulting pop-up menu.
Tip: You may also use your browser's Print command.
The following details will be printed:
Report Information
- The Report Title is the title that you assigned to this report criteria via the text box on the Report form.
- The Report Owner is the User ID of the person who created the report.
- The Report Table is the system-generated name of the report criteria that is used internally to store and retrieve the report criteria.
- The Report Path shows the complete directory path to the location of the sub-directory that contains the report.
- The Report Format names the file that contains the format used by the report.
- The Export Format names the standard export file layout for the Export file that will be created by the run of the report.
Report Options
- The Spousal Records item shows whether the report is set to use combined names if either is selected, only if both are selected or not at all.
- The Remove Duplicate Records item shows whether or not the report is set to remove "extra" rows from the export worktable that belong to the same constituent (so that each selected constituent is represented only once in the export worktable)
- The Include Deceased item shows whether or not the report will include or exclude the rows belonging to constituents who are deceased.
- The Remove Spouses item shows whether or not the report will or will not remove any selected rows belonging to one of the spouses, when both spouses have rows that have been selected.
- The Report Writer item shows the name of the third party formatting software that will be used to format the data for final output.
- The Format Salutation item shows whether the export worktable will or will not contain the Salutation Name belonging to each selected constituent.
- The Salutation Name Code item shows the lookup table code for the Name Type of the row from which the Salutation Name field is copied (if any).
- The Formatted Name Code item shows the lookup table code for the Name Type of the row from which the Formatted Name field is copied (if any).
- The Home Address Type item shows the lookup table code for the Address Type field from the Address row that should be used as the "Home Address" field in the export worktable.
- The Business Address Type item shows the lookup table code for the Address Type field from the Address row that should be used as the "Business Address" field in the export worktable.
- The Accounting Method item shows the name of the Gift/Dues Transactions Amount column that the Crystal format will display on a format and use in calculations - Cash, Asset, or Net Present Value.
Report Parameters
- Any Standard, Stored, or Crystal report parameters that have been defined for this report will be listed. Both the value and description (name) for each parameter will be shown when the report criteria is printed.
Report Criteria
- All criteria statements for the report will be shown.
Run
Use the Run action item to begin the process of assigning the report to a queue, where the run will be launched at the appropriate time. All procedures for running a report via this item are the same as they would be if you chose to run the report via the Run Criteria item in the Millennium Explorer. This function is simply a shortcut to run a report that is already open in the Report form. For complete information on the results of clicking the Run menu item, see the topic, Run Criteria.