Data Views are the data presentation component of Versago. The basic presentation method is a grid (rows and columns). There are other presentations and uses for data views as well.

• Data can be presented in a calendar format.
• Data can be presented in graphic format (charts).
• Data can be presented to allow users to select records for payment or further processing.
• Data Views are also used to provide “lookup” functions in Versago forms.

The Data Views page provides a list of existing data views in the system

1. Click the [Add Data View] button to create a new Data View.
2. Click a row in the listing to edit a Data View.
3. Click the [Trash] icon to delete a Data View.

Use the standard icons to the search, filter and show/hide columns.

• Click on the “Reports, Charts and Calendars” link in the Admin console to begin.

The Reports maintenance function consists of nine elements, each on a separate tab.

• A listing of existing reports. This view is displayed when the function is opened.
• Click the [Add New Report] button to create a new report.
• Expand a category to list existing reports.
• Click the link in the Report Name column to edit an existing report.
• Click the [Delete] button on a report row to remove the report.
• The remaining elements (tabs) can only be accessed as you step through the report wizard. The use of each element is described in the following sections.

Click the [Next] and [Back] buttons on each page to move forward and backward through the wizard steps. Your work is automatically saved each time you leave a tab.

Basic information about the report is defined on the Report Setup page. Since there is a large amount of information on the page the explanatory images are shown in three sections. These sections are physically all on the same page.

The first set of values is used to describe the report, define where the data will come from, and how the data will be obtained.

• Report Name is a unique name for this report.
  • This value is what is displayed in the Versago menus and at the top of the report page.
• Description is optional but can be useful for explaining the purpose or contents of the report. It is only displayed on this page.
• User Instructions is displayed at the top of the report page. This is optional but can be helpful in providing guidance to the user on how to navigate the report.
• Report Categories are the grouping mechanism used in the default Versago menu structure.
  • Previously defined categories can be selected from the drop-down list.
    • A new category can be created by typing the desired value in the blank drop-down box. This category will then be displayed in the list the next time the drop-down is selected.
• Database is the database connection to be used for the report. See the Database Connections Configuration page for information on configuring database connections.
  • When a connection is selected, the associated database name is displayed in the “Database Name” field.
• Data Source Type are the various ways to obtain data from a database. The values displayed in the Data Source area will vary depending on the selected Report Object Type. See the Report Data Source Types page for information on how the different types are used.

• Roles define the group(s) of users that can use this report.
  • Click in the blank area of the “Role” field to see a list of roles and select as needed.
    • A report may be associated with multiple roles.
    • Click the X on a role to remove it from this report.
• Select the Public option if this report should be displayed in the menu section of Versago’s initial landing page prior to a user logging in.

• Select the Do not show in menu option when you have a report that you do not want to be displayed in the standard Versago menu structure.
  • The most common use of this option is when the report is only used as a lookup tool in Versago Forms, or as a sub-report in other Versago Reports.
    • Use of this option is typically not needed if you are using custom menus for all non-admin users.

1. Report/Chart format is the default “row & column” presentation.
2. Enable Paging is used in conjunction with Page Count if you want to ensure that a specific number of records are displayed on each page.
   1. If this option is selected, then the desired number of records must be entered in the “Page Count” field that follows.
   2. If this option is not selected, Versago will present the data in a continuous flow as the user scrolls down the page.
3. Calendar presentation (introduced in Versago 2.2). See the Calendar Reports Configuration page for additional information.

Versago reports can filter the information before it is displayed to the user. There are two types of filters: User-Applied and User Profile. A report can have no filters, use user-applied filters only, use user profiles only, or use a combination of user-applied and user profiles.

Filters (parameters) associated with Crystal Reports or Stored Procedure data sources are automatically displayed in this step.

A notification message is displayed if no filters are defined. Acknowledge the notification to continue with the wizard if appropriate.

User-Applied Filters allow the user to provide input about how they want to filter the information for selection.

