PeopleTools 8.

12 PeopleSoft
nVision PeopleBook
PeopleTools 8.12 PeopleSoft nVision PeopleBookPeopleTools 8.12 PeopleSoft nVision
PeopleBook

SKU MTNVr8SP1B 1200

PeopleBooks Contributors: Teams from PeopleSoft Product Documentation and

Development.

Copyright © 2001 by PeopleSoft, Inc. All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America.

All material contained in this documentation is proprietary and confidential to PeopleSoft,

Inc. and is protected by copyright laws. No part of this documentation may be reproduced,
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including, but not
limited to, electronic, graphic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the
prior written permission of PeopleSoft, Inc.

This documentation is subject to change without notice, and PeopleSoft, Inc. does not warrant
that the material contained in this documentation is free of errors. Any errors found in this
document should be reported to PeopleSoft, Inc. in writing.

The copyrighted software that accompanies this documentation is licensed for use only in
strict accordance with the applicable license agreement which should be read carefully as it
governs the terms of use of the software and this documentation, including the disclosure
thereof.

PeopleSoft, the PeopleSoft logo, PeopleTools, PS/nVision, PeopleCode,

PeopleBooks, Vantive, and Vantive Enterprise are registered trademarks, and
PeopleTalk and "People power the internet." are trademarks of PeopleSoft, Inc. All
other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.
Contents

About This PeopleBook

Audience ..........................................................................................................................xiii
Topics ..............................................................................................................................xiii
Before You Begin ............................................................................................................ xiv
Related Documentation ................................................................................................... xiv
Documentation on the Internet................................................................................... xv
Documentation on CD-ROM ..................................................................................... xv
Hardcopy Documentation .......................................................................................... xv
Typographical Conventions and Visual Cues................................................................... xv
Comments and Suggestions ............................................................................................ xvii

Chapter 1
Understanding PS/nVision
Working with PS/nVision................................................................................................ 1-2
Report Instances and Report Layouts .............................................................................. 1-3
Layout and Instance Example ................................................................................... 1-4
Using Excel Features ....................................................................................................... 1-5
Inserting Formulas .................................................................................................... 1-6
Inserting and Formatting Text................................................................................... 1-6

Chapter 2
Running PS/nVision Reports
Understanding Report Requests....................................................................................... 2-1
Creating a Report Request......................................................................................... 2-2
Using an Existing Report Request .................................................................... 2-9
Organizing Multiple Report Instances using Variables .................................. 2-10
Running Reports...................................................................................................... 2-10
Running a Report from a Report Request ....................................................... 2-10
Running a Report from the NVSUSER HomePage ........................................ 2-11
Working with Report Instances ..................................................................................... 2-12
Using Report Books in Windows .................................................................................. 2-13
Defining Report Books............................................................................................ 2-14
Running Report Books ............................................................................................ 2-16

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Running Multiple Report Books ..................................................................... 2-17

Troubleshooting Report Books...................................................................................... 2-18
Report Requests and Report Books......................................................................... 2-18
Process Scheduler Settings and Report Books ........................................................ 2-20
Error Logs ............................................................................................................... 2-22

Chapter 3
Understanding Layouts
Comparing Tabular Layouts, Matrix Layouts, and QueryLink ....................................... 3-1
Working with Layouts ..................................................................................................... 3-3
Specifying Criteria .................................................................................................... 3-3
Using nPlosion (Matrix Layout Only) ...................................................................... 3-4
Setting a TimeSpan ................................................................................................... 3-4
Specifying SetIDs and Business Units ...................................................................... 3-4
Entering Effective Dates ........................................................................................... 3-5
Getting Started ................................................................................................................. 3-5
Creating Your Layout ............................................................................................... 3-6
Creating Read-Only Layouts............................................................................. 3-8
Choosing a Layout Type ........................................................................................... 3-9
Specifying Your Layout Definition......................................................................... 3-10
Informational Group Boxes............................................................................. 3-10
Navigating Within Layouts ............................................................................. 3-11
Dialog Box Control Buttons............................................................................ 3-12
Layout Option Tabs......................................................................................... 3-12

Chapter 4
Creating Tabular Layouts
Creating Tabular Layouts.......................................................................................... 4-1
Mapping Tabular Layout Columns.................................................................................. 4-3
Specifying Options for Rows and Non-Query Columns ................................................. 4-4
Defining Layout Options........................................................................................... 4-4
Sheet Options .................................................................................................... 4-5
Row Options ..................................................................................................... 4-5
Column Options ................................................................................................ 4-6
Creating a Report Title in a Tabular Layout ............................................................. 4-8

Chapter 5
Creating Matrix Layouts
Matrix Layout Components ...................................................................................... 5-2
Overview of Matrix Layout Criteria ................................................................. 5-2

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nPlosion............................................................................................................. 5-3
TimeSpan .......................................................................................................... 5-3
SetIDs and Business Units ................................................................................ 5-3
Effective Dates .................................................................................................. 5-3
Getting Started .......................................................................................................... 5-3
Creating Matrix Layouts ........................................................................................... 5-4
Using the Layout Definition Dialog Box .................................................................. 5-8
Understanding Criteria..................................................................................................... 5-9
Criteria Types............................................................................................................ 5-9
Using Criteria .......................................................................................................... 5-10
Criteria Inheritance Rules........................................................................................ 5-11
Putting It All Together ............................................................................................ 5-12
Defining Query or Ledger Criteria ................................................................................ 5-14
Choosing Ledger Criteria ........................................................................................ 5-14
Choosing Query Criteria ......................................................................................... 5-15
Applying Filter Criteria ................................................................................................. 5-17
Selecting Filter Criteria Options ............................................................................. 5-18
Using Label Criteria ...................................................................................................... 5-25
Adding Variable Criteria ............................................................................................... 5-27
Report Request Variables........................................................................................ 5-28
Date and Time Period Variables ............................................................................. 5-29
Scope-Related Variables ......................................................................................... 5-30
Defining Variable Criteria....................................................................................... 5-31
String Criteria ................................................................................................................ 5-33

Chapter 6
Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts
Ledger Criteria................................................................................................................. 6-1
TimeSpans ....................................................................................................................... 6-3
Field Criteria.................................................................................................................... 6-3
Summary ChartField Nodes ...................................................................................... 6-3
Label Criteria ................................................................................................................... 6-4
nPlosion ........................................................................................................................... 6-4

Chapter 7
Defining Report Scopes
Using the Scope Definition Dialog Box.................................................................... 7-2
Selecting Scope Fields ...................................................................................... 7-4
Choosing Tree Levels and Tree Nodes ............................................................. 7-6
Working with Existing Scopes.................................................................................. 7-8

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Scope-Related Variables ......................................................................................... 7-10

Defining Variable Criteria....................................................................................... 7-11

Chapter 8
Using DrillDown
Understanding DrillDown ......................................................................................... 8-1
Understanding Inheritance ................................................................................ 8-3
DrillDown Instances.......................................................................................... 8-4
Selecting DrillDown.................................................................................................. 8-4
Jump Back......................................................................................................... 8-4
ReDrill............................................................................................................... 8-5
AutoDrill ........................................................................................................... 8-5
DrillDown Layout Formats ....................................................................................... 8-5
DrillDown and Queries ..................................................................................... 8-6
Naming Conventions......................................................................................... 8-7
DrillDown Layout Directory............................................................................. 8-7

Chapter 9
Using nPlosion
Defining nPlosion Criteria ........................................................................................ 9-4
nPlosion Types .......................................................................................................... 9-4
nPlosion Options ....................................................................................................... 9-5
nPlosion Styles .......................................................................................................... 9-8
Using the nPlosion Style Wizard .............................................................................. 9-9

Chapter 10
Advanced PS/nVision Options
Enhancing Your Report Layout..................................................................................... 10-1
Setting PS/nVision Options ........................................................................................... 10-2
Runtime Options ..................................................................................................... 10-2
Creating a Virtual Ledger .............................................................................................. 10-3
PS/nVision Defined Names ........................................................................................... 10-4
Date Formatting ............................................................................................................. 10-8

Chapter 11
Personalizing PS/nVision
Changing PS/nVision Options with Configuration Manager ........................................ 11-1
Defining Directory Paths......................................................................................... 11-3
Formatting Options ................................................................................................. 11-4
Personalizing NVSUSER.XLS...................................................................................... 11-5

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Customizing the Point and Click Buttons ............................................................... 11-6

Customizing Menus ................................................................................................ 11-7
Changing the Toolbar.............................................................................................. 11-9
Setting Report Preferences............................................................................ 11-10
Running Reports from NVSUSER................................................................ 11-10
Setting Up Your Report Request Preferences ............................................... 11-11
Customizing the Report Instance View................................................................. 11-12
Customizing the Drill Through to PeopleSoft Panels Option ............................... 11-14
Customizing the Style Sheet Wizard ........................................................................... 11-18
Style Formatting Conventions............................................................................... 11-22
Customizing Delivered VBA Wizards .................................................................. 11-23
Changing the Startup File ............................................................................................ 11-24
PS/nVision API Functions (Excel 4 Macros) .............................................................. 11-24
Troubleshooting NVSUSER........................................................................................ 11-26

Chapter 12
Using the PS/nVision VBA Interface
Designer Object ............................................................................................................. 12-1
Designer Object Methods........................................................................................ 12-2
OpenFile.......................................................................................................... 12-2
OnWindow ...................................................................................................... 12-2
StartMenu........................................................................................................ 12-2
Connect ........................................................................................................... 12-2
Disconnect....................................................................................................... 12-3
ResetEnvironment ........................................................................................... 12-3
OpenLayout..................................................................................................... 12-3
NewLayout...................................................................................................... 12-3
SaveAsLayout ................................................................................................. 12-4
DefineLayout .................................................................................................. 12-4
LayoutOptions................................................................................................. 12-4
ReportRequest ................................................................................................. 12-4
RunCurrent...................................................................................................... 12-4
RunReport ....................................................................................................... 12-5
Options ............................................................................................................ 12-5
OpenScope ...................................................................................................... 12-5
ScopeDefn....................................................................................................... 12-5
AutoDrill ......................................................................................................... 12-6
DrillLayout...................................................................................................... 12-6
DrillQuery ....................................................................................................... 12-6
RunQuery ........................................................................................................ 12-6

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DrillDown ....................................................................................................... 12-7

JumpBack........................................................................................................ 12-7
ReDrill............................................................................................................. 12-7
ImportSheet ..................................................................................................... 12-7
PerfOpts .......................................................................................................... 12-8
ImportOpts ...................................................................................................... 12-8
Session Object ............................................................................................................... 12-8
Session Object Methods .......................................................................................... 12-9
DBType........................................................................................................... 12-9
ServerName..................................................................................................... 12-9
DBName.......................................................................................................... 12-9
OprId ............................................................................................................... 12-9
ToolsRelDB .................................................................................................. 12-10
TwoTier......................................................................................................... 12-10
ShowWarnings .............................................................................................. 12-10
AmountSql .................................................................................................... 12-10
ReadConfig ................................................................................................... 12-11
ReadConfigDir .............................................................................................. 12-12
Using nVsInstanceHook .............................................................................................. 12-12

Chapter 13
PS/nVision Security
Securing nVision Design Functionality......................................................................... 13-1
Securing nVision Menu Items................................................................................. 13-1
Securing Report Layouts......................................................................................... 13-4
Securing Report Requests ....................................................................................... 13-5
Securing Report Distribution ......................................................................................... 13-5
Securing Report Data..................................................................................................... 13-6
PS/nVision Ledger-based Data Security ................................................................. 13-6
Using the Reporting View............................................................................... 13-6
Using the Authorization Table ........................................................................ 13-8
Using the Ledger Reporting View Access ...................................................... 13-8
PS/nVision Ledger Security........................................................................................... 13-8
PS/nVision Query-based Data Security......................................................................... 13-9

Chapter 14
PS/nVision Performance Tuning
PS/nVision SQL............................................................................................................. 14-1
Tree JOINs .............................................................................................................. 14-1
Combination Rules.................................................................................................. 14-2

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Capturing SQL ........................................................................................................ 14-3

Ledger Tables ................................................................................................................ 14-3
Indexes........................................................................................................................... 14-4
Multi-column Indexes ............................................................................................. 14-4
Database Access Paths................................................................................................... 14-4
Filter Factor............................................................................................................. 14-5
Index Matching ....................................................................................................... 14-5
Ledger Access Paths ............................................................................................... 14-6
Analyzing Access Paths .......................................................................................... 14-6
DB2 ................................................................................................................. 14-6
Oracle .............................................................................................................. 14-7
Index Suggestions.......................................................................................................... 14-8
Using Trees With PS/nVision........................................................................................ 14-9
Overview of SQL Techniques for Enhancing Tree Performance ........................... 14-9
Dynamic Selectors .......................................................................................... 14-9
Single-Value Selectors .................................................................................. 14-10
Suppress Join................................................................................................. 14-10
Additional Options ........................................................................................ 14-11
SQL ExamplesError! Bookmark not defined................................................ 14-11
Setting Tree Performance Options ........................................................................ 14-12
Suppress Join................................................................................................. 14-14
Tree Selectors................................................................................................ 14-15
Sub-SELECT Tree Selector .......................................................................... 14-16
Selector Options............................................................................................ 14-16
Other.............................................................................................................. 14-17
Command Buttons......................................................................................... 14-17
Restrictions on Tree Performance Options ........................................................... 14-17
SQL Statement Size ...................................................................................... 14-18
Indexing Implications .................................................................................................. 14-19
Overview of Tree Tables Used by PS/nVision ............................................................ 14-19
PSTREEDEFN: Tree Definition ........................................................................... 14-19
Description .................................................................................................... 14-19
Fields............................................................................................................. 14-20
PSTREELEAF: Tree Leaf..................................................................................... 14-20
Description .................................................................................................... 14-20
Fields............................................................................................................. 14-21
PSTREESELCTL: Tree Selection Control ........................................................... 14-21
Description .................................................................................................... 14-21
Fields............................................................................................................. 14-21
PSTREESELECTnn: Tree Select Work-Size nn .................................................. 14-22

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Description .................................................................................................... 14-22

Fields............................................................................................................. 14-22
PSTREESELNUM: Tree Select Control Number................................................. 14-22
Description .................................................................................................... 14-22
Fields............................................................................................................. 14-22

Chapter 15
PS/nVision Reporting on the Web
Configuring the Report Node ........................................................................................ 15-1
Setting Up a Report Request.......................................................................................... 15-2
Configuring Delivery Templates............................................................................. 15-5
Copying a Request to Another Business Unit ......................................................... 15-8
Setting Advanced Options for Your Report Request .............................................. 15-9
Applying Scopes to Your Reports......................................................................... 15-10
Email Template Variables............................................................................. 15-12
Security Template Variables ......................................................................... 15-12
Submitting a Report Request ....................................................................................... 15-14
Choosing Output Types and Formats............................................................ 15-14
Setting Report Distribution ........................................................................... 15-15
Using the Web Version of Report Books .................................................................... 15-16
Creating a Report Book From Your Browser ....................................................... 15-17
Defining Report Books.......................................................................................... 15-19
Running Report Books .......................................................................................... 15-21
Running Multiple Report Books ................................................................... 15-23
Using DrillDown on the Web ...................................................................................... 15-23
Setting Up the Portal for DrillDown ..................................................................... 15-24
Registering DrillDown Layouts ............................................................................ 15-24
Using DrillDown on the Web................................................................................ 15-25
Troubleshooting nVision on the Web.......................................................................... 15-28
Using DrillDown on Multiple Application Servers .............................................. 15-28
Troubleshooting Report Books ............................................................................. 15-29
Process Scheduler Settings and Report Books.............................................. 15-29
Error Logs ............................................................................................................. 15-32

Chapter 16
Using Tree Manager to Distribute Reports
Creating DEPT_NODE_TBL ................................................................................. 16-1
Granting Access to Pages........................................................................................ 16-2
Updating your Tree Structures to Use the New Page.............................................. 16-4
Populate Routing Information in your Tree ............................................................ 16-4

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Linking it into nVision ............................................................................................ 16-5

Distributing through Email ............................................................................. 16-5
Distributing through Report Manager ..................................................................... 16-6

Index

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CHAPTER 1

Understanding PS/nVision
PS/nVision retrieves information from your PeopleSoft database and places it into a Microsoft
Excel spreadsheet—not merely as “raw” data but as information in a form that helps you see the
big picture, explore the details, and make decisions. You use familiar Excel commands to format
and analyze the data. By using PS/nVision, you can spend your time analyzing results rather than
summarizing data and entering it into your spreadsheet. In this chapter we’ll provide an
introduction to the sophisticated reporting options available through PS/nVision.

PS/nVision doesn’t just work with spreadsheets—it works within them. You access PS/nVision
features from a special nVision menu within Microsoft Excel to create your templates (layouts)
for data retrieval. You create a layout (.xnv file) for each report format that you want, and all the
formatting that you created stays the same every time you run your report until you decide to
make changes in your layout.

Your organization can also create a custom “front-end” macro sheet to give your users point-and-
click access to reports and reporting functions. The nVision front-end has been designed for easy
navigation and has the same look and feel as a Web browser with customizable buttons and
displays.

NVSUSER HomePage

Because PS/nVision works from within your spreadsheet, you’ll use the familiar commands
Excel offers for inserting formulas, formatting, and graphics. We’ll review some of the more
common Excel features in this chapter, but for more detailed information see your Microsoft
Excel User’s Guide or the Excel online help.

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PS/nVision selects data from your PeopleSoft database using ledgers, trees, and queries for use in
Microsoft Excel. Queries are useful for extracting data from sources other than ledgers, so you
should be somewhat familiar with Query concepts, especially the nature of query “result sets,”
before working with PS/nVision. Also, tree data is used to limit the query results, so you should
be familiar with the concepts of node and detail values.

Working with PS/nVision

You start PS/nVision from PeopleTools or from a PeopleSoft application by selecting Go,
PeopleTools, nVision. Or, you can start PS/nVision directly from Microsoft Windows by double-
clicking the PS/nVision shortcut. The PeopleSoft sign on dialog box appears. Enter the database
name, user ID, and password as you would to start any PeopleSoft application.

When PS/nVision starts, it automatically opens Microsoft Excel. The PS/nVision program itself
will appear minimized on the Windows taskbar. You can click the PS/nVision icon to open the
PS/nVision window, but unless a specific PS/nVision dialog box is currently active in Excel, the
PS/nVision window will be blank.

Note. Don’t close this window—it will end your nVision session, even though Excel is still
running.

You actually initiate PS/nVision commands using the nVision menu in the Excel menu bar or—
depending on your set up—by using a special spreadsheet file, NVSUSER.xls, which opens when
you start PS/nVision. When you close Excel, PS/nVision is automatically closed as well.

PS/nVision’s Special Spreadsheet File, NVSUSER.XLS

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For more information on NVSUSER.XLS, see Personalizing NVSUSER.XLS.

Report Instances and Report Layouts

We refer to each Excel spreadsheet created with PS/nVision as either a report instance or a report
layout. A report instance contains data that PS/nVision has retrieved from your PeopleSoft
database. It is the end result of using PS/nVision. Every report you can create is based on a report
layout. When you run a report, PS/nVision uses the specified layout to determine what data to
retrieve for the report and how to display it. Therefore, creating a PS/nVision report is a three-
step process:

• First, someone must define a report layout that specifies what ledgers, criteria, or queries to use
for the report and how to format the report. The report layout is really just an Excel
spreadsheet. However, it doesn’t include any actual PeopleSoft data; it’s just the structure of
the report—query information, criteria, text, formulas, graphics, formatting, or other
information you want to include. This step is only required the first time you create the report;
once the layout has been saved, you can use the same layout repeatedly to run your reports.

• Someone must also create a report request, specifying the layout and run-time options for the
report.

• After defining a report layout and request, you run the report request, using the nVision menu
in Microsoft Excel, the Run button on the request dialog box, or a button/macro that calls
PS/nVision to run the report. You can produce multiple instances of the report as needed. For
example, you might provide an inventory report for each location within your organization.
Each instance is an individual report with up-to-the-minute data from your database, selected
and formatted according to the instructions in the report layout.

The layout and request are all you need to run your report—creating a spreadsheet rich with data.
As the report runs, a copy of the layout, called an instance, is populated with data and is saved as
a normal spreadsheet file.

Note. If you’re using a scope with your report, you can produce several instances from one
layout with one report request.

For more information on scopes, see Defining Report Scopes.

You may never need to create your own layout. Most PeopleSoft applications deliver a number of
typical PS/nVision report layouts (such as Salaries by Department, Balance Sheet, Profit and
Loss, and Operations Summary). Once a library of layouts has been created for your organization,
you simply select the existing layout that best suits your needs. PS/nVision keeps track of which
layout each report uses, so all you need to do to run a report is specify the report request. As with

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any spreadsheet, a layout spreadsheet can be cloned and modified; you may rarely need to build
one from scratch.

Besides the numerous features that are available to you through PS/nVision, you can use all of
Excel’s powerful features to personalize layouts (and the resulting reports) to your liking. For
example, Excel features dynamically linked charting and drawing tools for creating colorful
graphs and diagrams. To help get your message across, you can add your own finishing touches
to a layout. Because the layout is the basis for all reports produced from it, you can format and
enhance the report once and get the benefits automatically each time the report is run.

Note. If you’re working with PeopleSoft Financials products, you may be interested in using
ledgers with PS/nVision and taking advantage of the TimeSpan feature to define reports that
“roll” from period to period without any changes to the layout. Using TimeSpans, the same
layout can retrieve year-to-date data based on the “as of” date for which the report is
requested.

For more information on TimeSpans and other unique features available when using ledgers
with PS/nVision, see Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts.

Layout and Instance Example

To help you visualize the relationship between a report layout and a report instance, we’ve
provided a sample matrix layout below that contains unique data selection criteria for individual
rows and columns. Below the layout is an example of a report based on the layout. The Sales and
Costs columns specify account numbers, and the rows specify department numbers. In the final
report, each cell contains the data for the account number (column) and department number (row)
that intersect at that cell.

Sample Layout

%APN%
Department Description Sales Costs
Tree Node for Label Associated Software Sales Expense
Sales Depts. with Department License Accounts
Table Revenue 800000 and
Account 801000
600000
Sales sum sum
Departments

Sample Report

October

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Department Description Sales Costs

0200 San Francisco 4,800 2,774
0210 Chicago 3,500 1,883
0220 New York 4,800 2,774
0230 Paris 3,800 1,994
0240 Tokyo 5,700 1,778
Sales 23,600 11,203
Departments

A sample matrix layout and corresponding report

This sample layout contains several types of information:

• Text. This refers to text that appears “as is” in all report instances. In the sample above, the
column headings are literal text that will be the same in all reports created from the layout.

• PS/nVision variables. PS/nVision replaces these variables with appropriate values when you
run a report. The sample layout uses the %APN% variable for the time period reported on.
When PS/nVision creates a report with this layout, it replaces the variable with the period
covered by the report. If you use a scope to produce multiple instances of a report, you can use
variables in the report heading so each reader knows what data the report contains.

• PS/nVision labels. PS/nVision examines the tree structure and determines where to obtain the
appropriate label for either a tree node or a detail value. In the case of the preceding sample,
PS/nVision relates a sales department description to the department table entry for each
department corresponding to the “Sales Depts” tree node.

• PS/nVision selection criteria. Selection criteria specify what data to retrieve from your
PeopleSoft database. For example, the Sales column in the sample layout has criteria
associated with it telling PS/nVision to retrieve the data from the sales account.

• Microsoft Excel formulas. These perform calculations on the report data. In the earlier
sample, the bottom row automatically displays the sum totals of the Sales and the Costs
column. You could add a calculated column, Gross Income, calculated via an Excel formula
that subtracts Costs from Sales.

• Formatting. Formatting information includes attributes such as font size, underlining, column
width, print options, and so on. You design your layouts using familiar Excel methods; any
formatting and enhancements you place in the layout will appear in all reports created from it.

Using Excel Features

In addition to the functionality provided by PS/nVision for retrieving data from your PeopleSoft
database, you still have all of Microsoft Excel’s familiar features at your disposal, including the
ability to insert formulas, add and format text, and so on.

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Inserting Formulas

Formulas allow you to perform calculations, foot or cross-foot columns or rows, compute
variances, calculate ratios, and so forth. You can use cell references such as =C2+C3, name
references such as =Revenue-Expenses, or worksheet functions (see the Excel documentation or
online help for a list of commands). All formulas begin with an = (equals) sign. You can use a
number of formula operators for calculations. The most common are the following:

Symbol Description Purpose

+ Plus sign Addition
– Minus sign Subtraction
* Asterisk Multiplication
/ Slash Division
: Colon Range
Space Intersection
, Comma Union
– Hyphen Negation
% Percent sign Percent
& Ampersand Text
concatenation
operator

Entering formulas is fairly straightforward. Simply click in the cell on your worksheet where you
want the formula or text to appear, and begin typing. As you type, your cursor will appear in
Excel’s formula bar (the rectangular box just below the menu bar, above the table). To the left of
your cursor will appear the Cancel and Enter buttons.

Excel formula bar

Inserting and Formatting Text

Text is used mainly for column and row headings, captions, and callouts, and Excel has a number
of formatting features for enhancing the appearance of text in your worksheet.

Formatting is also fairly straightforward—provided that you know where to look. To resize
columns and rows in Excel, either highlight the row or column and drag its border, or select
Format, Column Width or Format, Row Height. You can also select Column Width, Best Fit to

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automatically set the width for headings. Don’t select Best Fit until you have typed the longest
line in the column.

If you want the column headings to wrap within a cell, select Format, Cells and then select Wrap
Text on the Alignment tab.

Note. You can use conventional Excel commands for additional formatting.

For more information on text formatting, see your Microsoft Excel User’s Guide or the Excel
online help.

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL UNDERSTANDING PS/NVISION 1-7

ABOUT THIS PEOPLEBOOK

This book covers the use of PeopleSoft n/Visionâ, a PeopleTool that you use to design and create
Microsoft Excelâ spreadsheet reports on your PeopleSoft data. Its chapters cover the basic
concepts behind PS/nVision, how to run PS/nVision reports, how to create the layouts on which
your reports are based, and how to secure and tune PS/nVision.

Audience
This book is written for decision support team members who want to design or create PS/nVision
reports. To take full advantage of the information covered in this book, we recommend that you
have a basic understanding of how to use PeopleSoft applications. You should also be
comfortable using Microsoftâ Windows.

This document assumes that you are familiar with PeopleTools, specifically Tree Manager and
Query, and with Microsoft Excel. It also assumes a basic familiarity with relational database
concepts and SQL. Finally, some of PS/nVision’s functionality is designed to access PeopleSoft
ledger data. If you want to use these features, you should be familiar with the PeopleSoft General
Ledger application.

Topics
Understanding PS/nVision describes how PS/nVision works with Microsoft Excel to extract and
organize data from your PeopleSoft database.

Running PS/nVision Reports explains how to create and submit a PS/nVision report request.

Understanding Layouts discusses the differences between the two types of PS/nVision report
layouts and what each layout type is best used for.

Creating Tabular Layouts explains tabular layouts and how to create them.

Creating Matrix Layouts explains query-based matrix layouts and how to create them.

Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts highlights the differences between creating ledger-based
matrix layouts and query-based matrix layouts.

Defining Report Scopes describes how to set up scopes to create multiple instances of the same
report.

Using DrillDown explains how to use nVision’s DrillDown feature to select a field and show
supporting detail.

Using nPlosion gives instructions on using nVision to expand rows or columns containing field
criteria.

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PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

Advanced PS/nVision Options contains information on advanced PS/nVision concepts such as

report scope, DrillDown, and Report Books.

Personalizing PS/nVision provides information on how to modify the PS/nVision directory

settings and the NVSUSER.XLM Excel interface macro. And, it lists the PS/nVision API
functions that you can access through your own Excel macros.

Using the PS/nVision VBA Interface provides a reference to the VBA interface objects and
methods that allow you to programmatically call PS/nVision’s features for reporting and analysis
tasks.

PS/nVision Security discusses how you can control what data PS/nVision users can access, and
how to control access to PS/nVision functionality.

PS/nVision Performance Tuning includes information on the SQL that PS/nVision generates,
how it interacts with your relational database, and how to tune PS/nVision SQL for best
performance.

PS/nVision Reporting on the Web explains how to run, view, and distribute your nVision reports
from a browser.

Using Tree Manager to Distribute Reports describes a set of pages that can be used with Tree
Manager to allow you to attach routing information to the trees that are used for bursting nVision
reports.

Before You Begin

To benefit fully from the information covered in this book, you need to have a basic
understanding of how to use PeopleSoft applications. We recommend that you complete at least
one PeopleSoft introductory training course.

You should be familiar with navigating around the system and adding, updating, and deleting
information using PeopleSoft windows, menus, and pages. You should also be comfortable using
the World Wide Web and the Microsoft® Windows or Windows NT graphical user interface.

Related Documentation
To add to your knowledge of PeopleSoft applications and tools, you may want to refer to the
documentation of the specific PeopleSoft applications your company uses. You can access
additional documentation for this release from PeopleSoft Customer Connection
(www.peoplesoft.com). We post updates and other items on Customer Connection, as well. In
addition, documentation for this release is available on CD-ROM and in hard copy.

Important! Before upgrading, it is imperative that you check PeopleSoft Customer

Connection for updates to the upgrade instructions. We continually post updates as we
refine the upgrade process.

PREFACE xiv PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

Documentation on the Internet

You can order printed, bound versions of the complete PeopleSoft documentation delivered on
your PeopleBooks CD-ROM. You can order additional copies of the PeopleBooks CDs through
the Documentation section of the PeopleSoft Customer Connection Web site:
http://www.peoplesoft.com/

You’ll also find updates to the documentation for this and previous releases on Customer
Connection. Through the Documentation section of Customer Connection, you can download
files to add to your PeopleBook library. You'll find a variety of useful and timely materials,
including updates to the full PeopleSoft documentation delivered on your PeopleBooks CD.

Documentation on CD-ROM

Complete documentation for this PeopleTools release is provided in HTML format on the
PeopleTools PeopleBooks CD-ROM. The documentation for the PeopleSoft applications you
have purchased appears on a separate PeopleBooks CD for the product line.

Hardcopy Documentation

To order printed, bound volumes of the complete PeopleSoft documentation delivered on your
PeopleBooks CD-ROM, visit the PeopleSoft Press Web site from the Documentation section of
PeopleSoft Customer Connection. The PeopleSoft Press Web site is a joint venture between
PeopleSoft and Consolidated Publications Incorporated (CPI), our book print vendor.

We make printed documentation for each major release available shortly after the software is first
shipped. Customers and partners can order printed PeopleSoft documentation using any of the
following methods:

Internet From the main PeopleSoft Internet site, go to the

Documentation section of Customer Connection. You can
find order information under the Ordering PeopleBooks
topic. Use a Customer Connection ID, credit card, or
purchase order to place your order.

PeopleSoft Internet site: http://www.peoplesoft.com/.

Telephone Contact Consolidated Publishing Incorporated (CPI) at

800 888 3559.

Email Email CPI at [email protected].

Typographical Conventions and Visual Cues

To help you locate and interpret information, we use a number of standard conventions in our
online documentation.

Please take a moment to review the following typographical cues:

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL PREFACE xv

PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

monospace font Indicates PeopleCode.

Bold Indicates field names and other page elements, such as

buttons and group box labels, when these elements are
documented below the page on which they appear. When
we refer to these elements elsewhere in the
documentation, we set them in Normal style (not in bold).

We also use boldface when we refer to navigational paths,

menu names, or process actions (such as Save and Run).

Italics Indicates a PeopleSoft or other book-length publication.

We also use italics for emphasis and to indicate specific
field values. When we cite a field value under the page on
which it appears, we use this style: field value.

We also use italics when we refer to words as words or

letters as letters, as in the following: Enter the number 0,
not the letter O.

KEY+KEY Indicates a key combination action. For example, a plus

sign (+) between keys means that you must hold down the
first key while you press the second key. For ALT+W,
hold down the ALT key while you press W.

Jump links Indicates a jump (also called a link, hyperlink, or

hypertext link). Click a jump to move to the jump
destination or referenced section.

Cross-references The phrase For more information indicates where you can
find additional documentation on the topic at hand. We
include the navigational path to the referenced topic,
separated by colons (:). Capitalized titles in italics
indicate the title of a PeopleBook; capitalized titles in
normal font refer to sections and specific topics within the
PeopleBook. Cross-references typically begin with a
jump link. Here's an example:

For more information, see Documentation on CD-ROM in

About These PeopleBooks: Related Documentation.

• Topic list Contains jump links to all the topics in the section. Note
that these correspond to the heading levels you'll find in
the Contents window.

Opens a pop-up window that contains the named page or

Name of Page or dialog box. Click the icon to display the image. Some
Dialog Box screen shots may also appear inline (directly in the text).

PREFACE xvi PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

Text in this bar indicates information that you should pay particular attention to as you work
with your PeopleSoft system. If the note is preceded by Important!, the note is crucial and
includes information that concerns what you need to do for the system to function properly.

Text in this bar indicates For more information cross-references to related or additional
information.

Text within this bar indicates a crucial configuration consideration. Pay very close attention
to these warning messages.

Comments and Suggestions

Your comments are important to us. We encourage you to tell us what you like, or what you
would like changed about our documentation, PeopleBooks, and other PeopleSoft reference and
training materials. Please send your suggestions to:

PeopleTools Product Documentation Manager

PeopleSoft, Inc.
4460 Hacienda Drive
Pleasanton, CA 94588

Or send comments by email to the authors of the PeopleSoft documentation at:

[email protected]

While we cannot guarantee to answer every email message, we will pay careful attention to your
comments and suggestions. We are always improving our product communications for you.

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL PREFACE xvii

CHAPTER 2

Running PS/nVision Reports

Most end-users will use the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture to run, distribute, and view their
reports using Report Manager. To take advantage of this new functionality, use PIA to work with
your reports. This chapter is written for developers who use the Windows environment to create
the reports that most end users will be running on the Web.

For more information on PS/nVision reporting on the Web, see PS/nVision Reporting on the
Web.

Running a PS/nVision report is a very simple process. However, before you run a report, you may
want to make certain modifications, such as changing the report scope or changing the file
destination.

Understanding Report Requests

Before you can run a PS/nVision report, you must create a corresponding report request. Each
report request is a collection of report-specific information such as request name, report title,
associated layout, scope, and so on. You use the Report Request dialog box to open, create,
modify, or delete report requests.

When defining a report request, you can use the Scope feature to create multiple instances of a
report from a single request, as shown in the figure below.

For more information on the Scope feature for report requests, see Defining Report Scopes.

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Creating a Report Request

You access the Report Request dialog box by selecting nVision, Report Request.

Report Request dialog box

When running a report for the first time, use this dialog box to enter specific information about
the report you’re running, such as what layout to use, what time period to report on, and where to
store the reports. This information makes up a report request, which you can save and reuse. You
also use this dialog box to open previously saved requests, to modify, save or delete them, or to
kick off a report.

While you run the report, its layout file is opened in read-only mode to protect the layout from
any accidental changes while the report runs. If you want to modify the layout file, you can do so
by opening the layout from the nVision menu, from the Open Layout button on NVSUSER
HomePage, or by clicking OK on the Report Request once the report is loaded.

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Request ID
Request Name This name identifies your report request. When creating a
new report request, you should enter a unique name that
describes the contents of the report. By naming and saving
report requests, you can retrieve all the information in the
Report Request dialog box—rather than re-entering it—
the next time you want to run the report. You can also use
the %RID% variable to have the name display on an
instance of the report.

Report Title This is the description that appears on the prompt lists
allowing you to select a report. Use the %RTT% variable
within a layout to display this title on a report instance.
For this reason, you may want to enter a title that reflects
the specific scope of your report.

Requesting Business Unit This is the business unit that the report belongs to. You
can retrieve data for this business unit alone or for several
business units. Use the %RBN% variable on your layout
to show the description of the requesting business unit on
a report instance. To show the value of the requesting
business unit, use the %RBU% variable.

Layout Select the report layout (the .XNV file) to use for this
report. The layout is what defines the format, structure,
and data values used for the report. The directory for
saving layouts is found in Configuration Manager. Use the
%LYN% variable on your layout to show the layout name
on a report instance.

For more information on using variable in your layouts, see Adding Variable Criteria.

Instance Controls
Most report layouts enable you to create multiple instances of a report using a single report
request. For example, you might run three instances of an expense report that differ only in which
division they report on. All three reports share the same layout, but each contains the expenses of
only one division. To produce multiple instances of a report from this request, you need to select
a scope from the Scope list box.

Note. If you are entering a list of values in any of the template fields, make sure to use a
semicolon to separate each item.

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Scope The scope definition specifies what data each report

instance includes and how many instances PS/nVision
creates. For example, you can select a scope if you want to
create multiple instances of a report based on specific
values for a field, such as instances for business unit,
department, or product. Use the %SCN% variable on your
layout to show the scope name on the report instance.

Because PS/nVision may create multiple report instances

when you run the report—one for each value in the
scope—you might not want to enter a unique directory
and file name. If you did, each new instance would
overwrite the previous one. Instead, you can specify a
template for which PS/nVision will generate names on
each instance it creates. So, if you’re running a report for
multiple business units, you can have the business unit
appear as part of the file name, or you can opt to save each
instance into a different directory.

For more information on report scopes, see Defining Report Scopes.

Directory Template Enter a directory name from the nVision report server for
your instances. Use variables to create unique directory
names. If a directory does not exist, nVision will create
one. If this field is blank, nVision uses the directory
specified in Configuration Manager.

Examples: Q:\Reports\%SFV%-%RID%.htm or
C:\%FY4%%RTT%\

Note. Any value you enter in the Directory Template field will override the Report Instance
path setting in Configuration Manager. If you leave this field blank, PS/nVision will use the
Configuration Manager setting.

For more information on the Configuration Manager PS/nVision settings, see Changing
PS/nVision Options with Configuration Manager.

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You can also include such variables as %BUV% and

%APA% in the Directory Template field to yield
directories indicating the business unit and “as of”
accounting period for which the report was produced, as
shown in the following example.

Using variables to create directories

You create directory or file names based on the data

contained in each instance by including PS/nVision
variables in the file and directory templates. In fact, the
default file template value is %RID%.XLS. The %RID%
variable instructs PS/nVision to use the Request Name
value as the file name, with the .XLS extension common
to Excel spreadsheets.

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File Template Enter a file name for your instances, using variables to
create unique report file names. If this field is blank,
nVision uses the layout name as the default file name with
the appropriate extension according to your output format.
If the field is blank, nVision uses the layout name as the
default file name with the appropriate output-type
extension.

Examples: expense.xls or %RID%.htm or

%FY4%%RTT%.xls

In the File Template box, enter the file name you want to
give to your report instances. You can include nVision
variables in the directory of file template fields to
dynamically create file and directory names at runtime.
Use the %IFN% variable to use the file name in the
layout.

If the more descriptive variables don’t uniquely identify

each report instance, you can add the instance counter
variable %ICT% to the file name template. It causes each
instance to be consecutively numbered. For example, for a
report named OPSUM, the template %RID%%ICT%
would create files named OPSUM1.XLS, OPSUM2.XLS,
and so on.

Language Template Enter an alternate language code for automatic translation

on the report instances. This is available only if alternate
language design features are included in the layout design.

Examples: ENG or
%DES.DEPTID.LANGUAGE_CD_CD%

If you are applying a scope to the report request, you can

enter a string containing one or more PS/nVision variables
(just as you do with the File Template and Directory
Template).

