Report Desk: Developing a Customer-Specific Base Report by Using License Field

Release Date: 5/20/2023

Revised Date: 09/21/2023

Versions: V8.6

Background

Users can always customize a Netcellent-developed "base" report. When the requirement is for a relatively simple variation on an existing report, sometimes Netcellent staff members can also make this kind of customization for the customer. There is a simple process to follow:

     https://support.netcellent.com/portal/en/kb/articles/report-desk-developing-custom-reports .

On the other hand, users cannot customize the template that is the SQL script for the Netcellent base reports. Netcellent sometimes needs to be able to create a unique template with a base report but with some aspect that is unique to a particular customer or list of customers.  This template and base report would not make sense to most customers. Hence, we should limit this base report to that specific customer, or to a few other customers that may benefit from that report.

In this document, we outline the procedure to create a base report that's custom for a specific user based on their Elliott License number.

To do this, a Netcellent developer will first create a template.  Then he/she will create a new "B" (Base or Standard) or "E" (Enhanced) report based on that template and then restrict its use to specific customers.  To do that, set the ELIRD Report Desk Debug registry entity to indicate proper value.  That allows for entering the license numbers of the customers that will see the report. See sample screen below:

The License field will only be visible to Netcellent and enhancement developers.  One can enter a single customer license or a comma-separated list of customer licenses.  The report gets saved as a "B" report. It will only be visible to customers whose license number is in the list.

Since this is a "base" report, this report will be distributed to all Elliott 8.6 users.  But only the users with the matching license code will be able to see this report.

When a Netcellent staff member or a developer creates this custom report, he/she should follow the following principles:

1. Netcellent License Code BSS046 should always be part of the License field. This is because Netcellent will need to support the custom mod when customers call us.
   
2. The report title should indicate that this is a custom mod with customer's name. In the above example, we use "Elbe Open Quote Statistics" to indicate this is a custom report for user "Elbe."

Programs: ELEMAIL.vb, UDRDesign.vb

JEG, EMK

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