WebFOCUS Online Help > InfoAssist > Using the InfoAssist Application Window > Accessing Properties Using the Control Panel
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The Control Panel provides access to logical groupings of all property controls and options in one location. This minimizes the need to go to other areas of the application to view or modify application properties. Property controls and options are grouped logically by functionality using a set of tabs located at the top of the Control Panel. Each tab provides a collection of related menus containing icons (buttons). The tabs, which are located below the Application Main Menu and Quick Access Toolbar, include Home, Format, Data, Layout, View, and Field, as shown in the following image, which displays the Home tab by default when InfoAssist is first opened.
Note: The Control Panel also provides a Series tab when creating a chart query.
When selected, each tab opens a different view of the Control Panel by exposing menus containing groups of clustered, highly visible icons. Some properties are controlled just by clicking the icon (button) while others have drop-down menus for selecting options, some of which open dialog boxes providing additional property controls.
The layout of the Control Panel spans the width of the application window and displays all property controls using different sized icons and menus depending on the size of the monitor and application window. When the size of the application window is reduced, some menus, which contain groups of property controls, are collapsed into single buttons as determined by the amount of available space. The following image shows the Output Window menu, from the View tab, collapsed into a single button.
When a group of property controls is collapsed into a single button, the individual property icons are removed from view, but are still available. Selecting a collapsed menu button restores the menu to its normal full size and displays all of the individual property icons. The following image shows the expanded Output Window menu.
Note: When expanding a collapsed menu, the Control Panel collapses a neighboring menu to make enough room to expand the selected menu.
When a property control icon (button) or option in a pop-up menu (or dialog box) is grayed-out, that functionality is not available for that query as it currently exists. Some functionality is available for reports only or charts only. In some situations, selecting one or more options, makes other options incompatible with the previously selected ones, which results in the incompatible options being grayed-out and unavailable for selection. InfoAssist automatically makes incompatible options unavailable (grayed-out) as you create and modify a query.
The Home tab enables you to control the most commonly used properties and options from the Format, Design, Response, Filter, Report, Style, and Snippets menus, as shown in the following image:
The Home tab provides the following property control menus:
Displays a button showing the current output format plus buttons to toggle between creating a report (the default) or chart query. The output format button’s drop-down menu displays all supported output format options which include Web Page HTML (the default), Active Report (reports only), Active Flex, Portable Document PDF, Spreadsheet Excel, and PowerPoint, as shown in the following image.
When a query is run, the output is created in the format that is currently selected. Note that you can also select output format options from the Output Types menu in the Format tab of the Control Panel and from the output format button in the Status Bar.
Selecting Report or Chart determines whether report-specific or chart-specific functionality is available in the InfoAssist tool. If you switch from Report to Chart or Chart to Report, you are prompted to save the query, as shown in the following image.
When a report is saved, chart-specific options are not maintained, and when a chart is saved, report-specific options are not maintained.
Enables you to toggle between the Query Design view and the Interactive Design view (the default), as shown in the following image.
Selecting Query (Design view) displays the Query Design pane in the Results Panel providing a larger area for creating the query. Selecting Interactive (Design view) displays a preview of the query that is being created in the Results Panel. Additionally, the Query Design view reduces processing time by not accessing the actual data source as you are building the query. For more information about the Results Panel, see Understanding the Results Panel.
Enables report execution options that include Data from Source (the default), Use Sample Data, and Records, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Data from Source uses the selected data source to display a live preview of the output in the Results Panel. Selecting Use Sample Data displays sample data to reduce processing time by not accessing the actual data source.
The Records option limits the number of rows retrieved from the data source when Interactive Design view is selected, which may be useful in reducing response time if you are working with a large amount of data. Type the desired number of rows directly in the Records field or use the drop-down menu to select one of the preset record limits. The preset choices are All rows, 1, 10, 50, 100, 500, and 1000.
Provides the Filter button you can select to open the Filter dialog box for creating WHERE statements to select only the data you want and filter out unwanted data. You also have options to Remove or Include an existing Filter, as shown in the following image.
In the Filter dialog box, you can create filters using the Values, Prompt, and Relational Operators menus. For more information, see Filter in Using the Field Tab.
