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Table of Contents
Reporting
Within the Pergamon application there are two general ways of creating reports - Quick Reporting, and the more comprehensive Dynamic Reporting system.
Quick Reporting
The Quick Reporting system is the more accessible and probably the most commonly used way of creating reports. The Quick Reporting system comprises of a range of pre-set reports which may take one or two criteria fields automatically from a particular location where the report can be used.
The same report can be accessed from several different locations as long as the criteria on which it depends is available in that dialog of application location.
In order to start a Quick Report, select the [Report] toolbar icon to display all of the Quick Reports available in that location. Simply select the required report from the menu to start the report off and send it to either the screen, an attached printer, or in the case of more modern operating systems, to a file.
Dynamic Reporting
The Dynamic Reporting system is far more comprehensive and is not dependant on a particular parent dialog or location. The Dynamic Reports are only accessible from the main Reports manager menu. Dynamic Reports allow you to not only enter a range of different criteria, but also select the fields that you want to be included in the final output.
Most Dynamic Reports follow a similar format - each report consists of a two stage process: selection of reports criteria and required fields, and production of the report itself either to printer and/or a file.
The first stage is performed via a reports criteria dialog. Because each report is designed to produce reports based upon a different Pergamon area, the criteria dialog may be slightly different between each report. In most cases however, each criteria dialog can be sub-divided into three general areas:
Criteria fields
A set of criteria fields are presented down the left hand side of each report dialog. These fields provide the ability to enter search parameters to narrow down the results that will be displayed in the report. In most cases, these fields will be free-text entry fields that can also contain wild-cards, drop-down lists and boolean checkboxes.
Display Fields
A list of fields accessible to the report is presented in a listbox down the right hand side of the dialog. Each field is accompanied by a checkbox. In order to include a field in the final report, ensure that the field is checked. Similarly, in order to remove a field from the final report ensure that the field is un-checked.
Report Command Area
The bottom of each report dialog contains two checkboxes that allow the user to specify where the report will be sent. These checkboxes allow the report to be sent to a CSV (command separated values) file, or to the printer, or to both.
Three command buttons provide the ability to abort the report dialog using the [Close] button, [Run] the report to its intended destination, or to display information about the report version using the [?] button.
