Available parameters for an indexed report in the IUIE

Under "Select Columns to Be Included", you may choose which columns should appear in the output. Selecting All Columns returns all columns. Selecting Selected Columns: allows you to select individual columns to return by placing a checkmark beside them.

Under "Include Column Names?", choose Yes or No, depending upon whether you want the names of the selected columns to appear in the first row of the output. (The default selection is Yes.)

Under "Select an Output Destination", you may choose where the query output will go:

• Wait for Output is the default radio button. Your query will run in the foreground until finished, and the output will go to your browser screen.
• Send Output to Completed Reports Folder allows a query to execute in the background, which allows you to continue working within the IUIE without waiting for a query to finish. The report output goes to the Completed Reports folder.
• Send Output to Printer allows you to specify a four-character Enterprise printer ID to which to send report output.

Under "Select the Output Format", you may choose between multiple formats. Web Browser (for displaying output in a browser) and Spreadsheet (for loading the output into an alternative viewer, such as Excel) are common choices.

Web Browser is best suited for quick lookups on small data sets where no further data manipulation will be required. Spreadsheet returns data in a format readable by Microsoft Excel. This option is best when you expect a large amount of output, or you expect to modify or manipulate it. You may need to configure your browser to automatically access Microsoft Excel when returning spreadsheet-formatted data for the first time.

Selection criteria are often called data extract parameters, and are the heart of your search. The values supplied are incorporated into the WHERE clause of the generated SQL SELECT statement, thus restricting the rows returned by the query.

A sample parameter line contains the following elements:

• A Column Description link displays metadata about the column, including the datatype, size, and what datagroups contain it.
• A "Column Value" field allows you to enter one or more values, separated by commas.
• A Valid Values button, if present, allows selection of values for the column.
• A Wildcards Allowed link, if present, denotes that wildcards are allowed in the "Column Values" field, and makes available documentation about the use of wildcards; see Wildcards and logical operators in the IUIE.

Run executes your query against the database.

The Basic button displays the screen without the "Additional Criteria", "Record Delimiter", and "Field Delimiter" selection fields.

The Advanced button, if allowed by the publisher, displays three additional query options not present on the "Basic" screen:

• "Additional Criteria": You can add additional clauses to this text area to further refine your output.
• "Field Delimiter": This option allows you to specify the character(s) placed between fields in a query result. This delimiter should be a character or characters not contained within any field values. The default field delimiter is a Tab ("Tab" selection). Other recommended values are the tilde ( ~) and the comma ( ,). For Microsoft Excel, a Tab is recommended.
• "Record Delimiter": This option allows specification of the character(s) placed between records in a query result. This delimiter should be a character or characters not contained within any record values. The default record delimiter is a newline ("Newline" selection), and this is recommended for Microsoft Excel. Another recommended value is Carriage Return + Line Feed (CR/LF). Other selections are rarely used except in special situations.

The Valid Values button displays a screen of values valid for the current field.

The Save Settings button saves an indexed report as a shortcut in My Catalog. For more information on the Save Settings button, see About shortcuts in the IUIE.

The Reset Query button erases changes on the current screen.