Special Report

Introduction

The special report makes it possible to create an exportable report similar to the custom query. The difference is that with the special report, you can specify your own delimiter or you can choose to export as a text file. When you format the export as text, you will be able to specify the starting position and number of characters for each piece of data. This is useful when submitting data for use with older software that looks at character position in a string of text to split up data rather than a delimiter character.

Creating a Report Template

To create a special report template, navigate to Reports > Administration > Special inside your company account.

Click 'Add Template'.

In the top section you can set the template settings, and in the bottom section you can add data to the template. The template settings options include:

• Name – This is the name of the template and should help distinguish it from other templates.
• Description – This is a description of the template and will contain additional information for the template.
• Summary File – Choose to have the report generate with a summary file.
• File Format – You can choose to generate the report from this template as either a CSV file (this is technically data separated by a specified delimiter) or a text file.
• CSV Separator – This is the delimiter that should be used to separate data in the generated report.
• Include Headers – This will let you choose to include the field names you specify as headers in the report.

In the bottom section, you can add data one item at a time. Fill out one row in the Report Definition section for each item of data you want to add. The rows will contain some different options depending on whether you chose to format the file as a CSV or as text.

If you chose to format the report as a CSV you should have the following options:

• Field Name – This is a name you assign for this data item.
• Format – This is the way this piece of data should be formatted. Your options include: Text, Currency, Date (MMMYYYY), Date (DDMMMYYYY), Date (MM/DD/YYYY), Phone (#####-####), ZIP-CODE (######-####), and Custom. If you choose custom, you will see an additional field under the format drop-down where you can enter a format for either a number or a date.
• Value Type – Here you can choose whether the value will be static or dynamic or to fill this field with blanks.
• Value – If you chose either Dynamic Variable or Fix Value from the Value Type drop-down, here you will see a link (click to set) or a field. If you see a field, enter the fixed value into the field, otherwise, click the link. When you click the link, you should see a dialog box where you can search for variables. Use the Search by keyword field, or click the plus icon to expand a section of the variable tree. Click the bullseye icon the left of any variable to select it.

If you chose to format the data as text, you will have two additional columns:

• Starting at – This gives the character position where this data value will start.
• Length – This specifies the number of characters that will be used for this particular piece of data. For example, if you have an ID that is 4 characters long, but you specify 6 as the length, the first two characters will be space characters and the last four will be the actual ID.

To add a new row, click the plus icon. You can also change the order of the rows using the up and down arrows.

Once you have entered all the rows you want to add, 'Save'.

Generating a Report

You can now generate a report based on the template.

Click the blue dot to generate the report. Simple as that.

You can also the eye to view or edit a template