In this exercise, you will open the properties for an existing Configuration Manager report and review specific report elements.

To review the elements for an existing Configuration Manager report

1. Open the Configuration Manager console.

2. Navigate to System Center Configuration Manager / Site Database / Computer Management / Reporting / Reports. The Configuration Manager reports display in the Report pane.

3. Find and right-click the Processor information for a specific computer report, and then click Run. The Report Information window displays, as well as a report prompt for the computer name.

4. Click Edit SQL Statement. The Report SQL Statement dialog box opens. The Configuration Manager SQL views are listed in the Views section, the columns for a selected view are listed in the Columns section, and the SQL statement for the report is displayed in the SQL statement section.

   Note
   For an exercise showing how to modify the report SQL statement, see Exercise 3: Modify an Existing Report in Configuration Manager.

5. Find the following line in the SQL statement for the report:

   WHERE SYS.Netbios_Name0 LIKE @variable

   When the @ symbol precedes text in the SQL statement, it indicates that the text is the name of a variable. Variables in the report SQL statement store the values from report prompts.

6. Click Prompts. The Prompts dialog box opens. The prompts are listed in the Prompts section, and the SQL statement for the report is displayed in the Report SQL statement section.

7. Select the prompt named variable, and then click the Prompt Properties icon (resembles a hand holding a document). The Prompt Properties dialog box opens. Notice that the prompt name is variable (the same name used in the report SQL statement) and the prompt text is configured with Computer Name.

   Note
   This is the same type of report prompt seen when running the Processor information for a specific computer report in Exercise 1: Run an Existing Configuration Manager Report. For this report, the name entered in Computer Name text box is stored in a variable named variable and is used to filter the data when the report opens.

8. Click Edit SQL Statement. The Prompt SQL Statement dialog box opens. The prompt SQL statement is displayed in the SQL statement section and is used to provide the list displayed in the Select Value dialog box when clicking Values after running a report.

   Note

   Notice the @__filterwildcard (two underscores) variable. This variable represents the value entered in the text box for the report prompt when running the report—for example, typing a computer name or part of the name followed by the percent symbol (%) in the Computer Name report prompt text box, as seen when running the Processor information for a specific computer report in Exercise 1: Run an Existing Configuration Manager Report.

9. Look at the first part of the SQL statement for the report prompt:

   if (@__filterwildcard = '')

    SELECT DISTINCT SYS.Netbios_Name0 from v_R_System SYS

    ORDER By SYS.Netbios_Name0

   The first line specifies a condition for when the report prompt text box is empty when Values is clicked after running the report. If the text box is empty, the second line will retrieve all NetBIOS names from the v_R_System SQL view. The third line specifies that the NetBIOS names are sorted in alphabetical order.

10. Look at the second part of the SQL statement for the report prompt:

    else

     SELECT DISTINCT SYS.Netbios_Name0 from v_R_System SYS

     WHERE SYS.Netbios_Name0 like @__filterwildcard

     ORDER By SYS.Netbios_Name0

    This part of the SQL statement specifies that if the report prompt text box is not empty when clicking Values, all NetBIOS names will be returned from the v_R_System SQL view where the NetBIOS name is like the text contained in the report prompt text box (contained in the @__filterwildcard variable).

11. Click Cancel on each dialog box until you return to the Processor information for a specific computer Properties dialog box.

12. Click the Links tab. Notice that this report has a value of Link to another report for link type. From the drop-down list, you can see that you can have link types of Link to another report, Link to Computer Details, Link to Status Message Details, and Link to URL. Notice that Hardware – General – Computer information for a specific computer is listed in the Report text box. This is the report that will open when clicking the report link in the report.

13. Click Select. The Select Report dialog box opens, displaying a list of Configuration Manager reports that are available for the report link.

14. Click Cancel to exit the Select Report dialog box.

15. In the Prompts section, select the prompt with the name variable, and then click the Prompt Properties icon (resembles a hand holding a document). The Target Report Prompt Properties dialog box opens. The variable name and prompt text configured for the target report are automatically listed. The column number indicates which column in this report contains the value that will automatically populate the report prompt when opening the target report.

    Note
    Column one in this report contains Netbios_Name0, which is the computer name. When the Computer information for a specific computer target report is opened, the Computer Name prompt is automatically populated with the Netbios_Name0 value from column one in the selected row. You can see an example of this in Exercise 1: Run an Existing Configuration Manager Report.

16. Click Cancel, and then click Cancel to exit the report properties.

See Also