In one of our application, we came across a situation, which I am going explain in terms of Paint application.
We have a dashboard with two pages viz, Central Region Revenue and Eastern Region Revenue
In the first page we have to show the monthly revenue for Central Region and in the second page we have to show the revenue for Eastern Region. The presentation of the data (in terms of formatting, no of columns etc) for both pages is same as shown below.
We can create two reports with same columns but restricted to Central and Eastern regions separately. In this case it might be feasible, but what if we have to show the same report in ‘n’ no of pages restricted to ‘n’ distinct values we may end up in creating ‘n’ distinct reports. It’s not easy to maintain ‘n’ no of reports with the same format.
The other way could be, create one report with the region column as prompted and create ‘n’ no of prompts and use them in each page. The prompt will restict the data in each page.
The request will like
Saved the report as Regional Revenue.
Now created two prompts as shown below
Prompt Name: Region – Central
Scope : Page
Show: SQL Results and the query is
SELECT Markets.Region saw_0 FROM Paint WHERE Markets.Region = 'CENTRAL REGION' ORDER BY saw_0
Defaults to : Specific Value and Value is CENTRAL REGION (select from the list)
Prompt Name: Region – Eastern
Scope : Page
Show: SQL Results and the query is
SELECT Markets.Region saw_0 FROM Paint WHERE Markets.Region = 'EASTERN REGION' ORDER BY saw_0
Defaults to : Specific Value and Value is EASTERN REGION (select from the list)
In the dashboard created two pages viz, Central Region Revenue and Eastern Region Revenue. In the edit dashboard of each page set the following properties
Dashboard page: Central Region Revenue
Create two sections.
In section 1, add the Region – Central prompt
In section 2, add the Regional Revenue report
Dashboard page: Eastern Region Revenue
Create two sections.
In section 1, add the Region – Eastern prompt
In section 2, add the Regional Revenue report
When the changes to the dashboard page is saved and navigated to the dashboard, the same dashboard will look like
In this way, the user will get to see the revenue of each region in a separate page but we used only one report.
The main advantage of this approach is that, the pages are controlled by the prompts and it’s easy to maintain prompts as compared to the reports. If, in a report, the data needs to be displayed for two regions then the prompt can be changed to display two regions and the report gets restricted for the two regions displayed by the prompt.
The problem with this approach was that, the prompt was displayed in the page at the beginning. After discussing with the users, we brought the section to the bottom of the page so that the user will not see it in the begining (our dashboard pages used to display many reports and the user have to navigate vertically).
One of our team members showed a blog by John Minkjan in which we came to know about hiding a section. Here is the link
We are going to use the same technique for some more requirements. We will blog those details very soon.
Now lets use the technique to hide the sections.
Go to edit dashboard,
click on the properties of the Section 1which needs to be hidden,
click on Properties -> Format section
Expand Custom CSS Style Options (HTML Only)
Check the Use Custom CSS Style check box and enter Display:None
Accept the changes and go back to the dashboard.
We will get the report as per the requirement but the prompts will be hidden.
We have a dashboard with two pages viz, Central Region Revenue and Eastern Region Revenue
In the first page we have to show the monthly revenue for Central Region and in the second page we have to show the revenue for Eastern Region. The presentation of the data (in terms of formatting, no of columns etc) for both pages is same as shown below.
We can create two reports with same columns but restricted to Central and Eastern regions separately. In this case it might be feasible, but what if we have to show the same report in ‘n’ no of pages restricted to ‘n’ distinct values we may end up in creating ‘n’ distinct reports. It’s not easy to maintain ‘n’ no of reports with the same format.
The other way could be, create one report with the region column as prompted and create ‘n’ no of prompts and use them in each page. The prompt will restict the data in each page.
The request will like
Saved the report as Regional Revenue.
Now created two prompts as shown below
Prompt Name: Region – Central
Scope : Page
Show: SQL Results and the query is
SELECT Markets.Region saw_0 FROM Paint WHERE Markets.Region = 'CENTRAL REGION' ORDER BY saw_0
Defaults to : Specific Value and Value is CENTRAL REGION (select from the list)
Prompt Name: Region – Eastern
Scope : Page
Show: SQL Results and the query is
SELECT Markets.Region saw_0 FROM Paint WHERE Markets.Region = 'EASTERN REGION' ORDER BY saw_0
Defaults to : Specific Value and Value is EASTERN REGION (select from the list)
In the dashboard created two pages viz, Central Region Revenue and Eastern Region Revenue. In the edit dashboard of each page set the following properties
Dashboard page: Central Region Revenue
Create two sections.
In section 1, add the Region – Central prompt
In section 2, add the Regional Revenue report
Dashboard page: Eastern Region Revenue
Create two sections.
In section 1, add the Region – Eastern prompt
In section 2, add the Regional Revenue report
When the changes to the dashboard page is saved and navigated to the dashboard, the same dashboard will look like
In this way, the user will get to see the revenue of each region in a separate page but we used only one report.
The main advantage of this approach is that, the pages are controlled by the prompts and it’s easy to maintain prompts as compared to the reports. If, in a report, the data needs to be displayed for two regions then the prompt can be changed to display two regions and the report gets restricted for the two regions displayed by the prompt.
The problem with this approach was that, the prompt was displayed in the page at the beginning. After discussing with the users, we brought the section to the bottom of the page so that the user will not see it in the begining (our dashboard pages used to display many reports and the user have to navigate vertically).
One of our team members showed a blog by John Minkjan in which we came to know about hiding a section. Here is the link
We are going to use the same technique for some more requirements. We will blog those details very soon.
Now lets use the technique to hide the sections.
Go to edit dashboard,
click on the properties of the Section 1which needs to be hidden,
click on Properties -> Format section
Expand Custom CSS Style Options (HTML Only)
Check the Use Custom CSS Style check box and enter Display:None
Accept the changes and go back to the dashboard.
We will get the report as per the requirement but the prompts will be hidden.
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