Provides options you can select to enhance a report including Column Totals, Row Totals, Advanced, Banded, and Theme styling, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Column Totals adds a grand total row at the bottom of the report to sum up numeric data in each column. Selecting Row Totals adds a grand total column to the right side of the report to sum up numeric data in each row. For more information, see How to Add Column Totals to a Report and How to Add Row Totals to a Report.
Selecting Banded opens a color selection dialog box to select a color that provides an alternating color scheme for the report. The report output will display alternating rows of data using a white background for one row and a background of the selected color in the next row. This pattern continues throughout the report. For more information, see How to Style Rows of Data With Alternating Colors in a Report.
The following image shows the color selection dialog box that opens when you select the Banded reporting option.
The color selection dialog box is used for selecting colors throughout InfoAssist. When selecting colors, you can click a color square on the left side of the dialog box or click an area of the color palette on the right side of the dialog box. You can also select colors by typing numbers in the Hue, Sat, Lum, Red, Green, and Blue fields or by using the up and down arrows next to each field to set numeric values.
Selecting Theme opens a dialog box where you can select a theme, other than the default (or selected) application theme, to style your report or chart. To select from an assortment of color-coded WebFOCUS Style sheet themes that come standard with InfoAssist, select the Template button and choose a theme. Each standard theme has “_theme.sty” appended to the name. You can choose from black, blue, charcoal, gray, navy, ocean, ruby, and turquoise.
To select a customized Cascading StyleSheet theme created by you or someone else in your organization, select the Managed Reporting button and search for a customized theme in the Other Files folder within the selected Dashboard Domain. You can also select a document styling theme, or an application theme to style all queries created in InfoAssist, in the Environment and Styling section of the Options window, which is accessible by selecting Options in the Application Main Menu or selecting Change Default Options in the Splash (Startup) Screen that appears when you launch InfoAssist. For more inforamation, see Environment and Styling.
The Style button, as shown in the following image, is only enabled when Query Design view is selected and the cursor is placed in one of the heading or footing text fields in the Query Design pane.
Selecting Style opens a dialog box for applying custom styling to the heading and footing text fields in the Query Design pane. The available styling options are font type, font size, font color, background color, text justification (left, center, right), font styling (bold, italic, underline), and resetting to styles from the template, as shown in the following image.
For more information about styling report queries, see Styling Report Queries.
The Snippets button, as shown in the following image, is only enabled when Query Design view is selected and the cursor is placed in one of the heading or footing text fields in the Query Design pane.
From the Quick Text drop-down menu, you can select customized text inserts for headers and footers. The choices are Draft, Page X of Y, Confidential, Date (multiple formats), Time (multiple formats), and Created by (followed by a name), as shown in the following image.
The Format tab provides different options for selecting output formats and other reporting features depending on whether you are creating a report or chart query. For reports, the Format tab provides access to the Output Types, Destination, Navigation, and Features menus, as shown in the following image.
For charts, the Format tab provides access to the Output Types, Destination, Chart Types, Features, and Labels menus, as shown in the following image.
The Format tab provides the following menus and options:
Provides buttons you can select to create output in any of the supported formats, which include HTML (the default), Active Report (reports only), Active Flex, PDF, Excel, and PowerPoint, as shown in the following image.
When a query is run, the output is created in the format that is currently selected. You can also set output format options from the Output Types menu in the Format tab of the Control Panel and from the output format button in the Status Bar.
Provides buttons that enable you to easily toggle between creating a report (the default) or chart query, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Report or Chart determines whether report-specific or chart-specific functionality is available in the InfoAssist tool. If you switch from Report to Chart or Chart to Report, all selected options specific to each type of query are maintained during the current session until the query is saved. When a report is saved, chart-specific options are not maintained, and when a chart is saved, report-specific options are not maintained.
For reports only, the Navigation menu provides buttons for selecting options that affect output display and navigation. These options include Table, Pivot, Table of Contents, Freeze, and Pages on Demand, as shown in the following image.
Table is selected by default and generates standard WebFOCUS browser output.
Selecting Pivot generates output with pivot table features which invokes OLAP processing. For more information, see How to Create OLAP Reports.
