Training

Do you ever need to run the same query multiple times, selecting different values each time, to generate output? With ShowCase Enterprise Reporting, you can schedule and run the query just one time, and have the output automatically create documents based on variable values.

ShowCase Enterprise Reporting and its iterative reporting function enable you to schedule a query to run at a specific time or times, and to generate multiple output files at runtime.

Here’s how to perform the initial setup and let Enterprise Reporting do the rest:

1. In ShowCase Query, create two reports (queries)

The first query should select the desired columns (for example, Customer Number, Customer Name, Amount Due, Invoice Number, Contact Name), and will require a prompted variable on the column used to determine variable values (for example, CUST_ID).

The second report is the iteration query that determines the variable values used to create output. This query should contain the column used for the prompted variable in the first query (for example, CUST_ID), and conditions to select the desired results.

2. Save the queries to the ShowCase Server
3. In a Web browser, open your Enterprise Reporting home page
4. In the Schedule Manager, schedule the report
5. In Step 3 of the New Scheduled Report Wizard, select Iterative Report, and then click Assign Variables (see Figure 1 below)

Figure 1: Step 3 of the New Scheduled Report Wizard. Click image to enlarge.

6. Assign the variables by browsing to the iterative query and selecting the variable column (see Figure 2 below)

Figure 2: Assign variables. Click image to enlarge.

7. Select OK to continue scheduling
8. In Step 5 (Output Options) of the New Scheduled Report Wizard, add tags to the output file names by selecting the variable. In the example shown in Figure 3 below, the customer number is added.

Figure 3: Step 5 of the New Scheduled Report Wizard. Click image to enlarge.

9. Finish the New Scheduled Report Wizard. The schedule name is shown in the schedule list.
10. When the scheduled report run completes, navigate to the category where the output is stored. The individual report results are shown in the category.

Each output file contains the results for a single variable. Don’t forget that Enterprise Reporting will e-mail and distribute those result documents for you!