Please note that this page is currently under construction. There is more information to come.

Overview

This article will run you through the process of creating one of the most useful reporting features available in a SmartSimple instance: the ability to relate information from two recordsets (tables) into a single report.

In this specific exercise, you will create a query that uses the company table and the contact table.

Connecting Multiple Recordsets for a Report

1. Click the 9-square menu icon on the top right of your page.

2. Under the tab Tools, select Reports.

The list of available reports in your system will be displayed.

3. Click the + icon on the top left, above the list of reports, to create a New Report.

4. The New Report page is displayed, with fields for you to fill out.

For this example exercise, fill out the following fields with the corresponding information:

Report Name: List Companies and Contact
Report Description: Joins the company and contacts table.

5. Click the Save button.

You will now select the two tables that are required in the report.

6. Click on the new tab called Recordsets in the top row of tabs.

7. Set the primary table to Primary Table to Organizations and the Inner Join as Contacts.

To do so, simply set both the Organizations field (found under the Company and Account heading) and the Contacts field (under Users and Contact) to Inner Join:

The Organizations recordset will report on company information that you have entered into the system, including all organization-specific Custom Fields that are related to organizations.
The Contacts recordset will report on all contacts outside of your organization (although this does not automatically mean that they are external users). This table will include all contact-specific and role-based Custom Fields.

8. Scroll down to the bottom of hte page and click Save.

Inner and Outer Joins

There are two types of joins supported in SmartSimple – inner joins and outer joins.

An inner join displays the intersection between the two tables.
- This is the most common type of join used, and is the default join type when you add tables to a report.
- When you join the company table and the contact table with an inner join, the report will find the matching record(s) from the contact table related to each company.
- If no match is found, the record from the company is not included in the results.
- If multiple results are found in the contact table, the company information will be repeated.
An outer join is very different from an inner join. Instead of limiting results to those in both tables, it limits results to those in the "left" company table.
- This means that if there are no records in the contact table, a row in the report will still be returned for that company, but with NULL values for each column from contact.

1. Open the Report Builder.

2. Add the following fields:

The Field list now contains fields from both tables.

3. Build, save, and preview the report.

The company name, city, and state information is displayed from the company table for each matching record from the contact table.
No company details will be displayed if there are no contacts.