The most prevalent report-generation tool is the Report Viewer. This application is included with the Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services suite and is used by Mover’s Suite to process Reporting Services Reports and Crystal Reports documents. Note: Some Crystal Reports documents will not work with Reporting Services and may need to be generated through a Crystal Reports server.
The functional components of the Report Viewer are listed below.
Figure 6: Report heading section.
Report Viewer Options
Figure 7: Report Viewer options.
Report Viewer options are detailed in the following table.
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Image Ref. |
Description |
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1 |
Show or Hide Document Map The document map allows a user to jump to other referenced locations within the report such as breaks and individual records. |
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2 |
Show or Hide Parameter Area This option allows the user to show or hide the parameter entry area. |
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3 |
Page Navigation User can choose to navigate to the first, previous, next, or last page or choose to enter a page number to jump to in the report. |
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4 |
Back to Parent Report This option will take the user to the parent report if the reports are built in a hierarchy and linked together. Note: This option is disabled for most Mover’s s Suite reports. |
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5 |
Cancel Report If the report is being rendered, then the user can choose to cancel the report generation process. |
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6 |
Refresh Report This is the same as the View Report option which regenerates the report. |
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7 |
Print Report Opens a Print dialog where a user can send the contents of the report to a printer. |
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8 |
Printer Layout This option will display the report as it will be rendered by the printer. |
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9 |
Page Setup Opens the Page Setup dialog where a user can change the report size, orientation, margins, and other print and page functions. |
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10 |
Save Report A user can select from several options to save the output of the report in a physical form.
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11 |
Zoom Display A user can change the size of the report by choosing from a list of zoom options.
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12 |
Report Search A user can enter a description in the blank text box and press Find to search the contents of the opened reports. Search hits will be highlighted and the user can toggle back and forth between the matches using the Find and Next buttons.
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A user can quickly become accustomed to using the various report options and a user will know when the Report Viewer is generated by a “Report is being generated” indicated (Figure 8).
Figure 8: Report generation symbol
If this indicator is not present, then a user should attempt to regenerate the report by pressing the View Report button. A user will always need to press this button after report parameters have changed.
The output of each report will either be in landscape or portrait layout, depending on the need of the report. While the Report Viewer window can be adjusted, the layout cannot be altered without special report customization.