Table Designer Overview

The charts in your reports are based on the data provided by aggregated tables. Use the Table Designer facility to create and edit the aggregated tables.

Note: For SaaS users, a maximum of 200 tables can be included in the pages of the report. There is no limit for the number of tables that can be stored in the Analyst toolbox. If a report requires more than 200 tables, contact Forsta's Professional Services team because this will necessitate a change to the server setup for that report. This change must be applied specifically for each report.

Note that exports from Reportal (including "Export all tables" from Analyst, "Report Export", "Export Packages", and "Export Viewer Presentation") incur an additional charge incremental in steps of 100 pages (1-100 pages = 1 export charge, 101 - 200 pages = 2 export charge etc.). The export of the current page/table does not incur any charge.

For clients operating Forsta Plus on their own servers, the maximum number of tables in a report is defined by the server administrator and this level will be the default value for all reports.

To open the Table Designer:

1. Create or open a report.
2. Create or open a page in the report.
3. If required, create an aggregate table on the page and save it.
4. Double-click on the Aggregated Table element in the Report toolbox, or right-click on it and select Edit, or right-click on the Aggregated Table element in the page and select Design.

The Table Designer opens .as shown below.

Figure 1 - Example of the Table Designer page

Use the Data Source toolbox to access the questions you want to report on when working in the Table Designer. The Table Designer supports all question types except Open Text List questions. It also supports loops, questions inside 3D-grids and the system variables: interview start, interview end (time stamps), interview status and Extended Status (CATI only) (note that certain properties must be applied for Open Text questions (go to Using Open Text Questions in Aggregated Tables for more information)). The Data Source has the same structure as the questionnaire in Forsta Plus, and you can expand items such as folders, conditions, 3D-grids and loops by clicking the expand button (+) next to the icons. Singles, Grids and multi questions, which are multi-variable question types, can also be expanded to display all of the items in their answer lists. Each of these items can then be used individually in the Table Designer.

Note: By default, to avoid possible delays, tables will not be updated every time a change is made. You must then click the Refresh button to update the tables manually after making changes. If you wish the tables to be updated automatically, go to the User Settings page and check the "Calculate tables in design mode" box (go to User Settings for more information). While the box is un-checked, a message is displayed in the Table Designer page to inform the user that he/she must update the tables manually after making changes.