mrc Documentation
michaels, ross & cole, ltd.
http://www.mrc-productivity.com/


Executive Dashboard

The Executive Dashboard is a powerful set of applications that allow you to put multiple applications on screen giving users a “one stop shopping” webpage for them to access all of their critical applications. The beauty of executive dashboards? They are completely customizable and are easy to make.

 

Note: The following documentation is only for users of the Classic Web/Servlet Templates. We highly recommend utilizing the Web 2.0 templates and using the newer technology to import applications. The ability to Import in Web 2.0 is much easier to implement and much faster. Click here to find out more.

 

Dashboards consist of one main “parent” application and potentially many “children” applications. In this document, the parent application will be an inquiry application that will consist of two children applications: a report and a retrieval program. The end application will be a managerial dashboard where he or she can pull up multiple pieces of information about a product: Product info, a graph of MTD Sales, MTD Cost of Goods, and MTD Profit, and Sales history by Product and Customer.

 

Step 1: Create the Child Report

 

  1. Create a Report named Product Graph Dashboard XXX (where XXX are your initals)
  2. Select the Product Master file and select the Product Number, MTD Sales US Dollars, and MTD Cost of Goods Sold.
  3. Sequence by Product Number & set Subtotal to No.
  4. Create a Calculation that is called MTD Profit, with a size of 11,2. The equation should be MTD Sales-MTD Profit. Click Accept.
  5. Place a Record Selection Criteria of Product Number EQ ?.
  6. Under Pre-format, set the Product Number field to Not Print.
  7. Under Application Defaults, choose the Report with Graph template and Select Summary under “Summary or Detail Report”.
  8. Build your application.
  9. Open m-Painter and delete the header and footer by right-clicking on the objects, then left clicking on the border of the object and hitting Delete. To delete the record selection table, right click in the table and select Delete Row.
  10. Click the Save and Deploy button.

 

Step 2: Create the Child Inquiry Application

  1. Create an Inquiry application named Prod/Cus Info Dashboard XXX (where XXX are your initials)
  2. Select the Product Master file and select the Product Number. Click Accept. Join the Sales History file by the Product Number and select the Customer Number. Click Accept. Lastly, join the Customer Master file by the Customer Number and select the Customer Name and Year to Date Units Sold.
  3. Sequence by Product Number and Customer Number.
  4. In the Pre-Format, set the Product Number field to Not Print.
  5. Be sure that the selected template is the Import External Inquiry Object Template.
  6. Build your application.

 

Step 3: Create the External Object for the Child Report

The need for the external object is that is will serve as a “bridge” between the parent and child application.

 

  1. Click the Data Dictionary Tab and select the Manage External Object link.
  2. Click the Create button.
  3. Specify the External Object Name as XXXRptDsh (Where XXX are your initials), XXX Report for Dashboard for Object Description, M for Object Type, the path of your Report for Class Name (MRCWORKLIB.R00964s, for instance) , getImport for Method name, and /mrcjava/WEB-INF/lib/. for the Classpath Name. Click Accept (See next page for image)

 

 

 

  1. The last step for this external object is to specify the parameter being passed to this application. To do this, Click on the Parameters link next to your External Object on the Work with External Objects screen.
  2. Click the Create button. Specify the Description as Product Number and length to be 10. Click Accept.

 

Step 4: Build the External Object for the Child Inquiry Application

Much like in Step 3, we need to create an external object to bridge the inquiry and the parent application.

  1. Click the Create button.
  2. Specify the External Object Name as XXXRetDsh (Where XXX are your initials), XXX Retrieval for Dashboard for Object Description, M for Object Type, the path of your Inquiry for Class Name (MRCWORKLIB.I00100s, for instance) , getImport for Method name, and /mrcjava/WEB-INF/lib/. for the Classpath Name. Click Accept.
  3. We once again need to create the parameter that the main application will pass to this child application. Click on the Parameters link next to this external object on the Work with External Objects screen.
  4. Click the Create button. Specify the Description as Product Number and length to be 10. Click Accept.

 

Step 5: Build the Parent Inquiry Application

Now that both child applications and their external objects have been created, we now need to create the parent application that will call both of these programs.

  1. Create a Inquiry application named Main Dashboard XXX (where XXX are your initials)
  2. Select the Product Master file and select the Product Number, Product Description, Product Class, and Item Type.
  3. Sequence by Product Number.
  4. Be sure that the selected template is the Single Record Inquiry Template.
  5. Click the External Objects link. Select the XXXRPTDSH Object from the Select an Object dropdown list. Select *IMPORT from the Select a Location dropdown list. Be sure that Product Number is in the Field dropdown list. Click Accept.
  6. Click the Create button to add the Retrieval External Object. Select the XXXRETDSH Object from the Select an Object dropdown list. Select *IMPORT from the Select a Location dropdown list. Be sure that the Product Number is in the Field dropdown list. Click Accept.
  7. Build your application.
  8. When your application is built, m-Power will place each of your application in new rows. To alter the look of the dashboard, access the Painter by clicking on the Paint Icon.
  9. Your m-Painter should look like this:

 

  1. m-Power has not forgotten about your external objects, it just doesn’t display them on screen. For this example, create a table with 2 rows and 1 column. Right click inside of the top row and click “Split Cell.”
  2. Click the Source button. After scrolling to the bottom of the document, you screen should resemble this:

  1. Copy the <!-- external report=”CallUserMethod001” .... line into the bottom row of your newly created table. (In between the <td> and </td> tags.
  2. Copy the <!—external report =”CallUserMethod002” ....line into the top right cell of your newly created table.
  3. Click the Source button to return to your WYSISWYG view. Note: You will not be able to see any of the changes that you’ve made.
  4. Lastly, Cut and Paste the existing table into the top left cell of your newly created table.
  5. Click the Save and Deploy button.

 

Step 6: Create a Look-Up Application

Generally speaking, this step is optional, but it would be nice to give users an option over what products they would like to load into their executive dashboard. To do this:

  1. Create a Inquiry application named Product Lookup XXX (where XXX are your initials).
  2. Select the Product Master file and select the Product Number and Product Description.
  3. Sequence by the Product Number.
  4. Be sure that the selected template is the Multiple Record Inquiry Template.
  5. Select the Smartlink link, click the Create button under Retrievals. Select your Main Dashboard application you created in Step 5. Click the Application Options link.
  6. Build your application.
  7. Optional – Feel free to Paint this application to remove the Search/Sort Feature and to move the Smartlink to the Description field. Be sure to click the Save and Deploy Button.
  8. Run this application to access your newly created Dashboard!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a screen shot of your Product Lookup Page.

 

This is a screen shot of the main dashboard!

Note: The above output can be fully customized to match your desired look.