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Managing and Using Reports in Actuate

e.Report Designer Professional


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Document No. 050620-2-130364 May 29, 2005
Contents
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Exploring Actuate 8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Addressing diverse customer profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Addressing customer requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Supporting international information delivery requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Providing a scalable, high-performance server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
Providing a complete information delivery solution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
Introducing the Actuate 8 and ReportingEngines product suites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xi
Online documentation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Using online manuals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Using online help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Using context-sensitive online help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvi
Using the Actuate online help system. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvii
Using report-specific online help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Typographical conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
Syntax conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xx
About Managing and Using Reports in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional . . . . . . . . . . . .xx

Chapter 1
Introducing Actuate e.Report Designer Professional . . . . . . . . . . 1
About business reporting using Actuate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About Encyclopedia volumes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About Actuate Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Chapter 2
Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator . . . . . . . . . . 5
Connecting to an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Solving log on problems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Using multiple Navigator windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
About the Navigator window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Navigating in the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Displaying items in the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .10
Changing the appearance and order of items in an Encyclopedia volume folder . . . . . . . 11
Searching for an item in the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12
Getting information about an Encyclopedia volume item . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14
Changing folder properties . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
Deleting an item from an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
About volume security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17

i
About user accounts and passwords . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About privileges. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Planning assignment of privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
About root folder privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
About home folder privileges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
About security roles. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
About privilege templates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
About file and folder access types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Working with folders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
About the Printers folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
About the Requests folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creating a folder in the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
Working with files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
About Actuate open server reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Understanding the types of open server files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
About file versions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Copying files to the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
Copying and moving files within the Encyclopedia volume. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Copying files from the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Importing open server files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
About SQRIBE open server files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
About file dependencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
About Encyclopedia volume autoarchive . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Displaying Encyclopedia volume autoarchive rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
About folder and file autoarchive rules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Setting folder autoarchive rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
Setting file-specific autoarchive rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
About online backup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Setting user preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Changing your password . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Changing your e-mail address. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Choosing notification options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Specifying the default locale . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Specifying search paths . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48

Chapter 3
Viewing a report using Actuate Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Opening and viewing a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Opening and viewing a report in a file system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Viewing a report in an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Viewing third-party reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Moving around in a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54

ii
Using the paging commands . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Using Go To . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55
Using hyperlinks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56
Using the table of contents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58
Using links to other Windows applications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .60
About linked and embedded objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
Editing linked and embedded objects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
About OLE automation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
About linked and embedded objects in a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .61
About zooming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .62
Personalizing the application window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .63
Moving, minimizing, and stacking windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .64
Moving, hiding, and changing toolbars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Restoring a perspective to its default layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Using screen arrangement options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Using New Window . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .66
Using Cascade. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Using Tile . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .67
Using online help . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .68
Using context menus while you view a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .69

Chapter 4
Running a report using Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
About running a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Running a report on your desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .72
Monitoring report generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Viewing pages during report generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .74
Understanding checkpoints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Refreshing the report in the Actuate Viewer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .75
Running a report in an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Creating a run request in an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .76
Specifying a report parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
Understanding the types of report parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
About optional parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .78
About required parameters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
About ad hoc parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .79
About Boolean parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Providing parameter values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .80
Specifying a value for an ad hoc parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .82
Using a date in a QBE expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .83
Using a wildcard or a literal character in a QBE string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .84
Understanding how Actuate compares a string ending in blank spaces with a QBE
expression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .86

iii
Matching an exact string value in a QBE expression. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Specifying a null value in a QBE expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Using a special character in a QBE string . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
About structure and table parameters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Specifying a value for a structure parameter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
Specifying a value for a table parameter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
Saving parameter values . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Scheduling the time to run the executable file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Creating complex report generation schedules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Setting the priority at which to run the executable file . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
About retry options . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Distributing a report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Using date and time expressions for a document or a version name . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Using a predefined format keyword . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Creating a custom date format. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Creating a custom time format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Notifying users of the completed report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Printing the completed report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Setting a run request autoarchive rule . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
Viewing the completed report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Checking the status of a run request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Understanding how Actuate iServer System manages a report request . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Getting detailed information about a request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
About contents in the Scheduled folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
About contents in the Active folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
About contents in the Completed folder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116

Chapter 5
Searching for and exporting report data using Actuate Viewer 119
About the search feature in Actuate reports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
About searchable report fields . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Identifying a searchable report field . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
Searching for report data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Understanding how a multifield search works . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
Creating search criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 122
Using a search expression in the search criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Using operators in a search expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
Using a wildcard character in a search expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Using a pattern in a search expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Searching for the ?, *, #, and [ ] characters . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Searching for a string that contains a special character . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Using a nonprinting ASCII character in a search expression . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129

iv
Using search results to navigate through the report . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Specifying data to display in Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Saving a search definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Using search definition files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
Opening and running a search definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Exporting report data . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Exporting all of the search results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135
Exporting a portion of the search results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Exporting search results to an external application . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Exporting search results to BrioQuery . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 140
Exporting search results to Microsoft Excel 97 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Exporting search results to file output . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Copying report data to another document . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146

Chapter 6
Printing and distributing a report using Actuate Viewer and
Navigator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Printing a report from your desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
About command line options for printing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
Saving reports in HTML format . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
Printing a report in an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Setting printer properties in the Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
Setting default properties for a printer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
Setting properties for a specific print request . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Running a report before printing. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Distributing an Actuate Basic report from your desktop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 160
Distributing a report stored in an Encyclopedia volume . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164

Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 165

v
vi
Introduction

Exploring Actuate 8
Actuate® Corporation is the world leader in providing enterprise reporting
application development platforms for Global 9000 companies. Actuate offers
a full suite of content-development tools that pull divergent types of data from
multiple sources and bring that data together in presentation-quality reports.
Applications that are built on Actuate technology ensure that 100% of
corporate users incorporate standard, accurate, decision-making information
in their day-by-day activities.
The Actuate product suite provides:
■ A flexible and advanced reporting model
■ A robust security model
■ Outstanding server scalability
■ A leading analytics solution for decision support
■ Automated production reporting for multiple output formats
■ Unparalleled support for multilingual reporting
■ Highly customizable appearance
■ The ability to leverage existing data warehouses and operational data
sources
■ Simplified access to complex data sources
Actuate’s scalable business intelligence solutions support working with a large
volume of transactional data and a challenging data model. Actuate’s
increasingly powerful design products reduce the overall cost of report
development. Actuate iServer and its options provide scalable performance, a
robust integration model using APIs, a web-capable enterprise server
application, and a broad range of output options.

Introduction vii
In the current business climate, Actuate’s enterprise customers need to meet
the demand for increasingly complex and customized information. Using the
capabilities of Actuate’s sophisticated security model, users in different parts
of an organization can access different parts of the same report. The ability to
develop fewer, more powerful reports that meet the needs of many levels and
types of users addresses the workload challenges facing IT organizations.
Streamlining the reporting process reconciles reduced staffing and the ever-
present backlog of IT requests with the complex reporting needs of diverse
users within an enterprise. With Actuate products, such as Actuate
e.Spreadsheet Designer, Actuate Analytics Cube Designer, and Actuate
Analytics Cube Viewer, a business user can leverage information that the IT
staff develops to meet his additional, and perhaps unique, needs.
Actuate technology ensures that 100% of users have business agility: access to
the right information in the right form to take the right action. Today’s
information manager needs increased visibility into what business users are
doing because of internal requirements for greater accountability. For example,
new SEC regulations add to the demand on the corporate information
management infrastructure. Actuate customers also need tools that ensure that
IT organizations maintain the appropriate level of control over corporate
information assets. To meet these requirements, Actuate’s information
application platform includes three key elements:
■ An information server
■ An information application development environment
■ User empowerment tools

Addressing diverse customer profiles


Actuate’s customer list continues to include leaders in aerospace, commercial
banking, defense, entertainment, federal government, financial services,
health care, high technology, insurance, life sciences, pharmaceuticals, retail,
securities, and telecommunications.
Infrastructure software from Actuate provides the foundation for applications
that support budget variance, business analysis, customer relationship
management, customized interactive reporting, e.billing, e.procurement,
executive dashboards, human resources, information portals, key performance
indicators, service automation, spreadsheet reporting, supply-chain
management, and systems management. In the e.business environment,
Actuate’s structured content technology seamlessly integrates into corporate
web sites and packaged applications.

viii M a nag ing and Us ing R ep or ts in A ctu ate e.R epo r t De sig ne r P ro fe ss io nal
Addressing customer requirements
Capturing, validating, refreshing, and delivering corporate information
remain critical customer requirements. Customers need an information
application that takes corporate data and delivers it as interactive web pages,
data cubes, and Excel spreadsheets that their customers, partners, and
employees can use.
Actuate customers need to:
■ Combine data from multiple data sources associated with multiple
transaction applications.
■ Have confidence in the consistency and maintainability of the Excel
spreadsheets on their business users’ desktops and their customers’ web
pages.
■ Readily access current information over the web without overloading
internal networks.
■ Use data cubes to perform multidimensional analysis.
■ Achieve high performance and high scalability with enterprise reporting
applications.

Supporting international information delivery


requirements
To meet the growing international needs of Actuate’s customer base, Actuate
products continue to provide an unprecedented level of support for
multilingual reporting, including full Unicode support and an extensive list of
supported locales. Some Actuate customers integrate Actuate reporting in
their own applications and provide information to thousands of customers,
amounting to millions of users in as many as fifty countries. Some Actuate
customers also deliver hundreds of reports that are translated into eighteen or
more languages.

Providing a scalable, high-performance server


Independent analysis confirms that Actuate iServer is a highly scalable, highly
available, high-performance server that further extends Actuate’s lead in
implementing enterprise-class information delivery systems. Enhanced
integration capabilities support personalized and customizable portal
development, web services, and spreadsheet reporting.

Introduction ix
Providing a complete information delivery
solution
The following table summarizes the three types of e.business applications for
which Actuate provides seamless integration through its reporting application
platform.

Infrastructure element Function Actuate role


Databases, data Organize data. Actuate’s design tools support
warehouses, and accessing, managing, and
operational data presenting formatted data.
sources
Content management Manage Actuate iServer supports
systems structured publishing, distributing, and
content. versioning structured content.
Application servers Deploy online Actuate web applications,
applications. including Actuate Active Portal
and Management Console,
support conducting complex
transactions, managing supply
chains, and interacting with
customers.

Actuate products continue to offer core solutions for fundamental enterprise


reporting and information delivery challenges, as described in the following
table.

Challenge Actuate solution


Deliver high- Solve complex data access and presentation
resolution information. problems across a broad range of data sources.
View structured Support viewing cubes, DHTML, information
content. objects, and spreadsheet reports in standard
browsers to eliminate plug-in installation for
millions of users.
Meet varied Provide:
information display ■ Template-based design and display
requirements.
■ Complex formatting capabilities
■ Spreadsheet reporting
■ Multidimensional cubes

x M a nag ing a nd U s ing R ep or ts i n A ctu ate e.R epo r t De sig ner P ro fe ss io nal
Challenge Actuate solution
Meet increasing Provide:
requirements for web- ■ Support for well over one million hits each day
based content delivery. on a single CPU.
■ Reduced development and maintenance costs.
Deliver personalized, Provide open security directory integration and
secure information. page-level security.
Reuse existing Provide access to content from other applications
integrated content. using open server technology.
Maintain data integrity Provide high-resolution printed copy from
between online and PostScript and PDF files.
hard copy.
Transfer information Provide XML output to support access to data
among applications. across applications.
Meet increasing Support clustering and fail-over.
requirements for
server-based reporting.

Introducing the Actuate 8 and ReportingEngines


product suites
The following section describes the broad suite of tools that Actuate
Corporation developed to meet the needs of users throughout an enterprise.

Actuate Analytics Cube Designer


An application that content developers use to define and design the structure
of a multi-dimensional, On-Line Analytical Processing (OLAP) cube. Running
a cube profile using Actuate iServer generates a cube.

Actuate Analytics Cube Viewer


An application that supports end users who need to create and view cube
reports.

Actuate End User Desktop


An application that supports end users who need to request, generate, view,
and print report documents. The ReportQuery capabilities enable seamless
transfer of data from an Actuate report to any productivity or analysis tool.

Introduction xi
Actuate e.Report Designer
An application that complements e.Report Designer Professional and supports
business users who need to design and distribute a wide variety of reports.
Using this application requires no programming skills. A business user can
modify complex reports that an IT developer creates and use sophisticated
components from libraries.

Actuate e.Report Designer Professional


An object-oriented application that professional developers of structured
content use to design, build, and distribute information objects and report
object instances. The Actuate Basic Language and Actuate Foundation Class
Library support extensive customization capabilities.
Actuate Client Integration Technology extends the capabilities of Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional and includes the following products:
■ Actuate ActiveX Controls embed Actuate reporting functionality in custom
applications.
■ Actuate Requester API accesses attributes and values of report parameters,
changes the values of report parameters, controls how and when a report
generates, displays and prints reports, and configures report printing.
Users access the Requester API using Actuate Basic, Visual Basic, C, or
C++.
■ Actuate Search Extension API supports developing search extensions to
transfer data to any third-party productivity or analysis tool.
■ Actuate Open Data Access Framework supports the development of
custom data source drivers.

Actuate e.Spreadsheet Designer


An application that supports end users who design, create, and distribute
automated spreadsheet reports over the web. Users can dynamically generate
richly formatted spreadsheet reports in Excel format from Actuate iServer
System with the e.Spreadsheet Option. The spreadsheet reports can be part of
an application, an applet, or a JavaBean.

Actuate Information Object Designer


An application that data architects use to build information objects and
publish them to an Encyclopedia volume. An information object contains a
SQL query that accesses one or more data sources. Data architects create
information objects to specify SQL queries while hiding any underlying data
complexity from users of the information object. A business user can use an
information object to access data using Actuate Query. A report developer can
use an information object to access data using the Information Object Query

xii Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Builder in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional or Actuate e.Spreadsheet
Designer.

Actuate iServer System


A server application that generates cubes, information objects, report
documents, and spreadsheet reports. Actuate iServer provides single or
multiple Encyclopedia™ volumes in which it makes many different types of
content available to users. Actuate iServer supports managing a cluster of
multiple Actuate iServer machines. Actuate iServer System includes the
following products:
■ Actuate Active Portal for JSP, Actuate Active Portal for .NET, and Actuate
ReportCast™ transform the Encyclopedia volume into a dynamic, secure
web site. They provide the foundation for channels and seamless
integration with other web sites.
■ Actuate Management Console is an application that system and network
administrators use to manage and control one or more Actuate
Encyclopedia volumes.
■ Actuate iServer Integration Technology includes the following features:
■ Actuate Information Delivery API integrates Actuate web services into
existing corporate applications, automates routine or time-consuming
Actuate iServer integration tasks, and implements new feature
groupings for custom business processes. The Actuate Information
Delivery API is based on XML and supports simple object access
protocol (SOAP) messaging.
■ Actuate Report Server Security Extension supports the use of third-
party security tools.
■ The Actuate archive driver supports the use of third-party archiving
software and hardware.
■ Actuate Report Server API implements common Encyclopedia volume
functionality using C++.
In addition to the underlying server technology, Actuate 8 supports several
Actuate iServer System options. These options are licensed separately.
■ Actuate Additional Volume Option
An option that supports using more than one Encyclopedia volume in
Actuate iServer System. In Actuate 7 and earlier, this option was Actuate
Multi-Application Option.
■ Actuate Analytics Option
An application that supports the analysis of multidimensional data cubes.
A developer creates the cubes using Actuate Analytics Cube Designer.

Introduction xiii
■ Actuate Data Connector Option
An option that supports running or viewing Actuate content sources from
a specific type of data source. Each data connector must be separately
licensed. Currently available Data Connector Options include:
■ Data Connector for PeopleSoft Option
■ Data Connector for SAP BW Option
■ Data Connector for SAP R/3 Option
■ Actuate Data Integration Option
An option that supports using information objects to combine data from
two or more disparate sources. This option is required where data joining is
not supported through separately licensed third-party databases or other
separately licensed technology.
■ Actuate e.Analysis Option
An application that supports the transformation of data from an Actuate
report into a format that users can view and analyze to determine
relationships and trends.
■ Actuate e.Report Option
An option that provides Encyclopedia volume functionality for e.Report
Designer and e.Report Designer Professional.
■ Actuate e.Spreadsheet Option
An open server application that generates Excel spreadsheets from
e.Spreadsheet Designer files. Using this product, customers can manage
spreadsheet reports and analysis within Actuate iServer System and save
reports as richly formatted Excel spreadsheets.
■ Formula One e.Report Engine Option
An option that provides Encyclopedia volume functionality for Formula
One e.Report Engine.
■ Actuate Information Object Caching Option
An option that provides the ability to cache data from an information object
in a third-party database. This option requires separate licensing of a third
party database server for data storage. This option is not available for
information objects based on Actuate Basic technology.
■ Actuate Online Archive Option
An option that supports hosting more than one Encyclopedia volume
where the additional volume is an archive.

xiv M a nag ing and Us ing R ep or ts in A ctu ate e.R ep or t De sig ne r P ro fe s sio nal
■ Actuate Page Level Security Option
An option that supports personalizing viewing privileges at the user level
for reports and parts of reports.
■ Progress Option
A server application that supports working exclusively with Progress
databases to generate Live Report Documents, manage them in the
Encyclopedia volume, and make them available to users.
■ Actuate Query Option
A web-based tool that supports performing ad hoc queries based on
predefined data streams.

Actuate Viewer
An application that end users can use to find, view, and print report
documents.

Formula One e.Report Engine


A flexible Java tool for extracting, formatting, and delivering data from a
variety of data sources, including databases, Enterprise JavaBeans, Java objects
inside applications, XML files, Liquid Data for BEA WebLogic, and text files.
Users can deploy completed reports from any J2EE application, WebLogic,
WebSphere, or a web server in CVS, formatted, actionable DHTML, e-mail,
HTML, PDF, RTF, and XML formats. The application data handler supports
accessing Java objects inside applications. The reporting capabilities include
extensive support for XML data sources and output.
Formula One e.Report Engine includes a report designer, Formula One
e.Report Designer, which Java developers can use to design a variety of
reports. This designer is available only with Formula One e.Report Engine.
Written entirely in Java, Formula One e.Report Designer supports charts, cross
tabulations, grouping levels, multiple sections, and parameters.

Formula One e.Spreadsheet Engine


An application that Java developers use to create, design, and distribute
custom spreadsheet reports over the web. Spreadsheet reports can be part of
an application, an applet, or a JavaBean. Formula One e.Spreadsheet Engine
also includes a rich spreadsheet report designer, Actuate e.Spreadsheet
Designer.
Formula One e.Spreadsheet Engine supports:
■ Reading and writing fully-formatted Excel files that include charts,
formulas, merged cells, multiple worksheets, outlining, and other
formatting options

Introduction xv
■ A scalable calculation engine for fast calculations and data analysis
■ Standard spreadsheet formulas and functions
■ Risk modeling, online calculators, and simulations
■ Dynamic generation of spreadsheet-driven charts with drill-down
capabilities
■ A spreadsheet interface that developers can embed in custom Java desktop
applications and browser-based applets
■ Accessing data from JDBC databases, SAP BW, SAP R/3, XML data files
using a standard interface to any other data source

Online documentation
The information in the printed manuals is also available as Adobe Acrobat
PDF files and in the online help system for Actuate products. For products
without a Windows interface, such as Actuate Active Portal, Actuate provides
HTML help files. You can view these files using a standard web browser. To
use the PDF files or online help, you must install the files from the
Documentation CD, which ships with your Actuate software.

Using online manuals


The online manuals install with the product in the Manuals directory. The
items in the table of contents and the page numbers in the index both contain
links to the corresponding topics in the text. In the index, you access the link
by positioning the pointer over the page number, not the topic.

Using online help


Actuate products provide both context-sensitive online help about the product
and report-specific online help about a report you are viewing. In Actuate 8,
developers can also create customized, report-specific online help.

Using context-sensitive online help


Sections from the printed manuals link directly to the software interface to
make relevant information available while you work. Dialog boxes that
require additional explanation about how to use them have a Help button. To
access online help for other items, use the Help menu or press F1.

xvi M a nag ing and Us ing R ep or ts in A ctu ate e.R ep or t De sig ne r P ro fe s sio nal
Using the Actuate online help system
In the Actuate online help system, two panes support accessing and viewing
information. The left pane displays the table of contents or the index. The right
pane displays the contents of an online help topic.

The tabs at the top of the left pane access different views. Use these tabs to
switch views among Contents, Index, Search, and Favorites.

Introduction xvii
The following illustration shows an example of the index and the result of an
index search.
Choose Index to view the topics
Type the keyword for which to search the index

Select a topic in the list and


choose Display to view its
contents

The following illustration shows the result of a search. The topics that contain
the search word appear in the left pane. Choose a topic in the left pane to
display the topic contents in the right pane.
Choose Search
Type the word for which to search

Select a topic in the list and


choose Display to view its
contents

xviii Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Using report-specific online help
During the design phase, report developers have the option to include report-
specific online help. For example, a report developer can add comments to
provide details about specific report objects or to explain calculations.

Report-specific online help

For detailed information about report-specific online help, see Chapter 3,


“Viewing a report using Actuate Viewer,” in Using Actuate End User Desktop.

Typographical conventions
The following table describes the typographical conventions in this guide.

Item Convention Example


Code examples Sans serif Dim Text1 As String
File names Initial capital letter, Detail.roi
except where file names
are case-sensitive
Key combination A + sign between keys Ctrl+Shift
means to press both
keys at the same time
Menu items Capitalized, no bold File
Submenu items Separated from the File➛New
main menu item with a
small arrow
User input or user Sans serif M*16*
response
User input in XML and Italics chkjava.exe
Java code cab_name.cab

Introduction xix
Syntax conventions
The following table describes the symbols used to present syntax.

Symbol Description Example


[] Optional item [Alias<alias name>]
Array subscript matrix[ ]
<> Argument you must <expression to format>
supply
Delimiter in XML <xsd:sequence>
{} Groups two or more {While | Until}
mutually exclusive
options or arguments,
when used with a pipe
Defines array contents {0, 1, 2, 3}
Delimiter of code block public ACJDesigner( )
{
}

| Separates mutually Exit {Do | For |


exclusive options or Function | Sub}
arguments in a group
Java OR operator int length |4

About Managing and Using Reports in Actuate


e.Report Designer Professional
Managing and Using Reports in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional describes
the tasks you can perform with Actuate Basic reports that have been designed,
compiled, and generated:
■ Working with reports in an Encyclopedia volume
■ Viewing reports
■ Running reports
■ Searching for and exporting report data
■ Printing reports
Managing and Using Reports in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional includes
the following chapters:

xx Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ Introduction. This chapter provides an overview of this guide, the Actuate
and ReportingEngines product suite, and the typographical conventions
used.
■ Chapter 1. Introducing Actuate e.Report Designer Professional. This chapter
describes Actuate iServer System, Encyclopedia volumes, and Actuate
Navigator.
■ Chapter 2. Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator. This chapter
describes how to use Actuate Navigator and explains how to work with
files and folders in an Encyclopedia volume.
■ Chapter 3. Viewing a report using Actuate Viewer. This chapter discusses
opening, viewing, and navigating a report. This chapter also describes how
Actuate Basic reports link to other Windows applications.
■ Chapter 4. Running a report using Navigator. This chapter discusses running
report executable files to generate new report documents. This chapter
explains how to work with report parameters and how to use standard and
ad hoc parameters.
■ Chapter 5. Searching for and exporting report data using Actuate Viewer. This
chapter describes how to search for specific data in a report and provides
examples of how to use complex search criteria. This chapter also describes
how to export report data to other documents.
■ Chapter 6. Printing and distributing a report using Actuate Viewer and
Navigator. This chapter discusses printing and distributing reports.

Introduction xxi
xxii Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional
Chapter

Introducing Actuate
Chapter1
1
e.Report Designer
Professional
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ About business reporting using Actuate
■ About Encyclopedia volumes
■ About Actuate Navigator

C h a p t e r 1 , In t r o d u c i n g A c tu a t e e. R e p o r t D e s ig n e r P r o fe s s i o n a l 1
About business reporting using Actuate
A diverse and global business enterprise needs a way to create, publish, and
distribute reports on a regular basis. To meet this need, the creation, storage,
and viewing of reports is moving to distributed, networked environments,
such as the internet, intranets, and extranets. Using Actuate Basic reports
provides an efficient, scalable, highly searchable, and easily updated
alternative to static web pages or traditional, paper-based reporting.
You can generate, store, view, and print Actuate Basic reports through a server
running Actuate iServer. You can access Actuate iServer using Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional. This book describes how you use Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional to access, view, run, and print reports from an
Encyclopedia volume or on a network file system.
The following illustration shows a high-level view of how Actuate iServer
System components and Actuate e.Report Designer Professional interact. For
simplicity, the illustration does not show the data tier, which consists of a
database server.
Desktop Server

e.Report Actuate
Designer iServer
Professional

Encyclopedia
volume

About Encyclopedia volumes


An Encyclopedia volume is a shared repository that contains all items that a
single Actuate iServer machine or a cluster of server machines manages.
Actuate iServer System can support multiple Encyclopedia volumes. An
Actuate iServer System administrator can create multiple Encyclopedia
volumes to organize data into manageable and logical parts. Each volume
contains items such as folders, report files, and user profiles. Users in an
enterprise environment distribute and share report files by storing them in an
Encyclopedia volume.

2 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following table describes the features that an Encyclopedia volume
provides.

Feature Function
Familiar file management Working with hierarchical folders to organize
system report files.
Multilevel security Limiting report generation and viewing to
authorized users. The administrator can assign
different privileges on a file or user basis.
For more information about Encyclopedia
volume security, see “About volume security”
in Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia
volume using Navigator.”
Autoversioning Grouping related report files to maintain
different versions of reports that run on a
regular schedule.
Flexible scheduling Generating new reports at specified times. You
can set a report to run once or on a regular basis.
Automatic notification Placing completed reports in specified folders
and distribution and sending notices to users.
Automatic archiving Deleting and archiving Encyclopedia volume
files based on a date, the age of the file, or the
number of versions of a file.
Open server report Running or printing third-party report requests.
generation From within the Encyclopedia volume, run or
print a third-party report in the same way that
you run or print an Actuate report.
Actuate Report Server Providing the ability to extend Actuate iServer
Security Extension (RSSE) System security.