Selecting Table of Contents generates output by displaying a table of contents icon in the top left corner of where report output is normally displayed. Selecting the table of contents icon opens a menu that enables you to select (view) individual values of the first sort (BY) field, one value at a time. You can also select options to view the entire report or remove the table of contents. For more information, see How to Create Table of Contents Reports.
Selecting Freeze generates output with column titles that freeze (remain in view) when scrolling through pages of the report output. For more information, see How to Freeze Column Titles in a Report.
Selecting Pages on Demand displays one page of output at a time and provides a menu bar at the bottom of the report output where you can select to view additional pages of output. For more information, see How to Create Pages on Demand Reports.
Provides buttons to select specialized reporting features including Title Popup, Accordion, Repeat Sort Value, and Excel Formula, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Title Popup displays pop-up titles when the mouse pointer is hovered over a column title in the report output. For more information, see How to Add Pop-up Titles to a Report.
Selecting Accordion creates expandable views of data for each vertical sort field by displaying only data values for the first vertical sort field when first viewing the output. You can manually expand your view to expose the data values of lower-level sort fields, as shown in the following image. For more information, see How to Create Accordion Reports.
Selecting Repeat Sort Value displays all repeated sort values in the output instead of the default behavior that displays blanks after the first instance of a new sort value appears in the report.
Selecting Excel Formula uses native Excel formulas for totals and computed values. The Excel Formula option is only activated when Excel is selected as the output format for the query.
Provides buttons to select specialized charting features including 3D Effect, Rotate, Reference, Annotate, and Grid lines, as shown in the following image.
Selecting 3D Effect (the default) turns the three-dimensional view on or off.
Selecting Rotate toggles between a vertical or horizontal display of a chart. For more information, see How to Rotate a Chart.
Selecting Reference opens a drop-down menu that provides the Add Reference Line to Y-Axis and Add Reference Line to X-Axis options. Selecting one of these options opens the appropriate Reference Line dialog box where you can type the desired text, set the specific X or Y-Axis value, and position the reference line on a chart. For more information, see How to Display Reference Lines in a Chart.
Selecting Annotate opens a drop-down menu that provides the Add an Annotation option. Selecting this option opens the Annotation dialog box where you can type the desired text and position the annotation line on a chart. The choices for Position are Top Left, Top Middle, Top Right, Middle Left, Middle Right, Bottom Left, Bottom Middle, and Bottom Right, as shown in the following image. For more information, see How to Display Annotation Lines in a Chart.
Selecting Grid lines opens a drop-down menu that provides options to add O1 Minor Gridlines and Y1 Minor Gridlines to the O1 Major Gridlines and Y1 Major Gridlines that are displayed by default in a chart. You can also deselect the default gridlines from displaying in a chart. For more information, see How to Display Grid Lines in a Chart.
For charts only, the Chart Types menu provides buttons to select any of the supported chart types, which include Bar (the default), Pie, Line, Area, and Scatter, as shown in the following image.
The following image is an example of a bar chart.
Provides the Axes and Legend buttons which have drop-down menus to select a specific option, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Axes opens a drop-down menu where you can select the following options:
The two Rotate options provide a choice of None (the default value), 45, 90, and 270 degrees. For more information, see How to Customize the Display of Axes Labels in a Chart.
Selecting Legend opens a drop-down menu where you can select or deselect Show Legend to display or hide the legend on a chart, change the default Legend Position, and change the default Legend Orientation. The choices for positioning the chart legend are Auto (the default), Bottom, Right, Left, Top, Right bottom, Right top, Left bottom, Bottom right, Top right, Bottom left, and Top left, as shown in the following image.
For Legend Orientation, the choices are Auto (the default), Vertical, and Horizontal. For more information, see How to Customize the Display of Legend Labels in a Chart.
The Data tab provides access to data manipulation and data display properties and options in the Calculation, Join, and View menus, as shown in the following image:
The Data tab provides the following menus and options:
Provides the Detail and Summary buttons, which enables you to create DEFINE and COMPUTE fields, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Detail opens the DEFINE Field Creator dialog box, which enables you to create a defined field, type a name for the field, and enter a format. Note that a Define field is added to the actual data.
Selecting Summary opens the COMPUTE Field Creator dialog box, which enables you to create a computed field, type a name for the field, and enter a format.
