Configuring column properties for a web report

The following information displays at the top of the panel to identify the column:

• Column: If the column is a table column, the full Table.Column path displays for your reference.

  

• Calculation: If the column is a calculated column, a text representation of the calculation displays for your reference. You can click the Edit icon to the right of the box to open the Edit Calculated Column dialog and edit the calculation as needed.

  

• Default column: If the column is a dynamic column, the currently used Table.Column path displays for your reference. This column is determined by the configuration for the Column List parameter that is associated with the dynamic column.

  

The Column List report parameter to associate with the dynamic column. Only applies when the current column is a dynamic column.

For more information, see Using Column List report parameters.

The header text to display on the column header. Enter the desired header text.

• If the column is a table column, the column name is used as the header text by default.

• If the column is a calculated column, the text "Calculation" is used as the header text by default.

If the column is a dynamic column, the header text is defined in the Column List parameter settings, for each column that is available to be selected. Within the Report Canvas only, the dynamic column displays using the header Dynamic.

The width of the column in the grid, in pixels. Enter the desired column width as a whole integer between 30 and 600.

The default width depends on the column data type, and is configured at the grid level. If you do not enter a custom width, then the default width displays in the Column width box in gray text. If you leave this default width and the grid-level defaults are changed, then column will update to use the new default width. For more information, see Configuring grid properties in a web report.

The alignment of the column values. Select one of the following: Default, Left, Right, Center.

The default alignment depends on the column data type, and is configured at the grid level. If a column is set to use Default and the grid-level defaults are changed, the column will update to use the new default alignment. For more information, see Configuring grid properties in a web report.

Select Formatting Properties to work with number formats. The number format used by the column. Only applies to columns that hold numeric data. Select one of the following:

• Default: The column uses the default number format as defined for the column's data type at the grid level. If a column is set to use Default and the grid-level defaults are changed, the column will update to use the new default number format. For more information, see Numeric default properties.

• Currency, Decimal, Number, Percent, or Dimension: The column uses the default number format as defined for the selected data type. For example, you may have a column that is natively a Decimal column, but you want it to display using Currency format in a particular report.

  If a column is assigned to a different number format, it will also inherit the default column width and alignment set for the associated data type, if the column is using the default column with and alignment.

• Custom: The column uses a custom number format as defined in the column properties. Click Override default formatting to work with custom number formats.

  When Custom is selected, then several additional properties become available to configure the number format. In this case, the column is no longer tied to any particular default number format.

  • Decimal places: Specify the number of decimal places to display, from 0 to 10.

  • Use 1000's separator: Specify whether the number uses a thousands separator or not.

  • Negative number format: Specify the format to use for negative numbers.

This option is not available for use with dynamic columns.

Select Data Properties to configure Aggregation. The aggregation type used to aggregate data queried from the database column. Does not apply to calculated columns or to columns used as row dimensions.

If you want to override the default aggregation type for a database column, select an aggregation type.

Select Data Properties to configure the optional Data filter. Defines a filter to limit the data shown in this column. The column-level data filter should be used instead of a grid-level data filter when you want the filter to impact just this column. For more information, see Using column filters.

Specifies whether report viewers can filter the report based on the column contents.

• If enabled (default), and if Enable Column Filters is enabled in the Grid Configuration properties, then a filter icon is available on the column in the rendered report. Report viewers can use this column to filter the grid based on the column contents.

• If disabled, then the filter icon is not available on the column.

This property does not apply to any column in the grid if Use fixed rows is enabled in the Grid Configuration properties. Fixed row reports do not support end-user column filtering.

Specifies whether the column is hidden in the report. Does not apply to columns used as row dimensions.

• If enabled, then the column is hidden. The column remains visible in the Report Builder so that you can continue to configure the column as needed.

• If disabled (default), then the column is visible.

Select Display Properties to work with configure the description text.

Specifies whether you want descriptions to display for dimension values. This option only applies to key columns, alternate key columns, and validated columns that have an associated description column.

• If enabled (default), then descriptions display alongside the dimension values or instead of the dimension values. For example, if the column is Acct then you likely want the account descriptions to display along with the account codes.

  When this option is enabled, the Description display format field becomes available. Select the desired display format from this list. By default, the format Description (Value) is used.

• If disabled, then only the dimension values display. For example, if the column is Acct then only the account codes will display.

NOTE: If the dimension table has multiple description columns (meaning columns where Describes Key is True), then the first description column is used.

If the column is a dynamic column, then this option will be applied when the currently selected column has a description column, and ignored when it does not.

