Autoprompt Considerations

When a Managed Reporting procedure issues a –INCLUDE statement of another Managed Reporting procedure, the procedure referenced by the –INCLUDE statement inherits the Prompt for Parameters property setting in the main procedure.

If a description value has an open parenthesis character, it must have a space before it. The ampersand (&) character is supported within the description for a variable by specifying the pipe character (|) immediately after the & character in the description. For example, see the Select phrase in the following request:

TABLE FILE MOVIES
HEADING
PRINT
MOVIES.MOVINFO.TITLE
MOVIES.MOVINFO.COPIES
BY MOVIES.MOVINFO.RATING
BY MOVIES.MOVINFO.CATEGORY
WHERE MOVIES.MOVINFO.RATING EQ &RATING.(OR(<General Audience,G>,
<Not Rated,NR>,<Parental Guidance,PG>,<PG Over 13,PG13>,<R Over 8,R>)).Select Favorite &| Desired Rating.;
ON TABLE SET PAGE-NUM OFF
ON TABLE NOTOTAL
ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT HTML
ON TABLE SET HTMLCSS ON
ON TABLE SET STYLE *
UNITS=IN,
SQUEEZE=ON,
ORIENTATION=PORTRAIT,$
TYPE=REPORT,
GRID=OFF,
FONT='ARIAL',
SIZE=9,$
TYPE=TITLE,
STYLE=BOLD,$
TYPE=HEADING,
SIZE=12,
STYLE=BOLD,$
ENDSTYLE
END

All Dialogue Manager variables referenced within the -HTMLFORM BEGIN and -HTMLFORM END commands are evaluated, even within comment tags. If you do not want any variables to be evaluated, you can specify the NOEVAL option (-HTMLFORM BEGIN NOEVAL). If you want to mix-and-match WebFOCUS variables (which you want to prompt for, such as &COUNTRY) and HTML special variables, do not use the NOEVAL option. Either assign each variable a default value or escape the ampersand (&) symbol using a pipe character (|) so that the ampersand (&) symbol is not interpreted as the start of a variable name. For example, in the following sample, the ampersand (&) is escaped using the pipe (|) character so that the variable definition in the comment is not evaluated:

-HTMLFORM BEGIN
<HTML>
<BODY>
HELLO &|nbsp &COUNTRY
</BODY>
</HTML>
-HTMLFORM END

For dynamic lists, the WebFOCUS Client constructs the request to obtain the values using the specified data source. All environmental commands, such as SET commands, needed to obtain the values from the specified data source must be issued in the WebFOCUS Server profile, user profile, or WebFOCUS Client profile.

Dynamic list values that display in Responsive Autoprompt are organized in a case-insensitive sort order. Dynamic list values that display in HTML Autoprompt are organized in the sort order returned by the Reporting Server, which is determined by the operating system of the machine.

Dynamic list values are obtained by the Autoprompt facility prior to running the procedure. Therefore, you cannot use a TABLE request to create a HOLD file to be used by a subsequent TABLE request in the same procedure to populate a dynamic list.

Autoprompt does not support the following:

Parameters in an INCLUDE file when it is coded as -INCLUDE &FILENAME.
A parameter coded in a procedure that is referenced by an EX or EXEC command is not processed by parameter prompting. If you must reference a parameter in a procedure, use a -INCLUDE statement.
A parameter prompt string containing the ampersand (&) character.
Variable names that exceed 12 characters when the variable is included between the -HTMLFORM BEGIN and -HTMLFORM END statements. (The variable is not resolved.)
Alphanumeric MISSING data value. Numeric MISSING data value is supported.

Autoprompt ignores:

Variables created with the -SET command. A value has been explicitly specified.
Variables created with the –DEFAULTH command. For more information about the –DEFAULTH command, see Setting a Hidden Variable.
Global amper variables (&&NAME). This is supported with global variables defined in a Master File. For more information, see Describing Data With WebFOCUS Language. If you want to be prompted for the global variable value each time the report is run, make sure the Persistent Amper Variable setting is not selected on the Configuration tab, under the Application Settings, Client Settings page in the Administration Console. For more information, see Security and Administration.

Browsers running in Standards Mode displaying output in an iframe will not display XML. When running a WebFOCUS request with PCHOLD FORMAT XML, select the Run in new window option to display the result in a new browser window.