Atomic Context: The Key to Flexible Sub Summary Reporting Jeremiah Small San Mateo Staff Meeting, Nov 28, 2007

Atomic?! (more later) But first…

A Simple Example

No, seriously. It’s not as big a mess as it looks…

A Simple Example Requirements: 1. Report on various tables (at least 3) 2. Extract totals from 2 date ranges –Actual range as defined by user –Same range in the previous year 3. Show the % change between ranges and the % of the total for each range

Report: Rep Sales Totals

Report: Products by Class

Report: Products by Class then Rep

Report: Business Types by Territory

Report: Locations by Type then Rep

Report: Locations by Rep

Report: Products by Location

Report: New Locations by Territory

An Example Solution

So what about atomic context?! Oxford American Dictionary a-tom-ic: of or forming a single irreducible unit or component in a larger system. Disambiguation NOT used as in the same sense as an atomic operation in computer science which refers to a set of operations that can be combined so that they appear to the rest of the system to be a single operation with only two possible outcomes: success or failure.

So have I been misleading you?

What is the atomic context here?

These all run from Invoice Line context

But how can that be? 1. We don’t see Invoice Line items in reports 2. We need to extract 2 date ranges –Actual range as defined by user –Same range in the previous year 3. We need to compare values between ranges

1. No rule that you must display body

2. Conditional atomic values

So conditional atomic values let us do this…

3. Doing math on Summary values …but what about this?

3. Doing math on Summary values

What’s the catch? The break field in a GetSummary function… MUST BE LOCAL

3. Doing math on Summary values

The break field in a GetSummary function must be local?! …bummer :-( …but wait! Nobody said it can’t be a calc field! The trick? Bring all your break fields to the atomic context as calc fields.

3. Doing math on Summary values Bring all your break fields to the atomic context as calc fields. Bonus: You can add some logic to your break fields.

3. Doing math on Summary values Note: You can sort by the same summary field or a constant to get Grand Summary values.

3. Doing math on Summary values GetSummary () with localized break fields lets us do this $50, ÷ $1,546, = 3%

3. Doing math on Summary values GetSummary () with localized break fields lets us do this Let ( [ cur = GetSummary( _il_cur_AVG_price_sm ; _ct_RepName ) ; pre = GetSummary( _il_pre_AVG_price_sm ; _ct_RepName ) ]; Case ( cur ≤ 0 ; "" ; pre ≤ 0 ; "" ; cur > pre ; ( cur / pre - 1) ; pre > cur; ( pre / cur - 1 ) * -1 ; 0 )//endCase )//endLet

3. Doing math on Summary values GetSummary () with localized break fields lets us do this ($249, ÷ $50, ) x -1 = -391%

…but it’s not just for FileMaker Sub-summarize records on a Web page First record

…but it’s not just for FileMaker Sub-summarize records on a Web page First group

PHP Sub Summary Do one query, not seven

PHP Sub Summary Do one query, not seven

PHP Sub Summary Do one query, not seven

PHP Sub Summary Do one query, not seven

PHP Sub Summary Remember the break field for Sub Summaries?

PHP Sub Summary Remember the break field for Sub Summaries?

PHP Sub Summary With records grouped by a break field, nested loops can print them to the screen just like FileMaker sub summaries

PHP Sub Summary Sub-summarize records on a Web page 1st group First record Second record Third record Second group And so on…

Concept Review Atomic Context –The table that represents an irreducible unit or component in the larger system. –If you find yourself considering complicated algorithms to extract report data from child records, question your context. Sub Summary –A field (column) representing a de-normalized (non-unique) attribute when treated as a group (break field) for all the records (rows) sharing that attribute. –In FileMaker this is achieved by sorting. –In PHP this is achieved by appending records into associative arrays named as the break field values.