About Actuate Navigator


In Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, Actuate Navigator is a tool for
Encyclopedia volume navigation and management. Actuate Management
Console is a more recent and recommended Encyclopedia volume
management tool. For more information about Actuate Management Console,
see Using Actuate Management Console.
The Actuate iServer System administrator sets up an Encyclopedia volume
and assigns privileges to its users. For information about accessing a volume,
see Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.” Using

C h a p t e r 1 , In t r o d u c i n g A c tu a t e e. R e p o r t D e s ig n e r P r o fe s s i o n a l 3
Navigator, depending on the privileges that the administrator assigns to you,
you can:
■ View reports. For more information about viewing reports, see Chapter 3,
“Viewing a report using Actuate Viewer.”
■ Create report requests to generate or print reports. For more information
about creating report requests, see “Creating a run request in an
Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 4, “Running a report using Navigator.”
■ Print reports. For more information about printing reports, see Chapter 6,
“Printing and distributing a report using Actuate Viewer and Navigator.”
■ Add, delete, or move folders and other items in an Encyclopedia volume.
For more information about managing items in an Encyclopedia volume,
see “Working with folders” and “Working with files” in Chapter 2,
“Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
■ Change privileges for users and security roles on folders and other items in
an Encyclopedia volume. For more information about Encyclopedia
volume privileges and security, see “About volume security” in Chapter 2,
“Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
■ Specify autoarchive rules. For more information about autoarchiving
reports, see “About Encyclopedia volume autoarchive” in Chapter 2,
“Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”

4 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Chapter

Accessing an Chapter2
2
Encyclopedia volume
using Navigator
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ Connecting to an Encyclopedia volume
■ Navigating in the Encyclopedia volume
■ About volume security
■ Working with folders
■ Working with files
■ About Encyclopedia volume autoarchive
■ About online backup
■ Setting user preferences
■ Specifying search paths

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 5


Connecting to an Encyclopedia volume
To connect to and explore an Encyclopedia volume, use Actuate Navigator. To
use Actuate Navigator, you start Actuate e.Report Designer Professional then
start Navigator.
Using Navigator, you connect to an Encyclopedia volume by specifying the
Actuate iServer that manages the volume in which you want to access items.
You have access to a volume if the following two requirements are met:
■ Your machine is connected to Actuate iServer System.
■ You have an assigned user name and password for the volume. The user
name and password are set up by the Encyclopedia volume administrator.
Using Navigator, you can log on to only one volume at a time. You can open
multiple Navigator windows to log on to different Encyclopedia volumes.

How to connect to an Encyclopedia volume with Navigator


1 From Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, choose File➛Navigator.
If the Navigator command does not appear on the File menu, you must set
an option to display it:
1 Choose Tools➛Options.
Options—Design Editor appears.
2 Choose General.
Options—General appears.
3 Select Enable navigator menu item and toolbar.

6 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Select to display the
Navigator command in
the File menu

4 Choose OK.
Encyclopedia Login appears.

2 Complete the following tasks:


■ Type your user name as assigned by the Encyclopedia volume
administrator.
■ Type your password as assigned by the Encyclopedia volume
administrator.
■ Type the name of the Actuate iServer machine that manages the
Encyclopedia volume.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 7


Choose OK.
Navigator appears, displaying the contents of the default Encyclopedia
volume for the Actuate iServer you selected, as shown in the following
illustration.
The items you see in the volume are those for which you have been granted
read or visible privilege. For more information about privileges, see
“About volume security,” later in this chapter.

Solving log on problems


If you get the message Log in Failed when connecting to the Encyclopedia
volume, contact your Actuate iServer System administrator to verify the
following information:
1 Confirm that you are using the correct user name, password, and iServer
information. If you are, go to step 2.
2 Check that Actuate iServer System is running. If it is, go to step 3.
3 Check that your computer has network access to the server.

Using multiple Navigator windows


You can log on to multiple volumes by opening multiple Navigator windows.
Another useful strategy is to open multiple Navigator windows to have
multiple views of the same volume.

8 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows items for two different users on the same
volume.

About the Navigator window


You use Navigator to access and work with items in the Encyclopedia volume.
Navigator resembles Windows Explorer.
Like the Explorer window, the Navigator window has two panes. The left
pane displays the hierarchy of items in an Encyclopedia volume. The right
pane displays the contents of an item selected in the left pane. You can change
the size of either pane by moving the splitter bar that divides the window.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 9


The following illustration shows the Navigator window.
Volume

Left pane shows Right pane shows


hierarchy of contents of an item
Encyclopedia items selected in the left pane

Depending on the Encyclopedia volume configuration, Navigator’s user


interface may appear different from the illustrations in this chapter. Some
features, such as buttons or menu items, may appear gray and not available
for use, because the Actuate iServer System administrator made changes to the
product configuration. For more information about the unavailable features,
contact your Actuate iServer System administrator.

Navigating in the Encyclopedia volume


After you connect to the Encyclopedia volume using Actuate Navigator, you
can view and search for items in the Encyclopedia volume.

Displaying items in the Encyclopedia volume


When you first start Navigator, the window displays the top-level folders in
the Encyclopedia volume. To expand and collapse the levels, choose the plus
(+) and minus (-) signs.

How to view the hierarchy of items in the Encyclopedia volume


1 Choose an item on the left side of the window to display its contents on the
right.

10 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 Choose the plus (+) sign to display more levels.

Changing the appearance and order of items in an


Encyclopedia volume folder
By default, all contents of a selected folder appear in the right pane of the
Navigator window and appear in alphabetical order. You can, however,
choose the file types and sort the items in several ways.

How to change the order of items in a folder


1 Choose View➛Sort By.
2 Choose one of the sort options.
The following illustration shows all files sorted by name.
Choose one of the sort options. By
default, files are sorted by name

How to change the appearance of items in a folder


1 Choose View➛Show.
2 Select the types of files you want to view.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 11


The following illustration shows selected file types that appear in the right
pane.
Select the file types to view

Searching for an item in the Encyclopedia volume


You can search for Encyclopedia volume folders or files using any
combination of the following criteria:
■ File or folder name, including wildcard characters
■ Location, including or excluding subfolders
■ Creator of the file or folder
■ Date of creation
■ Users who modified the file or folder
■ Date of modification
■ Item type, for example, folder or any report file type
■ File version
■ Content of comments
■ File or folder size

12 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to find a file or folder in the Encyclopedia volume
1 Choose File➛Find Item.
Search appears.

Selecting an item in this pane when Search is open specifies


the location to search.

Display other options for


refining the search.

Type the name of the item


to find. You can include
wildcard characters.

Specify the location to


search. In this example,
the entire volume is
searched.

2 In Named, type all or part of the folder or file’s name.


You can use any of the standard wildcard characters. If you do not know
the name of a file or want to refine the search, choose Users and Dates or
Advanced.
3 In Look in, type the location or select an item in Navigator the search starts.
To search the entire Encyclopedia volume, type / (forward slash) or select
the Encyclopedia or volume icon in the left pane of the Navigator window.
4 Choose Find Now to start the search.
The search results appear in the bottom section of Search. From the results
section, you can view report documents and use the file’s context menu to
perform other operations.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 13


Getting information about an Encyclopedia
volume item
The Encyclopedia volume maintains information about each item it contains.
For example, for any given file, you can check its version name, its owner, the
files it depends on, users with privileges on the file, and so on. Using this
information, you can better manage your personal folder and analyze
information in other folders.
Information about an item appears in two ways. An abbreviated version
appears in the right pane of Navigator for any item selected in the left pane, or
you can use the context menu to open Properties.

How to inspect the properties of an Encyclopedia volume item


1 Select the item with the properties you want to see.
2 Right-click the item and choose Properties from the context menu.
Properties for the item appears. Properties displays different information
depending on the type of item. The Requests folders, for example, are
managed by Actuate iServer System, so you see only general information.
If files are highly customized by users, you see more information about
them.

14 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows Properties for a report document.
Shows general information about this file
Shows the privileges different users have for this file
Shows the files on which this file depends
Shows the archive policy for this file

Changing folder properties


After logging in, you can view and change folder properties.

How to change folder properties


1 Right-click a folder in the Encyclopedia volume.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 15


2 From the context menu, choose Properties, as shown in the following
illustration.

Properties

Properties—General appears.

3 Depending on your privileges, you can change the following settings in the
General, Privileges, and Auto Archive pages of Properties, as shown in the
preceding illustration:

16 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ In General, you can view information about the selected folder and add
comments.
■ In Privileges, you can view the privileges that users and roles have on
the folder. For more information about privileges, see “About volume
security,” later in this chapter.
■ In Auto Archive, you can assign an archive policy for the selected
folder. For more information about autoarchive rules, see “About folder
and file autoarchive rules,” later in this chapter.
Choose OK.

Deleting an item from an Encyclopedia volume


You can only delete folders and files you create or for which you have the
delete and visible privileges. The administrator or another user assigns
privileges. Typically, the only folders and files you delete are in your personal
folder.

How to delete an Encyclopedia volume folder or file


You need delete and visible privileges to the selected item. If you delete a
folder, items in the folder are deleted as well. You must have delete privilege
on the items in the folder.
To delete a folder or file, right-click the folder or file and choose Delete from
the context menu.
If you delete a file, Navigator removes the file unless another file depends on
the file you want to delete. If there is a dependent file, Navigator displays a
dialog that specifies the files that are dependent on the file to delete, and asks
if you want to delete the file and remove the dependencies. For more
information about file dependencies, see “About file dependencies,” later in
this chapter.

About volume security


Actuate iServer System provides the following Encyclopedia volume security
features:
■ User accounts and passwords
Using user accounts and passwords, the Encyclopedia volume
administrator controls access to an Encyclopedia volume.
■ Privileges
Privileges provide security for data in the Encyclopedia volume by
specifying the operations that user can perform on files and folders. The

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 17


Encyclopedia volume administrator can grant privileges on files and
folders. Users can set privileges on files and folders that they own. Users
can also set privileges on a file or folder owned by another user if given
grant privilege on the item.
■ Roles
An administrator can create roles to simplify granting privileges. The
administrator can grant a set of privileges to a role and then assign the role
to all appropriate users.
■ Privilege templates
You can create a privilege template to automatically grant privileges on
new objects to another user, such as the owner’s assistant, teammate, or
supervisor.
■ File and folder access types
Files and folders can have either shared or private access type. If a file or
folder is shared, a user with grant privilege on the item can grant privileges
on the item to other users. If file or folder is private, only the owner and the
Encyclopedia volume administrator can access it.
■ Report Server Security Extension
Developers can create applications that extend or partially replace the
security provided for Encyclopedia volumes. For example, an external
security application can be accessed to validate user names and passwords.
For more information about the individual features, refer to the following
sections:
■ For more information about user accounts, see “About user accounts and
passwords,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” later in this
chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about root folder privileges, see “About root folder
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about home folder privileges, see “About home
folder privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about roles, see “About security roles,” later in this
chapter.
■ For more information about privilege templates, see “About privilege
templates,” later in this chapter.

18 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ For more information about access types, see “About file and folder access
types,” later in this chapter.

About user accounts and passwords


An Encyclopedia volume administrator sets up Encyclopedia volume user IDs.
When a user logs into an Encyclopedia volume, the user types a user ID and a
password, unless the password is null. If Actuate iServer System does not use
RSSE, a user can change the password after logging in to the Encyclopedia
volume. Some RSSE applications do not support a user changing a password.
For information about how to do this, see “Changing your password,” later in
this chapter.

About privileges
Each privilege permits a user to perform certain actions on a folder, file, or
channel in an Encyclopedia volume. For example, if a user has read privilege on
a file, the user can view or print the file. If a user attempts to perform an
operation without the necessary privileges, a message appears to indicate the
nature of the problem.
By default, the user who creates a file or folder in the Encyclopedia volume is
the owner of that item and has full privileges for the item. An Encyclopedia
volume administrator can use the Information Delivery API (IDAPI) to change
the ownership of an item to another user. Alternatively, a user with read
privilege on the item can copy the original item and become the owner of the
new item. If an administrator deletes a user, the administrator becomes the
owner of all items that the deleted user owned. An Encyclopedia volume
administrator always has full privileges on all items in the Encyclopedia
volume.
For more information about privileges, see the following topics:
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about root folder privileges, see “About root folder
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about home folder privileges, see “About home folder
privileges,” later in this chapter.

Planning assignment of privileges


The following list describes the Encyclopedia volume privileges, the types of
items to which the privileges apply, and other characteristics of the privileges.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 19


The order of the privileges in the list indicates a generally increasing ability to
use items, modify items, and set access to items.
■ Visible (V)
With visible privilege on a file or folder, a user can see the file or folder in
the list of Encyclopedia volume items. A user must have visible privilege
on a file or folder for any other privilege to be effective. A user with read
and execute privilege for a ROX or DOX file also has visible privilege for
that file. A user with read or secure read privilege for any other type of file
also has visible privilege for it. An Encyclopedia volume administrator
cannot remove visible privilege from the owner of a file or folder. This
privilege does not apply to channels.
■ Secure Read (S)
A user with secure read privilege on a file can read that file. Grant this
privilege instead of the read privilege to permit a user to read a file but not
copy or download the file. If your Actuate iServer System license enables
the Actuate Page Level Security and Actuate e.Report options, you can set
page-level security on an Actuate Basic report object instance (.roi) file. A
user with secure read privilege, but not read privilege, on a file with page-
level security can read only specified parts of that file.
■ Read (R)
With read privilege on a file, a user can read, copy, and download the
contents of the file. Read privilege and visible privilege are the same for a
folder. A user with read privilege on a channel can view the channel. To
read a notice on a channel, a user also needs to have read or secure read
privilege on the report document to which the notice refers.
■ Trusted execute (T)
With trusted execute privilege, a user can execute an information object
without having execute privilege for the information object’s underlying
data sources. This privilege only applies to an Actuate information object
(.iob) file or data source map (.sma) file. Only a user with the Administrator
role can set the trusted execute privilege on an item for a user or security
role.
■ Execute (E)
With execute privilege on an executable file, a user can execute the file. For
example, a user with execute privilege on an Actuate Basic report object
executable (.rox) file can run the report. With the execute privilege, the
Actuate iServer Factory service can read the file. To execute an Actuate
information object (.iob) file or data source map (.sma) file, a user also must
have the privileges required to execute all underlying data sources that the
file uses. The execute privilege does not apply to folders, channels, or
document files. A list of executable file types follows this list of privileges.

20 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ Write (W)
With write privilege on a file, a user can replace a file. With write privilege
on a folder, a user can create items in that folder, including new versions of
existing files. During report execution, a user with write privilege on a
channel can indicate whether to post a notice about the job’s success or
failure to the channel. That user also can choose to set the read or secure
read privilege on the resulting document for any user with read privilege
for the channel.
■ Delete (D)
With delete privilege on a file or folder, a user can remove an item from an
Encyclopedia volume. This privilege does not apply to channels.
■ Grant (G)
With grant privilege on a file or folder, a user can set and revoke any
privileges that other users and security roles have for the item. To set a
privilege for a user or security role on a file or folder, the item must have a
shared access type. For the grant privilege to be effective, a user also must
have visible privilege for the file or folder. To set or revoke privileges from
Actuate Active Portal, a user also must have the Actuate Active Portal
Advanced or Actuate Active Portal Administrator security role.An
Encyclopedia volume administrator has grant privilege on all files and
folders in an Encyclopedia volume. A volume administrator cannot
remove the grant privilege from the owner of a file or folder. The grant
privilege does not apply to channels.
Executable file types include files with the following extensions: .dcd, .dox,
.dp4, .icd, .iob, .jod, .joi, .jox, .rox, .rpx, .sma, .sqt, .vtf, .vtx, and .xrd. Document
files include files with the following extensions: .bas, .cb4, .cvw, .doi, .dop,
.dov, .htm, .html, .iob, .odp, .pdf, .rod, .roi, .rop, .ros, .rov, .row, .rpt, .rpw, .rtf,
.spf, .sqw, .txt, and .xls.
The rest of this section contains tables that provide information about the
privileges a user must have to perform specific actions on Encyclopedia
volume items. Each table provides information about one of the following
categories of required privileges:
■ Privileges for the item that the action involves
All actions require that a user have the necessary privileges for the
Encyclopedia volume item that the action uses. For example, downloading
an item requires that the user have read privilege for that item.
■ Privileges for other files or a channel that the action involves
Some actions involve use of another file or channel and require that a user
have the necessary privileges for that other item. For example, to view a
cube (.cb4) file, a user must have read privilege for the cube (.cb4) file and
read privilege for the associated cube profile (.dp4) file.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 21


■ Privileges for folders that contain the item
Other actions require that a user have the necessary privileges for the
source or destination folder of an item. For example, copying an item to
another folder requires that the user have visible and write privileges for
the destination folder.
The following table lists the privileges that a user must have to complete the
specified type of action on a relevant Encyclopedia volume item. The first
letter of its name corresponds to each of the privileges: V (visible), S (secure
read), R (read), E (execute), T (trusted execute), W (write), D (delete) and G
(grant).

Privileges required on item


Action Type of item V S R E T W D G
Browsing the item listing in the Any V
Encyclopedia file list and viewing
its properties and access control list
if the item is not the user’s home
folder
Copying Any R
Creating a query definition (.dov) Actuate R (E or
file information T)
object (.iob) file
or data source
map (.sma) file
Deleting Any V D
Downloading Any R
Executing Actuate V (E or
information T)
object (.iob) file
or data source
map (.sma) file
Executing Any executable V E
file other than an
Actuate
information
object (.iob) file
or data source
map (.sma) file
Granting or revoking privileges Any V G
Moving Any V W

22 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Privileges required on item
Action Type of item V S R E T W D G
Printing Any (S or
R)
Renaming Any V W
Replacing the latest version of a Any document V D
document file
Update the contents of a channel Channel W
Viewing an item’s contents Any (S or
R)

The following table lists actions that also require privileges for other files that
the requested action requires.

Action Type of item Privileges required on other files


Creating a query definition (.dov) Actuate ■ Read privilege on the data
file information object executable (.dox) file
object (.iob) file ■ The privileges that a user must
or data source have to execute all Actuate
map (.sma) file information object (.iob) files,
data source map (.sma) files,
and data connection definition
(.dcd) files that the file uses
Deleting Folder Visible and delete privileges for all
files in the deleted folder
Executing Any executable ■ Visible and delete privileges for
file the existing document file if
execution will replace that file
■ Write permission on the
channel if the execution options
include adding the output
document file to a channel
Executing Actuate The privileges that a user must
information have to execute all Actuate
object (.iob) file information object (.iob) files, data
or data source source map (.sma) files, and data
map (.sma) file connection definition (.dcd) files
that the file uses

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 23


Action Type of item Privileges required on other files
Executing Data object value Read and execute privileges for
(.dov) file the corresponding Actuate
information object (.iob) file, data
source map (.sma) file, or data
object executable (.dox) file
Updating Channel Execute and visible privileges on
the executable file that generates
the report document and on the
notice that appears in the channel
Viewing Cube (.cb4) file Read privilege for the
corresponding cube profile (.dp4)
file
Viewing Document file ■ Execute privilege on the
executable file if the user
executes the executable file at
the same time
■ Read privilege on the
executable file if the user views
the document file using
Actuate Viewer
■ Read privilege on the channel if
the user views the document
file through a channel in
Actuate Active Portal or
Actuate Management Console

The following table lists actions that require privileges on a source or


destination folder.

Action Type of folders Privileges required on folders


Copying an item from one folder to Destination Visible and write privileges
another folder
Creating a new item in a folder or Destination Visible and write privileges
replacing the latest version of an
item
Moving an item Destination and Visible and write privileges
source

For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about root folder privileges, see “About root folder
privileges,” later in this chapter.

24 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ For more information about home folder privileges, see “About home
folder privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about privilege templates, see “About privilege
templates,” later in this chapter.

About root folder privileges


All users can view an Encyclopedia volume’s root folder. The items the user
sees in the root folder are those for which the user has visible privilege. A user
can have the privilege directly or through a security role that has visible
privilege.
An Encyclopedia volume administrator can set write and grant privileges on
the root folder to users and security roles. The administrator can also remove
these privileges. The following list describes the privileges that the
administrator can set on an Encyclopedia volume’s root folder:
■ To allow a user to set privileges on the root folder to other users and
security roles, an administrator must set the grant privilege for the root
folder to the user or a security role to which the user is assigned.
■ To allow a user to create folders in the root folder, the administrator must
set the write privilege for the root folder to the user or a security role to
which the user is assigned.
If an administrator does not want to set the write privilege for the root folder
to users and security roles, the administrator can create one or more shared
folders in an Encyclopedia volume’s root folder. The administrator can then
assign write privilege on the shared folders to specific users and security roles.
This option gives users the ability to create folders and files within the shared
folders but not in the root folder itself.
For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” earlier in
this chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.
■ For more information about privilege templates, see “About privilege
templates,” later in this chapter.

About home folder privileges


An administrator can specify a home folder for a user. A user’s home folder is
the location that the user sees when the user logs into an Encyclopedia
volume. A user’s home folder is also the default location for the output of jobs
that the user runs. By default, a user’s home folder is the root folder of the
Encyclopedia volume. For example, if a user executes a report object

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 25


executable (.rox) file, the default location for the resulting report object
instance (.roi) file is that user’s home folder. If an administrator does not
specify a home folder for a user, the user’s home folder is the Encyclopedia
volume’s root folder.
When an administrator specifies a home folder for a user, the user
automatically has visible, read, and write privileges for the folder. Users
cannot modify their own home folder settings. If an administrator changes the
location of the home folder, the user’s privileges do not change for the folder
that was the user’s previous home folder.
For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” later in this
chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about root folder privileges, see “About root folder
privileges,” later in this chapter.
■ For more information about privilege templates, see “About privilege
templates,” later in this chapter.
■ For information about folders and files, see “Working with folders” and
“Working with files,” later in this chapter.

About security roles


An Encyclopedia volume administrator creates security roles to simplify
privilege assignment and maintenance. A security role is a name for a set of
users. Administrators and other users can set privileges on specific files,
folders, or channels for a security role. Setting privileges for a security role
provides those privileges to all users in the security role.
A user can belong to several security roles. Security roles also can belong to
other security roles. Assigning a security role to another security role supports
the creation of a hierarchy of security roles. Using security roles helps ensure
consistency in how an administrator sets privileges on various items for users
that require the same privileges on those items.
For example, to allow the marketing personnel and sales representatives to
view a sales report, an administrator can assign those personnel to security
roles. The administrator wants to ensure that only the sales representatives can
run the associated report executable file. Both sales representatives and
marketing personnel must have the read privilege for the report document.
Only the sales representatives need the execute privilege for the associated
report executable file. Instead of assigning these privileges on these items
directly to each user, an administrator can create a security role called sales to

26 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


group all users who are sales representatives and a security role called
marketing to group all users who are marketing personnel. The following
illustration shows an example of creating and adding users to these security
roles. As supervisor of both groups, EHom is part of both security roles.
1. Create a
Marketing Sales
security role

2. Add user to
security role EHom EHom

DAdams BCarter

JSalinger EFitz

LThompson SHorn

When a user needs to assign privileges to all sales representatives or all


marketing personnel, the user can use the sales or marketing security roles to
simplify the task. The following illustration shows the steps involved in
assigning privileges to security roles for this example.

For each item… Sales Report Sales Report


document executable
(ROI) (ROX)

1. Select each
Marketing Sales Marketing
security role

2. Assign
privileges Read Read Read

Execute

Using security roles to group users reduces the complexity of administering


privileges in two ways:
■ An Encyclopedia volume administrator can set privileges on many items
for a single security role and add all users who need those privileges to that
security role.
Removing a privilege on a file, folder, or channel for a security role
removes that privilege for all users that have the privilege only through
that security role. Typically, if an administrator or other user removes a
privilege on an item for a security role, a user in that security role loses that

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 27


privilege. If a user has a privilege through multiple security roles,
removing a privilege on an item for one security role does not remove the
privilege for the user. Similarly, removing a privilege on an item for a
security role does not remove the privilege for a user who also has the
privilege directly.
■ An Encyclopedia volume administrator can set up a hierarchy of security
roles. If an administrator adds a security role to another security role, the
added role becomes a child role and inherits the privileges of its parent
role. A security role can be a child role of multiple parent roles. The final set
of privileges for a security role is the union of all privileges of its parent
roles and its direct privileges.
When an administrator removes a privilege from a security role, the
administrator must remove the privilege from the security role that has the
privilege. If a role inherits the privilege from a parent security role, the
administrator must remove the privilege from the parent role.
Adding a privilege to a parent role means that all child roles of that parent
role inherit the privilege. Removing a privilege on a file, folder, or channel
from a parent role removes that privilege for all child roles that only have
the privilege through that parent role. Typically, if an administrator or
other user removes a privilege on an item from a parent role, all child roles
of that security role lose that privilege. If a child role has a privilege on an
item through several parent roles, removing a privilege on an item from
one parent role does not remove the privilege from the user. Similarly,
removing a privilege on an item from a parent role does not remove the
privilege for a child role that also has the privilege directly.
If a user can assign privileges, the user can assign privileges to a security role.
Only an administrator can create or modify the definition of a security role.
Also, only an administrator can see which users belong to each security role so
use descriptive names for security roles.
There are special Actuate security roles, called the Administrator security role,
the All security role, and the Operator security role. The All security role
contains all users. A member of the Operator security role can perform special
backup operations. You cannot delete or rename these roles.
There are also three security roles that correspond to Actuate Active Portal
user levels: Active Portal Administrator, Active Portal Advanced, and Active
Portal Intermediate. These security roles control the features available to
Encyclopedia volume users when they use Actuate Active Portal.
For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” earlier in
this chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.