Specifies whether the column is included in the total row, if a total row is enabled in the Grid Configuration properties. Does not apply to columns used as row dimensions.

Select one of the following:

• Default: The column is included or not based on its data type. All numeric columns are included by default unless they are the Dimension data type. All other non-numeric columns are not included by default, unless you change the aggregation so that the column returns a number (such as using Count aggregation on a String column).

• Include: Override the default behavior and include the column in the total row.

• Exclude: Override the default behavior and exclude the column from the total row.

If a column is included in the total row, it is treated as follows:

• Table columns use their default or configured aggregation in the total row. For example, if a numeric column uses the default aggregation of sum, the column will be summed in the total row.
• Calculated columns apply their calculation to the total row.

This option does not apply if Use fixed rows is enabled in the Grid Configuration properties. Columns will be included or excluded in subtotal or total rows using the default behavior.

The header text to display on the column header. Enter the desired header text.

NOTES:  

• This is the same property that displays on the General tab as Header. The header text can be edited from either tab.

• The (row 1) label only displays if Multi-row header has been enabled. In this case, the property defines the header text for the top row of the multi-row header.

The header text to display on the second row of the column header. Enter the desired header text.

This property is only available if Multi-row header has been enabled.

Specifies whether the column header has multiple rows:

• If enabled, then the header text property updates so that there are two properties: Header text (row 1) and Header text (row 2). The default header text populates row 1. You can define additional text to display on row 2.

• If disabled (default), then only one row of header text can be defined.

Keep in mind that enabling a multi-row header is different than wrapping header text. If you enable multi-row headers, then you can define two separate rows of header text. A line break separates each row. If autowrap is enabled, then each row of header text wraps individually.

If you just want a single row of header text that wraps, you can leave this option disabled and then enable Autowrap header text.

Specifies whether header text wraps:

• If enabled, then header text that exceeds the column width will wrap. If Multi-row header is enabled, both rows of header text will wrap individually.

• If disabled (default), then header text that exceeds the column width is truncated. The user can resize the column wider to view the full header text.

Specifies whether the column displays hyperlinks. Select this option if you want each row of this column to contain a hyperlink that dynamically incorporates the current column value.

If this option is enabled, then the additional link properties in this section become available; otherwise they are hidden.

Specifies the type of link to display in the column:

• Custom: You specify the relative URL for the hyperlink, including using variables to dynamically incorporate the current column value in the URL.
• Plan file: Axiom dynamically generates a hyperlink to the plan file associated with each row. In order to use this option, the report must have a specified File group context in the Report Configuration properties, and the row dimension must be the key column of the plan code table for that file group.

NOTE: This option only displays if the report meets the requirements to support plan file links. Otherwise, all links are custom links by default, and this option does not display.

Specifies the URL to use in the hyperlink column. Enter a relative location in the Axiom system. The URL can use variables as needed so that the URL value is dynamic per row of the report.

For example, imagine that the report contains the key column of a plan code table (such as Dept), and you want each plan code to link to the Process Routing page for a particular plan file process. The full URL to the Process Routing page uses the following syntax:

The process definition ID will be constant for the URL, but the plan code value needs to be the current row's department value. The {value} variable can be used for this purpose. The following relative URL with a variable would be entered into the URL field:

When the report is viewed, the column will resolve to use the full URL with the current column value. For example, the row showing Dept 22000 will have the following URL:

When the user clicks on the hyperlink in this row, they will be taken to the Process Routing page for Dept 22000, for the plan file process associated with process definition ID 16682.

NOTE: The URL property only displays if the specified link type is custom, or if the Link type option is not present because all links in the report are custom. When using the plan file link type, the URL to the plan file is automatically generated by Axiom.

Specifies the display text for the hyperlink column. Enter the desired text, using variables as needed. Keep in mind the following:

• If you want the link text to be the column value—meaning the same value that would display in the column if the column was not enabled as a link column—then you can leave this field blank. The current column value is automatically used as the link text.

• The variable {value} displays the raw column value from the database. For example, if the column is a numeric column, the value will not have numeric formatting and will show all decimal places.

• The variable {formattedvalue} displays the column value with formatting—such as default formatting based on the column type, or applied formatting in the Column Configuration properties. It is only necessary to use the {formattedvalue} variable if you want to display the formatted column value along with other link text. If you just want to display the formatted value by itself, you can leave the field blank as previously noted.

Specifies the tooltip to show when a user hovers the cursor over the hyperlink. Enter the desired text, using variables as needed. The same variable behavior noted previously for the Link text property also applies to this property.