Static Reports

A static report is a report that is run immediately upon request and then stored, with the data, in the Data Warehouse. (This differs from a dynamic report, where only the information needed to create the report is stored in the Data Warehouse.) You can post static reports to your Web site, and you can export the data in a static report to the List Manager module in Business Desk.

Use the Reports module to run static reports, and use the Completed Reports module to view them.

Using static reports, you view reports based on very large data sets, although static reports that are run on very large data sets can take a long time to complete. While the report is running, the status of the report is shown as "Pending" in the Completed Reports module. When you open a completed static report, it opens as an HTML document in a new Microsoft Internet Explorer browser window.

Exporting Static Reports to List Manager: Static and Dynamic Lists

You can export the results of a static report as a static list or a dynamic list to the List Manager module in Campaigns. There are two types of lists:

• Static list. The static list in List Manager contains the same data that was in the static report when you ran it; however, a static report is limited to 1,000 rows in the resulting HTML report. You can export an unlimited number of rows as a list.

• Dynamic list. A dynamic list contains a pointer to the static report. For example, if you export the New Registered Users report, you use the Run a Report dialog box to configure the parameters of the report. If you select "last month" for the date of the report, the data exported as a list will be for the previous month.

  If you exported the report as a dynamic list, the report definition and parameters are stored in List Manager. Each time the dynamic list is run it shows data for the month preceding the current month, for example, data for June is returned if you run the list in July.

  List Manager retrieves the latest data from the Data Warehouse to create a dynamic list. However, if you exported the report as a static list (as opposed to a dynamic list) in June and selected "last month," the data in the list will always be for May, regardless of when you open the list.

The following figure illustrates a sample workflow for exporting static reports to List Manager.

Customizing the Results of a Static Report

You use the static report properties in the Running a Report dialog box to customize the results of a static report. You can change or enter new values for any parameter on which the report is based. For example, you can limit the Registered User Properties report to show properties for only the 25 most recently registered users. For example:

• If you run a report that has a date parameter, you can select an exact date, a date range, or a relative date, such as last year.
• If you run a static report that has an expression parameter, you can select from a full set of operands to create the expression you want.

After you run a static report, you cannot modify the report results in the browser window. However, you can use the functions of Internet Explorer to print the report or to save it as a file, just as you would with any HTML file. For information about the features of Internet Explorer, see Internet Explorer Help.

Note

• To create a custom static report, you or your site developer uses SQL scripts. For more information about sample scripts and tools for static reports, see ''Business Analytics Samples'' in Commerce Server 2002 Help.

See Also

Reports Accessing OLAP Cubes and SQL Server

Scripts for Securing Databases Accessed by Reports

Commerce Server 2002 Reports

Running Reports

Exporting a Dynamic Report

Creating a New Dynamic Report Definition

Viewing Dynamic Reports

Exporting a Static Report

Viewing Static Reports

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