AX1748

Year refresh variable for web reports

Year refresh variables prompt users to select a year from a drop-down list. The selected year then becomes the base year of the report, and data is refreshed to reflect that year.

IMPORTANT: The legacy web report feature has been deprecated. For information on our new web report and Report Builder features, see Web Reports and Using the Report Builder.

For example, imagine that a report shows 2021 actuals, with a comparison to the prior year (2020). If the user wants to see the same comparison for the previous year, they can use the year variable to change the base year to 2020. Now the report shows 2020 actuals with a comparison to the prior year (2019).

Year refresh variables work in conjunction with year-based tables, such as GL2021 or BGT2022. When you create the variable, you specify the base year for the report, which is the year the report is built for. In the previous example, the base year is 2021. When the user selects 2020 as the new value for the refresh variable, that selected year is one year less than the original base year. All references to year-based tables in the report are then adjusted downward by one year. If a Data Grid component references columns like GL2021.YTD and GL2020.TOT, those references are adjusted to GL2020.YTD and GL2019.TOT respectively.

This topic provides information on how Year refresh variables behave in web reports and their configuration settings. For general information on defining refresh variables for web reports, see Configuring refresh variables for web reports. For more information on how to set up a web report to use a Year refresh variable, see Configuring a web report to dynamically change years of data.

NOTES:

Year refresh variables do not require the creation of dependencies in order to impact the report. As long as the variable is enabled, all year-based tables in the report will adjust based on the variable value.
Only one Year refresh variable can be present in a web report. Since all the year references are automatically changed by the variable, there is no need to have more than one.

Variable behavior

The variable displays as a drop-down list. The user can select the desired year from the list. The user can also type in the box to match a year in the list.

Example Year refresh variable

The available years in the list are based on the variable properties. Each variable must have a default year, and a number of allowed years before and after the default year. In this example, the default year is 2018, and the variable properties allow 2 years before the default year and 0 years after.

Variable properties

This section explains how to complete the variable properties for a Year variable in a web report.

General variable properties

All refresh variables use a common set of general properties such as the variable display name, and whether the variable is enabled or required. Any special considerations for Year variables are noted.

Item	Description
Display Name	The display name of the variable. This name determines how the variable displays to end users in the Filters panel.
Display Grouping	Optional. Assigns the variable to a group. If a group is specified, then the variable will be displayed within an expandable / collapsible grouping in the Filters panel. If the group name that you want to use has not yet been created, type the group name into the Group field to create it. If the group name already exists, you can select it from the drop-down list. Groups are useful to organize variables into logical groupings, especially when the report has many variables.
Required	Specifies whether the user must enter a value for this variable: If enabled, then the user must specify a value for this variable in order to perform the refresh. If disabled, then the user can leave the variable blank (unset). Required variables that do not yet have a selected value are indicated with a red bar along the side of the variable field.
Enabled	Specifies whether the variable displays to users: If enabled, then the variable will be included in the Filters panel. If disabled, then the variable will not be included in the Filters panel. You might disable a variable temporarily while testing the report setup.

Variable-specific properties

The following additional properties apply to ComboBox variable types:

Item	Description
Choose Variable Type	Specifies the variable type. Select Year to allow the user to dynamically change the data in the report based on the selected year.
Default Value	The default year for the variable. When the report is first opened, it will use this year to refresh the data in the report. Enter any year that makes sense within the report setup. If the report has a designated file group context, then you can leave the default value blank in order to use the file group year. If the file group context uses an alias, then the default value will update when the alias is updated to point to a new file group with a different file group year. If the web report is opened from an Axiom form, you can pass a default year from the Axiom form, using the Navigate to Report command.
Base report year	Specify the base year for the report. This is the year that the report is built for, based on the tables and columns used in components such as the Data Grid component. When a user selects a year for the variable, the year-based tables in the report are updated based on the difference between the base report year and the selected year. For example, if the base report year is 2021 and the user selects 2020, then all references to year-based tables are adjusted downward by 1 year. This applies to all year-based tables used anywhere in the report. Generally speaking, the base report year should remain the same, while the default year can change over time. For example, when the report is originally built, the base report year and the default year will likely be the same (say, 2021). When the next year starts, you may want to change the default year to 2022, but the base year must remain the same so that year-based table references are adjusted appropriately. The only time the base year needs to change is if you update the report to use table columns from different year-based tables (which should not be necessary as long as your system still has the original tables).
Years allowed prior to default Years allowed after default	Specify the number of years allowed prior to the default year, and the number of years allowed after the default year. These two settings define the list of years available to the user. For example, if the default year is 2021, and you specify 2 years allowed prior to default, then the user can select 2019, 2020, or 2021. These properties should be set according to the available data and the intent of the report. For example, if the report only shows actuals data, and the default year is the current year, then it does not make sense to allow years after the default year because actuals data is not available for future years.