Creating a Report DataPage

On the next screen you can configure the following. Most of these settings can be changed later easily:

• • Select a Table or View that will be the primary data source for your DataPage.
  • Name your DataPage or use the suggested name.
  • Select a Style or use the default. It determines the formatting and colors of your DataPage but can be changed easily later.
  • Select a Localization or use the default. It determines DataPage time zone, formatting for numbers, currency and date, and language of DataPage messages. You can always edit or create a new Localization object and easily change the localization of any DataPage.
  • Restrict access to this DataPage based on an Authentication or Connection. Without this option, the DataPage will be accessible without any restriction.
    • Authentication: Authorized users will be able to access the DataPage after successfully signing in. Learn more about Authentications.
    • Connection: Public users will be able to access your DataPage using their social profile account (Google, Twitter, etc.). This is not a security feature. Learn more about Connections.
  • Enable or disable AJAX loading. For more information, see AJAX Loading.
  • Leave the Enable responsive checkbox as selected. Responsive DataPages dynamically adapt to various screen sizes for mobile and tablet-friendly display.

On the next screen, you can choose whether data is filtered via an interactive search form or predefined criteria. You can allow users to use a search form to perform ad hoc searches. When you use a search form, you can display the search form and results on separate screens or display the search form above the results.

The Display results on initial load option makes it possible to automatically display default-criteria results before users perform a search.

On the other hand, a Search Form with pre-defined criteria or no criteria at all displays data based on your configuration. For example, you can use the pre-defined criteria to show all records “Pending” to be approved.

If a Report DataPage is restricted through an Authentication or a Connection, you will also have the option to enable Record Level Security, which when configured, can restrict a user to only see the records authorized to them. For example when building a report for a CRM application you can use this feature to let each sales person only see their contacts and not the contacts of other sales people. Learn more about Record Level Security.

Configuring the Search Form

In our example, we checked Show Search Form and Results on a new page. Because we did not assign an Authentication or Connection in the prior screen, the Record Level Security option is not displayed.

On the next screen we can select the search fields that we want to make available to our app users. The search form requires at least one search field.

In this example, Business_Name and Category fields are selected.

On the next screen we can configure the properties of each search field. Select a field from the DataPage Elements list on the left and configure its properties on the right.

You can also insert other elements into your search form using the Insert button . Options include:

• New Criteria – insert new criteria on a field to filter the field by two boundaries. For example for a Date field you can have two Criteria, FROM and TO so users can search for records that fall within a specific date range. Or, in a predefined criteria report, you can use multiple criteria on a field such as State to filter records from multiple states simultaneously, such as Customers that are in California or in Nevada.
• New Section – allows you to segment a large form into sections. Within a section you can define specific properties such as number of columns in which fields are organized, and label positioning.
• HTML Block – these blocks are used to insert snippets of HTML or JavaScript code. Common use cases are for subtitles or helpful instructions within a form.
• Virtual Field – these fields work like other form elements but are not bound to the underlying table. Common use cases in search forms are to capture information that is for displaying on the next page or for passing to other DataPages or apps.
• Header & Footer – these work similar to HTML Blocks except that they are fixed to the top and bottom of the DataPage and are outside the DataPage container.
• CAPTCHA – human verification mechanism that is used to prevent programmatic access to your DataPage, such as by bots used for data harvesting.
• Distance Search – if your account includes this feature, this option allows you to add proximity search capability to your DataPage.

On the Standard tab, you can configure properties such as the field label, form element type and comparison type. Other options depend on the field data type and the form element chosen. Additional options include whether a field is required or not, acceptable range of values, the visual size of the field and the acceptable number of characters, etc.

In this example, we have added Header and Footer to the search form in order to add a title. We have left all other settings at their defaults.

For Business_Name field we have chosen form element Text and comparison type Contains. For Category field we have used a dropdown with comparison type set to Equal. Learn how to add an “Any” option to the top of a dropdown or listbox.

On the Advanced tab, you can configure the following properties:

Field Options

• Placeholder – text that is displayed inside the input field before the user has entered anything.
• Hint – used for short helpful information about the field. When used, a help icon appears next to the label of the field. By hovering over this icon the user can see a short help.

Layout Options

• By default, every form field starts on a new line. Check Continue next element on same line to place multiple fields on one line. Also note that you can use Columns in Sections to organize fields of the section in properly aligned columns. Learn more about multi-column and section options.
• The Label position option allows you to override the setting inherited from the section.

External Associations and Defaults

The options under External Associations and Defaults are advanced topics that are not used in most Reports. They allow you to assign default values for your fields, receive or pass parameters, and customize or edit parameter names.

• To set a default value or receive a parameter in a field, enable the On load option by checking Receive value or parameter. Enter a default value in the space provided or you can choose to receive App Parameters, External Parameters, System Parameters, Authenticated Fields, and Connection Fields.
• To pass a parameter to the next page, enable the On exit option by checking Pass field value as parameter and enter the parameter name. The placeholder text in gray shows you how parameter names should be entered.

On the Rules tab, you can define conditional behavior to hide, show, require or disable fields based on conditions. Learn more about Rules.

On the Logic tab, you can configure the logical operators between the search criteria.

The default operator between all the search form fields or criteria is AND, which means that records in the results set meet all the criteria. However, the Logic tab provides you with an unlimited way to create complex logic in the way the search works.

The Logic tab has an element list on the left and a canvas on the right. Initially all your search fields are grouped in a big AND as it is the default and most common behavior. The logic elements have a small dropdown that can be changed from AND to OR and vice versa. You can drag and drop additional search elements. Note that only the search elements you have previously selected are available to use in the Logic tab. If you need additional criteria on field you must first add it in the Elements tab, and if you need to add or remove fields you must go back one screen.

The logic tab must be correctly setup and there should be no disconnected elements or operators or you won’t be able to leave the tab.

To delete an object on the Logic tab, drag it to the trash icon. If the outline of the object turns red when it’s over the trash icon, it is an indication that the object cannot be deleted on this screen and you must remove it from the Elements tab. Every field must be used at least once.

At any time you can click on the Reset button in the Logic tab to return to the original state of the criteria before you started editing.

Note: Some Unicode characters such as emoji are ignored in the search criteria.