Inserting a Special Field

The JADE Report Writer Designer application provides a set of special fields that you can use in your reports.

Special fields include standard content fields; for example, date, time, and page number, as well as various fixed reporting fields (for example, report title and description).

If the Special Fields folder is not opened up in the Catalog of Available Fields dialog, click the box at the left of the Special Fields folder to open up the folder. The field items in the folder are then displayed and the plus sign (+) in the box is replaced with a minus sign (-).

To insert a special field

The special field is then placed at the point at which it was dropped, as shown in the following image in which the Report Date field has been inserted into the Report Header section.

Some special fields contain system settings; for example, the Report Date field contains the current date. Other special fields require you to have previously entered the appropriate detail.

The following table lists each special field with a brief description.

Special Field Description
Report Date Automatically provides the current date.
Report Time Automatically provides the current time.
Report Name Automatically provides the report name.
Report Description Provides the report description. Requires you to have previously entered a description in the Report Properties dialog. For details, see "Setting Report Properties" under "Using Administrative Functions", earlier in this chapter.
Page Number Automatically provides page numbering.
Page n of m Automatically provides the current page (n) of total pages (m).
Total Pages Automatically provides the total number of pages in the report.
Group Field Name Provides the current group field name. Requires you to have created a group section. For details, see "Creating Groups", later in this chapter. This field has no effect if you attempt to drag and drop it into a non-group section or if you drag and drop it into an unrelated group.
Group Field Alias Provides the current group field alias. Requires you to have created a group section. For details, see "Creating Groups", later in this chapter. This field has no effect if you attempt to drag and drop it into a non-group section or if you drag and drop it into an unrelated group.
Reporting View Name Automatically provides the name of the reporting view on which your report is based.
Profile Name Automatically provides the profile name (the selected profile when the report is printed) that is displayed in the Profile field at the top left of your layout.
Profile Description Requires you to have previously entered a description in the Profile Properties dialog. For details, see "Creating or Maintaining Profiles" under "Using Administrative Functions", earlier in this chapter.
System Name Returns the name of the system from the global.jadeReportWriterSystemName method. You can reimplement the System Name special field, which defaults to null (""), in your user schemas to return any value that you require; for example, to return an overall system identifier for use in report or page headers.
Application Name Returns the name of the application from the app.jadeReportWriterAppName method. You can reimplement the Application Name special field, which defaults to the name of the application of the receiver, in your user schemas to return any value that you require; that is, to return a system identifier that may depend on the current JADE application or user.
User ID Automatically provides your user id.