webfocus tips and techniques webfocus tips and techniques the next generation

WebFOCUS Tips and Techniques

WebFOCUS Tips and Techniques The Next Generation

Joyce HalfordJohn Kutasz

Summit User Conference June 2008

Joyce Halford

Order Report By or BY TOTAL

WHENCE

How can you determine which MASTER is being used when MASTER files exist on multiple platforms for the same data source?

WHENCE filename MASTER

This is only an issue if the MASTER files are different.

An example of this problem can happen if MASTER files are created on a mainframe, copied to a local environment and at a later date, the MASTER files on the mainframe are updated but not copied to the local environment.

WHENCE

WHENCE CAR MASTER

WHENCE

FOCEXEC and FOCUS file locations can also be determined using WHENCE

WHENCE filename FOCEXEC

WHENCE filename FOCUS

WHERE TOTAL

WHERE SALARY GT 56200

WHERE TOTAL

Subset of Previous Page

WHERE TOTAL

Concatenate Fields for Sorting

Report Caster Bursting is on the primary sort field

By concatenating multiple sort fields you can burst at a more detailed level.

How to Build a Dynamic Dropdown Box

How to Build a Dynamic Dropdown Box (Populated from a Table/File)

How to Build a Dynamic Dropdown Box (Populated from Focexec Output)

Conditional WHERE statements

–SET &parameter

to control display of WHERE statements

in a TABLE request

Another option is to use a

–GOTO label to jump around WHERE statements

This technique does not allow you to work in the GUI.

Example of -GOTO

–IF &COUNTRY EQ ‘ALL COUNTRIES‘ GOTO SKIPWHR

WHERE COUNTRY EQ &COUNTRY

-SKIPWHR

• –SET &parameter

-* File DMANDWHR.fex-DEFAULT &COUNTRY = 'ENGLAND‘

-SET &SELWHR = IF &COUNTRY EQ 'ALL COUNTRIES' THEN ' '- ELSE 'WHERE COUNTRY EQ ' | '''' | &COUNTRY | '''' ;

TABLE FILE CARPRINT DEALER_COST RETAIL_COST &SELWHRBY COUNTRYBY CARBY MODELBY BODYTYPEHEADING"The following line displays the value of amperSELWHR""&SELWHR"" ""The value of amperCOUNTRY is &COUNTRY"" "FOOTING""...END

• If you use the report layout tool,

an alternate coding technique is used.

ALL SELECTED IN DROPDOWN BOX

TABLE FILE CAR

PRINT COUNTRY MPG

BY COUNTRY

WHERE MPG GE 20

WHERE CAR EQ 'FOC_NONE'

AUDI SELECTED IN DROPDOWN BOX

TABLE FILE CAR

PRINT COUNTRY MPG

BY COUNTRY

WHERE MPG GE 20

WHERE CAR EQ ‘AUDI'

Ignoring Code with FOC_NONE

• If a parameter has a value of FOC_NONE,

any row of code containing it will be ignored

when the report runs.

• One use for this is the WHERE statement example that you have already seen.

-SET &PARM1 = 'FIRST VALUE';-SET &PARM2 = 'SECOND VALUE';-SET &PARM3 = 'THIRD VALUE';

TABLE FILE CARPRINT CARBY COUNTRYHEADING"heading line 1 parm value is: <+0>&PARM1<+0> ""heading line 2 parm value is: <+0>&PARM2<+0> ""heading line 3 parm value is: <+0>&PARM3<+0> "END

-SET &PARM1 = 'FIRST VALUE';-SET &PARM2 = ‘FOC_NONE';-SET &PARM3 = 'THIRD VALUE';

TABLE FILE CARPRINT CARBY COUNTRYHEADING"heading line 1 parm value is: <+0>&PARM1<+0> ""heading line 2 parm value is: <+0>&PARM2<+0> ""heading line 3 parm value is: <+0>&PARM3<+0> "END

Notes:

• The ONLY row ignored is the one containing the display or evaluation of the parameter.

• If you have a heading or a selection that wraps to more than one row, only part of it will be ignored, likely causing a syntax error.

The following is an example:

"heading line 2 parm value is: <+0>&PARM2<+0> "

US Bank Panel

John Kutasz

Color Matching

If you want to give logos,

web pages, and reports

a matching look and feel,

Windows comes with something

you can use to identify a

specific color

– the ‘Paint’ tool.

Color Matching

For Example, I may have a report that contains data for FedEx. If I call up their web site and press Cntl-PrintScreen, I can capture a picture of their page.

Color Matching

From the Windows XP Desktop, choosing Start / All Programs / Accessories / Paint will bring you to the paint tool.

Color Matching

Choose Edit / Paste or Cntl-V to paste the clipboard image into the Paint tool. Note that the image you pasted contains a picture of the tool bar from the browser – these controls do NOT work.

Color Matching

Choose the ‘eyedropper’ tool from the Paint toolkit, and click it on a color you want to match.

You should notice a brief flash of color in the rectangle under the Paint toolkit, but then the screen will go back exactly the way it looked before taking the eyedropper sample.

Color Matching

From the Paint Menu, choose Colors / Edit Colors / and then Define Custom Colors.

Color Matching

The image below is zoomed in on the Custom Colors box. The color that was chosen with the eyedropper shows in the rectangle near the bottom, and the exact color settings RGB(102, 0, 153) appear at the bottom right.

Color Matching

Some images on the web are not made up of solid colors. They may be nearby dots of different colors that blend together to appear as a single color. Sampling may only get you one pixel value.

