Prospero allows you to define how data appears on your reports when reporting on summary items.  Prospero’s Line Expansion features let you choose to show summary items on your report or to expand the summary item row to show the underlying information comprising that item. This is done using a combination of Line Expansion fields defined in your report’s Line Definition, as well as the “Allow line expansion” option, when running your report.

To use Line Expansion on your reports:

Step 1: Create Summary Items

The Tree Definition in Prospero is the mechanism that allows you to define elements that will summarize data for all items in that summary when you run a report. If you’ve already defined summary items (i.e. Tree Definitions, or Roots) in your Prospero database, you can re-use these in your Line Definition.

Conversely, you can create new summary item(s) for your specific reporting needs. For example, you may want to create an "Expenses" summary item which contains a number of expense accounts and then summarizes them in to a totals value.  

You can quickly and easily create a new Tree Definition, or “Root”, in the Prospero Tree Definitions workspace. For more information, refer to that topic in Prospero Help.

Step2: Create a Line Definition

Create a new Line Definition. The Line Definition will need to contain a line referencing the summary item(s) you want to show in your report’s row(s).  You can select an existing summary item using the segment ellipsis button for the row. This will return the Tree “Select” dialog from which you can pick the desired item.

Next, define how you want the row’s data to appear. To “expand” a row to show the summarized items which comprise it:

• Above – To show expanded rows above the summary item
• Below – To Show expanded rows below the summary item
• Blank (default) – The row will not be expanded and only the summary will show on the report.

Save your Line Definition and close it.

Step 3: Create your Report Definition

Create a new Report Definition using the Line Definition you created.

On the new Report Definition’s Options tab you’ll note that the “Allow line expansion” checkbox is checked by default. This “Allow line expansion” checkbox allows you to specify whether or not the lines are expanded on a report. When checked, if a line set uses the Expand field, expanded rows will be generated on the report. If the checkbox is not checked, the Expand field’s setting is ignored. 

Make certain that you Save your new Report Definition and close it.

Step 4: Run your Report

Execute your report for the dates, parameters and other report options you require, making certain that the “Allow line expansion” option is selected on the Report Options screen at runtime.

The following example illustrates expected results when Line Expansion is used:

Tree Definition

Line Definition

Report Output – Report Option “Allow line expansion” is checked

Re-execute your report for the dates, parameters and other report options you require. Make certain that the “Allow line expansion” option is NOT selected on the Report Options screen at runtime.

The following example illustrates expected results when Line Expansion is NOT used.

Report Output – Report Option “Allow line expansion” is NOT checked

As you saw in the above example, it’s important to remember that even if you’ve defined these fields in your Line Definition, you can still elect to not show the expanded summary items when you execute the report. Prospero provides you with flexibility to show report data however you want.