Email Template Enter a list of email addresses using scope variables to

specify who will receive your report instances when the
report runs. Use the %DES% variable.

Examples: [email protected] or
%DES.DEPTID.EMAILID.EMAILID%

Description Template Enter a description of the report instances for

identification in Report Manager. Use variables to create
the descriptions dynamically.

Examples: Stmt. Rev & Exp or Vacation Register -

%SFV%

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Security Template Enter user IDs or variables to give specific users or role
IDs access to report instances in Report Manager. To
authorize a user ID, enter a U followed by a colon before
the user ID. To authorize a role, enter an R followed by a
colon before the role ID. If this field is blank, the report is
automatically distributed to the user running the report.

Examples: R:VP1 or U:SMITHJ or

%DES.DEPTID.OPRID.OPRID%

Output Options
These options allow you to send report instances directly to a printer or to create a file. You may
also choose the type of file format you want the report to use.

Type Choose between sending output to a file or sending it to a

local printer. Email and Web output types are not valid
choices unless you are running a report from your
browser.

Format Select an Excel file (.xls) or HTML file format (.htm).

Main As Of Date
The Main As Of Date options enable you to set the reporting period for this report. Many report
layouts associated with PeopleSoft Financials applications report on data over a given accounting
period, such as the current quarter or year-to-date. PS/nVision uses the Main As Of Date to
determine the meaning of any TimeSpans used in the layout. The date you choose is compared to
the calendar to determine the current period, and TimeSpans are then evaluated relative to that
period.

Today’s Date You can opt to use today’s date.

From Business Unit Table This option uses the date as specified on the business unit
table.

Specify You can specify another date for the report.

For more information on TimeSpans, see TimeSpans.

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Options
Enable nPlosion PS/nVision has an “nPlosion” feature that enables you to
If Specified In Layout create reports that include both summary information and
the supporting details. When PS/nVision retrieves the data
for a summary row, it adds each detail row (for an
individual detail value such as an account or product) to
the report as well. Select the Enable nPlosion If
Specified In Layout check box to enable the nPlosion
feature. If you don’t select this check box, nPlosion will
be disabled—even if the layout definition uses it.

Data From Requesting When this box is selected, the report reflects only data
Business Unit Only from the requesting business unit. If you do not select this
box, nVision extracts data for all business units having the
criteria specified within the layout unless the business unit
is specified in report scope.

For more information on the nPlosion feature, see Using nPlosion.

Translate Summary Use this option to retrieve data from the underlying detail
Ledgers to Detail ledger whenever you specify a summary ledger in a
layout. This option is not available if the Selected
Summary ChartField Nodes method was used in the
layout to retrieve the summary ledger balances.

As Of Date for Trees

The As Of Date for Trees options enable you to use trees that are in effect as of the reporting
date by selecting Use Main As Of Date. Or you can Specify a different date and use a set of trees
in effect on that date. For example, you may have a reporting structure set to go into effect in
three months (remember that trees are effective-dated). You can choose to run the report using the
new tree structure by specifying the future effective date of the new tree.

Use Main As Of Date nVision uses this date to determine the meaning of relative
TimeSpans used in the layout. When a relative TimeSpan
is encountered in the layout, the Main As Of Date is
compared to the calendar for the applicable ledger
belonging to the requesting business unit to determine the
current period. You can use the Main As of Date in the
layout by using the %ASD% variable.

Specify Selecting Specify displays a date field for you to enter the
date you want to report on.

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Using an Existing Report Request

There may be times that you need to modify some of the information for a specific report. Use the
Report Request dialog box to open an existing report request.

Open Report Request dialog box

To open an existing report request:

1. Click Open on the Report Request dialog box.

2. Type in a Business Unit or use the prompt button to select one.

3. Type in a Report Name and click Get List to see a list of requests in the list box.

After you click the Get List button, if the Report Request list is too long to scroll through,
enter a partial Report Name and click Get List again.

4. Click or highlight a report request and click OK, or double-click a report name in the list.

The Open Report Request dialog box closes and the report request information appears in the
Report Request.

To delete a report request:

1. Select nVision, Report Request.

2. Open the report request you want to delete.

3. Click Delete.

You’ll be prompted to confirm the deletion.

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Organizing Multiple Report Instances using Variables

When you are creating reports with multiple instances, it is very important to give each instance a
unique directory or file name so that you don’t overwrite the other instances you’ve created with
the report request. If you do not use a variable in the directory template, nVision will store the
reports in the default directory specified in Configuration Manager.

For instance, if you run five instances of the same report, but fail to give each instance a unique
file name or directory, only the last instance that is generated will be saved—the other instances
will be overwritten by each succeeding instance. When using scopes to generate multiple
instances, always use variables in the file and directory template fields on the report request to
differentiate between instances and to ensure that each file will be saved.

Running Reports

Your finished Report Request combines a layout, a scope (if you’ve chosen one), and other
critical information nVision needs to run the report. nVision uses this information to extract data
from your database and create an instance of the report. You can run a report from the Report
Request or you can run a report from the NVSUSER HomePage.

As PS/nVision runs the report, it will do the following:

• Create a copy of the layout for each instance of the report.

• Call the database to extract information that you defined in the layout of the report, replacing
the selection criteria with specific values.

• Look to the report request, scope, and accounting calendars to transform the PS/nVision
variables into values.

Excel will then perform the calculations you entered on the layout. On your screen you will see
the finished report: a normal Excel spreadsheet with the familiar .XLS extension. This
spreadsheet is also saved in the directory you specified.

If you produced multiple instances of a report, each instance is saved in the specified directory
and all but the last instance are closed to save Excel memory.

For more information about running a report from your NVSUSER HomePage, see Running
a Report from the NVSUSER HomePage.

Running a Report from a Report Request

When you run a report from the Report Request dialog box, nVision opens the layout for you,
checks the detail values and trees that you’ve specified as valid, extracts the data from your
database, and enables Excel to run its functions. The report that appears on your screen is the last
instance generated for that report request.

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To run a report from the Report Request:

1. Select nVision, Report Request from the menu.

The Report Request dialog box appears.

2. Open or create a new report request.

For more information on report requests, see Using an Existing Report Request or Creating a
Report Request.

3. Modify the report request as necessary.

4. If you want to save your changes, click Save.

When you run the report, the dialog box will close and unsaved changes will be lost.

5. Click Run.

To run the last opened report request:

1. Select nVision, Run Current Report.

The report request last opened in the Report Request dialog box will be run automatically.

Running a Report from the NVSUSER HomePage

There are several ways that you can run a report from the NVSUSER HomePage. If you have a
report layout open on your screen, click . The report will run and the results will appear on
your screen.

To run a report from your Preferences list:

1. From the NVSUSER HomePage, select any number of Report Requests from your Report
Request List.

2. Click the arrow buttons to move the reports to other positions in the queue, if necessary.

3. Click Run Report(s).

The reports will be run in sequential order from top to bottom.

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NVSUSER HomePage

For more information about using Report Preferences, see Setting Up Your Report Request
Preferences

Working with Report Instances

After running a report, the last report instance created will remain open. If other report instances
were also created, you can select File, Open to review those reports. For reports you view
frequently, you can create buttons in the NVSUSER HomePage to open these report instances
with one mouse click. NVUSER now displays a list of recently run files in the View Reports list.
This list comes from the directory that you specify in Configuration Manager.

View Reports list with current instances

For more information on the NVSUSER HomePage, see Personalizing NVSUSER.XLS.

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The layout upon which a report instance is based is never modified when the report is run. You
can return to the layout by selecting it from the Window menu, or if it is not open, selecting
nVision, Open Layout.

You print a report instance just as you would print any other Excel spreadsheet, by selecting File,
Print. If you prefer, you can select Print Preview to review your results before printing. If you had
selected the Print Each Instance option when you requested the report, your reports would have
been printed as they were generated.

Using Report Books in Windows

To take full advantage of the new Web reporting features including email and Web output, you
must use the PeopleSoft Internet Architecture in your browser.

For more information about using Report Books on the Web, see Applying Scopes to Your
Reports .

PS/nVision provides the ability to group multiple report requests into a single Report Book. A
Report Book is simply a list of multiple report requests with some additional features to enhance
flexibility:

• An interface to Process Scheduler Manager. This means that the running of Report Books
can be scheduled to run on specified client machines acting as “PS/nVision servers.”
Offloading PS/nVision requests to high-powered, dedicated workstations can improve
performance and frees up users’ client machines. Report Books run on Windows NT—
including database servers running on Windows NT—and Windows 95. Database servers
capable of supporting Report Books are limited to those running on Windows NT, because
Report Books require the ability to run Windows background process (like PS/nVision and
Excel).

• An Effective Status associated with each request in the Report Book. Users can choose to
set individual report requests within a Report Book as “inactive.” Inactive report requests will
remain part of the Report Book but will not be run as part of a request.

• A method for individual report requests to inherit dates from the Report Book. This
enables users to run an entire Report Book using the same AsOfDate, without changing any
individual component requests.

Note. Date and time variables are resolved based on the calendar being used by the
workstation that runs the report.

You open a Report Book by selecting Go, PeopleTools, Report Books. Then from PS/nVision
you select Use, Report Book Definition and either Add or Update/Display.

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PS/nVision – Use – Report Book Definition page

Report Books allow more robust batch processing of PS/nVision report requests, including
message logging. Users can generate an entire set of reports without the process being interrupted
due to an error condition.

Defining Report Books

Before creating a Report Book, make sure you have report requests defined for all the reports you
want to include in the book. The Report Book is a list of requests, not a substitute for the request.
You might also want to review the requests you plan to use to ensure they use the desired scope
and layout.

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Report Book Definition page

To define a Report Book:

1. From any PeopleSoft window, select Go, PeopleTools, Report Books.

2. From the Use menu, select Report Book Definition, Add or Update/Display.

Note. Your organization may create its own menu to access Report Books.

3. Enter a Run Control ID when prompted.

The book definition will be stored on the database under this name. The Report Book
Definition page appears. You use this page to define the list of reports you want to run, in
sequence, and to set the run parameters.

4. Define the Book Entries for this Report Book.

Add the business Unit and Report ID of the report requests for this Report Book. To reorder
your entries, insert or delete rows as necessary.

The check box in the Run column should be selected for all reports you want to run when
this book is requested, but the book can include inactive reports. For example, you may
define a book of reports to be run at month end, and include a report that is only run
quarterly, but select its Run indicator only at quarter-end.

5. Define the Run Parameters.

The Run Parameters section allows you to override the date controls in the individual report
requests. For production reports normally run in background, you don’t need to update the

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individual requests’ As Of Dates.

dates; you can enter a single As Of Date on the Report Book definition by selecting the User-
Specified option. In this case, PS/nVision uses the date you specify, as if you had entered it
on each the report requests in the book. This date will override the date from the report
request.

Note. When you specify a date for the Report Book, you will not be able to see the entire
date field. Simply click the date field and you will be able to see the month, date, and year.

Alternatively, you can select the Use Business Unit Reporting date option, telling PS/nVision
to treat each request as if the corresponding option were selected. Or you can have
PS/nVision default to the date controls in each individual request.

Similarly, you can control the Tree Effective Date used by all the report requests in the
book, either setting a specific override, defaulting to the individual requests, or defaulting to
the As Of Date on each request.

The Ignore Runtime Errors option tells PS/nVision whether or not to stop the Report Book
processing when an error is encountered. If this option is clear, and one of the reports has an
error (for example, a layout refers to an invalid tree node), the process will stop at that point.
If this option is selected, PS/nVision will log the error and continue with the next report.

6. Save your changes.

7. Run the report book, if desired.

Running Report Books

Report Books are run through Process Scheduler from the same page used to define them. Use
Process Monitor to track the progress of your request. Remember that if you selected Ignore
Runtime Errors on the Report Book definition, the completion status will be “Success,” even
though one or more reports may have had errors. You may want to note the Process Instance
number assigned to your request.

Note. If you want to run the Report Book on your client workstation, first make sure
PS/nVision isn’t already running, as Process Scheduler will start it in batch mode.

Warning! Always use the button to run your Report Book when using Windows. The
button and the blue links for Report Manager or Process Scheduler are not
supported in Windows.

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To run a report book from Windows:

1. Open the report book you want to run.

2. Click the button.

The Process Scheduler Request page appears.

Process Scheduler Request page

3. Select your settings and click OK.

For more information on running a report from Process Scheduler, see Process Scheduler
Basics.

Note. Depending on your security access, you may not be allowed to run background
processes on your workstation. In this case, the Client radio button is disabled.

Running Multiple Report Books

Generally, only one Report Book should be initiated and run at a time. If you want to submit
multiple Report Book jobs to the same report server, you need to put them in a queue so that the
next job will not start until the prior job completes. For this to work properly, you must ensure
that your Process Server is defined properly in the Process Scheduler.

To define your process server to handle multiple Report Book jobs:

1. Select Go, PeopleTools, Process Scheduler Manager, Use, Server Definitions, Server
Definition, Update/Display.

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2. Enter the server name you're using for your Report Books (generally, this will be PSNT).

On the lower half of the page you'll see all of the Process Types that can run on this server.
The one called nVision-ReportBook controls Report Books.

Server Definition page

3. Make sure Max Concurrent is set to 1.

This allows multiple Report Book jobs to queue up one after the other. No Report Book job
will be processed until the one before it finishes.

Troubleshooting Report Books

There are several things you can do when a Report Book doesn’t run, or when it runs and
produces errors.

Report Requests and Report Books

Whenever Report Books do not run successfully, the first thing you should do is make sure the
Report Requests that are specified in Report Books will run on their own from NVSUSER.

To check for a bad Report Request:

1. Open NVSUSER HomePage.

2. Instead of opening the layout you want to run, click Open Reports and select the report that
was specified in the Report Book.

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Open PeopleSoft nVision Report Request page

3. Click OK to open the Report Request.

4. Press Run to see if it runs without any errors.

If it has errors, then the problem is not with Report Books but with the associated Report Request.
More than likely, it is because the layout specified in the Report Request is not in the correct
location. The location for report layouts is entered in Configuration Manager.

To check the location of report layouts in Configuration Manger:

1. Open the Configuration Manager and select the Profile tab.

2. Select the appropriate profile and click Edit.

3. Then select the nVision tab. In the Report Layouts field, add the appropriate layout location.

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Edit Profile – Default page

Process Scheduler Settings and Report Books

Incorrect Process Scheduler settings will also cause Report Books to fail to run. You can check
your Process Scheduler settings to avoid these errors.

To check for correct Process Scheduler settings:

1. Select Process Scheduler Manager, Use, Process Definitions, Process Definition,

Update/Display.

2. Select the Process Type, which is nVision ReportBook.

3. Select the Process Name that matches your Report Book from the list of valid values.

4. If the Process Name does not appear to exist, select Use, Process Definitions and verify that
there is an nVision-Report Book (RPTBOOK) Process Definition that corresponds to your
Report Book.

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Process Definition page

5. If the Process Definition appears to be valid, select Process Scheduler Manager, Use, Server
Definitions, Sever Definition, Update/Display.

6. Enter your Server Name.

For PSNT, make sure you have a Process Type titled nVision-ReportBook in the Process
Type list. If not, add it.

Server Definition page

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7. If those settings are correct make sure PSNT exists as a server on the system by selecting Go,
PeopleTools, Process Monitor, Inquire, Process Requests, Server List. Make sure PSNT
exists and that it has a status of Running.

Process Monitor – Inquire – Process Requests page

8. If PSNT is Down, use PSADMIN to start the server.

For more information on these settings or on starting a Process Scheduler Server, see The
Process Scheduler Server Agent.

Note. If you are not using PSNT as you server and have created your own, make sure that
you have physically started the Process Scheduler or the Server will not show up on the list
of servers.

Error Logs

If errors are encountered when running a Report Book, PS/nVision logs them in a file called
“nVisionTracennn.TMP” in the TEMP directory of the computer that runs the Report Book. The
nnn portion of the file is the Process Instance number assigned by Process Scheduler. The log file
contains one line per error message, with the same message information you would have seen in a
dialog box if you had run the report interactively. Other helpful messages about the report startup
are also logged into this file.

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CHAPTER 3

Understanding Layouts
PS/nVision provides a seamless link between your data and Microsoft Excel. It enables you to
import information directly from your database into an Excel spreadsheet, so you can spend your
time analyzing results rather than summarizing your data and entering it into your spreadsheet.

To specify what data you want to bring into Excel, you use a report layout. A report layout is an
Excel spreadsheet used as a template to define how a report will look and what type of
information will go into the spreadsheet’s different cells. A layout does not contain data from the
database. Rather, it specifies what data should be mapped directly into your report.

You don’t need to create a new layout every time you run a report. Once you have created a
library of report layouts, you need only select the existing layout that best suits your current
needs. PS/nVision keeps track of the layout used in any given report, so to run an existing report
you simply select nVision, Report Request and specify the report name or simply click the Run
Reports button from the NVSUSER HomePage. The correct layout will be loaded automatically.

For more information on running reports, see Running PS/nVision Reports.

Comparing Tabular Layouts, Matrix Layouts, and QueryLink

PS/nVision offers two kinds of report layouts: tabular layouts and matrix layouts. This is one of
the first decisions that you must make in designing your report—whether it will be a tabular
layout or a matrix layout. The major difference between them is how they specify the data to
retrieve from the database. In general, tabular layouts lend themselves to detailed transaction
reporting, while matrix layouts are more appropriate for summarized reporting and analysis. In
this chapter, we’ll provide a brief discussion of both layout types.

For more information on PS/nVision report layouts, see Creating Tabular Layouts and
Creating Matrix Layouts.

Tabular layouts are the simpler of the two layout types. They use a query defined in PeopleSoft
Query to retrieve data. The columns in the report correspond to the fields returned by the query;
the rows in the report correspond to the rows in the query result set. You can specify a heading
row, a first result row, and a totals row (if you need one). You can also use scopes in a tabular
layout to filter your results.

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Matrix layouts have data selection criteria based on the intersection of columns and rows in the
spreadsheet, creating a criteria matrix. The data retrieved for an individual cell is determined by a
combination of the criteria for its column and its row. Unless you are specifying a query in the
matrix layout, all matrix layouts must have at least one TimeSpan, at least one ledger, and at least
one ChartField as criteria.

You can specify a ledger, a query, or both a ledger and a query to retrieve data. For PeopleSoft
Financials applications, matrix layouts most often use ledgers for data retrieval. nVision knows
automatically the tables to access and the fields to retrieve based on the ledger definition.

QueryLink is the PeopleSoft Query feature that enables you to send the results of a query
directly to an Excel spreadsheet, bypassing the need for a PS/nVision layout. Any query results
sent to Excel through QueryLink are based on the QUERY.XLT Excel template. Therefore, if
you want to make any permanent changes to spreadsheets derived through QueryLink, make the
changes to QUERY.XLT.

The table below shows some of the key differences between tabular and matrix layouts, as well as
differences between these layouts and QueryLink.

For more information on using QueryLink, see QueryLink.

Feature/Function Matrix Layout Tabular sQueryLink

Layout
Data sources Multiple Single query. Single query.
queries and/or
ledgers; labels.
Data Numbers in Text and Text and numbers.
matrix, text in numbers.
labels and
variables.
Data delivery Matrix Selected query All query result
intersections of result columns, one data
field criteria, columns, one row per spreadsheet
and/or queries data row per row.
(amounts) of spreadsheet
label and field row.
criteria (text).
Layouts One per Multiple None: produces one
workbook. worksheets sheet in template
per workbook. workbook
(QUERY.XLT).

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Feature/Function Matrix Layout Tabular sQueryLink

Layout
Selection criteria Scope Scope Query
Business Unit Query
Effective Dates
Query/Ledger
TimeSpan
Field
Label
String
PS/nVision Yes No No
variables
Scope Multiple Multiple None
instances from instances from
the layout the layout
workbook. workbook.
nPlosion Rows and None None
columns.
Drilldown from Yes No No
instance
TimeSpans Yes, with data No No
keyed by year,
period.
Number of layout One Many One
sheets allowed

Working with Layouts

Several of the following sections are dedicated to showing you how to define specific types of
layouts. These processes will vary, depending on what type of layout you want to define.
However, there are some basic tasks that are common among all layout types. Also, the methods
of choosing a layout type and navigating within a layout are the same for all layouts.

Specifying Criteria

Data selection, or data retrieval, is the heart of the PS/nVision layout. The database values
retrieved for a matrix-based report are the results of various intersecting criteria defined in the
matrix layout. These criteria tell PS/nVision exactly what database values to retrieve and where to
put them. The values retrieved from a tabular layout are not row and column intersections but are
the results of a query. Each instance is a list file representing either a partial or complete answer
set for that query.

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You can specify data selection criteria at the level of the entire spreadsheet, a row or column, or
an individual cell. Generally, you specify criteria at the highest level it applies to. So, if you have
criteria that apply to the entire worksheet, you specify them at the worksheet level; if you have
criteria that are unique to a single cell, you apply them to that cell only.
If there is a conflict between row and column criteria, the row will override the column criteria.
Cell criteria override all other criteria, followed by row, column, and finally worksheet criteria at
the lowest level of the hierarchy.

For more information on working with criteria, see Understanding Criteria.

Using nPlosion (Matrix Layout Only)

nPlosion is a feature you can specify within your field criteria. If a field criterion uses a tree node
value, nPlosion will automatically add rows or columns that contain the sublevels (while
subtotaling) as well as detail values found under the tree nodes that you specify. This creates a
group of rows or columns that can be summarized—showing just the tree node value—or
expanded to show the detail values and the summarized value.

You can also use nPlosion to show detailed TimeSpan information.

For more information on the nPlosion feature, see Using nPlosion.

Setting a TimeSpan

TimeSpan is an option that limits query or ledger results to those from a particular time span.
Although you can use TimeSpan in a query-based matrix layout, it’s more commonly used in
ledger-based layouts.

For more information on this option, see TimeSpans.

Specifying SetIDs and Business Units

PS/nVision uses the SetID you specify when creating a matrix layout to determine your available
choices when you define your layout criteria. If the Use Business Unit in nVision option is off,
the SetID can be omitted, but it is recommended that you specify one. If one is entered, it must be
valid. To set the Use Business Unit in nVision option on or off, select Go, PeopleTools, Utilities,
Use, PeopleTools Options.

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PeopleTools Options page

Entering Effective Dates

When you define a matrix layout, you must always enter an effective date. Like SetID, this
controls which values are available for you to select when defining your criteria. For some
criteria, you can override the global effective date. Generally, it’s a good idea to use an effective
date that is equal to the date of your oldest tree in the layout; otherwise, your layout will not
recognize that tree.

Getting Started
Before you begin to define a layout online, you should do some planning and outlining on paper
so you fully understand what data you want to retrieve, what you want the resulting reports to
look like, and so on. The following checklist is a good way to cover your bases before you start
defining a layout.

• Outline your report specifications on paper showing desired rows, columns, and headings.

• Examine existing layouts and copy or clone them, if possible, instead of starting from scratch.

• Determine the naming convention for your layout, scope, report request, and instances.

• Determine at which levels (worksheet, column, row, or cell) you should specify the
queries/ledgers, fields, and labels you want to use as your criteria.

• Identify existing PeopleSoft queries that may support your query criteria. If they don’t exist,
you’ll have to create them. Do you want to use TimeSpans?

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• Identify existing PeopleSoft trees that may support your field criteria, because it’s simpler to
use tree nodes than to specify detail values as your field criteria. Do you want to use nPlosion?

Creating Your Layout

After you have drawn a blueprint of your report, decided whether your layout is tabular or matrix,
and mapped the necessary criteria, you are ready to begin developing your nVision report online.
You can open an existing layout to copy or clone the report and then make minor changes to it, or
you can begin a new report from scratch.

Note. Excel reports in HTML format are sensitive to column width and do not allow text to
"bleed" into adjacent empty cells. If you merge the cell (containing the text that is cut off)
with the adjacent cells, the text will not be cut off when the worksheet is converted to HTML
format..

To open an existing layout:

1. Select nVision, Open Layout or click Open Layout from NVSUSER.

The Open nVision Layout dialog box appears.

Open nVision Layout dialog box

You use this dialog box to choose which layout you want to open.

2. Select a layout (.xnv) file.

The directory this dialog box opens to is defined in Configuration Manager.

For more information see Changing PS/nVision Options with Configuration Manager.

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3. Specify whether you want to create the layout as read-only or not.

For more information see Creating Read-Only Layouts.

4. Click Open.

5. Once the file is open, select Save as Layout from the nVision menu and give the layout a new
name.

To create a new layout:

1. Select nVision, New Layout.

The Create New nVision Layout dialog box appears.

Create New nVision Layout dialog box

2. Enter a name in the File name field.

PS/nVision supports file names up to 50 characters in length. You cannot change the default
.xnv extension. If you change the default .xnv extension, nVision automatically appends the
file name with .xnv.

3. Specify whether you want to open the new layout as read-only.

For more information, see Creating Read-Only Layouts.

4. Click Save.

The new layout will be created, saved, and opened for you to define.

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For more information about defining layouts, see Choosing a Layout Type.

To save an Excel spreadsheet or layout as a new layout:

1. From nVision, open the spreadsheet using File, Open.

2. Select nVision, Save As Layout.

The Save As nVision Layout dialog box appears.

Save As nVision Layout dialog box

You use this dialog box to save an open Excel spreadsheet (.xls file) as an nVision layout
(.xnv file), or to save an open layout as a new layout.

3. Type in a File name and click Save.

An Excel spreadsheet will open in nVision.

4. Enter any text, such as headings in the columns and rows, that you will need to type in
manually.

Creating Read-Only Layouts

In the Create New nVision Layout dialog box and Open nVision Layout dialog box, you’ll
notice the Open as read-only check box. Selecting this option enables you to open layouts in
read-only mode. Of course, this option applies only if you have write access to begin with. If you
have write access to the layout, then selecting this check box will protect shared layouts from
accidental changes and eliminate Excel messages indicating that the layout is in use (or resides on
a read-only network drive). Changes made to a read-only layout are not saved and are not
reflected in the report instances produced.

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Choosing a Layout Type

When you first create a new layout, the type—matrix or tabular—isn’t yet defined. You must
choose which type you want your layout to be.

To specify a layout type:

1. Select nVision, Layout Definition.

The PeopleSoft nVision Layout Options dialog box appears.

PeopleSoft nVision Layout Options dialog box

You use this dialog box to specify the layout type.

For more information on layout types, see Comparing Tabular Layouts, Matrix Layouts, and
QueryLink.

2. Select either Matrix Layout Sheet or Tabular Layout Sheet.

3. Enter a Setid, Effective Date, and Business Unit.

You must enter a valid SetID and Effective Date before continuing. A SetID is a value used
to identify the TableSet you want to work with and corresponds to the Set Control Value used
in establishing TableSet Sharing within the PeopleSoft database.

You can either enter a SetID in the Setid field or click the prompt button to choose from a list
of SetIDs.

The Effective Date is used to determine which values in PeopleSoft tables are valid at the
time you develop the report. The Effective Date is not the same as the As of Date that is

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entered in the report request. (The As of Date determines the current period for data
retrieval.)

The Business Unit is the unique identifier for a part of your corporation that is independent
with regard to one or more operational or accounting functions. PeopleSoft General Ledger
business units typically comprise individual entities for accounting purposes.

Note. The values you enter here do not determine what SetID and effective date are used for
the reports—run-time controls are specified on the report request. Instead, PS/nVision uses
the SetID and effective date you enter here to determine the data you can choose from during
the creation of your layout.

4. Click OK.

A new dialog box will be displayed, prompting you to define your layout further.

Specifying Your Layout Definition

You use the various layout options for your report using the nVision Layout Definition dialog
box. The tabs at the top of the dialog box may vary depending on the type of layout you are
creating—if an option is not available for your type of layout, then the tab will not appear. Click
on a tab to select layout criteria or special nVision functionality for your worksheet.

Informational Group Boxes

The Layout Definition dialog box has a group box in the upper left corner of the Summary tab
that displays information about the contents and location of the selected cells.

Layout Definition dialog box – Summary tab

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When there is no PS/nVision information stored in the current selection, the group box will
appear as it does in this illustration. The box will be entitled Undefined, followed by the location
of the cells selected. If you have an entire row selected, just the name of that row will appear; the
same applies to columns. If you have the entire worksheet selected, the location text will be Sheet
Defaults.

If the current selection does contain PS/nVision information, the title of the group box will reflect
that fact. Also, the details about that information will be displayed as the contents of the group
box, as shown below.

Informational group box displaying PS/nVision cell contents

Note. When you view a PS/nVision layout, you’ll notice that Row 1 and Column A are
always hidden. This is because PS/nVision reserves them to store control information, such
as data selection criteria; you therefore cannot use Row 1 or Column A in your layout. The
first available column is B, and the first available row is 2. Whenever you open a new layout
definition, the cell pointer is automatically placed at cell B2—the leftmost and uppermost
cell available for use in the layout.

Navigating Within Layouts

To move between cells and columns, use the Navigate buttons on the dialog box. You use the
controls in this group box to help you move your cursor around the layout.

For example, clicking the right arrow moves the cell pointer in Excel one cell to the right.
You can select individual cells, or you can select entire rows and columns by navigating to the
uppermost and leftmost sides of the layout. You can also select the entire worksheet by
navigating to the top left corner of the layout. The new cell selection will be displayed in the
informational group box title.

Navigate group box

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Select the Retain Contents option if you want to preserve the currently displayed information in
the informational group box when you navigate elsewhere. You can then apply the same
information to the new cells and make only minor changes, if necessary.

Clear the Confirm Changes check box if you don’t want to be prompted to save your changes
each time you change the PS/nVision information and navigate elsewhere. This can save time and
mouse clicks if you’re creating a new layout. When this option is cleared, changes you’ve made
to the current row, column, and so on are automatically saved when you use the arrow keys.

Dialog Box Control Buttons

The OK button will close the dialog box, allowing you to access the Excel menus or to enter text
into the worksheet manually. The Clear All button removes any existing criteria from the current
selection. When you click Clear All, the Apply button becomes available, allowing you to apply
your changes. You can also click Cancel to exit the sheet without clearing criteria.

Note. If you have clicked Clear All and you navigate to another cell or other area of the
layout, your criteria will be permanently deleted unless you click Cancel before you move
the cursor.

Layout Option Tabs

There are six tabs at the top of most Layout Definition dialog boxes. Not all layout types require
the same information, so not all of these tabs appear with each type of layout.

Layout Definition tabs

Using these tabs, you can specify options for your worksheet and for rows and columns. The
controls on the dialog box will vary depending on whether you have a cell, row, column, or the
entire worksheet selected.

To select criteria or place additional nVision functionality on your report layout, use the
following tabs:

Summary Displays the information about the contents and location

of the selected cell.

Source Allows you to choose Query, Ledger, and TimeSpan

criteria as well as some nPlosion options.

Filter Identifies specific detail values from PeopleSoft trees.

These act to limit query, ledger, and label criteria.

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Label Retrieves descriptive field values from either tree nodes or

detail values. Like queries and ledgers, these criteria also
perform the role of a data source—although the data is
always textual rather than numeric.

Variable Displays information that is specific to each report request

and report instance—for example, scope instance number,
reporting period, and other information that can change
when you use a different scope.

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CHAPTER 4

Creating Tabular Layouts

Tabular layouts use PeopleSoft queries to retrieve data. Unlike matrix layouts, tabular layouts
don’t rely on the intersection of rows and columns to retrieve data. The columns in the report
correspond to the fields selected by the query. The rows display the entire query result set,
although you can use a scope to limit the results. By using Query criteria, you can retrieve data
from almost any table in your PeopleSoft database.

When defining a tabular layout, you select a query, then select which query columns to use and
which layout columns to map them to.

For more information on matrix layouts, see Creating Matrix Layouts.

Creating Tabular Layouts

In this section, we’ll show you the general steps involved in creating a tabular layout in
PS/nVision. Some of these steps will point you to more detailed procedures documented
elsewhere, but this should give you a good overview of what’s involved in defining a tabular
layout and in what order you should complete each task.

To create a tabular layout (overview):

1. Create a new layout.

2. Define the layout as a tabular layout.

3. Select nVision, Layout Definition.

The Layout Options dialog box appears.

4. Select Tabular Layout Sheet and click OK.

You can also optionally select a SetID, Effective Date, and Business Unit to be used as
prompts when searching for your layouts.

The Layout Definition dialog box appears.

5. Click the Source tab to specify the Query Name you want to use.

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Layout Definition dialog box – Source tab

6. Select a Query Name from the drop-down list and click OK.

Because you’ve chosen to create a tabular layout sheet, PS/nVision knows that you’ll be
basing this layout on a query. Therefore, the only option available in the Type drop-down list
is Query.

Queries from the drop-down list

7. Map the layout columns to query columns.

For more information on layout columns, see Mapping Tabular Layout Columns.

8. Define options for your worksheet, row, and column.

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For more information on these options, see Specifying Options for Rows and Non-Query
Columns.

Mapping Tabular Layout Columns

The crucial step in defining a tabular layout is making sure that the layout columns are mapped to
the appropriate query columns. When a report based on the layout is run, these columns will
contain the data returned by the query.

To map layout columns to query columns:

1. From the Layout Definition dialog box, select a layout column to map to a query column.

Use the Navigate buttons to select the first desired result column in the layout. The column
appears as dark gray when selected, and the column tab appears on the Layout Definition
dialog box.

2. Click the Column tab that appears on the Layout Definition dialog box.

Layout Definition dialog box – Column tab

You use this tab to map a query result column to the selected layout column.

3. Select a Query Result Column.

The list box shows the output columns associated with the selected query. By default, the list
box displays the headings assigned to the result columns in PeopleSoft Query and View
Heading is selected by default. If you’d rather see the names of the record fields associated
with each result column, select the View Record Field radio button.

4. Select Resize column to fit data, if desired.

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Enabling this option will use Excel's "AutoFit" command to adjust the column width at
runtime. This makes the column as wide as the defined field length when a report is run.

5. Click Apply to save your changes and map a different query column to a different layout
column, or click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

The name of the column you selected will be inserted into the third cell of the selected
column as a temporary label. When you run a report, this label will not appear. However, you
can define a row to display column headings in the report.

For more information on row and column options, see Specifying Options for Rows and
Non-Query Columns.

If you clicked Apply, navigate to a new column and repeat Steps (3) and (4) to map another
query result column. If you click OK, the dialog box closes.

Specifying Options for Rows and Non-Query Columns

After you’ve mapped your layout columns to query columns, you can specify some advanced
settings for the entire layout, and for each row and non-query column. Some of these settings are
mandatory; some are optional.

Defining Layout Options

You define the various layout options using the Layout Options dialog box, which you access by
clicking the Options tab on the Layout Definition dialog box.

Layout Definition dialog box - Options tab - Tabular Layouts

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Using this dialog box, you can specify options for the entire worksheet, as well as for rows and
columns. The controls available on the dialog box will vary, depending on whether you have a
cell, row, column, or the entire worksheet selected.

Note. If the Options tab doesn’t appear, you may have to deselect a column or the
worksheet.

Sheet Options

These options apply to the entire layout.

Enable Import is a special option that enables you to transfer data from an Excel spreadsheet
into your PeopleSoft database. Certain PeopleSoft applications—such as General Ledger—use
this feature.

Instance Criteria options dictate how PS/nVision will apply the scope specified in the report
request.

• Inherit All dictates that all criteria specified in the scope definition will apply to the layout. If
nVision doesn’t find any scope definition criteria in the query’s table, it displays an error
message.

• Inherit Matching specifies that only the scope definition criteria found in the query are
inherited. nVision ignores all scope definition criteria not found in the query’s table.

• Inherit None indicates that nVision should not use the assigned scope when processing the
query.

With a tabular layout, PS/nVision implements scope by adding selection criteria to the query that
the layout uses. For each report instance, it adds a criterion that restricts the returned values to
those where the current value of the scope variables.

For more information on scope, see Defining Report Scopes.

Row Options

These options are available only if you’ve selected a layout row. The options are the following:

• None. No special functionality will be applied to the row. This is the default.

• Heading Row. A row defined as a heading row will display the heading of each query column
in the layout. If you don’t choose a heading row, the layout will use Row 3 as the heading row.

• First Result Row. This row will contain the first row of data returned by the query. The rest of
the data rows will be inserted immediately below this row.

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Note. You must define one First Result Row in your layout.

• Total Row. This row can contain Excel formulas that perform calculations on the result rows
in the column. You define the Total Row in position relative to the First Result Row; in the
report instances, the total row will actually appear relative to the last data row. For example, if
you leave one blank row in the layout between the First Result Row and the Total Row, there
will be one blank row between the end of the query data and the totals.

For more information on layout row options, see Defining Layout Options

Column Options

These options are available only if you’ve selected a layout column. Your choices are the
following:

• None. No special functionality will be applied to the column. This is the default.

• Copy Formula. Any Excel formula found at the intersection of this column and the Total Row
will be copied to all rows in the column. This allows you to easily create columns that perform
calculations based on the other layout columns. For example, if your query returns projected
and actual budget data, you might want to add a column that displays the variance.

For more information on layout column options, see the section on Defining a Calculated
Column.

• Import Control. This column type acts as change control for PS/nVision's import feature.
When a report instance is generated, all cells in this column will contain the value U, meaning
unchanged. When updating spreadsheet data for import into your database, change this value to
C for the rows you want included in the import. All rows containing U in the Import Control
column will be ignored.

To define the layout scope logic:

1. At the Layout Definition dialog box, select any layout cell.

Use the Navigate buttons.

2. Click the Options tab.

3. Choose an Instance Criteria option.

The default selection is Inherit All.

4. Click OK.

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The dialog closes and you’re returned to the Tabular Layout Definition dialog.

To define a heading row:

1. At the Layout Definition dialog box, click the Options tab.

2. Navigate to the row you want to display column headings in and click Heading Row.

3. Click OK.

To define a first result row:

1. At the Layout Definition dialog box, click the Options tab.

2. Navigate to the row for which you want to display the first row of query results and click
First Result Row.

3. Click OK.

To define a total row:

1. At the Layout Definition dialog box, click the Options tab.

2. Navigate to a row below the First Result Row that will contain Excel formulas to operate on
your results rows.

3. Click Total Row, then click OK to close the Layout Definition dialog box.

4. Manually enter the Excel formulas you want in your total row.

All PS/nVision dialog boxes must be closed before you can manually insert cell contents.

If a formula is to operate on an entire column, be sure to specify a range starting with the
First Result Row and ending one row down from there. When reports are run, the range will
be expanded to include all the inserted result rows.

To define a calculated column:

1. Define a Total Row for the layout.

2. At the Layout Definition dialog box, click the Options tab.

3. Navigate to the intended calculated column and select Copy Formulas.

4. Click OK to close the Layout Definition dialog box.

All PS/nVision dialog boxes must be closed before you can manually insert cell contents.

5. Highlight the cell at the intersection of the Total Row and the calculated column.

6. Manually enter the Excel formula you want to use for the column.

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When reports are run using this layout, this formula will be copied into all result rows in this
column.

Creating a Report Title in a Tabular Layout

Since you can’t insert variables into a tabular layout, you can’t generate report titles automatically
as you would using a matrix layout. To create a report title in a tabular layout, you first need to
insert a second sheet into your Excel workbook and create a matrix layout. Use the %RTT%
variable to create the report title in the matrix layout, and do an intra-sheet reference in Excel; the
report title will appear on your tabular report.

