In this example, we want to schedule a report to run at the beginning of each month to show us all the awards created the previous month for the qualification BSB20107. Normally, if we ran a report like this manually, a box would pop up where we have to enter the code for the qualification we want to report on, and set the start and end date, before the report could be run. However, when the report is scheduled to run automatically, there is no user to enter this information, so we need to set this information when we set up the report schedule. Reports that normally require this type of user input need to be modified slightly to use with the Report Scheduler. Once this has been done, VETtrak Support will supply you with the appropriate information that you should enter in the Report Parameters section of the Report Schedule Item Wizard, as described below.
- Click the Add button to add each new parameter.
Set the qualification for the report
- Enter the parameter name that has been supplied with your report. You must enter this information exactly as provided.
- Select the data type. In this case we are just going to be entering the code of the qualification we want to report on, which is just plain text, so we select "Text".
- Enter value for the parameter, in this case the qualification code.
- No calculation is required for this parameter, so leave this with "None" selected.
Set the date range for the report
- In this case, we need to set the start and end dates of the period that we want to report, so we have been given the parameters "StartDate" and "EndDate". Enter these exactly as they have been provided to you.
- Select "Date" as the data type.
- Nothing is required in the Value field in this case.
- For dates, the report will need to calculate the dates to use each time it is run, so we need to choose the method that will be used to calculate the date. As we want to report all the awards from the previous month, we select "Start of last month" for the StartDate parameter, and "End of last month" for the EndDate parameter.
- Click the Test button to check that each date calculates correctly. A popup will be displayed showing the date that would be used if the report was run now.