Form Label | Appear on Form Section

This page will provide a description and examples on how to used the Form Label and Appear on Form sections in adding Filter Clauses to your report

Overview

If you want a report where users could dynamically enter the data or information to compare against the Column Name fields every time they run it (without having to run the report in the Report Builder menu, but just straight to the report type section where you saved the report, see Run a Saved Report), you have the option to set the Form Label | Appear on Form section for each applicable filter clause.

To explain it further, built reports in Paradigm using Report Builder can be saved and generated not necessarily using Report Builder but as a form for everybody to use and generate results. Instead of setting the values under the FILTER CLAUSES section in Report Builder, users who are using your saved reports will have a more user-friendly interface for setting the values of the data that they want to produce.

For example, following the previous example from the Logical Operators AND | OR page, using a Course Enrolment Base Report limiting the results to a (1) specific start date, (2) only students who are enrolled on a specific Course, and (3) only output records that are "Enrolled". If you want to make ALL three conditions to be true in the results of your output - you add the AND condition to the three of them.

Now, what if - you want your report to be generated again but this time you want a set of students from another Course, say instead of "ComSci" you want students who are enrolled in " BITS"? That's when you need to set the Form Editor section.

After saving the report with the FILTER CLAUSES section as in the above screenshot, the fields with the Appear on Form column set to Yes appear in the form when the saved report is generated. With an option to select other values, see Run a Saved Report workflow for more details. To preview the structure of the form, you can select the UPDATE AND PREVIEW FORM button.

How to do it in Paradigm using the Report Builder menu?

You can set the parameters under the FILTER CLAUSES section under the Form Editor tab or use one or more of the predefined parameters under the Base Report Parameters tab.

Using the Form Editor Tab

You can set the fields or parameters to be dynamically entered by the next user who will use your report by setting the following:

Label on form – will let you define the label or description of the field or value that you want the user to enter
Appears on form – when set to YES, the field will appear on the form for the user to enter a value each time the report is run
Mandatory – when set to YES will require the user to enter a value to the field which is set as mandatory or required for it to run

Example Report (UNIT ENROLMENTS INVOICED WITH NO GRADES): take note of the Form Labels, Appear on Form, and Mandatory columns which are set to YES.

Report Form when run format: as a result of making the fields appear on the form and making them mandatory, the user will be prompted to enter the required values each time the report is generated

Utilising the Base Report Parameters Tab

You can also set the suggested or available parameters under this section if required for your reporting requirements. This is very helpful if you want the user to dynamically enter or change some of the dates on which the report will become required or needed.

NOTE:

When you want to add one or more of the available BASE REPORT PARAMETERS to this section, you simply follow the same instructions as above, by setting the Form Editor tab - Appears on form column to Yes and also have the option to make the field mandatory by selecting Yes under the Mandatory column.

Example

In the sample screenshot below, the Course Name field is set to Appear on Form and Mandatory under the Form Editor tab, while in the Base Report Parameters tab, the field Unit Census Date is also being set to appear on the form.

You can also click the UPDATE AND PREVIEW FORM menu if you want to preview the form before saving it.

With the sample scenario above, given that this report is saved under the Student type, once a user will run the report, those two fields (mandatory) will become part of the form and as set, the user can’t run the report if the two fields are not entered or set.