For more information on intra-sheet references, see your Excel documentation.

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Creating Matrix Layouts

PS/nVision provides two types of layouts to use for the creation of reports: tabular layouts and
matrix layouts. The major difference between them is how they specify what data to retrieve from
the database. Generally, tabular layouts are most useful for transaction reporting, while matrix
layouts are more suitable for financial and analytical reporting.

For more information on tabular layouts, see Creating Tabular Layouts.

Typically, the PeopleSoft data you want to report on is in the form of one or more large tables
with lots of details—usually ledgers. Using a PS/nVision matrix layout, you can fashion that raw
data into a summarized form that gives you a more meaningful picture of the data.

Matrix layouts are so named because they have data selection criteria associated with columns
and rows in the spreadsheet, creating a criteria matrix. The data retrieved for and displayed in an
individual cell is determined by combining the criteria for its column and its row.

Example
To illustrate the purpose of a matrix layout, let’s take a simple example. Assume a table on the
database appears as follows:

Office Product Sales

CHICAGO PAPER 1,000
BOSTON SODA 2,000
BOSTON BOXES 1,200
TORONTO PAPER 1,500
VANCOUVER BOXES 5,000
COPENHAGEN PAPER 2,000
PARIS SODA 1,200
TOKYO PAPER 4,000
SINGAPORE SODA 1,000
SINGAPORE PAPER 2,000

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Of course, a table like this one could get very large in a typical business—too large to tell the
manager of sales how the enterprise is doing. Therefore, some slicing and grouping is in order.

From this very large and detailed table, PS/nVision can build a report that summarizes sales by
region and product category, with the option to break these down into offices and individual
products, respectively.

Assuming that the company defines a tree that groups offices into a hierarchy of sales districts,
countries, and international regions, we could use that tree to define rows of a PS/nVision report,
with one row for each region. Similarly, we could use a tree of products to put different types of
products—office supplies, consumer products, and so on—into separate columns. The table
below shows an example of how the summarized report might look.

Region Beverages Office Supplies

Asia Pacific 1,000 6,000
North America 2,000 8,700
Western Europe 1,200 2,000

Matrix Layout Components

To create our example report, we need to define criteria for the columns and rows. For example,
the Beverages column displays sales data where the product type is a beverage. Likewise, the
Office Supplies column displays data where the product type is an office supply. The row
criterion limits the displayed data even further. The first row displays only the data for the Asia
Pacific region. The second row displays only the data for the North America region, and so on.

The following overview explains the important components of nVision matrix layouts and how
they are used to maximize the benefits of nVision reporting.

Overview of Matrix Layout Criteria

The database values retrieved for a matrix-based report are the results of various intersecting
criteria defined in the matrix layout. These criteria tell PS/nVision exactly what database values
to retrieve and where to put them. You can specify data selection criteria at the level of the entire
spreadsheet at a global level, or at the level of a row, column, or individual cell. Generally, you
specify criteria at the highest applicable level to for maximum efficiency. That way, you are only
specifying it once rather than repeating it again at the individual rows, columns, or cells. So, if
you have criteria that apply to the entire worksheet, (for example, a ledger or a TimeSpan are
common global criteria), you specify them at the worksheet level (cell A1). If you have criteria
that apply to a row, the criteria are entered in column A for that specific row. Column criteria are
entered in Row 1 in the applicable column, and criteria that are unique to a single cell are entered
in that cell only. (Cell criteria impact the efficiency of the report, so they should be used only
when necessary).

For more information on criteria for matrix-based reports, see Understanding Criteria.

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nPlosion

nPlosion is a feature you can use in your field criteria. If a field criterion uses a tree node value,
nPlosion will automatically add rows or columns that contain the detail values found under that
tree node in the format you specify in your layout. This creates a group of rows or columns that
can be summarized—showing just the tree node value—or expanded to show the detail values
and the summarized values.

You can also use nPlosion to show detailed TimeSpan information.

For more information on using nPlosion for field criteria, see nPlosion.

TimeSpan

TimeSpan is an option that limits query or ledger results to those from a particular time period.
Although you can use TimeSpan in a query-based matrix layout, it’s more commonly used in
ledger-based layouts.

For more information on using the TimeSpan option, see TimeSpans.

SetIDs and Business Units

PS/nVision uses the SetID you specify when creating a matrix layout to determine your available
choices when you define your layout criteria. If the Use Business Unit in nVision option is off,
the SetID can be omitted, but it is recommended that you specify one. If one is entered, it must be
valid. To set the Use Business Unit in nVision option on or off, select Go, PeopleTools,
Utilities, Use PeopleTools Options.

Effective Dates

When you define a matrix layout, you must always enter an effective date. Like SetID, this
controls which values are available for you to select when defining your criteria. For some
criteria, you can override the global effective date.

Getting Started

Before you begin to define a matrix layout online, you should do some planning and outlining on
paper so you fully understand what data you want to retrieve, what you want the resulting reports
to look like, and so on. The following checklist is a good way to cover your bases before you start
defining a layout.

• Outline your report specifications on paper showing desired rows, columns, and headings.

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• Examine existing layouts and clone one, if possible, instead of starting from scratch.

• Determine the naming conventions for your layout, scope, report request, and instances.

• Determine at which levels (worksheet, column, row, or cell) you should specify the
queries/ledgers, fields, and labels you want to use as your criteria.

• Identify existing PeopleSoft queries that may support your query criteria. If they don’t exist,
you’ll have to create them. Do you want to use TimeSpans?

• Identify existing PeopleSoft trees that may support your field criteria, because it’s simpler to
use tree nodes than to specify detail values as your field criteria. Do you want to use nPlosion?

Creating Matrix Layouts

In this section, we’ll show you the general steps involved in creating a matrix layout in
PS/nVision. Most of these steps will point you to more detailed procedures documented
elsewhere, but this should give you a good overview of what’s involved in defining a matrix
layout and in what order you should complete each task.

Note. As you create a matrix layout, it’s a good idea to run an occasional report request
based on the layout. This gives you some indication that the layout will work as you expect.

To create a matrix layout (overview):

1. Create a new layout by selecting nVision, New Layout.

2. Give your layout a name.

It will be saved as an .xnv file.

For more information on creating layouts, see Creating Your Layout.

3. Enter some descriptive titles as appropriate in the rows and columns that you plan to use.

These titles are not necessarily required, but they can be helpful as navigation aids—marking
the rows and columns for which you will define criteria.

4. Select nVision, Layout Definition to display the Layout Options dialog box.

5. Define your layout as a matrix layout, and define your prompting options.

6. Click OK.

7. Open your criteria row and column by selecting nVision, Options, Show Row and Column
Criteria.

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8. Place your cursor in the criteria cell where you want to add criteria.

9. Double-click the cell or select nVision, Layout Definition to display the Layout Definition
dialog box.

10. Add your worksheet-level criteria first. This will always be cell A1.

If you are adding row criteria, you will place your cursor on column A, rows 2 through xxx.

If you are adding column criteria, you will place your cursor on row 1, columns B through
xxx.

If you are adding cell criteria, you can place your cursor anywhere within the spreadsheet that
you want the result to appear.

11. Continue adding all criteria for the layout.

For more information on defining a matrix layout, see Choosing a Layout Type.

The type of criteria you want to define will determine which tabs on the Layout Definition
dialog box you will use.

Layout Definition dialog box

To define matrix layout criteria:

1. Select the Source tab.

In most cases, you’ll select the Source tab first to define your worksheet-level criteria (cell
A1). The options here allow you to define the data source and the general TimeSpan for the
layout. Applying criteria at the worksheet level helps make the report run more efficiently
because you do not have to restate the general criteria in the rows, columns, or cells. You can

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assign any criteria at the worksheet level that you wish (including data from the Filter tab).
Whatever you assign in cell A1 can be overridden in the row, column, or cell criteria.

Remember the restriction on returning infinite cell values. If you define query or ledger
criteria at the worksheet level, you’ll be able to display results only by using cell-level
intersections. Row-, column-, or worksheet-level intersecting criteria will be ignored.

Layout Definition dialog box – Source tab

2. Select the Filter tab.

Use the options on this tab to establish criteria based upon ChartFields as well as to define
nPlosion for the ChartFields you have selected. This tab is used most often for defining row,
column, or cell criteria.

Layout Definition dialog box – Filter tab

You use this dialog box to establish criteria for each cell in the layout.

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Note. Based on the current cell selection, and layout criteria previously applied, some of the
buttons on the Filter tab may be disabled.

3. Define nPlosion defaults.

Setting nPlosion defaults can save you time when defining your row and column criteria. You
set these defaults using the nVision Layout Options dialog box, which you get to by
selecting nVision, Layout Options.

For more information on nPlosion defaults, see Using nPlosion.

4. Define column, row, and cell criteria—in that order.

Use the Navigate buttons to select each desired column, row, or cell. Then apply the criteria
type(s) you want by selecting the appropriate tabs.

At the column level—with no previously defined criteria—your valid options are the tabs
Summary and Label. At the row level—with no previously defined criteria—your valid
options are Summary, Source, Filter, and Label. At the cell level—with no previously
defined criteria—your valid options are Summary, Source, Filter, Label, Variable, and
String.

By defining worksheet, column, row, and cell criteria—in that order—you define layout
criteria in ascending order of precedence. At the cell level, any criteria you enter will override
conflicting criteria defined at lower levels. So, if you’ve defined column-level query criteria
and you define a different query for a cell in that column, the query criteria for the cell will
override the column criteria. Remember that if you define field criteria at the cell level, they
will not be combined with any other field criteria defined at lower levels.

5. Define any other desired layout features.

You may want to provide additional text and/or Excel formulas to the report layout. This is
also a good time to get creative and spruce up the report with the all the fonts and formatting
that you’d like to apply to any report instances based on this layout.

To enter cell information manually, you must close the Layout Definition dialog box.

6. Save the new layout.

Click the Save button on Excel’s toolbar, or select File, Save, to save the layout under the
name you established earlier.

7. Run a test report.

You should run a report request based on this layout to verify that the report layout works
properly. When you make the report request, you should see PS/nVision go to work
populating a report instance with data from your PeopleSoft database.

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For more information on report requests, see Understanding Report Requests.

Using the Layout Definition Dialog Box

The main dialog box used for defining criteria is the Layout Definition dialog box, which you
access by selecting nVision, Layout Definition. If you haven’t already specified a layout type
and prompting options, another dialog box will appear before the Layout Definition dialog box
appears.

For more information on the various options and components of the Layout Definition
dialog box, see Understanding Layouts.

Layout Definition dialog box

You use this dialog box to navigate around the layout and to select which types of criteria you
want to define for each cell in the layout.

For more information on defining layout criteria, see Navigating Within Layouts.

Tabs
The various tabs on the Layout Definition dialog box—Summary, Source, Filter, Label,
Variable, and String—directly correspond to the different types of criteria you can choose from.

Not all of the tabs will be available all the time. Their availability depends on whether a cell,
column, row, or worksheet is selected, and on what criteria have already been defined for the

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selection. For example, you can’t define variable or string criteria at the row level. If the current
selection is a row, the Variable and String tabs will be disabled.

Understanding Criteria
Data selection, or data retrieval, is the heart of the PS/nVision layout. The database values
retrieved for a matrix-based report are the result of various criteria defined in the matrix layout.
These criteria tell PS/nVision exactly what database values to retrieve and where to put them.

You can specify data selection criteria at the level of the entire spreadsheet, or at the level of a
row, column, or individual cell. Generally, you specify criteria at the highest level they apply to.
So, if you have criteria that apply to the entire worksheet, you specify them at the worksheet
level; if you have criteria that are unique to a single cell, you apply them to that cell only.

Criteria Types

There are six types of matrix-layout criteria:

• Query criteria. These retrieve an aggregate results column from a PeopleSoft query. The
criteria act as data sources for the selected cells.

• Ledger criteria. Using ledger criteria is an alternative to using query criteria as a data source.
While you can use both ledger and query criteria in the same layout, you’ll typically use one
type or the other.

We discuss ledger-based layouts in another chapter. However, you should have a good
understanding of the concepts in this chapter before moving on. For more information see
Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts.

• Label criteria. These retrieve descriptive field values from either tree nodes or detail values.
Like queries and ledgers, these criteria also perform the role of a data source—although the
data is always textual rather than numeric.

• Field criteria. These identify specific detail values from PeopleSoft trees. These criteria act to
limit query, ledger, and label criteria.

• Variable criteria. Because you can generate many different report instances from one
layout—using report scopes—hard-coded text is not an effective way of labeling a layout.
Using PS/nVision variables, you can display information that is specific to each report request
and report instance (for example, scope instance number, reporting period, and so on).

• String criteria. You can include strings from the PeopleTools Strings Table in a matrix layout.
These strings are language sensitive and will automatically be translated to an operator’s
selected language when the report runs.

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Using Criteria

Four kinds of criteria—query, ledger, field, and label—can be combined with other criteria to
retrieve specific values. In fact, two of these types—field and label—return nothing when used
alone. They must be combined with another criteria type for any data to be retrieved and
displayed. The two remaining criteria types—variable and string—can only be used alone. The
criteria types can be used in the following ways:

• Query/ledger only. When you use only a query or only a ledger as criteria, the retrieved data
for the specified cell will be the same as if you ran the query externally. All values for the
specified column are aggregated and displayed.

• Query/ledger with field. This criteria combination is the most commonly used. It allows you
to limit the values retrieved from the data source (the query or ledger criteria). Essentially, the
field criteria act as a SQL WHERE clause, limiting the data source results to just the rows in
which a particular field is found to have the values you specify. You can specify more than one
field or field value, in which case the cell will display the combined value of all the
query/ledger results that match the field criteria.

• Label with field. As with query and ledger criteria, field criteria act as a SQL WHERE clause
to limit label criteria to specific values. You use this combination to retrieve descriptive data
that can be used to identify rows or columns in a report. If you specify more than one field
value in this criteria combination however, the results are not combined. Instead, only one
value (label) appears.

• Variable only. Variable criteria can be defined only at the cell level—one variable per cell—
and only for cells containing no other criteria.

• String only. String criteria can only be defined at the cell level—one string per cell—and only
for cells containing no other criteria.

In addition to the rules defined above, there is a further restriction on criteria usage. For criteria to
be valid, they must not return values for an infinite number of cells. For example, you can define
query criteria alone at the cell level because the results are displayed in just one cell. But query
criteria in a column with no intersecting field criteria would—if they were allowed to—return cell
after cell of the same value, throughout the entire column. For this same reason, you can’t define
criteria at the worksheet level and intersect them with criteria in a row or column. Again, the
results would be displayed in an entire row or column.

PS/nVision does not prevent you from defining your criteria in this way, but it will not return any
data for these situations. If you define a row or column of non-intersecting criteria, no data will
be returned, because that row or column would contain an infinite number of cells of retrieved
data. Thus, if you want to define criteria at the worksheet level, you have to define the
intersecting criteria at the cell level, assuring data retrieval for a finite number of cells.

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For combined criteria, the valid level combinations are the following: worksheet and cell, row
and cell, column and cell, cell and cell, row and column.

Criteria Inheritance Rules

Cells specified by intersection or by single-cell criteria inherit their selection criteria according to
the following rules:
• Criteria defined at the worksheet level are used to specify defaults for the entire worksheet.
Criteria at the worksheet level are combined with criteria for columns, rows, and cells except
where the row, column, or cell criteria give a different value for the same criterion. In this case,
the worksheet criteria are overridden.

• For the intersection of row and column criteria, the criteria are combined where possible. For
example, if a row with Vendor ID field criteria intersects with a column using query criteria,
both criteria are used to determine the resulting cell value. But, if a row and column conflict—
for example, if both specify a Training Location—the row overrides the column criteria.

• Cell criteria are combined with row and column criteria unless the cell criteria conflict with the
other criteria. In this case, the cell criteria override any other criteria. For example, query and
label criteria conflict; they cannot both be defined in the same row, column, or cell. In a
situation where a column is defined with label criteria and a cell in that column is defined with
field and query criteria, the cell will display the field plus query combination. The columnar
label criteria are ignored for that cell.

• If any field criteria are specified in an individual cell, all field criteria should be specified in
that cell; no field criteria are inherited from the row, worksheet, or column.

The illustration below summarizes these inheritance rules:

Criteria inheritance from cell to worksheet

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Putting It All Together

The following table shows you how each criteria type can be used at each level.

Query Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other
level? criteria?

Cell Yes Yes Field When used alone, field

criteria return query column
totals. When combined, the
field criteria must be defined
in same cell.
Row Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting
columns.
Column Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting rows.
Workshe Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
et in cells only.

Ledger Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other
level? criteria?

Cell Yes Yes Field When used alone, returns

ledger amount column total.
When combined, the field
criteria must be defined in
same cell.
Row Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting
columns.
Column Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting rows.
Workshe Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
et in cells only.

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Label Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other
level? criteria?

Cell No n/a n/a n/a

Row Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting
columns.
Column Yes No Field Field criteria can be defined
in cells or intersecting rows.
Workshe No n/a n/a n/a
et

Field Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other ss
level? criteria?

Cell Yes No Query, Query/ledger criteria can be

Ledger, defined in same cell,
and Label . intersecting rows or columns,
or entire worksheet.
Label criteria can be defined
in intersecting rows or
columns.
Row Yes No Query, Query, ledger, and label
Ledger, criteria can be defined in
and Label . intersecting columns.
Column Yes No Query, Query, ledger, and label
Ledger, criteria can be defined in
and Label intersecting rows.
Workshe Yes n/a n/a n/a
et

Variable Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other
level? criteria?

Cell Yes Yes None Variables can only be used

alone and at the cell level.

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Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions

this alone? with other
level? criteria?

Row No n/a n/a n/a

Column No n/a n/a n/a
Workshe No n/a n/a n/a
et

String Criteria
Level Used at Used Combined Restrictions
this alone? with other s
level? criteria?

Cell Yes Yes None Strings can only be used

alone and at the cell level.
Row No n/a n/a n/a
Column No n/a n/a n/a
Workshe No n/a n/a n/a
et

Defining Query or Ledger Criteria

You use the different options on the Source tab to assign Ledger or Query criteria to your report
layout. Select a query to use a PeopleSoft Query for a criteria source or select a ledger to retrieve
information from your ledgers.

Each source—either query or ledger—will have different fields available on the dialog box. Enter
your choices for the type of data that you want to receive in your report.

Choosing Ledger Criteria

To choose ledger criteria for your layout, select Ledger from the drop-down box. Like query
criteria, you can apply ledger criteria at the worksheet, column, row, or cell level.

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Layout Definitions dialog box – Source tab

Ledger Name The name of the ledger you want to use.

Ledger Amount Column Lists the amount columns available on the ledger.

TimeSpans Limits the amount of information returned in your report.

Reverse Sign Changes the sign of the amounts returned from the
database.

For more information on Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts, see Creating Ledger-Based Matrix
Layouts.

Choosing Query Criteria

You use a query created with PeopleSoft Query to specify the data to be returned to the matrix.
Query criteria specify both a query and a particular query column. You can choose only columns
that are the result of a SQL aggregate function, such as SUM or COUNT.

You can apply query criteria at the worksheet, column, row, or cell level.

To define query criteria:

1. From the Layout Definition dialog box, select the row, column, or cell to which you want to
apply query criteria.

Use the Navigate controls to select the column.

2. Click the Source tab to view the Query criteria options.

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The Source tab of the Layout Definition dialog box appears. Use it to specify the aggregate
query column that you want to use as a data source.

Layout Definition dialog box – Source tab

3. Select Query as the Type of criteria source.

You can also choose None.

4. Specify the Query Name and click the Get List button to retrieve a list of aggregate
columns, which will appear in the Query Result Column list box.

To choose from available queries, open the drop-down list.

5. Select an aggregate column from the list in the Query Result Column.

Only aggregate columns are displayed in the list box. If the query contains no aggregate
columns, you’ll see (no entries) displayed in the list box.

An aggregate query column is either:

§ A data column with an aggregate function (such as Sum or Count).

§ An expression containing an aggregate function, with the Aggregate box selected.

For more information on aggregate columns, see Understanding Aggregate Functions.

6. Choose a Time Span to limit the query data, if desired.

TimeSpans are optional in query-based matrix layouts. For more information, see
TimeSpans.

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7. If you want to have columns or rows containing TimeSpan details automatically inserted,
select nPlode TimeSpans.

For more information on nPloding TimeSpans, see Using nPlosion.

8. If you want to reverse the sign of the amounts returned from the database, select Reverse
Sign.

For example, you may want to see revenue reported as a positive number. This is normally
set for query criteria at the cell, row, or column level rather than at the worksheet level.

9. Click Apply to save your changes and define query criteria for a different group of cells, or
click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents check box. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you
navigate to a new cell selection. Then, repeat the procedure to define more query criteria.

Applying Filter Criteria

Filter criteria comprise field or dimension criteria combined with query/ledger criteria to display
a particular value from the query column results. You can also combine filter criteria with label
criteria to display a particular tree node or detail value as a descriptive label. Using nPlosion, one
row or column of filter criteria can generate multiple detail rows or columns.

You can apply filter criteria at the column, row, or cell level.

nVision Layout Definition – Filter Criteria

Filter criteria consist of one or more tree detail values. If you select more than one value for your
filter criteria, the total of all specified values is used to limit intersecting query or ledger criteria,

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and the results are displayed as one consolidated value. However, where multi-value filter criteria
intersect with label criteria, the label values cannot be combined. Only the first label retrieved
appears.

When defining filter criteria, you can choose to use detail values summarized under particular
tree nodes, all detail values in a detail values table, or selected detail values from various detail
values tables. Consequently, there are a number of different PS/nVision dialog boxes and
procedures involved in defining filter criteria, depending on the source of the detail values you
want to use.

Selecting Filter Criteria Options

To define filter criteria, click the Add button on the Filter tab of the Layout Definition dialog box.
The Filter Criteria dialog box appears.

nVision Filter Criteria dialog box

You use this dialog box to select which fields and field values to use as filter criteria.

The list box to the right of the Field radio button displays fields that will be used as criteria.

You add fields to this list by clicking the Search button and selecting field names from the
Valid Values dialog box. To choose from a list of fields, type in a partial name and click the
prompt button.

The list box to the right of the Field radio button will then display your selected values. It
displays values for only one field at a time—whichever field is selected in the upper list box.

For more information on selecting field criteria, see Field Criteria.

You use the Filter Options radio buttons to specify the source of the field values you want to add
to the field criteria. The options are Selected Tree Nodes, Selected Detail Values, and All Detail

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Values. If your database contains ledgers, you’ll see a fourth radio button, Selected Summary
ChartField Nodes, on this dialog box.

The Selected Tree Nodes option is selected by default. When you select Selected Detail Values,
the Tree/Hierarchy field and prompt button disappear. When you select All Detail Values, the
Tree Table field and prompt button appear.

If you choose Selected Summary ChartField Nodes, the Tree field appears on the dialog box,
prompting you to choose a tree from which you will select node values to use as criteria. You can
choose any tree that uses the specified field for its node values and is defined for the SetID and
Effective Date associated with the layout.

For more information on summary ChartField nodes, see Field Criteria.

When you choose Selected Detail Values and click OK, a new dialog box appears where you
can pick which detail tables and field values you want to add.

When you select All Detail Values, the Value Table field appears on the dialog box, prompting
you to choose one detail table. All values of the Field in this table will be used as criteria.

Note. If the Field is a DrillDown child layout, you can choose all detail values from a tree
node. The All Detail Values option is used primarily with nPlosion and DrillDown features.

For more information, see Using DrillDown.

To define filter criteria (overview):

1. On the Layout Definition dialog box, select the row, column, or cell to which you want to
apply field criteria.

2. Click the Filter tab and click the Add button.

The Filter Criteria dialog box appears (see above).

3. Add fields and values.

When you add a field you can opt to use detail values from particular tree nodes in one tree or
use an entire tree as the source for detail values. Or you can select detail values individually
from various trees.

4. Click Apply to save your changes and define field criteria for a different group of cells, or
click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you

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navigate to a new cell selection. Then repeat Steps (3) through (4) to define more field
criteria.

To add a field and tree node values to filter criteria:

1. On the Filter Criteria dialog box, click the prompt button to the right of the Field radio
button.

You can choose from a limited list of fields by typing in a partial name and then clicking the
prompt button.

The Valid Values dialog box appears.

2. Select a field name and click OK.

3. Enter a partial Tree name in the Tree/Hierarchy field and click the prompt button.

You can choose from a limited list of trees by typing in a partial name and clicking the
prompt button.

4. Select a tree from the Valid Values dialog box and click OK.

The Tree Nodes dialog box appears, prompting you to select the tree nodes you want to add.

Tree Nodes dialog box

You use this dialog box to specify which tree nodes you want to add to your field criteria.

5. If you know the exact node you want to add, enter it in the Tree Node field and click OK.

The dialog box will close and you’ll be returned to the Filter tab of the Layout Definition
dialog box, where you’ll see the added node in the Filter tab’s list box.

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Layout Definition dialog box – Filter tab

6. Apply a node list filter, if desired.

If you want to limit your node choices to a particular level, use the prompt button to choose a
valid Tree Level. If you want to limit your node choices to a particular tree branch, enter the
Tree Node at the top of the branch.

7. Display the node list.

To see an alphabetical listing of the tree nodes, click By Name. Use this button if you’ve
specified a Tree Level. If you’ve also specified a Tree Node, it must be a valid node in the
level or no nodes will be displayed in the list.

To see the hierarchical node structure of the tree—similar to what you’d see in Tree
Manager—click By Position. Use this button if you’ve specified a Tree Node. If you’ve also
specified a Tree Level, it will be ignored.

Note. You can use the two list filtering buttons together to help you find the nodes you want.
For example, you might first want to see nodes at a particular Tree Level, displayed
alphabetically—using By Name—to find the higher-level node you want. Then you can
specify that Tree Node and use By Position to see the portion of the tree headed by that
node.

8. Highlight all the nodes you want to add.

Click a node to highlight it.

9. Click OK to add the highlighted nodes.

The Field Nodes dialog box closes. You can now see the new node values listed in the Filter
tab’s tree control list box.

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To add a field and detail values to field criteria:

1. At the Filter tab, click the Add button.

The Filter Criteria dialog box appears.

2. Enter a Field name.

You can choose from a limited list of fields by typing in a partial name and clicking the
prompt button.

3. Select either Selected Detail Values or All Detail Values.

4. If you selected All Detail Values, enter a Value Table name.

You can choose from a limited list of tables by typing in a partial name and clicking the
prompt button.

5. Click OK.

If you selected All Detail Values, the Field Name dialog box closes and the Filter tab
appears again. You can skip the rest of this procedure.

If you chose Selected Detail Values, the Criteria Values dialog box appears.

Criteria Values dialog box

You use this dialog box to specify which tree detail values you want to add to your field
criteria.

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Valid Values dialog box

Filter Criteria dialog box

Criteria Values dialog box

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Layout Definitions dialog box – Filter tab

6. In the Qualifiers group box of the Criteria Values dialog box, specify a Values Table.

Use the prompt button to display a list of tables.

Note. The Field Values dialog box is unavailable if you opted to use All Detail Values,
because there are no more values to add.

7. Enter a new Effective Date, if desired.

If you don’t enter a new Effective Date, the date will default to the one you specified at the
Criteria Values dialog box.

8. Select the values you want to add.

If you know the value you want, enter it in the Enter Individual Value field and click OK.
Otherwise, use the prompt button to display a list of detail values from the Values Table you
specified. You can select multiple values before clicking the Add to List button.

9. Select the Add Blank Value checkbox—with the Enter Individual Value field empty—if
you want to include a null value—and click the Add to List button.

When you click the Add to List button, a null value is added to the list, represented
graphically by (None) in the Current Value List text box. The null value is added to the top
of the list in the list box, but the actual null value is inserted at the bottom of the list on the
Filter tab.

You can change the order of a value by using the Order selection controls on the Filter tab:

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10. Click OK to save your changes and close the Layout Definition dialog box.

To add additional criteria values:

1. On the Filter Criteria dialog box, select one of your Specified Fields.

If you haven’t specified any fields, you must do so now. During that procedure you’ll be
prompted to add criteria values.

2. Click the Add button.

3. At the new dialog box, add your values.

To remove a field and its values from field criteria:

1. On the Filter Criteria dialog box, select the field you want to remove.

2. Click the Delete button.

To cancel the deletion, click Cancel to exit the Layout Definition dialog box without saving
your changes.

To remove a field value from field criteria:

1. On the Filter Criteria dialog box, select the field whose value you want to remove.

2. Click the Delete button.

To cancel the deletion, click Cancel to exit the Layout Definition dialog box without saving
your changes.

Using Label Criteria

You can use label criteria to add descriptive information that corresponds to field criteria you’ve
defined in the rows and columns of the layout. When you define label criteria, you specify
whether you want to use a tree node name or a detail value as the label source. PS/nVision uses
this information to generate row and column labels automatically at runtime from detail or tree
node records in the database. When you run the report, the rows and/or columns appear with their
labels. Report labels are particularly useful with nPloded rows and columns, since these are
generated by PS/nVision and you don’t have a chance to label them yourself.

You can define label criteria at the row or column level. They cannot be defined in any row or
column that already contains other criteria types. If you want to label field criteria entered in the
rows of the layout, specify the label criteria in an intersecting column; if you’re labeling field
criteria columns, put the label criteria in a row.

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To define label criteria:

1. On the Layout Definition dialog box, select the row or column to which you want to apply
field criteria.

Use the Navigation buttons to make your selection.

2. Click the Label tab.

The Label dialog box appears.

Layout Definition dialog box - Label tab

You use this dialog box to specify where the label text will be retrieved from.

3. Specify where you want to retrieve the label text from in the Retrieve Label group box.

If you’re labeling field criteria that are based on detail table values, use the Field on Detail
Value Table field to specify a label source. You should also use this field if you want to label
the nPloded rows/columns of node-based field criteria. Enter either the field name itself or a
descriptive field from the detail value table—which is defined in the tree structure.

Note. If you’re using fiscal-year TimeSpans, you can also specify a special label for nPloded
TimeSpans by entering ACCOUNTING_PERIOD as the Field on Detail Value Table.

If you’re labeling field criteria based on tree node values, use the Field on Tree Node Table
field to specify a label source. For detail or summary tree node values, enter either
TREE_NODE or DESCR, as these are the only descriptive fields on the
TREE_NODE_TBL (as delivered).

For node-oriented trees, enter either the field name itself or another descriptive field from the
table that supplies the node values—as defined in the tree structure. For example, for field
criteria based on nodes in the DEPT_SECURITY tree, you might use DEPTID, DESCR, or

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SHORTDESCR.

For more information on the different types of trees, see Using Different Types of Trees.

4. Choose your Runtime Options by entering a name in one of the two fields.

The RuntimeOptions box appears on the Label tab.

Runtime Options group box

The Runtime Options group box is not visible until you enter a field name in the dialog box.
If you select Put labels in blank cells only you are assured that the labels won’t overwrite
any text, PS/nVision variable, or strings you’ve inserted in the layout.

If you’ve selected a column, you can also select Resize column for labels. This
automatically applies Excel’s “AutoFit” command to the column at runtime. This makes the
column as wide as the widest label.

5. Click Apply to save your changes and define label criteria for a different row or column, or
click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you
navigate to a new cell selection. You can then repeat the process to define more label criteria.

Adding Variable Criteria

You insert PS/nVision variables into the layout to display heading information that might change
from report to report, or between report runs. For example, you could use a variable to
automatically insert the report ID so you don’t restrict this layout to a single purpose. Instead, this

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variable will insert the Report ID you specify in the Report Request dialog box. Remember that
your layout may be used with a scope that changes its contents, which could make a hard-coded
title misleading.

You can define variable criteria at the cell level only—one variable per cell—and the variable
must be the only element in that cell.

Note. In addition to using PS/nVision variables in your layouts, you can also use some of
these variables in the Instance Controls section of the Report Request dialog box.

For more information on using variables in reports, see Organizing Multiple Report
Instances using Variables.

When inserting a variable into a cell, you select it from the Variable tab of the Layout
Definition dialog box. Because there are many different variables to choose from, the dialog box
displays them by category. Each of the following three sections describes one of those categories
and contains tables with information on the variables in that category.

Note. When you choose a variable from the Variable dialog box, you select its three-letter
code. However, when a variable is used in a layout or report request, its code must be
enclosed in percent signs (for example, %RID%). The tables in the following sections omit
the percent signs from around these variables.

Report Request Variables

Most of the values returned by these values are defined on the Report Request dialog box.

Variable Returned Value Sample Value Remarks

DTS Detail or Summary S Defined on the
(nPlosion enabled or Report Request
disabled) dialog box.
S=Summary
(nPlosion disabled).
D=Detail (nPlosion
enabled).
ICT Instance Counter 1 Starts at 1 and is
incremented by 1 for
each additional
instance
IDN Instance Directory C:\USER\NVISION\ Full path. Defined on
Name INSTANCE the Report Request

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dialog box (by the

Directory Template
field).
IFN Instance Output File <varies>.XLS Defined on the
Name Report Request
dialog box (by the
File Template field).
The .XLS extension
is included.
LAN Language Template ENG Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box.
LYN Layout Name <varies> Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box. (Does not
include the .XNV
extension.)
OPC Operator Class ALLPANLS Provided by the
PeopleSoft security
tables.
OPL Operator Language ENG Provided by the
PeopleSoft security
tables.
OPR Operator ID WPS004 Provided by the
PeopleSoft security
tables.
RID Report Name <varies> Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box.
RBK Report Book Name
RTT Report Title <varies> Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box.

Date and Time Period Variables

These values help you label layouts where different accounting periods are reported in each
instance.

Variable Name Sample Value Remarks

APA Period Abbreviation DEC
APN Period Name December

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ASD As of Reporting Date 1995-12-31 Defined on the

Report Request
dialog box.
AST As of Tree Date 1996-01-01 Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box.
FY2 Year (YY) 95
FY4 Year (YYYY) 1995
PED End Date of Current 1995-12-31
Period
PER Accounting Period 12

Scope-Related Variables

These values help you label layouts for which you’ve defined a report scope. A scope is used to
define multiple instances of a report based on different field values. For example, you could
produce an instance of an expense report for each department, or an operations summary for each
business unit.

For more information on scope, see Defining Report Scopes.

Variable Name Sample Value Remarks

BUV Business Unit Name M04 Defined on the
Report Request
dialog box.
BUN Business Unit US1 Manufacturing
Description
SCN Scope Name DEPARTMENT
SCD Scope Description Sales Departments
SFN Scope Field Name DEPTID
SFV Scope Field Value FINDEVELOP
SFD Scope Field Financial
Description Development
STN Scope Tree Name FUNCROLLUP
STD Scope Tree Functional
Description Organization
SLN Scope Tree Level DIVISION
Name

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SLD Scope Tree Level Instances for each

Description Division
DES Scope Descriptive FINDEVELOP A user-defined
Field variable that retrieves
descriptive
information from a
field in either the
detail value table or
the tree node table.

Defining Variable Criteria

To define variable criteria:

1. On the Layout Definition dialog box, select the cell to which you want to apply variable
criteria.

Use the Navigate buttons to make your selection.

2. Click the Variable tab on the Layout Definition dialog box.

The Variable tab appears.

Layout Definition dialog box – Variable tab

You use this dialog box to insert a PS/nVision variable into a matrix layout.

3. Select the appropriate Category, then make your choice from the list of Variables.

For more information on your choices, see Report Request Variables or Date and Time
Period Variables or Scope-Related Variables.

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4. If you selected one of the Date and Time Periods variables, you must specify a Ledger.

When you select Date and Time Periods, and you click once on a variable in the Variables
list, the Ledger field appears below the Variables box. You can enter a ledger name or click
the Prompt button to choose from a list of available ledgers.

5. If you selected one of the Scope-Related variables, fill in the Scope Field field, if necessary.

When you select any Scope-Related variable except SCN or SCD, the Scope Field text box
appears to the right of the Variables field. If the layout uses a scope that has multiple fields,
use the Scope Field box to specify the scope field on which to base the variable you want to
insert. For example, if you defined a scope using the Department and Product fields, and
wanted a descriptive field from the Department table to appear on your report, you would
enter DEPTID as the Scope Field. You can enter a scope field name or click the Prompt
button to choose from a list of available scope fields.

Note. If you don’t specify a Scope Field, PS/nVision defaults to the first field defined in the
Scope.

6. If you selected the DES variable, indicate where to retrieve the descriptive information.

Layout Definition dialog box – Variable tab with DES field

The Descriptive Field (DES) variable is user-defined, and retrieves text information from
either the Tree Node table or Detail Value Table associated with a field in the scope. For
example, if your scope is based on DEPTID, and creates an instance for each tree node at the
Division level, you can use variables to identify each instance with the division name and
related information from the tree node.

Use the Field on Detail Value Table field to retrieve descriptive information from any text
field on the detail values table that is associated with the Scope Field. So, if you were

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generating instances of a report using a scope based on detail values of the Department field,
you could enter the name of any descriptive field on the Department table and the text
contained in that field will appear on each department’s instance of the report.

For example, this variable could be used to retrieve the text in the Manager_Name field on
the Department table for each instance of a departmental expense report.

Use the Field on Tree Node Table field to retrieve descriptive information from any text
field on the Tree Node table (usually named TREE_NODE_TBL) when using a tree-based
scope. For example, if you have added a field for the manager responsible for each node in
your tree, you could retrieve this information by specifying the field name, such as
Mgr_Name, from the Tree Node table.

7. Click Apply to save your changes and define field criteria for a different cell, or click OK to
save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you
navigate to a new cell selection. Then, repeat Steps (3) through (6) to define additional
variable criteria.

String Criteria
Layouts typically contain a fair amount of constant text, such as the column headings “Last Year
to Date” or “Current Budget.” PS/nVision provides the option to build multi-lingual layouts
where these text strings are replaced by specially formatted strings whose user-language
equivalent are retrieved from a table in the database. These string names are somewhat like user-
defined PS/nVision variables.

String criteria are inserted into layout cells with the following format:

%.<name>,R<program>%

where name is the string name as described in the following table and program is the program ID
group that contains the string definition. For example:

%.STDHDG_PAGE_NO,RSTDHDGTR%

In this example, the string name is STDHDG_PAGE_NO and the program ID is STDHDGTR.

When you select a string to insert, you have the option of choosing only from strings created
specifically for use with PS/nVision, that is, string with a program ID of NVISION. If you insert
one of these strings, the program name does not appear in the string. For example:

%.DATE_LABEL%

For more information on creating strings, see Strings Table.

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To define string criteria:

1. On the Layout Definition dialog box, select the cell to which you want to apply string
criteria.

Use the Navigate buttons to make your selection.

2. Click the String tab.

The String tab on the Layout Definition dialog box appears.

Layout Definition dialog box – String tab

You use this tab to insert a string from the Strings table into a cell in your layout.

For more information on the Strings table, see Strings Table.

3. Clear the nVision Only String check box if appropriate.

By default, this tab will show you only those strings that were created for use with
PS/nVision—those with a program ID of NVISION. If you want to be able to select from all
available strings, clear the nVision Only String check box.

4. If nVision Only String is cleared, choose a Program Id.

5. Choose the String Id of the string you want to insert.

You’ll be able to choose from the strings assigned to the Program Id that you specified.

Note. If nVision Only String is selected, the Program ID is NVISION.

