R09 | Advanced Reporting - Custom Expressions and Criteria (MCUI)
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This document discusses custom expressions and fixed criteria in advanced reporting. It provides examples of using custom expressions to modify field formats, perform calculations, and examples of common fixed criteria expressions. It demonstrates how to create a custom expression to calculate a 10% cost increase and convert a date field to only show the date. It also shows an example of a fixed criteria expression to filter a work order report to only show orders that took over 10 days to complete.
R09 | Advanced Reporting - Custom Expressions and Criteria (MCUI)
- 1. MC University R09|Advanced Reporting: Custom Expressions and Criteria
- 2. MC University Custom Expressions Fixed Criteria Agenda
- 3. MC University Custom Expressions Overview Custom Expression Example 1 Custom Expression Example 2 Custom Expressions
- 4. MC University Custom Expressions are used to • Modify format of a field • Perform field specific calculations Examples of Custom Expression uses: • Remove time stamp from a date field • Change display CASE • Calculate elapsed time Custom Expressions Overview
- 5. MC University Steps to create Custom Expressions: • Determine on which field to base expression • Select field to use as placeholder • Adjust label for Report column • Set Custom Expression? Indicator to Yes • Create and enter Custom Expression Custom Expressions Overview (cont’d)
- 6. MC University Custom Expressions are not case sensitive Common Expressions include: • DATEDIFF • GETDATE() • CONVERT Custom Expressions Overview (cont’d)
- 7. MC University Custom Expression Examples: Custom Expressions Overview (cont’d) Description Expression Upper Case a Field Value UPPER(WO.Reason) Days since Requested Date DATEDIFF(day,WO.Requested,GETDATE()) Hours to Issue Work Order DATEDIFF(hour,WO.Requested,WO.Issued) Date without Time Stamp LEFT(WO.Requested,12) Adding Two Fields Together WO.CostLaborActual+WO.CostPartActual
- 8. MC University (Example): Inventory Report using Custom Expression to calculate cost of re-ordering with 10% increase in cost Custom Expressions Example 1
- 9. MC University Determine field name to base expression on and select placeholder field: Custom Expression Example 1 (cont’d)
- 10. MC University Enter Custom Label for placeholder field and appropriate Field Type: Custom Expression Example 1 (cont’d)
- 11. MC University Set Custom Expression control to Yes Enter expression into box Custom Expression Example 1 (cont’d)
- 12. MC University Result on Report shows forecasted price: Custom Expression Example 1 (cont’d)
- 13. MC University Interactive Example 1 Let’s practice the skill you just learned! Check out the following interactive example, located under the MCU course slides: • R09 – Create Custom Expression – Calculate 10 Percent Increase in Cost
- 14. MC University (Example): Open Work Order List Report used to convert WO.Requested date and time format to only show date Custom Expression Example 2
- 15. MC University Determine field name to base expression on and appropriate field type: Custom Expression Example 2 (cont’d)
- 16. MC University Set Custom Expression control to Yes and enter expression into Custom Expression Box: Custom Expression Example 2 (cont’d)
- 17. MC University Result on Report will show only the WO.Requested date (no time): Custom Expression Example 2 (cont’d)
- 18. MC University Interactive Example 2 Let’s practice the skill you just learned! Check out the following interactive example, located under the MCU course slides: • R09 – Create Custom Expression – Days Open Since Requested
- 19. MC University Fixed Criteria Overview Common Fixed Criteria Work Order Completion Date Example Fixed Criteria
- 20. MC University Fixed Criteria uses: • Criteria can be hidden from end users • Meaningful filters are placed on data • Complex data relationships can be specified Fixed Criteria Overview
- 21. MC University Defined Fixed Criteria appears at top of Report Criteria Dialog: Fixed Criteria Overview (cont’d)
- 22. MC University Additional Fixed Criteria added from Advanced tab of Report Setup • Added to Where (SQL) field Fixed Criteria Overview (cont’d)
- 23. MC University Description Expression On an open work order report, show only work orders that are overdue. WO.IsOpen = 1 and WO.TargetDate < Getdate() On a closed work order report, show only work orders that took more than 10 days to complete. WO.IsOpen = 0 and DATEDIFF(DAY, WO.Requested, WO.Complete) > 10 On a closed work order report, show all work orders that have no value in the “Problem” field. WO.IsOpen = 0 and ProblemID is null On a closed work order labor report, show only “actual” labor hours (exclude any estimated labor hours). Actual labor records are recorded with a WOLabor.RecordType of “2”. WO.IsOpen = 0 and WOLabor.RecordType=2 Common Fixed Criteria
