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Report format

This section allows you to choose the output format of your report. To select the desired format, click on the drop-down list and choose from the available options: Web, PDF, Excel, CSV and XML.


All the available formats are described in the table below. Note that any report can be run several times in different formats, if required.

FormatDescription
Web

The Web format is the common interface for all reports. The results will be displayed in the Report Output window, which is a mini web-browser containing the HTML output generated by the report engine.

The report body is shown in a window that can be panned around by using the horizontal and vertical scrollbars. If the report is made up of multiple pages, you can navigate through it, by using the Back and Fwd buttons at the bottom of the page. You can print the report by pressing the Print button, or save it to an HTML file.

Universally-accessible, this format provides click-able column headers for dynamic sorting of table data, with clean graphical charts in the popular Flash format, so you can zoom in for more detail. Each report is fully customisable right down to the individual table fields. To view these reports, all that is required is your favourite web browser, with no need for obscure add-ons!

PDF
(Portable Document Format)
PDF is a file format created by Adobe Systems in 1993 for document exchange. PDF is used for representing two-dimensional documents in a manner independent of the application software, hardware and operating system.

PDFs will run over several pages depending on the report selected. Due to the nature of the format, headers are fixed and not selectable as in the web reports above. You may however pre-sort before running or scheduling, using the filters available

PDFs are ideal for producing reports like Phone Bills or when the report has to be distributed to colleagues inside and outside of your organisation, while guaranteeing they'll look identical across all operating systems when viewed on the screen or printed out.

ExcelSelect Excel as your preferred report format, if you would like to manipulate the data and possibly integrate this with other Excel spreadsheets.
CSV
(Comma Separated Values)

A CSV file is used for the digital storage of data, structured in a table of lists form. Each line in the CSV file corresponds to a row in the table. Within a line, fields are separated by commas, each field belonging to one table column. CSV files are often used for moving tabular data between two different computer programs, for example between a database program and a spreadsheet program.

This option is ideal for interacting with your own back office systems, all CSV data is fully customisable using XSLT from the report's original XML format.

XML
(Extensible Markup Language)
XMLs purpose is to aid information systems in sharing structured data, especially via the internet, to encode documents and to serialise data. XML, in combination with other standards, makes it possible to define the content of a document separately from its formatting, making it easy to reuse that content in other applications or for other presentation environments. Most importantly, XML provides a basic syntax that can be used to share information between different kinds of computers, different applications, and different organizations without needing to pass through many layers of conversion.

Since all reports are derived from this native format, we pack them with all the data you'd ever need, so you'll always be able to extract the report data into your favourite reporting packages, such as Business Objects, Crystal Reports, or even your favourite Office spreadsheet.

Run or schedule the report

This is the final screen of the report wizard. Click on the Run now button to instantly run the report, or select the Schedule for later button to schedule the report to run at a later time. To revise the parameters of the report you have entered, click on the Back button, which will lead you to the previous report options.

 

 

 

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