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6. Click Apply to save your changes and define string criteria for a different cell, or click OK to
save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you
navigate to a new cell selection. Then, repeat Steps (3) through (5) to define additional string
criteria.

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CHAPTER 6

Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts

A ledger is a special type of query in PS/nVision, with an implied aggregate operation (SUM) and
record and field names specified through the ledger definition. In PS/nVision, a ledger-based
layout is essentially a matrix layout that uses the ledger table in place of a query. Typically, you
will use ledger-based layouts with applications such as PeopleSoft General Ledger or Enterprise
Performance Management. While ledgers and queries can be used in the same report, ledger and
query specifications are mutually exclusive for a row or column, because a row, column, or cell
can have only one data source.

This chapter discusses only what is different about working with ledger-based layouts and reports
versus query-based matrix layouts.

For more information on other types of matrix layouts, see Creating Matrix Layouts.

Ledger Criteria
When you define ledger criteria, you can choose the same options as with query-based matrix
layouts. As with query criteria, you can apply ledger criteria at the worksheet, column, row, or
cell level.

To define ledger criteria:

1. On the Layout Definition dialog box, select the row, column, or cell to which you want to
apply ledger criteria.

Use the Navigate controls to select the location.

2. Click the Source tab and select Ledger as the source Type.

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The Source tab displays the Ledger options.

Layout Definitions dialog box – Source tab: Ledger options

You use this dialog box to specify the ledger that you want to use as a data source.

3. Specify the ledger you want to use by selecting from the available ledgers in the Ledger
Name drop-down list.

4. Choose the Ledger Amount Column you want to use by clicking the Get List button and
clicking the available columns that are displayed.

5. Choose a TimeSpan to limit the ledger data.

For more information, see TimeSpans.

6. If you want to have columns or rows containing TimeSpan details automatically inserted,
select nPlode TimeSpans.

The nPlode TimeSpans option will appear on the dialog box only if you have a row or
column selected.

For more information, see nPlosion.

7. If you want to reverse the sign of the amounts returned from the database, select Reverse
Sign.

For example, you may want to see revenue reported as a positive number. This is normally
set for query criteria at the cell, row, or column level, not the worksheet level.

8. If the ledger contains separate credit and debit columns, they will appear in the Ledger
Amount Column and you should select the amount that you are interested in reporting on.

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9. Click Apply to save your changes and define ledger criteria for a different group of cells, or
click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog box information when you
navigate to a new cell selection. Then repeat the procedure to define more ledger criteria.

TimeSpans
TimeSpans express fiscal-year and accounting-period ranges relative to the Main As Of Date
specified in the report request. TimeSpans control the periods for which data is extracted from the
database. Many TimeSpans are expressed relative to the current period, so that they automatically
adapt the content of a report to the report As Of Date. TimeSpans are required when you are
using ledgers, but are optional with queries.

An example of using TimeSpans, is an Earnings Summary report that compares earnings from the
end of 1995 to the end of 1996, broken down by four quarters. Revenue from operations and Net
Earnings are listed down the left side of the report, while quarterly earnings are displayed across
the top of the report as column headings. You select the appropriate QTR TimeSpan for each
quarter at the column level. Then you specify the ACCOUNTS ledger in the criteria for the entire
spreadsheet. For the rows, specify the individual accounts whose earnings you want to report on.

Field Criteria
As with other matrix layouts, you use field criteria to specify which character field values (such
as ACCOUNT) will be selected for which rows and columns of the report.

As in query-based layouts, field criteria can be expressed in terms of detail values or tree nodes,
and can be nPloded to generate multiple detail rows or columns. However, with ledger-based
layouts, field criteria also can be expressed as summary ChartField nodes.

Summary ChartField Nodes

When defining field criteria for a database containing ledgers, you can opt to use summary
ChartField nodes as criteria values. This retrieves data from a summary ledger ChartField that
contains tree nodes as values. Detail ledger ChartFields serve as “keys” to the detail ledger,
categorizing posted total amounts. You can create summary ledgers that roll up detail amounts
based on specific detail values or on selected tree nodes. When detail values are summarized
using tree nodes, summary ChartFields must be used in the summary ledger data record to
accommodate the maximum length of a node name (20 characters).

For example, values contained in a Department ChartField (such as DEPTID 0100, 0200, 0300,
and so forth) on a detail ledger can be rolled up (using an organizational tree) into a Division
ChartField on a summary ledger. These values could be stored with summary ChartField node
names such as Sales, Marketing, and Administration.

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Two techniques can be used to access data from a summary ledger of this type. We recommend
that you use summary trees rather than summary ChartField nodes because they allow you to
create different rollups of the summarized nodes as well as use nPlosion on them. They also
provide the option of translating these summary criteria to the corresponding detail criteria back
in the general ledger when drilling down. When specifying criteria via a summary tree, click the
Selected Tree Nodes radio button in conjunction with the summary ChartField.

To add a field and summary ChartField node values to field criteria:

1. Follow the procedure for adding tree node values.

2. From the Field Name dialog box, select Selected Summary ChartField Nodes.

Label Criteria
Label controls are available on ledger-based layouts, just as they are with any matrix layout.

Note that if you are basing the layout on a ledger, you can retrieve label text from a number of
fields defined in Application Designer for a ChartField’s Detail or Tree Node table. You can also
specify a special label for nPloded TimeSpans in the format YYYY-PP (year-period) by entering
ACCOUNTING_PERIOD as the Detail Values field.

nPlosion
For PeopleSoft General Ledger, note that nPlosion is available for detail ledger ChartFields or
summary ledger ChartFields that contain detail values, and for summary ledger ChartFields
accessed through summary trees. nPlosion is not available for summary ledger ChartFields
specified as Selected Summary ChartField Nodes. For other applications, nPlosion is available for
criteria fields that have value tables listing the valid values of the field (usually, this is the prompt
table for that field).

For more information on nPlosion, see nPlosion.

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CHAPTER 7

Defining Report Scopes

A report scope allows you to create multiple instances of a report using a single report layout and
report request. A scope often reflects summary reporting levels, such as those specified in trees.
You may choose to run three instances of an expense report that differ only in the specific
division being reported upon. All three reports share the same layout, but each contains the
expenses of only one division.

Using a scope, each report instance will contain data specific to an individual field value, such as
a business unit or department, or a to group of values, such as a tree node summarizing all sales
departments. In this way, each report instance can share the same layout, while containing data
unique to these field values.

When defining a report request, you can use the scope feature to create multiple instances of a
report from a single request, as shown in the following illustration.

Creating multiple instances of a report using a scope

You can specify more than one field in the scope to create instances that represent the
combinations of values of multiple fields. For example, you can use a multi-field scope to create
an instance for each product line (a grouping of products) within each region (a grouping of
departments).

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Whenever you use scope to produce multiple instances of a report, you should consider using
PS/nVision variables in the layout headings to identify the content of each report.

For more information, see Adding Variable Criteria.

Using the Scope Definition Dialog Box

When you define a new scope, you must determine how many instances you want to produce and
how you want each instance summarized.

If your scope is based on two or more fields (such as business unit and product), PS/nVision
normally produces a report instance for each combination of the selected nodes or detail values
for all specified fields. However, you may have data for only a subset of these combinations—for
example, if each business unit sells only a subset of the total list of products. You could limit the
number of report instances produced by defining multiple scopes, specifying only the valid
combinations, and using different report requests to apply these scopes to the desired layout(s).
But if you’re working with many combinations, a better solution is to create a Field Combination
table containing only the field value combinations you want for your scope. If you specify a Field
Combination table for your scope, PS/nVision will generate an instance of the report for only
those field values specified that are listed as valid combinations on the table.

You create a Field Combination table in Application Designer just as you would with any other
custom table. After creating the table with the combinations of fields you want to use, you point
to that table from the Field Combination table field in the Scope Definition dialog box. You can
also create a dynamic record that is populated by a query and includes only the combinations of
field values that actually have data for that reporting period. This eliminates printing blank pages
(report instances) when you have fields that have no data for a particular reporting period.

Note. When you create a combination table, you need only include the scope fields whose
values you want to limit, but you can also include SETID and EFFDT, if desired. You can
populate the table using a SQL tool as well, but a better option might be to create a simple
panel to update the table.

If you specify field values using tree nodes, PS/nVision will use the combination table to
determine if the underlying details are valid before producing an instance for a tree node. For
example, if an instance is requested for each product and division (a rollup of departments on an
organization tree), PS/nVision will determine whether any departments in each division are valid
in combination with a particular product. In this case, the combination table should contain a
DEPTID and PRODUCT field, with each row containing the valid department/product
combinations.

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You begin defining your report scopes from the Scope Definition dialog box, which you access
by selecting nVision, Scope Definition.

Scope Definition dialog box

Use this dialog box to create new scopes as well as to modify and delete existing scopes. To open
an existing scope, select Open. To create a new scope, select New.

To define a new scope:

1. Select New.

2. Enter a Scope Name and a Description for the scope.

When you define a new scope, the scope name and its description help you identify it for later
use. You may use up to ten characters for the scope name and up to thirty characters for the
scope description.

3. Enter the TableSetID for this scope.

Report scopes are keyed by a SetID, as specified in the TableSet ID field.

4. If you are using multiple scope fields, enter the appropriate tables in the Field Combination
Table field.

For more information, see field combination tables.

5. Next, add fields to the screen by selecting the Add button.

The nVision Scope Field dialog box appears.

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Selecting Scope Fields

Use the Scope Field dialog box to define which fields control the scope by adding entries to the
Fields list. For each field you Add, you then specify what to use as the source of the field values
and what values to use. This is very similar to defining field criteria in a matrix layout.

nVision Scope Field dialog box

Each of the radio buttons on the nVision Scope Field dialog box selects a different set of values
for building your scope.

Selected Tree Nodes Creates an instance for each tree node that you choose.
When you type the field name, you’re then prompted to
enter a tree name and level.

Children at a Level Creates an instance for each tree node at a specified tree
level that is a child of the parent node. The parent nodes
need not be the immediate parent of nodes at the specified
level. When you type the field name, you’re prompted to
specify a tree name and a tree level.

All Nodes at Selected Levels Creates an instance for every node at each selected level.
You may select more than one level using this option.
When you type the field name, you’re prompted to specify
a tree name and level.

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Selected Summary Creates an instance for every specified node in a tree used
ChartField Nodes to create a summary ledger. (This option applies to users
of PeopleSoft General Ledger.) PeopleSoft recommends
using summary trees rather than the Summary Chartfield
Node construct.

Select this radio button when you want to retrieve data

from a summary ledger ChartField that contains tree nodes
as values (and you are not using a summary tree). When
detail values are summarized into tree nodes, it is required
that a different ChartField be used in the summary ledger
data record to accommodate the maximum length of a
node name (20 characters). When you type a field name,
you’re prompted to specify a tree name and level.

Detail of Selected Parents Creates an instance for each detail value associated with
the specified tree nodes. When you type the field name,
you’re prompted to specify a tree name and level.

Selected Detail Values Creates an instance for each detail value that you specify.
This option activates the Value Table field, where you can
specify the table that contains the values you want to
select.

All Detail Values Creates an instance for each detail value that you specify.
This option activates the Value Table field, where you can
specify the table that contains the values you want to
select.

To add fields and field values to a scope:

1. Specify the Field you want to add.

Choose from available fields by clicking the prompt button .

2. Select a radio button that specifies the source of the field values.

3. Set the Effective Date used to determine what trees you can choose from.

4. Specify the Tree Name.

Choose from available trees by clicking the prompt button .

5. If prompted with the Tree Levels dialog box, select the desired values and click OK.

For more information on using the Tree Levels dialog box, see Defining Report Scopes.

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Choosing Tree Levels and Tree Nodes

If you select the All Nodes at Selected Levels, Selected Tree Nodes, Children at a Level, or
Detail of Selected Parents radio buttons on the Scope Field dialog box, you’re prompted with
the Tree Nodes dialog box. You use this dialog box to specify the Tree Levels that contain the
nodes you want to use.

To select tree levels and nodes:

1. Click the prompt button to select from a list of levels.

Tree Nodes dialog box

The dialog box expands to give you fields for your Tree Level.

2. Click the prompt button to see a list of valid tree levels for that tree and select one.

3. Place the cursor in the Tree Node field and select the option to Get List of nodes either By
Name or By Position.

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Tree nodes sorted by name

Tree nodes sorted by position

4. Select the nodes you want to use for your report.

You can select more than one node by pressing Ctrl while clicking the node names with your
mouse.

5. Click OK.

The Scope Definition dialog box now shows your fields and tree nodes. You can make
changes by selecting Delete from either the Fields box or the Tree Nodes box.

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Scope Definition dialog box

6. Save the scope by selecting Save on the dialog box.

Note. Make sure to click Save on the dialog box when you are finished with your scope.
Clicking OK closes the dialog box without saving your scope.

Working with Existing Scopes

There may be times when you want to add or subtract fields in an existing scope.

To open an existing scope

1. At the Scope Definition dialog box, click Open.

The Open Scope Definition dialog box appears.

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Open Scope Definition dialog box

You use this dialog box to select a scope to open.

2. Click Get List to see a list of available scope definitions.

In the left list box, you’ll see a list of TableSet IDs; on the right is a list of scope definitions
for each TableSet ID.

You can limit the listing by entering Qualifiers before clicking Get List.

3. Select a scope definition from the list.

4. Click OK.

The dialog box closes and you’re returned to the Scope Definition dialog box.

To delete an existing scope:

1. Open the scope that you want to delete.

2. Click the Delete button.

You will be prompted to confirm the deletion.

To add additional field values to a scope:

1. Open the Scope Definition dialog box and click Add in the Fields selection area.

The Scope Field dialog box appears enabling you to enter additional fields to your scope.

For more information, see Selecting Scope Fields.

2. Enter the new scope fields and related values, and click Save.

3. Click OK to return to NVSUSER.

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To remove a field from a scope definition:

1. At the Scope Definition dialog box, select the field you want to remove.

2. Click the Delete button in the Fields group box.

To remove a field value from a scope definition:

1. At the Scope Definition dialog box, select the Field whose value you want to remove.

2. In the right-hand list box, select the value you want to remove.

3. Click the Delete button in the right-hand group box.

Scope-Related Variables

These values help you label layouts for which you’ve defined a report scope. A scope is used to
define multiple instances of a report based on different field values. For example, you could
produce an instance of an expense report for each department, or an operations summary for each
business unit.

For more information on scope, see Defining Report Scopes.

Variable Name Sample Value Remarks

BUV Business Unit M04 Defined on the
Name Report Request
dialog box.
BUN Business Unit US1 Manufacturing
Description
SCN Scope Name DEPARTMENT
SCD Scope Description Sales Departments
SFN Scope Field Name DEPTID
SFV Scope Field Value FINDEVELOP
SFD Scope Field Financial
Description Development
STN Scope Tree Name FUNCROLLUP
STD Scope Tree Functional
Description Organization
SLN Scope Tree Level DIVISION
Name

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Variable Name Sample Value Remarks

SLD Scope Tree Level Instances for each
Description Division
DES Scope Descriptive FINDEVELOP A user-defined
Field variable that
retrieves
descriptive
information from a
field in either the
detail value table
or the tree node
table.

Defining Variable Criteria

To define variable criteria:

1. At the Layout Definition dialog box, select the cell to which you want to apply variable
criteria.

Use the Navigate buttons to make your selection.

2. Click the Variable tab on the Layout Definition dialog box.

The Variable tab appears.

Layout Definition dialog box – Variable tab

You use this dialog box to insert a PS/nVision variable into a matrix layout.

3. Select the appropriate Category, then make your choice from the list of Variables.

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For more information on your choices, see Organizing Multiple Report Instances using
Variables or Date and Time Period Variables or Defining Report Scopes.

4. If you selected one of the Date and Time Periods variables, you must specify a Ledger.

When you select Date and Time Periods and click once on a variable in the Variables list,
the Ledger field appears below the Variables box. You can enter a ledger name or click the
prompt button to choose from a list of available ledgers.

5. If you selected one of the Scope-Related variables, fill in the Scope Field text box if
necessary.

When you select any Scope-Related variable except SCN or SCD, the Scope Field text box
appears to the right of the Variables field. If the layout uses a scope that has multiple fields,
use the Scope Field box to specify the scope field on which to base the variable you want to
insert. For example, if you defined a scope using the Department and Product fields, and
wanted a descriptive field from the Department table to appear on your report, you would
enter DEPTID in the Scope Field box. You can enter a scope field name or click the prompt
button to choose from a list of available scope fields.

Note. If you don’t specify a scope field, PS/nVision defaults to the first field defined in the
scope.

6. If you selected the DES variable, indicate where to retrieve the descriptive information.

Layout Definition dialog box with additional fields

The Descriptive Field (DES) variable is user-defined and retrieves text information from
either the Tree Node table or Detail Value table associated with a field in the scope. For
example, if your scope is based on DEPTID and creates an instance for each tree node at the

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Division level, you can use variables to identify each instance with the division name and
related information from the tree node.

Use the Field on Detail Value Table field to retrieve descriptive information from any text
field on the detail values table that is associated with the Scope Field. For example, you want
to generate instances of a report using a scope based on detail values of the Department field.
You could enter the name of any descriptive field on the Department table and the text
contained in that field will appear on each department’s instance of the report.

For example, this variable could be used to retrieve the text in the Manager_Name field on
the Department table for each instance of a departmental expense report.

Use the Field on Tree Node Table field to retrieve descriptive information from any text
field on the Tree Node table (usually named TREE_NODE_TBL) when using a tree-based
scope. For example, if you have added a field for the manager responsible for each node in
your tree, you could retrieve this information by specifying the field name, such as
Mgr_Name, from the Tree Node table.

7. Click Apply to save your changes and define field criteria for a different cell, or click OK to
save your changes and close the dialog box.

If you clicked Apply and you want to reuse all or part of the criteria you just applied, select
the Retain Contents option. This will preserve all the dialog information when you navigate
to a new cell selection. Then, repeat Steps (3) through (6) to define more variable criteria.

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CHAPTER 8

Using DrillDown
DrillDown provides quick access to supporting detail by showing detailed data in a different
layout. This is especially useful when reporting is based on summary ledgers, as it provides
underlying details when and where they are needed.

This chapter deals with specific functions for using DrillDown on the Windows client. Although
DrillDown layouts are created in nVision on the Windows client, DrillDowns can be run with a
browser on any report that you have access to in Report Manager.

For more information on using DrillDowns from your browser see, Using DrillDown on the
Web.

Note. DrillDown is available from matrix layout sheets only. However, the layout that
displays the results of the DrillDown can be either matrix or tabular. For example, you may
produce a financial report using a matrix layout, then select one of the amounts and drill
down to another matrix layout that breaks down the departments and products that were
summarized into that amount. From that report, you might select a department/product
combination and drill down, this time using a tabular layout that queries the individual sales
transactions. This is the end of the DrillDown trail, because you can drill further only from a
matrix report.

Understanding DrillDown

DrillDown enables you to select a cell in your report and expand it according to new criteria
contained in a special DrillDown layout. We’ll use the Emplsal layout delivered with the
PeopleTools Demo database (PTDMO) to provide an example.

The report shown below was run based on the Emplsal layout. By expanding nPloded rows, you
can review details about the data in the report, but what if you want to review the monthly
salaries of individual employees? This isn’t in your original report layout, but with DrillDown
you can easily select or create a DrillDown layout that will expand the data in the cell to show
monthly salary rates for employee in the department.

We’ve selected cell L5 as the cell we’d like to drill down on, representing the total monthly rate
for the Human Resources department.

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Selecting a cell for DrillDown in a sample layout

After selecting the cell you want to drill down on, pick the DrillDown layout you want to use
from the nVision, DrillDown menu. The results are then shown in the DrillDown report, as
shown below:

Report resulting from DrillDown

The DrillDown layout inherits all the criteria of the selected cell on the original report, and
provides you with a sub-report displaying the details you need.

Because DrillDown depends on “child” layouts, you may want to create a library of common
layouts so they’re always on hand. These might include:

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• Accounts by department.

• Products by cost center.

• Accounts by period.

• Departments by Benefit Plan.

A number of these generic reports are provided with your system, and may be tailored or cloned
as needed. Many of these layouts employ nPlosion, so you can view both summary and detail
levels in your sub-report.

You can also perform a series of DrillDowns on cells in your reports, until you’ve reached the
level of detail that you might need.

Understanding Inheritance

The key to DrillDown is the passing of selection criteria from a “parent” cell to its “child” using
the DrillDown layout. The child layout may have criteria of its own (possibly on other fields than
those mentioned in the parent), but any conflicts in criteria must be resolved so that the child
query accesses a subset of the data selected from the parent query.

Think of inherited criteria as the equivalent of a scope for the resulting report. The DrillDown
layout can have criteria (including nPlosion) for other fields that weren’t included in the original
report. Conversely, the DrillDown layout can have criteria for one or more of the fields that
defined the selected amount from the original report.

In the latter case, the criteria for these fields will override any specified in the DrillDown layout,
with the exception of nPlosion options, which enable you to see more detail than you could in the
original report.

Within a DrillDown layout, you can specify TimeSpan nPlosion without entering a TimeSpan,
since this layout will inherit the TimeSpan of the original report.

Ledger Inheritance
Like most good rules, the rule that DrillDown reports inherit all the criteria present in the selected
parent cell has some exceptions. Ledger criteria can be overridden in a child layout, either by
ledgers explicitly specified in the child layout, or by queries accessing tables that don’t contain
the LEDGER field.

An example of a ledger-based DrillDown that expands ledger criteria is one that compares budget
to actual expenditures. Assume that you want to drill down from a budget variance report
produced at the business unit level and compare the actuals to budget for each department. You
can construct a DrillDown layout with DEPTID nPloded in the rows and columns for actuals,
budget, and variance. Because PS/nVision allows this layout to override the inherited ledger, you
can see each department’s budget performance in a single picture.

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DrillDown Instances

Because DrillDown instances may be quite numerous and temporary, nVision doesn’t save them
automatically as it does for parent instances. Also, since these instances are generated without a
Report Request, there are no directory and file name templates. Therefore, PS/nVision performs
the following operations when creating the instances:

• Saves the layout as a temporary template sheet (DRILL.XLT) in your TEMP directory.

• Opens an instance of the template; this causes Excel to assign a name such as DRILL1.

• Populates the instance as usual but neither saves nor closes it. In this way, you can easily save
it (assigning a name at save time) or just close it without saving it once you are finished using
it.

Selecting DrillDown

Unlike nPlosion, DrillDown does not require you to enable it before running your report. Simply
run a report, select a cell to expand, and then select nVision, DrillDown; or you can select the
drill button on the toolbar or one of the predefined items on the Drill menu. The predefined
Drill menu items are the most convenient to use because they can be personalized to express
common DrillDown actions for your organization.

For more information on customizing PS/nVision’s user interfaces, see Personalizing

NVSUSER.XLS.

If you first need to create a new DrillDown layout, select nVision, New Layout and define your
selection criteria just as you would in a report layout. Save the layout in the directory identified as
DrillDown Layouts on the nVision tab of PeopleSoft Configuration Manager. Then return to the
cell in the parent report and select nVision, DrillDown.

For more information on Configuration Manager, see Changing PS/nVision Options with
Configuration Manager.

Remember that the criteria from the selected cell in the parent instance will be inherited in the
child layout. Reports inherit the criteria from the parent cell so you get the same summary amount
in the detail report, but you also get the summary amount broken into its component details. This
produces a single report instance containing a subset of the data selected in the parent instance,
but the data is broken out in one or two dimensions to show more detail.

Jump Back

Once you’ve reviewed the result of a DrillDown report, the Jump Back command from the
DrillDown menu (Ctrl+Shift+J) returns you to the cell from which you drilled down, even if you
closed the parent report.

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ReDrill

If you want to repeat the same DrillDown, starting from a different cell on the parent report, the
ReDrill command (Ctrl+Shift+I) eliminates the step of re-selecting the same DrillDown layout
you last used. For example, say you’ve drilled down from the current year’s Travel Expense
amount, showing balances by detail account and department. Now you want to see the same
breakout for last year’s amount. Jump back to the original report, select last year’s amount, and
choose ReDrill.

AutoDrill

For query-based matrix reports, a quick and easy DrillDown method is to drill down to details
using the same query that produced the summarized report, but running it in a more detailed
mode for the subset of data in a particular cell.

When defining a query for use in a matrix layout, you know that you need to define one or more
aggregate columns to provide data for summarization in the layout. But you should also think
about AutoDrill when you design this query, and select the identifying fields you would want to
see (and have data grouped by) in AutoDrill. When PS/nVision uses your query in a matrix
layout, it de-selects the columns it doesn’t need and may select others that it does need to group
data according to the layout.

After running a query-based matrix report, you can double-click on one of the amount cells. This
double-click calls PS/nVision’s AutoDrill function. PS/nVision then adds the inherited criteria to
the query and runs it in QueryLink mode (that is, to an empty template sheet).

Users of ledger-based layouts can also use AutoDrill, but for this, you must have defined a
DrillDown layout within the parent layout. To do this, use Excel’s Insert, Name, Define
command to define the name “NvsDefaultDrill” as a string with the name of the default
DrillDown layout. When you double-click on an amount in a ledger-based report (assuming your
user macro sheet calls NvsAutoDrill), PS/nVision looks up the default DrillDown layout name
and drills down to that layout.

DrillDown Layout Formats

Basic DrillDown layouts typically have one data row and one data column. These simple layouts
are designed to take data already selected on a report and expand it in two dimensions. Both
columns and rows may specify nPlosion, as well as labels for automatic labeling of inherited and
nPloded data.

Note. It’s not necessary for DrillDown layouts to have only one data row and one data
column. A DrillDown layout can be as complex as you like. For example, if you’re building
a DrillDown layout you expect to be used from a corporate-level management report, you
could design it so you get departments grouped into regions, with nPlosion to detail. That’s
more meaningful than a single list of all departments. If you drill down to this layout from a
regional report, PS/nVision filters the layout criteria through the inherited criteria, and all the
other regions would have zeros.

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Since DrillDown layouts are based on a simple matrix, it is worthwhile to set up a library of
layouts based on the field and TimeSpan combinations most common for your reporting and
analysis needs.

For example, you may find that you frequently wish to select an amount from a summary Income
Statement and expand it to show that amount broken down by individual accounts. By creating a
DrillDown layout that uses nPlosion you could expand account detail in the rows, and break out a
TimeSpan to the individual accounting periods in the columns. Alternatively, you might want to
see the value broken out by department in the rows and product in the columns.

Let’s say that you specify All Detail Values in the DrillDown layout as the selection criterion for
a field, and the cell you’re drilling down from on the original report used a specific tree node for
its criteria. In this case, the report from the DrillDown will nPlode only the detail values for that
tree node, creating a row or column for each in addition to a summary column based on the tree
node.

If the parent cell had no criteria for a field specified on the child as all detail values, the child
report will list amounts for all values in the specified field.

DrillDown and Queries

When drilling down from a ledger-based report, you can use predefined queries (built into
PeopleSoft Query) in the following ways:

• Use a matrix DrillDown layout that specifies query, rather than ledger, criteria. This
provides for a matrix report that accesses tables other than ledgers, but that inherits all the field
criteria (business unit, account, and so on) from the parent report.

• Drill down to a tabular layout, inheriting the field criteria from the parent report. This is
useful for seeing the details of transaction data such as journals and voucher lines.

• Drill down to a query without a layout. The query inherits the criteria, and runs to Excel in
QueryLink fashion.

When drilling down from a query-based report, you also have the option of using another query,
in a matrix layout, in a tabular layout, or without a layout. In all cases, the restriction remains that
the query you use must be capable of inheriting the criteria from the cell you’re drilling down
from.

In any case, PS/nVision bends the rules of inheritance slightly to allow you to see the needed
data. The ledger construct (which implies a special query against a specific type of table defined
in PeopleSoft General Ledger) is simply replaced by the query specification. The implied field
criteria for the inherited ledger (for example, LEDGER=ACTUALS) may or may not be
inherited. While drilling down to journals within the PeopleSoft General Ledger application
requires criteria for the LEDGER field (since journals may exist for various ledgers), drilling
down to Accounts Payable voucher data only makes sense from the Actuals ledger, and the
voucher tables don’t include the LEDGER field. PS/nVision thus looks at the record(s) being
queried, and includes criteria for the Ledger field only if it is present.

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Naming Conventions

We recommend a three-character naming convention for DrillDown layouts, so that the fields and
accounting periods used in the layout are easily identified in the Open Layout dialog box. For
example, the PS/nVision DrillDown layouts supplied with the system use the following
abbreviations:

Abbreviation DrillDown Layout

ACT Account
BUS Business Unit
DEP Department ID
PRD Product
PRJ Project
PER Accounting Period

We name each layout RRRCCCXX.XNV, where RRR is the abbreviation for a field expanded in
the rows, CCC is the abbreviation for a field expanded in the columns, and XX is an optional
identifier for a specific layout or version of RRRCCC.

Note. With Windows 95 and Windows NT, file names can be long and descriptive, but a
consistent convention is still a good idea. For example, you might want to name a DrillDown
layout “DepartmentByProduct.”

DrillDown Layout Directory

For convenience, you should store DrillDown layouts in a separate directory from the parent
stand-alone layouts. The directory path is specified on the nVision tab of the PeopleTools
Configuration Manager. The DrillDown Layout path can contain multiple directories, which will
be searched in sequence. The DrillDown directory is also defined in the Process Scheduler
configuration for your report server.

For more information on Configuration Manager, see Changing PS/nVision Options with
Configuration Manager.

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CHAPTER 9

Using nPlosion
You use nPlosion to expand rows or columns containing field criteria. When enabled, nPlosion
automatically creates individual rows or columns for each detail value defined in the criteria—
whether those values are defined specifically or implicitly (by association with a parent tree
node). You can only enable nPlosion at the row or column level.

When you enable nPlosion for a row, PS/nVision inserts the detail or summary value rows
immediately above the nPloded row. Detail and summary value columns are inserted to the left of
the nPloded column. If you’ve intersected label criteria with an nPloded row or column,
descriptive text will identify each nPloded amount. (If you don’t use labels, you may have trouble
identifying each of the detail rows that are dynamically included in the report.)

Note. For PeopleSoft General Ledger, note that nPlosion is available for Detail Ledger
ChartFields or Summary Ledger ChartFields that contain detail values. You may also use
nPlosion for Summary Ledger ChartFIelds accessed through Summary Trees. nPlosion is not
available for summary ledger ChartFields specified as Selected Summary ChartField Nodes.
For other applications, nPlosion is available for criteria fields that have value tables listing
the valid values of the field (usually, this is the prompt table for that field).

When processing nPlosion, PS/nVision uses Excel’s outline feature to group the detail or
summary rows or columns and associate them with their total. Once a report has been generated
that contains nPloded values, you can use Excel’s outlining symbols to collapse and expand the
nPloded entries. Outlining symbols automatically appear in the report’s left margin (for rows) or
above the worksheet (for columns).

In web based PS/nVision reporting, you can still use outlining in full nPlosion. Currently, neither
Internet Explorer nor Netscape can display the "+" and "–" symbols or expand or collapse an
outline if the reports are produced in HTML format. With Internet Explorer, and the Excel add-in,
reports produced in .XLS format can be displayed with full Excel features, including outlining.

The nPlosion feature is particularly useful when used with the DrillDown feature, which enables
you to select cells in your report and expand them to intermediate or detailed levels of
summarization in an ancillary sub-report.

You can enable nPlosion at a number of different levels:

Column and Row Defaults

You can define nPlosion defaults using the Layout Options property sheet. Here, you can specify
a particular field to be nPloded for all columns and/or for all rows in the layout. This is the one

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situation in which worksheet level criteria overrides row or column criteria. You also use this
dialog to specify when—if at all—to suppress detail columns or rows.

Layout Options dialog box

Cells Containing Excel Formulas

If you use Excel formulas in a summary row or column, you can choose to have those same
formulas copied into the new rows/columns that nPlosion creates. You do this using the Layout
Definition dialog box and selecting the Source tab.

Layout Definition dialog box – Source tab

Field Criteria
You can nPlode all the way to field criteria. You do this using the Filter tab of the Layout
Definition property sheet. This generates underlying details only for the criteria fields you
specify.

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Query/Ledger Criteria With a TimeSpan

You can nPlode TimeSpans using the Source tab of the Layout Definition property sheet. This
generates detail rows/columns for the individual periods in the TimeSpan (for example, the
periods comprising Year-to-Date).

nPlode TimeSpans from Source tab

Report Request
You can enable or disable nPlosion when you run your reports. This overrides any settings
contained in the layout. You do this using the Report Request dialog box.

Report Request dialog box with nPlosion option

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You could specify Summary rows or columns before or after nPlode rows or columns based on
Excel option in layout.

To set this, open your layout in Excel and using the Excel menu, select Data, Group and Outline,
Settings.

Defining nPlosion Criteria

You can also enable “full” nPlosion to define report layouts that generate a series of rows or
columns from a single tree reference, generating rows/columns for nodes. There are four different
nPlosion types, which we discuss in detail in the next section. Here is the dialog box that
identifies each of them and their criteria.

nPlosion Criteria dialog box

nPlosion Types

There are four different nPlosion types, which can be combined with various nPlosion options to
create a number of different reports depending on the data you want to retrieve.

To Immediate Children
This method will nPlode one level below a selected tree node.

To the Bottom of a Tree

This nPlodes all the way to the bottom of a tree (including detail values) from a selected node. If
you decide to include detail, then all sub-nodes will also be displayed with summary values of the
rollup for those nodes.

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nPlode to the bottom of the selected tree

To a Specified Level, With or Without Intervening Levels

Starting from a specific node, your can nPlode down the tree including or excluding intermediate
data. This will allow you to retrieve any branch of data from a given tree.

To Details Only
This will nPlode from a given node only to all of the detail values.

nPlosion Options

Include Underlying Detail

When trying to nPlode from a node to another sub-node or to the bottom of the tree, it will
include all of the detail and summary sub-values for each sub-node (see illustration above).

Suppress Nodes Without Data

If a node or sub-node has a value of zero, it will be suppressed from the report instance.

Exclude Intermediate Levels

If a report is being nPloded from a node to another level, or to the bottom of the tree, all
intermediate sub-nodes will be excluded from the report instance.

Utilize Outline Feature

This feature will rollup all summary and detail information using the Excel outline functionality
(see illustration above). If this option is not used, none of the information will be rolled up. It also
gives the user the option to collapse the outline to a specific level.

Note. Although TimeSpans can technically be used with a query-based matrix layout, they
are more commonly used with ledger-based matrix layouts.

For more information, see TimeSpans.

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To define nPlosion defaults:

1. Select any row, column, or cell that does not contain selection criteria—or select the entire
worksheet.

2. Select nVision, Layout Options and click the nPlode Rows tab of the nVision Layout
Options property sheet.

The nPlode Rows tab of the Layout options dialog box appears.

Layout Options dialog box – nPlode Rows tab

You use this tab to define default nPlosion settings for rows in the current report layout.

3. Choose whether to enable a default nPloded criteria field for all rows, or columns, or both.

To define a default nPloded field for all rows, select nPlode This Criteria Field in the For
All Amount Rows group box. Define the field by entering the field name in the field below
the checkbox, or click the prompt button to choose from a list of available fields.

To define a default nPloded field for all columns, select the nPlode Columns tab and select
the nPlode This Criteria Field check box in the For All Amount Columns group box.

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Layout Options dialog box – nPlode Columns tab

Enabling row- or column-wide nPlosion can be useful when, for example, you have a large
layout where you wouldn’t want to specify nPlosion for each individual row or column.

4. Specify the default fields to be nPloded, if any.

If a column or row contains multiple criteria fields, nPlosion will only occur for the single
field that you select here—unless you’ve specifically enabled nPlosion for those other fields
on the Criteria tab of the Layout Definition property sheet.

5. Select under what conditions you want to suppress nPlosion for rows and columns.

The Suppress Detail options enable you to suppress the creation of detail rows and/or
columns under certain circumstances, as follows:

Radio Button Effect

If entire detail Creates detail columns or rows for a field value only if
column/row is zero there is a corresponding positive or negative amount.
Suppresses rows with zero amounts in all columns, or
columns with zero amounts in all rows.
If no data for entire Creates detail columns or rows for each field value if
detail column/row amounts for that value are present on the query, even
if those amounts net to zero.
Never (show all Creates detail columns or rows for all details under the
detail) nodes being nPloded.

6. Specify a Detail Style to be applied to the detail rows and columns.

Style selection and defaults appear in Excel’s Format, Style dialog box. The column format
is used for nPloded values if a row style is not specified.

7. Choose whether to Copy formulas to nPloded details.

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If your selected row or column contains any Excel formulas, the Copy formulas to nPloded
details check box appears. Selecting this option will copy those formulas into the detail
rows/columns created by nPlosion.

To enable/disable nPlosion for a criteria field:

1. On the Criteria tab of the Layout Definition property sheet, choose a field from the
Selected Fields list.

For more information on defining field criteria, see Applying Filter Criteria.

2. Select or clear the nPlode to Underlying Details check box.

To enable/disable nPlosion for a query/ledger TimeSpan:

1. On the Query Criteria dialog box or the Ledger Criteria dialog box, select or clear nPlode
TimeSpan.

This option is only available if you have a TimeSpan specified.

For more information on TimeSpans, see TimeSpans. For more information on defining
query criteria, see Defining Query or Ledger Criteria. For more information on defining
ledger criteria, see Creating Ledger-Based Matrix Layouts.

To enable/disable nPlosion for a report request:

1. Open the Report Request dialog box.

2. Select or clear Enable nPlosion If Specified In Layout.

For more information on defining a report request, see Understanding Report Requests.

nPlosion Styles

One of the powerful features of nVision is the control it gives you over the layout of your finished
reports. When you use nPlosion styles, you can have similar control over the layout and
appearance of the multi-level hierarchy of rows and columns an nPlosion generates. PS/nVision
provides an easy-to-use Style Wizard for applying and modifying nPlosion styles.

Using the Style Wizard, you can change the way nVision presents an nPloded hierachy’s labels
and amounts. Modifying styles allows you to set unique label and amount display attributes for

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each level of a hierarchy. You can even set up custom style sheets that can be saved either in the
report layout’s Excel workbook, or in a separate workbook.

For more information about personalizing your nVision HomePage, please refer to the
section on Personalizing NVSUSER.XLS

The following styles have been defined for rows and columns:

Style Use
Base style (typical colors, base Applied to entire row or column.
font)
Heading Best place to apply indenting, text orientation.
Label Typically matches header indent, not necessarily font.
Amount Best place to apply number formatting and borders, such
as underlining.
Detail Value Simple style for numbers.

Note. If a level is missing within the hierarchy, the next-lower-numbered level that is
defined will take on the missing level’s style attributes.

Using the nPlosion Style Wizard

You can create and edit nPlosion styles with the nPlosion Style Wizard. Styles are stored in a
special Excel worksheet provided with PS/nVision called the nVision nPlosion Style Wizard.
There are two kinds of nPlosion styles: Row and Column. The RowStyles tab displays Row
styles, and the ColumnStyles tab displays Column styles.

Seven levels of each style are provided, as well as a separate style for detail values.

The style sheet Classical.xls is shipped with the PS/nVision product. You can create your own
Style Sheet wizard by saving the Classical.xls under a different name in the style sheet directory
location. Configure the style sheet directory location using Configuration Manager.

The Format Style Sheets button on nVision’s toolbar will use the files found in this location
as Style Sheet wizards.

