Reporting and analytics FAQ — page 7
All FAQ topics / Reporting and analytics
293 questions · page 7 of 8
When a Quick Report is built on a chain of several IALs, each layering on top of the last, is there a real performance difference between adding a needed join (like one pulling in a District Code from a customer-address entity) into an earlier IAL in the chain versus adding it directly into the final Quick Report's own SQL?
Is there a faster way to replace the default IFS logo shown on every Order Report with the customer's own company logo, rather than editing each report's layout individually one at a time?
A custom Excel-format layout for an order report does nothing when printed with 'Email Report' selected — is there a server-side setup step missing, or is the layout XML itself likely the problem?
In IFS Business Reporter, is it possible to use a function like NVL inside an Advanced Filter condition, to let an optional parameter (like a Branch code) mean 'show all' when left blank, versus filtering to a specific value when it's populated?
Is it possible to schedule a Saved Search to automatically export its results to an Excel file on a recurring basis?
When printing labels, is there anywhere in the database to find the specific pack size / number of labels / number of copies values that were actually used for a completed print job?
A dynamic media object (an image bound to a database query) placed into a table cell in a repeating Report Designer table always renders at its original stored size, regardless of the cell dimensions set in the layout. Why doesn't it scale the way a static image does?
A multi-line text field (like order line notes containing embedded line breaks) prints as one single unbroken string on a Report Designer layout — trying `vldtstr:strReplaceAll(...)` to substitute a line-break marker with `<br/>` (or a raw carriage-return code) doesn't produce actual line breaks in the output. What's the correct way to insert a real line break?
A Quick Report that works fine viewed directly in IFS throws 'Excel Plugin Error: ORA-01841: (full) year must be between -4713 and +9999, and not be 0' when exported to Excel, even though the SQL runs correctly for normal viewing. What's causing this specifically for the Excel export path?
How do you calculate the number of working hours (not just working days) between two date/time values in SQL, excluding weekends, and ideally also respecting any configured non-working/holiday exceptions, rather than hand-rolling day-of-week logic?
Setting up a new Crystal-based Operational Report the same way as existing ones produces 'The Report layout file <name>.rpt does not exist in the Crystal Web Service' — what commonly causes this exact error when the layout file has genuinely been copied to the server?
A Quick Report expression meant to calculate 10% of qualifying records per group (for a sampling-count use case) just returns 0 or 0.1 per individual row instead of a meaningful rounded percentage-based count — wrapping the expression in ROUND() at the front doesn't fix it. What's missing?
A query using MAX(activity_date) grouped by customer and state still returns multiple distinct 'latest' rows for the same customer/state combination, instead of collapsing to the single genuinely most-recent date — even the same date appears to be picked incorrectly, and adding DISTINCT doesn't fix it either. What's actually wrong?
A Quick Report / Column SQL expression meant to flag whether a part on a Maintenance Material Request also appears on an open Purchase Requisition throws a 'missing expression' error.
A custom Report Designer report was built and deployed for Apps10, with translations added via Scan Translatable Code plus a Refresh Cache and Refresh Language Cache for both English and a second target language, but at print time only English shows up as a selectable language option, unlike standard IFS reports which correctly show a full language dropdown.
A Quick Report built against Customer Order History, using several self-joins with correlated MIN(history_no) subqueries to pull the date/user/state for each of several status milestones (Released, Reserved, Delivered, Invoiced, Order Confirmation Printed) per order, runs fine in a plain PL/SQL tool but fails inside a Quick Report/IAL/view with an out-of-TEMP-space-style error, since the correlated joins end up doing a lot of repeated work. How can this kind of multi-milestone history report be restructured to actually perform?
Is there a way to combine multiple individually-generated invoice PDFs, each produced separately by the standard Customer Order Invoice report, into a single merged PDF file, for customers who want one consolidated backup file rather than several separate PDFs or a collective invoice?
An Order Report's Multiple Records parameter opens a List of Values popup, and a needed field (like Part Description) is present in the LOV's underlying view but isn't actually shown as a column in that popup. Where do the specific fields displayed in that kind of report-parameter LOV get defined, and can this be changed through configuration?
Is it possible to create a shortcut that runs a specific Quick Report (a Crystal Report) directly, showing its parameter screen, rather than having to navigate to the Quick Reports overview and find it each time?
