Report Template

The Report Template system gives the ability to generate reports based on the data with PRS, assisting in displaying and reporting on whatever is required. All main panels within PRS allow for reports, and each can have as many reports as is required.

Creating a Report

To create a report, you will need the "Design Reports" Security Token. Then, simply navigate to any screen on PRS, and click the little arrow in the ribbon bar at the top, as displayed in the picture. This will open up a new grid, from which you can create new report templates. Each report template in this grid acts as a "template" for the report; it tells PRS how to display the data. To create a new report, simply click the "+" button down the bottom, and fill in the required fields.

Fields

Name

The name is the name of the report, displayed in the main ribbon of PRS. It should be descriptive about what data the report displays.

Visible

Determines whether the report should be visible in PRS. If this is not checked, there will be no way to generate the report. This should be used when you have old reports that are no longer necessary, but you don't want to delete them in case you need them again, or, if you are currently working on a report's design and don't want it to be visible yet.

All Records / Selected Records

These fields determine what data should be used in the report. Most panels in PRS have a way to select data, and these fields determine whether all data in PRS should be used, or just the records that have been selected. If neither are selected, the report will not be able to be generated. If both are selected, there will be an option to choose which one when generating the report later on.

Loading & Saving

On the left hand side of the report grid, there are two buttons for loading and saving reports from/to files. This allows you to take a report template and reload it somewhere else. Note that this is prone to errors, since a report is intrinsically tied to the type of data that is being loaded; hence, if you export a report for Tasks and then import it for Projects, there will most likely be errors, since the data that represents a Job is different from that of a Task. Hence, this is not recommended unless you know what you are doing.

Report Design

TBC

Printing Reports

Once you have created and designed a report, it is now ready to be generated/printed. In PRS, navigate to the panel where you created the report, and, if the report was set to Visible, it will now appear in the bar at the top. This will be visible to anyone with the "Print Reports" Security Token, and by clicking on the report, the relevant data will be assembled, and the report generated from the data.

Generating the report will open the report preview window, from which you view, print, or save to PDF. Additionally, if you have the "Design Reports" Security Token, then there will also be a pencil icon, which you can click to edit the report in the designer, allowing for a quick backwards and forwards between the design and preview modes. Additionally, since generating the report allows means there is now data to print from, it is often easier to design a report by first printing it to give it some data to work with, and then designing from the preview window, allowing you to see the changes that you make by clicking "Preview".