Note. The Base style can be overridden by modifying any of the other styles that come after
it. For example, you could make a particular field shaded, even though the base style for that
row or column does not include shading. This could be useful for setting apart a particular
piece of data in a large report.

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To open the nPlosion Style Wizard

1. Select Go, PeopleTools, Utilities.

2. From the Utilities panel select Edit, Preferences, Configuration.

3. Select the Profile tab, select a profile to edit, and then select the nVision tab to view or
change PS/nVision settings.
PeopleSoft delivers a set of style sheets that can be located at <PS_HOME>\Excel\Style
Sheets.
4. Click the Format Style Sheets button on nVision’s toolbar.

The Style Selection dialog appears.

Style Selection dialog box

5. Choose the Classical.xls style sheet that is shipped with PS/nVision and click OK.

The RowStyles tab of the nVision nPlosion Style Wizard appears.

nVision nPlosion Style Wizard

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The Style Wizard is where you create new nPlosion styles or modify the pre-defined styles.

To modify a style:

1. Click the button with the name of the style you want to modify.

Excel’s Style dialog box appears.

Excel’s Style dialog box

2. Click the Modify button to make changes to the style’s display attributes.

Excel’s Format Cells dialog box appears.

Excel’s Format Cells dialog box

For more information about how to use this dialog box to modify styles, refer to your
Microsoftã Excel documentation.

3. When you are finished modifying style attributes, click OK.

4. Make any more changes to styles by selecting the appropriate Style name.

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If you do not have any PS/nVision report layouts open, you can save the current styles by
selecting File, Save. This allows you to modify styles globally in the style worksheet, then
apply the new styles to any report layout you wish.

Note. If you click the Apply Styles button on the Style Wizard when there are no report
layouts open, PS/nVision will give an error. It cannot save the styles to a layout because
none are open. Open a PS/nVision report layout to apply the current styles to it.

To apply styles to a report layout

1. Open a report layout in nVision by clicking the Open Layout button or selecting nVision,
Open Layout from Excel’s menu.

2. Modify styles as needed.

3. When you have finished modifying styles, click the Apply Styles button on the Style Wizard.
A drop-down list of all open layouts appears. Select the layout you wish the styles to be
applied to, and then click OK.

Apply styles to a report layout

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CHAPTER 10

Advanced PS/nVision Options

PS/nVision provides numerous options that help you improve your reports and make distributing
your reports much easier. These are options that you may want to take advantage of once you’ve
mastered layout basics. This chapter introduces you to those options as well as some simple
troubleshooting procedures.

Enhancing Your Report Layout

Once you specify text, formulas, selection criteria, and variables, you have completed all of the
PS/nVision-specific formatting necessary for a report. You may continue to use Excel to
personalize the display and printing of your layout, including built-in graphics and charts. Any
elements that you define in the layout will carry into the report that you run.

You can include graphics, tables, colors, and banners in your spreadsheet

When you have completed your refinements to the layout, remember to select File, Save from
Excel.

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Setting PS/nVision Options

You set several special PS/nVision options using the Options property sheet, which you access
by selecting nVision, Options from the toolbar.

nVision Options dialog box

The options on this property sheet help you keep track of the flow of data between your database
and PS/nVision.

Runtime Options

Select the Show Warning Messages option if you want to see warning messages and dialog
boxes when PS/nVision is about to create a new directory or overwrite a file. If you don’t select
this option, PS/nVision runs with as little prompting as possible. This is ideal if you plan
overnight or lunch time report runs.

Select Show Report SQL if you’d like to see the SQL statements that retrieve the labels and
amounts for your report. As PS/nVision gets ready to execute each statement, a SQL reference
dialog box is displayed. Click OK to continue or Cancel to stop the report at that point. If you
like, you can copy the SQL statements to the Microsoft Windows clipboard using the copy and
paste commands. To copy the SQL statement, press the TAB key until the text is selected, then
press CTRL+INS or CTRL+C. Use this option only if you intend to step through the report run, as
you will have to click OK after each statement.

With Suppress Amount Retrieval selected, PS/nVision runs the layout to make sure that all
selection criteria are valid. It does not retrieve the amounts, however, so you can test the layout
without waiting for data to be selected. This is particularly useful in combination with other
options when “debugging” a report. If you combine this option with Show Report SQL,
PS/nVision shows the SQL it would use to retrieve the data in the report, so you can determine if
this will retrieve the desired data.

The Show Row and Column Criteria option allows you to see the contents of Row 1 and
Column A, which are reserved by PS/nVision for data selection criteria when you create a layout.
Content cells typically contain codes that relate to the ledger, TimeSpan, field criteria, and query
names.

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Creating a Virtual Ledger

A virtual ledger is an alternate view of ledger data used only for PS/nVision reporting. There may
be times when it would be useful to have an alternative view of ledger data. For instance, you
might wish to join data from another table (such as a product category table) with ledger data at
reporting time.

You can also use a virtual ledger to provide an alternate security view for different groups of
users. For example, you may want to provide an alternate view of the LOCAL ledger for a group
of users who need data secured by PROJECT, while other ledger users have access secured by
DEPTID. You can set up a virtual ledger called PROJLOCAL, which is a view of the LOCAL
ledger secured by PROJECT.

The following example shows the steps for creating the virtual ledger, PROJLOCAL.

To create a virtual ledger:

1. In Application Designer, create an authorization table (AUTH_PROJ_TBL) with OPRID and

PROJECT columns.

2. Create a page to maintain the authorization table.

3. Open the LEDGER record and use Save As to create a new record.

4. Name this new record LED_PROJLOCAL_VW.

5. Delete any unnecessary columns and create any additional columns you need.

In this example, we’ll add OPRID, since this view is used for security and we’ll delete
PROCESS_INSTANCE and TIMESTAMPS since these aren’t used for reporting.

The view text must contain the following features:

• Since we're using this view for security, it must deliver the OPRID (or OPRCLASS or
ROWSECCLASS) field. This is the first item in the SELECT list below.

• To get security by Project, the view joins the project authorization table to the ledger, making
only the rows with matching projects visible for each operator.

• The SELECT list must deliver the name of the virtual ledger to satisfy PS/nVision's
"...LEDGER='PROJLOCAL'..." criteria, even though the rows retrieved are really ACTUALS.
(See the third item in the SELECT list of the sample view text, below.)

• The WHERE clause must include "... AND LEDGER = 'LOCAL' ..." to select the desired rows
from the real ledger .

The view text looks like this:

select b.oprid,

a.business_unit,

'PROJLOCAL',

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a.fiscal_year,

a.accounting_period,

a.account,

a.deptid,

a.product,

a.project,

a.affiliate,

a.currency_cd,

a.statistics_code,

a.posted_total_amt

from ps_ledger a,

ps_auth_proj_tbl b

where a.ledger='LOCAL'

and a.project=b.project

6. Save the record definition and create the SQL View.

7. Create a ledger definition for PROJLOCAL, specifying LED_PROJLOCAL_VW as the

reporting view record name. The other record and field names can be the same as for
LOCAL.

8. Use the Ledgers for a Business Unit page to associate the new ledger with the business units
that will be using it.

In PS/nVision layouts, use PROJLOCAL, rather than LOCAL, in the Ledger criteria for reports
to be run by the project accounting users.

PS/nVision Defined Names

This section describes the names PS/nVision defines, and looks up, in layout and instance files.
Many of these are used for internal purposes, but several, such as NvsEndTime, are intended for
use by customers.

With rare exceptions (names in bold), the values of these names are managed by PS/nVision
and are not intended to be changed by customers. Never change the value of the names not
highlighted in bold type. It's much safer to think of them as read-only.

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Some names are used only in matrix or tabular layouts, but many apply to both. See the "Sheet
Type" column. The "Level" column indicates whether the name is defined at the file (workbook)
level or at the sheet level.

For some time, we preceded all strings with "V" to avoid problems in case the string was null.
Names of this type show "V" at the beginning of the "Values" column.

Shee
t Le
Name Type vel Values Comments
NvsDateToNu Both Fil Y/N Y = convert database dates (e.g, the
mber e %ASD% variable) to Excel's native date
format. Default N.
NvsElapsedTi Both Fil Excel Elapsed time to produce this instance. To
me e date/time see this elapsed time in the instance, enter
the formula =NvsElapsedTime in a cell, and
format the cell with a time format.
NvsEndTime Both Fil Excel Time this instance was saved. To see this
e date/time time in the instance, enter the formula
=NvsEndTime in a cell, and format the cell
with a date or date/time format.
NvsInstanceH Both Sh Reference Name/reference of macro to be run on
ook eet completion of instance.
NvsLayoutTyp Both Sh M3 Indicates layout version (unchanged for
e eet several years).
NvsParentRef Both Fil Reference Reference of cell from which this instance
e drilled down.
NvsSheetType Both Sh M/T M = matrix, T = tabular, undefined = non-
eet layout.
NvsASD Both Fil Vyyyy- As Of Date, from report request.
e mm-dd
NvsAutoDrillO Matri Fil Y/N Indicates whether this instance includes a
k x e Query data source; this controls whether the
AutoDrill menu appears.
NvsDefaultDri Matri Fil layout[,D] In layout, specifies default DrillDown
ll x e layout for NvsAutoDrill (usually associated
with double-click). Appending ",D" to the
layout name causes nVision to translate
summary ledgers to detail for this layout,
without asking the user. For example,
NvsDefaultDrill might be defined as
="ActPer,D".
NvsInstSpec Both Fil criteria Instance criteria. On an instance for a
e string division, might look like
"%,FDEPTID,TMFG_DEPARTMENTS,N

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PRODUCTS". On a DrillDown instance,

may also include TimeSpan and other
criteria.
NvsInstSpec1 Both Fil Criteria Continuation of NvsInstSpec. This allows
… e string nVision (beginning in PeopleTools 8.1) to
NvsInstSpec9 handle larger strings of instance criteria
despite the Excel limitation of 255
characters per defined name. Because null
strings cause problems, nVision defines
unused criteria continuations as a single
comma, =",".
NvsNplSpec Matri Fil criteria nPlosion Options, from nPlosion Options
x e string dialog. Contains default nPlosion fields, as
well as zero-suppression options, for rows
and columns.
NvsPanelBusU Both Fil Vbusunit Business Unit used for prompting when
nit e designing a layout. This was added in
PeopleTools 8 so the user could choose
whether to use Business Unit or SETID as
the basis of prompting when selecting trees
(In PeopleTools 8, trees can be keyed by
either SETID or SETCNTRLVALUE, and
nVision supports the use of Business Unit
as SETCNTRLVALUE.) This value is
entered on the Prompt dialog, and used only
during layout design. When running
reports, nVision uses either the Requesting
Business Unit or it's designated SETID as
the key for a given tree.
NvsPanelEffdt Both Fil Vyyyy- Layout effective date (governs prompting).
e mm-dd Entered on the Prompt dialog.
NvsPanelSetid Both Fil Vsetid SETID used for prompting while entering
e layout criteria.
NvsReqBU Both Fil Vbusunit Requesting Business Unit, from the report
e request.
NvsReqBUOnl Both Fil VY/VN "Data from Requesting Business Unit only"
y e option, from report request.
NvsTransLed Matri Fil VY/VN Indicates whether summary ledgers were
x e translated to detail when producing this
instance. Used during DrillDown to know
whether inherited criteria are already
translated.
NvsTreeASD Matri Fil Vyyyy- Tree As Of Date, from report request.
x e mm-dd
NvsTree.treena Matri Sh yyyyy Tree performance options for treename.

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me x eet Each character is a Y/N option

corresponding to an option on the Tree
Performance Options dialog, in sequence:
Dynamic Selectors
Suppress Join
BETWEEN syntax
Single Values
Extra Range (above 2 billion)
NvsValTbl.fiel Matri Fil recordnam In a layout, the record name of the value
dname x e e table from which values and labels come for
a criteria field. For DEPTID, the defined
name for the value table would be
NvsValTbl.DEPTID, and its value might be
"DEPARTMENT_TBL".
NvsAnswerCol Tabu Sh Reference Refers to a column of data returned in a
lar eet tabular report. Can be used to create
references to any column of data, including
all delivered answer rows.
NvsImportActi Tabu Sh activity Activity Name, entered on the Import
vity lar eet name Options dialog box.
NvsImportErro Tabu Sh error Text of an error encountered during an
r lar eet message import operation.
NvsImportExtE Tabu Sh error Extended (explain) error text. Currently
rror lar eet message used only for debugging.
NvsImportFor Tabu Sh form Name of the Message Agent form (map) to
mName lar eet name be used to import data from this sheet.
NvsImportServ Tabu Sh server Name of Message Agent Server to be used
er lar eet name for import. Specified in the Import Options
dialog box.
NvsQueryNam Tabu Sh query Name of the Query that provides the data
e lar eet name for this tabular layout or instance.
NvsRowCount Tabu Sh integer The number of rows delivered to this
lar eet tabular instance sheet.
NvsUpdateOpti Tabu Sh Y/N Indicates whether this instance allows
on lar eet update through PS/nVision Import
(NvsImportSheet).
NvsInstCritOpt Tabu Sh R/S/I Dictates how inherited criteria are to be
lar eet handled for fields that don't appear in the
current data source. R = required (error if
inherited fields not present); S = Select
criteria for those fields that match, ignore
others; I = Ignore all inherited criteria

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Date Formatting
PS/nVision can deliver dates in two different formats. Those formats can be applied to matrix
layouts (for variables such as %ASD%), tabular layouts, and the Excel template QUERY.XLT.
(This is used in QueryLink when Query delivers a query answer to Excel). These two formats are:

• Excel format, in which a date is represented by a number (12/31/99 is represented as 36525).

Excel formatting can be used to display the date in a variety of formats.

• String format ('1999-12-31')You define the name NvsDateToNumber in your layout or

QUERY.XLT to indicate which format you want to use. "Y" in NvsDateToNumber means to get
dates "coerced" to Excel numeric format, while “N” indicates to use the string format. The default
for NvsDateToNumber is "N" for backward compatibility. The definition (accessed through the
Excel menus Insert, Name, Define) looks like this:

Define Name

Unlike NvsInstanceHook, NvsDateToNumber is defined at the workbook level—you don't

qualify the name using the sheet name.

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CHAPTER 11

Personalizing PS/nVision
You can personalize numerous PS/nVision options through Configuration Manager and can even
change the user interface for reporting and DrillDown. PS/nVision provides an Excel workbook
(NVSUSER.XLM) with a custom DrillDown menu and push buttons for common actions. From
this starting point, you can construct a custom user interface for your organization or even for
selected groups of users.

Note. PS/nVision will also support previous versions of personalized and non-personalized
NVSUSER.XLM files.

Although none of the features of NVSUSER are required to use PS/nVision, your organization
should adopt a user interface that is intuitive for users. PeopleSoft delivers NVSUSER to you as a
starting point. You can use it with minimal modifications, make major enhancements, or replace
it altogether. What’s important is that users have an easy, efficient way to create and access
reports and explore the underlying data.

Changing PS/nVision Options with Configuration Manager

PS/nVision stores settings in the Windows Registry to determine where to look for files and how
it should operate. The Windows Registry is somewhat awkward to navigate and edit. Therefore,
PeopleTools provides a simple and friendly tool, called Configuration Manager, for maintaining
PeopleSoft-specific configuration information in the Windows Registry. You should use
Configuration Manager to maintain your PS/nVision settings (and other PeopleTools settings)
rather than editing the Windows Registry directly.

To change Configuration Manager when signed on to PeopleTools or a PeopleSoft application:

1. Select Go, PeopleTools, Utilities.

2. From the Utilities page select Edit, Preferences, Configuration.

3. Select the Profile tab.

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Configuration Manager - Profile tab

4. Select the profile that you want to change and click Edit.

5. Select the nVision tab on the Edit Profile dialog box.

Setting PS/nVision settings in Configuration Manager

The settings on this dialog box control where PS/nVision looks for various file types. PeopleSoft
QueryLink, the feature that enables you to send PeopleSoft Query output to a spreadsheet, also
refers to these Configuration Manager settings.

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Note. Changes made with Configuration Manager do not take effect until you sign on to the
system. If you’re signed on while making changes to Configuration Manager, you’ll have to
sign off and sign back on to see the effect of the changes.

The following table describes the settings available for PS/nVision in Configuration Manager.

Control Description
Space Between Query Sets the number of blank Excel characters that PeopleSoft
Columns QueryLink places between query output columns. To eliminate
spacer columns, set this value to 0. Spacer columns improve
readability, but can be a problem if you want to use Excel's list
features (such as Filters or SubTotals), or if you wish to export data
to another program.
Personalization Specifies the directory path PS/nVision should search for macros
Macros used with PS/nVision and QueryLink. It is usually
%PS_HOME%\EXCEL. This is also the path PS/nVision searches
for the user macro sheet (normally NVSUSER.XLS) if it is not
found in the Layout directory path.
Report Layouts Specifies the directory path PS/nVision should search for your
layout files. They’re usually in \USER\NVISION\LAYOUT, but
you may also have a shared layout directory on the network. The
layout directory path is also searched first for the user macro file
(normally NVSUSER.XLS), allowing a user to use a personalized
front-end macro sheet rather than the standard one for the
organization.
DrillDown Layouts Specifies the directory that contains your PS/nVision DrillDown
layouts, usually \USER\NVISION\LAYOUT\DRILLDN.
Report Instance Specifies the directory into which PS/nVision places report
instances. This can be overridden via the directory template on the
Report Request dialog box.
Query Templates Specifies where to look for the QUERY.XLT file. This file defines
the Excel styles used to format your output. If no template directory
is specified, or PS/nVision doesn't find Query.XLT there, it will
search in the Personalization Macro path.
Style Sheets Specifies the directory of predefined nPlosion styles for the Style
Sheet Wizard.

Defining Directory Paths

You can specify paths containing multiple directory locations for layouts and several other types
of files. Within a path, semicolons separate directory names, and the directories in the path are
searched in the order listed. For example, the layout path might contain the following:

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C:\USER\NVISION\LAYOUT;N:\PS\NVISION\LAYOUT

When PS/nVision starts, it searches the layout directories in sequence for NVSUSER.XLS. If
PS/nVision can’t find it in any of these directories, it looks in the Macro directory path. If it can’t
find NVSUSER.XLS it will look for NVSUSER.XLM. Similarly, when PS/nVision opens or runs
a report, it searches the layout directories in sequence until it finds the layout. The same path
options exist for the Excel installation path, macros, templates, and DrillDown layouts.

In addition, when searching a directory path, PS/nVision looks first for a subdirectory with the
name of the current operator’s language. For example, if the operator speaks French, PS/nVision
would search the following directories in sequence for the layout directory in the example above:

C:\USER\NVISION\LAYOUT\FRA

C:\USER\NVISION\LAYOUT

N:\PS\NVISION\LAYOUT\FRA

N:\PS\NVISION\LAYOUT

This enables users of different languages to share the same settings, while maintaining layouts in
multiple languages.

Formatting Options

The QueryLink portion of PS/nVision uses a standard Microsoft Excel template, QUERY.XLT,
to format data retrieved from a Query. QUERY.XLT contains some special styles that you can
personalize if you like. Use Excel’s Format, Styles option, and save your changes to
QUERY.XLT.

Note. The location of QUERY.XLT is specified on Configuration Manager’s nVision tab in

the Query Templates edit box, discussed above.

The following table lists the special PeopleSoft styles you can apply to QUERY.XLT.

Style Name Data type it formats

PSChar Character fields (such as names)
PSDate Dates
PSDec Numbers with decimal places, such as dollar amounts
PSInt Integers (such as years)
PSHeading Column headings
PSSpacer Space between data columns

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Personalizing NVSUSER.XLS
The NVSUSER worksheet provided by PeopleSoft includes macros that make it easy to
personalize the user menu and toolbar. This section gives instructions for using these features to
personalize the user interface with little or no macro programming.

NVSUSER HomePage

You can personalize the following features in the NVSUSER HomePage:

• The actions performed by the spreadsheet buttons.

• The options available on the menus.

• The icons on the toolbar.

Note. You personalize these items by assigning Excel macros and other actions to the
buttons and menu items.

For more information about the PS/nVision API functions that you can call from an Excel
macro, see PS/nVision API Functions (Excel 4 Macros).

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Customizing the Point and Click Buttons

Each button on the NVSUSER sheets has a macro assigned to it to perform some common
function. As delivered, NVSUSER has buttons grouped into Run, View and Command groups.
You are free to change these groupings and the meanings of the buttons. You can format the
button sheet to personalize its color and appearance.

To change the macro a button is assigned to:

1. Position the mouse pointer over the button (it becomes a hand), but don’t click it.

2. Right-click and select Assign, Macro from the shortcut menu.

3. Enter the name of the macro you want to run when the button is clicked.

4. Click OK to complete the assignment.

Note. When you create macros to be assigned to push buttons, menus, or toolbar buttons, it
is usually helpful to identify them as “Command” macros. When defining the name for the
cell in which the macro begins, select the Command-type radio button on Excel’s Define
Name dialog box.

To use the button wizard:

1. Click Add Buttons from the NVSUSER.XLS home page.

2. Select whether to Run a Report or View a Report. Click Next.

PS/nVision Button Wizard dialog box – Step 1 of 3

3. Choose either your Report Request or your Instance by navigating to it from the navigation
button .

4. Click Next.

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PS/nVision Button Wizard dialog box – Step 2 of 3

5. Type in a caption for your button.

PS/nVision Button Wizard dialog box – Step 3 of 3

6. (Optional) Choose a picture for your button by clicking the Image button and navigating to
the location of your image file.

7. Click Finished.

When creating a new button, the button will be placed directly below the lowest-positioned
button in a specific Run or View category. Once it is initially placed on the sheet, the button can
be moved or changed accordingly. However, you are not encouraged to ungroup the button. If
necessary, remember the specific defined button name before ungrouping; then, when regrouped,
rename the button group accordingly (this is only for buttons with images). To ungroup the
button, right-click it, select the ungroup function from the menu and make your changes. To
regroup, right click it again and select the regroup function from the menu.

Customizing Menus

To add or modify menu items to your DrillDown menu or other menus, you simply add entries to
the table on the Menu worksheet in the NVSUSER workbook. The Menu worksheet has the
following options:

Option Description
Application Used to identify which application uses this menu item. This
makes it easier to enable or disable the actions associated with
an application by setting its Active flag. The application is not
used by the supplied macros, but acts as documentation.

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Option Description
Active Y to make the menu item active; N to keep it in the table, but
deactivate it.
Command The text of the command to appear when the user pulls down
the menu.
DrillDown A layout, present in your DrillDown layout path, to be used in
Layout a matrix or tabular DrillDown.
DrillDown A query name to be used in a QueryLink-style tabular
Query DrillDown.
Macro The name of a macro you want to run when the item is
selected. This enables you to associate macro code with a
menu item.
Description Descriptive text that appears in the status bar when you
highlight the command.

nVision Menu Control Table page

To have the macros create a DrillDown or other menu for you:

1. Click the Menu button on the NVSUSER worksheet.

2. If desired, edit the name of the menu (the default is Drill) in the Menu Name box.

3. Edit the table of menu items, adding, changing and deleting items to get the menu you want.

4. For each menu item (command) you add, specify one of the following:

• A layout, present in your DrillDown layout path, to be used in a matrix or tabular DrillDown.

• A query name to be used in a QueryLink-style tabular DrillDown.

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• The name of a macro you want to run when the item is selected. This enables you to associate a
macro with a menu item.

5. When the table is as you want it, click Rebuild Menu to build the new menu.

Changing the Toolbar

NVSUSER can build a custom toolbar from a table similar to the table that defines a custom
menu.

To personalize the toolbar:

1. Select the Toolbar tab on the NVSUSER worksheet.

2. If desired, edit the name of the toolbar in the Toolbar Name box.

3. Set the location of the toolbar in the Toolbar Location box.

You can enter left, right, top, or bottom to have the toolbar docked accordingly, or you can
select float to have the toolbar float over the spreadsheet.

4. Edit the table of tool commands, adding, changing, and deleting items to get the toolbar you
want.

5. For each tool you add or change, specify one of the following actions:

• A layout, present in your DrillDown layout path, to be used in a matrix or tabular DrillDown.

• A query name to be used in a QueryLink-style tabular DrillDown.

• The name of a macro you want to run when the tool button is clicked. This allows you to
associate macro code with a toolbar button.

6. For each tool, also specify the following:

• Active. Y to make the tool active; N to keep it in the table, but not in the toolbar.

• Face. The name of the picture that identifies the tool. Either use a picture already defined on
the Toolbar sheet or design your own using a drawing program such as Paintbrush. The picture
must be 16 pixels square. Copy the picture from the drawing program and paste it onto the
Toolbar sheet. While it is selected, enter a name for it, and enter this name in the Face column.

• Gap. To leave a gap between tools, enter gap in the Face column.

• Status text. Descriptive text; appears in the status bar when the mouse rests over the tool.

• Tip text. Brief description; appears in a “tool tip” when the mouse rests over the tool.

7. When the table is as you want it, click Rebuild Toolbar to build the new toolbar.

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Setting Report Preferences

NVSUSER allows you to take full advantage of the PeopleSoft 8.0 Business Component and
Open Query functionality by allowing you to store personalized and categorized Report Requests
in NVSUSER. This allows you to quickly view frequently used requests by category and run
them with a click of a button. One NVSUSER can be stored on a remote server location and still
allow individual operators to view requests from any client workstation. In addition, you can view
and copy other user’s Report Request preferences, if given the proper security access to alleviate
the redundancy set-up process.

To store Report Request Preferences:

1. Select Go, People Tools, nVision.

2. Click Report Preferences located on the NVSUSER HomePage.

The VBA dialog appears on your screen.

3. Select an appropriate Business Unit, and type in or select a desired Category. (By typing in a
category, you will create a new category.)

4. Select the reports you want for that category (a category is optional), and select Add or
Remove to personalize your Report Request list.

5. Select OK and the information will be stored in the NVS_OPR_RPTS record on the
PeopleSoft ERP database using the Business Component functionality.

Personal Report Settings dialog box

Note. The VBA form, Business Component, and Open Query functionality are primarily
used as an example. You are encouraged to personalize these features. Report Request
Preferences demonstrate the ability to store and retrieve information from the PeopleSoft
ERP and use this to enhance the capabilities of PS/nVision and NVSUSER.

Running Reports from NVSUSER

You can run reports from the NVSUSER page just as you would from a report request.

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To run a report from your Preferences list:

1. From the NVSUSER HomePage, select any number of Report Requests from your Report
Request List.

2. Click the arrow buttons to move the reports to other positions in the queue, if necessary.

3. Click Run Report.

The reports will be run in sequential order from top to bottom.

Running a report from the NVSUSER HomePage

Setting Up Your Report Request Preferences

To set up a user’s Report Request Preferences:

1. Click the Report Preferences button on the NVSUSER HomePage to see your report
settings.

2. Select a Business Unit and a list of the corresponding Report Requests will appear in the
From List.

3. Either create a Category by typing in a category name, or choose a category from the drop-
down list.

4. Select the corresponding Report Requests you would like under that category and press the
Add or Remove button to place them in the To List.

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5. Click OK. The Report Request settings will be stored and saved in NVSUSER.XLS.

Personal Report Settings dialog box

To view or copy another user’s Report Request Preferences:

1. Click the Operator Button located on the NVSUSER home page next to the Report
Request list box.

Another dialog box appears, with a drop-down list of all valid operators who have already
stored Report Request Preferences in the database.

2. Select an Operator from the drop down list to access that user’s Report Request Preferences
and personalized categories.

3. You may run a report from the other user’s Report List or click the Copy button to copy
the other user’s preferences.

4. Click the Report Preferences button to see your report settings.

Note. When you copy another operator’s Report Request Preferences, it completely deletes
your previous Preferences and replaces them with the other operator’s Preferences. You
cannot change another user’s Report Request Preferences without copying those Preferences
first.

Customizing the Report Instance View

From the NVSUSER HomePage, you can pull in Report Instances from other folders. You can
then select one or more reports from the list and instantly open them without having to navigate
through a file directory system.

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View Reports from the NVSUSER HomePage

For example, if a series of Report Books were being run overnight and placed into a common file
location, a manager could log in to the NVSUSER Home page and all of those reports would be
pulled from the directory or directories.

To personalize Report Instance View:

1. Select Go, PeopleTools, Utilities.

2. From the Utilities page select Edit, Preferences, Configuration.

3. Select the Profile tab.

4. Select the profile that you want to change and click Edit.

5. Select the nVision tab on the Edit Profile dialog box.

6. Navigate to the location of your Report Instance files.

You can have more than one folder listed, but you must have them separated by semicolons.
However, Excel does have a limit of 255 characters.

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Report Instance directory from Edit Profile dialog box

Customizing the Drill Through to PeopleSoft Panels Option

Using the PSDrill VBA Wizard, you can drill into any PeopleSoft page and select menus, menu
bars and menu bar items, and search keys. All but the page search keys are necessary to pass into
the PeopleSoft system; however, the page search keys would populate the component search
record’s keys and would allow the user to seamlessly pass into the PeopleSoft system.

To select a PeopleSoft Drill setup:

1. From the PS/nVision menu in Excel, select Drill, PeopleSoft Drill Setup.

2. Select a Drill Setup name from the drop-down dialog box.

All of the corresponding values associated with the Drill Setup appear. You may modify or delete
the setup values from this screen.

To create a new Drill setup

1. From the PS/nVision menu in Excel, select Drill, PeopleSoft Drill Setup.

2. Enter a name for the new Drill Setup.

3. Select a menu, menu bar, menu bar item, and component item.

4. (Optional) Select the page search keys by clicking each search key that should be populated.
(All search keys need to be selected if you want to bypass the search record prompt.

5. Select OK to save the information on the PSDrill spreadsheet.

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Note. The Drill Setup Wizard uses an Excel spreadsheet to store information. The Report
Request Preferences Wizard uses Business Components to store information.

The strength of the Drill Through to PeopleSoft Pages option is the ability to drill all the way
into a specific item on a page. For instance, this option allows you to drill from a Journal Lines
drill-down instance to an actual Journal ID in the PeopleSoft system. If you do not use the Page
Search Key option, you will be prompted to supply the search keys when you drill into the
PeopleSoft system.

In order to drill to the actual PeopleSoft page, the Drill Name needs to be associated with a macro
(called GoToPTools) that will build and run a command line argument from NVSUSER. This
macro is designed to be executed using the personalized menu. NVSUSER is delivered with three
drill examples and the setup command on the personalized PS/nVision menu.

To add another Drill Name to a menu:

1. Type the exact name of the Drill that was created in the Menu Command column.

2. Type GoToPTools in the Macro column.

Macro column

3. From a DrillDown Instance, select Drill and then the desired Drill Through to Panel
method from the drop-down menu.

This will run a command line argument that will open a separate PeopleSoft Session and go
directly into the desired page.

Note. In order to go directly to a specific item in a page, such as an exact Journal or Voucher
ID, you must populate all of the Page Search keys related to that page. This can only
currently be done from a tabular layout.

To select a PeopleSoft Drill Setup with Page Search Keys

1. From the Drill menu in Excel, select PeopleSoft Drill Setup.

2. Select a Drill Name from the list.

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Notice that all of the Page Search Keys are chosen (BUSINESS_UNIT and
VOUCHER_ID). This implies that in order for the drill-through to go directly to a specific
voucher, a tabular report needs to be created that has these two fields. If not, it will prompt
the user for a Business Unit and a Voucher ID from the page.

Drill to Panel Setup dialog box

3. Drill down on valid accounts that will produce Accounts Payable information using the AP
Detail drill-down from the Drill menu.

Note. The AP Detail drill-down layout is a tabular layout, and if examined carefully contains
the two necessary fields to complete a seamless drill through. If you use or personalize a
report that does not have these two fields you will be prompted for information when trying
to drill through.

4. Once you have drilled down, examine the report and determine a Voucher ID that would be
suitable to drill through to.

5. Select the row and from the Drill menu select Drill Through to Voucher Page.

6. This will bring up another PeopleSoft window to the VOUCHER_INQUIRY page with the
exact voucher ID that was selected.

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Enter Voucher Information – Inquire - Voucher

To select a PeopleSoft Drill Setup without Page Search Keys

1. Follow the steps outlined in the preceding section, To select a PeopleSoft Drill Setup with
Page Search Keys.

2. Run the Drill Through to Voucher Page from a row of a tabular drill instance without
referencing the page search keys or deselect a Page Search key from the Drill to Page Setup.

A search box appears with possible matching entries displayed.

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Update/Display – Voucher

Customizing the Style Sheet Wizard

You can create and edit nPlosion styles with the nPlosion Style Wizard. Styles are stored in a
special Excel worksheet provided with PS/nVision called the nVision nPlosion Style Wizard.
There are two kinds of nPlosion styles: Row and Column. The RowStyles tab displays Row
styles, and the ColumnStyles tab displays Column styles.

Seven levels of each style are provided, as well as a separate style for detail values.

The Style sheet Classical.xls is shipped with the PS/nVision product. You can create your own
style sheet wizard by saving the Classical.xls under a different name in the Style Sheet directory
location. Configure the Style Sheet directory location using Configuration Manager.

The Format Style Sheets button on nVision’s toolbar will use the files found in this location
as Style Sheet wizards.

Note. The Base style can be overridden by modifying any of the other styles that come after
it. For example, you could make a particular field shaded, even though the base style for that
row or column does not include shading. This could be useful for setting apart a particular
piece of data in a large report.

To open the nPlosion Style Wizard

1. Select Go, PeopleTools, Utilities.

2. From the Utilities page select Edit, Preferences, Configuration.

3. Select the Profile tab, select a profile to edit, and then choose the nVision tab to view or

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change PS/nVision settings.

PeopleSoft delivers a set of style sheets that can be located at <PS_HOME>\Excel\Style
Sheets.
4. Click the Format Style Sheets button on nVision’s toolbar.

The Style Selection dialog is displayed.

Style Selection Dialog

5. Choose the Classical.xls style sheet that is shipped with PS/nVision and click OK.

The RowStyles tab of the nVision nPlosion Style Wizard is displayed.

nVision nPlosion Style Wizard

Use the Style Wizard to create new nPlosion styles or modify the pre-defined styles. The
Style Sheet displays a rollup of data for eight rows and eight columns (Excel has a limitation
of rolling data up into only eight outlines). There are four types of styles that can be applied
to each row and column.

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Heading An outlined row or column of data has two parts to it.

When opened the top portion of the outline is considered
the header, and the bottom portion is considered the Label.
The Header does not contain any data. It is strictly for
display purposes.

Label The bottom portion of the outline and will be the only
thing displayed if the outline is collapsed.

Amount Any numeric data that will be a result of an nPlosion.

Base The formatting options for the Label, Heading, and

Amount styles. However, since styles can be overlayed
one on top of another, if there are style settings for the
Label, Header, or Amount, they will override the Base
Style setting.

To modify a style

1. Click the button with the name of the style you want to modify.

Excel’s Style dialog is displayed.

Excel’s Style Dialog

2. Click the Modify button to make changes to the style’s display attributes.

Excel’s Format Cells dialog is displayed.

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Excel’s Format Cells Dialog

For more information about how to use this dialog to modify styles, refer to your Microsoftã
Excel documentation.

3. When you are finished modifying style attributes, click OK.

4. Make any more changes to styles by clicking the appropriate Style button.

5. If you do not have any PS/nVision report layouts open, you can save the current styles by
selecting File, Save. This allows you to modify styles globally in the style worksheet, then
apply the new styles to any report layout you wish.

If you have a style at the Label, Header, or Amount level, this will override the Base style. If you
have a Base style, it overrides the styles for Label, Header, and Amount.

For example, let’s say that your Base style setting has Level 1 of the row as blue. The Label Style
setting has Patterns turned off, but Amount and Header have Patterns turned on. Then the whole
row would be blue except for the Label style.

Note. All Row Style settings override the Column Style settings.

To apply styles to a report layout

1. Open a report layout in nVision by clicking the Open Layout button or selecting nVision,
Open Layout from Excel’s menu.

2. Modify styles as needed.

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3. When you have finished modifying styles, click the Apply Styles button on the Style Wizard.
A drop down list of all open layouts will be displayed. Select the desired layout the user
wishes the styles to be applied to, and press OK.

Apply styles

You can create and edit nPlosion styles with the nPlosion Style Wizard. Styles are stored in a
special Excel worksheet provided with PS/nVision called the nVision nPlosion Style Wizard.
Using the Style Sheet Wizard, you can manipulate and change styles to fit your reporting
needs.

Note. If you click the Apply Styles button on the Style Wizard when there are no report
layouts open, PS/nVision will give an error. It cannot save the styles to a layout because
none are open. Open a PS/nVision report layout to apply the current styles to it.

For more information about nPlosion see nPlosion Options.

Style Formatting Conventions

The Style Sheet wizard is designed for the user to easily take advantage of the Excel Style
formatting settings and properly use the designed nVision Style naming convention. The same
effect can be accomplished by simply opening a layout, and from the Excel menu bar select
Format, Styles. The Style dialog will appear and you can create styles using the same naming
convention as the Style Wizard does. The following are two examples of the naming convention
for PS/nVision nPlosion styles.

RxxL The Label Style for any given level at a Row, where “R”
represents a Row, “xx” represents the number of the level
(i.e., 01, 02, etc. – 00 represents the detail level), and the
“L” represents the Label Style.

CxxA The Amount Style for any given level at a column, where
“C” represents a Column, “xx” represents the number of
the level (i.e., 01, 02, etc. – 00 represents the detail level),
and the “A” represents the Amount Style.

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Note. Detail Row and Column Style settings are represented by the “00” level.

To personalize a style sheet to represent a specific set of styles, simply change the style sheet to a
desired set of styles, and save the XLS file with a new name. This gives you the ability to have
several style sheets, each personalized for different uses.

Note. To see if a layout already has the PS/nVision styles applied to it, to look at the styles.
From the Excel menu bar, select Format, Styles and check to see if the layout uses the
nVision naming conventions.

Customizing Delivered VBA Wizards

NVSUSER delivers VBA forms to perform various functions from storing information into the
PeopleSoft system to creating a button to run a report. To find the VBA forms, select Tools,
Macros, Visual Basic Editor from the Excel menu bar.

For more information about the VB Editor, see your Microsoft Visual Basic Applications
manual.

The VBA forms have several examples of using the new Visual Basic PeopleSoft APIs, and how
they can be used to personalize your PS/nVision. We encourage you to take advantage of these
features, they can add tremendous depth to your reporting ability.

For more information about the Visual Basic interface, see Using the PS/nVision VBA
Interface.

Also note that several of the VBA wizards take advantage of the PeopleSoft Open Query method
to pull information from the PeopleSoft system. To use this method, you need to have already
created a Query in the PeopleSoft system.

There are also examples of VBA passing prompt values to the queries. Here are a few of the
queries that nVision accesses and wizards that use them:

Queries: VBA Wizard:

NVS_OPERATORS NVSUSER.xls
NVS_PERSNL_RPTS NVSUSER.xls, Personal_Settings
NVS_CATEGORY NVSUSER.xls, Personal_Settings
NVS_BUS_UNIT Personal_Settings, Button Wizard

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Queries: VBA Wizard:

NVS_RPT_ID Personal_Settings, Button Wizard
NVS_MENU PSDrill
NVS_MENU_BAR PSDrill
NVS_MENU_ITEM PSDrill
NVS_MENU_PANEL PSDrill
NVS_MENU_PNL_KEYS PSDrill

Changing the Startup File

When you start PS/nVision, it opens NVSUSER.XLS by default. If it cannot locate
NVSUSER.XLS, it will look for and open NVSUSER.XLM file. But what if you don’t want it to
open NVSUSER? What if you have your own custom workbook that you’d like PS/nVision to
open?

