Using actions to jump to earlier reports

Generally, not all users need to see all the available data. We have seen that providing all the data in one report can be difficult to manage. Often it is better to create a number of smaller reports and provide jumps between them. A jump is one of several types of action in Application Studio. We will create a link in Tutorial4 from which you can jump to Tutorial1, Tutorial2, or Tutorial3. When you click the link in Tutorial4, a menu will display the names of the reports to which you can jump.

There are other options that control what is displayed in the menu. They are outside the scope of this tutorial but include user-defined text, command images, and separators.

  1. Open the Tutorial4 report.
  2. In Tutorial4, click cell B1 and specify Earlier Versions.
  3. Right-click B1 and select Format Cells.
  4. Click the Pattern tab, select a background color from the Primary color palette, and click OK.
    If necessary, specify a different font color.
  5. Right-click B1 and select Define Action.
    The Define Action dialog is displayed. Every action comprises a mode, inputs and, depending on the type of action, parameters.
  6. Select Jump as the action Type and =TRUE as the condition.
  7. From the Mode list in the Actions section, select Shortcut menu on left-click.
  8. In the Inputs section, select Report name as the value of the Command Text input.
  9. Click the target report and click the browse button in its Value field.
  10. Select Tutorial1 as the target report and click OK.
  11. In the Actions section, click New Action.
  12. Select Shortcut menu on left-click as the mode of the new action.
  13. In the Inputs section, select Tutorial2 as the target report.
  14. In the Actions section, double-click <New Action>.
  15. Select Shortcut menu on left-click as the mode of the new action.
  16. In the Inputs section, select Tutorial3 as the target report.
  17. Click OK.
  18. In Design Mode, save the report.
  19. In View Mode, click Earlier Versions to open the list of earlier reports. Click a report name to open that report.
  20. Select Tutorial4 in the Report Catalog to return to Tutorial4.