28 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


About privilege templates
By default, the owner of a file or folder and the Encyclopedia volume
administrator have all privileges on an Encyclopedia volume item. By default,
other users have no privileges on an item. Each user also has a privilege
template that specifies the privileges that other users have to items that he or
she creates. The default privilege template does not set any privileges on new
items for other users and security roles. The specifications in a privilege
template affect only items that have the shared access type.
By modifying a user’s privilege template, an administrator can change the
default privileges that other users receive on the files and folders that user
creates. For example, an administrator can change a user’s privilege template
so that the user’s manager always has read and execute privileges on items
that user creates. Users can modify their own template in the Navigator, which
is accessible from Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, Actuate e.Report
Designer, Actuate End User Desktop, and Actuate Viewer unless the
Encyclopedia volume uses the RSSE application that ships with Actuate
iServer.
The following illustration shows an example of a privilege template for a user,
LThompson. In the example, the privilege template assigns all privileges to the
user’s assistant, DAdams. The privilege template also assigns read and write
privileges to a colleague, BCarter, and read privilege to the Sales role. When
LThompson creates a shared item, the template specifies these privileges for
the new item.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 29


User User’s privilege template

LThompson DAdams BCarter Sales

Delete Read Read

Execute Write

Grant

Read

Secure
Read

Trusted
Execute

Visible

Write

For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” earlier in
this chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.

How to assign privileges for a folder or file


1 Right-click the folder or file for which you want to set privileges, then
choose Properties from the context menu.
Properties for the item appears.
2 Choose Privileges.
Properties—Privileges displays the list of users and security roles from
which you can select to assign file or folder privileges, as shown in the
following illustration.

30 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The administrator creates users and security roles.

Select one or multiple


users or security roles

Display users, roles,


or users and roles.

Select the privileges

Choose Apply

3 In Privileges, to show users, roles, or both, do one of the following:


■ Select Show only roles.
■ Select Show only users.
■ Select Show both roles and users.
4 Move a user or role from Name to Access Privileges.
5 In Access Privileges, select a user or security role. To select multiple users
or security roles, press Ctrl as you choose each name.
6 Select the privileges to assign to the selected users or security roles.
7 Choose Apply to save the setting.
8 Repeat steps 5 through 7 until you assign privileges to all the users or
security roles to whom you want to give file or folder access.
9 When you finish assigning privileges on the folder or file, choose OK.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 31


About file and folder access types
As described in the following table, a file or folder in an Encyclopedia volume
can be private or shared.

Access type Description


Private Only the owner and an Encyclopedia volume
administrator can access a file or folder with the
private access type. The owner and the
administrator cannot set privileges on the file or
folder for any other user or security role.
Shared Any Encyclopedia volume user can access a file or
folder with the shared access type if that user has
the appropriate privileges on that item. For a user
to set privileges for other users on a file or folder
in an Encyclopedia volume, the file or folder must
have the shared access type.

The owner of a file or folder can set its access type. The volume administrator
can set the access type for any file or folder.
For more information about types of privileges, see the following topics:
■ For more information about privileges, see “About privileges,” earlier in
this chapter.
■ For a list of privileges needed for each action, see “Planning assignment of
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.
■ For more information about privilege templates, see “About privilege
templates,” earlier in this chapter.

Working with folders


You can access the following types of folders:
■ Encyclopedia volume root folder, which all users can access
■ Item folders, which contain report files and/or other item folders
■ Printers folder, which lists the Actuate iServer System printers you can use
■ Requests folder, which contains information about report requests you
submit

32 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows the Encyclopedia volume root folder and the
types of folders you work with in the Encyclopedia volume.
Requests folder

Item folders

About the Printers folder


In the Encyclopedia volume, the Printers folder lists the Actuate iServer
System printers available to Encyclopedia volume users. You can inspect and
change the properties of each printer to suit your printing requirements. For
information about setting printer properties, see “Setting printer properties in
the Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 6, “Printing and distributing a report
using Actuate Viewer and Navigator.”

About the Requests folder


In the Encyclopedia volume, the Requests folder is an Actuate iServer System
folder, which you access to find the status of report generation requests. Using
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, you can view scheduled requests and
create requests. For information about creating report requests, see “Creating a
run request in an Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 4, “Running a report using
Navigator.”
The Requests folder contains three subfolders, Scheduled, Active, and
Completed:
■ The Scheduled folder shows requests you scheduled to run at a later date
and time.
■ The Active folder shows requests you scheduled that are currently in the
process queue.
■ The Completed folder shows processed requests. These requests are
requests you submitted, or requests for reports that other users asked to be
sent to you.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 33


The following illustration shows the Scheduled folder containing one
scheduled report request.
Contents of the Scheduled folder

Creating a folder in the Encyclopedia volume


You can create folders in your personal folder and in other folders for which
the Encyclopedia administrator granted you the write privilege. For a folder,
the administrator or other users with grant privilege can assign the write
privilege. For information about privileges, see “About privileges,” earlier in
this chapter.

How to create a folder in the Encyclopedia volume


1 Right-click the folder in which you want to place the new folder and
choose New Folder, as shown in the following illustration.

New Folder

A new folder appears. The default name is New Folder.


2 Enter the name of the new folder.

34 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


You cannot use the following characters in folder or file names:
;*?<>"
3 To make the folder available to other users or roles, assign privileges to
these users or roles.
For information about assigning privileges on items you create, see “About
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.
If you do not assign privileges, users have the default privileges the
Encyclopedia volume administrator assigned in your privilege template. For
information about assigning privileges and privilege templates, see “About
root folder privileges,” earlier in this chapter.

Working with files


As you browse the contents of folders in the Encyclopedia volume, you are
likely to see a variety of file types, each with a specific function. You can view
the following file types:
■ Actuate Basic report object instance (.roi) file
■ Crystal report
■ SQRIBE report
For more information about file types, see Actuate 8 Glossary.

About Actuate open server reports


You can view Actuate Basic reports and other types of files from the
Encyclopedia volume. Actuate iServer System can extend the Encyclopedia
volume to generate and print reports from third-party vendors. Actuate calls
these third-party reports open server reports.

Understanding the types of open server files


By default, Actuate iServer System defines the following open server file
types.
■ Crystal report files (Windows platforms only):
■ RPX, defined as Crystal executable .rpt file
■ RPW, defined as Crystal web report .rpw file
■ RPT, defined as Crystal report .rpt file
■ SQRIBE report files (Windows platforms only):
■ SPF, defined as SQRIBE report .spf file

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 35


■ SQW, defined as SQRIBE web report .sqw file
■ SQT, defined as SQRIBE report .sqt file
■ PostScript PDF (.pdf)
■ Text files (.txt files)
Administrators can add additional open server file types. To use the Actuate
iServer System open server functionality, the Encyclopedia volume must be
configured to recognize the report file types used by open server reports.

About file versions


The Encyclopedia volume provides an autoversioning feature used to
maintain different versions of a report. You can, for example, generate
multiple reports from a report object executable (.rox) or report object value
(.rov) file, and save each report as a different version. This capability is useful
if you generate reports regularly and want to retain previous copies of the
report. You set the versioning feature when you run an ROX.

Copying files to the Encyclopedia volume


You can copy files into your personal folder or any folder for which the
Encyclopedia volume administrator or another user granted you the write and
read privileges. You can copy files from a local machine, a network file server,
or from another Encyclopedia folder. The Navigator supports copying
multiple files to an Encyclopedia volume.

How to copy a file from a local or server machine to the


Encyclopedia volume
The following steps describe how to copy a file to a folder using context menu
commands:
1 Right-click the folder and choose Add.
Save To Volume appears.
2 Select one or more files to copy. Choose Save.
The copied file or files appear in the right pane of the Navigator.
3 After you copy a file to the Encyclopedia volume, do the following:
■ Set the file dependencies, if appropriate. For information about setting
file dependencies, see “About file dependencies,” later in this chapter.
■ Assign privileges to users, if you want others to access the file. If you
ignore this option, users have the default privileges assigned to them in
your privilege template. For information about assigning privileges on

36 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


items you create, see “About root folder privileges,” earlier in this
chapter.

Copying and moving files within the Encyclopedia


volume
When you copy or move a file from one Encyclopedia volume folder to
another, all the original file’s properties—including privileges—apply to the
file that is copied or moved. To copy or move files, you must have privileges
that enable those actions. For information about privileges, see “About
privileges,” earlier in this chapter.

How to copy a file from one folder to another in the Encyclopedia


volume
Press Ctrl and drag the file to the destination folder.

How to move a file from one folder to another in the Encyclopedia


volume
Drag the file to the destination folder.

Copying files from the Encyclopedia volume


You can copy files from the Encyclopedia volume to a local machine or
network file server. If you copy a report object instance (.roi) file and you plan
to open it on your local machine, make sure you copy the associated report
object executable (.rox) file as well. To copy files, you must have privileges that
enable that action. If you have secure read privilege on an ROI, you cannot
copy it from the Encyclopedia volume. For information about privileges, see
“About privileges,” earlier in this chapter.

How to copy files from the Encyclopedia volume to a local system


or network file server
1 Open Windows Explorer or File Manager.
2 Drag the file from Navigator to the destination folder in Explorer or File
Manager.

Importing open server files


After the Actuate iServer System administrator defines an open server file
type, you can import non-Actuate report files into the Encyclopedia volume
and use the Actuate iServer System’s open server functionality to create report
requests.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 37


When you add an open server file to an Encyclopedia volume, the following
dialog might appear if there are multiple open server file types defined with
the same file extension. Using the dialog, you can select the Encyclopedia
volume file type to assign to the file. In this example, the .rpt file extension can
be either an RPT or RPX Encyclopedia volume file type.

When you import a non-Actuate report file, Actuate iServer System displays
Add or Change Parameters. The developer of the open server report must
provide you with the parameters and other information needed to import the
file.

Either choose Add to define parameters and default values individually or


choose Open to specify a report object value (.rov) file that contains a list of
parameter and default values.
When users specify parameters, they cannot override hidden open server
parameters. If a user specifies a parameter that attempts to override a hidden
parameter, the report generation fails.

38 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


When creating a parameter that overrides an existing parameter, the new
parameter must be the same type as the existing parameter. For example, you
can create a string parameter for the report that overrides the string parameter
specified by the file type. If there is a mismatch between parameter format
types, any open server report generations fail.

About SQRIBE open server files


The Actuate SQRIBE report open server driver handles only SQRIBE
compiled, executable file type SQT. Actuate’s SQRIBE open server driver does
not support SQRIBE SQR report files.
The SQRIBE open server driver can generate the following output file types
from a SQRIBE SQT report:
■ Output file type .spf proprietary SQRIBE output.
■ Output file type .sqw web format output. This output is not printable.
■ Output file type .txt. A plain text file.
Because SQRIBE reports are compiled, SQRIBE ask directives are not
processed, and required input directives are processed.
For SQRIBE reports that use images, the images are not part of the compiled
.sqt file. They must be loaded and incorporated into web output. When
importing the images used with SQRIBE reports, you must create a
dependency between the .sqt and the image file.
Images are not supported for proprietary SQRIBE .sqw file downloads.

About file dependencies


Some report files depend on the existence of others. In order for certain
operations to execute successfully, files must be able to access the files they
depend on. The most common example is the association between a report
object instance (.roi) file and a report object executable (.rox) file. When you
open a report for viewing or printing, Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
runs the ROX that generated the report.
If you try to delete an ROX from the Encyclopedia volume, Actuate e.Report
Designer Professional displays a dialog that specifies the files that are
dependent on the ROX, and asks if you want to delete the ROX and the
dependencies.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 39


The following table lists the dependencies among file types.

File Depends on
Report object instance (.roi) report object executable (.rox) file
Report object value (.rov) report object executable (.rox) file

The dependency between an ROI and an ROX is set when you run an ROX in
the Encyclopedia volume. Similarly, the dependency between a report object
value (.rov) file and an ROX is set when you create and save an ROV in the
Encyclopedia volume.
If you copy an ROI from a local system to the Encyclopedia volume, you must
set file dependencies. For example, the example reports that install with
e.Report Designer Professional are not bundled, so you must set the
dependencies.
To set dependencies, complete the following tasks in this order:
■ Copy the report object instance (.roi) file to the Encyclopedia volume.
■ Copy the associated report object executable (.rox) file.
■ Set the dependency between the files. For instructions, see “How to set file
dependencies,” later in this chapter.
If you omit steps 2 and 3, you cannot open the report. The alternative is to
bundle the ROX with the report. Then, all you need to do is copy the report to
the Encyclopedia volume. For information about bundling an ROX with a
report, see “Distributing an Actuate Basic report from your desktop” in
Chapter 6, “Printing and distributing a report using Actuate Viewer and
Navigator.”

How to set file dependencies


1 Locate the file whose dependencies you want to set, for example, a report
object instance (.roi) file.
2 Right-click the file and choose Properties.
Properties—General appears.
3 Choose Dependency

40 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Properties—Dependency appears, as shown in the following illustration.

List of files that


the file requires

Choose Add to
select a file that
the file requires

4 Choose Add.
Encyclopedia Browser appears.
5 Find and select the file that the file requires, then choose OK.
The selected file appears in File depends on.
6 If the file depends on additional files, repeat steps 4 and 5 until you select
all the files.
7 Choose OK.

About Encyclopedia volume autoarchive


Using the Encyclopedia volume autoarchive features, Encyclopedia volume
administrators specify parameters to delete files such as Actuate reports, open
server reports, and other documents stored in the Encyclopedia volume.
Actuate iServer System can delete Encyclopedia volume files based on the age

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 41


of the file, a specific date, or the number of versions of a file. As part of
autoarchive, users can specify that a file is archived before deletion.
The Encyclopedia volume autoarchive rules are overridden by setting
autoarchive rules on a folder, file, or report generation request. For
information about autoarchive settings for requests, see “Setting a run request
autoarchive rule” in Chapter 4, “Running a report using Navigator.”
Encyclopedia volume administrators can set the autoarchive policy for files in
the Encyclopedia volume. Encyclopedia volume administrators can:
■ Set the rule for all the files in the Encyclopedia volume.
■ Set a rule for a specific file type.
If you have the appropriate privileges, you can override the Encyclopedia
volume administrator’s default settings for folders and files. For information
about overriding the default settings, see “About folder and file autoarchive
rules,” later in this chapter.

Displaying Encyclopedia volume autoarchive


rules
Only an Encyclopedia volume administrator can set the Encyclopedia volume
autoarchive rules. You can view the autoarchive rules in Server Properties.
1 To display Server Properties, select the Encyclopedia volume root folder
and choose File➛Properties.

42 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 Choose Auto Archive.

About folder and file autoarchive rules


The autoarchive rules for folders or files override Encyclopedia volume
settings. You can see the autoarchive rule for a folder or file in Properties—
Auto Archive. If the autoarchive rules are inherited from another folder or the
Encyclopedia volume, the rules appear in the dialog but the controls are
disabled. The dialog also displays the folder that the Encyclopedia volume
uses for the default rule.
If you have read and write privileges, you can override the default. If you
specify autoarchive rules for a folder, the rules become the default rules for
folders and files contained in the folder and in any subfolder within the
starting folder. If the Encyclopedia volume administrator enabled archiving,
you can specify whether to archive files as part of setting the autoarchive rules.
The archive information for reports and other files shows the projected
expiration date.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 43


Setting folder autoarchive rules
If you have delete privilege on the folder, you can set a folder’s autoarchive
rules from Properties. This overrides rules set higher in the folder hierarchy.

How to set folder autoarchive rules


1 To display Properties, select the folder and choose File➛Properties.
2 Choose Auto Archive.

3 In Auto Archive, select a file type from the File Type list.
The File Type list displays the default file type for the Encyclopedia volume
and open server file types. The default for this Folder item defines the
default autoarchive rule for the folders and files in the current folder. For
information about open server file types, see “About Actuate open server
reports,” earlier in this chapter.
4 Select the Override option to enable the Archive Policy items.
5 Enter the autoarchive rule for the selected file type.
If archiving is available, you can choose to archive files before they are
deleted.

44 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


6 Select file types and set autoarchive rules as necessary.
7 Choose OK to save the rules.

Setting file-specific autoarchive rules


If you have delete privilege on a file, you can set a file’s autoarchive rules from
Properties. This overrides any rules set in the file’s folder hierarchy.

How to set file-specific autoarchive rules


1 To display Properties, select the file and choose File➛Properties.
2 Select Auto Archive.

Expiration date

3 In Auto Archive, select the Override option and enter the auto-archive rule.
If archiving is available, you can choose to archive files before they are
deleted.
4 Choose OK to save the rule.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 45


About online backup
Online backup creates a snapshot of the contents of an Encyclopedia volume
while the volume is online. The Encyclopedia volume administrator or
operator sets the online backup schedule. You can use the following procedure
to view the online backup status of an Encyclopedia volume.

How to view the online backup status of an Encyclopedia volume


1 Select the Encyclopedia volume.
2 Choose File➛Properties.
The current online backup mode appears on Server Properties—General.

Setting user preferences


Once you connect to an Encyclopedia volume, you can change some user and
display settings. You can:
■ Change your password
■ Change your e-mail address
■ Choose notification options
■ Specify the default locale

Changing your password


The Encyclopedia volume administrator sets the user name and password that
you use to log on to a volume. Once you log on to a volume, you can change
your password at any time, if this option is available to you.

How to change your password


1 Choose Edit➛User Options.
Properties—General appears.
2 In Password, type your new password.
3 In Confirm password, type the password again and choose OK.

46 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Changing your e-mail address
If you want e-mail notification of requests that succeed or requests that fail, set
an e-mail address.

How to set your e-mail address


1 Choose Edit➛User Options.
Properties—General appears.
2 In E-mail address, type your e-mail address.
3 Choose Apply or OK to apply the change.

Choosing notification options


The Encyclopedia volume administrator sets up your initial notification
options. Once you log on to a volume, you can change these settings at any
time.
The notification options you select determine if and how you are notified of
successful and failed jobs that you submitted. The notification options also
apply to jobs that the Encyclopedia volume administrator or other users
submitted and to which you have access. You can choose to receive notices
through e-mail. For more information about notification options, see
“Notifying users of the completed report” in Chapter 4, “Running a report
using Navigator.”

How to set notification options


1 Choose Edit➛User Options.
Properties—General appears.
2 Choose Notification.
3 In Notification, make your selections.
4 Choose Apply or OK to apply the selections.

Specifying the default locale


The default locale determines the formats for dates and times in the Created
and Modified columns in Navigator.

How to specify the default locale


1 Choose Tools➛Options.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 47


Options—General appears.

2 In Default locale, select a locale from the list. Choose OK.

Specifying search paths


The global search path specifies the directories to search for a file, such as an
image used in a report.
In Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, the configuration file provides
database connections and data sources.

How to specify a global search path


1 Choose Tools➛Options.
Options—General appears.
2 Choose Global Search Path.
Options—Global Search Path appears.

48 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


3 In Global Search Path, choose New.
4 Type the directory name or choose the Browse button to find the directory.
Choose OK.
The directory you chose is added at the bottom of the list.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional searches the directories in the order
they appear in the list. To change the order in which the directories are
searched, select the directory and choose the up or down arrow.
To remove a directory from the global search path, select the directory and
choose Delete.

How to specify the configuration file setting


1 Choose Tools➛Options.

Chapter 2, Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator 49


Options—General appears.

2 Choose the Browse button and navigate to the folder that contains the
configuration file.
3 Select the configuration file and choose Open.
4 Choose Refresh.
5 Choose OK.

50 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Chapter

Viewing a report using


Chapter 3
3
Actuate Viewer
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ Opening and viewing a report
■ Moving around in a report
■ Using links to other Windows applications
■ About zooming
■ Personalizing the application window
■ Using screen arrangement options
■ Using online help
■ Using context menus while you view a report

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 51


Opening and viewing a report
Actuate Viewer is a tool that you use to view an Actuate Basic report object
instance (.roi) file. Opening and viewing a report that is stored in a file system,
such as on a stand-alone machine or a network file server, or in the
Encyclopedia volume involves a somewhat different sequence of tasks. The
following sections describe opening and viewing a report stored in a file
system then in the Encyclopedia volume.
Once the report is open, the viewing features are the same whether you view a
report stored in the file system or in the Encyclopedia volume. Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional uses the last zoom setting you set as the default
magnification when you open a report. For information about using the Zoom
feature, see “About zooming,” later in this chapter.

Opening and viewing a report in a file system


To help you get started, Actuate e.Report Designer Professional includes
sample reports. We use Detail.roi as an example in this chapter.

How to open a report from a file system


1 Choose File➛Open.
Open appears.
2 In Files of Type, choose Report Document (*.roi) to find the sample report,
Detail.roi. Navigate to the examples directory that contains Detail.roi.
For example, the default Examples directory that contains Detail.roi for
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional is \Program Files\Actuate8
\eRDPro\Examples\DesignAndLayout\Detail.
3 Select Detail.roi. Choose Open.
Detail.roi opens.

52 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows the first page of Detail.roi in Actuate e.Report
Designer Professional. With this sample report, you can explore many of the
viewing capabilities.

Split the window horizontally

Close or restore all visible windows

Zoom in and out of the report

Search for report data

Page through the report

Print the report

Traverse the
report using its
table of contents

Go to a specific
page of the report

Split the window


vertically

Use the split box at the top of the vertical scroll bar or the left of the horizontal
scroll bar to create a split window. View different parts of the report
simultaneously with a split window. To remove splits from a window, double-
click the split bar.

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 53


Viewing a report in an Encyclopedia volume
You can view a report stored in an Encyclopedia volume if you have access to
the Encyclopedia volume and if you have read privilege for the report. For
more information about privileges, see “About privileges” in Chapter 2,
“Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”

How to open a report in an Encyclopedia volume for viewing


1 Log in to the Encyclopedia volume if you have not already done so.
Navigator appears.
2 Navigate to and right-click a report object instance (.roi) file. Choose Open
from the context menu, as shown in the following illustration.
Open

The report appears.

Viewing third-party reports


You can view third-party reports, called open server reports, as you would any
other report in the Encyclopedia volume. If the report requires special
software to view, that software must be installed on the local machine. For
example, to view a Crystal or SQR report in the native format, you must install
the appropriate viewing software on your machine. The Encyclopedia volume
does not support demand paging when viewing open server reports. The
entire report transfers to the local machine for viewing.

Moving around in a report


There are a number of ways to move around in an Actuate Basic report. You
can:

54 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ Page through the report sequentially, or go to the first or last page using the
paging commands.
■ Go to a specific page by specifying a page number.
■ Use hyperlinks, if provided by the report developer, to go from one part of
the report to another part in the same or different report.
■ Use the report’s table of contents to traverse the content hierarchy.
■ Use the search feature to find and go to specified report data.
This section describes all the techniques for moving around in a report except
the search feature. For more information about searching for report data, see
Chapter 5, “Searching for and exporting report data using Actuate Viewer.”

Using the paging commands


The View menu includes various paging commands, first page, previous page,
next page, and last page. Actuate Basic reports store data in a highly
compressed form. It is possible to move very quickly through large reports.
Paging sequentially through the report is an option, but it is more convenient
and faster to choose specific paging commands. Use either toolbar buttons or
menu items to access the paging commands.
Paging buttons in the toolbar

First, Previous, Next, and Last


page toolbar buttons

Using Go To
If you are familiar with the page layout of the report, or you are working from
a printout to find particular report pages, use View➛Go To or the Go To Page
button to access a specific page by number.
Go To Page button in the toolbar

Go To Page

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 55


Go to Page brings up a dialog where you type the number of the page to
display.

Using hyperlinks
During the design process, the report developer has the option to provide
hyperlinks in an Actuate Basic report. Hyperlinks make it easy to move from
information in one part of a report to related information in another part of the
same or a different report. Not all reports include hyperlinks.
When you choose a hyperlink in a report that links to another report, the
linked report uses the zoom setting of the report containing the hyperlink. For
information on using the Zoom feature, see “About zooming,” later in this
chapter.

How to use a hyperlink


1 Pass the mouse over a hyperlinked field. The cursor changes to a small
hand to show that the field contains a hyperlink.
In the following illustration, the hyperlink for Boston Office is active. Look
on page 2 of Detail.roi to find this example. Double-clicking the hyperlink
takes you directly to the main entry for the Boston Office.
Hyperlink for Boston Office

56 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 Double-click the hyperlinked field to go directly to the related field. The
following illustration shows the field to which the hyperlink connects.

Other hyperlink techniques exist in some reports. For example, each section on
a summary page in a report can be linked by a More button to a detailed
section of the report. In the more detailed report, the developer can insert
More and Back buttons to facilitate navigating through the pages of that part
of the report.
The following illustration shows a page of Forecast.roi with More and Back
buttons.

Buttons with
programmed
hyperlinks

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 57


To see several examples of hyperlinks, open Forecast.roi and work with the
hyperlinks provided on pages 1 and 2 of that report.
Some of the hyperlinks in Forecast.roi go to the sample report Detail.roi. If you
select a hyperlink that goes to Detail.roi and it is not available, you see
messages saying Detail.roi cannot be opened.

Using the table of contents


Reports typically contain a generated table of contents. You can view the table
of contents with sections collapsed or expanded depending upon what level of
detail you want to see.
The following illustration shows the table of contents, partially expanded, for
the sample report, Detail.roi.

As the table of contents for Detail.roi shows, the Eastern Region Sales Forecast
includes three offices. Each office includes a group of sales representatives and
each of those representatives has a group of customers. Each customer, in turn,
has one or more orders.
In some cases, the report has a table of contents with additional items to
highlight particularly important sections.

58 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to access the report’s table of contents
Choose View➛Table of Contents, or choose the Table of Contents icon.
The table of contents for the report appears. The following illustration shows
the table of contents for the sample report, Detail.roi.

How to use the report’s table of contents


1 To expand the table of contents to show more levels of information, choose
the plus icon . The following illustration shows the Boston Office folder
expanded to display sales representatives in that office.

2 To collapse the table of contents to show fewer levels of information,


choose the minus icon .

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 59


How to go to an item appearing in the table of contents
Double-click the item in the table of contents.

The report displays the chosen item.

Using links to other Windows applications


Actuate Basic reports can display and manipulate data from Windows
applications that support Object Linking and Embedding (OLE). For example,
report developers can use OLE to link a Word document, an Excel graph, a
spreadsheet, or a Paintbrush picture to an Actuate Basic report. What you see
depends to some degree on the particular OLE object and the applications
installed on your computer. For example, if a report contains a link to an Excel

60 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


graph, the graph appears only if Excel is installed on your computer.
Otherwise, a grey box appears in place of the graph.

