Administration Help

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Administration

The FastForward Administration application provides three general capabilities:

Report Access Categories and Security

FastForward applications have three access categories of reports available to users: Published, Private and Group.

Published Reports

Published reports are managed from the administration screen as described below. Published reports, if not otherwise managed, are visible to any and all users who can access the FastForward application. However, the administrator can control access to published reports by setting security on report folders. If a user has access to a given folder he or she can access any report within that folder. The administrator assigns access to folders by associating a folder with one or more DB2 Alphablox groups.

Private and Group Reports

Private and Group access reports are created by users from previously published reports. Private access reports are only available to the user who created the report. Group access reports are available to users who are members of DB2 Alphablox user groups, and any user who is a member of a given group can create reports accessible to that group.

Layout and Controls

All applications based on DB2 Alphablox FastForward have a similar layout structure, including the navigation menu on the left and the application toolbar on the top right. Available reports are viewed in the report window, located below the application toolbar.

Navigation Menu

Icon Tooltip Description
Create Folder Immediately creates a new folder named New Folder. The Edit Folder screen is loaded in order to facilitate changes to the folder.
Create Report Loads the Edit Report screen, allowing a new report to be edited. The report must be successfully saved before it will appear in the report navigation tree.
Delete Report Pops up a dialog asking you to confirm the deletion of a report.
Copy Immediately copies the report with "Copy of" prepended to the name of the report.

Managing Reports

Creating

To create a report, click on the Create Report button in the Toolbar. The Edit Report screen is loaded. The following editable fields appear in all reports:

Field Description
Name This is the name of the report as displayed in the tree.
Description This value is displayed when a user mouses over a report in the tree and when the report is loaded.
Template The template drop-down list provides the name of all report templates available to your application. Templates are stored in the templates directory of your application. Depending on the specific report template, other parameters may need to be selected.
Save Saves the report.
Preview Preview the report by opening in a separate browser window.

Modifying

To edit a report, click on an existing report in the tree. This loads the Edit Report screen.

Deleting

To delete a report, click on the report to be deleted, then click the Delete Report button in the toolbar.

Moving

To move a report:

  1. Place the mouse pointer over the report icon next to the report to be moved.
  2. Press and hold the mouse button.
  3. While holding down the mouse button, move the pointer to the desired destination in the tree.
  4. Release the mouse button.

Managing Folders

Creating

To create a folder, click on the Create Folder button in the Toolbar. The Edit Folder screen appears with the following setting options:

Field

Description

Name This is the name of the folder as displayed in the tree.
Description This value is displayed when a user mouses over a folder in the tree.
Access Groups A drop-down list of available DB2 Alphablox user groups. Multiple user groups can be selected. If no groups are selected, all users can access the report (and a warning is displayed).
Save Saves the folder.

Modifying

To edit a folder, click on an existing report in the tree. This loads the Edit Folder screen.

Deleting

To delete a folder, click on the folder to delete, then click the Delete Folder button in the toolbar.

Moving

To move a folder:

  1. Put the mouse pointer over the folder icon next to folder to move.
  2. Press and hold the mouse button.
  3. While holding down the mouse button move the pointer to the desired destination in the tree.
  4. Release the mouse button.

Managing Application Properties

To manage application properties, click on the Global Settings button in the upper right corner of the page: This will launch the Edit Application Properties page, with the following editable fields:

 

Field Description
Title The text displayed at the top of the user's application as well as at the top of the administration page.
Logo Displays the name of the file displayed as the logo in the user's application.
Upload Logo Image Uploads a new logo image from any locally available file (GIF or JPEG format). Note that the upload does not actually occur until you click Save.
Theme A drop-down list of all available themes. Note that the sample application is designed only for the fastforward theme.
Footer Changes the text display at the bottom of a user's application page.
Admin Email Sets the email address used for application feedback. If unset, the feedback button is disabled in the user's application page.
Save This saves any changes in the edit fields shown above.

Using the Application Log

The FastForward Application framework has its own log file to report application-level information and anomalies. The Application Log file can be viewed and cleared from this page.