Figure 1: Data Sources Tab
Available data source(s)
Here you can access a dropdown menu in which all added and configured data sources like databases or text file logs can be selected.
Add
Click this button to add the selected data source form the "Available data source(s)" box to the "Data source(s) in use" box. This function is for specifying which data source(s) are used for this custom report you are currently configuring. It's up to you if you want a single source to be included in the report or if you want multiple sources to be included.
New / Data Source Wizard
A click will open the Data Source Setup Wizard. Here you can add and choose from different kind of database structures like simple text file logs, access database or MS SQL and MySQL databases.
Figure 2: Data Source Wizard startup screen
Figure 3: name and type of data source
In this screen of the wizard you can choose a screen name for your data source. Keep in mind that it is always useful to choose meaningful names so that you don't get confused if you have to change some options later and need to edit the settings for a specific database. Second option you can configure here is what kind of data source you want to use. You can choose between text files, MS SQL, MYSQL and Access databases. Click "Next" to proceed or "Cancel" to discontinue the configuring process. Depending on which type of data source you chose (database or text file) you will be forwarded to Figure 4 (db) or Figure 5 (text file).
Figure 4: Access informations for the chosen database type
If you chose a database as data source you will encounter this screen (Figure 4). Here you have to insert the databases' DSN, and your login Information (assuming they are set in your database). By default the settings for "Table" and "Property Table" are set like above. Of course you can change these settings to access different data, too. Just hit next again for the next step.
Figure 5: Location information for text file
If you chose a text file as source for your reports, then you will see this screen. You only have to enter the correct location of the file(s). Insert the correct path and filename for that. If you have multiple log files in there, e.g. one file for each week or day, then you can use wildcards as parameters to access these files. You can choose from the following list:
* Zero or more characters
? Zero or exactly one character
%Y Year with 4 digits
%y Year with 2 digits
%m Month with two digits
%d Day of month with two digits
That way you can easily select multiple files with a different timestamp without making a whole list or choosing a complete directory. For the time being wildcards are restricted to those listed here. Filenames could look like this:
test-2006-10-23.log
A corresponding filename with wildcards could look like this:
test-2006-10-%d.log
This one would be responsible for all logs that have a timestamp for octobre 2006 and the appropriate prefix.
Figure 6: Chosing the data format to use
In Figure 6 you can now see a list of different data source format. Choose the one corresponding to the device that created the logs you want to make a report of. Of course you "could" use multiple format setups all at once, but this is not recommended due to performance issues appearing when doing that. This screen is also shown for the textfile data source. The data source formats listed here are the only available at the moment. Keep in mind that db stands for database and text file represents logs in a text file. You cannot make windows reports with a text file log. More formats are yet to be implemented.
Figure 7: summary of the setup
Before finishing the setup you get a summary of the setup you made. Here you get once more all the information about the configuration you just created. You should check it before finishing the setup. If you found an option set false you can use the "back" button to go back and correct this. Keep in mind that you can do the settings once more by pressing the edit button.
Figure 8: Finishing the setup
Here you get a final result of your data source setup. Check the report if everything went OK and then just click finish. Now you have created your first Data Source. You can choose it now from the data sources dropdown menu and include it in your custom report preferences.
Edit
This Button will open the Data Source Wizard again to reconfigure the setup of the selected data source. There are two things different to the "create" wizard.
Figure 9: Choose the Data Source
1. The first difference is, that the first step you have to take is to choose which of your configured Data Sources you want to edit. For this you get this screen (Figure 8) with a dropdown menu to choose from. When you have done this simply click "Next" to proceed.
Figure 10: change the Data Source type
2. The second difference is that you cannot edit the Name of your Data Source (Fig. 9). Here you can see that the name is grey, which means that this information field is neither accessible nor editable.
Delete
The Delete button brings up the wizard that deletes the data sources which you don't need anymore. For this you get a dropdown menu again (like in Fig.9) from which you can choose the Data Source configuration you want to delete. Hit next to proceed.
Remove
Will remove the selected item from "Data source(s) in use". Just highlight the data source in the list an click the button. This removes the Data Source from the list that would else be used to create the report.
Data source(s) in use
Here all data sources used for this report are displayed.