About linked and embedded objects


During the report design phase, the report developer has the option to link or
embed objects such as Excel spreadsheets or Paintbrush pictures in the report
design. If the data is in the form of a linked OLE object, the data remains in a
file maintained by the application that created it. In that case, the Actuate Basic
report contains a reference to that file. If the object is embedded, the data itself
is in the Actuate Basic report.

Editing linked and embedded objects


Depending upon the application used to create the original object, it is possible
to manipulate the linked object in the report. For example, if the linked object
is an Excel bar graph, printing or viewing the data in a variety of ways, such as
a pie chart or a ribbon graph, is an option.
Any change in the view is for that session only. The change is not stored or
saved in the original document, nor can you save this variation in the Actuate
Basic report.

About OLE automation


Report developers use OLE automation to make it possible for you to run
another application from within an Actuate Basic report. Typically, accessing
the other application is transparent. For example, the developer can provide a
button on a report that accesses Microsoft Excel and transfers data to the
report.

About linked and embedded objects in a report


Report developers can use bitmaps, spreadsheets, or other files as part of a
report design. If these external objects are linked to the report, the report
searches the path to find them. If it cannot find the path, the linked object does
not appear in the report.
If you see an X in your report, a necessary file might not have been included
when the report was distributed. Embedded objects, on the other hand, are
part of the report. If you distribute a report that you designed, it is best to
embed objects in the report design.

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 61


The following illustration shows a report that lost a link to an external object.
Indicates missing linked file

About zooming
Zooming in and out of a report makes it easier to view specific sections. The
scaling range is from 25% to 400%.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional uses the last zoom setting you set as
the default magnification when opening a report. When you change the zoom
scale of a report, you change the default zoom setting.
When you choose a hyperlink in a report that links to another report, the
linked report uses the zoom setting of the report containing the hyperlink.

62 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustrations show a report at 50% and at 200%.
Set scaling size

Personalizing the application window


You can change or rearrange the set of windows that appear in the work area.
For example, if you work mostly with the Actuate Viewer window, you can
close or hide the table of contents and search windows when you are not using
them. Actuate e.Report Designer Professional saves the current perspective
when you exit the program. The next time you start Actuate e.Report Designer

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 63


Professional, the window layout appears the way it did the previous time. You
can, at any time, restore a window layout to its default state.
You can also hide or rearrange toolbars or create a new toolbar to meet your
needs.

Moving, minimizing, and stacking windows


You can manipulate windows in the work area using any of the standard
methods, including opening, closing, and resizing them. In addition, you can:
■ Move windows from their default positions and place them anywhere you
choose, inside or outside the application window. To move a window, click
its title bar and drag it to the desired location. An outline of the window
appears as you move the window. As you drag a window close to the
borders of the work area or other windows, the window snaps into
position. To prevent the window from snapping to the edge of another
window or the work area, press Ctrl as you drag the window.
■ Minimize, or hide, a window by choosing the thumbtack icon.
■ Stack one window on top of another so that the two windows appear as a
single window with tabbed pages. To unstack windows, click a tab and
drag the window to another location.
The following illustration shows how to rearrange the positions of two
windows.

Outline of Search
appears as you drag
the window to its
new location

Search in its new


location, above Table
of Contents

64 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows how to minimize a window so that only the
title bar appears at the edge of the work area.

Choose the thumbtack


to minimize a window

The minimized window


hides, and its title bar
appears at the edge of
the work area

The following illustration shows how to stack two windows so they appear as
one window with tabbed pages.

Outline of Table of
Contents appears as you
drag the window on top of
Search. Notice the outline
of the tab.

The windows become one


window with tabbed pages

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 65


Moving, hiding, and changing toolbars
You can change how and where toolbars appear:
■ Display or hide individual toolbars using View➛Toolbars.
■ Display or hide individual buttons on each toolbar by choosing the arrow
on the right side of the toolbar and choosing Add or Remove Buttons.
■ Move a toolbar from its default position by dragging the gray bar on the
left side of the toolbar and placing it elsewhere. If you move a toolbar away
from the top of the screen, it becomes its own window.

Drag this gray bar Choose this arrow to display


to move a toolbar the Add or Remove Buttons
command

Restoring a perspective to its default layout


If you rearrange the windows in a perspective and do not like the way you
position them, you can rearrange the windows or reset them to their default
positions.
To restore the current perspective to its default layout, choose Tools➛Reset
Workspace➛Active Perspective Only. To restore all the perspectives, choose
All Perspectives.
The windows in the perspective appear in their original positions. Restoring a
perspective has no effect on changes you make to toolbars, only to windows.

Using screen arrangement options


The Window menu provides the option to cascade or tile windows. The
windows can contain different reports or different views of a single report.

Using New Window


New Window lets you add report windows. Use this feature if you need
multiple views of the same report. Depending upon how you used the
Window menu options, the windows appear one on top of another until you
use Cascade or Tile to arrange them.

66 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Using Cascade
The Cascade command cascades existing windows and any subsequent
windows you open. In the following illustration, some windows cascade and
some do not to permit comparison.

Using Tile
Select Tile to arrange file windows you have open. The first three windows tile
horizontally. The fourth window divides the main window into four report
windows. Subsequent windows continue to subdivide the screen.

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 67


The following illustration shows two tiled windows.

Using online help


During the design phase, report developers have the option to include report
specific online help. For example, the report developer can add comments to
give further detail about specific report items or to explain how specific
calculations were created.
This section provides instructions for accessing online help specific to a report.
The sample report, Detail.roi, is used to demonstrate the procedure.

How to access report online help


1 Right-click the item in the report for which you want online information. In
this example, right-click one of the dates, 2/3/04 or 2/15/04, on page 2 of
Detail.roi.
The context menu displays options provided by the report developer.

68 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 Choose Help. The help text explains what Needed/ Forecast means.

If your cursor hovers over a control that has balloon help available, you see
online help information provided by the developer.

Using context menus while you view a report


Context menus are an option the developer can choose to provide. If the
developer provided a context menu, right-click to access the context menu
items. By default, Actuate Basic reports provide the context menu items
Default Action and Help. If, however, the report developer does not write code
for these context menu items, they do not do anything.
The report developer can add other context menu items. For example, the
following illustration shows a context menu that appears when you right-click
the number 1855 in the sample report Detail.roi. Here the developer chose to
provide the option Evaluate Discount.

Chapter 3, Viewing a repor t using Actuate Viewer 69


It is important to remember that context menu items are an option provided by
the developer. Although you see them in the examples shown here, they are
not available in every report.

70 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Chapter

Running a report using


Chapter4
4
Navigator
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ About running a report
■ Running a report on your desktop
■ Running a report in an Encyclopedia volume
■ Creating a run request in an Encyclopedia volume
■ Specifying a report parameter
■ About structure and table parameters
■ Saving parameter values
■ Scheduling the time to run the executable file
■ Distributing a report
■ Notifying users of the completed report
■ Printing the completed report
■ Setting a run request autoarchive rule
■ Viewing the completed report
■ Checking the status of a run request

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 71


About running a report
You run a report when you want Actuate e.Report Designer Professional to
generate a report object instance (.roi) file with the most current data. A report
object executable (.rox) file contains compiled code that specifies how Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional generates a report and what data it retrieves
for the report.
When you run a report, you can use the default execution settings or set
properties, such as report parameters to filter report data, the name of the
generated report object instance (.roi) file, and the file versioning method to
use. These options are collectively called a run request.
You cannot run open server reports locally. You can run open server reports
from the Encyclopedia volume if your system administrator configured
Actuate iServer System to run open server reports. You can run Actuate Basic
reports, as well as third-party reports, such as Crystal and SQRIBE reports. For
information about open server reports and importing open server reports, see
Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
On Windows platforms, the Actuate SQRIBE report open server driver
handles only SQRIBE compiled, executable file type SQT.
The SQRIBE open server driver can generate the following output file types
from a SQRIBE SQT report:
■ Output file type .spf proprietary SQRIBE output.
■ Output file type .sqw web format output. This output is not printable.
■ Output file type .txt. A plain text file.

Running a report on your desktop


Running a report that is stored on your local system provides different options
and, therefore, involves different tasks from running a report in an
Encyclopedia volume. When you run a report from your desktop, the report
generates immediately. When you run a report in an Encyclopedia volume,
you can schedule the time and day to generate the report. You can also specify
if the report should be generated regularly. For information about running a
report in an Encyclopedia volume, see “Running a report in an Encyclopedia
volume,” later in this chapter.

How to run a report executable file on your desktop


1 Choose File➛Open.

72 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Open appears.
2 From Files of type, choose Report Executable (*.rox).

3 Select the report object executable (.rox) file you want to run and choose
Open.
The Factory window appears.
4 Choose Run to start the report generation process.

Requester appears.
5 Choose OK to accept the default parameter values, or enter parameter
values to narrow the range of data Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
retrieves. For information about how to use Requester, see “Specifying a
report parameter,” later in this chapter.
The Factory begins generating the report.
6 To stop report generation at any time, choose Halt.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 73


7 Choose Close after the report finishes running.
The report object instance (.roi) file appears in Actuate Viewer.

Monitoring report generation


The Factory window displays the status of the generation process and the
number of the page being generated. The Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional title bar displays the name of the report. The viewer title bar
displays (In Progress) while the report generates. When the Factory finishes
generating the report, only the file name appears.

Viewing pages during report generation


Typically, when you run a report object executable (.rox) file, the viewer starts
and displays the report as soon as the first page generates. There is one
exception. If you set the Bundle Rox in Roi output parameter in Requester to
True, the viewer displays the report only when the Factory completes
generating. For information about using parameters, see “Specifying a report
parameter,” later in this chapter.
As the report generates, you can use all the viewer features except for the Table
of Contents and Search features. These features are unavailable because they
rely on all the data in a completed report.
The following illustration shows the viewer as a report generates in Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional.

74 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Title in viewer indicates the
report is being generated

Factory window shows


page being generated

Understanding checkpoints
As the Factory generates the pages of the report, it writes the completed pages
to the report at designated checkpoints. The checkpoints occur after the
completion of the 1st, 5th, 10th, 25th, and 50th pages, and every 50 pages after
the 50th.
The viewer displays the portions of the report that were written to a file when
you manually refresh the report. For information about refreshing the report,
see “Refreshing the report in the Actuate Viewer,” later in this section.

Refreshing the report in the Actuate Viewer


To refresh a report in the viewer as the Factory generates the report, choose
any of the paging commands—First Page, Previous Page, Next Page, or Last
Page—from the toolbar or the View menu. Sometimes when you choose a
paging command, the report in the viewer does not immediately refresh. The
delay occurs when the Factory did not reach a new checkpoint since the last
refresh. For example, if the last page of the displayed report is 50, the report
does not refresh until the Factory finishes processing the 100th page.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 75


Use the Page information in the Factory window to refresh the report. For
optimal results, choose a paging command immediately after a checkpoint.

Running a report in an Encyclopedia volume


Running a report object executable (.rox) file in an Encyclopedia volume gives
you more options than running it from your desktop. These options are
collectively called a run request, described in the next section.

Creating a run request in an Encyclopedia volume


The following list summarizes the options you can set for a run request. For
each option in this list, there is a corresponding section with detailed
information:
■ Specify parameter values to filter the data to retrieve, set formatting
options, processing options, and so on, during report generation.
■ Save the parameter values to a report object value (.rov) file to reuse
whenever you want to run the report object executable (.rox) file with the
same values.
■ Schedule the ROX to run immediately, on a regular basis, or on selected
dates.
■ Assign an archive policy for the items created by the run request.
■ Distribute the completed report to a folder in the Encyclopedia volume and
set privileges.
■ Request that Actuate iServer System send notification messages, including
e-mail notification, to selected users or user groups when the report is
completed.
■ Request that Actuate iServer System print the report when it is completed.
■ View the completed report.
■ Check the status of run requests.

How to create a new run request


1 Locate the report object executable (.rox) file in the Encyclopedia volume.
2 Right-click the ROX and choose New Request.

76 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Requester appears, as shown in the following illustration. Each tab
corresponds to options you can specify with the run request.

Specifying a report parameter


Report parameters specify criteria when you run a report. These parameters,
defined by the report developer in the report design, control aspects of report
generation such as:
■ Records retrieved
■ Sort sequence of data
■ Output format
You set parameter values when you create a run request. If you do not specify
any parameter values, Actuate iServer System uses the default values defined
by the report developer.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 77


Understanding the types of report parameters
There are four types of parameters:
■ Optional
■ Required
■ Ad hoc
■ Boolean

About optional parameters


Optional parameters do not require that values be entered. Most report
parameters are optional. They are a convenient way for a user to narrow the
scope of a report, if desired. If you do not specify any values, default values
are used.
Optional parameters appear in the parameter list without a trailing asterisk, as
the following illustration shows.

Optional
parameters

78 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


About required parameters
Certain parameters must have a value supplied in order for the report to run.
For instance, accessing a database requires a user name and password. The
Requester indicates a parameter is required by displaying an asterisk after the
parameter name.
A required parameter typically has a default value supplied by the developer.
In the following illustration, two output parameters are required, but default
values are supplied so that the report runs.
If you change the Output File Name parameter from the default, this output
file name overrides the output name specified in Distribution.

Asterisk indicates
a required
parameter

Default
values

About ad hoc parameters


Ad hoc parameters narrow the scope of the data retrieved by a SQL query. A
report developer designs a SQL query to retrieve data from a database. By
entering values for ad hoc parameters in Requester, you modify the WHERE
clause of the SQL statement to retrieve data that meet certain criteria.
An ad hoc parameter is indicated in Requester by a small A next to the
parameter name. Ad hoc parameters can be either optional or required.
The following illustration shows the values for the Credit Rank and Purchase
Volume ad hoc parameters.
Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 79
Select customers whose
credit rank is C or D

…and whose purchase


quantity is in this range

For more information and examples of syntax to use for ad hoc parameter
values, see “Specifying a value for an ad hoc parameter,” later in this chapter.

About Boolean parameters


Boolean parameters support only True and False values. The report developer
can create labels for Boolean True and False values to customize their
appearance in Requester, as shown in the following illustration.

In this example, Order did not ship implies False, and Order shipped implies
True.

Providing parameter values


The way you enter parameter values depends on how the report developer
designed the parameter. The following illustration shows the various ways to
enter parameter values.

80 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Text boxes

Drop-down lists

Radio buttons for Boolean


parameter

Radio buttons for ranges


of values

Use one of the following methods to enter parameter values:


■ If the report supports using text boxes, enter parameter values next to the
parameter names. Use the ad hoc parameter builder to enter parameter
values.
■ If the report supports using radio buttons, choose one of the options listed.
■ If the report supports using a drop-down list, choose one of the options
available in the drop-down list.
■ If the report developer enabled typing a custom value in the list, you can
type a custom value besides choosing from the options available in the
drop-down list. Use the ad hoc parameter builder to enter parameter
values.
■ If the report uses date parameters, enter a date or use the date picker to
enter the parameter value.
The application does not support using thousand separators while entering
values for report parameters.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 81


Specifying a value for an ad hoc parameter
The value you specify for an ad hoc parameter modifies the WHERE clause of a
SQL query the report developer designed. You can specify a single value or an
expression. Using an expression enables you to specify a list or range of values.
When you provide an expression, you use Query by Example (QBE) syntax to
write an expression that the application translates into SQL. Using QBE syntax,
you can build the following types of expressions:
■ A single value, such as 10
■ A relational expression, such as >10
■ A range of values, such as 10-20
■ A list of values, ranges, or expressions separated by a pipe sign, such as
10|20-30|>50
Some locales also accept a comma as a list separator.
■ A group of values, such as (abc|xyz)&bbb
The following table lists examples of QBE expressions, including the
expression type, the column to which the expression applies, and the
associated SQL syntax.

Type of Database
expression column QBE expression SQL
Single quantity 0 quantity = 0
value
custState CA custState LIKE 'CA%'
Relational quantity >50 quantity > 50
custState !CA custState NOT LIKE 'CA%'
custState !'CA' custState <> 'CA'
custName >P custName > 'P'
custName D&'%Corp%' custName LIKE 'D%' AND
custName LIKE '%Corp%'
Range price 10-20 price BETWEEN 10 AND 20
orderDate 1/1/1994- orderDate BETWEEN
5/31/1994 {d '1994-01-01'} AND
{d '1994-05-31'}
custName Ed-Kl custName BETWEEN
'Ed' AND 'Kl'

82 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Type of Database
expression column QBE expression SQL
List custState CA|CT|NV custState LIKE 'CA%' OR
custState LIKE 'CT%' OR
custState LIKE 'NV%'
custState 'CA'|'CT'|'NV' custState = 'CA' OR
custState = 'CT' OR
custState = 'NV'
empCode 1|6-8 empCode = 1 OR empCode
BETWEEN 6 AND 8

A value in a QBE expression must match the data type of the database column
to which it applies. For example, you must use a numeric value in a QBE
expression that filters a numeric column. Do not apply formatting to a report
parameter value.

How to use the ad hoc parameter builder


1 Choose the builder to the right of the parameter value field drop-down list.

2 Select an operator, an expression, or a function from the list.

Using a date in a QBE expression


When you use a date in a QBE expression, use four-digit years rather than
two-digit years. For example, to supply January 1, 1999, type 01/01/1999
rather than 01/01/99.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 83


To supply a date in the short date format, use the locale specific date separator.
The following table lists examples of correct dates in different locale settings.

Locale setting Correct format


US English 01/15/2003
French (France) 15/01/2003
Russian 15.01.2003

If you use two-digit years in a QBE expression, the application supplies the
first two digits according to the following rules:
■ The two-digit years 00 through 29 are interpreted as 2000 through 2029.
■ The two-digit years 30 through 99 are interpreted as 1930 through 1999.
The date 01/01/29 is interpreted as 2029-01-01, and the date 01/01/30 is
interpreted as 1930-01-01. You can control how the application interprets two-
digit years by changing the value of the Microsoft Windows registry key
AC_CENTURY_BREAK, which is located in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SOFTWARE\ACTUATE. The default value is 30.
The application uses these same rules when it operates on dates with two-digit
years retrieved from a database. For example, if the column orders.shipByDate
contains dates with two-digit years, the query:
SELECT orders.shipByDate
FROM orders
WHERE orders.shipByDate >= {d '2000-01-01'}
returns values of orders.shipByDate with two-digit years from 00 through 29,
and the query:
SELECT orders.shipByDate
FROM orders
WHERE orders.shipByDate < {d '2000-01-01'}
returns values of orders.shipByDate with two-digit years from 30 through 99.

Using a wildcard or a literal character in a QBE string


The following table lists characters that have special meanings in a string in a
QBE expression.

Character Meaning in QBE


_ Match any single character.
% Match any character, group of characters, or no
character.

84 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Character Meaning in QBE
[] Match any one of the characters within
brackets. Not supported by all data sources.
\ Treat the next character literally, rather than
treating it as a special character. For more
information about using this character, see
“Using a special character in a QBE string,”
later in this chapter.

The following table lists examples of QBE expressions that use the wildcard
and literal characters.

Example QBE syntax Matches Does not match


Sm_th 'Smith' 'Smooth'
'Smoth' 'Smth'
Smith% 'Smith' 'Smit'
'Smithsonian'
'Smith '
Sm[aeiou]th 'Smith' 'Smooth'
'Smath' 'Smth'
Sm\[aeiou\]th 'Sm[aeiou]th' 'Smith'
ab%c 'abac'
'ab%c'
ab[%]c 'ab%c' 'abac'
'ab[%]c'

A data source that supports brackets, [ ], as special characters treats a special


character enclosed in brackets as a literal character, not a special character. In
the preceding table, for example, the QBE syntax, ab[%]c, encloses the special
character, %, in brackets to treat it literally. That QBE syntax translates to the
following SQL:
LIKE 'ab[%]c'
Not all data sources support using all the wildcard characters. For example,
Oracle databases do not support using brackets, [ ], as wildcard characters. For
an Oracle database, brackets do not have special meaning. For an Oracle
database, the example QBE syntax, Sm[aeiou]th, translates to the following
SQL:
LIKE 'Sm[aeiou]th'

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 85


This SQL matches the string, 'Sm[aeiou]th', because an Oracle database
matches the brackets literally. This SQL does not match the string, 'Smith' or
'Smath'.
Because an Oracle database does not support brackets, you can only use an
escape character to match a percent sign, %, or underscore, _, special character.
For more information about matching a special character in a QBE string, see
“Using a special character in a QBE string,” later in this chapter.
For more information about data source support for wildcard characters, see
your data source documentation.

Understanding how Actuate compares a string ending in


blank spaces with a QBE expression
The application adds a percent character, %, to a string entered as a QBE
expression when all of the following conditions are true:
■ The database column is of type string.
■ The input parameter value is not enclosed in single quotes and is not a
range.
■ The string does not contain a percent character, such as Sm%th.
The application adds a percent character to ensure blank characters at the end
of strings in the database do not interfere with the matching process. The
following table illustrates why the application adds the percent character.

SQL syntax Matches Does not match


custName LIKE 'Smith' 'Smith' 'Smith '
custName LIKE 'Smith%' 'Smith'
'Smith '

To match values ending in a space character when the QBE expression


contains a percent character, append a percent character to the QBE
expression. For example:
Sm%th%
The application does not add a percent character to a BETWEEN clause,
because this syntax is only valid for LIKE. For example, if the database column
custName is of type string and the report user enters A-D as the ad hoc
parameter value, the application generates the following WHERE clause:
WHERE custName BETWEEN 'A' AND 'D'
This query does not match customer records where custName is Design
Boards. If a user enters D as the value of the ad hoc parameter, the query

86 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


retrieves the data row that contains Design Boards. Other ad hoc parameter
values a user can enter to retrieve values starting with A through D include:
A,B,C,D
A-E
>A&<E

Matching an exact string value in a QBE expression


If you do not want the application to add the percent character, %, to the end
of a string, enclose the string in single quotes in the QBE expression. Returned
data must exactly match the enclosed string. The following table lists the
values that example QBE expressions return.

Example QBE syntax Matches Does not match


Smith 'Smith'
'Smith '
'Smithson'
'Smith' 'Smith' 'Smith '
'Smithson'
Red|Green|Blue 'Green'
'Red|Green|Blue'
'Red|Green|Blue' 'Red|Green|Blue' 'Green'
Smith, Jane 'Smith, Jane'
'Smith, John'
'Janesson, Per'
'Smith, Jane' 'Smith, Jane' 'Smith, John'

In the preceding table, a comma appears as a list separator for Smith, Jane. To
specify a list separator that is locale independent, use the pipe sign, |.

Specifying a null value in a QBE expression


To specify an empty field in the database, use the keyword Null. Null is not
case sensitive. The following table shows examples of QBE expressions using
Null.

Database column QBE syntax SQL


orderDate Null orderDate IS NULL
custID !Null custID IS NOT NULL

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 87


Using a special character in a QBE string
If a QBE string contains one or more special characters, you can type a
backslash (\) before each special character or you can enclose the string in
single quotes, which exactly matches the string value. For more information
about matching an exact string value, see “Matching an exact string value in a
QBE expression,” earlier in this chapter.
Special characters include the following:
■ Ampersand, &
■ Backslash, \
■ Caret, ^
■ Comma, ,
■ Equal sign, =
■ Exclamation point, !
■ Greater than sign, >
■ Hyphen, -
■ Less than sign, <
■ Open bracket, [
■ Close bracket, ]
■ Open parenthesis, (
■ Close parenthesis, )
■ Percent sign, %
■ Pipe sign, |
■ Single quote, '
■ Underscore, _
For example, the following QBE expression uses a backslash before the
comma. The application interprets the comma literally:
16M x 1 Dynamic Ram\, 3.3 volts
Without the backslash, depending on your locale setting, the application
interprets the comma as an OR in SQL, as in the following SQL expression:
WHERE items.itemcode LIKE '16M x 1 Dynamic Ram%'
OR items.itemcode LIKE '3.3 volts%'
To specify a list separator that is locale independent, use the pipe sign, |.

88 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


For another example, to match the percent sign, %, literally in a string, you can
use the following QBE expression:
'ab\%c'
which translates to the following SQL:
= 'ab%c'
This SQL matches 'ab%c'. Some data sources support matching a literal
percent sign, %, using LIKE functionality. For more information about
matching a literal percent sign, see “Using a wildcard or a literal character in a
QBE string,” earlier in this chapter.

About structure and table parameters


A report that uses an SAP R/3 data stream supports structure and table
parameter types. To run a report, you must supply values for required
parameters. An asterisk following a parameter name indicates a required
parameter.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional automatically assigns the Null
keyword as the default value for a structure field or table column. This implies
that a table or structure parameter can contain a row of null values for all its
columns.
If you specify the keyword Null as a parameter value, Actuate e.Report
Designer Professional treats the keyword Null as a null input value for that

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 89


field. In order to specify the literal string Null as a value for a table or structure
parameter, enclose it within single quotation marks, for example, 'Null'.

Table parameter

Structure parameter

Descendant
elements

Specifying a value for a structure parameter


A structure parameter consists of a number of descendant elements that have
their own data types. These elements appear as a group of parameters on
Requester—Parameters. Expand the structure parameter to see the descendant
elements.
Use one of the following methods to supply values for a structure parameter:
■ If the report supports text boxes, type a value next to the parameter name.
■ If the report supports drop-down lists, select one of the options available in
the drop-down list.
■ If the report supports typing a custom value in the list, type a custom
value.
■ If the report uses date parameters, type a date or use the date picker to
specify a value.

90 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Specifying a value for a table parameter
A table parameter contains one or more columns. Unlike other report
parameters, you cannot specify a value for a table parameter on Requester—
Parameters. To display Table Parameter Editor, choose Table Editor beside a
table parameter on Requester—Parameters.

How to add a row


1 In Add row, type a value for the column depending on the data type of the
column.
2 In Table Parameter Editor—Add row, choose Add.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 91


The new row appears under Table Parameter Editor—Table rows.

3 Choose the appropriate option:


■ To return to Requester—Parameters without saving your changes to the
table, choose Cancel.
■ To save your changes, choose OK.

92 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to edit a row
You can edit the value of each row in a table.
1 In Table Parameter Editor—Table rows, select the row you want to edit and
choose Edit.

2 In Table Parameter Editor—Edit row, specify a value for the row you want
to modify and choose Update.
The modified row appears in Table Parameter Editor—Table rows.
3 To return to Requester—Parameters, choose OK.

