Options:

Set Any Fixed Fields (Optional)

Use a fixed field when you want the query to be restricted to a certain set of results. The selected field is "fixed" to a specific value.

Besides saving the administrator a step when running the report (because there's no need to set the 'Contact Type' field), fixing a field narrows the query, which makes the report more efficient and less of a drain on system resources. On the other hand, reports with a fixed field have limited uses and are less versatile than reports without fixed fields. It is rare to fix more than one field in a report.

The most common use cases are reports that only retrieve information about Primary Contacts or reports that specifically retrieve only active or inactive accounts. For example, a Primary Contact report would be based on the 'User' Report Type. The 'Contact Type' field would be selected as a fixed field. On the next step, the field value would be set to 'Primary Contact'. The query only searches for data on users who are assigned the 'Primary Contact' Contact Type.

Select Search Form Fields

Fields that are selected in the 'Searchable' column appear on the Search Form when the report is run. You should select every field that administrators will want to search upon. You can build reports with no searchable fields. In this case, the Report Admin simply clicks the Run Report button to generate the report.

Select Viewable Fields for Online Results

Select the fields you want in the Viewable Results, which are displayed online when your report is run. You should limit the number of viewable fields to 15 or less so the fields are sortable when displayed. If the number of Viewable fields exceeds this limit, they won't be sortable.

Select Fields for the Downloadable Report

Select the fields you want to include in the Downloadable Results when the report is run. This can include a much larger set of fields than the Viewable fields. You can use the handy Select All button to automatically select all the fields, then click to uncheck any fields that you don't want in the report.

Options:

How to Set Operators

Operators are set to determine whether the search returns values that include or exclude a specified value or range of values. Operators are configured at several points in the process of designing the report. If Fixed Fields are set when selecting report fields, the next step is to provide default values and configure operators for these Fixed fields. Default values and default operators can also be set for many Searchable Fields.

The set of available operators depends on what type of data is valid for a field (e.g., textual, numerical, dates, etc.). Operators may include 'is' or 'is not' if valid field values are predefined rather than free-text, or 'contains' or 'does not contain' if the value is free-text. If the specified value is a date, operators may also include 'is before' and 'is after'.

When to Set Default Values

It isn't necessary to set a default value for a Searchable Field, but you may want to if this field is usually set to a certain value when the report is run. For example, the Status field is often defaulted to 'Active' in reports because organizations are usually most interested in managing active users, companies and memberships. The Report Admin can always set this value to 'Inactive' to generate a report on deactivated users or companies, or set the field value to 'Any Status' to retrieve companies or users irregardless of status. On the other hand, a report created specifically to identify inactive companies or users so they can be contacted or removed from the database would have this field defaulted to 'Inactive' (or the Status field could even be fixed to 'Inactive').

Set Display Order

The Display Order is prefilled according to the order in which fields are displayed in the field selection steps. Edit the display order as you like.