The Field Creator dialog boxes, which open when you select Detail or Summary, provide similar functionality, including options to view data source fields as a Tree, Dimension, or List view. You can also view a complete set of functions instead of data source fields by selecting the function button. The following image shows the DEFINE Field Creator dialog box.
Provides the Join button, which you can select to open the Join dialog box where you can create a new join, edit or delete existing joins, and add data sources to a join. The following image shows the Join dialog box with two data sources joined.
Enables you to display data source fields in the Data pane (Resources Panel) using different views that are labeled Logical (the default), List, and Structured, as shown in the following image. All three views provide options for displaying each data source field as a Title, Description, or Field Name. The List view also includes options to show the Alias and Format of each field.
The following image shows an example of the default Logical view displaying the Title of each field.
The following image shows an example of the List view displaying the (data source) Field Name of each field.
The following image shows an example of the Structured view displaying the Description of each field.
The Layout tab provides access to page display and layout options from the Page Setup, Report, and Column menus, as shown in the following image:
The Layout tab provides the following menus and options:
Provides the Margins, Orientation, Size, Units, and Page Numbers buttons, which enable you to customize the page setup for the output of your report or chart query.
Selecting Margins enables you to set margin values by choosing from Normal (1 inch all around), Narrow (.5 inch all around), Moderate (.5 inch left/right), Wide (1.5 inch left/right), and Custom, which opens the Margins dialog box, as shown in the following image, where you can set specific margins as needed.
Selecting Orientation enables you to set the orientation of your query to portrait or landscape.
Selecting Size enables you to select the size of the paper for printing output. You can choose from A3, A4, A5, Letter, Legal, Tabloid, and Power Point.
Selecting Units enables you to select the unit of measurement used for customizing the dimensions of your report or chart. You can choose from Inches, Centimeters, Points, and Pixels.
Selecting Page Numbers enables you to select page numbering options. You can choose from the following:
Note that the Page Numbers value is overridden by header and footer text options.
For reports only, the Report menu provides the Cell Padding button which opens the Cell Padding dialog box where you can set specific values to control the amount of space inserted between rows and columns in a report. For more information, see How to Utilize Cell Padding in a Report.
For reports only, the Column menu provides the Minimize Column Width button, as shown in the following image.
Minimize Column Width, which is selected by default, limits the width of columns in a report to be no wider than the largest value in each column.
The View tab provides access to query design viewing properties and options in the Design, Application, Data, Query View, and Output Window menus, as shown in the following image.
The View tab provides the following menus and options:
Enables you to toggle between the Query (Design view) and the Interactive (Design view), as shown in the following image.
Selecting Query (Design view) displays the Query Design pane in the Results Panel providing a larger area for creating the query. By default, the Query Design pane displays in the lower half of the Resources Panel. Selecting Interactive (Design view) displays a preview of the query that is being created in the Results Panel. For details, see Understanding the Results Panel.
Provides the Resources button, as shown in the following image, which enables you to choose different viewing options while working with queries and output.
The default view in InfoAssist shows both the Resources Panel and the Results Panel at the same time. Selecting Resources minimizes the Resources Panel and expands the size of the Results Panel to also occupy the area where the Resources Panel normally appears. Note that the Results Panel can display a preview of a query, output of a query, or the Query Design pane.
Enables you to display data source fields in the Data pane using different views labeled Logical, List, and Structured, as shown in the following image.
All three views provide options for displaying each data source field as a Title, Description, or Field name. The List view also includes options to show the Alias and Format of each field. For details, see the View property control menu in the Using the Data Tab.
Provides the Tree (the default), Areas 2x2, and Areas 1x4 buttons to select different views of the Query Design pane, and the Page Head/Foot and Report Head/Foot buttons to add heading and footing fields to the Query Design pane. The following image shows the Query View menu.
The filter and data source field containers in the Query Design pane can be displayed in one of three ways; in a two columns by two rows grid by selecting Areas 2x2, in a one column by four rows grid by selecting Areas 1x4, or in the default data tree, which has no grid, by selecting Tree. For example, the following image shows the Query Design pane when Areas 2x2 is selected for a report query.