How to delete a row


Choose the appropriate deletion option:
■ In Table Parameter Editor—Table rows, select the row you want to edit and
choose Delete.
■ To delete multiple rows, press Ctrl and select the columns to delete. Choose
Delete.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 93


Saving parameter values
When you run a report with parameters, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional writes the parameter values to a report object value (.rov) file and
stores that file in a temporary folder. When the report generates, Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional deletes the temporary ROV.
After you set the parameter values in Requester—Parameters, you can save
them to an ROV to reuse whenever you want to run the report object
executable (.rox) file with the same values. To do so, modify the settings in
Requester—Values, as shown in the following illustration.

Check this option to create


a report object value (.rov)
file
Specify the name of the
ROV and the location to
save the file
If a ROV with the same
name exists, create a new
version or overwrite it

When you save parameter values to an ROV, you can choose to create a new
ROV or replace a previous version. The first option is useful for creating
different ROVs for different sets of parameter values. For example, if you
regularly generate two sales reports from a single report object executable
(.rox) file—one that reports sales in Boston, and the other, sales in New York—
create an ROV for each report.
If you save different versions of the ROV, successive files created from the
same ROX are saved with the same name with incrementing version names.
With this autoversioning capability, you can maintain a chronologically
ordered set of versions of the same report items.

94 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows how the Encyclopedia volume maintains
different versions of report items.
Two versions of report object instance (.roi)
files were generated from two ROVs
associated with a single ROX

Scheduling the time to run the executable file


Use Requester—Schedule to schedule when a run request should run. You can
schedule the report object executable (.rox) file to run immediately, once at a
specified time, on a recurring basis, or on any specified schedule. If you do not
specify a schedule, Actuate e.Report Designer Professional runs the ROX
immediately.
For scheduled run requests that cannot run because Actuate iServer System is
down, Actuate iServer System does the following when it restarts:
■ Actuate iServer System runs the reports.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 95


■ If multiple run requests exist for a ROX, only one scheduled request
instance runs.

Run the ROX


immediately (default)
Run the ROX once
at a specified time
Run the ROX at a
specified time regularly
Run the ROX on a
more complex schedule

Specify the priority at


which to run the ROX

The following sections contain examples of report scheduling:


■ How to schedule a report to run once
■ How to schedule a report to run hourly for a week
■ How to schedule a report to run on a weekday for a specified period,
excluding holidays

96 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to schedule a report to run once
Suppose you want a report on this week’s new accounts after close of business
Friday. In Requester—Schedule, do the following:
1 In When, to set a schedule, choose Once.
Today’s date and the time appear.
2 To display the calendar, choose the arrow next to the date.
3 To enter the date, choose Friday’s date on the calendar or type the date.
4 Enter the time as shown in the following illustration. Choose OK.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 97


How to schedule a report to run hourly for a week
Suppose you want an hourly report on new account activity every day during
the fourth week of April at a sales conference. The first report runs at 8:00 A.M.
on Monday and the last at 5:00 P.M. on Friday.
1 To set this schedule, in When, select Schedule, then choose Edit Schedule.
Edit Schedule appears.
2 Enter the settings as shown in the following illustration and choose OK.

How to schedule a report to run on a weekday for a specified


period, excluding holidays
You want a weekly report that generates once every Friday during the first
quarter, except on holidays. To set this schedule, set up a weekly run for the
specified duration, then exclude the Fridays that are holidays. In this example,
March 25 falls on a Friday and is a company holiday, so you must exclude this
day from the schedule.
To set the schedule, use the following steps:
1 In When, select Schedule, then choose Edit Schedule.

98 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 Enter the settings as shown in the following illustration.

3 Choose Add to save the schedule information.


The text box displays the schedule information you set, that is, how often
the report runs and the start and end dates and times.
Now that you finished setting up the recurring schedule, you can exclude
March 25 from it.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 99


4 To exclude this day from the schedule, do the following:
1 Click the right arrow button next to the calendar until March appears.
The following illustration shows the schedule information.

Information about
the schedule you set

To exclude a date from a


schedule, select it on the
calendar, then choose Delete

2 Select March 25 on the calendar, then choose Delete.


The schedule excludes the date. The date is included in the information
in the text box, which contains the following additional clause:
[except 25-Mar-05]

Creating complex report generation schedules


The previous scheduling examples are just two examples of how you can use
Edit Schedule to create complex schedules.
You can create even more complex schedules by adding more conditions. For
example, you can select a date from the calendar, select the 1 Day option, then
specify time and frequency values for a run request on that particular day. The

100 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


text box in Edit Schedule reflects your choices, so you can always keep track of
the schedule.

Setting the priority at which to run the executable


file
Reports can be run at three priority levels, high, medium, or low. These
priorities represent the order in which reports run if there are many requests in
the queue.
The priority levels you can specify depend on what the Encyclopedia volume
administrator assigned as the maximum priority you can set for requests. If,
for example, the Encyclopedia volume administrator set your maximum
request priority at medium, you can run reports only at the medium and low
priorities. You can also specify a numeric priority level, such as 500.

About retry options


Users who can schedule run requests can override Encyclopedia volume
defaults for retrying requests.
When you schedule a run request, you can override the Encyclopedia volume
defaults by changing the settings on Requester—Schedule.
On Requester—Schedule, under Scheduled Request Retry, select Number of
times to retry failed requests, and enter the number of attempts and the
interval between retry attempts. The Scheduled Request Retry settings are
active only when you create a scheduled run request. The settings are inactive
when you select the Right Now option.

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 101


The following illustration shows retry options.

Distributing a report
Use Requester—Distribution to specify where and how to distribute reports
generated in the Encyclopedia volume. You can specify the following:
■ A different name for the report object instance (.roi) file. By default, Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional uses the same root name as the report object
executable (.rox) file used to generate the report. Changing the default
report name in Requester—Parameters overrides the name specified in this
page.
■ A folder in the Encyclopedia volume in which to place the report. By
default Actuate e.Report Designer Professional stores the ROI in your
personal folder. If you do not have a personal folder, the ROI is stored in
the folder where the ROX resides. To override the default, choose Current
Folder to store the ROI where the ROX resides or choose Absolute Folder
and specify the new directory and name for the ROI.
■ Whether the ROI should be a new version or should replace an existing
ROI with the same name. By default, a new version is created.

102 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ A version name for the ROI. By default, a version number is used, for
example, Version001 or Version002.
If you choose to save version results, successive ROIs created from the
same run request are saved under the same name with incrementing
version numbers. Versioning keeps a chronologically ordered set of
versions of the same ROI. If you choose to replace previous results, all
previous versions of the ROI are deleted.
■ A version name that contains date and time parameters for identification.
For more information about parameters in file names, see “Using date and
time expressions for a document or a version name,” later in this chapter.
■ Assign privileges to different users and security roles. If you do not assign
privileges, users have the default privileges specified in your privilege
template. For information about privileges, see “About privileges” in
Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”

Specify a full path


name for the
completed report

Create a new
version of a report
or replace previous
results

Assign a version
name if you are
maintaining
versions of the
report

Grant privileges
on the report to
other users or
roles

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 103


Using date and time expressions for a document or
a version name
When you submit a run request, you can specify a document name and a
version name for the generated report object instance (.roi) file, if you do not
want to use the default names. When supplying a document or version name,
you can use date and time expressions to add the report generation date and
time to the name. For example:
Sales Report {mm-dd-yy}
evaluates to:
Sales Report 02-28-02
This feature is useful if, for example, you schedule a report to run on a
recurring basis. Adding a date and time expression that evaluates to the
generation date gives you unique document or version names.
To create date and time expressions, use one of the following methods:
■ Use the pre-defined date and time formats
■ Create your own date and time formats.

Using a predefined format keyword


The following table lists the predefined date and time format keywords you
can use, and what each evaluates to when the report generates. The examples
and results that have an .roi extension are document names. The examples and
results without an .roi extension are version names.
Commas and colons in the expression can create unexpected results. Actuate
recommends you use General Date, Long Date, Long Time, Medium Time, and
Short Time for building only the date and time expression for the version
name.

Keyword Description Example Result


General Date Returns a date and {General Date} 01/23/2001
time in the Short Date 8:53:03PM
Long Time format as
defined in the user’s
Control Panel/Locale
Map file
Long Date Returns a Long Date as {Long Date} Tuesday,
defined in the user’s January
Locale Map file 23,2001

104 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Keyword Description Example Result
Medium Date Returns a date with the {Medium 23-Jan-01.roi
month name Date}.roi
abbreviated to 3 letters:
dd-mm-yy
Short Date Returns a Short Date as {Short Date}.roi 01-23-2001.roi
defined in the user’s
Control Panel/Locale
Map File
Long Time Returns a Long Time as {Long Time} 8:45:00 PM
defined in the user’s
Control Panel/Locale
Map file
Medium Time Returns hours and {Medium Time} 8:45 PM
minutes in 12-hour
format, including AM/
PM designation
(hh:nn AM/PM)
Short Time Returns hours and {Short Time} 20:45
minutes in 24-hour
format (hh:nn)

Creating a custom date format


The following table lists the date format symbols you can use to construct your
own date formats, and what each evaluates to when the report generates. The
examples and results that have an .roi extension are document names. The
examples and results without an .roi extension are version names.

Symbol Description Example Result


d Returns day of the Day{d}.roi Day3.roi
month without leading
zero (1-31)
dd Returns day of the Day{dd}.roi Day03.roi
month with leading
zero (01-31)
ddd Returns three-letter {ddd}.roi Tue.roi
abbreviation for day of
the week
dddd Returns full name of {dddd} Tuesday
day of the week

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 105


Symbol Description Example Result
dddd Returns Short Date {dddd} 01/23/2002
string as defined in the
user’s Control Panel/
Locale Map file
dddddd Returns Long Date {dddddd}.roi Tuesday,
string as defined in the January23,2002.roi
user’s Control Panel/
Locale Map file
w Returns day of the Weekday {w}.roi Weekday 3.roi
week as a number
(Sunday = 1.
Saturday = 7.)
ww Returns week of the Week {ww}.roi Week 4.roi
year as a number (1-53)
m Returns number of the Month {m}.roi Month1.roi
month without the
leading zero
mm Returns number of the Month {mm}.roi Month 01.roi
month with the
leading zero
mmm Returns three letter {mmm}.roi Jan.roi
abbreviation for month
name
mmmm Returns full name of {mmmm}.roi January.roi
the month
q Returns number of the Quarter {q}.roi Quarter 1.roi
quarter (1-4)
y Returns number of the Day {y}.roi Day 23.roi
day of the year (1-365)
yy Returns last two digits Year {yy}.roi Year 01.roi
of the year (00-99)
yyy or Returns all four digits Year {yyy}.roi Year 2002.roi
yyyy of the year (100-9999)
c Returns date variant as for {dddd} for 01/23/2002 or
dddd for 01-23-2002

Using certain unescaped literal characters or strings in the date expression


along with user-defined date and time formats gives you a syntax error.

106 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


For example, the following expression:
Sales Report for MMM company as of {Date - mm/dd/yy}
results in the following syntax error:
"Bad fomat specification in token - {Date - mm/dd/yy}."

Creating a custom time format


The following table lists the time format symbols you can use to construct
your own time formats, and what each evaluates to when the report is
generated. The examples and results that have an .roi extension are document
names. The examples and results without an .roi extension are version names.

Symbol Description Example Result


h Returns hour of the day Hour {h}.roi Hour 9.roi
without the leading zero
(0-23)
hh Returns hour of the day Hour {hh}.roi Hour 09.roi
with the leading zero (00-
23)
n Returns minute without Minute {n}.roi Minute 5.roi
the leading zero (0-59)
nn Returns minute with the Minute {nn}.roi Minute 05.roi
leading zero(00-59)
s Returns second without Second {s}.roi Second 1.roi
the leading zero (0-59)
ss Returns second with the Second {ss}.roi Second 01.roi
leading zero (00-59)
AM/PM Returns designation {hh:nn:ss am/ 08:45:03 pm
AM/am for any hour pm}
before noon and PM/pm
for any hour after. This is
case-sensitive.
A/P or a/p Returns designation A/a {h:n:s a/p} 8:45:3 p
for any hour before noon
and P/p for any hour
after noon. This is case-
sensitive.

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 107


Symbol Description Example Result
AMPM Uses formats set by s1159 {h:n:s AMPM} 8:45:3 PM
and s2359 as defined in
the user’s Control Panel/
Locale Map file. Default
is AM/PM
tttt Uses format set by sTime {tttt} 8:45:00 PM
as defined in the user’s
Control Panel/Locale
Map file

Times returned are in 24-hour format unless you use one of the A.M./P.M.
format symbols. Note that the symbol for minute is n, not m, which is the
symbol for month.
Using unescaped literal characters within the expression that are not intended
to be evaluated as date and time components might give you an unexpected
value for the name. For example, the following expression:
{MMM&MMM Rep - mm/dd/yy}
generates the following result:
Jan&Jan Rep - 01/23/2002

Notifying users of the completed report


Use Requester—Notification to choose users and notification groups to notify
when the report finishes. By default, only you and the Encyclopedia volume
administrator are notified when the report generates.
The left pane of Requestor—Notification displays the available users and
notification groups for the Encyclopedia volume. Users and notification
groups are set up by the Encyclopedia volume administrator.

108 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Ask the Encyclopedia volume administrator to set up a notification group that
contains users to whom you regularly send a particular report.

Select users or
notification groups to
notify by selecting names
from the left and moving
them to the right

There are two types of notification:


■ Actuate iServer System notification
When Actuate iServer System notification is in effect, reports appear in the
Completed folder as soon as they generate. Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional uses the Actuate iServer System notification when the user’s
notification preference is set to Generate completed request notice.
■ E-mail notification
Users receive e-mail notification of a completed report if their notification
preference is set to Generate email notification.
The type of notification a user gets depends on the user’s notification
preference. Users can change their notification preferences from Properties.
For more information about setting user properties, see “Changing folder
properties” in Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using
Navigator.”

Printing the completed report


Use Requester—Print to specify where and how to print the completed report.
By default, Actuate iServer System does not print the report.

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 109


You can specify the following printing options:
■ The file name if Print To File is selected.
■ The Actuate iServer System printer to use to print the report.
■ Printer properties, such as paper size, paper orientation, duplex, number of
copies, and so on. By default, the printer uses the properties the
Encyclopedia volume administrator sets for the selected printer. If the
Encyclopedia volume administrator did not set default properties for the
printer, the printer uses the system-level defaults set by the system
administrator. For more information about setting printer properties, see
“Setting printer properties in the Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 6,
“Printing and distributing a report using Actuate Viewer and Navigator.”
■ The pages to print. You can print a single page, a range of pages, or all the
pages.

Check these options to print


the report when it is finished
Choose Properties to
change print settings for
this print request
Select a printer to send the
print request to

Specify the pages to print

110 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Setting a run request autoarchive rule
You can set autoarchive rules for generated files such as Actuate Basic report
documents, or third-party reports generated using Actuate open server
technology. These settings override the Encyclopedia volume default settings.
For more information about the autoarchive rules set by the Encyclopedia
volume administrator, see “About Encyclopedia volume autoarchive” in
Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
When you generate a run request, you can set an autoarchive rule from
Requester—Auto Archive. You must have both delete and write privileges on
a file to modify its autoarchive settings.

How to set an autoarchive rule for a run request


1 In Requester, choose Auto Archive.
2 Select Override the policy assigned at the distribution folder.

3 In Archive Policy, select the appropriate options.


4 If the Actuate iServer System administrator enabled archiving, you can
select Archive items before deletion.

Chapter 4, Running a repor t using Navigator 111


Viewing the completed report
After you receive notification of a run request completion, you can view the
report from its notification in the Completed folder by choosing View Report
from its context menu. You can also view the report directly from the report
document in the destination folder you specified when you created the
request.
To view the report in the destination folder, choose Open from its context
menu.

For information about viewing a report, see Chapter 3, “Viewing a report


using Actuate Viewer.”

Checking the status of a run request


The Encyclopedia volume stores status information about run requests in the
Requests folder. You can view this information at any time by opening the
Requests folder and the folders it contains.
Using Navigator in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, you can see active,
completed, and scheduled requests.

112 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Understanding how Actuate iServer System
manages a report request
Run requests can be in one of three states, in the following order, scheduled,
active, or completed. Corresponding to each state is a folder. As a run request
progresses from one state to the next, it moves to the corresponding folder.
A request appears in the Scheduled folder once it is submitted. That request
moves to the Active folder when it is time for the report to run. Once the
request processes, the request moves to the Completed folder, where it
remains until you delete it.
For example, if you schedule a report to be run at 12:01 am on August 15, 2002,
the request appears in the Scheduled folder until 12:01 am on August 15, 2002,
at which time the request moves to the Active folder. The request stays in the
Active folder until Actuate iServer System finishes processing it, at which time
the request moves to the Completed folder.
A report does not always run at the scheduled time. The time it actually runs
depends on several factors, for example, the priority level of the request, the
availability of server processes, and the number of requests in the queue. You
can specify the priority of your request, but only the Encyclopedia volume
administrator can control the number and schedules of concurrent Actuate
iServer processes.

Getting detailed information about a request


Using Navigator, you can get detailed information about requests in the
Requests folder, which contains the following folders:
■ Active
■ Completed
■ Scheduled
Checking the contents of the Scheduled, Active, and Completed folders tells
you the status of requests you scheduled. Requests scheduled by other users
are not visible to you, just as your requests are not visible to others. The
Completed folder contains requests you submitted and requests that other
users submitted and notified you about. Only the administrator can monitor
all requests managed by the Encyclopedia volume.

About contents in the Scheduled folder


The Scheduled folder contains the requests you scheduled to run at a later date
and time. You can view the following information about the scheduled request
in the right pane of Navigator:
■ Name of the report object executable (.rox) file to run

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 113


■ User who submitted the request
■ Date and time the ROX is next scheduled to run
■ The priority of the request. By default, the priority levels are indicated as
follows: 200 = low, 500 = medium, 800 = high.
The following illustration shows the contents in a user’s Scheduled folder, and
the context menu associated with scheduled requests.
Only requests submitted by the user
appear in the user’s Scheduled folder

Shows more
details about
the scheduled
request

Getting more details about a scheduled request


To get more details about a request in the Scheduled folder, right-click the
scheduled request icon or the report name, then choose Properties. Properties
displays the information you specified when you created the request, the
parameter values used to run the report and the schedule, distribution,
notification, and printing information.

Editing a scheduled request


You can edit a request in the Scheduled folder at any time. You can change the
parameter values and schedule, distribution, notification, and print options.
To do so, right-click the scheduled request icon or the report name, and choose
Properties. Then edit the information in Properties.

Printing scheduled request information


You can print scheduled request information from Properties—Summary.

Deleting requests in the Scheduled folder


You can delete requests any time before the request is processed. To do so,
right-click the scheduled request icon or the report name, then choose Delete.
You cannot recover a deleted request.

114 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


About contents in the Active folder
The Active folder contains the requests that are ready to be processed or are
currently being processed. You can view the following information about the
active request in the right pane of Navigator:
■ Job number as maintained by Actuate iServer System. Navigator numbers
each active request consecutively.
■ Name of the report object executable (.rox) file that is ready for processing
or is currently being processed.
■ User who submitted the request.
■ Date and time the generation process started, if it started.
■ Priority of the request. By default, the priority levels are indicated as
follows: 200 = low, 500 = medium, 800 = high.
■ Name of the generated report.
The following illustration shows the contents in a user’s Active folder.
Only requests submitted by
the user appear in the user’s
Active folder

Getting more details about an active request


To get more details about a request in the Active folder, right-click the active
request icon or the number of the job, then choose Properties. Properties
displays additional general information about the request.

Printing active request information


You can print active request information from Properties—Summary.

Deleting requests in the Active folder


You can delete requests while they are in the queue. To do so, right-click the
active request icon or the number of the job, then choose Delete. You cannot
recover a deleted request.

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 115


About contents in the Completed folder
The Completed folder contains the processed requests. You can view the
following information about the completed request in the right pane of
Navigator:
■ Job number as maintained by Actuate iServer System.
■ Name of the report object executable (.rox) file that ran.
■ Name of the generated report.
■ User who submitted the request.
■ Date and time the report completed.
■ Number of pages in the report.
The following illustration shows the contents in a user’s Completed folder,
and the context menu associated with successful completed requests.
Requests submitted by or
distributed to user appear in
user’s Completed folder

The Completed folder contains processed requests, including those that failed
to generate a report.

116 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


To get information about why the request failed, right-click the failed request
icon, then choose Properties.

Viewing reports in the Completed folder


To view a report in the Completed folder, right-click the successful request
icon or the number of the job, then choose View Report. The report opens in
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional.

Creating requests in the Completed folder


To create a request to run a report from the Completed folder, right-click the
failed request icon or the number of the job, then choose New Request.
Properties—General appears. You can set the properties for the run request
and choose OK to run the report.
To create a request that uses the same properties as the completed request,
right-click the request icon or the number of the job, then choose Retry. A
confirmation dialog appears. Choose Yes to resubmit the request.

Getting more details about a failed request


To get more details about a failed request in the Completed folder, right-click
the failed request icon or the number of the job, then choose Properties.
Properties displays additional information, including the time the report ran,
the scheduled priority, and the full path names of the report object executable
(.rox) and report files.

Chapter 4, Running a report using Navigator 117


Printing failed request information
You can print failed request information from Properties—Summary.

Deleting requests in the Completed folder


Requests remain in the Completed folder until you delete them. To do so,
right-click the request icon or the number of the job, then choose Delete. A
confirmation dialog appears. Choose Yes to delete the request. You cannot
recover a deleted request.
To delete all the requests in the Completed folder, use the Completed folder’s
context menu. Right-click the Completed folder and choose Delete All
Completed Notices.
You can delete completed requests after a specified amount of time. The
setting is a user property. For information about user properties, see
“Changing folder properties” in Chapter 4, “Running a report using
Navigator.”

118 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Chapter

Searching for and


Chapter 5
5
exporting report data
using Actuate Viewer
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ About the search feature in Actuate reports
■ Searching for report data
■ Using a search expression in the search criteria
■ Using search results to navigate through the report
■ Specifying data to display in Results
■ Saving a search definition
■ Using search definition files
■ Opening and running a search definition
■ Exporting report data
■ Copying report data to another document

C h a p te r 5 , S e a r c h i n g fo r a n d ex p o r ti n g r e p o r t d a t a u s in g A c tu a t e V i ew e r 119
About the search feature in Actuate reports
Using the search feature you can:
■ Find data that match a specified criteria
■ Display some or all of the search results
■ Save the search results to a file
If you run a report object executable (.rox) file for immediate viewing, and the
resulting report document is long, pages appear as the Actuate iServer Server
generates them. Because searching requires complete data, you can search a
report only when it finishes loading in the report window.

About searchable report fields


Unlike searching capabilities in word processors or text editors, where
searches are on a single text value, the search feature looks for user-specified
values in one or more report fields.
For example, you can find all customers that begin with M by searching on a
customer name field. A more complex multifield search could, for example,
find all customers in a particular region with purchases over a certain amount.
In this example, you would search for certain values in a customer name field,
a region field, and a purchase amount field.
The report fields you can search on depend on which fields the report
developer has designated as searchable.

Identifying a searchable report field


You begin a search by selecting a searchable object in a report. Then, you add
the selected object to the Search dialog and specify the value to find.

How to find searchable objects


As you move the cursor around the report, you notice the cursor shape
changes to an arrow with an active symbol at the tip. The change in cursor
shape indicates that an object is searchable.
The following illustration shows a searchable object in the sample report,
Detail.roi.

120 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Searching for report data
To search for specific report data, you select one or more report fields to search,
and specify the value to search for each selected field. Searching on one field is
straightforward. When searching on multiple fields, however, it helps to
understand the effect of selecting multiple fields for a search. Sometimes, it
also helps to understand the structure of the report.

Understanding how a multifield search works


In a multifield search, each field you add to the search criteria adds an And
logical operation. For example, if you select three fields and specify values for
each, the search criteria, in effect, is condition1 And condition2 And
condition3. There is a match only if all conditions are true.
The fields you select for a search must relate to each other. This is where it
helps to understand the structure of a report. As you add each field to the
search list, the search feature analyzes the relationships among the fields. If a
field does not match a supported relationship, the search feature displays an
error message. The search feature supports one-to-one and one-to-many
relationships among fields.
Here’s another way to look at this relationship concept: For a successful
search, you can add any fields that are contained within a selected parent field.
For example, if a report lists all sales representatives by region, the parent field
is the region, and the child field is the sales representative. In this scenario, you
can create a search that finds the Western region (region field = Western) and
sales representatives whose last names start with T (sales rep = T*). You can
apply this parent-child principle when creating a search criteria no matter how
many hierarchical levels the report contains.
The best way to see the structure of a report is to view its table of contents, if
one exists. To do so, choose Table of Contents from the Actuate Viewer toolbar.
If the report has a hierarchical structure, you can view the table of contents
with sections collapsed or expanded, depending on the level of detail you
want to see.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 121
Creating search criteria
You create search criteria through the Search dialog. You can modify your
search conditions by removing fields or changing field values. You can cancel
a search any time before you execute the search process.

How to create search criteria


The following steps assume you already have a report open for viewing.
1 Choose Search from the toolbar.
The Search dialog appears.

2 Use a single mouse-click to highlight or select a searchable object. In this


example, select a company name such as Brittan Design Inc.

122 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The search cursor lets you select only one object at a time.
The object to search

3 To use the selection as a criterion for your search, choose Add Selection, as
shown in the following illustration.

Open Search Export Options


Save Stop
Save As Search
Add Clear All
Delete

4 In Search, in the Value column, specify the value to search. In this example,
type:
Advanced*
The asterisk (*) is a wildcard that specifies you want to find all values that
contain Advanced in the first part of the string and any number of
characters after that.
For information about search expressions, see “Using a search expression
in the search criteria,” later in this chapter.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 123
The following illustration shows the object and value in a search
expression.
The object to search
The value to search

5 For a multifield search, repeat steps 2 to 4.

6 Choose Search to start the search process.


Matches to the search target(s) appear in Results in order of their
occurrence in the report.

The search results in eight companies


whose names start with Advanced
and whose CustomerForecastControl
value is greater than 100000.