- 24. MC University (Example): Closed Work Order List Report used to show Work Orders that have taken > 10 days to complete Fixed Criteria Example
- 25. MC University Logical field(s) are added to Display for clarity of presented data: Fixed Criteria Example (cont’d)
- 26. MC University Expression is entered into the Where (SQL) field: Fixed Criteria Example (cont’d)
- 27. MC University Requested and Complete fields help double-check Report data once Report is run: Fixed Criteria Example (cont’d)
- 28. MC University Interactive Example 3 Let’s practice the skill you just learned! Check out the following interactive example, located under the MCU course slides: • R09 – Using Fixed Criteria
Editor's Notes
- #3: Custom Expressions Defined: Overview of what Custom Expressions are Inventory Report Example List of common Custom Expressions. Fixed Criteria Defined: Overview of Fixed Criteria Including use cases Practical Example using a Work Order Report
- #5: Sub-Bullet 1: Example: WO.Requested (Requested) Date / Time Sub-Bullet 2: Example: By changing all text to uppercase draws attention / visually easier to read Sub-Bullet 3: Perform calculations on fields Example: Calculate elapsed time for days open on a Work Order Example: Time that is taken to Respond to a Work Order
- #6: Sub-Bullet 1: LOGICAL field choice Example: Custom Expression to calculate the amount of days open since the Work Order was Requested = WO.Requested Sub-Bullet 2: Placeholder field used for Custom Expression column Typically character fields are used (can change Field Type if needed) User Defined Fields are great! Sub-Bullet 3: Define WHAT the Custom Expression is actually doing – WHY? Allows users to understand what the data is actually doing and where it is coming from Sub-Bullet 4: Very important! Without it Custom Expression will NOT be applied Sub-Bullet 5: Text box at the bottom of the Edit Dialog is used (this is where Custom Expression is built)
- #7: Bullet 1: Case used (upper or lower case) does not matter Goal is to make Expression clearly readable Typically a mix of lower and upper case is used Sub-Bullet 1: Format of a DATEDIFF function is: DATEDIFF(increment of time, field/value to be subtracted, field/value to subtract from) Can be used to determine the number of days that have elapsed Check out Screenshot – what do you think this would calculate? (number of days since the Work Order has been requested) Sub-Bullet 2: Current date used in formula Typically GETDATE() used within a DATEDIFF function (see example) Example: Telling the system to 1) use today’s current date 2) look back to the WO.Requested date 3) count the number of days between Sub-Bullet 3: Convert an expression of one data type to another Example: Display a date or time field in different formats
- #8: Bullet 1: Examples of custom expressions to calculate or format report field display Listed in mixed case (e.g., WO.Requested) to make the field names easier to read Taken directly from the Advanced Reporter Tutorial! (Many other examples available via the Advanced Reporter Tutorial not listed here)
- #10: Bullet 1: Important to determine the proper field name Trying to identify the cost of re-ordering Inventory – Logical choice in this example is Part.LastOrderUnitPrice Next specify a placeholder field for Custom Expression results Any field can be used – but must be a Text field Using the Part.CategoryID field as the placeholder field
- #11: Bullet 1: Custom Label should be entered Because the field is cost of the price after the increase in percentage, field is renamed to Forecasted Price Field label adjusts on actual Report after applying. Field Type (Custom) can be adjusted to the appropriate type for desired result (if already desired, do not change) Example: Money is suggested as we are dealing with an actual Price / Cost of an item Why not Numeric? – multiple decimal points vs. Money rounded to two decimal points
- #12: Bullet 1: Example: Create a custom expression that calculates a 10% increase in last purchase cost How? - calculation is performed by multiplying “last purchase cost” by 1.10% (this calculates a 10% increase and then adds it to the original cost)
- #13: Bullet 1: New labeled column of “Forecasted Price” Custom Field Type as Money, so decimal points are rounded Format is also visually correct when looking at a Cost field (with dollar sign)
- #15: Bullet 1: Now we will take a look at an example of how to setup an Open Work Order List Report, used to convert the WO.Requested Date and Time format to only show the date. So, this is an Example of how you would manipulate the formatting of a field.
