The dashboard wasn’t the problem

The problem usually isn’t the dashboard itself.

It’s that nobody knows:

Why it matters

What decision it supports

Where to start

What they’re supposed to do next

Before you send your next dashboard, write a three-line introduction:

 This dashboard helps you: [make a specific decision]

Start by checking: [one specific view or metric]

If you see: [specific problem], then [recommended action]

That small amount of context can make the difference between a dashboard being ignored and becoming part of someone’s regular workflow.

Your job isn’t just to build the report.

Your job is to help people use it.

--Andy Kriebel

Crystal Reports Concatenate Data

 Sometimes in crystal we might be required to concatenate the values of fields that belong to a particular group as a single line.

For example the below data in the table needs to be displayed as below. I used global variables and formula

LEVEL1  : T01,T02

LEVEL2  : T04

LEVEL3  : T10,T11

Level	ID
LEVEL1	T01
LEVEL1	T02
LEVEL2	T04
LEVEL3	T10
LEVEL3	T11

Calculate Percentage correctly across columns

 When we need to show the percentage on a report/excel  and we have to divide by an odd number , we should divide by an even number and then computed values should be used for the last group.

Example: Col1 = 30/105    

                Col2=50/105

                Col3=25/105

So percentage for col1 and col2 is calculated then the difference is used for col3

Update an id column to be sequential

 Sometimes we come across a table in which a column that is supposed to store values in sequence , but over time they get values in the column are in random order to resolve this so that the id column has a sequence.

update parameter_table set parameter_id=rownum;

radio button default value blank

there will be an error when submitting to database, if a radio button can have a default value of blank.

having a blank value will not allow the radio button to be transferred to the database.

Javascript Alert Message Truncated

Sometimes when the javascript alert message is truncated in the webmessage window in internet explorer, you can embedd \r\n in the message or it the user might be using a extra monitor. By asking the user to use view the website on their laptop, the issue got resolved.

Pass String to JavaScript

In order to pass a string value as parameter to a javascript function using htp.p. I used the below mechanism by enclosing it in 2 single quotes.

         htp.p('<td colspan="1" style="text-align:left"> <input type="text" id="processing_spatial_number_of_changes'||i||'" name="process_sp_number_of_changes" size="5" ' ||

     lv_sp_classname ||' value="" onblur="checkisnumtext(this,''# of Changes in Processing Section'');"  ></td>');

function checkisnumtext(field,text1)

{

  var s_token_num=field.value;

  var isnum = /^\d+$/.test(s_token_num);

     if (! isnum) {

        alert(text1 + " should contain only numeric digits");

        return false;

     }

     else{

      //alert(text1 + " contains only numeric digits");

      return true;

    }  

}

//end function checkisnumtext