How to modify search criteria


You can change your search criteria any time before you choose Search, which
starts the search process.
1 To remove a field from the search, in Search, select a search field entry and
choose Delete Entry.

124 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


2 To remove all the fields from the search, choose Clear All.
3 To stop searching altogether, choose the X option at the top of the Search
window to close it.

Using a search expression in the search criteria


When you specify the value to search for in a report field, you can specify a
literal value, such as Leslie Thompson, to search for one match. Typically,
though, you specify a search expression to find a set of matches. For example,
you can specify the expression, "*Thompson" to find all names that end with
Thompson.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional supports several operators and
wildcard characters that you can use in search expressions. You can create
complex expressions that use a combination of operators and wildcard
characters.

Using operators in a search expression


The following table lists and describes the operators you can use in search
expressions specified in the Value column in the search window.

Operator Description Examples Matches


= Equals. By default, the = =MR1500 MR1500
operator is implied. MR 1500 MR1500
> Greater than or alphabetically >100 101, 115, 200
after >Ace Acer, Adobe
< Less than or alphabetically <100 10, 50, 99
before <Ace Aamco, Abel
>= Greater than or equal to >=100 100, 101, 200
>=Ace Ace, Adobe
<= Less than or equal to <=100 10, 50, 100
<=Ace Ace, Aamco

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 125
Operator Description Examples Matches
- Range. Hyphen separates 10 - 20 10, 15, 20
upper and lower limits of the A-C Ace, Bell, Core
range.
For strings, - can mean the
-Ace Ace, Aamco
following:
■ b- is equivalent to >=b Ace- Ace, Adobe
■ -b is equivalent to <=b
■ - is equivalent to * (match
all values)
, Or. Comma separates two 1,2 1, 2
values. Ace,Ford Ace, Ford
! Not !1000 998, 999, 1001
!MA CA, NJ, OH

Using a wildcard character in a search expression


Use wildcard characters to do pattern matching on text objects. The following
table lists and describes the wildcard characters you can use in search
expressions specified in the Value column in the search window.

Wildcard Description Example Matches


? Find any one character M?1680 MR1680,
MS1680
* Find any number of characters 3M* 3M A1000,
3M B2000
# Find any one ASCII numeric MS##90 MS0490,
character (0 - 9) MS3290

Using a pattern in a search expression


Use patterns in a search expression to qualify a search. Patterns let you search
for characters in a range, or select only certain characters for searching. Use the
brackets ([ ]) to place a pattern inside a search expression.

126 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following table lists and describes examples of patterns you can use.

Pattern Description Example Matches


[character list] Match any one character M[PRS]16 MP16,
inside the brackets MR16,
MS16
[a-z] Match any lowercase character m[a-f]1800 ma1800,
mc1800
[0-9] Match any ASCII numeric MX150[1-5] MX1502,
character MX1503,
MX1505
[a-z0-9] Match any lowercase character m[a-c1-3] ma1, ma3,
and ASCII numeric character mb2, mc3
[a-z-] Match any character or m[a-z-] ma, mb, m-
hyphen
[^] Match one caret *[^]1650 a^1650,
b^1650

Searching for the ?, *, #, and [ ] characters


Because the characters ?, *, #, and [ ] have special meanings in search
expressions, you must indicate when you want to search for the characters
themselves. To search for a special character itself, you can do one of the
following:
■ Place the character inside brackets.
■ Use the backslash (\) before any special character, and enclose both the
backslash and the character in quotation marks.
The following table lists and describes examples of how to search for special
characters.

Special
characters Description Examples Matches
[?] or "\?" Match one question mark M[?]1600 M?1600
M"\?"1600
[#] or "\#" Match one pound sign M[#]1600 M#1600
M"\#"1600
[*] or "\*" Match one asterisk M[*] 1600 M*1600
M"\*"1600

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 127
Special
characters Description Examples Matches
[[] or "\[" Match one open bracket M[[]A[]]6 M[A]6
M"\["A"\]"6
[]] or "\]" Match one close bracket M[[]A[]]6 M[A]6
M"\["A"\]"6
["\["-"\]"] Match any ASCII character M["\["-"\]"] M[A]
between [ and ] M[b]

Searching for a string that contains a special


character
If a search text string contains one or more special characters, you must type a
backslash (\) before each special character. Special characters include
characters that are operators in a search expression:
■ Comma (,)
■ Hyphen (-)
■ Exclamation point (!)
■ Less than sign (<)
■ Greater than sign (>)
■ Equal sign (=)
■ Backslash (\)
For example, the string:
16M x 1 Dynamic Ram, 3.3 volts
must contain a backslash (\) before the comma:
16M x 1 Dynamic Ram\, 3.3 volts
If you do not type a backslash (\) before the comma, the comma is interpreted
as an OR in SQL, as follows:
WHERE items.itemcode LIKE '16M x 1 Dynamic Ram%'
OR items.itemcode LIKE '3.3 volts%

128 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Using a nonprinting ASCII character in a search
expression
Tabs, line feeds, and carriage returns are examples of nonprinting ASCII
characters. With the backslash as an escape character, use the following
nonprinting ASCII codes in search expressions.

Special
characters Definition
\ Escape next character (one- or two-byte character)
\a Match one alarm (0x07)
\b Match one backspace (0x08)
\t Match one tab (0x09)
\n Match one new line (0x0a)
\f Match one form feed (0x0c)
\r Match one carriage return (0x0d)
\\ Match one backslash (\)
[\1-\377] Match any one-byte character excluding NUL (0x00)
[\x100-xffff] Match any two-byte character

Using search results to navigate through the report


The search results are linked to the report. You can select an item displayed in
Results to go to the report page that contains the corresponding data. Items are
listed in the order in which they appear in the report.

How to use Results to go to a specific match in the report


Results displays the matches found in the report. The following example
shows the matches retrieved from a search for all company names that begin
with Advanced, and how to use the results to go to specific matches in the
report.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 129
1 Select the match you wish to see.
To go to a match in the report, select the
company name, then choose Go To

2 Choose Go To or double-click the selection.


The report becomes active and displays the matching value. If you selected
Advanced MicroSystems Co. as shown in the previous illustration, the
page containing the company name, Advanced MicroSystems Co., appears.
The company name is highlighted.
The following illustration shows the match from the search value.
Go To

Next

Previous

3 To go to another match in the report, use the Next, Previous, or Go To


button in Results.

130 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Specifying data to display in Results
Besides displaying the results of a search, Results can display data from other
objects in a report. If, for example, you search for companies by state, Results
displays, by default, only the company names that match the search criteria.
You might, however, also want to display the full company address and credit
rank next to the company name, as shown in the following illustration.
Text fields displayed in Results have a limit of 255 characters. For example,
each field under CompanyName can have 255 characters in length. If a text
field in a report contains more than 255 characters, the first 255 characters are
used. For more information about exporting all the characters from a text field,
see “Exporting report data,” later in this chapter.
The following illustration shows results with multiple fields of data for each
result.

Search by state

Show company
name and
address

You can specify any number of object values to display in Results. This
capability is useful for creating a quick view of particular data in a report.
The data in Results usually appears as described in the preceding example and
in the following procedure, however, in a search of a report designed using a
hierarchy of data groups, unexpected results can appear. For more information
about avoiding unexpected search results, see “Understanding how a
multifield search works,” earlier in this chapter.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 131
How to specify object data to display in Results
The instructions in this section assume you already specified the search
criteria. For more information about specifying search criteria, see “Searching
for report data,” earlier in this chapter.
1 Choose Select in Search.
Select appears. By default, the name of the object or objects you selected as
criteria for the search appears in the Name column. The values of these
objects, in turn, appear in Results after you execute the search.
The following illustration shows how to select various criteria.
Add selected report
item to the Name list

Delete selected item


from the Name list

Options for sending results


to different locations

Clear all items from the


Name list

Items in this list appear


in the Results page
when the search is
complete

2 If you want Results to display only some of the objects, select each object to
exclude. Then choose Delete Entry. To exclude all objects, choose Clear All.
3 To specify additional objects, select each object you want to add. Then
choose Add Selection on Select.
The names of the objects you select appear in the Name list.
4 Choose Search to start the search process.

132 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The search results appear in Results.

Saving a search definition


After you set up a search, you can save the search criteria and options in a
search definition (.ros) file. Actuate e.Report Designer Professional saves the
following information in an ROS:
■ Search criteria in Search
■ Data to display in Select
■ Options in Search Export Options
■ Report document structure information
To save the ROS, choose Save in the Search dialog. The ROS is saved in the
Actuate search definition directory. If you use the default installation directory,
the ROSs are saved in:
C:\Program Files\Actuate8\Srchdef
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional uses the report document structure
information when it runs the search on a report document.

Using search definition files


You can use search definition (.ros) files with different report object instance
(.roi) files if they are generated from the same report object executable (.rox)
file. For example, if you have an ROX that you use to create weekly reports,
you can create an ROS that searches for and extracts data from the report
object instance (.roi) file. You can use the same ROS with any weekly report as
long as the ROX did not change.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 133
You can run an ROS from either the Search dialog or from the toolbar. For
more information about opening and running an ROS see “Opening and
running a search definition,” later in this chapter.
For information about the options available for exporting data, see “Exporting
report data,” later in this chapter.

Opening and running a search definition


You can open and run a search definition (.ros) file from either the Search
dialog or from the toolbar. You can open and use an ROS only from your local
computer. The report object instance (.roi) file can be in the Encyclopedia
volume or on a system to which you have access. The ROS must be on your
system or another system that you have access to outside the Encyclopedia
volume. Actuate e.Report Designer Professional searches for the search
definition (.ros) files in the report document’s directory and the Actuate search
definition directory. If you use the default installation directory, the search
definition directory is:
C:\Program Files\Actuate8\Srchdef
If the ROS cannot be used with the current report, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional displays a message when you try to use it.
From the Search dialog, choose Open to open a search without running it.
Choose Search to run the search.
From the toolbar, select an ROS from the list of files and select the Export data
button to open the search and run it.

Export data and stop export


Search definitions

In the toolbar, the list of search definitions lists the search definition (.ros) files
that are in the same directory as the report object instance (.roi) file and the
search definition directory. If you choose the Export data button after selecting
a search from the list, Actuate e.Report Designer Professional opens and runs
the search. If you have an ROS that exports data to an application, choosing
Export data from the toolbar runs the search, exports the data, and starts the
application.

134 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Exporting report data
When you use Actuate’s search feature to locate and display report object
values that meet specified criteria, you can copy the search results to the
Clipboard, or export them to an ASCII file or an application. You can choose to
export the entire result set or only a portion of it. Only 32-bit Windows systems
such as Windows 2000 support exporting report data to an application.
If you export search results from Results, each text field exported is limited to
the first 255 characters. If you export search results directly as part of the
search, the entire text field is exported.
You can also use the exported file as the data source for another report. For
information about using data from a flat file, such as an ASCII file, as a data
source, see Chapter 11, “Accessing a comma-separated values (CSV) text file,”
in Accessing Data using e.Report Designer Professional, which is part of the
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional documentation.
Using Actuate search extensions, a part of Actuate Transporter technology,
you can export all or part of the results of a search to other applications.
For information about the Actuate search extensions, see “Exporting search
results to an external application,” later in this chapter.
For information about installing and using custom search extensions, and
information about DLLs that Actuate e.Report Designer Professional uses to
export data directly to other applications, see the documentation for the
custom search extension. If you use the default Actuate search extension
directory, save the search extension files in it.

Exporting all of the search results


The instructions in this section assume you already specified search criteria
and selected the objects whose values you want to appear in the result set. For
information about specifying search criteria, see “Searching for report data”
and “Specifying data to display in Results,” earlier in this chapter.

How to export all of the search results


1 To export the search results to a file or Clipboard, do one of the following:
■ In Search or Select, choose Options.
■ Choose Search. Then, in Results, choose Export.
If you export search results from Results, each text field exported is
limited to the first 255 characters. If you export search results directly as
part of the search from Search or Select, the entire text field is exported.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 135
The Search Export Options dialog appears. The options differ slightly,
depending on whether you access the dialog from Search, Select, or
Results.
The following illustration shows the Search Export Options dialog accessed
from Results.
Select the location or locations to which
to extract the search results

Select the delimiter to use


between values
Select Column Header to
display the object names

If exporting data to a file,


specify the file name or
choose Browse to select
an existing file
If exporting data to an
application, select the
application, and choose
Options to configure
extract options

2 Select the location or locations to which to send the search results. Portions
of the dialog are enabled or disabled, depending on the export locations
you select:
■ If the location is a file, you can select Save As Unicode.
■ If the location is a file or the Clipboard, select the delimiter to use
between values if the result set contains values from multiple fields. You
can select a tab, comma, or space.
Select Column Header to include the names of the objects as column
headings when exporting data.
■ If the location is a file, specify a file name or use the default file name.
■ If the location is an external application, select the application from the
list and choose Options to set the options. For information about the
options, see “Exporting search results to an external application,” later
in this chapter.
3 When you finish selecting the desired options, choose OK.
If you accessed the Search Export Options dialog from Select, Select
reappears.

136 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


If you accessed the dialog from Results, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional sends the data to the locations specified in step 2.
4 If you are at Select, choose Search to start the search process.
The search results appear in the locations specified in step 2. If you used the
settings as shown in the previous illustration, the results are written to
Search.txt. The following illustration shows the contents of the file opened
in WordPad.

Column header

A comma is used as the


delimiter between values

Exporting a portion of the search results


The instructions in this section assume you already specified search criteria
and selected the objects whose values you want to appear in the result set. For
information about specifying search criteria, see “Searching for report data”
and “Specifying data to display in Results,” earlier in this chapter.

How to export a portion of the search results


1 Choose Search to start the search process.
The search results appear in Results.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 137
2 Select the matches you want to export.

To select multiple items to


export, hold the Ctrl key while
choosing the desired items

3 Choose Export.
The Search Export Options dialog appears.
Select the location or locations to which
to extract the search results

Select the delimiter to use


between values
Select Column Header to
display the object names

Select Selection Only to


export only the selected
items

If exporting data to a file,


specify the file name or
choose Browse to select
an existing file

If exporting data to an
application, select the
application, and choose
Options to configure
extract options

4 Select the location or locations to which to send the search results. Portions
of the dialog are enabled or disabled, depending on the export locations
you select:

138 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ If the location is a file, you can select Save As Unicode.
■ If the location is a file or the Clipboard, select the delimiter to use
between values if the result set contains values from multiple fields. You
can select a tab, comma, or space.
Select Column Header to display the names of the objects in the result
set.
■ If the location is a file, specify a file name or use the default file name.
■ If the location is an external application, select the application from the
list and choose Options to set the options. For information about the
options, see “Exporting search results to an external application,” later
in this chapter.
5 Select Selection Only to export only the items you selected in step 2.
6 When you finish selecting the desired options, choose OK.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional sends the data to the locations
specified in step 4. If you used the settings as shown in the previous
illustration, the results are written to Search.txt.
The following illustration shows the contents of the file opened in
WordPad.

Column header

A comma is used as the


delimiter between values

Exporting search results to an external


application
If Actuate search extensions are available to you, you can export all or part of
the search results to:
■ Brio Technology BrioQuery documents
■ Microsoft Excel spreadsheets
■ Text files

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 139
Exporting search results to BrioQuery
To export search results to BrioQuery, you specify the BrioQuery document
and temporary data file name in BrioQuery Options.

How to export search results to BrioQuery


1 In Search or Select, choose Options.
If you export search results directly as part of the search from Search or
Select, the entire text field is exported. If you export search results from
Results, each text field exported is limited to the first 255 characters.
2 In Search Export Options, do the following, as shown in the illustration:
■ In Extract Data To, select External Application.
■ In External Application, select BrioQuery 5.5 - 6.0.

3 Choose Options.
BrioQuery Options appears.

140 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


4 Enter the following or choose Browse to select a file:
■ BrioQuery document specifies the destination BrioQuery document
when the data is exported.
■ Data file specifies the file name of the temporary data file used for
transferring the data to BrioQuery. BrioQuery reads the data from this
file. This field is required.
5 In BrioQuery Options, choose OK.
6 In Search Export Options, choose OK.
7 In Search, choose Search.
The search results are exported to BrioQuery.
The configuration requirements for the BrioQuery search extensions are
described in the following section, “About configuration requirements for the
BrioQuery search extension.”
If you use BrioQuery 6.0 and change data stored in the temporary data file,
choose the BrioQuery Process button in the BrioQuery web page to process the
updated data. For example, you create an Actuate search that sends data to
BrioQuery and then run the same search with different search criteria that
updates the data in the temporary data file. Next you select the temporary
data file in BrioQuery and choose the Process button to process the updated
data.

About configuration requirements for the BrioQuery search


extension
The search extension for BrioQuery versions 5.5 and 6.0 uses a BrioQuery
document startup script to import data from a temporary data file created by
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional. To use the BrioQuery search
extension, you need to:
■ Add the Brio executable directory installation directory to your system’s
PATH environment variable.
■ Create a BrioQuery document containing a startup script that specifies the
name of the file containing search data from Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional.
■ Set Actuate BrioQuery search extension options to specify a file containing
Actuate data and a BrioQuery document.
To find the Brio executable directory, see your Brio documentation. To view
and change your system’s PATH environment variable, see your system
documentation.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 141
To create a BrioQuery document with the required document startup script,
start BrioQuery. From the main menu, select FileDocument ScriptsStartup tab
and add the following to the startup script:
■ For BrioQuery 5.5, add the following two lines:
import doc root, '<file name>', 'csv'
process doc root
■ For BrioQuery 6.0, add the following single line:
ExecuteBScript("import doc root, '<file name>', 'csv'; process doc root")
The <file name> is the full path and file name of the temporary data file
created by Actuate e.Report Designer Professional. The following is a
BrioQuery 5.5 example:
import doc root, 'C:\Temp\briodata.csv', 'csv'
process doc root
The following is a BrioQuery 6.0 example:
ExecuteBScript("import doc root, 'C:\\Temp\\briodata.csv', 'csv'; process doc
root")
After you add the information, choose OK and save the BrioQuery document.
When using the Actuate BrioQuery search extension you need to specify the
BrioQuery document containing the startup script and the file Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional uses to temporarily store the Actuate data. In
the Actuate Search Export Options dialog, select BrioQuery 5.5 - 6.0 as the
external application and choose the Options button to display the BrioQuery
Options dialog:
■ In the BrioQuery Document field, enter the name of the BrioQuery
document you created.
■ In the Temporary Data File Name field, enter the file name specified in the
BrioQuery startup script.
After choosing OK, you can use the BrioQuery search extension to export
Actuate search results to BrioQuery.

Exporting search results to Microsoft Excel 97


To export search results to Microsoft Excel 97, you specify the Excel document
options in Microsoft Excel Options.

How to export search results to Microsoft Excel 97


1 In Search or Select, choose Options.

142 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


If you export search results directly as part of the search from Search or
Select, the entire text field is exported. If you export search results from
Results, each text field exported is limited to the first 255 characters.
2 In Search Export Options, do the following:
■ In Extract Data To, select External Application.
■ In External Application, select Microsoft Excel 97.

3 Choose Options.
Microsoft Excel Options appears.

4 Enter the following selections:


■ New File specifies that the data transfers into a new, blank Excel
workbook.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 143
■ Existing File specifies that the data transfers into the workbook
specified in the Workbook field.
■ Workbook specifies the name of the destination Excel workbook or
document. This field is required if you select Existing File.
■ Sheet specifies the destination sheet within the specified workbook.
This field is optional.
■ Row specifies the row number of the top left cell of the workbook sheet
where the exported data is placed. This field is optional.
■ Column specifies the column letter or letters of the top left cell of the
workbook sheet where the exported data is placed. This field is
optional.
■ Include Column Headers specifies if column headings are written to the
workbook. The default value is Enabled.
■ Macro specifies a macro that executes after the data transfers to the
Excel workbook. This field is optional.
5 In Microsoft Excel Options, choose OK.
6 In Search Export Options, choose OK.
7 In Search, choose Search.
The search results are exported to Excel.
Excel has a limit to how much data you can import. See the Microsoft Excel
documentation for limitations.

Exporting search results to file output


To export search results to a file, you specify the file options in Search Export
Options.

How to export search results to file output


1 In Search or Select, choose Options.
If you export search results directly as part of the search from Search or
Select, the entire text field is exported. If you export search results from
Results, each text field exported is limited to the first 255 characters.
2 In Search Export Options, do the following:
■ In Extract Data To, select External Application.

144 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


■ In External Application, select File.

3 Choose Options.
File Output Options appears.

4 Enter the following selections:


■ Temporary Data File Name specifies the name of the output text data
file. This field is required.
■ Command line specifies a command line string that executes after the
data is written to the file. This field is optional.
■ Include Column Header check box specifies if the column headers are
included in the data file. The default value is Enabled.
■ Column Delimiter specifies the delimiter between data fields. The
default value is Comma.
5 In File Output Options, choose OK.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 145
6 In Search Export Options, choose OK.
7 In Search, choose Search.
The search results are exported to the file you specified.

Copying report data to another document


You can copy data in the form of numbers, images, or text from an Actuate
report document and paste the data into another document. As with the
standard Windows copy-and-paste operation, the report data you copy is
stored in the Clipboard. You can then paste the data into any other document.

How to copy report data


1 Select text or images within a report. You can drag the mouse to enclose the
area of interest, or hold the Shift key down and use the left mouse button to
select multiple fields.
The following illustration shows a selected area in page 2 of Detail.roi.

2 Choose the copy button on the toolbar.


3 Move to the destination document in an external application.
4 Use Edit➛Paste in the destination document to insert the copy into the
destination document.

146 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


The following illustration shows the report data pasted into a WordPad
document.

Chap ter 5, Sear ching for and ex por ting repor t data using Ac tuate V iewer 147
148 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional
Chapter

Printing and distributing


Chapter 6
6
a report using Actuate
Viewer and Navigator
This chapter contains the following topics:
■ Printing a report from your desktop
■ About command line options for printing
■ Saving reports in HTML format
■ Printing a report in an Encyclopedia volume
■ Setting printer properties in the Encyclopedia volume
■ Running a report before printing
■ Distributing an Actuate Basic report from your desktop
■ Distributing a report stored in an Encyclopedia volume

C h ap t e r 6 , P r i nt in g an d d is t r i bu t in g a r ep o r t us i n g A c t u at e V i ewe r a n d N av ig a t o r 149
Printing a report from your desktop
To print an Actuate Basic report, you use the standard Windows procedure to
select a printer and set printer properties. In addition, Actuate e.Report
Designer Professional provides printing options specific to Actuate Basic
reports.

How to print a report from your desktop


1 Open the report you want to print.
2 Choose File➛Print.
Print appears. The options available from this dialog enable you to select
the printer and report printing options such as page range and number of
copies.

Select a printer

Choose Properties
to change the
printer’s settings

Options specific
to Actuate Basic
reports

Select the
pages to print
and other
options

3 Select the desired printing options, the printer, the pages to print, the order
in which to print the pages, the number of copies to print.
■ To select the paper size that matches the page size defined in the report
design, select Use paper size set in report design. For example, if the
report design specifies a page size of 8.5" by 14", selecting this option
prints the report on 8.5" by 14" paper, if the printer supports this paper
size.
■ To specify that large report pages print properly onto multiple sheets of
paper, select the Split oversize pages.
4 To specify a printer’s other properties, or to change the printer’s default
settings, choose Properties.

150 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Document Properties appears. The following illustration shows the Layout
tab of the dialog for an HP LaserJet 5Si Mopier PS printer driver. Options
and defaults are different for different printers.

5 Set the options in this dialog to specify layout-related settings such as


orientation, duplex printing, page order, and the number of pages per sheet
to print.
The layout of the report when the report is designed determines the
printed report’s page orientation.
6 To set advanced options, choose Advanced.

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Advanced Options appears. The following illustration shows HP LaserJet
5Si Mopier PS Advanced Options. Options and defaults are slightly
different for different printers.

Specify the advanced options. Choose OK.


7 To view and change other printer settings, choose Paper and Quality.
The following illustration shows Paper and Quality for an HP LaserJet 5Si
Mopier PS printer. Options and defaults are slightly different for different
printers.

152 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Specify the paper and quality options. Choose OK.
Print appears.
8 Choose OK to start printing.

How to preview a report before printing


1 Choose File➛Print Preview to preview the report before printing it.
Previewing gives you an opportunity to review and change the printing
options you selected.

2 Use Next Page, Prev Page, Two Page, Zoom In, and Zoom Out to see
different pages and to see different levels of detail.
3 When you finish previewing the report, choose Close to close the preview
window or choose Print to print the report.

About command line options for printing


You can print an Actuate report object instance (.roi) file from the command
line.

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Following is the command line syntax for printing a report from Actuate
e.Report Designer Professional:
runview -p <file>.roi [-rox <filename>.rox] -rspn <printer> [ -h]
For example, the following command uses Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional to print a report that is in the C:\Program Files\Actuate8\
Erdpro\Bin directory to a printer on the network:
runview –p forecast.roi –rox forecast.rox –rspn \\actuate\printer3 -h
The following table lists the parameters and descriptions for command line
printing options.

Parameter Description
runview Required for Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional.
-p <filename>.roi Required. Specifies the name of the report object
instance (.roi) file. The .roi extension is required.
-rox <filename>.rox An optional parameter, which is the name of the
report object executable (.rox) file used with the
report object instance (.roi) file. Use this
parameter if the ROX name stored within the ROI
is not sufficient to locate the ROX.
-rspn <printer> Required. Specifies the printer name. Use the
UNC name for the printer. For example,
\\myserver\printer3 is the printer named
printer3 on the machine myserver.
-h Optional. Enables silent (hidden) mode. If you
use the -h option, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional does not open a window and error
messages appear on the command line. If you do
not use the -h option, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional opens a window and the startup
splash screen appears.

Saving reports in HTML format


To save an Actuate Basic report object instance (.roi) file in HTML format, use a
standard Windows Save dialog to specify a location and name for the HTML
file. Actuate e.Report Designer Professional converts the ROI to HTML format
and attempts to preserve Actuate Basic report document formatting by using
HTML tables and text formatting.

154 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to save a report in HTML format
1 Open the report object instance (.roi) file you want to save.
2 Choose File➛Save As➛HTML.
New HTML File appears. Use the items in the dialog to navigate to a
directory. Specify the file name in File Name and choose Save to save the
report in HTML format.