- #16: Bullet 1: Convert Custom Expression is built is slightly different Example: WO.Requested date is used for the field name WHY? - looking to convert the WO.Requested date and time format No Placeholder field needed! WHY? - data itself already will display in the WO.Requested field that is added (data is not being modified, simply converting) Select the Field Type (Custom) as Character (it is a date/time field)
- #17: Bullet 1: Custom Expression control set to yes Entered as “Convert(varchar,WO.Requested,101)” to complete Expression What does the 101 at the end of the statement mean? - tells the system to use the DATE format only of mm/dd/yyyy. Example: Will convert the date / time stamp into a DATE stamp only in the mm/dd/yyyy format
- #18: Bullet 1: Time Stamp previously show in the Requested field (shown in the left hand screenshot) will no longer appear Only the actual Date of the Requested Work Order will show. (right screenshot)
- #21: Sub-Bullets: “fixed criteria” cannot be modified by end user (if it is hidden!) Ensures important criteria cannot be modified inadvertently Meaningful filters = criteria that will not be changed, and will always make sense / be needed for that report Unique or complex data relationships to be used for Criteria, which otherwise the standard Criteria Dialog would be unable (or difficult) to do.
- #22: Bullet 1: Fixed Criteria for a Report shown at top of Report Criteria Window Fixed criteria portion will appear in bold green (in this screenshot, WO.IsOpen=1) Quick Tip! – WO.IsOpen=1 means that all Work Orders are OPEN on the Report
- #23: Bullet 1: Access to this tab is not available for all Access Groups – permissions must be setup correctly to give access to this area of the Report Setup Sub-Bullet 1: All Fixed Criteria is added to the SQL Where Field of the SQL Structure sub-tab (Advanced tab) In this screenshot example WO.IsOpen=1 has been added to the Where SQL of this Report
- #24: Screenshot: Examples of fixed criteria that customers have found especially useful These more complex relationships of data are best specified by using fixed criteria, as it is difficult (or impossible) to achieve the desired results without it These examples can be found in the Advanced Reporter Tutorial available on MC User Connect
- #26: Bullet 1: Important to define the fields that should be shown on the report (especially for one like this!) to ensure data makes sense / represented in a way that you would like Example: by adding the [WO] Requested and [WO] Complete fields to this report, it will allow you to visually do a double check
- #27: Bullet 1: The expression should be entered into the Where SQL Field to create the Fixed Criteria First part of expression is telling the report ONLY to look at closed Work Orders (that is the WO.IsOpen = 0). The “and” separates the two Expressions The second part of the expression is telling the report to calculate the DAYS between the WO.Requested and WO.Complete dates, but only for greater than 10 days
- #28: Bullet 1: Example: Requested and Complete dates were added to the Report to ensure that only Work Orders that have greater than 10 days between the Requested and Complete dates appear This particular record is used to cross-check, in which 6/5 and 6/20 are indeed greater than 10 days apart. Note: Would be great to add a Custom Expression to easily view exact number of days between Requested and Complete – CHALLENGE