About Preview Reports
The Preview Reports function in the Report Menu combines the current capabilities of the existing sales database report screens in the system with the new functionality of the EBS SQL database. It is designed to allow both new and experienced users to easily view and print SQL reports. It also allows users to make minor report changes on the fly that could previously only be made in more complex report designer applications. Information is displayed in an Excel-style grid with columns that can be fully customized using sorts and limits.
These reports print from their respective SQL tables. For example, the sales reports print from the current SQL SalesOrderJournal table and related supplemental files. The report definition files are saved as an XML document and placed in the ddms/reporting/eci2 folder during software installation.
Custom reports can be created and saved using third party software, Component One (C1) Report Designer. If you create additional reports, you save them in the ddms/reporting/custom folder. The Preview Reports function lets you catalog and provide security for your reports. See the Advanced SQL Reporting Guide handout on the Customer Support Center for more information on creating custom SQL Reports.
Understanding Report Structure
To make the most of the Preview Reports application, you need to familiarize yourself with a few new terms and some general information about reports. Basic reports have two parts: a heading and a detail section. The heading appears at the top of every page and includes general information such as report title, date, and page number. The detail section includes the actual data in the report.
In more complex reports, you might break the detail information into groups. For example, on a sales report, you might divide the sales data into groups for each salesperson. You could go a step further and divide each salesperson’s sales by customer account number. In reports that are divided into groups, it is common to have a separate group header. The group header is a description or field of data that prints above a group and describes the group of report data that follows.
A report that breaks the data into groups might also have footer sections. A footer prints after each group of data.
Once you understand how the data is organized on a report, you can use the Preview Reports function to make changes to the way the data on some reports is grouped. If a report already has defined groups, you can select new grouping fields from a pre-defined list and change the way that the data is grouped on the final report. As part of that change, you can also change the data in the group header or footer sections to reflect the new grouping. However, keep in mind that you can only change grouping of data on reports that already have some grouping defined in the format.
For more information on report structure, see Report Structure.
Note: Before using any EBS program for the first time, you must import your existing data to the SQL database. For details on importing data on the DDMS system, see the handout Using the EBS SQL Import Panel on the Customer Support Center. For details on importing data on the DDMSPLUS system, see Using the EBS SQL Import Panel.
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