Printing a report in an Encyclopedia volume


When you create a report request in an Encyclopedia volume, Requester—
Print enables you specify the Actuate iServer System printer to which a
completed report is sent. For information about creating report requests, see
“Creating a run request in an Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 4, “Running a
report using Navigator.”
When you print a report from a UNIX iServer to a UNIX printer, the printout
might appear different from the displayed report or the report printed on a
local Windows printer. This might be due to the UNIX printer configuration or
the iServer printing configuration. Contact your Actuate iServer System
administrator if this occurs.

Setting printer properties in the Encyclopedia


volume
When you print a report in an Encyclopedia volume, the Actuate iServer
System printer gets its printing options from four sources, in the following
order:
1 The printer properties you set for the print job.
2 Your default printer settings in User Print Properties.
3 The printer properties the Encyclopedia volume administrator sets as the
default settings for a specific printer.
4 The printer’s system level properties, set by the system administrator.

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The following conceptual diagram illustrates how a printer determines what
printer properties to use for a print job.

= Set by user
Properties set for Yes
= Set by volume administrator
the print job?

No

User’s default
properties for the Yes
printer

Printer uses
No
these settings

Volume default
properties set for
the printer? Yes

No

System defaults
Yes

If you do not specify any printer properties, the printer uses the Encyclopedia
volume or system level defaults, which only the administrator can change.
Some printer properties, such as duplexing and color, are available only if the
printer supports them.

Setting default properties for a printer


If you print reports on the server frequently, it is best if you set default printer
properties for each of the printers you use often. By doing so, you can print
reports without having to set properties for each print request, and you always
get the same format. If your print requirements change, you can modify the
default settings easily. Or, if you need a different format for one print request
only, you can specify property settings that apply only to the print request.
When you set the default printer properties, they associate with your user
account. In other words, your printer settings apply only to your print
requests, and do not affect the settings for other users.

156 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


How to set default properties for a printer
1 Choose Printers from the left pane of Navigator.
A list of Actuate iServer System printers appears in the right window of
Navigator.
2 Right-click a printer whose properties you want to set and choose
Properties.
User Print Properties—General appears, as shown in the following
illustration. This page displays read only information, specified by the
system administrator, about the printer.

Select this option to set


this printer as the default

3 If you want to set this Actuate iServer System printer as the default, check
the Set As Default option.
Future print requests you submit use the default printer unless you specify
a different one at that time.
4 Choose Paper to set paper properties, such as size, paper tray, and duplex
mode.
The layout of the report when the report is designed determines a printed
report’s page orientation.

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The following illustration shows User Print Properties—Paper and
describes the properties.

Set the paper size. The options


available depend on what the printer
supports.

Specify the tray to use if one tray


contains special paper you want to use
Page orientation is determined by the
report’s layout

Specify if the printer prints on one side


or both sides of the paper.

5 Choose User Print Properties—Option to set other properties, such as


number of copies, image size, and print resolution.

Specify the number of copies to print

Specify if the printer prints one


complete copy before starting the next

Specify the percentage of the original


size at which to print

Specify the print resolution


Specify black and white, or color
printing

158 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Setting properties for a specific print request
Set printer properties for a print request if your requirements are different
from the defaults you set previously for a specific printer, and if you do not
want to use the Encyclopedia volume or system level defaults established by
the Encyclopedia volume or system administrator.

How to set properties for a specific print request


1 Right-click the report you want to print and choose Print.
Print Request appears.

Option to print to a file


rather than to a printer
Select a printer

Choose Properties to
display Request Print
Options

Select the priority at which


to send this print request

Select the pages to print

2 Select the Actuate iServer System printer, priority, and print range.
The priority levels you can specify depend on what the Encyclopedia
volume administrator assigned as the maximum priority you can set for
requests. If, for example, the Encyclopedia volume administrator set your
maximum request priority at medium, you can print reports only at the
medium and low priorities.
If you select Print to file, the file is printed to the file you specify on the
local file system.
3 Choose Properties to specify printing options.

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Request Print Options appears.

4 Set the desired properties. For information about each property, see “How
to set default properties for a printer,” earlier in this chapter.

Running a report before printing


If a report object executable (.rox) file is available, you can generate a new
report to print. There are several reasons for running a report just before
printing:
■ To use the most current data
■ To specify parameter values that are more useful than the default values

Distributing an Actuate Basic report from your


desktop
There are several ways to distribute an Actuate Basic report from your desktop
to users throughout an organization:
■ Send the report through e-mail.
■ Send the report through fax software.
■ Copy the report to an Encyclopedia volume and inform the users of the
report’s location. You can use this method only if you and the recipients of

160 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


the report work in a distributed reporting environment, and have access to
the Encyclopedia volume.
To distribute a report, you provide the appropriate report files and Actuate
Viewer, if required. The viewer is required if a recipient does not have an
Actuate Basic application, such as Actuate e.Report Designer Professional or
Actuate End User Desktop.
When a user opens a report for viewing or printing, Actuate e.Report Designer
Professional, Actuate End User Desktop, or Actuate Viewer runs the report
object executable (.rox) file from which the report was generated. Therefore,
when you distribute a report to other users, you must include the ROX. To
simplify the distribution process, Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
provides the option of bundling the ROX with the report so you need to send
only one file.

How to distribute a report from your desktop using e-mail


You must have appropriate privileges on all the files you want to distribute or
an error message appears when you try to send the files.
1 Open the report object instance (.roi) file you want to distribute. You can
use Actuate e.Report Designer Professional to open the ROI.
If you attempt to open an ROI in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
and it cannot find the report object executable (.rox) file for that ROI,
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional displays the message, could not
find related ROX. Then complete the following tasks:
1 To locate the related ROX, choose OK to close the message.
Load Executable appears.
2 In Look in, navigate to and select the ROX. Choose Open.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional displays the ROI.
2 Choose File➛Send.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional displays a message prompting you
to bundle the report object executable (.rox) file with the report.

3 Choose Yes to start the bundling process.

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Choose Profile appears. This dialog provides the option of distributing a
report through various services. The default choice is Microsoft Exchange.
You can, however, choose other mail services.

4 Choose the service to distribute the report, then choose OK.


A mail dialog appears, prompting you to enter your mail user name and
password.
5 Type the required information in the mail dialog, then choose OK.
A mail window appears with the report as an attachment.
6 Address the mail message and send it.
The recipients receive the report as a mail attachment.

How to distribute a report from your desktop using an


Encyclopedia volume
The instructions in this section assume you and the recipients have access to
an Encyclopedia volume. Ensure that both the report object instance (.roi) file
and the report object executable (.rox) file are on your local machine.
1 Prepare the report for distribution by performing the following steps:
1 In Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, open the report you want to
distribute.
If you attempt to open an ROI in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
and it cannot find the report object executable (.rox) file for that ROI,
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional displays the message, could not
find related ROX. Complete the following tasks in this order:
- To locate the related ROX, choose OK to close the message.

162 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Load Executable appears.
- In Look in, navigate to and select the ROX. Choose Open.
Actuate e.Report Designer Professional displays the ROI.
2 Choose File➛Save As➛Bundled.
New Report File with ROX appears.

3 Type a new file name for the report with the bundled ROX.
You must specify a new name. Actuate e.Report Designer Professional
does not allow you to overwrite the original report because it is open.
4 Select the folder in which to save the new report file.
5 Choose Save to save the new report file.
2 Log in to the Encyclopedia volume. For instructions about logging in to the
Encyclopedia volume, see “Connecting to an Encyclopedia volume” in
Chapter 2, “Accessing an Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
3 Copy the file from your local machine to the Encyclopedia volume. For
instructions about copying files to the Encyclopedia volume, see “Copying
files to the Encyclopedia volume” in Chapter 2, “Accessing an
Encyclopedia volume using Navigator.”
4 Inform the recipients of the report’s availability and location.

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How to distribute Actuate Viewer
Actuate Viewer is a royalty free tool for viewing Actuate Basic reports. You can
distribute copies of Actuate Viewer freely. Use one of the following methods to
distribute Actuate Viewer:
■ Download the Actuate Viewer installation file from the Actuate web site
http://www.actuate.com (the Resource Center) to a location all users have
access to and let the users download and install Actuate Viewer.
■ Allow users to download the Actuate Viewer installation file from the
Actuate web site.
■ Copy the Actuate Viewer installation files from an Actuate CD-ROM to a
location all users have access to and let the users install Actuate Viewer. If
the Actuate CD-ROM contains the Actuate Viewer installation files, the
files are located in the Viewer directory. For the Actuate Viewer install to
work, you must copy all the files and maintain the directory structure in
the Viewer directory

Distributing a report stored in an Encyclopedia


volume
Storing files in an Encyclopedia volume makes physical distribution of files
unnecessary. Users with access to the Encyclopedia volume can log in at any
time and find reports for which they were granted appropriate file privileges.
If you were granted the privilege to run Actuate Basic report object executable
(.rox) files, you can specify the users or notification groups to whom you want
to distribute a report object instance (.roi) file. You can also specify different
file privileges for different users and groups. You specify the distribution list
and the file privileges as part of issuing a run request. For instructions about
issuing a report request, see “Creating a run request in an Encyclopedia
volume” in Chapter 4, “Running a report using Navigator.”

164 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Index
Symbols as literal value 88
_ (underscore) character
! (exclamation point) character 88, 128 as literal value 88
! operator 126 in query statements 84
# wildcard 126 | (pipe sign) character
% (percent sign) character as list separator 87, 88
as literal value 88 as literal value 88
in query statements 84 in query statements 82
in text strings 86, 87 – (hyphen) character
& (ampersand) character 88 as literal value 88
( ) (parentheses) characters finding 128
as literal values 88 in search expressions 126
* (asterisk) symbol in Requester 79 – operator 126
* wildcard 126 ’ (single quote) character 88
, (comma) character
as literal value 88 A
as OR operator 88
finding 128 Absolute Folder setting 102
in date expressions 104 AC_CENTURY_BREAK registry key 84
in search expressions 126 access permissions. See privileges
, operator 126 access types 32
/ (forward slash) character 13 access types (files and folders) 18
: (colon) character 104 accessing
< (less than) character 88, 128 Actuate Navigator 6
< operator 125 ad hoc parameter builder 83
<= operator 125 databases 79
= (equal sign) character 88, 128 Encyclopedia volumes 6
= operator 125 iServer 2
> (greater than) character 88, 128 online documentation xvi
> operator 125 online help xvi
>= operator 125 reports 3, 54
? wildcard 126 sample reports 52
[ ] (brackets) characters Search dialog 122
as literal values 88 specific parts of a report 56, 58
in query statements 85 table of contents 59
in search expressions 126, 127 accounts
\ (backslash) character as security feature 17
as escape character 129 setting up user 19
as literal value 88 Active folder 33, 113, 115
finding 129 Active Perspective Only command 66
in query statements 85, 88 Active Portal xiii
in search expressions 127, 128 accessing documentation for xvi
^ (caret) character assigning privileges and 21

Index 165
default security roles for 28 ad hoc parameters 82
Active Portal Administrator role 28 autoarchive rules 44, 45, 111
Active Portal Advanced role 28 context menus 69–70
Active Portal for .NET xiii date or timestamps 104
Active Portal for JSP xiii folders 34
Active Portal Intermediate role 28 OLE objects 61
active request 33, 112, 115 open server reports 38
active request icon 115 report-specific online help xix, 68–69
ActiveX controls xii security applications 18
Actuate Basic security roles 26, 31
developing with xii Additional Volume Option xiii
e.reporting tasks for xx addressing e-mail 47
Actuate Client Integration Technology xii Administrator security role 28
Actuate customer profiles viii, ix administrators
Actuate e.reporting solutions ix, x assigning privileges and 20, 21, 25, 26
Actuate Foundation Class Library xii changing privileges and 29
Actuate iServer Integration Technology xiii creating Encyclopedia volumes and 2
Actuate licensing options xiii defining security roles and 28
Actuate Navigator management tools for xiii
changing privilege templates with 29 open server file types and 36, 37
connecting to Encyclopedia from 6 ownership and 19, 21
copying files from 37 printer defaults and 156, 159
dimmed or grayed items in 10 printer properties and 110
displaying available printers from 157 revoking privileges and 27
displaying requests with 112 setting archival policies and 42, 43
expanding and collapsing items in 10 setting home folders as 26
file or folder access types in 32 Advanced page (Document Properties) 151
opening multiple windows for 6, 8 All Perspectives command 66
opening reports with 54 All security role 28
overview 3, 9 alphanumeric searches 125, 126, 127
removing Encyclopedia items from 17 ampersand, (&) character 88
resizing 9 analysis tools xii
searching from 12–13 Analytics Cube Designer xi
selecting file types for 11 Analytics Cube Viewer xi
sorting with 11 Analytics Option xiii
starting 6 analyzing data xiv
viewing Encyclopedia items with 10 And operations 121
viewing requests in 113, 115, 116 application data handler xv
viewing volume information in 14 application servers
Actuate product suite vii, xi e.reporting solutions for x
Actuate reporting solutions 2 application window
Actuate technology viii personalizing 63–66
Actuate Viewer. See Viewer applications
ad hoc parameter builder 81, 83 creating security 18
ad hoc parameters 79, 82–83 customizing xii
ad hoc queries xv deploying from xv
Add/Change Parameters dialog 38 e.reporting solutions for viii, x
adding exporting to 134, 135, 139–144

166 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


linking to OLE objects in 60–62 BrioQuery Options dialog 140, 142
running external 61 BrioQuery web page 141
archive driver xiii Bundle Rox in Roi parameter 74
archive policies 17 Bundled command 163
archives xiv bundling executable files 40, 74
archiving 3, 41–45, 111 bundling report files 161, 163
archiving tools xiii business reporting 2
arguments. See parameters buttons
ASCII characters 128, 129 as hyperlinks 57
ASCII text files. See text files disabled or grayed 10
ask directives (SCRIBE reports) 39 entering parameters with 81
assigning privileges 19, 21, 25, 26, 30 hiding toolbar 66
asterisk (*) symbol in Requester 79
attachments 161 C
Auto Archive page 111 calendar 97
Auto Archive page (Properties) 17, 43 caret (^) character
Auto Archive page (Requester) 111 as literal value 88
autoarchiving 3, 41–45 carriage return characters 129
autoarchiving rules Cascade command 67
displaying 42 cascading windows 67
setting file-specific 45 changing
setting for requests 111 e-mail addresses 47
setting on specific folders 44 file names 102
autoversioning 3, 36, 94 folder properties 15–17
home folder locations 26
B notification preferences 109
Back button 57 OLE objects 61
backing up Encyclopedia volumes 46 owner 19
backslash (\) character passwords 19, 46
as escape character 129 printer defaults 156
as literal value 88 printing options 153
finding 129 privilege templates 29
in query statements 85, 88 privileges 29
in search expressions 127, 128 report generation schedules 98
backup mode 46 report parameters 79
balloon help 69 scheduled requests 114
Basic. See Actuate Basic search criteria 124
BETWEEN operator 86 security roles 28
bitmaps 61 channels
blank spaces in strings 86 assigning privileges for 20, 21, 26
Boolean parameters 80 removing privileges 27
brackets ([ ]) characters character matching 84, 126, 127
as literal values 88 character searches 126, 127, 128
in query statements 85 limits for 131
in search expressions 126, 127 character strings. See strings
BrioQuery documents 140–142 characters

Index 167
defining literal 85 BrioQuery search extensions and 141
entering wildcard 13, 84 open server file types and 36
exporting 135 connecting to Encyclopedia 6–8
file or folder names and 35 connections
QBE expressions and 84, 88 required parameters and 79
searching for special 127, 128 troubleshooting 8
checkpoints (report generation) 75 content management systems x
Choose Profile dialog 162 context menus
choosing data 146 adding to reports 69–70
Client Integration Technology xii completed requests and 116
Clipboard displaying 69
copying data to 146 scheduled requests and 114
exporting search results to 135, 139 context-sensitive help xvi
clock 108 Copy button 146
closing preview windows 153 copying
collapsing data 146–147
Navigator items 10 files 36–37, 40
table of contents 59 images 146
colon (:) character 104 reports 160, 163
color printing 156, 158 search results 135
column headings 136 creating
columns ad hoc parameters 82
export delimiters for 136 autoarchive rules 44, 45, 111
retrieving empty 87 data cubes xi
searching on 120, 121, 122 folders 34–35
comma (,) character open server parameters 39
as literal value 88 report-specific online help xix, 68–69
as OR operator 88 run requests 76–77, 117
finding 128 search expressions 125–129
in date expressions 104 security applications 18
in search expressions 126 security roles 26, 31
command line options 154 criteria. See parameters; search criteria
comments xix cross-platform reporting solutions xi
Completed folder Crystal report file types 35
described 33 Crystal reports
overview 116 displaying 35, 54
removing items in 118 running 72
running reports from 117 Cube Designer. See Analytics Cube Designer
viewing items in 112, 113, 117 cube reports xi
completed requests See also data cubes
deleting 118 Cube Viewer. See Analytics Cube Viewer
displaying information about 116 cubes. See data cubes
setting notification preferences for 108–109 current backup mode 46
viewing 33, 112 Current Folder setting 102
conditions cursor (hyperlinked fields) 56
search criteria and 121 cursor (searchable objects) 120, 123
configuration files 49 customer profiles viii
configurations customizing

168 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


applications xii data warehouses x
date formats 105 databases
e.Spreadsheet reports xv accessing 79
report views 131 developing for xv
reports xii e.reporting solutions for x
time formats 107 licensing options for xiv, xv
querying date values in 83
D retrieving data from 79
daily reports 98 returning null values from 87
data returning string values from 86
See also values date expressions 83, 104–108
analyzing xiv date format symbols 105
copying 146–147 date formats
e.reporting solutions for x customizing 105
exporting 134, 135 predefined keywords for 104
managing 2 date picker 81
retrieving 79 date separators 84
searching for 121–125, 131 dates 81, 83
selecting 146 datestamps 103, 104
updating 72 default autoarchive rule 44
zooming in on 62 default file names 104
Data Connector Option xiv default file types 35
data connectors xiv default locale 47
data cubes default printer 157
See also cube reports default privilege template 29
designing xi default privileges 35, 103
generating xiii default settings 62, 72, 151, 156
licensing option for xiii overriding 42, 101, 102, 111
Data Integration Option xiv default values 38, 78, 79
data models vii defaults, restoring 64, 66
data object executable files delays (refreshes) 75
assigning privileges 20 Delete All Completed Notices 118
data source map files 20 Delete command 17
data sources delete privilege 17, 21
developing for xv deleting
e.reporting solutions for x active requests 115
exported files as 135 completed requests 118
licensing data connectors for xiv executable files 39
querying date values in 83 folders 17
returning null values from 87, 90 report files 17, 41
returning string values from 86 scheduled requests 114
data streams security roles 28
parameter types for SAP 89 delimiters. See export delimiters
data types demand paging 54
creating parameters and 39 Dependency page (Properties) 40
QBE expressions and 83 dependent files. See file dependencies
SAP data streams and 90 deploying reports xv

Index 169
descendant elements (structure parameters) online help topics xvi, xvii
90 parameter values 114
design tools xi, xii, xv privileges 17
designing e.Spreadsheet reports xii related information 57
designing information objects xii report files 35
designs report generation requests 33, 74, 112, 113
adding help topics to 68 reports 9, 52–54, 112, 117
defining parameters in 77 sample reports 52
embedding OLE objects in 61 scheduled requests 113
desktop reporting 2, 72 search results 13, 124, 129, 131
Detail sample report security roles 31
displaying online help for 68 specific file types 11
hyperlinked fields in 56 specific parts of a report 56, 57, 58
opening 52 specific report pages 55
searchable objects in 120 subfolders 10
viewing table of contents for 59 system printers 33
Detail.roi 52 table of contents 59
developers third-party reports 54
adding context menus and 69 toolbars 66
creating online help topics and 68 users 31
extending Encyclopedia security and 18 distributing reports 3, 61, 102–103, 160–164
open server reports and 38 See also deploying reports
report parameters and 77, 79, 80 distribution options 162
searching reports and 120 Distribution page (Requester) 102, 103
SQL queries and 79 document names 104
developing e.Spreadsheet reports xv Document Properties dialog 151
developing reports xii, xv documentation xvi
development languages xii documents
development tools xii, xiii, xv archiving 41, 111
dialog boxes xvi copying data to 146
dimmed components 10 creating BrioQuery 142
directories generating xiii, xv
entering as search paths 49 linking to Word 60
disabled features (Navigator) 10 saving structures of 133
displaying downloading
active requests 113, 115 Actuate Viewer 164
autoarchive rules 42, 43 SCRIBE reports 39
available printers 157 drivers
backup information 46 developing ODA xii
completed requests 113, 116 open server reports and 39, 72
context menus 69 drop-down lists 81
Encyclopedia items 8, 9, 10 duplex mode 158
file dependencies 17, 39, 41 duplex printing 151, 156, 158
folder information 17
multiple Navigator windows 8 E
notification groups 108 e.Analysis Option xiv
online documentation xvi

170 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


e.business applications x connecting to 6–8
e.Report Designer copying items in 37, 40
licensing option for xiv copying multiple files to 36
overview xii copying reports to 160, 163
e.Report Designer Professional creating folders for 34–35
disabled items in 10 creating security roles for 26, 28, 31
licensing option for xiv displaying items in 8, 9, 10, 35
managing reports with 3 displaying reports in 54
overview xii displaying specific file types in 11
personalizing 66 displaying user information for 31
restoring defaults 66 distributing reports in 102–103, 162, 164
e.Report Option xiv extending functionality of 35
e.Reporting Server. See iServer file types for 35
e.reporting solutions ix, x, 2 generating documents for xiii
e.Reporting Suite. See ReportingEngines suite getting information about 14
e.Reporting System. See iServer System importing files to 37–39
e.reporting tasks xx inspecting properties for 14
e.Spreadsheet Designer licensing options for xiv
licensing option for xiv logging in to 6, 7
overview xii managing xiii
e.Spreadsheet Engine. See Formula One moving files in 37
e.Spreadsheet Engine multiple report versions and 95
e.Spreadsheet Option xiv navigating through 3, 10
e.Spreadsheet reports opening items in 52
customizing xv opening multiple views for 8
designing xii overriding archiving rules for 43, 44, 45
OLE objects in 60, 61 overriding defaults for 101, 111
Edit Schedule dialog 98, 99, 100 overview 2
editing. See changing printing reports in 155
EJBs xv removing items from 17, 39, 41
e-mail reordering items in 11
changing addresses 47 running multiple xiii
distributing reports with 160, 161 running open server reports from 72
sending notifications with 47, 109 running reports in 72, 76
embedding OLE objects 61 searching 12–13
Enable navigator option 6 securing 17
Encyclopedia Login dialog 7 setting file dependencies for 39, 40
Encyclopedia volumes setting home folder for 25
access types for 32 setting printer properties for 155–160
accessing 6 setting up user accounts for 19
accessing items in 3, 9, 32, 54 status information for 112
adding open server reports to 38 troubleshooting connections to 8
archiving items in 41–45 End User Desktop xi
assigning privileges for 19, 21, 25, 30 entering literal characters 84
autoversioning feature for 36 entering special characters 88
backing up 46 Enterprise JavaBeans. See EJBs
changing folder properties 15 enterprise reporting vii, x, 2

Index 171
equal sign (=) character 88, 128 file names and 104
equals operator 125 format keywords in 104
example reports. See sample reports returning unexpected results 104, 108
Excel formats xii unescaped literal characters in 106, 108
Excel spreadsheets Extensible Markup Language. See XML
embedding in reports 61 external applications xi
exporting to 142–144 copying data to 146
linking to objects in 60, 61 exporting to 135, 139–144
exclamation point (!) character 88, 128 running 61
executable file types 21 setting export options for 136, 139
executable files external files 61
assigning privileges 20 external security applications 18
bundling with reports 40, 74 extranets 2
copying 37
deleting 39 F
distributing 161, 163 Factory window 73, 74, 75
file dependencies and 40 failed request icon 116, 117
generating reports from 36, 72, 94 failed requests 101, 116, 117, 118
opening 73 faxing reports 160
rerunning 94 fields
running 39, 72, 74, 76 export delimiters for 136
search definition files and 133 removing from search criteria 124
setting up run requests for 76 retrieving empty 87
setting up schedules for 95–102 searching on 120, 121, 122
SQRIBE reports and 39 file dependencies 17, 36, 39, 40
execute privilege 20 file management system 3
executing external applications 61 file names
executing reports 72, 76, 117, 160 adding date or timestamps to 104
executing third-party reports 3, 72 bundled reports and 163
expanding changing 102
Navigator items 10 exporting data and 136
table of contents 59 overriding default 79
expiration dates 43 restrictions for 35
Export data button 134 File Output Options dialog 145
export delimiters 136 file systems 52
export options (search) 133, 136, 139 file types 21, 35, 39
external applications 140, 143, 145 files
exporting See also specific type
data 134, 135 access types for 18
search results 135–146 archiving 41–45, 111
expressions assigning privileges 20, 22, 26, 30
adding nonprinting ASCII codes to 129 attaching to e-mail 161
creating custom formats for 105, 107 autoversioning feature for 36
creating date 83, 104 bundling 161, 163
creating search 125–129 changing ownership of 19
creating time 104 changing privileges for 29
defining ad hoc parameters with 82 copying 36–37, 40

