Custom Reports

In addition to the stock reports provided by Animal Shelter Manager, it is possible to create your own, using a simple language called ``SQL'' (short for ``Structured Query Language''). SQL is a language for retrieving and formatting information - underneath, ASM uses this language to talk to its database (Either HSQLDB, MySQL or PostgreSQL - as the names imply, they all talk SQL).

The custom reports editing screen is located under the System menu, any reports you create will integrate into the Reports menu. You can also use this screen to rearrange and rename standard reports and charts in the system.

In addition to just creating queries, you can then format how the data is transformed and displayed to you in the format of a report. Again, this is done through the use of another language - HTML (HyperText Markup Language). This is the same language used for creating web pages on the internet. Note however that the custom report editor has a button to automatically run your query and generate the HTML automatically for you in a simple table format. It is worthwhile running this and then modifying the HTML afterwards.

The centre of the custom report editor holds a drop down box and a list. The drop down contains a list of all tables in ASM and selecting one will populate the list with all the fields in that table.

For some excellent beginner tutorials on both SQL and HTML, see http://www.w3schools.comwww.w3schools.com