If you start PS/nVision from a Microsoft Windows shortcut icon, you can specify a different
startup file on the PS/nVision command line. All you need to do is include the -SF argument,
followed by the name of the startup file. For example, to have PS/nVision open the file
NVSDEV.XLS, you’d enter a command similar to the following in the Target edit box in the
Properties dialog for the shortcut:

c:\pt800\bin\client\winx86\psnvs.exe -SFNVSDEV.XLS

This feature enables you to provide different startup files for different classes of users.

Note. PS/nVision searches for the startup file in the same directories where it looks for its
default startup file.

For more information see Changing PS/nVision Options with Configuration Manager.

PS/nVision API Functions (Excel 4 Macros)

PS/nVision has an API function interface. The Excel macros that you write can use these
functions to gain access to PS/nVision features. This table describes the API functions.

Note. None of these functions may be called within a macro called via NvsInstanceHook.

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Interface Purpose Argument(s Example

Function )
NvsAutoDri Performs an AutoDrill, like selecting the None =NvsAutoDrill()
ll AutoDrill menu item. AutoDrill is only
useable in reports based on queries, and in
ledger-based reports for which the
NvsDefaultDrill name is defined in the
layout, specifying the name of the layout
to run as an AutoDrill.
NvsDrillDo Start a matrix DrillDown, like the None =NvsDrillDown(
wn DrillDown item on the nVision menu. The )
user will choose a DrillDown layout from
the Open dialog box.
NvsDrillLay Run a matrix DrillDown using a specified Layout =NvsDrillLayout
out layout. name ("ACTPER.XNV
")
NvsDrillQu Run a tabular DrillDown using a specified Query name =NvsDrillQuery
ery Query. ("Journals")
NvsJumpBa Jump back to the sheet and cell from None =NvsJumpBack()
ck which the current sheet drilled down (same
as Jump Back command.)
NvsLayout Show the Layout Definition dialog box for None =NvsLayoutDefn
Defn the selected row, column, or cell. This is ()
the equivalent of the nVision, Layout
Definition menu item.
NvsNewLay Creates a new layout, like the New Layout None =NvsNewLayout
out menu item. ()
NvsOnWind Activate PS/nVision menus for the current None =NvsOnWindow
ow window. This is required when your macro ()
opens a sheet, since Excel does not signal
PS/nVision that the new sheet has been
activated.
NvsOpenFil Open an Excel worksheet, waiting if filespec, =NvsOpenFile
e necessary in case another user on the updlinks, ("FSDEMO.XLS
network is accessing the file. If the file is readonly ",
opened successfully, call NvsOnWindow TRUE, FALSE)
to update menus. Optional arguments say
whether to update links to other documents
and if file is to be opened read-only.
NvsOpenLa Open a layout, like the Open Layout menu None =NvsOpenLayou
yout item. t()

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Interface Purpose Argument(s Example

Function )
NvsOpenRe Open a report request, like clicking the None =NvsOpenReport
port Open button in the Report Request dialog ()
box.
NvsOpenSc Open an existing scope definition, like None =NvsOpenScope(
ope clicking the Open button in the Scope )
Definition dialog box.
NvsReDrill Repeat the most recent DrillDown from None =NvsReDrill()
the currently selected amount cell.
NvsReport Display the Report Request dialog, like the None =NvsReportRequ
Request nVision, Report Request menu item. est()
NvsRunCurr Runs the current report, like the nVision, None =NvsRunCurrent
ent Run Current Report menu item. ()
NvsRunQue Run a specified query, without inheriting Query name =NvsRunQuery
ry DrillDown criteria. ("AP Journals")
NvsRunRep When used without a parameter, prompts None =NvsRunReport(
ort the user to select a report to run, then runs )
Or
the selected report. With a parameter, runs
or
a specified matrix report, without showing Business
the report key dialog or Report Request. Unit, Report =NvsRunReport
ID ("M04","ISDEM
O")
NvsSaveAs Prompts user to save the layout with a new None =NvsSaveAsLay
Layout name, like the nVision, Save As Layout out()
menu item.
NvsScopeD Opens the Scope Definition dialog box, None =NvsScopeDefn(
efn like the nVision, Scope Definition menu )
item.

Troubleshooting NVSUSER
NVSUSER is a customizable user interface developed using VBA and takes advantage of
OpenQuery for retrieving certain information from the database. It does this using Microsoft
ActiveX Data Objects (ADO). PSnVision will not launch successfully if the proper ADO
objects are not installed (or if the ADO dlls get out of sync due to a subsequent install of
another software package that may happen to also install these ADO dlls). Starting with
PeopleSoft 8, PeopleSoft will distribute the Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC),
which contains the appropriate ADO DLLs along with the PeopleTools software. To install
MCAD, you need to run madc_typ.exe from your %PS_HOME%\SETUP directory and then
take all the defaults during the installation.

You may encounter one of the following Microsoft VB errors upon launching nVision if the
proper ADO DLLs are not installed:

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“Compile error: Can’t find project or library”

“Compile error: ActiveX component can’t create object”

“Component not correctly registered”

“Run-time error '13': Type mismatch"

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CHAPTER 12

Using the PS/nVision VBA Interface

You can develop powerful Visual Basic applications with the PS/nVision VBA programming
interface. The objects and their related methods referenced in this section provide the ability to
call nVision’s main features programmatically for common reporting and analysis tasks.

Designer Object

Description
Creates an instance of nVision.

Note. The Designer Object was created to support the previous Excel 4 Macro calls into
PeopleSoft, in addition to extra API calls.

Example
Dim objnVision As Object

Dim objDesignerCmd As Object

Dim strAppName As String

strAppName = "PSnvision.nvsdesigner"

Set objnVision = CreateObject(strAppName)

Set objDesignerCmd = objnVision.DesignerCmd

It should be noted that after you have finished with the Designer object, you should clear the
nVision object by setting it equal to nothing:

Set objnVision = Nothing

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Designer Object Methods

OpenFile

Description
This method enables the user to open a new or existing PS/nVision report layout. There are three
arguments associated with this method: the file name (with full path) and two optional arguments:
update links and read only.

Syntax
OpenFile([in] BSTR filename, [in, optional] BOOL updatelinks, [in, optional]
BOOL readonly)

Example
ObjDesignerCmd.OpenFile(“c:\user\BALANCE.xls”, TRUE, FALSE)

OnWindow

Description
This method enables the user to refresh the designer window, including the nVision menus.

Example
objDesignerCmd.OnWindow

StartMenu

Description
This method causes the designer to register its menu within the grid.

Example

objDesignerCmd.StartMenu

Connect

Description
This method enables the user to sign on to the PeopleTools application.

Syntax
Connect([in, optional] BSTR startMacro)

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Example
‘ Straight Connection

objDesignerCmd.Connect

‘ Connection and run macro

objDesignerCmd.Connect(“MacroName”)

Disconnect

Description
This method enables the user to sign off from the PeopleTools application.

Example
objDesignerCmd.Disconnect

ResetEnvironment

Description
This method is used to reset the working directory and other environment settings needed for
nVision to process reports.

Example
objDesignerCmd.ResetEnvironment

OpenLayout

Description
This method enables the user to open an existing layout.

Example
objDesignerCmd.OpenLayout

NewLayout

Description
This method enables the user to create a new layout.

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Example
objDesignerCmd.NewLayout

SaveAsLayout

Description
This method enables the user to save the worksheet as a layout.

Example
objDesignerCmd.SaveAsLayout

DefineLayout

Description
This method enables the user to invoke nVision’s Layout Definition dialog box.

Example
objDesignerCmd.DefineLayout

LayoutOptions

Description
This method enables the user to invoke nVision’s Layout Options dialog box.

Example
objDesignerCmd.LayoutOptions

ReportRequest

Description
This method enables the user to open an existing report request.

Example
objDesignerCmd.ReportRequest

RunCurrent

Description
This method enables the user to run a report request defined or previously opened.

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Example
objDesignerCmd.RunCurrent

RunReport

Description
This enables the user to run a specific report. There are two arguments required for this request:
business unit and report request name. The report request is case sensitive and must be in
uppercase letters.

Syntax
RunReport([in] BSTR BusUnit, [in] BSTR RptRqst)

Example
objDesignerCmd.RunReport(“M04”, “BALANCE”)

Options

Description
This method enables the user to open the Options dialog box.

Example
objDesignerCmd.Options

OpenScope

Description
This method displays the Open Scope dialog box and then the Scope Definition dialog box,
assuming the user chooses a scope.

Example
objDesignerCmd.OpenScope

ScopeDefn

Description
This method invokes the Scope Definition dialog box.

Example
objDesignerCmd.ScopeDefn

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AutoDrill

Description
If a default DrillDown layout is defined (as DefaultDrill) in the active instance, drill down using
that layout.

For ledger reports, the default drill string may include a ",D" indicating that any summary ledgers
should be translated to detail. If no default layout is defined, for a query-based instance, drill
down to that query in DrillQuery (QueryLink) mode. For a ledger-based instance, have the user
select the DrillDown layout, as in DrillDown.

Example
objDesignerCmd.AutoDrill

DrillLayout

Description
Called to perform a DrillDown using the specified child layout.

Example
objDesignerCmd.DrillLayout

DrillQuery

Description
Called to perform a DrillDown using the specified query.

Example
objDesignerCmd.DrillQuery

RunQuery

Description
Called to run the specified query with no inherited criteria. Not used for DrillDown.

Example
objDesignerCmd.RunQuery

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DrillDown

Description
Initiate DrillDown sequence.

Example
objDesignerCmd.DrillDown

JumpBack

Description
Implements command to activate parent instance of current child DrillDown.

Example
objDesignerCmd.JumpBack

ReDrill

Description
Drill selected cell using most recently selected DrillDown layout.

Example
objDesignerCmd.ReDrill

ImportSheet

Description
Called to import the current tabular sheet using the Messaging Agent.

Example

objDesignerCmd.ImportSheet

If you invoke PS/nVision's nvsimportsheet from your Visual Basic code in either .XLA or .XLS
file, you need to clearup NvsImportError on all the sheets in the book before you call it. Here is a
example on how to do this.

For Each nm In ActiveSheet.Names

Cells(2, 40).Value = nm.Name

str = ActiveSheet.Name & "!" & "NvsImportError"

str2 = ActiveSheet.Name & "'!" & "NvsImportError"

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If (Cells(2, 40).Value = str) Or (Cells(2, 40) = str2) Then

ActiveSheet.Names("NvsImportError").Value = ""

End If

Next

Application.Run ("nvsimportsheet")

PerfOpts

Description
Same as layout options but with just one selection.

Example
objDesignerCmd.PerfOpts

ImportOpts

Description
Invokes the Import Options dialog box for editing import options from the spreadsheet.

Example
objDesignerCmd.ImportOpts

Session Object

Description
This object enables the user to retrieve information about the current session.

Example
Dim objnVision As Object

Dim objSessionCmd As Object

Dim strAppName As String

Dim strDatabaseType As String

strAppName = "PSnvision.nvsdesigner"

Set objnVision = CreateObject(strAppName)

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Set SessionCmd = objnVision.SessionCmd

After finishing with the session object, clear the nVision object by setting it equal to nothing:

Set objnVision = Nothing

Session Object Methods

DBType

Description
This property retrieves database types for the current session.

Example
strDatabaseType = SessionCmd.DBType

ServerName

Description
This property retrieves the server’s name for the current session. It will retrieve nothing if the
user is logged on in two-tier.

Example
strServerName = SessionCmd.ServerName

DBName

Description
This property retrieves the database’s name for the current session.

Example
strDatabaseName = SessionCmd.DBName

OprId

Description
This property retrieves the operator’s ID for the current session.

Example
strOperatorId = SessionCmd.OprId

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ToolsRelDB

Description
This property retrieves the tool release database version for the current session.

Example
strToolReleaseDatabase = SessionCmd.ToolsRelDB

TwoTier

Description
This property identifies whether or not the current session is two-tier. If the return value is TRUE
(or a value of 1), the current session is two-tier.

Example
bTwoTier = SessionCmd.TwoTier

ShowWarnings

Description
This property enables a user to retrieve or set a ShowWarnings option for the current session.

Retrieve Example
Dim bShowWarnings As Boolean

bShowWarnings = SessionCmd.ShowWarnings

Set Example
Dim bShowWarnings as Boolean

bShowWarnings = True

SessionCmd.ShowWarnings = bShowWarnings

AmountSql

Description
This property enables a user to retrieve or set an “Amount SQL” option for the current session.

Retrieve Example
Dim bAmountSql As Boolean

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bAmountSql = SessionCmd.AmountSql

Set Example
Dim bAmountSql as Boolean

bAmountSql = True

SessionCmd.AmountSql = bAmountSql

ReadConfig

Description
This method enables a user to retrieve all the directory paths of a given nVision configuration
manager setting (as defined in the registry). If the user has multiple directory paths in the same
configuration setting, it will retrieve them all.

Syntax
ReadConfig([in] BSTR ConfigDir)

Example
Dim strDirPath as String

strDirPath = SessionCmd.ReadConfig(“LayoutDir”)

The list of available configuration settings that can be retrieved are as

follows:

ExcelDir

InstanceDir

LayoutDir

TemplateDir

MacroDir

StyleDir

DrillDownDir

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ReadConfigDir

Description
This method enables a user to retrieve one directory path of a given nVision configuration
manager setting (as defined in the registry). This is different from the ReadConfig method in that
it parses out the list of available directories by providing a number representing the position of the
directory in the list. For example, if you had two directories, such as “c:\user\nVison\layout;
c:\user,” and you wanted just the “c:\user” directory, you would pass in the number two. If the
user is looking for the second directory and there is only one, then nothing will be retrieved.

Syntax
ReadConfigDir([in] BSTR ConfigDir, [in] WORD nPosition)

Example
Dim strDirPath as String

strDirPath = SessionCmd.ReadConfig(“LayoutDir”, 2)

This would retrieve the second directory listed.

The list of available configuration settings that can be retrieved is as

follows:

ExcelDir

InstanceDir

LayoutDir

TemplateDir

MacroDir

StyleDir

DrillDownDir

Using nVsInstanceHook
Beginning with Excel 97, Microsoft began using VBA as the programming language used to
write macros. In earlier versions of Excel, you had to create a macro sheet to use the
nVsInstanceHook. Now, whether recording your macro or writing VBA code within the Visual

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Basic Editor, you can invoke nVision’s Instance Hook directly from the module within a
VBAProject without having to create a macro sheet.

Instance hooks allow user-written macros to be executed by PS/nVision after delivering the data
to a report instance but before saving the instance. Instance hooks are supported for both matrix
and tabular layout sheets. Examples of what you can do with an instance hook are

• Refresh a pivot table based on data delivered in the instance.

• Change the delivered outline level. (For example, compress report so user starts with top level.)

• Apply sub-totals or AutoFilter to data delivered in a tabular instance.

• Do high-level zero-suppression, or re-sort data.

• In general, use Excel features that can't be applied in the layout because they require the data.

Within an Instance Hook macro, you can call any other VBA methods or functions. But you
should avoid calling PS/nVision functions and closing Excel.

To use Instance hooks, identify the layout sheet(s) in the layout workbook (.XNV file) to which
you want to apply post-delivery processing. For each such sheet, define the name
NvsInstanceHook to refer to the name of the first cell of an Excel 4 macro or the name of a Visual
Basic procedure.

The defined name, NvsInstanceHook, is sheet-specific. You need to either define the same name
on multiple sheets or the preferred way is to type in the sheet name and exclamation point (!) with
the name when defining it. By doing this you are allowed to fire different macros for different
layout sheets in the same workbook. The resulting name looks like Sheet1!NvsInstanceHook.

To record a macro from within Excel, select Tools, Macro, Record a Macro.

To write a macro from within Excel, select Tools, Macro, Visual Basic Editor.

The following example shows a module that combines a recorded macro with additional code that
has been added through the editor.

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Sample Macro

The macro will bold and right-align the nPloded TimeSpan columns, collapse the outline of the
nPloded rows and columns, and save the instance.

After creating the macro module, return to your nVision layout and attach it using
nVsInstanceHook.

To attach a macro using nVsInstance Hook:

1. Select the cell in the layout.

2. Select Insert, Name, Define.

For the Name, type in the sheet name followed by an exclamation point(!) and the text
nVsInstanceHook. (For example, Sheet 1!nVsInstanceHook.)

3. Enter the name of the macro in the Refers to field.

4. Click Add.

5. Click OK.

Your macro will be executed after the nVision Instance has been created.

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CHAPTER 13

PS/nVision Security
PS/nVision gives you many different ways to secure the information that you are generating. You
can secure access to the actual reporting process, you can secure access to the generated reports,
and you can secure access to the data that the report is based on.

Securing nVision Design Functionality

PeopleSoft provides you with security features in nVision and Maintain Security to ensure that
your sensitive report output is protected from unauthorized access. With web-based reporting,
you can have an increased number of users running reports and logging on to view reports.
Securing access to the user operations, report layouts and report requests of PS/nVision will be
something you will want to consider carefully.

Securing nVision Menu Items

Using Maintain Security, you can control what operations a user is allowed to perform with
PS/nVision. You do this by specifying what Page Permissions a user is authorized for.
Authorizations specified here apply to both the Windows client and the PeopleSoft Internet
Architecture.

To set component permissions:

1. Select PeopleTools, Maintain Security, Use, Permission List.

2. Select nVision Reports for the permission type.

3. Select the Pages tab.

4. Select the Edit component link to display the Component Permissions page.

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Component Permissions page

5. Select Edit Pages for the component to display the Page Permissions page.

Page Permissions page

6. Change the settings to authorize or keep the action as display-only.

7. Click OK.

Note. If no items are authorized, you cannot run PS/nVision at all.

Access to Report Books, web Report Requests, web Scope Definitions, and DrillDown Layout
Registration is controlled through the REPORT_BOOKS component.

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For more information on Maintain Security, see Security.

The following list contains the available nVision page permissions and the actions they control:

DEFINE_LAYOUT Allows the user to use the Open Layout, Layout

Definition, and similar menus in Excel.

OPEN_REPORT Enables the Open button on the Report Request dialog box
on the Windows client.

EDIT_REPORT Allows the user to modify values on the Report Request

dialog box.

Note. The EDIT_REPORT setting does not control whether a user is allowed to edit a
Report Layout (Excel .XNV) file. EDIT_REPORT controls only whether a user is allowed to
modify values on the Report Request dialog box. If you need to restrict certain users from
accessing the .XNV file entirely, this should be done through your Network Security
settings. See Report Layouts and Network Security at the end of this section for more
information.

RUN_REPORT Allows the user to run report requests using the Run
button on the Report Request dialog box and the Run
Current Request menu item on the Windows client and the
Run button on the web Report Request

SAVE_REPORT Enables the Save button on the Report Request dialog box
on both the Windows client and the web.

DELETE_REPORT Enables the Delete button on the Report Request dialog

box on both the Windows client and the web.

OPEN_SCOPE Enables the Open button on the Scope Definition dialog

box on the Windows client.

EDIT_SCOPE Allows the user to modify values in the Scope Definition

dialog box on the Windows client.

SAVE_SCOPE Enables the Save button on the Scope Definition dialog

box on the Windows client.

DELETE_SCOPE Enables the Delete button on the Scope Definition dialog

box on the Windows client.

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PERFORMANCE_OPTS Enables the nVision, Performance menu item, by which

you access the Tree Performance Options dialog box.

Note. When choosing page permissions, you must select both an Action and the Authorized
checkbox. For example, when allowing a user to run report requests, you must select the
Update/Display and the Authorized checkbox beside the RUN_REPORT page name on the
Page Permissions page.

Securing Report Layouts

Report layouts (.XNV files) are stored on a file server and not in the PeopleSoft database. You
should set up network security so that only appropriate users are allowed to modify or delete
report layout (.XNV) files in the network’s report layout directories.

With web-based nVision reporting, reports launched from the browser are run through Process
Scheduler and are executed on a report server. The file server that stores the layouts is associated
with the report server. Report Server refers to a Windows NT machine with nVision (PeopleTools
client software), Excel, and Process Scheduler installed on it. Process Scheduler will select the
layout from the nVision Layout directory path defined in the Process Scheduler configuration. So
as long as you restrict access to this directory on the report server, unauthorized users will not be
able to modify shared report layouts. Additionally, access to the nVision directories on the
Process Scheduler report server should be restricted.

If the report is run using the Windows client, a user authorized to define layouts can point to the
nVision layout directory (as defined in Configuration Manager) to the local drive and then modify
and save the layout.

If a user has an nVision user profile defined in Maintain Security where only RUN_REPORT is
selected, and all other settings (for example, EDIT_REPORT, SAVE_REPORT) are cleared, the
user will not be able to create a new Report Request, because the Save button is disabled.

For more information on configuring Process Scheduler see Process Scheduler Report
Distribution.

Note. When the Report Request is run, access to the Ledger or record data itself would still
be controlled by whatever row-level security is defined for that user.

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Securing Report Requests

In web-based PS/nVision reporting, the different procedures and processes used to run a report
are performed using the different pages of the Report Book menu. Those actions include defining
and running report requests, defining and running report books, defining scopes, and running
DrillDowns. You can control who is allowed to access these menu items and customize the pages
to allow users restricted access to certain report requests.

In Windows-client nVision reporting, you can utilize the PS/nVision VBA interface to
programmatically create a customized report request to restrict users to certain parameters and
functions of the report requests.

Securing Report Distribution

With the distribution types of file, email, and web, you will have different security considerations
for distribution based on the type of output you choose.

When you select File as the output type, remember that the files are stored in the directories and
files that you have specified in the directory templates and file templates. These files are on your
file server and are not stored the PeopleSoft database. So it is very important for you to set up
network security to map the accessibility of the reports and ensure that unauthorized users do not
have access to these reports on your file server.

When you select Email as output type, the reports are distributed through your email system. You
control who receives the reports using the email template in the report request. You can directly
specify the email addresses in the email template, as well as indirectly specify email addresses
using user ID or role ID. If you specify your email recipients using role or user IDs, then the
email addresses from those profiles are used.

When you select Web as output type, the reports are distributed through Report Manager. You
control who receives the reports using security templates in the report requests. If nothing is
entered in the security template, the default recipient is the user who runs the report.

You can also associate a scope with the email template or the security template for Email or Web
output using %DES% variables. This is another place where you will have to secure who can
modify the email template or the security template from the report request, and who can access
the values of the %DES% variable in the table associated with the scope.

Additionally, when a report is distributed through the email system or Report Manager, it uses the
report server to run the report and then distribute the output. In the report server, the directory
templates and file templates from the report requests are used as the temporary locations to store
the intermediate files before the reports are transferred to the report repository or to the email
system. Access to the file server that stores the intermediate reports should also be secured
through your network security. We also suggest you to set up Process Scheduler as a Tuxedo
Service so that nVision reports can be run in the background and no data can be viewed during
the report execution time.

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Securing Report Data

Securing access to the data that your reports are based on is something that you will want to
consider carefully when you plan your security infrastructure. Since PS/nVision handles report
data security differently for ledger-base reporting and query-based reporting, you need to plan
them differently.

PS/nVision Ledger-based Data Security

PS/nVision’s “row-level” ledger security allows you to restrict a user’s access to specified rows
of ledger data. NVision does this by employing a view that joins an Authorization table
(maintained by you through a page) with the Ledger table to select the rows a user is authorized
to see. You can set up an Authorization table based on any ChartField.

When you define a ledger, you specify the physical table that will store the ledger data in the
database. You can also define a record (view) for reporting purposes. If you define a reporting
view, nVision will used this record in place of the physical Ledger table. By joining the Ledger
table with the Authorization table, the user will only see the rows that they’re authorized to see.

The following diagram illustrates the approach.

RECNAME
LED_DEFN_TBL

RECNAME_RPTG_VW

LED_RPTG_VW

OPRID
B.U.
LED_AUTH_TBL LEDGER
LEDGER
... AMT
B.U.
OPRID
LEDGER
B.U.
... AMT
LEDGER
PS/nVision security customization

Using the Reporting View

The Reporting view, like the Ledger table itself, is named on the Ledger Template page in the
"Secured Rptg Vw" field. To open the Ledger Template page, select Process Financial
Information, Maintain Ledgers, Use, Ledger Template, Record Definitions. In the following
example, this view (LED_RPTG_VW) is defined as follows:

SELECT A.OPRID, L.BUSINESS_UNIT, L.LEDGER, L.ACCOUNT,...

FROM PS_LEDGER L, PS_AUTH_TBL A
WHERE L.BUSINESS_UNIT = A.BUSINESS_UNIT
AND L.LEDGER = A.LEDGER

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Record Definitions page

Normally, the view includes all the columns in the Ledger table, plus OPRID, but there is no
requirement to include all ledger columns. OPRID is defined as a key to the view. Reporting
views can be defined differently for different ledgers. OPRCLASS or ROWSECCCLASS or any
combination of OPRID, OPRCLASS, or ROWSECCLASS can be used instead of OPRID. In the
User Profile found in Maintain Security, you can use OPERID as the user ID, OPRCLASS as the
primary class, and ROWSECCLASS as the row-level security class for the user.

For more information about OPRID, OPRCLASS, and ROWSECCLASS, see

Understanding PeopleSoft Security.

With this view, only the users that belong to the specified OPRID, OPRCLASS or
ROWSECCLASS from the LED_AUTH_TBL can see those Business Units and Ledgers.

PeopleSoft provides a template Authorization table and Reporting view. By changing the
definition of the view and the underlying Authorization table, you can revise the security to be at
the department level, or any other ChartField. The personalized view can use BETWEEN, OR,
and LIKE statements to implement more flexible (though less efficient) security views.

For example, you could add DEPT_FROM and DEPT_TO to the Authorization table. Each user
would have access to all departments that fall within the ranges for their user ID and role. The
Reporting view could include:

WHERE ... L.DEPTID BETWEEN A.DEPT_FROM AND A.DEPT_TO

This might carry a performance cost on some database platforms, but it can ease the process of
maintaining the Authorization table, all transparent to PS/nVision.

Changes to the view are made using Application Designer. Changes to authorizations are made
through a page that maintains authorized ChartField values for each user. No changes are
required to nVision.

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To ignore security on a ledger, leave the Reporting view field on the ledger definition page blank.
PS/nVision will access the base ledger record.

Using the Authorization Table

The Authorization table is maintained by a simple page, which can be personalized as needed.
Each valid combination of user ID or role and the secured ChartField values (or ranges) must be
defined in this table. Since the system administrator who has access to this page (through the
Administer Security pages) can change all security provisions—there is no “trickle down” of
authority.

Using the Ledger Reporting View Access

To get data from a ledger, PS/nVision SELECTs from the Reporting view, not the actual Ledger
table, using the user’s ID or Primary Permission List as part of the WHERE clause. PS/nVision
checks the record definition of the Reporting view and determines whether it includes OPRID or
OPRCLASS or ROWSECCLASS in its keys, and generates the appropriate phrase in its WHERE
clause. Individual users are not given direct database access, for example using a GRANT, to
either the Ledger table or the Reporting view. (Using GRANT is specific to Oracle.)

Here’s a sample of a SELECT of ledger data as used by PS/nVision, in which both OPRID and
OPRCLASS are specified in your Authorization table:

SELECT ACCOUNT, SUM(POSTED_TOTAL_AMT)

FROM PS_LED_RPTG_VW
WHERE BUSINESS_UNIT = 'NEWGN'
AND LEDGER = 'ACTUALS'
AND FISCAL_YEAR = 1993
AND ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 9 AND 12
AND ACCOUNT IN ('800100','800200','800300')
AND DEPTID = '0300'
AND OPRID = 'GLUSER' and OPRCLASS = ‘MANAGER’
GROUP BY ACCOUNT

PS/nVision Ledger Security

Using the nVision Ledger Security page in Maintain Security, you can restrict what ledgers a user
is authorized to access. Select Define Business Rules, Administer Security, Use, nVision Ledger
Security.

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nVision Security

PS/nVision Query-based Data Security

PS/Query restricts users to specific rows of data by employing a similar approach to the Ledger
Reporting View. Each record definition can have a query security record defined that will join
the record data with authorization record data to restrict the returned result set.

Record Properties page

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For more information about Query-based security in Application Designer, see Creating
Record Definitions.

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CHAPTER 14

PS/nVision Performance Tuning

This chapter is designed to help PS/nVision users tune the performance of PS/nVision. Although
most of the material is technical, we have included explanations that should make the information
useful to people who are not database administrators.

PS/nVision SQL
PS/nVision is a complex tool, capable of producing a great variety of reports from a variety of
database tables. The SQL statements it generates are not necessarily complex but are nevertheless
very sensitive to the performance of the underlying database, especially in the following areas:

• Large tables (ledgers often have millions of rows) make efficient use of indexes essential.

• The use of trees and reporting (security) views causes multiple tables to be joined. The
efficiency with which the database processes these JOINs dictates most of PS/nVision’s
performance.

• Most PS/nVision aggregate queries are defined with minimal built-in criteria and could tire
your database server if executed without the added criteria of a PS/nVision layout.

Unlike traditional batch-reporting tools, PS/nVision supports interactive, focused reporting using
a probing or querying approach to accessing the database. PS/nVision queries tend to be more
numerous than traditional report writers but also more focused on the specific data the user needs
to see.

Tree JOINs

PS/nVision relates tree node criteria to data tables by JOINing the data table to a tree selector
table. This selector table contains a row for every detail range defined for the tree in the Tree
Editor and is keyed by SELECTOR_NUM (a system-generated constant number for all the rows
representing a particular tree) and tree node number. Because some database platforms join tables
efficiently only if the field sizes match, we use up to 30 selector tables, one for each supported
field length. Each selector table has RANGE_FROM_nn and RANGE_TO_nn columns matching
the corresponding field size.

The following is a typical SELECT for selection via nodes on a single tree:

SELECT L.TREE_NODE_NUM, SUM(POSTED_TOTAL_AMT)

FROM PS_LEDGER A, PSTREESELECT06 L
WHERE A.LEDGER='ACTUALS'

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AND A.FISCAL_YEAR=1991
AND A.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 1 AND 9
AND A.ACCOUNT>=L.RANGE_FROM_06
AND A.ACCOUNT<=L.RANGE_TO_06
AND L.SELECTOR_NUM=198
AND (L.TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN 16 AND 30
OR L.TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN 35 AND 40)
GROUP BY TREE_NODE_NUM

The bold part of this statement accomplishes the tree criteria selection. Additional tree criteria for
other fields add selector tables to the FROM list and similar JOIN criteria to the WHERE clause.
The GROUP BY clause returns an answer row for each node which has a detail range attached to
it; these node numbers are used to post amounts from the answer set into the appropriate rows of
the report.

Combination Rules

PS/nVision tries to retrieve the data for each report instance with as few SELECTs as possible. It
examines all row criteria to determine which are combinable. It does the same for column criteria.
It then builds a SELECT to retrieve each intersection of a combined group of rows with a
combined group of columns. The following built-in rules should be understood when you design
indexes.

• Different ledgers cannot be combined.

• Different TimeSpans cannot be combined.

• nPloded rows or columns cannot be combined with non-nPloded rows or columns.

• To be combined, two or more rows or columns must have criteria for the same set of fields, and
each field’s criteria must be of the same type (for example, selected tree nodes cannot be
combined with selected detail values).

• If criteria for a field are specified by tree node, they can be combined only if they use the same
tree.

• If the combined rows or columns have identical criteria for a particular field, the criteria are
included in the WHERE clause, but no GROUP BY on that field is required. But if different
rows/columns in the group have different criteria, PS/nVision adds this field (or the
corresponding tree node number) to the GROUP BY clause to retrieve a value for use in
posting the answer set to the appropriate rows/columns of the report.

• A single SELECT can retrieve amounts for multiple combined rows and columns.

• Different scope instances are retrieved with separate SELECTs.

Some additional rules apply for layouts defined using queries rather than ledgers:

• Different queries are not combined (surprise!).

• References to different answer columns in the same query can be retrieved with a single
SELECT, so long as they meet the above tests.

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Capturing SQL

To examine the SQL produced by PS/nVision, you can capture the statements in one of two
ways:

• Use the Show Report SQL option in the PS/nVision Options dialog box. This option causes
PS/nVision to display each SELECT used to retrieve labels or amounts in a dialog box. You
may select the text with the mouse, then copy (CTRL+C) it to the clipboard, then paste
(CTRL+V) the text into another application, such as Notepad, WordPad, SQLTalk, or a text
editor. You can then save the text to a file or work with it within the application.

Note. If you want to capture the SQL but don’t want to wait for it to execute, you can also
turn on the Suppress Amount Retrieval option. PS/nVision will generate all the SQL but
will not execute SELECTs for amounts.

• Turn on the PeopleTools SQL trace through the Configuration Manager’s Trace tab. This will
cause all SQL statements executed by PeopleTools to be written to a file you specify.

Configuration Manager’s Trace tab

Ledger Tables
Each ledger is assigned to a database table, but not all ledgers are necessarily stored in the same
table. Some ledgers may need different amount formats (for example, number of decimal places)
or a different field configuration than others. Summary ledgers must be stored in different tables
than their corresponding detail ledgers.

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Because each installation of PeopleSoft General Ledger has different ChartFields and reporting
requirements, each installation must assign ledger tables and indexes to meet its requirements and
ensure good reporting performance.

Indexes
An index is a faster way to find data. At a simple level, an index works like the tabs on a large
dictionary, which allow you to go directly to all the words that begin with a particular letter. After
that, you need to do some additional searching, taking advantage of the fact that the words are
stored in alphabetical sequence. The range of words on a page is generally printed at the top, so
you don’t have to scan through individual words until you find the page you want. (In most
systems, indexes and data are stored in “pages” to make us feel at home.) Many database systems
include a type of index, often called a “primary” or “clustered” index that has the same sequence
as the data.

But suppose you’re looking something up in an atlas. Here, data is generally stored in
geographical sequence. If you’re looking up Majorca, you’re likely to look it up first in the
alphabetical index, then search the page that has a map of the Mediterranean. This is like an
“alternate” index, an access to data through an attribute different from its storage attribute.

Suppose you wanted to find all the words in the dictionary derived from Finnish words. Unless
you had a dictionary with an etymological index, you’d be in for a very time-consuming scan of
the data pages. This type of access is something we try to avoid when accessing large database
tables, because it’s very slow even on the fastest server.

Typically, the WHERE clause criteria in a query are a mixture of things resolvable through an
index and criteria resolvable only through access to the data pages. The key to efficiency in this
case is to use the index criteria to limit the number of data rows that need to be searched.

Multi-column Indexes

Fortunately, relational databases allow us to define indexes over multiple columns, so that if we
have WHERE criteria for two or more columns in the index, the database manager can use one
index to satisfy criteria on multiple columns at a time. Having the pertinent criteria columns in an
index, however, does not guarantee that that index will be used, or that it will be used effectively
on all the columns that have criteria.

Database Access Paths

Most relational database systems include a cost-based Optimizer, a complex program responsible
for choosing an access path to satisfy a particular query, such as a SELECT statement issued by
PS/nVision. Using statistics stored in the database, the Optimizer tries to determine which index
to use for each of the tables accessed in the query and the sequence in which to access the tables
that will yield the desired data with minimal searching.

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Filter Factor

While it has different names in different database systems, the concept of a filter factor applies to
all optimizers. It is an estimate of how effective a particular index will be in narrowing the field
of search.

Assume that we have a table in which financial results are stored by fiscal year, period and
account number, and that the table has two indexes, one on fiscal year and another on account.
Assume that our query contains the following:

WHERE FISCAL_YEAR = 1994 AND ACCOUNT='500120'

If the table has data for four fiscal years, the filter factor for the fiscal year index is 0.25; using
that index will narrow the search to about one fourth of the total table. (Hint: not that great.) But
our table has 800 accounts, so the filter factor of the account index is 1/800, or 0.00125. Clearly,
using this index would allow us to retrieve the data we want much more efficiently. (Of course,
an index combining fiscal year and account would be even better.)

The measure of the selectivity of an index, or a column within an index, is often called its
cardinality, the number of discrete values in that column, or the number of discrete combinations
represented by a multicolumn index. Cardinality is one of the most important statistics used by
optimizers to choose indexes and access paths. Like most other statistics, cardinality is updated
on request rather than constantly.

When data changes substantially, it is important to update the statistics so the optimizer has
accurate information. Updating statistics requires different processes on different database
platforms.

For more information, see the Tuning and Administration chapter of your PeopleSoft
Installation and Administration documentation.

Index Matching

The effective filter factor for an index is the combined cardinalities for the index columns
actually used in a particular access. For example, if an index is built over FISCAL_YEAR,
LEDGER, and ACCOUNT, and the table contains 4 years, 5 ledgers, and 800 accounts, the
potential filter factor is 1/(4*5*800), or 1/16000, or 0.0000625. (In a real-world data distribution,
the filter factor would not be this good, but it would still be quite good unless the data is really
skewed.) However, if the ACCOUNT field in the index couldn’t be used because of the nature of
the criteria for it, the filter factor would be only 1/20, which isn’t very selective.

Here are some general rules about matching index columns (that is, those used for direct access
through the index):

• Database systems provide direct access to data very quickly if the criteria can be processed
through an optimized look-up process (such as searching a tree structure) within the index.
Scanning index pages to satisfy criteria is much slower, although it’s usually much faster than
scanning the corresponding data.

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• Columns are matched from left to right in the order they were specified when the index was
created. If, for example, an index is created over DEPTID, BUSINESS_UNIT, and
ACCOUNT, but no criteria were provided for BUSINESS_UNIT, only the DEPTID field in
the index would be "matched," even if criteria were specified for ACCOUNT.

• To get index matching on multiple columns, the leftmost columns must have very simple
criteria, often equality (such as FISCAL_YEAR=1996). More complex criteria, such as IN (...),
BETWEEN, or a JOIN to another table, generally either prevent a random-access match on the
index column or prevent matching any of the columns to its right.

Ledger Access Paths

As a general rule, it is most efficient to access ledger data through trees by accessing the tree
table first, then using the detail ranges for the selected nodes to select the desired rows from the
ledger. If the SELECT joins multiple trees, the database engine should choose the one that best
fits the available indexes or the one with the highest cardinality (if multiple indexes are possible).

Analyzing Access Paths

Database managers have different techniques for showing you the access path they would use for
a given SQL statement.

DB2

First, create a PLAN_TABLE if your database doesn’t already have one. A sample CREATE
statement is in the DB2 Performance Tuning guide.

Include the SQL statement in the following and execute it via a utility like SPUFI:

DELETE FROM PLAN_TABLE WHERE QUERYNO=nnn;

EXPLAIN PLAN SET QUERYNO=nnn FOR
statement;

where nnn is a number you assign to this statement.

Retrieve the plan from the PLAN_TABLE with the following SELECT:

SELECT QBLOCKNO, PLANNO, TNAME, ACCESSNAME, METHOD, ACCESSTYPE, MATCHCOLS, INDEXONLY,

PREFETCH, SORTC_GROUPBY
FROM PLAN_TABLE
WHERE QUERYNO=nnn
ORDER BY QBLOCKNO, PLANNO;

The table contains other plan information; these are generally the most pertinent columns for
PS/nVision queries.

