understanding tabular things in order to modify report?

[ravina]

Hi,

I have opened an existing report and looking through query explorer, under some queries... it says tabular model.. all this queries.. I could run through run menu and see data there itself.. without going to Toad..
however the report query.. shows tabular model1.. this query when tried to run through run menu, view data... tells me there are some permission issues... I see no data..

I am trying to understand report. it seems there are two tabular models used.. and it seems that all queries on prompt page goes to tabular model, and for data on report page... that query goes to tabular model1..for which it doesn not show may any data.

can someone help me better understand this tabular things?

thanks.

-ravina

 

[mfgf]

In ReportNet, every Query has a tabular child of some kind. Usually it's a Tabular Model, which means ReportNet is generating the SQL based on what data items have been selected. The Tabular Model defines the data being brought in, and the Query defines how that data is grouped.

If you have a List report, the list has a Query, which of course needs a Tabular Model. If you also want your report to prompt for a value, and the prompt needs to display a list of values, it too will need a Query (and of course a Tabular Model) in order to retrieve the list of values from the database.

My guess is this is what you are seeing.

Regards,

MF.

 

[ravina]

Thanks. in that case,.. in my report ..can there be anything that does not require a query and so, does not require tabular model?

also, I see that there is a text field prompt on my prompt page ... for which I do not see query or tabular model..why is that so? and going through the properties.. I do not understand where and how it is used in my report generation?

and why did it decide to use only two tabular models? not more...not less? it seems like it used one for prompt table objects queries.. and other for main report page query?

can you give me an example?

 

[mfgf]

Hi,

Queries (and therefore tabular models) are used to retrieve data from a data source. If you have items such as text fields in your report, they do not require a query as they are really part of the report layout.

It is entirely possible to have a prompt that does not have an associated query too - text box prompts (or type-in fields, if you prefer) do not need to retrieve data from the database to display as part of the prompt, so do not require their own query.

How is the prompt used in your query? If you select the prompt and look at the list of properties on the left hand side, you should find a 'Parameter' property which is set to a particular name (MF, for example). If you now hover over the Query Explorer on the liddle toolbar and select the Query your report uses, you should see either a filter defined for the query (on the right-hand side), or alternatively navigate to the Tabular Model below the query, and you should find a filter defined there. Wherever you find the filter, click on it to select it, and find it's 'Expression' property on the left hand side. If you edit the expression, you should find the parameter name used in the filter, encapsulated in question marks (eg [Initials] = ?MF?)

Why does your report have 2 queries (and therefore 2 tabular models)? One is used for the report itself (list, crosstab, chart etc - whatever it may be) to retrieve data for the report, the other is used (probably) to retrieve data for a Value Prompt (ie a prompt displaying a list of values to the user).

Without seeing your report, it's all guesswork on my part, but hopefully I'm somewhere near the mark on this!

Best regards,

MF.

 

[ravina]

Thanks mfgf.
it makes things clear now.
-ravina