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Applying Web Controls

Using parameter control to specify a parameter to a report

Using parameter form control to run reports

Using filter control to filter report data

Using navigation control to undo/redo value selection in filter controls

Web controls are report components designed to be similar to the kinds of controls found on web pages. In Page Report Studio, these four types of web controls can be applied: parameter control, parameter form control, filter control, and navigation control. However for page report created in JReport Designer, you can add web controls to them only when the corresponding catalog contains business views.

A JReport Live license for JReport Server is required in order to use this feature. If you do not have the license, contact your Jinfonet Software account manager to obtain it.

Using parameter control to specify a parameter to a report

A parameter control is a web control that is bound with a parameter used by the current report. By specifying values to the parameter in a parameter control, you can pass the parameter values to JReport and run the report with the specified values.

Cascading parameters cannot be used in parameter controls. If you want to do this, use parameter form controls instead.

To insert a parameter control and use it to specify a parameter to a report:

1. Do either of the following:
   • Click Menu > Insert > Parameter Control, then point to the destination where you want to add the parameter control and click the mouse button.
   • Drag Parameter Control from the Toolbox panel to the destination in the report.

   The Insert Parameter Control dialog appears.

   

2. Select the parameter you would like to add to the parameter control, then click OK.
3. A parameter control will be added into the report. Specify the value for the parameter. You may specify the value in one of these ways.
4. Once the value in the parameter control changes, the report will re-run with the new parameter value.

Using parameter form control to run reports

A parameter form control is a web control that is bound with the parameters used by the current report or other reports. By specifying values to the parameters in a parameter form control, you can make the reports run with the specified parameter values.

To insert a parameter form control and use it to run report:

1. Do either of the following:
   • Click Menu > Insert > Parameter Form Control, then point to the destination where you want to add the parameter form control and click the mouse button.
   • Drag Parameter Form Control from the Toolbox panel to the destination in the report.

   The Insert Parameter Form Control dialog appears.

   

2. Specify the target reports to run using the parameter form control.
   • To run the current report, select Current Report, then specify the parameters used to run the report from the Select Parameters box.
   • To run other reports, select Others, then select the reports you want to run. If all the selected reports contain no parameters, you cannot finish the dialog.
3. Specify whether to include the Submit button in the parameter form control. If Submit is included, it is used to submit the parameter values you specified in the parameter form control. If Submit is not included, once you change the values of a parameter in the parameter form control, the new values will be applied automatically.
4. Click OK in the dialog to save the changes.

   The parameter form control is now inserted in the report. It lists the selected parameters for the current report or lists all parameters used by the specified reports.

5. In the parameter form control, specify values of the listed parameters. You may specify the values in these ways.
6. Click the Submit button to run the current report or the specified reports if the button is available. If there is no Submit button, the change of values in the parameter form control will trigger report re-running.

Using filter control to filter report data

A filter control is used to filter one or more data components in a report, which refer to tables, banded objects, charts, and crosstabs. For how a filter control works, see Filtering Scenarios.

The filters created via filter controls are also referred to as on-screen filters.

To insert a filter control and use it to filter report data:

1. Do either of the following:
   • Drag Filter Control from the Toolbox panel to the destination in the report.
   • Click Menu > Insert > Filter Control, then point to the destination where you want to add the filter control and click the mouse button.

   The Insert Filter Control dialog appears.

   

2. The Select Fields drop-down list lists all the group and detail objects in the business views used by the current report. Select the objects of the same data type based on which to create the filter control, and then click outside of the drop-down list to close it. The name of the first selected object will be displayed as the name of the filter control.

   

3. All values of the selected objects are used in the filter control by default. If you want to customize the value list, check Customize Initial Values and then click Fetch Data to select the desired values in the Fetch Data dialog. You can also type in the values manually in the text box below.

   To enter a value, input it in one row, and then press the Enter key to start a new row. General text editing operations including copy, paste, cut, backspace, delete and so on are supported. You need to make sure of the accuracy of the formats and values.

   

4. By default, all filter controls that are applied to the same data components are linked. Selecting a value in one filter control, for example, USA, will result in that all the other linked filter controls respond to gray the values that do not belong to USA or that do not contain USA or that are not related to USA like London. If you do not want the filter control to be affected by other on-screen filters, unselect Link to Other Filters.
5. From the Apply To drop-down list, specify which data components in the report the filter will be applied to.

   By default, JReport applies the filter to all the data components created using the business views in which the selected objects are obtained. If you uncheck the data components which are based on the same business view as any selected objects, these objects will not be used in the filter and thus their values will not be listed in the filter control.

6. Click OK. The filter control is then inserted in the report, listing values of the selected objects which are applicable to the specified data components. If the selected objects have values in common, the common values are distinctive in the filter control.
7. Select the values with which you want to filter the report data. A filter condition based on the selected values is then applied to the specified data components in the report.

