Interactive Report Help

Interactive report regions enable end users to customize reports. Users can alter the layout of report data by selecting columns, applying filters, highlighting, and sorting. Users can also define breaks, aggregations, charts, group bys, and add their own computations. Users can also set up a subscription so that an HTML version of the report will be emailed to them at a designated interval. Users can create multiple variations of a report and save them as named reports, for either public or private viewing.

The sections that follow summarize ways you can customize an interactive report. To learn more, see "Using Interactive Reports" in Oracle Application Express End User's Guide.

Search Bar

At the top of each report page is a search region. This region (or Search bar) provides the following features:

• Select columns icon enables you to identify which column to search (or all).
• Text area enables you to enter case insensitive search criteria (wild card characters are implied).
• Go button executes the search. Hitting the enter key will also execute the search when the cursor is in the search text area.
• Reports displays alternate default and saved private or public reports.
• Rows sets the number of records to display per page.
• Actions Menu enables you to customize a report. See the sections that follow.

Actions Menu

The Actions menu appears to the right of the Go button on the Search bar. Use this menu to customize an interactive report.

Select Columns

Used to modify the columns displayed. The columns on the right display. The columns on the left are hidden. You can reorder the displayed columns using the arrows on the far right. Computed columns are prefixed with **.

Filter

Focuses the report by adding or modifying the WHERE clause on the query. You can filter on a column or by row.

If you filter by column, select a column (it does not need to be one that displays), select a standard Oracle operator (=, !=, not in, between), and enter an expression to compare against. Expressions are case sensitive. Use % as a wild card (for example, STATE_NAME like A%).

If you filter by row, you can create complex WHERE clauses using column aliases and any Oracle functions or operators (for example, G = 'VA' or G = 'CT', where G is the alias for CUSTOMER_STATE).

Format

Format enable you to customize the display of the report. Format contains the following submenu:

• Sort
• Control Break
• Highlight
• Compute
• Aggregate
• Chart
• Group By
• Pivot

Sort

Used to change the columns to sort on and determines whether to sort in ascending or descending order. You can also specify how to handle NULLs. The default setting always displays NULLs last or always display them first. The resulting sorting displays to the right of column headings in the report.

Save Report

Saves the customized report for future use. You provide a name and optional description and can make the report accessible to the public (that is, all users who can access the primary default report). You can save four types of interactive reports:

• Primary Default (Developer Only). The Primary Default is the report that initially displays. Primary Default reports cannot be renamed or deleted.
• Alternative Report (Developer Only). Enables developers to create multiple report layouts. Only developers can save, rename, or delete an Alternative Report.
• Public Report (End user). Can be saved, renamed, or deleted by the end user who created it. Other users can view and save the layout as another report.
• Private Report (End user). Only the end user that created the report can view, save, rename or delete the report.

If you save customized reports, a Reports selector displays in the Search bar to the left of the Rows selector (if this feature is enabled).

Reset

Resets the report back to the default settings, removing any customizations that you have made.

Download

Enables the current result set to be downloaded. The download formats differ depending upon your installation and report definition but may include CSV, HTML, Email, XLS, PDF, or RTF.

Column Heading Menu

Clicking on any column heading exposes a column heading menu.Options include:

• Sort Ascending icon sorts the report by the column in ascending order.
• Sort Descending icon sorts the report by the column in descending order.
• Hide Column hides the column. Not all columns can be hidden. If a column cannot be hidden, there will be no Hide Column icon.
• Break Column creates a break group on the column. This pulls the column out of the report as a master record.
• Column Information displays help text about the column, if available.
• Text Area is used to enter case insensitive search criteria (no need for wild cards). Entering a value reduces the list of values at the bottom of the menu. You can then select a value from the bottom and the selected value will be created as a filter using '=' (for example, column = 'ABC'). Alternatively, you can click the Flashlight icon and enter a value to be created as a filter with the 'LIKE' modifier (for example, column LIKE '%ABC%').
• List of Unique Values contains the first 500 unique values that meets your filter criteria. If the column is a date, a list of date ranges is displayed instead. If you select a value, a filter will be created using '=' (for example, column = 'ABC').

Report Settings

If you customize an interactive report, the report settings display below the Search bar and above the report. This area can be collapsed and expanded using the icon on the left.

For each report setting, you can:

• Edit a setting by clicking the name.
• Disable/Enable a setting by unchecking or checking the Enable/Disable check box. Use this control to temporarily turn a setting off and on.
• Remove a setting by clicking the Remove icon.

If you have created a chart, group by or pivot, you can toggle between them and the base report using the Report View, Chart View, Group By View, and Pivot View links shown on the right. If you are viewing the chart, group by or pivot, you can also use the Edit link to edit the settings.