Reports

Argos reports provide different views of the information retrieved by the DataBlock. Reports use the data from the report query in the DataBlock as their starting point, which may be combined with additional user-provided information from the dashboard. Reports are shown underneath the DataBlock they belong to in the Explorer Tree.

There are four different types of reports that can be created in Argos: CSV, banded, extract, and crosstab.

CSV Reports

A Comma Separated Value (CSV) report is the simplest of the Argos report types. A comma-delimited file is a text file that separates the desired columns with a comma or other specified delimiter. This type of report is especially useful when obtaining data to be used in spreadsheet software such as Microsoft Excel. It is also useful when creating files used by third party applications.

Banded Reports

Banded reports are fully-formatted PDF reports that give the report writer complete control over the location and appearance of the information in the report. The term "banded" comes from the fact that the report is organized into logical bands (groups) of data. For example, a title band may contain the title of the report, report date and logo. A page header band could hold the page number. Similarly, the report data is organized into group bands, detail bands, and other logical groupings.

Banded reports may include custom fonts, rich text, charts, images, and other information. They can be used to create mailing labels, letters, and many other output formats that can be printed or emailed directly to recipients.

Extract Reports

An extract report is designed to create output files that meet pre-defined specifications. This feature is especially useful for creating delimited output that is more complex than a simple comma-separated file, for creating a fixed-width file in which each field is precisely positioned on a given line, or for creating an XML file.  This could include files that you might upload to a government agency, clearinghouse, or service bureau.

Extract reports are somewhat similar in design to a banded report.  They are comprised of several sections, which behave like the bands in a banded report. There are two important differences, however:

• Extract reports are not divided into pages. They are designed to create an output file, not printed output.
• Extract reports can loop through multiple datasets. In contrast, a banded report can only process each record in a dataset once.

Crosstab Reports

Crosstab reports provide a simple way to relate two or more data attributes in table format. The table is then output into a PDF document. In addition to specifying the rows and columns for the report, you can also apply basic formatting such as headers, text, and colors.