You can also add headings and footings to a report or chart query. Select Page Head/Foot to add the Page Heading and Page Footing text fields to the Query Design pane. For reports only, when you select Report Head/Foot, you can also add text fields to the Query Design pane for creating headings that display on the first page of the report and footings that display on the last page of the report. For details, see Using the Query Design Pane in the Results Panel.
Provides the Cascade, Tile Horizontally, Tile Vertically, Switch, Single Tab, New Tab, Single Window, and New Window buttons, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Switch opens a drop-down menu for selecting to view any active output window. Selecting the Cascade, Tile Horizontally, and Tile Vertically buttons enables you to display multiple output windows in several different ways. For example, the following image shows how three output windows can be displayed when you select Tile Vertically.
There are four output target buttons you can select that enable you to direct new output to a Single Tab (the default), New Tab, Single Window, or New Window. For details, see Understanding the Query Output Window.
The Field tab appears in the Control Panel when you select a data source field in the Query Design pane or Layout Canvas. The options available in the Field tab are specific to the data type that is selected. The options available for numeric fields are different from the options available for non-numeric and date fields. The Field tab provides access to the Filter, Sort, Break, Style, Specific, Visibility, and Links menus, as shown in the following image.
The Fields tab provides the following menus and options:
Provides filtering options including Filter, Remove, Include, and Prompt. The Filter menu is shown in the following image.
Selecting Filter opens the Filter dialog box for creating or modifying WHERE statements to select only the data you want and filter out all unwanted data. The following choices are available in the Values drop-down menu:
The following choices are available in the Prompt drop-down menu:
Selecting any Prompt option changes the purpose of the dialog box to creating an auto prompting parameter that can be selected when a query is run. When the Prompt using Data Values (Dynamic) or Prompt using Text Input (Simple) prompting options are selected, the Values drop-down menu is disabled (grayed out). The Filter dialog box is shown in the following image.
When an existing filter is selected in the Filter area of the Query Design pane, selecting Remove removes, but does not delete, the filter from the query. When a filter that was previously removed from a query is selected in the Filter area of the Query Design pane, selecting Include adds the filter back to the query.
Selecting Prompt opens the Filter dialog box for creating an auto prompting parameter that can be selected when a query is run. The Filter dialog box is used to create both filters and auto prompting parameters. The following choices are available in the Prompt drop-down menu:
Selecting the Allow Multiple Values for Prompt button displays a multi-select menu in the output window when you create a dynamic auto prompting parameter for the Product field and then run the query. The Filter dialog box, as shown in the following image, creates a filter that displays a dynamic auto-prompt, when the query is run, for the Product field listing the products you can select.
The following image is an example of the parameter prompting screen that is displayed in the output window when you run a query after creating a dynamic auto prompting parameter for the Product field.
If you select the Allow Multiple Values for Prompt button while creating a dynamic auto prompting parameter, a multi-select menu is displayed when the report is run. Selecting multiple parameter values displays output in the parameter prompting screen, as shown in the following image.
Provides sort options including the default Up (ascending sort), Down (descending sort), and Rank, which is for reports only. Rank adds a new column, to the right of all existing columns, displaying a numeric value to show the ranking of the selected field in each row of the output. The Sort menu is shown in the following image.
For reports only, the Break menu, as shown in the following image, enables you to customize a report query by adding Page Breaks, Line Breaks, Subtotals (for numeric fields only), a Sub Heading, and a Sub Footing to the report output.
Selecting Page Break starts a new page when the primary sort field changes.
Selecting Line Break inserts a line in the report output when the primary sort field changes.
Selecting Sub Head opens a dialog box where you can type text to add a subheading just below the column titles in the report output when the primary sort field changes.
Selecting Sub Foot opens a dialog box where you can type text to add a subfooting at the end of the data on each page of the report output when the primary sort field changes.
Selecting Subtotal inserts a line, total text (TOTAL FIELD Value), and subtotals for all numeric fields when the primary sort field changes.
For more information about creating these types of report queries, see Utilizing Custom Reporting Features.
Provides styling options for report and chart queries. For a selected field in a report, you can customize the font type, font size, font color, and background color. You can also justify text (left, center, right), style fonts (bold, italic, underline), and reset styling back to the default values. You can apply styling to the Data (the default), column Title, or both the Data and column Title for the selected field in a query. The Style menu is shown in the following image.
