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<< Click to Display Table of Contents >> Navigation: USING REPORTS > Loading and Saving SQL for Reports |
In very unusual circumstances, you may need to do something special with an existing report that cannot be done with a different built-in report, the Sort or Filter buttons, or Custom Reports. Please contact us for support, and explain exactly which report (which menu option) you are looking at, and how you need it to be different. We will tell you whether there is a way to get what you want.
One way that this can be done is to use a modified version of the SQL (the database language for selecting the data for reports) with an existing built-in report. To do that, you start by saving its SQL to a file with the Save SQL button on the report-viewing window. You can then edit that SQL if you know how, or ask us for assistance with it. (Complex report changes of this type are not part of our normal support, and we may require you to pay us at an hourly rate for our time if we do not feel it can be done very quickly.)
The modified version of the SQL can then be loaded in with the Load SQL button on the report-viewing window. The only changes that will work are ones that maintain the exact same list of fields being retrieved - adding or removing fields, or changing the order of the fields, will cause this to fail with techie error messages under the heading "Data Entry Error".
Not all reports' SQL can be successfully saved, edited and re-loaded, but it should work for most built-in reports.
Changes to a report made with the Load SQL button can also be memorized by the Memorize button for memorizing reports. That way, rather than having to run the report normally and then use the Load SQL button to load the modified SQL file each time, you can memorize the report once after using Load SQL, and then replay it in the future with Reports ⇒ Memorized Reports.