Video demonstrations

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Fri May 13, 2016 9:28 pm

UI introduction

Initially, we planned to release the first version of Report Workshop without user interface for report designing, only a report generation part.
Later, we reconsidered this decision. It was wrong from many points of view. Even if a report designer is not necessary for some kinds of applications, it is ideal for studying and demonstrating the components. Instead of reading countless help topics, you can overview the possibilities in several dialogs, play with options and see how they affect the results.

The first version of report designing user interface does not include:
- localization (only English); later, it will be translated to all languages supported by RichViewActions
- support for report variables
- UI for editing merge fields (a simple helper for adding fields is added in the demo, but it is too basic and does not support defining field types and format strings)
Also, data query editors are very simple - a plain text field with a helper allowing to insert a table or a field name.
In future updates, we will improve these areas. Otherwise, the UI is complete.
The release was delayed because of the UI development.

Video demonstrations/lessons

We thought about the most efficient way to show possibilities of Report Workshop, and finally decided to make videos.
Many of us hate videos about software, because they are usually created to steal viewers' time.
Our videos will be as short as possible and without annoying voice.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Fri May 13, 2016 9:39 pm

Video 1: Basic report
https://youtu.be/s_Xy20ls9t0?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc (sorry, no embedding is possible in the forum)
This video shows how to create two simple reports.
The both of them show "Biolife" table.
In the first example, fields are added to the main text, and a data query is defined for the whole document.
In the second example, a table is used.

PS: glyphs for new commands are in development; text buttons are used temporarily

PPS: subscribe to our Youtube channel for more videos.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Mon May 16, 2016 9:06 pm

Video 2: Master/detail reports, part I
https://youtu.be/sKiXy-_v4tM?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc
(Master: document, detail: table rows)

Video 3: Master/detail reports, part II
https://youtu.be/91SKyVtC2LI?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc
(Master: table rows, detail: cell.
Master: table rows, detail: nested table rows)

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Tue May 17, 2016 3:27 pm

Video 4: Master/detail reports, part III
https://youtu.be/q2ppITlegN8?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

The third video about making master/detail reports in Report Workshop.
It contains two examples:
1) Master/detail report using nested table row generation rules. In all other examples, a detail content was nested in a master content (a table in a document, a cell in a table, a table in a table cell). In this example, the content is flat (the same table), but the master and the details rules are logically nested.
2) Master/detail using cross tabulation.
It's quite an unusual use of a cross tabulation. Normally, it is used to display a relation between two groups of data as a matrix. Here, the same data are used both for cross-tab rows and columns, and detail reports are created in their intersections. As a result, data are organized in columns.
To prevent making a too wide table, we use only 8 records from the master table.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Thu May 19, 2016 11:03 am

Video 5: Master/detail reports, part IV
https://youtu.be/wpvGlvL20GU?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

This video summarizes the previous master/detail videos by making a complex report.
It creates 4-level report, with two different data queries on the third level:

Code: Select all

1. Continents
  2. Countries
    3.1. Districts
      4. Cities
    3.2. Languages

Also, it shows additional features:
- using the conditional commend ($IF) to display official languages in bold text; note that the field in condition is not a Boolean field, but a string field containing "T" and "F" strings. Conditional statements in Report Workshop can evaluate several typical string values, such as "T"/"F", "yes"/"no", "on"/"off".
- using column copying feature to display languages in 4 columns.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Sun May 22, 2016 1:22 pm

Video 6: color scales
https://youtu.be/rlHIdf4SaOc?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

This video shows how to visualize values using color shades.
A similar feature can be found in Microsoft Excel (Conditional formatting, Color scales). But in Report Workshop:
- you can define not only colors, but also opacities;
- an expression to visualize is not necessary the same as a visible text.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Tue May 24, 2016 7:13 pm

Video 7: visualization of numeric values
https://youtu.be/IupEcrFWRsk?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

This video shows how to visualize numeric values using diagrams.

A similar feature can be found in Microsoft Excel (Conditional formatting, Data bars and Icon sets).

However:
- Report Workshop does not use predefined icons, it draws diagrams itself; so diagrams are highly customizable and can be printed in high quality;
- an expression to evaluate and visualize is specified separately, it is not necessary the same as the cell text.

PS: in this video, the maximal value for pie diagrams (for country area size in percent) is calculated automatically. So they show values in percent of the size of the largest country (Russian Federation), not in percent of the total size. To display the correct percent, the maximal value must be set to 100 manually (in the diagram editing dialog).

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Wed May 25, 2016 2:10 pm

Video 8: Cross-tabulation, part I
https://youtu.be/CvT_d5_uQfA?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

In cross-tab reports, you associate a group of data with columns, another group of data with rows, and show their relation in the intersection.

This video shows how to build the simplest one level report (columns are identified by a single field).
Then it shows how to create summary columns and rows.
And finally, it shows how to use diagrams (i.e. value visualizers) in cross-tab reports.

Note: some database engines allow making cross tabulations using their own SQL syntax extensions. Report Workshop does not require it, it builds cross-tabs itself. This video does not use SQL at all.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Fri May 27, 2016 6:17 am

Video 9: Cross tabulation, part II
https://youtu.be/UgJ_K7BJ8x0?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

This videos continues the previous one (it uses the same source data and initial table template layout).
It shows how to:
- make two data columns
- make a two-level cross tabulation
- add sub-summary column (summarizing data for the first level of cross-tab)

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Tue May 31, 2016 12:27 pm

Video 10, Cross tabulation, part III, where you learn about how many people across the world sing in the bathroom.

https://youtu.be/RjJX9KH8xgg?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

If seriously, this video shows how to create a cross-tab report, where columns and data are taken from different tables.
At the end of this video, we create a large report (you can see the results as HTML: http://www.trichview.com/support/forumfiles/survey.html )

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Tue May 31, 2016 3:51 pm

Video 11: Calendar

https://youtu.be/1mDX23v4SJ0?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

The video shows to make a calendar using a custom data query processor, column copying, and cross tabulation
You can see the result as HTML: http://www.trichview.com/support/forumf ... endar.html

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Fri Jun 10, 2016 9:01 pm

Video 12: Field types and formats

https://youtu.be/s93hKdZZHis?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc

The final video before the release: how to type-cast fields and how to apply format strings.

You can also see that reporting commands got new icons.

Post by **Sergey Tkachenko** » Mon Nov 14, 2016 9:28 am

Video 13: Hypertext table of contents

https://youtu.be/_I3NfCSZ-uk?list=PLAJh ... B4UxTBmxYc