1. Select User-Applied Filter as the Filter Type from the drop-down list.
2. Select the report value to be filtered from the Filter Name drop-down list.
3. Display Name is what the user sees when executing the report. The default value is the same as the “Filter Name” but is usually changed to something more user friendly
4. Data Type indicates the type of data of the “Filter Name” column. This is for information only and cannot be changed.
5. Control Type defines the type of field the user sees for the parameter selection. Options are:
   1. Text presents a text box where the user enters any value they wish.
6. Dropdown presents a list of unique values from which the user can choose. This option should only be used when the potential list of unique values is relatively short. See item 7 (below) for additional information.
7. DatePicker presents a standard Windows “date picker” tool to assist with selection of date values.
   1. This option is automatically assigned with the data type of the “Filter Name” column is Date or DateTime.
8. Checkbox is not currently used.
9. Mandatory is used to ensure that the user puts some value in this parameter.
   1. If a parameter is not mandatory and no value is provided by the user, the filter is simply not applied.
10. Values Source defines how the values used for the Drop-down control type are generated.
    1. This option is only available when Control Type is Drop-down.
       1. Dynamic creates a list of unique values from the “Filter Name” column. The user can then select from this list.
       2. Static allows the developer to create their own list of selection values. These values must obviously make sense in the context of the data. If this option is selected an additional dialog page is presented to set the static values. See the Setting Static Filter Values section for additional information.
11. Filter Criteria sets the default filtering option used for this parameter. The option can be changed by the user at report execution time as needed.
    1. Options for text values include:
       1. Equals (exact match)
       2. Not Equal (exact match)
       3. Contains
       4. Starts With
    2. Options for numeric and date values include:
       1. Equal (exact match)
       2. Not Equal (exact match)
       3. Greater Than
       4. Greater Than or Equal To
       5. Less Than
       6. Less Than or Equal To
       7. Between (top and bottom values inclusive)
       8. It is helpful to try and determine the most common filtering option and set it as the default.
12. Default Value sets a default filtering value. The value can be changed by the user at report execution time as needed.
13. Visible indicates if the user sees the parameter or not. This option is used when the report designer wants to filter the report in the same way all the time but does not want to put the filter in the data selection code
    1. A “Default Value” must be defined if this option is used.
14. Control Visibility Order has no significance for the report developer and can be ignored.

Click the [Add Filter] button to add additional filters. Click the red X icon to delete an existing filter.

Profiles are filters that are predefined by the Versago administrator. They are applied automatically when the report is executed. The filtering value(s) are associated with each user. The profiles must be defined before they can be associated with a report.

1. Select User Profile Filter as the Filter Type.
2. Select the Profile Name from the “Filter Name” drop-down list.
3. No other information is required.

1. A report can have multiple filters.
2. User-applied filtering is applied based on the display order of the filters. This means that the first value filters the initial data set, giving a data subset. The next value then filters the first data subset, and so on.
3. Profile values are automatically applied. Filtering is done based on the profile value(s) associated with the current user. This applies for both Versago reports and Crystal Reports.
4. When both parameters and profiles are defined for a Versago report, the parameters are applied first and then the profile filtering is applied on the final subset of data. Display order is not considered, with two exceptions noted below
5. In the case where the parameter control is a drop-down list AND the available values listed are coming from the report data (dynamic vs. static):
   1. For a Versago report, the profile filtering is applied first and then the filtering based on the parameter is applied.
   2. For a Crystal Report, the parameters are applied first and then the profile filtering is applied.
   3. The inconsistency between these two situations will be addressed in a future version of Versago.

The “Display” page is used to define which columns are displayed in the report, the order the fields are displayed, and to set various display options.

Display Tab versions 2.3 and lower

Display Tab versions 2.4 and higher

The “Record Submission” page is used to configure a special type of report. This report type allows the user to select items for additional processing from a list of records. One version of this report is used to support payment processing through Versago. Another version of the report can be used to select records for processing in another application (e.g. SAP Business One) using Bizweaver.

Configuration of Record Submission reports is described in the Record Submission Reports Configuration page.

Click [Next] to skip this setup function.

The “Calendar Setup” tab is skipped if “Calendar” is not selected in the Presentation Format section in the first step of the wizard. See the Calendar Reports Configuration page for information on the setup of calendar presentation reports.

Sub-Reports are additional reports that typically provide additional information related to a row being displayed in a report. The sub-report is displayed within the same page as the main report and appear directly below the selected row. A sub-report is displayed when the user clicks the expand/collapse icon at the left end of the main record.

• The connected report (sub-report) must be defined before it can be used in the Sub-Reports structure.
• There must be at least one linking value to connect the sub-report record(s) to the main report record. The linking value does not need to be displayed in either report if it does not need to be seen by the user.
• Profiles used in the sub-report are used for filtering, however parameters in the sub- report are not displayed.

1. Select the desired sub-report from the “Sub-Report” drop-down list.
2. Select the (first) linking column for the parent report from the values in the “Report Field” drop-down list. In this example, the linking value is “BP Code.”
3. Select the corresponding linking column in the child report from the values in the “Sub-Report Field” drop-down list.
   1. In some cases, there may be multiple values needed to link the child report to the parent.

The following image illustrates how a sub-report is displayed to the user for BP Code C20000.

Report links provide access to a variety of functions that can enhance the overall use of the report. There are two key characteristics of links.

• The desired action is launched via a link in a record in the main report. The link can be an existing column, or a new column used only to provide the link.
• Only one link can be associated with a column, but multiple links can be defined for a row using different columns for linking.

Details for configuring links can be found here

The final step of the report definition process is the Chart tab. This page is used to define charts for graphic representation of information in the report. Defining a chart is not required. If charts are not required, click [Finish] to close the report definition process.

See the Chart Configuration page for information on creating charts.

