Hello:

It seems to me that Active Reports offer the same functionality as a Dashboard. I can filter, build charts, etc. in a Active Report. What features does a Dashboard offer that an Active Report doesn't have?

Thanks!
Greg

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Kathryn Henning>,

Gregorio,

Here are my two cents. One functionality that makes dashboards much more powerful is that it allows users to bring together charts and reports from different data sources onto one tab/page. Moreover, you can keep adding tabs/pages, and basically have a whole application built in AHTML. An active report/chart on the other hand, will not give you that kind of flexibility. Hope this helps some. Cheers!

The dashboard is simply a container into which you can position reports and charts and requires that you are connected to your data source(s).
AHTML is an output format which places all of your answer set into an HTML container which is standalone. Data in the AHTML report once created can be resorted, filtered and charted with no connections to your data source(s) required.

Here's a related question:

What's the difference between pulling reports & graphs together in HTML composer vs Document Composer

Hi Al_C

You asked the following question:
What's the difference between pulling reports & graphs together in HTML composer vs Document Composer?

Within "HELP" in Developer Studio there is an explanation of each for the above.

HTML Composer:
You can create procedures and HTML forms in one integrated process with the HTML Composer. When you save your layout, the procedures are embedded in the HTML file, creating a single file for your application.

Document Composer:

Document Composer enables you to design reports, coordinate layouts, and distribute layouts, made up of multiple reports and graphs. These can be done in a single document.

You can position reports and graphs anywhere on a single page or combine a series of layouts within a single document.
When creating compound reports from Document Composer, PDF, HTML, active report, PowerPoint, Excel, Excel 2007, active PDF, active Flash, and User output formats are available.

This might be the big difference between the 2:
Although the output format list displays HTML, the report output format created in the request is actually DHTML (Web Document).

Hopefully, that provides you with the answer you were looking for.

Take care,
Tamra Colangelo
Information Builders Customer Support

Tamra,

Could you provide some examples of when/how you would use the HTML Composer vs the Document Composer?

Thanks,
Teri

Active reports & Document composer work great when trying to create "offline" documents that you can send to people and manipulate without having to send requests to the client/server. If they are able to connect to the internet, I recommend using Active reports & HTML Composer instead as it is much more robust.

Document composer (like its name suggests) is great for creating compound documents (pdf, excel, etc.) or offline shareable dhtml.

Html composer (like its name suggests) is great for creating web applications and forms.

If you combine document composer with active reports you can add filter controls. These are different than the html controls because the filters can be used offline, the data is already loaded so the filters are extremely fast, but it requires all the data to be loaded initially.

Html composer lets you filter the report initially but then you have to either re-run the report with different values or filter via the active report drop-down menus (which can be a hassle). The initial run is quicker but the filtering takes longer.

Al_C, you post should be in a separate thread and should be under the main forum "Webfocus/focus". You will get more responses there.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: J,

Thanks J,

Your response and added input is greatly appreciated.

Hopefully, this satisfies everyone's questions about the difference between Active Reports, HTML Composer and Document Composer.

Tamra Colangelo
Information Builders Customer Support