Product How-To: Designing Report Parameters

Designing report parameters is easy with InetSoft's reporting software and it's robust tool set. View the example below to learn more about the Style Intelligence solution.

In the example that follows, you will create a parameter sheet that prompts the user for a list of products. First, you will need to create a new report that uses parameter prompting. Follow the steps below:

1. Click the Design tab in the Portal, and select ‘Report’. This opens the Report Wizard screen.
2. Click the ‘Table Wizard’ link to create a new report. (See New Report Wizards for more information about creating reports.)
3. On the ‘Select a data source’ screen, select the ‘Order Details’ query from the ‘Orders’ node. Click ‘Next.’
4. Click ‘Next’ on each subsequent screen until you reach the ‘Filtering conditions’ screen.
5. On the ‘Filtering conditions’ screen, enter “[Product] [is] [one of]” for the beginning of the condition.
6. Select the ‘Parameter’ checkbox, and enter “product” in the ‘Label’ field. This will be the parameter name.
7. Enable the ‘Use Selection List’ option. (This provides a selection list when default prompting is used.)
8. Click ‘Append’ to add the condition to the table. (See Filtering for full information on adding conditions.)
9. Click ‘Finish’. This closes the Wizard, and loads the new report. Because the report’s table uses a parameter (“product”), the report automatically displays the default parameter input screen.
10. In the ‘product’ menu of the input screen, make a selection, and then click ‘OK’. This loads the report with only the selected products shown in the table.
11. Click the ‘Save Report As’ button on the Ad Hoc toolbar, and name the report “Parameter Sheet Report”. Select ‘Save as Template’, and click ‘OK’.

You have now created a report called “Parameter Sheet Report” that has a single parameter called “product”. When a user launches this report, they will be automatically prompted for the parameter value.