Looking at Stonefield Query for Sage SalesLogix (Part 5)

Sorry for the long absence, I went away on some training with the Minnesota National Guard.  This is the fifth post in series that is covering the use of a reporting tool called Stonefield Query for Sage SalesLogix.  If you would like to take a look at the previous posts here are the links Post 1, Post 2, Post 3, and Post 4. In todays post we will cover the use of SQL Views in this reporting tool. 

First of all, I like using SQL Views to organize my data for reporting. I have written a set of SQL views that provides counts of Activities and History Records by user for the current day.  This is a set of views so I cannot just paste the statement in this post but I should be able to show you that the use of SQL views is possible. 

The first step of course is creating the SQL View.  Here is a link to a post I wrote back on May 27th 2008 which talks about using SQL Views in Reporting and Grouping and bringing together data from two independent databases.  As discussed in the post, once you have the SQL View ready for use you may need to enable it for use in other systems like Stonefield Query.

To enable a SQL view go into the SLX Architect and open the Database Manager. Find your new view in the list of database tables

Right Click and select Properties from the list.

When the “Properties” window opens select the “Enable” button.

The view is now available for use in Stonefield Query reporting.  With this step done open Stonefield Query and follow Stonefield’s wizard to build your report. 

In Step 2, find your SQL View listed in Table drop down and move the required fields to the right side by double clicking or using the centrally located buttons.

In Step 3,  I created a filter to just get my username to be th only record to display.  This is accomplished by clicking on the Filter button, the f Filter screen (in the back ground) will appear.  With a click on the “Add” button the” Filter Condition” screen (in the foreground) will appear. 

Over all, this filtering is very self explanatory and easy to use.

On Step 5, I selected “Portrait” for my orientation and then selected Preview button to see my report.

Ok, I have not done much today in SalesLogix but the point should be taken,  I was able to call in a SQL view and then report upon it.  My demonstration here is the easiest of examples.  The view I used included the username with the data so we did not need to incorporate the userinfo table in our report.  I did attempt incorporating the data collected in a similar SQL view with the userinfo table and was unsuccessful.  I am not saying that it is impossible at this point but I could not easily figure it out in the time alloted to write for this blog.  I will continue to play and see if I can get it to work. 

Well that is it for today.  Until next time – be safe, do good things and keep smiling. Geo