|
|
||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Marketcircle 
Forums Extending Daylite Building Reports and Print Layouts Using Forms data in reports - Need help or documentation
Forums Extending Daylite Building Reports and Print Layouts Using Forms data in reports - Need help or documentation|
Go
|
New
|
Find
|
Notify
|
Tools
|
Reply
|
|
|
Journeyman |
The training videos regarding the reports module are out-of-date, inaccurate and incomplete, particularly with regard to how to pull in data into your report. I had to buy a support contract because the documentation is simply not sufficient. However, I still ran into difficulty as I will explain below.
I spoke at length today with someone in support, trying to find out how to get data into my reports, most particularly, using Forms Data in the reports. The support rep himself tried hard but had insufficient knowledge of the reports module to really advise me on how this works. He was running into his own questions, trying to figure things out himself on-the-fly. At one point the support rep mentioned that this was TRAINING, not SUPPORT. I told him that this is not correct, because the software itself is not intuitive enough for a user to figure out on his own and (this is the main point) there is no current, complete and accurate DOCUMENTATION for the operation of the reports module. If Marketcircle does not document the software, it is not a matter of "training" that I have to go do somewhere else, it is a matter of Marketcircle's obligation to provide me with the missing information via Support until such time as the documentation is up to speed. I cannot "train" myself, nor can anyone else "train" me, on information that does not exist! Please provide me with the documentation that I can study on my own, or, failing that, give me the one-on-one support I need in order to be able to use the program. This is the minimum level of service a software company should provide to their customers. A customer should not have to go hire a consultant to explain something that should be documented in a manual or detailed writeup. (Furthermore, a consultant is not likely to be able to explain the reports module in its current state if he's never seen the documentation on it himself!). I have requested AJ to please call me ASAP to help take me through the procedures that the support rep could not, so I can get a rapid handle on this reports module. I checked elsewhere on the forum and the threads concerining this were incomplete or not resolved and so did not provide me the information I needed. If someone on this forum has a detailed explanation of how the current reports module works, particularly how to use forms data, please share this with me now. Thanks very much! |
||
|
|
Apprentice |
I am fairly sure this requires F-script. Would love to be proven wrong. Are you a programmer?
If so or for the benefit of anyone who is, this is as far as I got. form_type is set to the name of the form definition; the script returns a set of filled-out form data. You should be able to pull the return values into a table. Honestly I have not used this in 1-2 months and don't remember the process from within the report editor. "Get an array of forms of the same type" form_type := 'Organization details'. all := objectContext objectsForEntityNamed:'CustomRecordSetDefinition'. definition := ((all at:(all name=form_type)) at: 0). forms := definition customRecordSets distinct. forms |
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
Just found this snippet as well. This would go in a script element in a dynamic text in a table cell in a table feeding from the above data source. I think.
Replace at:0 with the numeric index of the form question you want in that cell. "Table cell for a table feeding from the above" (((element valueForKeyPath:'parent.data.object') customRecords) at:0) humanReadableRecordValue Would be nice if this were more user-friendly. |
|||
|
|
Journeyman |
Thanks, Jason, but no, I am not a programmer. I understand from speaking with Adam at Marketcircle that they are working on the reports module to make it more user-friendly. Adam suggested that I contact one of the Marketcircle Master Partners for training - I did so, but the Partner said that the reports module is so complex that the Partner called it "untrainable." Thus this Partner would not train me on how to create reports, although she WOULD offer to create FOR me any report that I might need. So the ball is in Marketcircle's court, to make this module useable by non-programmers who don't want to have to pay developers to create reports. I am glad to hear that some action is being take in on this.
|
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
Hello, just wondering if anyone has looked into this problem anymore. The ability to create custom forms to add non-conventional data sets into daylite is quite powerful. For example we have 2 forms added to contacts: "Bug Reports" and Software Registration". The info that goes into this form for both of the sets of data works fine and can be searched with a smart-list, but there seems to be no easy way to create a summary report of all registrations in the last 30 days for example, or all open bug reports (open is a check box field) - anyone with any guidance or sample reports or scripts to help me with this issue would be much appreciated.
|
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
I have 25 years of IT experience and I cannot fathom how to do some fairly simple things with the report. I have read the manual and spent about 3 hours exploring it. I am a programmer and have written in probably a dozen programming languages, but without documentation this is impossible to figure out. I just watched all of the training videos and they barely get started on what is in there. In the videos which show access to the data via the object model its fairly clear that the guy narrating the video's doesn't really understand what he is doing either! Or if he does, he's glossing over the important details. I wonder if it might be simpler to use SQL to directly access the tables in the database to use these forms. While this might involve writing some client code to call the SQL I can think that this would be easier than trying to learn the innards of the system and f-script. Note that the problem is not simply of learning f-script... you need to understand how the object model works 'under the hood' to know what the script can ask for. |
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
|
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
I have read the discussions and am still trying fathom if there is an answer here. In creating a custom form, how do you import data into the appropriate field?
|
|||
|
|
Pro |
Any word on making forms easier?
|
|||
|
|
Journeyman |
Granted, the information is far from sufficient, but with the posts already in the forums, I was able to do exactly what I wanted to do, without the use of F-scripts.
Should creating reports be easier? I think so, but this is like buying FMP and expecting to figure out how it works and creating a custom solution without a developer. This is close to impossible, unless one spends oodles of time and is inclined to learn this stuff. For example, I will be contacting a developer to connect my FMP solution, billings and DL and I didn't expect documentation to be that readily available. Some things are best left with the pros. If your business hinges on a well designed database and reporting system, I wouldn't tackle anything that could come back and bite me in the rear because I decided that I could do it myself. Just my 2 cents. |
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
I too needed to put some form data on a report. I managed to do so following some instructions from another post.
However, I can't sort the report by any of the form fields. Any help? |
|||
|
|
Apprentice |
The original post on this thread is March 2007. Nineteen months later and the videos are still out of date and the manual is incredibly insufficient. I am testing this system out in trail mode now. But if I need everyone in my office to know what "F-scripts", SQL, and FMP just tp make a report and there is no support/manual available then I can't recommend using it for my firm.
Is Marketcircle ever going to fix this? It make me wonder if the new iPhone app will be useable. It crtainly won't have any manual to use. Is there any help out there? I just want to make a simple report of current open opportunities. It's even a preset report but I still have to select data user input... who knows how that is done. |
|||
|
| Previous Topic | Next Topic | powered by eve community |
 | Please Wait. Your request is being processed... |
|
|||
| Site | Marketcircle Forums | ||
| Servlet | eve2da013 | ||
| Version | 1.2.22 build 9062 | ||
| Module | Forums 4.0.3 | ||
| Stylesheet | "Marketcircle" | ||
| Wordlet Set | "Default Wordlet Set" | ||
|
Marketcircle Forums Extending Daylite Building Reports and Print Layouts Using Forms data in reports - Need help or documentation
Forums Extending Daylite Building Reports and Print Layouts Using Forms data in reports - Need help or documentation