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Oracle

First, create a PLAN_TABLE if your database doesn’t already have one. Here is a sample
CREATE statement:

CREATE TABLE PLAN_TABLE(

STATEMENT_ID VARCHAR2(254),

TIMESTAMP DATE,

REMARKS VARCHAR2(80),

OPERATION VARCHAR2(30),

OPTIONS VARCHAR2(30),

OBJECT_NODE VARCHAR2(128),

OBJECT_OWNER VARCHAR2(30),

OBJECT_NAME VARCHAR2(30),

OBJECT_INSTANCE NUMERIC,

OBJECT_TYPE VARCHAR2(30),

OPTIMIZER VARCHAR2(255),

SEARCH_COLUMNS NUMERIC,

ID NUMERIC,

PARENT_ID NUMERIC,

POSITION NUMERIC,

OTHER LONG);

You can use SQL*Plus to evaluate access plans interactively. First, include the SQL statement in
the following code and execute it:

DELETE FROM PLAN_TABLE WHERE QUERYNO=nnn;

EXPLAIN PLAN SET STATEMENT_ID = 'nnn' FOR
statement;

where nnn is an identifier you assign to this statement.

Retrieve the plan from the PLAN_TABLE with the following SELECT:

SELECT LPAD(' ',2*LEVEL)||OPERATION,OPTIONS,OBJECT_NAME,

OBJECT_INSTANCE,SEARCH_COLUMNS
FROM PLAN_TABLE
WHERE STATEMENT_ID='nnn'
CONNECT BY PRIOR ID = PARENT_ID
AND STATEMENT_ID='nnn'
START WITH ID = 1

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AND STATEMENT_ID='nnn'
ORDER BY ID;

This retrieves the plan in a hierarchical "tree" format, in which the steps are evaluated from inside
out, then top to bottom. The first step listed (not indented) is actually the final step in the plan,
and is preceded by the step on the following line. For example, a JOIN is presented first, followed
by two indented lines showing the two tables joined and the indexes used to access them.

Index Suggestions
For PS/nVision, designing indexes can be difficult, because different reports can have very
different criteria. The following rules are implemented in PS/nVision to make things slightly
easier.

Fiscal_Year When using a TimeSpan (which is required for ledger

reporting but optional for queries), PS/nVision always
generates an equality for fiscal year (for example,
FISCAL_YEAR=1996). If the TimeSpan requires data
from multiple fiscal years, PS/nVision generates multiple
SELECTs, one for each fiscal year. This makes
Fiscal_Year a good candidate for the first column in a
multicolumn index.

Ledger When accessing ledger data, PS/nVision retrieves data

from only one ledger at a time, so this column is
guaranteed to have an equality. Ledger is thus a good
choice as the second column in a multicolumn index.

Business_Unit If you use the report request option to retrieve “Data from
Requesting Business Unit only,” PS/nVision generates an
equality (for example, BUSINESS_UNIT=‘M04’) for this
column. If this is the most common way of requesting
reports, or if you use a scope to get instances by business
unit, business unit is a good choice as the second or third
column in a multicolumn index, especially if you have
many business units in the same ledger table. If most of
your reporting accesses multiple business units in a single
instance, position it in the index as you would any other
field.

Accounting_Period When using TimeSpans, accounting period is specified

using either an equality (ACCOUNTING_PERIOD = 12)
or a range (ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 10
AND 12). If you do a lot of reporting for the current
period, or other single periods (such as current period a
year ago), it may improve performance to have an
alternate index beginning with accounting period. If your
optimizer knows what it’s doing, this index will be used
only when accounting period has an equality.

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Account In many companies, account is the field with the highest

cardinality. It also has criteria in almost all ledger reports,
in part because PS/nVision enforces this rule. This makes
it a good choice as the next index column following all the
columns that you expect to have equalities.

Using Trees With PS/nVision

PS/nVision performance may suffer when trees are used, especially when the SQL statements
used to retrieve data access two or more trees at once. On some database platforms, the WHERE
criteria used with most tree joins can cause the database optimizer to choose the wrong access
path, making the PSTREESELECTnn table an obstacle to performance rather than an aid. This is
true especially when the tree uses ranges of detail values.

To address these performance issues, PS/nVision includes techniques for building SQL that
implements tree criteria, and also implements SQL that is readily understood by database
optimizers, yielding better access paths with less need for index tuning and so on. Additionally,
you have control over the exact techniques used, so you can tune the performance of individual
reports.

Note. The PSTREESELECTnn table (and the SELECTOR_NUM field) are discussed
throughout this document.

For more information about PSTREESELECTnn, see Overview of Tree Tables Used by
PS/nVision.

Overview of SQL Techniques for Enhancing Tree Performance

PS/nVision includes a number of SQL techniques to improve performance whenever trees are
used. These include dynamic selectors and single-value selectors, as well as the suppress join
technique.

Dynamic Selectors

PS/nVision gives you the option of using either static selectors or dynamic selectors. A selector
represents nodes of a single tree and is represented by the number of rows in the
PSTREESELECTnn table having a single SELECTOR_NUM value. Before the development of
dynamic selectors, our selector tables had three main obstacles affecting performance:

• They were always static. Static selectors are developed once and then retained until the
underlying tree changes. The advantage of static selectors is that they rarely need rebuilding,
but they have a corresponding disadvantage: they are available to have distribution statistics
run on them. Some optimizers would not use selectors first, because the distribution statistics

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revealed that the first key field (SELECTOR_NUM) was not very selective.

• They represented the entire tree. This meant that a particular report had to provide node
criteria for the desired data. This portion of the WHERE clause made the SQL more complex
and made the selector table less attractive to the optimizer.

• They used ranges. Ranges are less attractive to the optimizer than equalities.

In addition to the ability to use a pre-existing (static) selector, PS/nVision can build one “on the
fly” when preparing to run a report. This technique was not implemented in the past because it
can create more overhead, especially if there are multiple users running the same report (using
static selectors, users can share selectors).

PS/nVision builds each dynamic tree selector for a specific set of criteria (such as a set of rows or
the current instance node), so that a selector (SELECTOR_NUM value) has exactly the nodes
needed for a group of rows or columns to be retrieved with a SELECT. This eliminates the need
for the often-cumbersome selection criteria PS/nVision generates for a static selector:

TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN x AND y OR TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN...

A dynamic selector creates a new SELECTOR_NUM value that PS/nVision uses and then deletes
once the report is complete. Therefore, distribution statistics (or skew statistics) will not be
present for that selector. (Distribution statistics are still a factor for static selectors.) With certain
PS/nVision reports, the absence of distribution statistics can improve performance significantly;
that’s because distribution statistics can make the SELECTOR_NUM criteria appear less
selective to the database systems’ optimizer, preventing the optimizer from accessing the selector
table first.

Single-Value Selectors

Single-value selectors enable a more efficient equi-join between

PSTREESELECTnn.RANGE_FROM_nn and the criteria field in the ledger table. In building the
dynamic selector, we do not merely copy the ranges of values (such as account numbers) from
PSTREELEAF into PSTREESELECTnn. Instead, we join the tree ranges to the underlying detail
table (such as the GL_ACCOUNT_TBL), and insert the individual detail values into the
RANGE_FROM_nn column of PSTREESELECTnn. This may generate more rows in this table,
but it can also generate a much more efficient join without forcing you to maintain the tree with
individual detail values (the only way you could previously get equi-joins).

We recommend that you use single-value selectors only in conjunction with dynamic selectors.
Combining the dynamic and single-value selector techniques will improve the performance of
PS/nVision in many cases where trees are used.

Suppress Join

The Supress join technique eliminates a SQL join by retrieving the detail ranges associated with
the selected node and coding them in the SELECT statement. This technique works well in some
situations but is inappropriate in others. The best use of this technique is often in conjunction with
a scope field where each instance represents a moderate level of summarization, such as a region
on a department tree.

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The Suppress join technique cannot be used where PS/nVision needs to group the answer set by
tree node number, because these numbers are not available without joining the data to the tree.
Additionally, when the selected node (or nodes) includes large numbers of detail ranges, the
Supress join technique may not be practical or efficient. While PS/nVision can build the very
large statements that can result in this case, very large SQL statements have their own
disadvantages, and PS/nVision enforces a statement size limit of 8Kb (8,192 bytes).

Additional Options

In the past, PS/nVision has invoked the following type of syntax when joining a selector for a tree
with ranges:

WHERE … field >= L.RANGE_FROM_nn AND field <= L.RANGE_TO_nn …

This syntax is equivalent to using the BETWEEN predicate. It initially was used because it
resulted in better access plans on the DB2/MVS platform. PS/nVision now includes an option to
generate the following kind of syntax:

WHERE … field BETWEEN L.RANGE_FROM_nn AND L.RANGE_TO_nn …

This syntax should result in better access plans on certain database platforms.

Note. This option is only relevant to trees for which ranged selectors are used.

SQL ExamplesError! Bookmark not defined.

Below is an example of the SQL changes this enhancement will make possible. Here’s the
original query (with the node criteria highlighted):

SELECT L1.TREE_NODE_NUM, SUM(A.POSTED_TOTAL_AMT)

FROM PS_LEDGER A, PSTREESELECT05 L, PSTREESELECT06 L1
WHERE A.LEDGER='ACTUALS' AND
A.FISCAL_YEAR=1996 AND
A.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 1 AND 8 AND
L.SELECTOR_NUM=216 AND
A.BUSINESS_UNIT>=L.RANGE_FROM_05 AND
A.BUSINESS_UNIT<=L.RANGE_TO_05 AND
(L.TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN 1000000000 AND 1666666665) AND
A.CURRENCY_CD='USD' AND
L1.SELECTOR_NUM=215 AND
A.ACCOUNT>=L1.RANGE_FROM_06 AND
A.ACCOUNT<=L1.RANGE_TO_06 AND
(L1.TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN 1916275676 AND 1923430847) AND
A.STATISTICS_CODE=' '
GROUP BY L1.TREE_NODE_NUM;

Here’s an alternative query, using the Supress join technique for Business Unit criteria and a
dynamic, single-value selector for ACCOUNT:

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SELECT L1.TREE_NODE_NUM, SUM(A.POSTED_TOTAL_AMT)

FROM PS_LEDGER A, PSTREESELECT06 L1
WHERE A.LEDGER='ACTUALS' AND
A.FISCAL_YEAR=1996 AND
A.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 1 AND 8 AND
(A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B0006' AND ‘B0006'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B5030' AND ‘B5030'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B9013' AND ‘B9014'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B0015' AND ‘B0015'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B9026' AND ‘B9026'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B0019' AND ‘B0031'
OR A.BUSINESS_UNIT BETWEEN ‘B0016' AND ‘B0018') AND
A.CURRENCY_CD='USD' AND
L1.SELECTOR_NUM=1215 AND
A.ACCOUNT=L1.RANGE_FROM_06 AND
A.STATISTICS_CODE=' '
GROUP BY L1.TREE_NODE_NUM;

Next is another form of the same query, with dynamic Business Unit selectors and dynamic
ACCOUNT selectors:

SELECT L1.TREE_NODE_NUM, SUM(A.POSTED_TOTAL_AMT)

FROM PS_LEDGER A, PSTREESELECT05 L, PSTREESELECT06 L1
WHERE A.LEDGER='ACTUALS' AND
A.FISCAL_YEAR=1996 AND
A.ACCOUNTING_PERIOD BETWEEN 1 AND 8 AND
L.SELECTOR_NUM=1216 AND
A.BUSINESS_UNIT = L.RANGE_FROM_05 AND
A.CURRENCY_CD='USD' AND
L1.SELECTOR_NUM=1215 AND
A.ACCOUNT=L1.RANGE_FROM_06 AND
A.STATISTICS_CODE=' '
GROUP BY L1.TREE_NODE_NUM;

Setting Tree Performance Options

PS/nVision and the Tree Manager each provide a number of techniques and tuning options that
can dramatically improve reporting performance. Note that these performance enhancement
techniques apply to query-based and ledger-based layouts.

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You should understand that these performance techniques are not enabled automatically. To
change the technique used for a given tree, you can specify the technique using the Tree
Performance Options dialog box in the Tree Manager. To override any Tree Manager settings
and specify the technique used for a particular report layout, you specify the technique using the
Tree Performance Options dialog box in PS/nVision. (These overriding options are only valid
for ledger-based layouts.)

Note. The performance-tuning information presented here is intended for database

administrators and/or advanced PS/nVision users who understand how PS/nVision accesses
relational databases. Such individuals can use this information to tune the performance of
PS/nVision for a group of users or an entire organization. The techniques discussed are not
useful for casual users or for customizing performance on a workstation-by-workstation
basis.

For more information on setting performance options at the tree level, see Defining Access
Performance Methods

To define or change performance options at the layout level:

1. Start PS/nVision.

2. Open the report layout you want to work with.

3. Select nVision, Layout Options and click the Tree Performance tab.

The Tree Performance tab appears.

Tree Performance Options dialog box

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The Tree Performance dialog box specifies performance options for trees, one tree at a time.

4. Either enter the Tree Name or click the prompt button and select a tree name from the list.

The prompt list is qualified by the SetID and effective date entered in the prompt control’s dialog
box, but what matters is the Tree Name field (PS/nVision will select the appropriate SetID and
effective date when running the report).

The Tree Performance Options dialog box enables you to control the database access
techniques PS/nVision uses to implement tree criteria for your report. These options should be
selected with care, because they can have a dramatic effect on how fast your reports run.

Note. In setting these options, you should work with your database administrator to
determine which options are most desirable on your system, and to ensure that indexes are
tuned for the SQL techniques selected. You should be prepared for some trial-and-error to
find the best settings for your data and reporting requirements.

Remember that you are setting performance options for a specific layout, one tree at a time.
Optimum performance often is achieved using different techniques for different trees, depending
on the nature of those trees and the way each tree is used in the report.

Remember that if you do not specify the tree performance options for a tree used in a report
layout, PS/nVision will use the same SQL techniques used in the past on your database platform.

Suppress Join

If you want PS/nVision to avoid using a join as criteria for the specified tree, select the Supress
join: use literal values option. With this technique, PS/nVision gets the ranges of detail values
from the tree and includes them in the SQL used to select data. This technique is most effective in
the following cases:

• The selected tree is used in the scope you expect to be used with this report, and each instance
of that report is a tree node.

• The node or nodes selected represent a relatively small number of detail values or ranges.

• PS/nVision does not need to GROUP BY the nodes of this tree to produce the report. This
happens, for example, if multiple rows or columns with otherwise similar criteria select
different nodes of this tree. This is typical in the rows of most financial reports. However, if
nPlosion is specified for these rows or columns, the Supress join technique can be used,
because PS/nVision can GROUP BY the detail values rather than tree nodes.

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If you select the Supress join technique, but PS/nVision cannot use it because of the need to
group results by tree node, it will automatically use the join method you select (that is, either
static or dynamic). However, if PS/nVision can use the Supress join technique, it ignores the
selector options for this tree. Therefore, it is wise to select a selector technique in addition to
selecting the Suppress Join option.

Note. Do not use this technique for a tree from which your layout selects either a large
number of nodes or nodes representing a large number of detail ranges. This can generate
very large SQL statements, and can be less efficient than using a join to a selector table.
(PS/nVision will not run a report if SQL statements exceed the 8-Kb limit discussed below
under “SQL Statement Size.”)

Tree Selectors

When PS/nVision uses a join to select data using a tree, it creates a set of database rows called a
Tree Selector. In using selectors, PS/nVision can use one of two techniques.

Static Selector is a technique in which a selector is built that represents the entire tree, and it
remains valid until the tree changes. For all database platforms, these selectors contain ranges
(unless the tree had no ranges). This was the only technique available in previous PeopleTools
releases.

Advantages of static selectors include the fact that the selectors do not need to be rebuilt except
when the tree changes.

The disadvantage of this technique is that the resulting SQL statement can be complex because it
includes both range predicates (if the tree has ranges) and node criteria to select that portion of
the tree required on a particular section of a report. This can be difficult for database optimizers to
process, especially if multiple trees use this technique.

Dynamic Selectors is a technique in which PS/nVision creates a new tree selector for use in a
section of a single report (this section may be selected several times, especially if the report
produces multiple instances). The dynamic selector represents just the requested nodes, so it’s not
necessary to include node number criteria in the SELECT statements that retrieve amount data
(the most challenging ones from a performance standpoint).

A dynamic selector has such a short lifetime that converting the tree’s ranges (if any) to single
values poses no threat of the selector being used after detail table changes have made it obsolete.
You can select this option separately (that is, you have the option of using dynamic selectors with
ranges), but it often is most efficient to use single values with dynamic selectors. This makes for a
join that is much more likely to be processed optimally by your database optimizer.

The disadvantage of dynamic selectors is that one or more selectors may need to be created to
process a single report. In some cases, the time used to create the selector(s) may exceed the time
saved by using them. Dynamic selectors are most effective on joins that “drive” the access path;
static selectors may be just as fast, or faster, for additional criteria that do not affect the access
plan.

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Sub-SELECT Tree Selector

The sub-SELECT method is very similar to a join. Instead of adding the tree selector to the
FROM list of the main query, the tree selector criteria and its relation to the data (e.g., DEPTID)
in the main query is within an "EXISTS (SELECT ...)" clause in the WHERE portion of the main
query. This is called a "correlated sub-Query" because part of the criteria in the sub-SELECT
relates to data in the main query (A.DEPTID=B.RANGE_FROM_05). This is what makes it so
much like a join. Database engines and optimizers differ in how they handle this syntax. Some
process a correlated sub-query just like a join, while others are subtly different.

It's important to note that no data from the sub-SELECT can be included in the main SELECT
list; thus, none can be visible to the program (for example, nVision) that is running the query.
This is because the sub-SELECT is hidden in the WHERE clause, rather than appearing in the
FROM clause. This is important because when nVision is retrieving multiple nodes of data for
different rows or columns of a report, it needs to use the node number (from the tree selector) to
distinguish the data, and this means a join is required. If you specify either sub-SELECT or
Suppress Join in this case, nVision ignores the option and forces a join. (This is why it's
important to specify join options like "single-value selectors" or "BETWEEN" even if not using a
join method, because you may get a join after all.)

Selector Options

If you are using selectors for this tree, you can control the way they are built (in some cases) and
determine the syntax used (in others).

The Single Values option is used only with dynamic selectors. This technique causes PS/nVision
to build a selector using the individual detail values (from the detail table specified in the tree
structure) that fall within the detail ranges of the selected nodes. This can make for a much more
efficient join, as well as making it easier for the database optimizer to recognize the most efficient
access plan.

A disadvantage of this technique is that, especially where the tree has large ranges containing
many detail values, single value selectors can contain many more rows than ranged selectors
have. Unless the join is processed in a more efficient manner, the number of rows in the selector
can mean slower join processing.

In the past, for a tree with ranges of values, PS/nVision built selectors using ranges. (A tree is
considered to have ranges if it contains at least one detail range with different low and high
values.) This made the selectors more compact (fewer rows) and less likely to become obsolete as
detail values were added. But it also made the SQL that joins the selector table to the “fact” table
(such as a ledger) harder to optimize and less likely to make efficient use of an index. The single-
value selector option was added to address this problem, but it is not appropriate in all cases. In
these exceptional cases, one of the Ranges of values options should be used.

Note. If you specify one of the range syntax options, but the tree has no ranges, PS/nVision
uses the single-value syntax (field = L.RANGE_FROM_nn).

In prior releases, PS/nVision always used the >=…<= syntax when joining a field to a ranged
selector, as in the following example:

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WHERE … A.ACCOUNT >= L.RANGE_FROM_06 AND A.ACCOUNT <= L.RANGE_TO_06 …

This syntax performed better on certain database platforms, but there is no guarantee that it will
perform better on your database, so PS/nVision offers a more concise alternative.

With the BETWEEN option, the join of a ranged selector to its detail field looks like the
following:

WHERE … A.ACCOUNT BETWEEN L.RANGE_FROM_06 AND L.RANGE_TO_06 …

Other

The Non-specific node criteria (above 2 billion) option has been used on DB2 when criteria for
multiple trees were present. Its purpose is to prevent the optimizer from selecting the “driving”
criteria field based on how inclusive the node number criteria are. PS/nVision accomplished this
by appending a phrase similar to the following to each tree’s criteria:

OR L.TREE_NODE_NUM BETWEEN 2000000001 AND 2147483000

Because tree nodes are numbered up to two billion, this criteria didn’t select anything; it just
made the node criteria complex enough to prevent the database optimizer from drawing false
conclusions from it. Most users should not use this option (which only makes sense with ranged
static selectors).

Command Buttons

The Tree Performance dialog box includes the following command buttons.

Command Button Purpose

OK Applies any changes to the current tree’s performance
options and closes the dialog box.
Apply Applies changes to the current tree’s performance
options, but does not close the dialog box. You can then
select a different tree and set its performance options.
Clear Clears all information from the dialog box.
Defaults Sets the dialog box information to the performance
settings defined for the tree in Tree Manager.
Cancel Closes the dialog box, ignoring any changes since the
last time Apply was selected.

Restrictions on Tree Performance Options

In certain cases, PS/nVision may override the specified tree SQL technique. The dynamic selector
technique is not used when a field has tree criteria in multiple dimensions (for example, both row

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and column). This can also happen at DrillDown time if criteria for a field are inherited from
multiple dimensions (for example, the scope and column) of the parent report. With the dynamic
selector technique unavailable, PS/nVision uses either the Supress join technique (if requested
and if feasible) or the Static Selector technique.

For all database platforms, you cannot select the single value option with static selectors.
However, it is possible to build a layout on one platform and run it on another. PS/nVision checks
the options at run-time and enforces the restrictions of the current platform. (The single-
value/range options exist for dynamic selectors and for enabling you to control the syntax used
with ranged selectors.)

“Summary ChartField Node” criteria are supported, but the Suppress join technique is not
available for this type of criteria and is ignored if specified for a tree with Summary ChartField
Node criteria. (Summary ChartField Node criteria are used to enter criteria based on a detail tree
but used with a summary ledger in which the corresponding detail ChartField was rolled up using
a tree and stored as node names.) PS/nVision does not support translation of Summary
ChartField Node when drilling down to the detail ledger, so it is advisable on both counts to use
summary tree criteria instead. (A summary tree is a normal tree whose “detail” values are actually
the nodes to which values have been summarized in a summary ledger.) The Suppress join
technique is available for reports based on summary trees, as long as tree node information is not
needed to group the result; this means it may be possible to re-code some reports that are using
“Detail Value” criteria for summary trees for performance reasons.

These performance-enhancement techniques are not used when retrieving labels (such as account
descriptions). Labels for detail fields associated with tree criteria are retrieved using static
selectors. The SQL code used to retrieve labels is defined at a different level from the SQL used
to retrieve amounts, so it isn’t possible to use the same dynamic selectors for both.

SQL Statement Size

Because criteria from multiple rows and columns are combined with the instance (scope) criteria
in a single SELECT statement, SQL statements generated by PS/nVision can be long and
complex. While current releases of PS/nVision no longer enforce a statement size limit, every
database platform has a maximum statement size, and even statements shorter than the maximum
may be inefficient. Fortunately, you can exercise some control over statement size through
judicious use of the performance options.

Here are the common causes of oversized SQL statements:

• Use of the Suppress join technique on a tree (or trees) from which nodes representing too
many detail ranges are requested. Suppressing a join can be very useful, but is recommended
only when criteria from a given tree require a relatively short list of detail values or ranges.

• Use of static selectors with a very long list of nodes. PS/nVision combines node number
ranges for sibling nodes where possible, so it takes lots of nodes to exceed the limit. Use of
dynamic selectors makes the SQL much shorter.

• An extremely long list of detail values.

The messages that indicate a statement is too long vary from platform to platform. For statements
made long by tree criteria, the most successful solution is generally to use the "dynamic selectors"
technique on one or more of the trees involved.

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Indexing Implications
If you plan to use the dynamic selector technique heavily for certain criteria fields, you should try
an index on that field’s selector table that is optimized around this technique. For example, let’s
say ACCOUNT is a six-character field (meaning its selector table is PSTREESELECT06) and
you plan to use dynamic selectors, with single values, for the ACCOUNT trees on most of your
production reports. You should try creating an index on PSTREESELECT06 on
SELECTOR_NUM and RANGE_FROM_06, since these are the only fields that will appear in
the WHERE clause with single-value dynamic selectors. But also bear in mind the following:

• Other fields that are the same size may use the same selector table, so you might not want to
eliminate an index if removing it would penalize those reports.

• Although only SELECTOR_NUM and RANGE_FROM_06 will appear in the WHERE clause,
TREE_NODE_NUM may appear in the SELECT list (if PS/nVision needs to GROUP BY tree
node). An index that includes this field as well would enable index-only access (that is, access
with no need to read the data table) when using this selector.

• Indexes and their use by the respective database optimizers vary depending on the optimizer
and the volume and distribution of data, so some experimentation will be required to get
optimum results.

Overview of Tree Tables Used by PS/nVision

It’s helpful to understand the structure of the various tree tables that PS/nVision uses and how
they interact. The main tables used are PSTreeDefn, PSTreeLeaf, PSTreeSelCtl, and
PSTreeSelectnn.

The sections below provide details on each of these tables.

PSTREEDEFN: Tree Definition

Description

This system table defines an effective-dated version of a tree.

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Fields

Field Name Type Length Format Long Name

SETID Char 5 Upper SetID
TREE_NAME Char 18 Upper Tree Name
EFFDT Date 10 Effective Date
EFF_STATUS Char 1 Upper Status as of
Effective Date
VERSION Nbr 10 Raw B Version
TREE_STRCT_ID Char 18 Upper Tree Structure Id
DESCR Char 30 Mixed Description
ALL_VALUES Char 1 Upper All Values
USE_LEVELS Char 1 Upper Use Levels
VALID_TREE Char 1 Upper Valid Tree
LEVEL_COUNT Nbr 3 Level Count
NODE_COUNT Nbr 5 Raw B Node Count
LEAF_COUNT Nbr 5 Raw B Leaf Count
TREE_HAS_RANG Char 1 Upper Tree Has Ranges
ES
DUPLICATE_LEAF Char 1 Upper Allow Duplicate
Leaf
TREE_CATEGORY Char 18 Upper Category
TREE_ACC_METH Char 1 Upper Tree Access
OD Method
TREE_ACC_SELEC Char 1 Upper Tree Access
TOR Selector
TREE_ACC_SEL_O Char 1 Upper Tree Access
PT Selector Option

PSTREELEAF: Tree Leaf

Description

This user table defines the data value ranges that are the leaves of a tree. For each “leaf node”
(nodes without children), one or more ranges define the detail values that correspond to that node.

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Fields

Field Name Type Length Format Long Name

SETID Char 5 Upper SetID
TREE_NAME Char 18 Upper Tree Name
EFFDT Date 10 Effective Date
TREE_BRANCH Char 20 Upper Tree Branch Name
TREE_NODE_NUM Nbr 10 Raw B Tree Node Number
RANGE_FROM Char 30 Upper Range From
RANGE_TO Char 30 Upper Range To
DYNAMIC_RANG Char 1 Upper Dynamic Range
E
OLD_TREE_NODE Char 1 Upper Old Tree Node
_NUM

PSTREESELCTL: Tree Selection Control

Description

This system table controls selectors (see PSTREESELECTnn) that PS/nVision uses to speed
retrieval of data through trees. Each row in this table corresponds to a row in PSTREEDEFN and
to a group of rows (with the same SELECTOR_NUM) in PSTREESELECTnn.

Fields

Field Name Type Length Format Long Name

SETID Char 5 Upper SetID
TREE_NAME Char 18 Upper Tree Name
EFFDT Date 10 Effective Date
VERSION Nbr 10 Raw B Version
SELECTOR_NU Nbr 10 Raw B Selector Number
M
SELECTOR_DT Date 10 Selector Date
TREE_ACC_SEL_ Char 1 Upper Tree Access
OPT Selector Option
LENGTH Nbr 5 Raw B Length

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PSTREESELECTnn: Tree Select Work-Size nn

Description

These system tables define selectors used by PS/nVision to speed tree-based data selection. A
selector table is defined for every possible detail field length (nn = 01-30); thus this description
applies to tables named PSTREESELECT01, PSTREESELECT02, and so on, through
PSTREESELECT30.

Fields

Field Name Type Length Format Long Name

SELECTOR_NU Nbr 10 Raw B Selector Number
M
TREE_NODE_NU Nbr 10 Raw B Tree Node Number
M
RANGE_FROM_n Char n Upper Range From
n
RANGE_TO_nn Char n Upper Range To

PSTREESELNUM: Tree Select Control Number

Description

PS/nVision uses this table to assign a unique SELECTOR_NUM value to each tree selector as it
is built. This table has only one row.

Fields

Field Name Type Length Format Long Name

SELECTOR_NUM Nbr 10 Raw B Selector Number

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CHAPTER 15

PS/nVision Reporting on the Web

The addition of nVision to PeopleSoft Internet Architecture provides Web users a simple,
intuitive way to run, view, and distribute nVision reports quickly using their browser. Now,
remote users with Internet access can log on to PeopleSoft through their browsers and run, view,
and DrillDown on their reports without needing PeopleSoft installed on their workstation. New
distribution options allow users to send reports instantly as email attachments rather than
requiring recipients to navigate to a location on a file server. Casual users have an interface that is
familiar and easy to understand, with the more complex nVision development features residing
only in the Windows client.

New features for nVision with PeopleTools 8.1 are include the following:

• Output in both Excel (.xls) and HTML (.htm) formats.

• DrillDown for nVision reports on the Web using hyperlinks.

• Email options that allow you to send your nVision reports to individual users or users in
specified roles.

• Internet versions of report requests, Report Books, and scope definitions.

• Integration with the new Report Manager so that you can “burst” report instances using scope
fields, and send specific instances of reports to designated users or users in specified roles.

• Support for multiple nVision sessions when nVision is invoked from Process Scheduler.

Note. To take full advantage of the new Web features, you need to have Microsoft Office
2000 on the nVision report server. Office 2000 is not required on any other servers or on any
computers used to initiate Report Books or report requests from the browser. A report server
is a Windows NT machine with nVision (PeopleTools client software), Excel, and Process
Scheduler installed on it. Process Scheduler is needed to schedule all nVision processes.
Office 2000 is required for creating reports in HTML format.

Configuring the Report Node

Both Process Scheduler and Report Manager use report distribution nodes. The Distribution Node
Definition specifies the location of Report Repository and the location of the stored content (the
files) for Report Manager. When nVision creates a report instance, it passes the physical file

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location information to Process Scheduler. Process Scheduler then passes the file to Report
Manager using the information defined on the Distribution page.

Distribution Node page

The Report Distribution Node defines how your reports are moved to the Report Repository
where you can view them from Report Manager.

For more information about setting up the Distribution Node in Process Scheduler Manager,
see Process Scheduler Report Distribution.

Setting Up a Report Request

The first step in running your nVision report is to create a report request. You can create your
report request from nVision in the Windows client or from the new Web version of report
request. In PeopleSoft Internet Architecture, all nVision report functions are centralized under the
PS/nVision menu.

Select Report Request from your menu to navigate to the nVision Report Request page. You can
create a new nVision report request using this page, but most often, you’ll be looking for an
existing request and will simply run your report once you’ve chosen your request. You may
search for an existing report request by Business Unit, Report ID, or Report Description and use it
to run reports that you know you’ll need on a regular basis.

When you create a new report request, you enter a business unit and a report ID in the initial Add
page. The nVision Report Request page allows you to enter specific information about the report
you’re running such as what layout to use, what time period you are reporting on, and where to
store the report.

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After you have created a report request, you can run the report by clicking . You can
then run the report from Process Scheduler. Using the Process Scheduler Request page, you can
specify which process scheduler server you want to use to run the report. Selecting your Process
Scheduler server is particularly important if you have multiple Process Scheduler servers on the
same database. You can also add the report request to a Report Book, and run a group of reports
as a batch process.

For more information on using Process Scheduler, see Process Request Dialog.

The nVision Report Request page enables you to set your options for running your report. The
key fields of Business Unit and Report ID appear at the top of the page to identify the report
request.

To create a report request:

1. Select PeopleTools, PS/nVision, Use, Report Request to display the Report Request search
dialog box.

Report Request search dialog box

2. Select the link to add a new value, and enter a Business Unit and Report ID for the request.

The Report Request page appears.

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nVision Report Request page

3. Enter the Report Title and Layout information.

Report Title This description appears on the prompt lists allowing you
to select a report. Use the %RTT% variable within a
layout to display this title on a report instance. For this
reason, you may want to enter a title that reflects the
specific scope of your report.

Layout Specify the report layout (the .XNV file) to use for this
report. The layout is what defines the format, structure,
and data values used for the report. The directory for
saving layouts is defined in the Process Scheduler
configuration file. Use the %LYN% variable on your
layout to show the layout name on a report instance.

4. Enter the Report Date Selection criteria.

As of Reporting Date This option allows you to set the reporting period for the
report. Many report layouts associated with PeopleSoft
Financials applications report on data over a given account
period such as the current quarter or year-to-date. nVision
uses the As Of Reporting Date to determine the meaning
of any TimeSpans used in the layout. You can opt to use
Today’s Date, a Business Unit Reporting Date, or you
may Specify a date of your choosing in the calendar field
that appears when you select that option.

Tree As Of Date This option enables you to use trees that are in effect as of
the reporting date. You may choose a different date and
use a set of trees in effect for that date using the Specify
option.

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5. Enter the report Output Options.

Type The output type options allow you to specify the report’s
distribution type: Web, File, Email, or Printer.

Format The output format option allows you to specify the

report’s distribution format—Microsoft Excel (.xls) or
HTML (.htm) files.

Enter Delivery Template Click to access the Enter Delivery Template Options page,
Options where you can specify the applicable delivery templates to
your report request.

6. After entering any delivery template options, click Save to keep a copy of the report request.

7. Click Run Report to run your report request.

There are several links at the top of each report request that help you navigate to Process
Monitor, Report Books, and Report Manager. You can also copy and delete report requests
from these links.

Copy to Another Business Click to access the Copy to Another Business Unit page,
Unit where you can copy the current report request to one or
more different business units.

Delete This Report Request Click to delete this report request.

Transfer to Report Books Click to display the Report Books page.

Process Monitor Click to check the status of your report in Process

Monitor.

Report Manager Click to view your report output in Report Manager.

Note. When you use Copy to Another Business Unit, you can’t clone the report by the new
Report ID. Both report ID and business unit are the key of a report request. When you do a
copy, you can only copy it to another business unit, but not another report ID. In Windows
client, you can do both.

Configuring Delivery Templates

Report Request template options allow you to use nVision variables or static text to specify report
delivery options that add extra functionality to your report requests. You can also use scope fields
so that you can personalize individual reports. Template options are displayed dynamically on the
nVision Web Output page—meaning that only the options that you need to specify for that
particular output type appear on the page. For instance, if you choose Web as the output (as in the
following example), you only need to enter information for content description and security

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templates. If you had chosen File, the system would present options for file and directory name.
The other options that you aren’t using don’t appear on the page (as they do in the Windows
environment).

To see all available template options, select Enter Delivery Template Options – View All from
the Advanced Options tab of the Report Request page.

Note. If you are entering a list of values in any of the template fields, make sure to use a
semicolon to separate each item.

nVision Report Request – Enter Delivery Template Options – Web Output page

Using this page, you can also specify a scope for your reports to have different instances of the
same report delivered to email addresses or posted to individual users in Report Manager.

For more information on using scopes to deliver reports, see Applying Scopes to Your
Reports.

The following listing shows all template options, with brief descriptions and some examples of
the different types of information that you can enter. Not all template options appear on your
page—it depends on the output type that you specify on the request.

Note. If an asterisk appears next to a template option, that indicates that it is a required
field. Always make sure to fill in required fields to ensure that your report runs correctly.

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Content Description Enter a description of the report instances for

Template identification in Report Manager. Use variables to create
the descriptions dynamically.

Examples: Stmt. Rev & Exp or Vacation Register -

%SFV%

Security Template Enter user IDs or variables to give specific users or role
IDs access to report instances in Report Manager. To
authorize a user ID, enter a U followed by a colon before
the user ID. To authorize a role, enter an R followed by a
colon before the role ID. If this field is blank, the report is
automatically distributed to the user running the report.

Examples: R:Manager or U:SMITHJ or

R:Manager;U:SMITHJ;U:JOHNM or

%DES.DEPTID.OPRID.OPRID%.

Directory Name Template Enter a directory name from the nVision report server for
your instances. Use variables to create unique directory
names. If the directory does not exist, nVision will create
it. If this field is blank, nVision uses the directory
specified in Process Scheduler’s configuration file.

You can use a network path in directory template.

For example, you can use \\<servername>\Directory
1\Directory 2, but you have to make sure all the
subdirectories under the servername (which comes from
the combination of directory template and file template)
are accessible from your client machine.

The default for this template is the Process Scheduler

Server Configuration setting for nVision: InstanceDir.

Examples: Q:\Reports\%SFV%-%RID%.htm or
C:\%FY4%%RTT%\

File Template Enter a file name for your instances. Use variables to
create unique report file names. If this field is blank,
nVision uses the layout name as the default file name with
the appropriate extension according to your output format.
If the field is blank, nVision uses the layout name as the
default file name with the appropriate output type
extension.

Examples: expense.xls or %RID%.htm or

%FY4%%RTT%.xls

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Email template Enter a list of email addresses or use variables to specify

who receives report instances. There is no default for this
template. Make sure that you enter values in this field or
the instances will not be sent. Also, make sure that the
email addresses associated with these users are entered
into their user profiles in Maintain Security.

You may enter up to 254 characters in this field. If you

have a long list of email addresses, use the role or user
variables. To enter a list of email addresses, make sure to
use a semicolon to separate each address.

Examples: [email protected]; or R:Manager or

U:SMITHJ, or %DES.DEPTID.EMAILID.EMAILID%

Note. If you want to email a spreadsheet with an image (a

graph, pivot table, or an embedded image), you must run
the report with an output type of .xls or distribute it
through the Web using Report Manager. Images that are
attached to a spreadsheet cannot be emailed in .html
format.

Copying a Request to Another Business Unit

Using this option, you can copy a report request to one or more business units. With the report
request open, click Copy to Another Business Unit. Enter the business unit and click the Copy
button to have the report request appear in the selection list for the other business unit.

nVision Request Copy to Another Business Unit page

Delete This Report Request Dialog Box

Clicking this option displays a message asking if you really want to delete the report request. You
have the choice of Yes, No, or Cancel.

Transfer to Report Books Page

Clicking Transfer to Report Books takes you to the Report Book for a specific run control ID
that you specified using the search page.

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Setting Advanced Options for Your Report Request

The Advanced Options page allows you to change some of the high-level specifications for the
report request. Click the Advanced Options tab on the nVision Report Request page to create
settings for your report.

Advanced Options page

Enable nPlosion If Specified Select this box to use the nPlosion feature to generate
In Layout supporting detail for summary criteria.

Translate Summary Select this box to translate all nPloded summary balances
Ledgers to Detail to detail values on the report.

Data From Requesting B. Select this box to return data from the requesting business
U. Only unit only. If you don’t check this box, nVision extracts
data for all business units.

Foreign Language Enter the language code to translate the report instances
Translation automatically. This option is available if alternate
language features are in the layout.

Examples: ENG or
%DES.[scopefield].{detailfield|.nodefield|detailfield.node
field}%

Enter Delivery Template Click this link to change or view all of the template entry
Options – View All fields, even if they don’t pertain directly to your specific
report. This option is useful if you want to distribute the
report in a different output types at report runtime and
would like to change or check all template options at the
same time.

