delete group and import/export (Banded Report Writer)
At 13 FEB 2012 03:58:39PM Jim Vaughan wrote:
Hi Bryan,
We would like to revisit the inability to delete a report group in BRW. Our users need a way to delete unused reports without having to do a re-install. There is a delete function in Report Builder. I can’t see how any end-user tool like a report writer would not need a delete function. If you delete all the reports from a group, the group remains and produces error messages when you try to open the group. This is likely to cause confusion.
We also need an easy way to share reports – i.e. to send a report to a user or between users at different installations. In Revelation Reporter the reports were just stored as OS files and so were easily shared. Exporting and importing of the report definitions (not the report output) would provide the equivalent capability. We cannot effectively support our users who are writing / modifying reports unless we have a way for the users to send us their reports.
Jim R Vaughan
At 14 FEB 2012 10:50AM bshumsky wrote:
Hi Bryan,
We would like to revisit the inability to delete a report group in BRW. Our users need a way to delete unused reports without having to do a re-install. There is a delete function in Report Builder. I can’t see how any end-user tool like a report writer would not need a delete function. If you delete all the reports from a group, the group remains and produces error messages when you try to open the group. This is likely to cause confusion.
We also need an easy way to share reports – i.e. to send a report to a user or between users at different installations. In Revelation Reporter the reports were just stored as OS files and so were easily shared. Exporting and importing of the report definitions (not the report output) would provide the equivalent capability. We cannot effectively support our users who are writing / modifying reports unless we have a way for the users to send us their reports.
Jim R Vaughan
The Banded Report Writer, like other Revelation Software provided tools (the Form Designer, the Report Builder, even the Editor++) is integrated with the repository storage system that is at the heart of OpenInsight. You can use the standard repository tools - especially the RDK tools, but also including the repository function APIs - to move these "entities" between systems, and even to delete them entirely.
Just as there are no Revelation Software provided tools to move Report Builder reports, or OI Forms, outside of the RDK tools, there are no additional ways to move the Banded Reports.
If you wish to allow your end users access to the BRW Designer, then - just as if you'd allowed them access to the Report Builder - you might, as a developer, provide additional tools for your users, if you don't feel the existing tools are "friendly" enough. Using the basic+ repository functions, and the OI Form Designer, you could create user interfaces that completely match your specific requirements.
Of course, we are still in the "early days" of the new Banded Report Writer, and I am sure that additional functionality will be added over time…but whether that additional functionality will address your concerns, I cannot say.
- Bryan Shumsky
At 14 FEB 2012 02:55PM Jim Vaughan wrote:
It's not at all like the form designer or the editor, my end users would never use either of these (they are development tools). BRW is not only for use by developers but by end users as well. Many enterprise apps are supplied with a report writer intended to be used by end users to develop ad hoc reports, isn’t that the intent of the BRW?
Being able to move reports between systems is pretty basic functionality. How hard would it be to add two menus to save to and from the O/S. It would be easy, I can do it easily but the menus are going to be in the wrong place in my app not the BRW. It just very confusing for the end user. If I were to write this I would just dump each group of reports to a separate DOS file.
I would be happy to add extra functionality to the BRW but I have no way to do so. I can add functionality to my app that does this, but that's not very logical. The right place for this functionality is within the BRW menus.
One suggestion when deleting reports. Wouldn’t it make sense to delete the group as the last report within the group is deleted. Having to go back to my application to delete BRW groups is completely non-intuitive.
Jim R Vaughan