Control-D/WebAccess Server Logical Views

Logical Views enable you to alter the appearance of the report when you view reports in Excel format. You can use the Logical View Editor tool or the CopyLV utility to define and save Logical Views. You can define more than one Logical View for the same report. Logical Views enable you to do the following:

  • Manipulate the appearance of a reports.
  • Define data preferences.
  • Export a report to an excel file.

A company can use Logical Views to customize the presentation of a sales and distribution report for specific roles, such as sales analysts and financial managers. Logical Views alter the appearance and highlight or hide data based on end-users' needs, including row and column adjustments, as well as adding labels, colors, and overlays. The report's content remains unaltered; only the appearance transforms for different roles or purposes when you apply one or more Logical Views to the same report. You can also convert the report with the applied Logical View into an Excel document (.xls) for further analysis.

Logical views do not alter the original report.

The following procedures describe how to define and use Logical Views:

Creating a Logical View

This procedure describes how to create a Logical View on the Control-D/WebAccess Server Web Application, which enables you to alter the appearance of a report for further analysis.

Begin

  1. From the Report List window, in the Report Name column, click a selected report.

    The report appears.

  2. From the drop-down list, select Logical View and click Create.

    The Control-D/WebAccess Server Web Application downloads a <report name>.jnlp file.

  3. Select the <report name>.jnlp file and click Run.

    The Control-D/Logical View Editor window appears.

    The Run option uses Web Start to launch the Logical View Editor. To ensure that you can use this option, check what Java version you are using:

    • Java version earlier than 11: The Java release contains Java Web Start.

    • Java 11 or later: Download and install OpenWebStart to enable running the Logical View Editor.

  4. To manipulate a report, do the following:

    1. Use the Ruler and select a desired area in the report.

    2. From the toolbar, click Insert and select one of the following options, as described in Logical View Editor Parameters.

  5. To define Data Preferences, do the following:

    1. From the toolbar, click Tools and select Preferences.

      The Preferences window appears.

    2. Select any of the available checkboxes as required.

  6. To define an Export Definition and export a report in .xls format, do the following:

    1. From the toolbar, click Tools and select Export Definition.

      The report appears in a spreadsheet.

    2. From the left pane, click any of the following options to edit the spreadsheet:

      • Clear All Definitions.

      • Format Cells.

      • Exclude

      • Include

    3. Adjust the column width and rows heights as required.

  7. From the toolbar, click File, and select Save.

    The Save As window appears.

  8. In the Logical View Name field, type a name for the logical view.

  9. Select the Save as export definition checkbox.

  10. Click OK.

    A Logical View is created.

Logical View Editor Parameters

The following table describes the Logical View Editor Parameters.

Parameter

Description

Hide

Hides selected areas of a report.

Text

Adds a specific text to a specific area.

Fill Down

Copies text from rows within a selected area to blank rows directly under the text.

Fill Text

Fills a selected area with a specified text.

Unique

Removes subsequent occurrences of repeated text.

Label

Adds a label to a selected field.

Freeze

Freezes selected text in place when you scroll through a report.

Mask

Includes or excludes report lines, based show/hide criteria.

Overlay

Inserts a predefined graphic overlay into your report.

Re-edit

Enables you to re-edit an existing logical view.

Blank Columns

Inserts blank columns in a report.

Blank Lines

Inserts blank lines in a report.

Applying a Logical View

This procedure describes how to apply an existing Logical View to a report, which enables you to alter the appearance of a report.

Begin

  1. From the Report List window, in the Report Name column, click a selected report.

    The report appears.

  2. From the drop-down list, select Logical View and select an item from the Logical Views List.

    The report refreshes and applies the selected Logical View, which enhances the report.