If you are familiar with how to write reports, you can create your own report using the Report Writer. Depending on the type of report you design, different options may be required.
Reports can be designed for a Table format (the default) or a List format, which is similar to a spreadsheet and allows you to arrange the data in different configurations. From the start, it is important to decide on the format that best suits your needs. A change from one format to the other erases previous setup information. This occurs each time you switch from Table to List in the Report Layout field on the Layout Tab–Properties button Report Properties flyout.
Before you use the Report Writer, plan your report. Determine the information you want to see and then sketch out the columns and totals that you need. The plan can be revised as you develop the report, but an outline is helpful to stay on track.
NOTE: The WebTMA system administrator determines the Report Manager categories of reports visible to a logged in User. If you need to see or copy a report that is not available to your login privileges, ask your WebTMA administrator to review the settings found at Admin > User Management > Records / Data Access Tab–Report Categories Section.
Sub Reports
You may want information in a report that is not available in the Report Form you selected. To solve this, designate another of your reports as a Sub Report to incorporate the information. This works well for a Single Report; however, it can cause issues for List reports. See the Note below.
- Two conditions apply to the use of Sub Reports.
- The reports must be related by a common field containing unique data.
All fields from the Sub Report are included in the new report.
Sub Reports and the linked field are selected on the Layout Tab when you create your new report.
If you use Sub Reports, only the data displays in your report. WebTMA ignores the Sub Report’s title, logo, margins, etc.
NOTE: Use caution when adding Sub Reports to a List report. The database is queried for each row of the Sub Reports and of the primary report. If, for example, the main report has 500 rows and you attach three Sub Reports you have now quadrupled the number of database calls, which can cause the report to time out and fail while trying to load all the information. A better strategy is to use a single Sub Report with the desired information and significantly reduce the number of database calls.
User Restrictions in Report Writer
Users with Hide Labor Cost marked on their User / Preferences cannot include labor costs in reports they create. Labor costs are not available to those Users for any purpose such as display, sorting, or grouping.
Users with this restriction can edit existing reports, but they cannot add labor cost or see how the labor cost was used in the report. On the Layout Tab of existing reports, these Users can see labor cost mentioned. When viewing existing reports that include labor costs, the report may still be sorted and grouped by labor cost, but the data is not shown. When the User copies an existing report, all references to labor cost are removed from the report, and the User cannot use Labor Cost in any way.
Navigation Panel on Report Writer Window
When Fast Find is used on the Report Writer window, the Multi-Window Search function applies. That is, both Favorite and Multi-Window search status have been added to the panel. When you enter a Tag number in the Fast Find field on the Report Writer window, WebTMA searches your Favorite windows with Multi-Window status for the Tag and returns a list of records for that character string. Select one of the records to view the selected record.