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For more information about foreign language translation, see PS/nVision Layout
Translation.

Applying Scopes to Your Reports

A report scope allows you to create multiple instances of a report using a single report layout and
report request. Using a scope, each report instance is generated with data specific to an individual
field value (such as a business unit or department) or a to group of values (such as a tree node
summarizing all sales departments). In this way, each report instance can share the same layout,
while containing data unique to these field values.

For example, if you have a report request with a scope that produces one income statement for
each division in the company, you could use a scope variable in the Email template to have each
divisional report emailed to that division’s VP. Or you could make each VP’s report available in
Report Manager by using a scope variable in the Security template.

You use scope variables in the Email and Security templates the same way that you use them to
create unique file names with the File template or directory names with the Directory template in
your report request. The Scope Descriptive Variable (%DES%) is used to select a related field
value from the Scope Value table of the Tree Node table. You can use values for email addresses,
user IDs, or role IDs. The general syntax of the %DES% variable is the following:

%DES%.[scope field].[detail field].[node field]

The %DES% variable requires the associated field value (in this case the email address or the
user ID or role ID) be on the same table that the scope is based on. In the example below the
scope is based on the Value Table NVS_DEPT_VW. To use this scope definition for email
report distribution, there must be an associated email address in the NVS_DEPT_VW for each
DEPTID value specified.

Creating a scope definition on the web is similar to defining it in the Windows client with the
following exceptions:

• You cannot delete a scope definition.

• You cannot specify an effective date for the tree node table or value table. The current date is
used as the effective date.

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Scope Definition page

Description This text describes the general function of the scope.

Field Name This is the name of the field that controls the scope.

How Specified This field defines how the scope field is used in the report.

For more information about specifying scope values, see

PS/nVision, “Defining Report Scopes”.

Value Table or Tree Name This is the name of the value table or tree name that the
scope is based on depending on what is chosen in the How
Specified field.

Level Specify the level in the tree, defined in the Tree Name,
when the level is appropriate for the specified How
Specified type.

Field Combination Table If you are using a Field Combination table for this scope,
you must select a value for this field.

For more information about Field Combination tables, see

PS/nVision, “Defining Report Scopes”.

Scopes are defined based on a tree node record or a value table such as Department table or
Product table. By defining your scope based on a table that includes an email address or user ID
for each value you can direct each scope based-report instance to a different user. For example,
the record NVS_DEPT_VW shown below can be used with a scope definition to have each report
instance emailed or posted to a different user in Report Manager.

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Department Description Manager Email Address User ID

(DEPTID) (DESCR) (EMAILID) (OPRID)
12000 Sales John [email protected] U:JOHNSMITH
Canada Smith
13000 Sales USA Jane [email protected] U:JANEWHITE
White
14000 Sales Asia Asia [email protected];U:P U:KathyLin;U:Pete
Manager eterYu;R:AsiaManager rYU;R:AsiaManag
er

Email Template Variables

If you want each report instance to be emailed to the associated department manager’s email
address you would enter the following values in your Email template:

%DES, DEPTID, EMAILID, EMAILID%

This tells PS/nVision to use the associated email address from the EMAILID field from the Value
table where the DEPTID is located. You would also need to specify email as the output type on
the report request.

The Scope Descriptive Variable (%DES%) is used to select a related field value from the Scope
Value table. For example, if your scope were based on the NVS_DEPT_VW record shown
above, you would produce three report instances and each instance would be sent to the
associated email address. The report for department 12000 would be emailed to
[email protected], and the report for 13000 would be emailed to [email protected]. The
report for department 14000 would be emailed to several recipients—Kathy Lin, Peter Yu, and
the email addresses for the users who belong to the role Asia Manager. You can specify the user
email addresses associated with users and roles in the user profiles of Maintain Security.

Security Template Variables

Using this same Value Table, you could post each report instance to Report Manager for the
associated user. In this case you would use Web as the output type and enter the following
variables in the Security template as follows:

%DES, DEPTID, OPRID, OPRID%

The report for department 12000 would be posted to Report Manager for user JOHNSMITH, and
the report for 13000 would be posted for user JANEWHITE. John Smith would not be able to
access the Department 13000 report. The report for department 14000 would be posted to Report
Manager for Kathy Lin, Peter Yu, and the other users belonging to the role Asia Manager.

Sample Record Definition

The record definition shown below was used to create a view that joins the department record
(DEPT_TBL) with a PeopleSoft security record (PSOPRDEFN).

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Application Designer: NVS_DEPT_VIEW page

The SQL view text joins the PS_DEPT_TBL.MANAGER_ID with the PSOPRDEFN.OPRID in
security. The email address and user ID (OPRID) are taken from PSOPRDEFN.

SQL View Text

SELECT B.DEPTID

, B.DESCR

, B.DESCRSHORT

, A.OPRID

, A.EMAILID

, A.EMPLID

FROM PSOPRDEFN A

, PS_DEPT_TBL B

WHERE B.EFFDT = (

SELECT MAX(B_ED.EFFDT)

FROM PS_DEPT_TBL B_ED

WHERE B.DEPTID = B_ED.DEPTID

AND B_ED.EFFDT <= SUBSTRING(CONVERT(CHAR,GETDATE(),121), 1, 10))

AND A.EMPLID = B.MANAGER_ID

Note. This is a very simple example and should not be used without careful evaluation. You
may get unpredictable results if the scope definition returns more than one row from the
Value table for each scope value.

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Submitting a Report Request

Once you have finished setting up your nVision Report Request, click the Run Report button to
display the Process Scheduler Request page. The Process Scheduler Request page enables you to
select such variables as where and when a process runs and in what output type and format the
report is generated.

Process Scheduler Request page

For more information about Process Scheduler settings, see Submitting a Process Request.

Choosing Output Types and Formats

PS/nVision reports have two different formats for creating report instances: HTML and Excel.
Both formats are valid with all output types and can be used with Process Scheduler Requests or
requests generated from the Windows environment. To use HTML, Excel 2000 or later must be
installed on your nVision Report server.

Note. If you are planning on using DrillDown on the Web, you must select HTML output for
the instance you will be drilling from.

You have four different options for the type of report output that you can generate.

Email Sends the report instances using email. The mail server to
deliver the reports must be specified in the Process
Scheduler Configuration file.

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File Saves the report instances in a specified file directory in

your file server of your nVision Report server. The
directory of the file server must be specified in the Process
Scheduler Configuration file.

Printer Sends the report instances to a network printer. All

destination printers must be set in the nVision Report
server. You can only specify a different printer using the
Process Scheduler Request page. The default printer for
this setting is the default printer for the Report server.

Web Sends each report instance to Report Manager. The

Process Scheduler server that runs the report must be
associated with the Distribution Node to deliver the
reports to Report Manager.

Output types are initially specified in the Report Request, but they can be overridden on the
Process Scheduler Request page. From the Process Scheduler Request page, the output type and
format are identical to those in the nVision Report Request page, except for the additional choice
of Default/Default. In most cases, you specify output types on the Report Request and use the
Default options on the Process Scheduler Request page. You can run reports from the Process
Scheduler Request page with different output options without changing the original settings on
the nVision Report Request page.

Note. If you change your report type to File on the Process Scheduler Request page, you
must enter the Output Destination to save the instance to a file.

Setting Report Distribution

The Distribution Detail page enables you to choose the recipients of your process output. This
page appears only when the output type is either Web or email. If the process that you are
running allows output that can be emailed (for example, Crystal can create Adobe Acrobat (.pdf)
files), you can enter an email subject and message and send the output to a group of email
addresses.

Note. If you are entering a list of email addresses, make sure to use a semicolon (;) to
separate each address from the others.

You can add users or roles to the distribution by adding a row and filling in the pertinent
information. You can also use this page to add someone who would not normally have the proper
security to view this output.

Select the Distribution icon to display the Distribution Detail page.

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Distribution Detail page

To distribute reports to a role ID or a user ID using email, all recipients must have their
email address entered in their Manage Security User Profile.

For more information about Manage Security and User Profiles, see Email ID.

Using the Web Version of Report Books

PS/nVision provides the ability to group multiple report requests into a single Report Book. A
Report Book is simply a list of multiple report requests with some additional features to enhance
flexibility:

• An interface to Process Scheduler. Using a browser, you schedule a group of reports to run
using a Process Scheduler request. With the click of a button, your reports are executed on the
server in the format that you choose. You can also schedule your Report Books to run at a
particular time on a regular basis. You can also run the entire Report Book with the same
output type and format without changing any individual component requests.

• An Effective Status associated with each request in the Report Book. You can choose to set
individual report requests within a Report Book as “inactive.” Inactive report requests will
remain part of the Report Book, but will not be run as part of a request.

• A method for individual report requests to inherit dates from the Report Book. This
enables you to run an entire Report Book using the same AsOfDate and Tree Effective Date

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without changing any individual component requests.

• With PeopleSoft 8, multiple nVision sessions can be scheduled on a single report server.
Each nVision session is associated with its own Excel executable. This enables you to
maximize use of your report server without requiring multiple report servers for multiple
Report Books.

PeopleSoft gives you the option of running your reports from Windows or from your browser
using PeopleSoft Internet Architecture. The following section describes using the Report Books
feature from your browser running on a workstation.

For more information on using Report Books from the Windows client, see Using Report
Books in Windows.

Creating a Report Book From Your Browser

Once you have created your report requests, you can group them together in a Report Book.
Before creating a Report Book, make sure you have report requests defined for all the reports you
want to include in the book. The Report Book is a list of requests, not a substitute for the request.
You might also want to review the requests you plan to use to ensure they use the desired scope
and layout.

Select Report Books from your menu to display the Report Book page. You can add a new Report
Book by selecting the Add option and entering the new run control ID or you can search for an
existing Report Book using the search page.

Report Books also has buttons available that allow you to display different Process Scheduler
components:

• Report Manager allows you to view your finished reports

• Process Monitor allows you to check the status of reports that are sent to process

• Report request allows you to view each individual report request in your Report Book.

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Report Book page

The Web version of Report Books allows for more robust batch processing of PS/nVision reports,
without having to queue the reports and run them individually. When you have a Report Book set
up, you can choose to have all of the reports in the group run, or you can select specific individual
reports by selecting their check boxes in the Run column.

Note. The date options in Report Books can be set to override the date options in the original
report request. If you change either the As Of Date or the Tree Effective Date in Report
Books, they will create report output to the new Report Book dates.

As Of Date Default uses the specified As Of Date from the report

request.

Today’s Date uses the current date for the report.

Business Unit Reporting Date uses the date specified for

the business unit.

Specify displays a date field for you to enter the date you
want to report on.

Tree Effective Date Defaul uses the specified Tree Effective Date from the
report request.

Specify displays a date field for you to enter the date you
want to report on.

Use As of Reporting Date creates the report based on the

As Of Reporting Date that you’ve specified in the report.

Ignore Runtime Errors Selecting this checkbox will keep the entire Report Book
from stopping if one of the reports encounters an error.

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Click the View button to launch another browser window

displaying the report request.

Adds a new, blank row, allowing you to enter a new report

request.

Deletes the current row.

Defining Report Books

Before creating a Report Book, make sure you have report requests defined for all the reports you
want to include in the book. You might also want to review the requests that you plan to use to
ensure that they use the desired scope and layout.

To define a Report Book:

1. Select PeopleTools, PsnVision, Use, Report Book Definition.

2. Enter the run control ID of an existing Report Book to modify it, or select Add a new value
to create a new Report Book.

Add a New Value page

3. Click Add.

The book definition will be stored on the database under this name and will also keyed by
your user ID. The Report Book Definition page appears.

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Report Book page

You use this page to define the list of reports you want to run, in sequence, and to set the run
parameters.

4. Define the Book Entries for this Report Book.

Add the Business Unit and Report ID of the report requests for this Report Book in the order
you want them run. To reorder your entries, insert or delete rows as necessary.

The check box in the Run column should be selected for all reports you want to run when
this book is requested, but the book can include inactive reports. For example, you may
define a book of reports to be run at month’s end, and you might include a report that is only
run quarterly, but select its Run indicator only at the end of the quarter.

5. Define the Run Parameters.

The Run Parameters section allows you to override the date controls in the individual report
requests. For production reports normally run in background, you don’t need to update the
individual requests’ As Of Dates; you can enter a single As Of Date on the Report Book
definition by selecting the User-Specified option. In this case, PS/nVision uses the date you
specify, as if you had entered it on each the report requests in the book. Alternatively, you
can select the Use Business Unit Reporting date option, telling PS/nVision to treat each
request as if the corresponding option were selected. Or you can have PS/nVision default to
the date controls in each individual request.

Similarly, you can control the Tree Effective Date used by all the report requests in the
book, either setting a specific override, defaulting to the individual requests, or defaulting to
the As Of Date on each request.

The Ignore Runtime Errors option tells PS/nVision whether or not to stop the Report Book
processing when an error is encountered. If this option is off, and one of the reports has an
error (for example, a layout refers to an invalid tree node), the process will stop at that point.
If this option is checked, PS/nVision will log the error and continue with the next report.

6. Save your changes.

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7. Run the Report book, if desired.

For more information, see Running Report Books.

Running Report Books

Report Books are run through Process Scheduler from the same pages used to define them. You
may want to note the Process Instance number assigned to your request.

Use Process Monitor to track the progress of your request. Remember that if you selected the
Ignore Runtime Errors check box on the Report Book page, the completion status will be
“Success,” even though one or more reports may have had errors.

To schedule your Report Book to run:

1. Click the magnifying glass to search for a report ID by either description or Report ID. Once
you select a report from the search list, it appears on the Report Book page.

2. Choose the reports that you want to run by selecting the report in the Run Control ID
column.

3. Save any changes that you’ve made.

4. Click the Run button to display the Process Scheduler Request page.

The Process Scheduler Request page shows all of the processes that you have the security to
run. This page allows you to set the Process Scheduler server, run date and time, the
frequency at which the process runs (the recurrence of the process), output type, format, and
distribution of your Report Book.

For more information on setting Process Scheduler Request options, see Submitting a
Process Request.

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Process Scheduler Request page

5. Select the Server Name and other run information.

6. Select the checkbox in the Process List for the Report Book that you want to run.

7. Select your output Type and output Format from the drop-down lists.

8. If you have chosen Email or Web as your output type, click to set up the distribution of
your Report Book.

For more information on output types and formats, see Selecting Output Types. For more
information on setting up your Report Book distribution, see Setting Report Distribution.

9. Click OK.

When the report begins to run, you are returned to the Report Book page. If you want to
check the status of your job, select the link to Process Monitor, where you can view the
status of your job. Click Report Manager to see the list of reports that you have access to.

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Report Manager - Report List page

For more information on monitoring the status of a process, see Using Process Monitor. To
find out more about using Report Manager on the Internet, see Using Report Manager.

Running Multiple Report Books

For this to work properly, you must ensure that your Process Server is defined properly in the
Process Scheduler. Since a Report Book runs on the server, you can have concurrent nVision
sessions.

To define your process server to handle multiple Report Book jobs:

1. Select PeopleTools, Process Scheduler Manager, Use, Server Definitions.

2. Choose the server name you're using for your Report Books (generally this will be PSNT).

On the lower half of the page, you'll see the List of Servers available to you.

3. Find the Process Type named nVision – Report Book and make sure that the Max Concurrent
field is set to 1.

This allows multiple Report Book jobs to queue up one after the other. Each Report Book job
will not be processed until the one before it finishes.

Using DrillDown on the Web

DrillDown provides quick access to supporting detail by showing detailed data in a different
layout. This is especially useful when reporting is based on summary ledgers, as it provides
underlying details when and where they are needed. DrillDown enables you to select a cell in
your report and expand it according to new criteria contained in a “child” layout.

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Performing a DrillDown from your browser is another quick and easy way to extract specific
information that you want through a few simple navigations. Drill Downs are run on the nVision
Report server (as are Report Requests and Report Books), and are accessed through Report
Manager. You can perform a DrillDown on individual cells within the report by simply clicking
on of the amount cells within the report. DrillDowns are run from the Process Scheduler server on
which you ran the original report.

Note. DrillDown in the browser does not include AutoDrill, Drill-to-Query, and Drill-to-
Panel options. Those features are available in the Windows client only.

Setting Up the Portal for DrillDown

To run DrillDown on the Web, you need to install the Portal when you install the PeopleSoft
Internet Architecture. (This is not something that most end-users have to do, but something that
your system administrators do when they install PeopleSoft.)

After you install Portal, you need to run PORTAL_SETUP.DMS DataMover script to update the
Portal table. If you have not run PORTAL_SETUP.DMS, you will get a message that states,
"Unable to find content provider Portal's URI in portal PORTAL for drilldown hyperlink". So
even though you are able to run the report, you will not be able to drill down on the resulting
instance.

For more information on how to install the Portal, see the Installation Guide, Setting Up the
PeopleSoft Internet Architecture.

Registering DrillDown Layouts

The DrillDown layout file must exist in the layout directory that is specified in the Process
Scheduler Configuration file to be able to be used in the browser. All DrillDown layouts are
created in the Windows version of nVision, but can be used in both Windows and a browser if
they are located in the same file directory.

Note. The original report must be run in HTML format in order for PS/nVision to generate
hyperlink on the drillable cells in the report.

Register a DrillDown layout by opening the Register DrillDown Layouts page. You only need
to register those layouts that you want accessible to Web users.

When you register your DrillDown layout, you are associating it with a specific Process
Scheduler server. This means that you can have a set of DrillDown layouts specific to Financial
applications registered to a Process Scheduler server that is dedicated to only Financial
applications and have a set of DrillDown layouts specific to Human Resources registered to its

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own Process Scheduler server. If you want a DrillDown layout to be available to multiple Process
Scheduler servers, you must register the DrillDown layout on each server individually. After
nVision posts a report to Report Manager, you will be able to use the DrillDown layouts that are
registered for that particular server.

To register a DrillDown Layout:

1. Select PeopleTools, PS/nVision, Use, Drilldown Layout Registration.

The Drilldown Layouts page appears.

2. Click to add another row to the page.

3. Enter the name of the Drilldown Layout and its Description. The name of the layout must
match exactly the name of the DrillDown layout that you have created in Windows.

4. Click Save.

Drilldown Layouts page

For more information on setting up your drilldown layout files, see the section of Process
Scheduler documentation entitled, Report Distribution.

Using DrillDown on the Web

Using a DrillDown layout to create instances of a report is a quick way to access detailed data in
your browser. Once a report has been run as a Web or HTML output type and posted to Report
Manager, you can open it and run a DrillDown on specific amount fields. You will know that a
field is “drillable” if you pass your cursor over the field and the cursor changes to a hand.

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Note. If the Portal is not set up correctly in PeopleSoft Internet Architecture, there will be no
hyperlinks associated with the instance and you will not be able to drill.

To perform a DrillDown:

1. Open the report in Report Manager and click the hyperlink for the field that you want to drill
on.

PNLRPT Report page

2. Next, click Run Drilldown for the DrillDown layout you want to use.

Available DrillDown Layouts page

The Report List page appears again.

3. Click Refresh to refresh the screen.

After your DrillDown runs, it appears as a report in your report list. DrillDown report
descriptions always include DR, the drill number, and the original Report Description.

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Report List page

4. Click View to see the hyperlink for the DrillDown on the Report/Log Viewer page.

Report/Log Viewer page

5. Click the hyperlink for the DrillDown to see the DrillDown results.

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DrillDown Report in the Report/Log Viewer

One of the great advantages of Web-based DrillDowns is that they persist—they are files that
permanently exist on your file server (not just while you are viewing them, as in the Windows
client). DrillDown instances in the Web can be viewed and distributed in the same manner as any
other report that you run on the browser.

Note. You can only run a DrillDown from Report Manager. Although you can navigate to
the option Run Drilldown from your PeopleSoft Use menu, this option does not function
when accessed from the menu.

Troubleshooting nVision on the Web

There are several things to check when your nVision report doesn’t run, or when it runs and
produces errors.

Using DrillDown on Multiple Application Servers

If you have multiple Application Servers set up on a single database, nVision will use the
PORTAL_URI_TEXT (the default web server) from Portal Content Provider as the URI address
for the hyperlinks in all drillable cells. If you perform the Drilldown on any of the non-default
web servers, you will still be prompted for the DrillDown Layout Page from the default web
server even if the actual DrillDown is kicked off from another machine. This means that your
default web server must be running when you perform the DrillDown.

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Troubleshooting Report Books

Whenever Report Books do not run successfully, the first thing you should do is make sure the
report requests that are specified in Report Books will run on their own from the Process
Scheduler. Also, make sure to check that your template settings are correct on the report request.

To check for a bad report request:

1. Open your browser and select the link to Report Request.

2. Run the report and see if you receive any errors.

If it does, then the problem is not with Report Books but with the associated report request.
More than likely, it is because the layout specified in the report request does not exist in
layout file.

3. Open nVision and add the layout to the location specified in Configuration Manager.

Process Scheduler Settings and Report Books

Incorrect Process Scheduler settings will also cause Report Books to fail to run. You can check
your Process Scheduler settings to avoid these errors.

To check for correct Process Scheduler settings:

1. On the Process Scheduler Request page, verify that the process name matches that of your
Report Book.

2. If the process name does not appear to exist, select Process Scheduler Manager, Use,
Process Definitions and verify that there is an nVision-Report Book (RPTBOOK) process
definition that corresponds to your Report Book.

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Process Definition page

3. If the process definition appears to be valid, select Process Scheduler Manager, Use, Server
Definitions page from Process Scheduler.

For your Process Scheduler server, make sure you have a process type entitled nVision
Report and nVision-ReportBook in the Process Type list. If not, add them.

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Server Definition page

4. If those settings are correct, make sure that PSNT exists as a server on the system.

5. Select Process Monitor, Inquire, Process Requests, Server List from the Process
Scheduler. Make sure PSNT exists and that it has a Status of Running.

Process Monitor’s Server List page

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6. If PSNT is Down, use PSADMIN to start the server.

For more information on these settings or starting a Process Scheduler Server, see Process
Scheduler.

Note. If you are not using PSNT as you server and have created your own, make sure that
you have physically started the Process Scheduler or the server will not show up on the list
of servers.

Error Logs

If there are errors encountered when running a Report Book, PS/nVision logs them and enables
you to view them through Process Monitor. Select Details from the Process Monitor. From the
Process Details page, select the link to Message Log. The log file contains one line per error
message, with the same message information you would have seen in a dialog box if you had run
the report interactively. Other helpful messages about the report startup are also logged into this
file.

Message Log page

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CHAPTER 16

Using Tree Manager to Distribute

Reports
In PeopleTools 8.12, we are delivering a set of pages that can be used with tree manager to allow
customers to attach routing information to the trees that are used for bursting nVision reports
when you use a tree and scopes.

The main record that stores the distribution information is DEPT_NODE_TBL, which is a clone
of TREE_NODE_TBL, plus two additional fields. The DEPT_NODE_TBL record must be
included in the structure of any tree that you want to use to control report distribution.

The two fields in this table, DISTLIST and EMAIL_TO, are used by the system as scopefield
variables in the report request, and will control the distribution of the report when that tree is used
in a scope.

Creating DEPT_NODE_TBL

You may already have a tree that is made up of the nodes you want to use for report distribution.
If that’s the case, then you can simply run a script to move the nodes from TREE_NODE_TBL to
DEPT_NODE_TBL. If you don’t have a tree that you want to clone, you can skip this step.

The following are SQL statements that can be used to populate these tables from existing trees.

To move all nodes where the tree has detail values based on a given field (such as DEPTID),
then you can use the following script. (Change the structure name in blue to the structure you
want to key from).

INSERT INTO PS_DEPT_NODE_TBL

SELECT DISTINCT A.SETID, A.TREE_NODE, A.EFFDT, A.EFF_STATUS, A.DESCR, ' ', ' '

FROM PS_TREE_NODE_TBL A, PSTREENODE B

WHERE A.TREE_NODE = B.TREE_NODE

AND B.TREE_NAME IN (SELECT C.TREE_NAME

FROM PSTREEDEFN C, PSTREESTRCT D

WHERE D.TREE_STRCT_ID = C.TREE_STRCT_ID

AND ( C.EFFDT = B.EFFDT

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS 16-1
PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

AND C.SETID = B.SETID

AND D.DTL_FIELDNAME = 'DEPTID' ))

To move all nodes for given tree name, you can use the following script. (Change the tree name
in blue to the tree name you want to key from.)

INSERT INTO PS_DEPT_NODE_TBL

SELECT DISTINCT A.SETID, A.TREE_NODE, A.EFFDT, A.EFF_STATUS, A.DESCR, ' ', ' '

FROM PS_TREE_NODE_TBL A, PSTREENODE B

WHERE A.TREE_NODE = B.TREE_NODE

AND B.TREE_NAME = 'MFG_DEPARTMENTS'

To move all nodes where the tree is based on a specific tree structure ID, use the following
script. (Change the structure name in blue to the structure ID you want to key from.)

INSERT INTO PS_DEPT_NODE_TBL

SELECT DISTINCT A.SETID, A.TREE_NODE, A.EFFDT, A.EFF_STATUS, A.DESCR, ' ', ' '

FROM PS_TREE_NODE_TBL A, PSTREENODE B

WHERE A.TREE_NODE = B.TREE_NODE

AND B.TREE_NAME IN (SELECT C.TREE_NAME

FROM PSTREEDEFN C

WHERE C.TREE_STRCT_ID = 'DEPTID'

AND ( C.EFFDT = B.EFFDT

AND C.SETID = B.SETID ))

Granting Access to Pages

The next step is to grant user access to the pages in the project. This will make them available to
users when they maintain the tree (and add distribution information to the nodes).

To grant security permissions for the tree:

1. Select PeopleTools, Maintain Security, Use, Permission Lists.

2. Open the permission list that you wish to grant access to.

3. Click the Pages tab.

16-2 USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

4. Find the TREE_MANAGER item in the list and click on Edit Components link

5. The Component Permissions page should pop up and the Dept Node component should be in
the list (and not authorized). If you don’t see the Dept Node component in the list, then you
need to re-apply the project file in step 1.

Component Permissions page

6. Click Edit Pages in the row where the Dept Node component is listed.

Page Permissions page

7. Click Select All to grant access to the page and click OK.

8. Click OK on the Component Permissions page.

9. Click Save on the Permission List page.

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS 16-3
PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

Updating your Tree Structures to Use the New Page

The next step is to enable your trees to use the new page. To do this, you need to find all
structures that correspond with the trees that you want to base report distribution on. Perform the
following steps for each tree structure in the list.

To set up Tree Manager to use this page:

1. Select PeopleTools, Tree Manager, Setup, Tree Structure.

2. Select the structure that you want to open.

3. Click the Nodes tab to change where the node information is being stored

4. Modify the structure to utilize the new DEPT_NODE_TBL page.

We have also included in PeopleTools 8.12 a sample Structure definition called

TREE_NODE_DISTRIB that can be used as a starting point for creating a new structure that
uses this set of pages.

Tree Structure - Nodes page

We have included a sample structure definition called TREE_NODE_DISTRIB that can be used
as a starting point for creating a new structure that uses this set of pages.

Populate Routing Information in your Tree

At this point, you can add the distribution routing information to your tree. You can enter either
email addresses or distribution IDs in this page or a combination of both. When populating
distribution IDs, you are populating the users or roles that Report Manager uses.

16-4 USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

Linking it into nVision

Now that you have set up Maintain Security and Tree Manager with the correct information, the
final step is to hook it into nVision.

Should there be something in here that describes how to set up a scope based on the tree? It seems
like we’re missing a step.

You probably already have reports that use scopes against the trees with routing information. As
long as you have made the changes in the previous steps to the same trees that are in the scope
you want to use for your nVision reports, you do not need to modify that scope. In the even that
you do not have existing scopes to use, you will need to create those scopes.

The next step is to open your report request, select the scope you plan to use for that report
request, and use the scope field variables in the appropriate templates to distribute your report
instances.

For more information about scopes, see Applying Scopes to Your Reports.

Distributing through Email

When distributing through email, you start by specifying that the type of distribution is email and
then populate the template options page.

In the template options, the first thing you specify is the scope for which the report is being run.
The scope is what drives the whole process for both email and web distribution.

There is an Email template field on the page, which is what tells nVision who to distribute the
report to. Because we want to route each report to the person associated with each scope value
that drives the generation of the report, we will use a scopefield variable in nVision (if any of this
is unfamiliar to you, refer to the nVision documentation).

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS 16-5
PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

In this particular instance, you will want to use the DES variable to pick a field from the tree and
use it. To use the application delivered here, put the following text in the Email Template field:

%DES…EMAIL_TO%

The following is what the page should look like.

nVision Email Output page

When you run the report, nVision will now generate each instance and deliver the results through
email to the email addresses associated with each node.

Distributing through Report Manager

When distributing through the Web (or Report Manager), you start by specifying that the type of
distribution is Web and then populate the template options page.

In the template options, the first thing you specify is the scope for which the report is being run.
The scope is what drives the whole process for both Email and Web distribution.

There is a Security template field on the page, which is what tells nVision who to distribute the
report to. Because we want to route each report to the person associated with each scope value
that drives the generation of the report, we will use a scopefield variable in nVision (if any of this
is unfamiliar to you, refer to the nVision documentation).

In this particular instance, you will want to use the DES variable to pick a field from the tree and
use it. To use the application delivered here, put the following text in the Security Template field

16-6 USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL
JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

%DES…DISTLIST%

nVision Web Output page

When you run the report, nVision will now generate each instance and deliver the results to
Report Manager. It will also grant access to that report to the individuals who are associated with
the node that drove the generation of that report instance.

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL USING TREE MANAGER TO DISTRIBUTE REPORTS 16-7
Index

description template 2-6

directory template 2-4
A using variables 2-5
Drill setup
access paths menu 11-16
analyzing 14-6 without panel search keys 11-17
ledger 14-6 DrillDown
as of dates 2-7 autodrill 8-5
authorization table 13-8 child layouts 8-5
drill setup 11-14
in Windows 8-1
B inheritance 8-3
instances 8-4
business unit 3-4, 5-3 jump back 8-4
layouts 8-7
C ledger inheritance 8-3
naming conventions 8-6, 8-7
on Web 15-23
CD-ROM
overview 8-1
ordering iii
portal setup 15-24
command buttons 14-17
queries 8-6
Configuration Manager
ReDrill 8-5
changing options 11-1
registering layouts 15-24
nVision settings 11-1
running on Web 15-25
QueryLink 11-2
selecting 8-4
criteria
dynamic selectors 14-9
combinations 5-10
field 5-9, 6-3
filter 5-19, 5-20
inheritance 5-11
E
ledger 6-1 EFFDT 7-2
restrictions 5-10 effective date 3-5, 5-3
string 5-9 email template 2-6
summary chartfield nodes 6-3 enable import 4-5
tree nodes 5-20 Excel
variable 5-9, 5-27, 5-31, 7-11 Excel 4 macros 11-24
criteria types 5-9 features 1-5
field 5-9 formulas 1-6
filter 5-17 spreadsheets, saving as PS/nVision layouts 3-8
label 5-9, 5-22, 5-25
ledger 5-9, 5-14
query 5-9 F
string 5-9, 5-33
variable 5-9 Field Combination table 7-2
field criteria 5-9
nPlosion 9-2
D summary chartfield nodes 6-3
file template 2-6
databases using variables 2-6
DB2 14-6 filter criteria 5-17, 5-19
Oracle 14-7 tree nodes 5-20
DB2 14-6 fiscal_year 14-8

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INDEX 1

PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

in report requests 9-3

I include detail 9-5
layout options 9-1
indexes 14-19 options 9-5
matching 14-5 query/ledger criteria 9-3
multi-column in nVision 14-4 rows 9-1, 9-6
instance controls in nVision 2-3 style sheet wizard 11-18
style wizard 9-9
J styles 9-8, 9-12
suppress nodes 9-5
TimeSpans 9-3
joins
to bottom of tree 9-4
suppressing 14-10
to children 9-4
to details 9-5
L to specified level 9-5
types 9-4
label criteria 5-9, 5-25, 6-4 use outline 9-5
Language Template 2-6 nVision
API functions 11-24
layouts
authorization table 13-7
creating new layouts 3-7
enhancing 10-1 buttons options 11-6
navigating 3-11 column options 4-6
opening existing layouts 3-6 ColumnStyles tab 11-18
read-only 3-8 Configuration Manager options 11-1, 11-2
saving 3-8 content description template 15-7
types of layouts 3-9 copy options 4-6
ledger access paths 14-6 copying report requests 15-8
ledger criteria 5-9, 5-14, 6-1 criteria inheritance 4-5
defining 6-1 data security 13-6, 13-8
ledger inheritance 8-3 database access paths 14-4
designer objects 12-1
ledger tables 14-3
directory paths 11-3
ledgers 14-8
security 13-6 directory template 15-7
displaying SQL 14-3
distribution detail 15-15
M distribution node 15-1
drill setup 11-14, 11-15
matrix layouts drill through to panel 11-14
components 5-2 DrillDown See DrillDown
creating 5-4 EFFDT 7-2
criteria 3-3, 5-2, 5-9 email template 15-8
layout definitions 5-8 email template variables 15-12
ledger criteria 6-1 enable import 4-5
ledger-based 6-1 error logs 2-22, 15-32
Microsoft Excel See Excel field combination tables 15-11
field criteria 6-3
file output options 2-7
N file template 15-7
filter criteria 5-17
nPlosion 3-4, 5-3, 9-1 filter factors 14-5
ChartFields 6-4 foreign language template 15-9
Classical.xls 11-19 formatting text 1-6
columns 9-1, 9-7 indexes 14-4, 14-8
copy formulas 9-2 inserting text 1-6
defining criteria 9-4 instance criteria 4-5
exclude intermediate level 9-5 instances 1-3
field criteria 9-2 JOINS 14-1
in layouts 2-8 layout columns 4-3

INDEX 2 PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

layout directories 11-4 VBA wizard 11-23

layout source 4-2 view reports list 2-12
layouts 1-3 warning messages 10-2
QueryLink 3-1 Web delivery templates 15-5
Web report requests 15-2
tabular vs. matrix 3-1 nVision criteria
label 6-4
understanding 3-1 nVision home page 1-2
nVision report requests
ledger criteria 5-14 as of dates 2-7
ledger tables 14-3 as of dates for trees 2-8
menus 11-7 business unit only 2-8
multi-column indexes 14-4
deleting 2-9
nPlosion 9-1. See also nPlosion
dialog box 2-2
nPlosion options 15-9
enable nPlosion 2-8
NVSUSER 11-5
instance controls 2-3
options 10-2
modifying existing requests 2-9
output format 15-14
running 2-11
output types 15-14 using preferences 2-11
performance tuning 14-1 nVision security
Process Scheduler request 15-21 authorization table 13-7
PSDrill 11-14 ledger definitions 13-7
query criteria 5-15 ledger reporting views 13-8
query security 13-9 ledger security 13-8
QueryLink 11-2
network security 13-4
Report Book definition 2-14
query security 13-9
Report Books 15-17
report layouts 13-4
report distribution 15-15
reporting view 13-6
report instances 2-12
user security 13-1
report layouts 10-1
NVSUSER 2-12
report node 15-1 button macros 11-6
report preferences 11-10 button wizard 11-6
report requests 2-1, 15-14 changing the toolbar 11-9
report scopes 7-1, 7-8 customizing 11-5
reporting view 13-7 DrillDown 11-8
reporting view access 13-8 menus 11-7
row options 4-4, 4-5
report instance view 11-12
RowStyles tab 11-18
report request preferences 11-10
scopes 15-10
running reports 11-10
securing report layouts 13-4
security template 15-7
security template variables 15-12
session objects 12-8
O
show criteria 10-2 Oracle 14-7
show SQL 10-2
SQL tuning 14-1
startup file 11-24 P
supress amounts 10-2
tabular layouts 4-1, 4-3, 4-4 PeopleBooks
TimeSpans 6-3 CD-ROM, ordering iii
toolbar options 11-9 printed, ordering iii
tree nodes 5-20 Preferences list 2-11
troubleshooting 15-28 Process Scheduler 15-29
NVSUSER 11-26 Process Scheduler Request panel 15-14
PS/nVision
tuning 14-1 redrill 8-5
user security 13-1 report requests, opening 2-9
VBA interface 12-1 PSDrill 11-14

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INDEX 3

PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVISION PEOPLEBOOK JANUARY 2001

PSTREEDEFN 14-19 fields 7-4

PSTREELEAF 14-20 selected summary chartfield nodes 7-5
PSTREESELCTL 14-21 selected tree nodes 7-4
PSTREESELECTnn 14-22 tree levels 7-6
PSTREESELNUM 14-22 tree nodes 7-6
variables 7-10
scopes in nVision 7-1
Q securing nVision data 13-6, 13-8
security
query criteria 5-9, 5-15 nVision data 13-6, 13-8
QUERY.XLT 11-4 reporting view 13-7
QueryLink security template 2-7
formatting options 11-4 set IDs 3-4, 5-3
SETID 7-2
single value selectors 14-10
R SQL
displaying in nVision 14-3
Report Books tree performance 14-9
defining 2-14, 15-19 string criteria 5-9, 5-33
errors 2-22 style sheet wizard 11-18
Process Scheduler 2-20, 15-29 style wizard
report requests 2-18, 15-29 nPlosion 9-9
run parameters 2-15, 15-20 summary chartfield node 14-18
running 2-16, 15-21 summary chartfield nodes 6-3
running multiple 2-17, 15-23 suppress Join 14-10, 14-14, 14-18
troubleshooting 2-18, 15-29
understanding 15-16
report instance view 11-12 T
report instances 1-3
using scopes 7-1 tabular layouts
report layouts 1-3 columns 4-3
Report Node creating 4-1
configuring 15-1 first result row 4-5
report request preferences 11-10 heading rows 4-5
copying another user's 11-12 import control row 4-6
running reports 11-11 mapping columns 4-3
setting up 11-11 options 4-4
viewing another user's 11-12 report titles 4-8
report requests scope logic 4-5
nVision 2-1 total row 4-6
RPTBOOK 2-20, 15-29 TimeSpan
runtime options setting 3-4, 5-3
show report SQL 10-2 TimeSpans 6-3
show run and column criteria 10-2 tree
show warning messages 10-2 JOINS 14-1
suppress amount retrieval 10-2 Tree Manager 14-9
tables used by PS/nVision 14-19
tree nodes and filter criteria 5-20
S tree performance 14-9
options 14-12
scope definitions 7-3 restrictions 14-17
scope field combinations 7-2 tree selectors 14-15
scopes 2-4 dynamic selector 14-15
all detail values 7-5 static selector 14-15
all nodes at selected levels 7-4 tree tables 14-19
children at a level 7-4
detail of selected parents 7-5
detail values 7-5

INDEX 4 PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL

JANUARY 2001 PEOPLETOOLS 8.12 PEOPLESOFT NVIS ION PEOPLEBOOK

file template 2-6

V language template 2-6
multiple report instances 2-10
variable criteria 5-9, 5-27, 5-31, 7-11 report request 5-28
scopes 7-10 scope 2-4, 5-30
variables security template 2-7
date and time period 5-29 string 5-33
description template 2-6 VBA wizard 11-23
directory template 2-4 Visual Basic editor 11-23
email template 2-6

PEOPLESOFT PROPRIETARY AND CONFIDENTIAL INDEX 5