Developing and Testing a UDR Without Requerying Data

Summary

The information in this article applies to LIMS 1.x/2.x.

This article describes a technique that can speed development of a user-defined report (UDR) by using both the report definition and generate forms to incrementally develop and test the report.

More Information

The UDR report generate setup form is a Microsoft Access “popup” form. Until closed or hidden, a popup form remains on top of any other open forms. It is impractical to switch to another open form while this form is displayed. However, the system hides the form when the report is generated and displayed in the print preview window.

Use this feature to switch to the report definition screen to modify the report then close the preview window to redisplay the generate screen and rerun the report. The following steps demonstrate this technique.

1. Select the Define Report option on the LIMS Sample menu to open the report definition form.
2. Create a new test report by entering a report name and selecting a report template. Create a single report column with column letter ‘A’ and select any column expression from the expression pick list. Choose Save Record from the File menu to save the column record.
3. Select Main Menu from the Window menu to switch back to the main menu without closing the report definition form.
4. Select Generate Report on the Sample menu to open the report definition setup form.
5. Enter any sample query criteria that will return at least one sample and select the “All Samples Queried” option. Use the [Query] button to query the database. Tip: since you may be generating the report several times, only query a small number of samples to minimize the time required to generate.
6. Choose your new test report from the report pick list and use the [Preview] button to generate the report and open the print preview window.
7. Select Report Definitions from the Window menu to return to the report definition form. Now add column ‘B’ to the report and select any column expression from the expression pick list. Use the Save Record entry from the File menu to save the column record.
8. Select User Report from the Window menu to return to the print preview form. Select Close from the File Menu to close the preview window and redisplay the report generate setup form.
9. Use the [Preview] button to regenerate the report with the newly added column ‘B’.

When modifying the report’s non-column data (e.g. headers, footer, sorting, etc.) simply reselect the report from the pick list in the report generate form to reload this data from the report definition. Note that these techniques can be used to develop new reports and to fine tune existing reports.