Bursting Reports Overview

How to:

Reference:

When bursting separates a single report into multiple HTML files, each file contains all the requested information for one specific value of the sort field. By providing direct access to different sections of your report, this technique enables you to:

Note: When you are bursting reports in Developer Studio, you must run the request remotely against a WebFOCUS Server.


Top of page

x
Syntax: How to Burst Reports Into Multiple HTML Files
ON sortfield PCSEND LOCATION dir [AS burstname] FORMAT HTML

where:

sortfield

Specifies the sort field based upon which bursting will occur. Each burst file will contain report output for only one sort group.

You can burst reports based on the value of the first sort field only. You cannot burst reports based on the value of subsequent sort fields.

You can burst a report into a maximum of 10,000 separate files. Therefore, you can burst a report only if the number of individual values of the first sort field does not exceed 10,000.

PCSEND

Initiates bursting. You can only use one PCSEND command in a request.

dir

Specifies the location on the web server where the HTML index file and report files are stored. The LOCATION parameter is required and must specify a directory from which the web server reads HTML files. There is no default.

On UNIX, Windows, and OpenVMS platforms, the directory value must specify a fully qualified directory path.

Note for z/OS Web390 users: On z/OS platforms, the directory value must specify the ddname of an allocated PDS. No dynamic allocation of datasets is provided. The PDS is allocated to a ddname other than the Web390 standard WWWHTM. The alternate ddname must be WWWxxx, where xxx are any three alphanumeric characters. The Web390 web server requires an entry in its mime table to recognize the allocated PDS as having HTML output.

If the LOCATION parameter specifies an invalid directory or specifies a directory that cannot be written to, an error message is returned.

burstname

Specifies the name of the HTML index file, which contains a list of hyperlinks to the bursted HTML report files. The hyperlinks to the bursted HTML report files will be numbered from 0 to 9999. If no file name is specified for the HTML index file, the default name is HOLD.

Each bursted HTML report file will use the first four characters of the index file name, followed by numerics 0000 through 9999.

Note: The report request can contain display fields with missing values. The report request can also contain NOPRINT fields. For details, see Handling Records With Missing Field Values.


Top of page

x
Reference: Rules for Headings and Footings on Index Pages and Bursted Reports

For details on including heading and footings in reports, see Using Headings, Footings, Titles, and Labels.



Example: Bursting a Report

The following report procedure creates an HTML report output file for each different REGION value in the GGSALES data source. The report output files are named test0000.html, test0001.html, test0002.html, and so forth. The HTML index page is named test.html and contains a hyperlink for each REGION data value. The directory you select depends on where WebFOCUS is installed. In this example, the index page is stored in the directory e:\ibi\WebFOCUS435\temp.

TABLE FILE GGSALES
HEADING
"Regional Report"
SUM UNITS AND DOLLARS
BY REGION BY STCD BY CATEGORY
ON TABLE SET PAGE NOPAGE
ON TABLE SUBHEAD
"Year-end Sales:"
"Regional Summary by Store"
ON REGION PCSEND LOCATION E:\IBI\WebFOCUS435\temp AS TEST FORMAT HTML
END

After running this request, no report output is returned, but the following message displays if the request was successful:

The bursted files were successfully created.

Separate HTML files are created for each value of the major sort field REGION and are stored in the location specified in the request.

The HTML index page created by the procedure follows:

Selecting the Midwest hyperlink displays the following HTML report:

Regional Report
  
Region
Store ID
Category
Unit Sales
Dollar Sales
Midwest
R1019
Coffee
    113253
     1393610
 
 
Food
    107615
     1351523
 
 
Gifts
     78869
      969845
 
R1020
Coffee
    109581
     1398779
 
 
Food
    118068
     1522847
 
 
Gifts
     79932
     1002775
 
R1250
Coffee
    109943
     1386124
 
 
Food
    115731
     1463901
 
 
Gifts
     72053
      911261

Notice that the headings specified in the ON TABLE SUBHEAD command are displayed on the HTML index page. See Rules for Headings and Footings on Index Pages and Bursted Reports.


WebFOCUS