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Select Pane

The Select pane is show below.

database column sql select setup

Select Icon Definitions

The Select pane icons and their functions are described below:

- add column, displays the Select Document Columns pane

- customize, displays the Add Custom Column pane

- sql, displays the SQL Select pane showing sql that will be generated from the current document design

- run, runs the current document design and displays Document Results in browser pane

- edit settings, displays the Edit Document Settings pane to modify document parameters

- save, saves current document

- logout, exits RBT Designer

- displays help page for current pane

- delete, deletes column selection

- edit mask, displays the Column Display Format pane to apply display formatting to dates and numbers

Selecting Document Columns

To add columns to the document click the Select Document Columns icon to display the Select Document Columns pane then check the columns you wish to add. Click the plus to open a related table and display table columns. Primary key columns are identified by the key icon . Currently selected columns are indicated by a green check .

database object select pane

Place the cursor over the column icon to display a tool tip with the column type.

displaying column data type

By default, the RBT Designer will create SQL queries with inner joins. If you wish to create an outer join, click on the table icon to display the Select Join Type pane and select the desired join type.

selecting database table sql join

Editing Column Select Parameters

Once selected, columns will appear in the Select pane table and the column parameters can be edited.

sql column setup control descriptions

To remove a select column click the The Show checkbox indicates that this column will display in the document. If you uncheck the checkbox, the column will remain in the SQL query but will not display on the HTML output.

Formatting Numeric and Date Columns

To set the formatting on a number or date column click mask icon and the appropriate Display Format pane will display. A blue mask icon indicates that this column has a mask applied. There are number and date format display panes are shown below.

setting numeric column display format

setting date column display format

Applying an Aggregate Function to Column

The Function dropdown displays standard SQL aggregate functions applicable to the current column type. For numeric types this includes count, avg, max, min, sum. For date types it includes count, max and min and for string types it includes count. If an aggregate function is selected the RBT Designer will generate SQL with appropriate group by syntax.

selection column aggregate function

Setting Column Sort Position

The sort position of a column can be set by entering the desired position in the Sort Pos. column. Some care should be taken with this entry. There are no checks for duplicate entries or that the number entered is reasonable. By default the sort will be in ascending order, check the Sort Desc. check box to sort in descending order.

setting sql column sort position

Document SQL Statement

Click the Show SQL Select icon on the toolbar to display the generated SQL statement for the current document configuration.

generated sql query statement

Adding a Custom Column

The RBT Designer provides the capability to add free form custom columns to the document query. Click the Add Custom Column icon to display the Add Custom Column pane. Enter Column Name to identify the column, Return Type to indicate the data type the custom SQL will produce and the custom SQL. Care should be taken when entering custom SQL. The entry is DBMS specific and must be syntactically correct or the document query will fail. It is important to make sure you enter the correct table alias for columns used in the custom SQL. When generating SQL the RBT Application assigns table aliases to the tables in the SQL query. These aliases can be seen in the generated SQL - see the SQL display pane above - t0, t1, t2 etc. The custom column example below is using Oracle syntax to create a full name from the LAST_NAME and FIRST_NAME columns.

adding custom column selection

The resulting output will be similar to the following.

example document output results

A custom column appears in the select design pane as shown below.

editing custom column

Click the Custom Column icon to edit the custom column.

Edit Document Settings

Click the Edit Document Settings icon to modify the current document settings as described in Adding a New Document in the Welcome Help section.

Running Current Document

Click the Run icon to run document with current configuration.

Saving Document

Click the Save Document icon to save current document design. When blue, the save icon is enabled.