Report Studio

Building Your Own Prompt and Prompt Page

You can create your own prompts and prompt pages to control how they appear in a report. Prompts can be used to narrow down report results (by time period, workspace type, project manager, etc.) and make the report more accessible.

To build a Prompt and Prompt Page:

Pause the pointer over the page explorer button and click Prompt Pages.
From the Toolbox tab, drag Page to the Prompt Pages box.
Double-click the page you just created.
From the Toolbox tab , drag one of the following prompt controls to the prompt page.

Prompt Control	Description
Text Box Prompt	Retrieves data based on a value that you type. Use this control when users know exactly what value they want to enter, such as a name or account number.
Value Prompt	Retrieves data based on values that you select from a list. Use this control to show the list of possible values from which users can choose. Note: The maximum number of items that can appear in a list is 5000.
Select & Search Prompt	Retrieves values based on search criteria that users specify. Data is then retrieved based on values users select from the search results. Use this control instead of a value prompt if the list of values is very long, which can slow down performance. Note: Users have the option of performing a case sensitive or case insensitive search. A case sensitive search is faster, while a case insensitive search usually returns more values. .
Date Prompt	Retrieves data based on a date that you select. Use this control when you are filtering a date column. With this control, users can retrieve data for a specific day, a set of days, or a range of days.
Time Prompt	Retrieves data based on a time that users select. Use this control to restrict a report to a particular time or time range. For example, users can see how many orders are received after business hours. Users can then use this information to determine the number of staff needed to work after hours.
Date & Time Prompt	Retrieves data based on a date and time that you select. Use this control when you are filtering a datetime or timestamp column. This control is useful for specifying ranges. For example, you can retrieve all orders received from Monday at 12:00 a.m. to Friday at 5:00 p.m.
Interval Prompt	Retrieves data based on a time interval that you specify. Use this control to retrieve data that is related to the passage of time. For example, you can use this control to retrieve a list of products that were returned 30 or more days after they were purchased.
Generated Prompt	Selects a prompt control based on the data type of the data item. This control acts like a placeholder. When you run the report, the control is replaced by the appropriate prompt control. For example, if you are prompting date values, the control is replaced by a date & time prompt.

The Prompt Wizard dialog box appears.

If you are creating a text box, date, time, date and time, interval, or generated prompt, do the following:

Create a new parameter for the prompt or use an existing parameter.
Click Next.
If you create a new parameter, define the expression by selecting a data item from the package and the operator you want to use.

Note: Make the prompt optional by selecting the Make the filter optional check box. When selected, users will not be required to choose a value when the report is run.
Go to step 7.

If you are creating a value or select & search prompt, do the following:

Create a new parameter for the prompt or use an existing parameter.
Click Next.
If you created a new parameter, and you want to use the parameter to filter data, select the Create a parameterized filter check box and define the expression by selecting a data item from the package and the operator you want to use.
You can use parameters for other purposes besides filtering data. For example, you can use a parameter to provide a value for a layout calculation, such as showing a user’s name in the report. When the report is run, you can use a parameter to prompt the user to type his name and have it appear in the report.

Note: Make the prompt optional by selecting the Make the filter optional check box. When selected, users will not be required to choose a value when the report is run.
Click Next.
If you created a parameterized filter and you have more than one query defined in the report, select the query you want to filter and then click Next.
Select the Create new query check box to create the query that will be used to build the list of data values shown when the report is run.

Note: Do not create a new query if you want to link the prompt to an existing query or if you intend to create the query at a later time.
Click the ellipses (...) beside Values to use and click the data item you want to prompt on.

Note: You can choose a data item that is different than what users will see when they are prompted (see the following step).
For example, you want to prompt on Product line. The package contains the data items Product line and Product line code. You can choose Product line code as the values to use for faster data retrieval.
Click the ellipses (...) beside Values to display and click the data item that you want users to see when they are prompted.
To create a cascading prompt, click the Cascade Source box, and select the parameter that represents the cascade source.

Click Finish.

The prompt control is added to the prompt page. A prompt page is like a report page. You can insert graphics, text, and so on, and apply any formatting you want.

You can also modify the properties of the prompt control by clicking it and making changes in the Properties pane.