The new Ad-hoc Report Writer is an optional module and requires a license and additional maintenance. This highly functional ad-hoc tool is an integrated tool available from the M5 menu. It easily installs alongside M5 and no dedicated server is required.
The highlights of this new tool are listed below:
• Reports against new separate database schema
• Specialized views reduce the need for joins
• User-friendly field names
• Wizard based user interface
• Steps the user through the process to build a report
• Users are able to build simple graphs and list/summary reports
• Limited calculation capabilities
• Can save and share developed reports
There are several ways to secure who and how the ad-hoc reports are run and created in M5.
The first step to establish security is to create ad-hoc groups. This is done using a new frame called Ad-hoc Group Maintenance. The data sources for the ad-hoc reports are views of the M5 data, not the physical tables. The Ad-hoc Group Maintenance frame defines which views the users can view and report on.
After the ad-hoc groups are defined, it can be added to the roles using the Role tab on the Ad-hoc Group Maintenance frame.
The Application User frame contains new fields to control the security level for ad-hoc reporting by user. There are 4 settings for ad-hoc access and they are:
• None – No access.
• Run Reports – The user is allowed to only run reports, not create them.
• Create Reports – The user is allowed to create and run reports.
• Report Admin – The user is allowed to create and run reports as well as have certain administrative rights on the Ad-hoc Query frame.
NOTE: To view a list of System Flags and Role Privileges that may impact this screen, hover over the screen title in M5 to display the bubble help/tooltip. At the bottom of the bubble help/tool tip, there is a Settings hyperlink. Click that hyperlink to display the list of flags and privileges.
Additional training and technical documents on this subject may be available in the Resource Files area.