A Lobby element expression dividing two values (A/B) throws a divide-by-zero error whenever the denominator happens to be zero for a given row, for example on a site with no relevant activity yet. Is there a general way to avoid this error in a Lobby or Quick Report SQL expression?
How do you find the next-higher sequence value, after a known reference value, that also satisfies some other filter condition, in a single SQL query, without using ORDER BY combined with a row-limiting clause?
A Quick Report's WHERE clause compares a column against a parameter using plain equality (`spr.MANAGER = '&MANAGER'`), and it works correctly when a value is entered, but returns 'no data found' when the parameter is left empty, even though there are genuinely matching rows expected. Using `spr.MANAGER IS NULL` instead returns results as expected, but that's not the actual intended behavior when the parameter is blank.
A Quick Report filtering a DateTime column between two date parameters (using named parameters like `&From_dd/mm/yyyy`) displays correctly when viewed normally, but exporting to Excel fails with 'Excel Plugin Error: Undefined bind variable... in Excel file.'
After a report, like an invoice, has been printed, a table with its XML data can be found, but not the actual printed PDF document. Is there a standard way to retrieve or store the actual PDF once a report has been printed, or does this need custom code?
What's the actual difference between 'Waiting' and 'Remote Working' status on a print job, and is it a problem if some jobs are stuck showing 'Remote Working' with no jobs currently in 'Waiting' status?
Identical-looking SQL sometimes runs fine as an IAL used in a Quick Report but fails when run directly in the SQL Query Tool, and a Quick Report that runs and saves output fine sometimes fails specifically when exported to Excel. Is there a standardized set of date-formatting/execution-context rules to be aware of across these different tools?
Is it possible to configure a Report Rule so that Customer Order Confirmation (or a similar document) automatically selects a different default Report Layout depending on which Company the order belongs to, since each Company has its own layout?
A 'from scratch' custom Report Designer layout for a document like Instant Invoice renders correctly in the Report Designer preview, but fails at print/preview time in the actual application with 'TRANS_CONF_ERROR: Failed transforming report data: Required attribute is missing' — while the original standard layout for the same document still prints fine.
Can an IAL's WHERE clause be defined so the user is prompted to enter a value at runtime, the way a Quick Report parameter works, for example letting a condition check against a user-entered TRUE/FALSE value rather than a fixed literal?
Is it possible to add custom fields to the Delivery Note report layout in Report Designer, and is there a known technique for surfacing picking/lot-reference details that the standard _REP view data doesn't fully expose?
A Report Rule expression referencing report-XML-path placeholders, like `[@REPORT_NAME/PATH/TO/FIELD]`, to select a logical printer based on report data fails with 'ORA-31011: ERROR Evaluating Expression,' even though the underlying SQL has been tested and works fine on its own.
A custom IAL, built from a SQL query joining multiple views, appears correctly in IAL Configuration after being deployed, but doesn't show up as selectable inside Quick Reporter or the Data Source Designer at all.
Coming from years of experience customizing operational reports in Crystal Reports, adding even a single field to a stock IFS operational report using Report Designer is proving surprisingly difficult. Are there any practical tips beyond the standard supplied documentation?
Is it possible to let users filter Lobby data by a plain calendar month, entering something like '04' or 'April,' without it matching that same month across every year in the underlying data?
Report Rules brought forward from an older Apps8-style environment into Apps10, referencing report-XML-path expressions like `[@CUSTOMER_ORDER_IVC_REP\CUSTOMER_NO]`, throw 'ORA-31011: ERROR Evaluating Expression' on the new environment.
A Quick Report needs a random value, but calling `DBMS_RANDOM.VALUE` in Quick Report SQL is rejected with 'Forbidden PLSQL code rejected: DBMS_RANDOM.' Is there an alternate way to get a random-ish value in a Quick Report?
A new Crystal Quick Report, built following IFS's own Crystal guidelines using the CR_WEB_INIT stored procedure and confirmed runnable as both IFSAPP and IFSPRINT with the right permissions granted, still prompts the end user for IFSAPP sign-on credentials when actually run through the client.
In Report Designer, is there a way to express a simple 'use this field if it has a value, otherwise fall back to that field' condition, similar to SQL's NVL(CV_PART_NO, SO_PART_NO)?
In Report Designer, a newly added table always gets appended to the bottom of the Page Body — how can it instead be repositioned between two existing tables in the layout?
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