One of the concerns with applications like Versago is the handling of “large” datasets. A “large” dataset is a relative term and may be affected by processing power of the host system, network capability, etc. While there is not a single ‘correct” approach to this issue, here are some things to consider.

Versago v2.2 introduces a new system setting that allows the administrator to define a “large” dataset. The default on installation 10,000 records but this number can be adjusted as needed. If the data request will exceed this value, a message is displayed to alert the user. At this point they can continue or stop the request and change filters (if available).

Filters can be used on a report to let the user determine what information is relevant to their current request.

When filters are not used, all records in the underlying SQL statement are retrieved and presented. The user can then use the report Search function to find specific records. However, if the number of records is “large,” the time to return the dataset might be lengthy.

When filters are used, the SQL request is submitted with a WHERE clause to limit the number of records returned and displayed. This means that the user has less data to deal with on the screen and the time to display the dataset will be somewhat shorter.

For example, you might have a report that lists customers, their associated group (using SAP Business One), and their current balance. There are 1,000 records. In a typical scenario, the user is not blindly looking for something within the 1,000 records. They might only want to see customers in a certain group, or customers with a balance over $5,000. Using filters helps the user narrow down their search to the items that are relevant.

Profiles are also helpful in limiting the size of the dataset returned. More information on how filters and profiles are applied is found in the “Versago – Administration Console” document.

The results page of a report also provides a search function.

This function allows the user to search for values in any record returned to the report. Even non-displayed fields are included in the search. No special configuration is required for this feature.

Information in a report is presented either as a continuous flow, or in pages.

In the continuous flow approach, the user scrolls down the page until the last record is found. With a large number of records this might take some time. Having said this, the continuous flow approach is well suited to mobile devices.

In the “paged” approach, the report designer indicates that paging should be used and sets the number of records to be displayed per page. The user then sees buttons and arrows at the bottom of the page to move forward and backward through the information. This setup is done in the first step of the report setup process. The “paged” approach is more suited to presentation on workstations, or where users are more comfortable with the paging approach.

In some cases, it may be appropriate to have two versions of a report, one using continuous flow for mobile users and another version using the paging approach for workstation users.

Advanced Topic

In some cases, the data to be reported is normally summarized before it is used by Versago. Typical examples of this are historic reporting, year-over-year comparison reporting, and high-level analysis reporting. The information in this type of reporting is either relatively static or having a delay of a day or so will not materially affect the results.

This type of reporting is well suited to the use of summarized datasets. These datasets are held in custom reporting database tables and are typically refreshed on a nightly basis. Use of this approach does two things.

First, the summarization is done in a SQL done prior to use by Versago. This can be done during periods when database usage is lighter (such as overnight).

Second, the summarization process can reduce the volume of data presented to Versago. For example, several hundred customer invoices over the space of a year might be condensed into twelve monthly records

Defining these datasets will require some thought to determine the best way to summarize the data. It also involves creating the tables in the SQL database and setting up the processes to refresh the data on a periodic basis.

The “refresh” process can be done using a scheduled job in SQL or setting up workflow in Third Wave’s Bizweaver application to execute the processing.

As noted above, this tab is only available when any parameter is defined as “Drop-down” AND the “Values Source” option is set to Static.

1. Use the drop-down for “Filter Name” to select the desired parameter. Only those filters defined for “Static” are listed.
2. Enter the filtering value in the Value field.
3. Enter the value the user will see in the Value Label field. In the image above, the user will see the values “Customer” and “Supplier,” and the filtering values will be “C” and “S” respectively.
4. Continue adding filtering values as needed by clicking the [Add Filter Value] button.

The Destination string to invoke a Bizweaver workflow is shown below.

http://1:2/BWService/api/workflow/InvokeWorkFlow?pTaskID=3&pStartAfter=0&pArguments={4:'~5~'}

The elements in red are specific to your installation. The other items (included variable names used by Bizweaver) are case sensitive, so the easiest way to create the Action Target is to copy this string and paste it into Versago, then make the needed changes. You might also update the Bizweaver server information so that you will only need to change a few items.

1. The server where Bizweaver is installed
2. The port assigned to the Bizweaver web service when the application was installed.
3. The Bizweaver workflow ID to be invoked. This can be found in Bizweaver and will always be numeric.
4. The name of the variable in Bizweaver that will receive a value from Versago.
5. Value(s) to be passed to Bizweaver.
   1. If value(s) are not being passed to Bizweaver, the space between the curly braces is left blank.
   2. If the value is a value from the report, use the field name from the report enclosed in tilde symbols (~) as shown.
   3. If the value is static the tildes are not used.
   4. In both cases the value being passed is enclosed in single quotes.

http://Server1:8080/BWService/api/workflow/InvokeWorkFlow?pTaskID=12&pStartAfter=0&pArguments={CardCode:'~CardCode~',CardName:'~CardName~'}

“CardCode” and “CardName”. are variables in the Bizweaver workflow that receive the associated values '~CardCode~' and '~CardName~'.