   You can make use of the Ctrl or Shift key to select multiple values. If the values themselves have inter-relationship, after you make the selection, JReport will deal with the rest values to put the related ones on the top and gray the ones that have no relationship with the selected values. The grayed values are still selectable.

After inserting filter controls in the report, you can also insert a navigation control for undoing/redoing the value selection in the filter controls.

Managing a filter control

When you right-click on the title bar of a filter control, these options are available for managing the filter control.

• Properties
  Opens the Filter Control Properties dialog for modifying the properties of the filter control. The dialog provides an entry to editing the filter control. To do this, in the General tab, click beside the Filter On text box. Then in the Edit Filter Control dialog, change the settings of the filter control.
• Search
  Displays the quick search toolbar which enables you to search values in the filter control. You can also click the button on the title bar of the filter control to launch the quick search toolbar.

  

  The following are details about the usage of the quick search toolbar:

  • Text field
    Type in the text you want to search for in the text field and the matched text will be highlighted among the field values.
  • X
    Closes the quick search toolbar. You can also click outside of the quick search toolbar to achieve this.
  • 
    Lists the advanced options.
    • Highlight All
      Specifies whether to highlight all matched text.
    • Match Case
      Specifies whether to search for text that meets the case of the typed text.
    • Match Whole Word
      Specifies whether to search for text that matches a whole word and ignore partial word matches.
  • 
    When Highlight All is selected, you can use this button to go to the previous matched text.
  • 
    When Highlight All is selected, you can use this button to go to the next matched text.
• Clear
  Cancels the selection of values in the filter control. You can also use the button on the title bar to cancel the selection. This operation can be undone/redone.
• Sort
  Sorts the values in the filter control in the ascending or descending order.
• Delete
  Removes the filter control from the report and the filter you created with the filter control will be removed from the report too. You can also use the close button on the title bar to remove the filter control.
• Hide
  Hides the filter control.

Saving and using default values in filter controls

When the Use Default On-screen Filter Values feature is enabled for page reports, each end user can save the values specified to the filter controls in a page report as the default values for the report and for him. Next time when the user runs the report, the saved values will be applied to the filter controls by default. The default values in filter controls work on a user-report basis.

• To save values specified to the filter controls in a report as the default values, on the Menu drop-down list, go to Report > On-screen Filter Values and then select Save as Default.
• To clear the default values that have been saved to the filter controls in a report, on the Menu drop-down list, go to Report > On-screen Filter Values and then select Clear Default.
• To replace the values specified in the filter controls in a report with the saved default values, on the Menu drop-down list, go to Report > On-screen Filter Values and then select Restore to Default.

Link relationship between filter controls

By default, all the filter controls applied to the same data components in a report are interlinked. The link relationship is reflected on the filter values dynamically: selecting a value in one on-screen filter will result in that values which do not belong to the selected value, contain the selected value or relate to the selected value are grayed in all the other linked filter controls for distinguishing. For example, there is a filter control based on the field Country and another on City and they both are applied to the same table. When you select USA in the Country filter control, the values in the City filter control will change as follows if the control has scrollbar: the cities belong to USA are displayed in the upper area of the filter control, and the other cities are put in the lower area and grayed out. If the City filter control has no scrollbar, all the values remain their positions and the values not belonging to USA are grayed out. In both cases all the values are still selectable.

When using a filter control, you can determine whether or not to make the filter control apply the link relationship via the Link to Other Filters option.

Below is an example showing the logic of other linked filters:

When

Filter1 is applied to DC1, DC2, and DC3.

Filter2 is applied to DC1.

Filter3 is applied To DC2.

Filter4 is applied to DC2 and DC3.

The result:

For Filter1, other linked filters are Filter2, Filter3, and Filter4.

For Filter2, other linked filter is Filter1.

For Filter3, other linked filters are Filter1 and Filter4.

For Filter4, other linked filters are Filter1 and Filter3

Using navigation control to undo/redo value selection in filter controls

A navigation control can be considered as an accessorial control for filter controls and is used to deal with the value selection operations in all the filter controls in the same report.

To insert a navigation control into a report, do either of the following:

• Click Menu > Insert > Navigation Control, then point to the destination where you want to add the navigation control and click the mouse button.
• Drag Navigation Control from the Toolbox panel to the destination in the report.

A navigation control is a combination of three buttons:

• Back
  Goes back to the previous value selection status and refreshes the report data accordingly.
• Clear
  Removes all the value selection histories and all the filter conditions based on the selections, and refreshes the report data accordingly.
• Forward
  Goes forward to the next value selection status and refreshes the report data accordingly.

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