Color Matching

Some monitors may not be set to display millions of colors. The ‘web safe’ palette contains 216 colors that all browser settings will show. Any combination of 0, 51, 102, 153, 204, and 255 should be visible on any color monitor.

Cell Padding How Much Will Fit on a PDF Page?

• This technique uses a very simple report. We are printing:

– the first 8 fields of the CAR file

– with the default font,

– turning gridlines on

– displaying in PDF format.

Cell PaddingHow Much Will Fit on a PDF Page?

A very simple report built in the GUI tool

The first 6 columns appear on Page 1

The other 2 columns are on Page 2

• Some possible changes:

– Use a smaller font

– Change the report to landscape mode

– Change to legal paper

– Abbreviate column titles to make them narrower.

• This technique does none of those things. Instead, do the following:

– Choose Report / Format from the pulldown at the top of the page

– Go to the option called ‘Cell Padding’. By default, there is a value of ‘not set’. I put in a value of 0.08 for the left and right.

Cell Padding The stylesheet settings are called LEFTGAP and RIGHTGAP

Cell Padding You Get Extra Space in 2 Places in EVERY Column

All 8 columns now display on a single page.

• You saw on the previous page that the font and the page size are the same, there is simply less room between the data and the gridlines.

• The benefit here is that a small amount of space is saved in 2 places in every column of the report. It is still surprising to see how much additional room it adds up to.

Combining Data

•Universal Concatenation - the MORE command - physically appends multiple files

•The sources can have different formats (Focus, DB2, etc), and some can have more fields than others.

•But, any specific fields being combined need to have the same names, and the same formats.

Combining Data

•I have always found Excel to be a handy tool for data entry.

•The new Upload Data File option makes it much, much easier to use an Excel file as a data source.

Combining Data

Step 1 – hold existing data to Excel format

Combining Data

Step 2 – Using the spreadsheet as a template,

input new data

Combining Data

New Option – Master Files / New / Upload Data File

Combining Data

Previous Page, Notes:

– Check the master file of the original table (CAR, in this example) and set field formats to match

– Click ‘Apply’ for each field as the format is changed, then move to next field

Combining Data

Previous Page, Notes, continued:

– Choose your application from the bottom dropdown box.

– If the leftmost column runs off the edge of the page, change to a non-maximized view of the inner window.

Combining Data

All Fields, All DataTABLE FILE CAR

PRINT COUNTRY CAR MODEL RETAIL_COST DEALER_COST SALES …

ON TABLE HOLD AS ALLCAR

FILE CARFILENEWDATA

TABLE FILE ALLCAR

PRINT COUNTRY CAR MODEL RETAIL_COST DEALER_COST SALES …

BY COUNTRY NOPRINT BY CAR NOPRINT

Combining Data

Only Selected Fields, Selected Countries

TABLE FILE CARPRINT COUNTRY CAR MODEL WHERE COUNTRY CONTAINS 'GERMANY'ON TABLE HOLD AS ALLCARMOREFILE CARFILENEWDATAWHERE COUNTRY CONTAINS 'GERMANY'ENDTABLE FILE ALLCARPRINT COUNTRY CAR MODELBY COUNTRY NOPRINT BY CAR NOPRINTEND

Combining Data

If there is a field in some source files that is not in all of them (for example, a new category for newer cars), a DEFINE can be used to add a blank (or zero) value into the request from tables where it does not exist.

Combining Data

DEFINE FILE CAR

HYBRID/A50 = ' ';

TABLE FILE CAR

PRINT COUNTRY CAR MODEL HYBRID

ON TABLE HOLD AS ALLCAR

FILE CARFILENEWDATA

TABLE FILE ALLCAR

PRINT COUNTRY CAR MODEL HYBRID

BY COUNTRY NOPRINT BY CAR NOPRINT

Combining Data

Unlike using a JOIN, there is no need for any fields in the source files to have the same value.

Also, since the result is a simple, single segment file, it tends to be very easy to use for reporting (no ‘testing in independent sets of data’).

ASNAMES

• The ASNAMES function allows you to assign the names of fields when you put them into HOLD files.

ASNAMES

A problem arises when you take the identical request and store the results in a hold file. The column title information is not saved into the hold master, and you have 2 fields called SALES.

An additional complication in reporting from a HOLD file is that even if you refer to SALES multiple times, you will always get the values from the first column with that name.

ASNAMES – the Solution

And the values used for the column titles get passed to the HOLD file

ASNAMES

A potential complication: you use a common method of making column titles look better:

ASNAMES

The comma used for line wrapping causes only the first part of the name to be captured.

ASNAMES

Some things to be aware of when holding to FOCUS format files:

TABLE FILE CARSUM SALES AS 'COUNTRYSALES'BY COUNTRYSUM SALES AS 'MODELSALES'BY COUNTRYBY MODELON TABLE HOLD AS HOLDA FORMAT FOCUS INDEX SALES

ASNAMES

The default value for ASNAMES is ‘FOCUS’, not ‘OFF’. So if you hold to a FOCUS file, ASNAMES will work automatically.

If you are indexing a field (or fields) the instruction on which field(s) to index refers to the originating fieldname, NOT to the value that ASNAMES will assign

If you are indexing a field, the maximum length of an indexed field is 12 characters – so you need to limit the length of these fieldnames.

ASNAMES

And finally: whenever I am putting an item into a hold file, I try never to use a name for a field that is the same as a ‘real’ fieldname that exists in any of the source master files. This holds true for fields I create with either DEFINE or COMPUTE, as well as for fields being renamed using ASNAMES. Assigning the same name to something that does not represent the original data field can only lead to confusion and misery (if not for you, then for someone trying to use your code in the future).

• Questions

Thank you for attending

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