[SOLVED] tie multiple reports together to produce a final result

There is no one solution to fits all this

It highly depends on the possible relation between the two or more reports you try to combine.

A compound report works well if the output is a PDF you want to send to somebody or present on a pc screen, even if the several sub reports have little or no relation.
Hold files are much used if there is a big relation between the sub reports, you can compare this to a union query in SQL .

So without knowing more about your specific reports this is what it is. And please take a look at the forus manuals for more examples.

	*Frank*
	prod: WF 7.6.10 platform Windows, databases: msSQL2000, msSQL2005, RMS, Oracle, Sybase,IE7 test: WF 7.6.10 on the same platform and databases,IE7

Posts: 2387 | Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands | Registered: December 03, 2006

Ignored post by FrankDutch posted

DW_Dev

Member

posted

Agree with Frank. Will depend on each situation. Please look into MORE (Universal concatenation). That is one way of combining the results.

Webfocus 7.7.04, Windows, HTML,Excel , Active PDF, Active HTML, Flex Enable

Posts: 21 | Registered: February 17, 2011

Ignored post by DW_Dev posted

George Patton

Master

posted

What Frank is hinting at is that there are many ways to skin a cat in WebFocus. You should look up JOINs (specially conditional JOINs)and also the MATCH FILE and MORE commands. Compound reports are for putting unrelated information in separate reports, but on the same page.

I'm guessing that you are learning WebFocus via the GIU. Most of the folks on here are hand-coders and find more flexibility in this approach. So you'll need to attempt to understand the code generated by Dev Studio because the advice offered here will most likely be in code.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: George Patton,

WebFOCUS 7.7.05 Windows, Linux, DB2, IBM Lotus Notes, Firebird, Lotus Symphony/OpenOffice. Outputs PDF, Excel 2007 (for OpenOffice integration), WP

Posts: 674 | Location: Guelph, Ontario, Canada ... In Focus since 1985 | Registered: September 28, 2010

Ignored post by George Patton posted

Member

posted

Thanks, everyone. I do realize there is more than 1 way to skin a cat and actually thought of that phrase yesterday when writing my post.

A report example would be a balance sheet, where each you have your assets, liabilities, and fund balance. Each section retrieves and sorts the data differently and not always from the same file/table.

As suggested, I'll do some more research on this and am actually working with the desktop client of Dev Studio, not the GUI.

Bill

WebFOCUS 7.6
UNIX, All Outputs

Posts: 5 | Registered: April 27, 2011

Ignored post by Bill P posted

susannah

Expert

posted

whats your output format? html or pdf?
(hint: if you say html, then this is going to be huge fun)

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

Posts: 3811 | Location: Manhattan | Registered: October 28, 2003

Ignored post by susannah posted

Member

posted

HTML would be fine.

WebFOCUS 7.6
UNIX, All Outputs

Posts: 5 | Registered: April 27, 2011

Ignored post by Bill P posted

FrankDutch

Virtuoso

posted

When you need balance reports the first thing that comes into my mind is fml. This stands for Financial Modeling Language.
This is more or less the webfocus answer to excel.
Using this you will be able to structure your report just the way you like it, do calculations and create subtotals , subtract or add figurs just in a way you see in finance reports.
It is IMHO one of the more powerfull functions in webfocus and maybe a bit underestimated.
Search for FML and you might get the answer you need.

	*Frank*
	prod: WF 7.6.10 platform Windows, databases: msSQL2000, msSQL2005, RMS, Oracle, Sybase,IE7 test: WF 7.6.10 on the same platform and databases,IE7

Posts: 2387 | Location: Amsterdam, the Netherlands | Registered: December 03, 2006

Ignored post by FrankDutch posted

Member

posted

I did look at FML once and thought hierarchies needed to be created. We were having an issue creating them with the way our chart of accounts is set up. I'll give it another look.

Thanks,
Bill

WebFOCUS 7.6
UNIX, All Outputs

Posts: 5 | Registered: April 27, 2011

Ignored post by Bill P posted

Member

posted

Thank you for your thoughts and ideas. I'm going to try this using universal concatenation. I combined a couple files and will try to add a couple more then work on the formatting, which may take a little time too.

WebFOCUS 7.6
UNIX, All Outputs

Posts: 5 | Registered: April 27, 2011

Ignored post by Bill P posted

susannah

Expert

posted

try this, might be easier
TABLE FILE CAR
do something
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYTAB1 FORMAT HTMTABLE
END
TABLE FILE CAR
do something else
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYTAB2 FORMAT HTMTABLE
END
TABLE FILE CAR
do something wierd
ON TABLE HOLD AS MYTAB3 FORMAT HTMTABLE
END
-RUN
-HTMLFORM BEGIN

!IBI.FIL.MYTAB1;
!IBI.FIL.MYTAB2;
!IBI.FIL.MYTAB3;

-HTMLFORM END
...
you have lots of interesting options when you do things this way...
You can arrange your !IBI..pieces in a table, so that you have the reports side by side, whatever you can think up to do.
You can write your own HTML code surrounding the !IBI pieces. your own head tag stuff...
When you ON TABLE HOLD FORMAT HTML, you get HTML tags in the output. When you say ON TABLE HOLD FORMAT HTMTABLE, you only get the table tags, which leaves you lots of flexiblity.
Experiment with this method, its fun.

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

Posts: 3811 | Location: Manhattan | Registered: October 28, 2003

Ignored post by susannah posted