For more information about styling report queries, see Styling Report Queries.
Provides additional options for a selected field including Data Bars (reports only), Aggregation, and Traffic Lights, as shown in the following image.
For reports only, selecting Data Bars adds a data visualization column to the right of a selected numeric field to display values in each row using horizontal bars that extend from left to right in varying lengths depending on the corresponding data values. For more information, see How to Add Data Visualization Bars to a Report.
Selecting Aggregation opens a drop-down menu, as shown in the following image. The choices are Sum, Average, Count, Percent of Count, First Value, Last Value, Maximum, Minimum, Total, Percent, Row Percent, and Average Square.
Sum is the default aggregation type value for all numeric fields added to the Measure field container in the Query Design pane. Note that changing the Measure field container from Sum to Print, Count, or List overrides all assigned aggregation type values. For more information related to report queries, see How to Display Measure Data Using Aggregation Options in a Report. For more information related to chart queries, see How to Display Measure Data Using Aggregation Options in a Chart.
Selecting Traffic Lights opens the Traffic Light Condition dialog box where you can add new or modify existing conditional styling by applying traffic light (and other) colors to a selected field in the output when the field meets criteria that you specify. For more information related to report queries, see How to Apply Traffic Light Conditional Styling to Data in a Report. For more information related to chart queries, see How to Display Traffic Light Conditional Styling in a Chart.
Enables you to hide or show a selected field in the output. Fields added to a report or chart query are visible in the output by default. Selecting Hidden in the Visibility menu, as shown in the following image, hides the selected field from displaying in the output.
To display a hidden field, select Hidden again.
Enables you to add a hyperlink or drill-down procedure to a selected field in a query by selecting Hyperlink in the Links menu, as shown in the following image.
When Hyperlink is selected, the Drill Down dialog box opens where you can configure a hyperlink or drill-down procedure for the selected field. Clicking that field in report output takes you to the specified URL or executes the specified procedure. The Drill Down dialog box is shown in the following image.
The Series tab, which appears in the Control Panel only when working with chart queries, provides access to charting properties and options in the Properties, Line, and Pie menus, as shown in the following image.
The Series tab provides the following property control menus:
Provides a drop-down menu if you want to select a specific measure field to perform one or more of the options that are available in the Series tab. The default setting is All Series, which applies the selected options to all of the measure fields in the query. The following image shows the Select drop-down menu for a query with four measure fields (Unit Sales, Dollar Sales, Budget Units, Budget Dollars).
Provides the Data Labels, Type, Trendline, and Equation options to further enhance a chart, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Data Labels opens a drop-down menu providing options to select a location to display data values as labels on a chart. The choices are:
For more information, see How to Display Data Labels in a Chart.
Selecting Type opens a drop-down menu providing options to select different types of chart output. The choices are Bar (the default), Line, and Area.
Selecting Trendline opens a drop-down menu, as shown in the following image, that provides options to add a trendline to a chart. The choices are None (the default), Linear, Quadratic, Polynomial, Hyperbolic, Logarithmic, Modified Hyperbolic, Rational, Exponential, Modified Exponential, Log, Quadratic, and Geometric. For more information, see How to Display Trendlines in a Chart.
Selecting Equation displays the selected Trendline’s associated mathematical equation on a chart.
Provides the Smooth Line and Marker options, as shown in the following image.
Selecting Smooth Line draws the chart using smooth lines. For more information, see How to Display Smooth Lines in a Chart.
Selecting Marker enables you to change the display of the default square data markers on a chart. In the drop-down menu that opens, as shown in the following image, the data marker display options are None, Square, Circle, Diamond, Plus, Triangle Down, Triangle Up, Triangle, Right, Triangle Left, Pirate Plus, House, Hexagon, Fat X, Five Star, Six Star, Hourglass, Sideways Hourglass, and Line. For more information, see How to Customize the Display of Markers in a Chart.
Provides options to Expand or Hide slices in a pie chart, as shown in the following image.
The Pie menu is activated only when Pie is selected in the Chart Types menu of the Format tab.
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