172 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


deleting 17, 41 removing privileges 27
displaying 35 resorting items in 11
displaying specific type 11 searching for 12, 13
distributing with reports 161 setting access types for 32
getting information about 14 setting archive policies for 17
importing 37–39 setting autoarchiving rules for 42, 43, 44
linking to external 61 specifying for distributed reports 102
moving 37 specifying home 25
opening report 52, 54 Forecast sample report
overview 35 hyperlinks in 57
overwriting 102, 103 Forecast.roi 58
printing to 110, 159 format symbols 105, 107
removing privileges 27 formats
renaming 102 customizing 105, 107
searching for 12, 13 date expressions and 84
setting access types for 32 HTML conversions and 154
setting autoarchiving rules for 42, 43, 44, predefined keywords for 104
45, 111 report parameters and 83
setting dependencies for 39–41 formatting
setting search paths for 48 dates 104, 105
shared repository for 2 time 104, 107
sorting 11 Formula One e.Report Designer xv
SQRIBE reports and 39 Formula One e.Report Engine xv
Find Item command 13 Formula One e.Report Engine Option xiv
finding Formula One e.Spreadsheet Engine xv
data. See searching forward slash (/) character 13
searchable report fields 120
folders G
accessing 18 General Date format 104
adding comments to 17 General page (Properties) 17
assigning privileges 20, 22, 25, 26, 30 generating
changing location of 26 data cubes xiii
changing privileges for 29 e.Spreadsheet reports xii
changing properties for 15–17 HTML reports 154
copying files to 36 open server reports 3
copying items in 37 report object instance files 72
creating 34–35 reports 72, 75
deleting 17 generation options 74, 76
displaying information about 17 generation requests
displaying specific file types in 11 changing properties of 114
expanding and collapsing 10 creating 76–77, 117
managing items in 14 getting details about 113, 114, 115, 117
managing requests and 113 printing information about 114, 115, 118
moving items among 37 removing from folders 114, 115, 118
naming 35 retrying 101
overview 32 saving scheduling information for 99
recovering deleted items in 114, 115, 118 scheduling 95–102
removing items in 114, 118 setting archiving rules for 111

Index 173
setting parameters for 77, 81, 82 HTML documentation xvi
setting priorities for 101 HTML formats 154
setting properties for 117 hyperlink buttons 57
specifying document names for 104 hyperlinked fields 56
states described 113 hyperlinks
viewing properties of 114, 115, 117 moving through reports with 56–58
viewing status 33, 74, 112 selecting 62
global reporting solutions ix Hypertext Markup Language. See HTML
Global Search Path page 48 hyphen (–) character
global search paths 48, 49 as literal value 88
Go To command 55 finding 128
Go To icon 130 in search expressions 126
Go To Page button 55
Go To Page dialog 56 I
grant privilege 21, 25 illustrations (documentation) 10
granting privileges. See privileges images
graphical user interface. See e.Report copying 146
Designer Professional; GUIs importing 39
graphics. See images OLE objects and 60, 61
grayed components 10 printing 158
greater than character (>) 88, 128 SQRIBE reports and 39
greater than operator 125 import dialogs 38
greater than or equal to operator 125 importing
group of values 82 images 39
groups open server reports 37–39
assigning privileges to 26, 27 In Progress status 74
displaying notification 108 index (online documentation) xvi, xvii
distributing reports and 164 information. See data
unexpected search results and 131 information application platform viii
GUIs 10 Information Delivery API xiii
information delivery solutions x
H information delivery systems ix
hand cursor 56 Information Object Caching Option xiv
help Information Object Designer
accessing online xvi–xviii overview xii
creating report-specific xix, 68–69 information object files 20
Help button xvi information objects
Help command 69 assigning privileges 20
Help menu xvi designing xii
help topics xvii generating xiii
hidden mode (printing) 154 licensing options for xiv
hidden parameters 38 inheriting autoarchive rules 43
hiding input directives (SCRIBE reports) 39
application windows 64 input parameters 86
toolbars 66 inspecting Encyclopedia properties 14
home folder 25 installation

174 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Actuate Viewer 164 L
custom search extensions 135
online documentation xvi large reports 55, 150
third-party reports and 54 less than character (<) 88, 128
integers. See numbers; numeric searches less than operator 125
interfaces 10 less than or equal to operator 125
international reporting solutions ix licensing options xiii
Internet 2 LIKE operator 86
intranets 2 line feed characters 129
.iob files 20 linking to external files 61
iServer linking to OLE objects 60–62
accessing 2 linking to parts of a report 56
overview ix links
running multiple xiii See also hyperlinks
setting up Encyclopedia connections for 6, as navigational tool 56
7 in online documentation xvi
shared repository for 2 Liquid Data data sources xv
volume names and 7 list separators 87, 88
iServer Integration Technology xiii lists 81, 82
iServer System literal characters
autoarchiving feature for 41 in date expressions 106
autoversioning feature for 36 in query statements 84, 88
completed requests and 109 in search expressions 125
importing files and 38 in time expressions 108
licensing options for xiii literal strings 87, 90
multiple Encyclopedia volumes and 2 Live Report Documents xv
open server file types for 35 Load Executable dialog 161
overview xiii, 2 local reports 72
running open server reports and 72 locales
security features for 17 date expressions and 84
viewing available printers for 33 defining ad hoc parameters for specific 84,
87, 88
J e.reporting solutions for ix
setting default 47
J2EE applications xv locating
Java objects xv data. See searching
Java tools xv searchable report fields 120
JavaBeans xv Log in Failed message 8
jobs 47 logging in to Encyclopedia volumes 6, 7
See also requests Long Date format 104
long reports 120
K Long Time format 105
keywords 104 lowercase characters 127
LRX documents xv

Index 175
M navigating through reports 54–60, 129
Navigator command 6
mail services 162 Navigator. See Actuate Navigator
mail. See e-mail network file servers 52
Management Console xiii See also servers
management tools 3 networked environments 2
managing data 2 New Folder command 34
Manuals directory xvi New HTML File dialog 155
matching exact string values 87 New Object dialog 38
matching specific characters 84, 125, 126, 127 New Report File with ROX dialog 163
Medium Date format 105 New Request command 76, 117
Medium Time format 105 New Window command 66
menus nonprinting ASCII characters 129
adding context 69–70 not operand 126
disabled items on 10 notification groups 108, 164
displaying context 69 notification options 47
Microsoft Excel Options dialog 143 Notification page (Properties) 47
Microsoft Excel. See Excel spreadsheets Notification page (Requester) 108
Microsoft Exchange 162 notifications
Microsoft Windows. See Windows systems Encyclopedia support for 3
military time 108 secured channels and 20
minimizing windows 64, 65 sending 47
mismatched types 39 setting preferences for 47, 109
modifying. See changing setting up 108–109
monitoring report generation 74, 75, 112, 113 types of 109
More button 57 Null keyword 87, 89
moving NULL operator (SQL) 87
application windows 64 null values 87, 89
toolbars 66 number of copies setting 158
moving report files 37 numbers 146
moving through Encyclopedia volumes 3, 10 numeric searches 126, 127
moving through reports 54–60, 129
Multi-Application Option xiii O
multifield searches 120, 121, 124, 125
multilingual reporting ix Object Linking and Embedding. See OLE
See also locales objects
multi-object searches 132 as grey boxes 60
multiple views 8, 66 changing ownership of 19
developing for Java xv
N linking to OLE 60–62
searching for 131, 132
names selecting searchable 120, 122
adding date or timestamps to 104 ODA drivers xii
predefined format keywords for 104 OLE automation 61
restrictions for characters in 35 OLE objects 60–62
naming conventions 35 on-demand paging 54
navigating through Encyclopedia volumes 3, Online Archive Option xiv
10

176 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


online backups 46 orientation 151, 158
online documentation xvi output
online help default location for 25
accessing xvi–xviii e.reporting solutions for xi
creating report-specific xix, 68–69 SQRIBE reports and 39
Open command 54, 72 Output File Name parameter 79
Open Data Access Framework xii output file names 79, 102
Open dialog 52, 73 output file types 39
open server driver 39, 72 output files 79, 144
open server file types 35 overriding
open server reports autoarchiving rules 42, 43, 44, 45
adding to Encyclopedia 38 default settings 42, 101, 102, 111
archiving 41 hidden parameters 38
defining parameters for 39 output file names 79
displaying 54 overwriting report files 102, 103
generating 3 owner (defined) 19
importing 37–39
overview 35 P
paging through 54 Page Level Security Option xv
running 72 page orientation 151, 158
open server technology xi, 35 page ranges 110, 150
opening page-level security
configuration files 49 assigning privileges and 20
executable files 73 paging buttons (toolbar) 55
multiple Navigator windows 6, 8 paging commands 55, 75
multiple Viewer windows 66 paging through reports 54, 55
Options dialog 6 Paintbrush images 60, 61
report object instance files 52, 54 Paper page (User Print) 157, 158
reports 52–54 paper size 150, 158
sample reports 52 paper trays 158
search definition files 134 parameter values files. See report object value
Search dialog 13 files
table of contents 59 parameters
Operator security role 28 See also specific type
operators 125, 128 applying formats to 83
Option page (User Print) 158 changing 79
optional parameters 78, 79 choosing custom values for 81
optional values 78 defining ad hoc 82–83
options xiii deleting files and 41
Options command 6 entering values for 80–81, 82, 89
Options dialog open server reports and 38, 39
enabling navigator from 6 overriding 38
opening 6 overview 77
setting default locale from 48 reusing 94, 117
setting search paths from 48 saving 94–95
or operand 126 types described 78, 89
OR operator 88 viewing values of 114

Index 177
Parameters page (Requester) 90, 91 selecting 150, 159
parentheses ( ) characters setting defaults for 156–158
as literal values 88 setting printing options for 151, 152, 155
passwords setting properties for 156, 159
as required parameters 79 Printers folder 33, 157
as security feature 17 printing
changing 19, 46 command line options for 153–154
Encyclopedia connections and 6 images 158
validating 18 multiple copies 158
Paste command 146 reports 109, 150, 155
pattern matching request information 114, 115, 118
in query statements 84 third-party reports 3
with search expressions 126 to files 110, 159
PDF documentation xvi printing options 110, 150, 159
PDF files 36 priority levels (print) 159
percent sign (%) character priority levels (scheduling) 101
as literal value 88 private access type 32
in query statements 84 private files 18, 32
in text strings 86, 87 private folders 18, 32
permissions. See privileges privilege templates 18, 29
personal folders 17, 102 privileges
perspectives accessing reports and 3
restoring defaults for 64, 66 as security feature 17
saving 63 assigning to Encyclopedia items 30
pipe sign (|) character assigning to Encyclopedia volumes 21, 32
as list separator 87, 88 assigning to groups 26, 27
as literal value 88 copying files and 36, 37
in query statements 82 creating folders and 25, 35
pop-up menus. See context menus defaults for 29
PostScript files 36 displaying reports and 54
predefined formats 104 distributing reports and 103, 161, 164
preferences 46–48, 109 granting automatically 18
previewing reports 153 home folders and 26
Print command 150 inheriting 28
Print dialog 150 overriding defaults and 42
print jobs. See print requests overview 19
Print page (Requester) 109, 155 revoking 21, 27
Print Preview command 153 setting autoarchive rules and 43, 45, 111
Print Request dialog 159 types described 19
print requests 156, 157, 159 viewing 17
print resolution 158 Privileges page (Properties) 17, 30
Print To File check box 110 product suite (Actuate) vii, xi
printers programmers
default properties for 110 adding context menus and 69
displaying available 33, 157 creating online help topics and 68
displaying information about 157 extending Encyclopedia security and 18
printing to 110 open server reports and 38

178 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


report parameters and 77, 79, 80 range operator 126
searching reports and 120 read privilege 19, 20
SQL queries and 79 recovering deleted requests 114, 115, 118
programming languages xii recurring reports 98, 104
programming tools xii, xiii, xv refresh delays 75
Progress databases xv refreshes 75
Progress Option xv relational expressions 82
properties relationships xiv
changing folder 15–17 renaming
changing request 114 report files 102
copy operations and 37 security roles 28
displaying request 114, 115, 117 report designs
inspecting Encyclopedia 14 See also design tools
setting print request 159 adding help topics to 68
setting printer 156, 159 defining parameters in 77
setting report 72 embedding OLE objects in 61
setting run request 117 Report Encyclopedia. See Encyclopedia
Properties command 14 volumes
Properties page report executables. See report object
changing e-mail addresses on 47 executable files
changing passwords on 46 report execution requests. See run requests
opening 14 report files
printing request information from 114, See also specific type
115, 118 access types for 18
setting archiving rules from 44, 45 archiving 41–45, 111
setting notification options from 47 assigning privileges 20, 22, 26, 30
viewing request information in 114, 115, attaching to e-mail 161
117 autoversioning feature for 36
bundling 161, 163
Q changing ownership of 19
QBE expressions 82, 85, 87 changing privileges for 29
QBE syntax 82 copying 36–37, 40
queries deleting 17, 41
adding date expressions to 83 displaying 11, 35
defining ad hoc parameters for 82 distributing 161
entering special characters in 84, 88 getting information about 14
handling blank spaces returned by 86 importing 37–39
licensing options for xv moving 37
narrowing scope of 79 opening 52, 54
returning exact strings from 87 overview 35
returning null values with 87 overwriting 102, 103
Query Option xv removing privileges 27
renaming 102
R searching for 12, 13
setting access types for 32
radio buttons 81 setting dependencies for 39–41
range of values 82 setting search paths for 48

Index 179
shared repository for 2 ReportCast xiii
sorting 11 reporting servers. See iServer; servers
SQRIBE reports and 39 reporting solutions ix, x
report generation requests. See generation reporting system. See iServer System
requests reporting tasks xx
report object executable files ReportingEngines suite xi
assigning privileges 20 ReportQuery technology xi
bundling with reports 40, 74 reports
copying 37 accessing in Encyclopedia 3, 54
deleting 39 accessing sample 52
distributing 161, 163 adding context menus to 69–70
file dependencies and 40 bundling executable files with 40, 74
generating reports from 36, 72, 94 copying 160, 163
opening 73 customizing xii
rerunning 94 defining optional parameters for 78, 79
running 39, 72, 74, 76 defining required parameters for 79
search definition files and 133 deploying xv
setting up run requests for 76 displaying 9, 52–54, 112, 117
setting up schedules for 95–102 distributing 3, 61, 102–103, 160–164
report object instance files embedding OLE objects in 61
See also documents generating 72, 75
adding date or timestamps to 104 linking to parts of 56
bundling with executables 74 monitoring generation status of 74, 75,
copying 37, 40 112, 113
default output location for 26 moving through 54–60, 129
displaying 35 moving to specific pages in 55
extracting data from 133, 134 moving to specific parts of 56, 57, 58, 129
file dependencies for 40 narrowing scope of 78
generating 72 opening 52–54
locating dependent executable for 161 opening multiple windows for 66–68
opening 52, 54 overview 2
overwriting 102, 103 paging through 54, 55
renaming 102 previewing 153
saving 154 providing online help for xix, 68–69
specifying folders for 102 refreshing 75
report object search files. See search definition removing from Encyclopedia 41
files; search extensions retaining previous versions of 36
report object value files running 72, 76, 117, 160
creating 94 running external applications from 61
file dependencies for 40 saving 154
generating multiple reports from 36 searching 120, 121
importing files and 38 setting autoarchiving rules for 44, 45, 111
saving 94 setting properties for 72
report parameters. See parameters setting up run requests for 76–77, 117
Report Server API xiii updating data for 72
Report Server Security Extension xiii, 3 viewing expiration dates for 43
See also RSSE applications viewing notification groups for 108

180 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


viewing specific pages 55 resizing Navigator windows 9
viewing structure of 121 resolution (print) 158
zooming in on 62 restoring defaults 64, 66
repository 2 Results page (Search) 124, 129, 131, 135
Request Print Options dialog 160 exporting from 135, 136
Requester API xii retrieving data 79
Requester dialog Retry command 117
changing files names in 102 retry options (run requests) 101
creating run requests from 77, 101 retrying run requests 101
displaying SAP parameters in 90, 91 .roi files. See report object instance files
distributing reports from 102 roles
entering ad hoc parameters to 79 as security feature 18
opening ad hoc parameter builder from 83 changing 28
printing from 109, 155 creating 26, 31
running reports from 73 displaying 31
saving parameters from 94 removing privileges from 28
scheduling run requests in 95, 97, 98 setting privileges for 21, 25, 27, 28
setting archiving rules from 111 root folders 25
setting notification preferences from 108 .ros files 133
setting parameter values in 81 .rov files. See report object value files
viewing parameters in 78, 79 .rox files. See report object executable files
requests RSSE applications
changing properties of 114 See also Report Server Security Extension
changing scheduled 114 changing passwords from 19
getting details about 113, 114, 115, 117 changing privileges and 29
managing 113 rules (autoarchiving) 42
not running 95 run requests
printing information about 114, 115, 118 changing properties of 114
removing from folders 114, 115, 118 creating 76–77, 117
retrying 101 defined 72
saving scheduling information for 99 getting details about 113, 114, 115, 117
scheduling report generation 95–102 printing information about 114, 115, 118
setting autoarchiving rules for 42, 111 removing from folders 114, 115, 118
setting notification preferences for 108–109 retrying 101
setting parameters for 77, 81, 82 saving scheduling information for 99
setting priorities for 101 scheduling 95–102
setting properties for 117 setting archiving rules for 111
setting up print 159–160 setting parameters for 77, 81, 82
setting up run 76–77, 117 setting priorities for 101
specifying document names for 104 setting properties for 117
viewing properties of 114, 115, 117 specifying document names for 104
viewing status of 33, 74, 112 states described 113
Requests folder 33, 112, 113 viewing properties of 114, 115, 117
required parameters 79 viewing status of 112
required values 79 running executable files 39, 72, 74, 76
reserved words 104 running external applications 61
Reset Workspace command 66 running reports 72, 76, 117, 160

Index 181
running search definition files 134 search definition files 133–134
running third-party reports 3, 72 Search dialog
accessing 122
S adding multiple fields to 124
sample reports adding search criteria to 122, 123, 126, 132
hyperlinks in 56, 57 adding searchable objects to 120, 122
opening 52 changing search criteria in 124
setting file dependencies for 40 displaying search results from 129, 131
viewing table of contents for 59 exporting from 135, 137
SAP data sources 89–93 opening 13
SAP R/3 data streams 89 running search definition files from 134
Save as HTML command 155 saving search criteria for 133
Save As Unicode option 136, 139 search export options 133, 136, 139
Save dialog 154 external applications 140, 143, 145
Save to Volume dialog 36 Search Export Options dialog 136, 138
saving search expressions
report generation schedules 99 adding nonprinting ASCII codes to 129
report object value files 94 adding pattern operators to 126
report parameters 94–95 adding to search criteria 125–129
reports 154 adding wildcard characters to 123, 126
search criteria 133 locating special characters with 127, 128
scaling range (printers) 158 operators in 125
scaling range (zoom) 62 wildcard characters in 13
Schedule page (Requester) 95, 101 Search Extension API xii
Scheduled folder 33, 113, 113–114 search extensions 135, 139, 141
scheduled request icon 114 Search icon 122
Scheduled Request Retry settings 101 search paths
scheduled requests external objects and 61
changing 114 search definition files and 134
displaying information about 113, 114 setting 48–49
failed systems and 95 search results
printing information about 114 as navigational tool 129
retrying 101 containing multiple fields 136
viewing 33, 112 copying 135
schedules displaying 13, 124, 129, 131
changing 98 exporting 135–146
saving 99 Search.txt 137, 139
scheduling online backups 46 searchable report fields 120, 121
scheduling report generation 3, 95, 97, 98, searching
101 Encyclopedia 12–13
search criteria for nonprinting characters 129
adding multiple fields to 121, 124 for single text values 120
adding search expressions to 125–129 for special characters 127, 128
changing 124 for specific data 121–125, 131
entering 13, 122–124 from search definition files 133–134
saving 133 on literal values 125
on multiple fields 120, 121, 124, 125

182 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


reports 120, 121 shortcut menus. See context menus
with conditions 122 Show command 11
secure read privilege 20 silent mode (printing) 154
security simple object access protocol xiii
e.reporting solutions for xi single quote (’) character 88
enabling page-level xv single value expressions 82
Encyclopedia volumes and 3 .sma files 20
overview 17–19 small hand cursor 56
security applications 18 SOAP messaging xiii
security extensions 3 Sort By command 11
security roles sort options 11
changing 28 sorting report files 11
creating 31 special characters 84, 88, 127, 128
displaying 31 split box 53
overview 26 splitter bars 9
removing privileges from 28 splitting windows 53
setting privileges for 21, 25, 27, 28 spreadsheet engine. See Formula One
security tools xiii e.Spreadsheet Engine
Select page (Search) 132, 136 spreadsheets
selecting data 146 customizing xv
selection criteria. See search criteria designing for xii
selection formulas. See parameters developing for xv
Send command 161 exporting to 142–144
sending notifications 47 linking to 60, 61
Server Properties dialog 42, 46 SQL statements
server-based reporting xi See also queries
servers data types and 83
See also iServer defining ad hoc parameters with 82
copying to 37 entering dates in 83
deploying from xv entering literal characters in 84
e.reporting solutions for x, xi entering literal strings in 87
managing clusters for xiii entering null values in 87
setting default printer properties for 156 entering special characters in 88
setting autoarchive rules 44, 45, 111 entering wildcards in 84
setting default locale 47 handling blank spaces returned by 86
setting default printer 157 limiting data returned by 79
setting file dependencies 40 SQR file types 39
setting notification options 47 SQRIBE open server driver 39, 72
setting preferences 46–48 SQRIBE reports
setting up user accounts 19 displaying 35, 54
settings. See properties file types for 35
shared access type 32 output file types for 39
shared files 18, 32 overview 39
shared folders 18, 25, 32 running 72
shared repositories 2 SQT file types 39
Short Date format 84, 105 Srchdef directory 133, 134
Short Time format 105 stacking application windows 64, 65

Index 183
stand-alone file systems 52 Table of Contents icon 59, 121
Standard Object Access Protocol. See SOAP Table Parameter Editor 91
messaging table parameters (SAP) 89, 91
starting Actuate Navigator 6 templates 18
status information temporary files 94
active requests 115 text 120, 146
completed requests 116 text boxes 81
online backups 46 text fields 131, 135, 144
report generation requests 33, 74, 112, 113 text files
scheduled requests 113 accessing data in xv
stopping report generation 73 export delimiters for 136
storage 2 exporting to 135, 144–146
strings open server reports as 36
blank spaces in 86 SCRIBE reports and 39
date expressions and 106 setting export options for 136, 139
defining as literal 87 text searches 125, 126, 128
entering special characters in 88 text strings. See strings
locating special characters in 128 third-party databases xiv
matching exact 87 third-party reports
returning null values with 90 See also open server reports
searching 126 archiving 111
structure parameters (SAP) 89, 90 displaying 54
structured content technology viii, x printing 3
subfolders running 3, 72
See also folders third-party tools xii, xiii
archiving items in 43 thousand separators 81
copying files from 36 thumbtack icon 64
creating 34 Tile command 67
deleting 17 tiling windows 67
displaying 10 time expressions 104–108
moving files to 37 time format symbols 107
resorting items in 11 time formats
successful request icon 117 customizing 107
Summary page (Properties) 114, 115, 118 predefined keywords for 104
syntax conventions (documentation) xx timestamps 103, 104
system printers 33, 110, 155 toolbar buttons 66
toolbars
T paging buttons on 55
tab characters 129 personalizing 66
tabbed pages 64 search definitions in 134
table of contents search icons on 123
accessing 59 Table of Contents icon on 121
expanding or collapsing items in 59 Toolbars command 66
moving through reports from 58, 60 Tools menu 47
searching reports and 121 transactional data vii
Table of Contents command 59 transient files 94
Transporter technology 135

184 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional


Transporter technology. See search extensions creating lists of 82
trends xiv defining range of 82
True and False values 80 displaying parameter 114
trusted execute privilege 20 entering literal characters for 84
typographic conventions (documentation) entering report parameter 80–81, 82, 89
xix entering special characters for 88
importing files and 38
U saving parameter 94
unavailable features 10 searching for single 120
underscore (_) character searching on literal 125
as literal value 88 specifying as null 87
in query statements 84 specifying optional 78
unescaped literal characters 106, 108 specifying required 79
unexpected search results 131 Values page (Requester) 94
UNIX systems version control 3, 36
printing from 155 version names 103, 104
unstacking application windows 64 version numbers 103
updating data 72 View menu 55
user accounts View Report command 112, 117
as security feature 17 Viewer xv
user interfaces 10 displaying reports with 52–54, 74, 75
user names distributing with reports 161, 164
as required parameters 79 downloading 164
Encyclopedia connections and 6 generating reports for 73, 75
validating 18 refreshing reports for 75
User Options command 46, 47 unavailable features in 74
User Print Properties page 157 viewing report generation status in 74
user-defined formats 106 viewing
user-defined parameters 39 active requests 113, 115
users autoarchive rules 42, 43
assigning privileges for 20, 22, 25 available printers 157
assigning privileges to 31 backup information 46
changing passwords for 19, 46 completed requests 113, 116
changing privileges for 29 context menus 69
creating security roles for 26, 28 Encyclopedia items 8, 9, 10
displaying 31 file dependencies 17, 39, 41
displaying notification groups for 108 folder information 17
setting home folders for 25 multiple Navigator windows 8
setting notification preferences for 109 notification groups 108
setting preferences for 46–48 online documentation xvi
setting up accounts for 19 online help topics xvi, xvii
parameter values 114
V privileges 17
related information 57
validating user names and passwords 18 report files 35
values report generation requests 33, 74, 112, 113
Boolean parameters and 80 reports 9, 52–54, 112, 117

Index 185
sample reports 52 resizing Navigator 9
scheduled requests 113 restoring defaults for 66
search results 13, 124, 129, 131 splitting 53
security roles 31 tiling 67
specific file types 11 Windows systems
specific parts of a report 56, 57, 58 copying files with 37
specific report pages 55 linking to applications on 60–62
subfolders 10 running SQRIBE reports from 72
system printers 33 Word documents 60
table of contents 59 WordPad 137, 139, 147
third-party reports 54 write privilege 21, 25
toolbars 66
users 31 X
views XML development tool xiii
creating multiple 53 XML files xv
customizing 131
displaying multiple 8, 66 Y
editing OLE objects and 61
visible privilege 17, 20, 25 year formats in date expressions 83
volumes. See Encyclopedia volumes
Z
W zoom settings 52, 56, 62
web pages zooming 62
importing SCRIBE reports for 39
web servers xv
web services xiii
web sites
e.reporting solutions for xi
securing xiii
WebLogic servers xv
WebSphere servers xv
weekly reports 97, 98, 133
WHERE clause 79
See also SQL statements
whitespace in strings 86
wildcard characters
in query statements 84
in search expressions 13, 123, 126
Window menu 66
windows
cascading 67
closing preview 153
dimmed or grayed items in 10
expanding and collapsing items in 10
opening multiple 6, 8, 66–68
personalizing 63, 64

186 Managing and Using Repor ts in Actuate e.Repor t Designer Professional

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