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Managing the Data Resources in a Catalog

The Catalog Manager provides a hierarchical view of the data resources in the current catalog. You can use it to add, remove, or modify the data resources in a Logi JReport catalog.

Below is a list of the sections covered in this topic:

• Adding Data Resources
• Editing Data Resources
• Duplicating Data Resources
• Renaming Data Resources
• Deleting Data Resources
• Setting Data Resource Properties
  • Setting Default Property Values for a Data Resource
• Filtering Data Resources
• Searching for Data Resources
• Sorting Data Resources

Adding Data Resources

Although there are a variety of data resources in a catalog, the ways you create them are fairly similar.

1. In the Catalog Manager, expand the catalog data source where the resource is to be added.
2. Select the data resource node of the type that you want to create, then right-click it and select Add/New XXX from the shortcut menu, or select the appropriate command on the Catalog Manager toolbar. The corresponding resource editor or dialog is then displayed.

   For example, if you want to create a summary, right-click the Summaries node and select New Summary. The New Summary dialog then appears for creating the summary.

Editing Data Resources

Select the data resource that you want to edit, then select Edit on the Catalog Manager toolbar or right-click it and select Edit XXX from the shortcut menu. In the corresponding editor or dialog, edit the resource as required.

In most cases you can also edit a data resource by using its right-click Edit XXX menu command from the Data panel, which only shows data resources actually available for use in the selected report component.

Duplicating Data Resources

Select the data resource you want to duplicate and select Copy on the Catalog Manager toolbar. To paste it, select Paste on the toolbar.

Renaming Data Resources

Select twice on the name of the data resource you want to rename, when the name text box becomes editable, input the new name and select outside the name text box to confirm the change.

You can also rename data resources by editing their Name property in the Properties sheet.

Deleting Data Resources

Select the data resource you want to delete and select Delete on the Catalog Manager toolbar, or right-click the data resource and select Delete from its shortcut menu.

Setting Data Resource Properties

When you select a data resource and select Show Properties on the Catalog Manager toolbar, the property list of the data resource is displayed in the Properties sheet on the right. See Catalog Data Object Properties for detailed explanation about the properties of each data resource type.

Setting Default Property Values for a Data resource

You can set the default values for the properties of data resources in the Catalog Manager, so that you do not need to set them each time you insert them into your report. The data resources that can have default values are formulas, parameters, summaries, table/view columns, SQL columns, stored procedure columns and user defined data source columns.Query columns do not support this feature. Data resources that are used in a business view inherit their properties from the underlying objects.

To set default values for a data resource:

1. Select the data resource with the properties you want to set, select Show Properties on the Catalog Manager toolbar, or right-click the data resource and select Properties from the shortcut menu.
2. The properties listed in the Properties sheet are the default values for the selected data resource. You can change the property values here, and the next time you insert the data resource into a report, the values you specify here will be used as the default values.

Filtering Data Resources

You can filter the data resources in the Catalog Manager to show only the required resources.

1. In the Catalog Manager, select Filter View on the toolbar. The Filter View dialog appears.

   

2. Provide a filter condition in the Filter Expression text box. Use "*" to stand for any string, and use "?" to stand for any character. You can also leave this text box blank.
3. Select the Case Sensitive checkbox if you want Logi JReport to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase characters when filtering.
4. In the Select the elements to include in the view box, check the resource types you want to remain in the Catalog Manager resource tree. Select the Select All/Deselect All button to select/deselect all the resource types.
5. Select the OK button to filter the resources.

   The filter result will be the union of the resources that match the filter condition and the selected resource types.

Searching for Data Resources

When there are many resources in a catalog, sometimes you may find that it is difficult to locate a resource. The Catalog Manager provides you with the search function which enables you to search resources in the leaf nodes of the catalog data resource tree.

You can search for data resources using either the quick way or advanced way.

To perform quick search:

Select at the upper right corner of the Data Resource panel in the Catalog Manager, then in the search bar that appears, type in the text you want to search for and the resources containing the matched text will be listed in the data resource tree. You can also specify the following search settings from the drop-down menu after selecting in the search bar:

• Highlight All
  Specifies whether to highlight all matched text.
• Match Case
  Specifies whether to search for text that meets the case of the typed text.
• Match Whole Word
  Specifies whether to search for text that looks the same as the typed text.

To close the search bar and cancel the search, select in it and all resources in the tree will then be listed.

To perform advanced search using dialog:

1. In the Catalog Manager, select Search on the toolbar. The Search dialog appears.

   

2. Provide a search condition in the Search Expression text box. Use "*" to stand for any string, and use "?" to stand for any character.
3. Select the Case Sensitive checkbox if you want Logi JReport to distinguish between uppercase and lowercase characters when searching.
4. Specify the search scope:
   • Selected Resources: Specifies to search from the leaf nodes of the resource that is selected in the Catalog Manager resource tree when the dialog is opened.
   • Search In: Specifies to search from the leaf nodes of the selected catalog data source. To search from all data sources, select All.

   For example, if you want to find the DBField Customer Name in the Queries node, select the node in the Catalog Manager, then in the Search dialog, input Customer Name in the Search Expression field and check the scope as Selected Resource.

5. Select Search to start searching.

   All the matched results are listed in the Search Result panel which has three columns: Resource Name, Resource Type and Resource Path. You can sort the search results alphabetically by selecting any column header. Select an item from the Search Result panel, and the corresponding resource is then highlighted in the Catalog Manager.

   

Sorting Data Resources

Resources in the leaf nodes of the catalog data resource tree can be sorted for easy management. To do this, select at the upper right corner of the Data Resource panel in the Catalog Manager, then from the drop-down menu, choose how to sort the resources:

• Ascending
  Sorts the resources in an ascending order.
• Descending
  Sorts the resources in a descending order.
• No Sort
  Keeps the original order of the resources as in the database.

The default sort order is controlled by the Sort option in the Catalog category of the Options dialog. When Sort is unchecked in the Options dialog, the default sort order is No Sort.

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