This chapter will be dedicated to parameters. Through the use of parameters, the final user will be able to interact with the report. A parameter is usually represented through a user interface component, which allows the selection or input of values.
Pentaho Report Designer (PRD) eases the task of parameter creation by giving us a simple and intuitive interface.
In this chapter:
We will create both simple parameters and nested parameters
We will make a parameter obtain its values through a data set
We will discuss the different kinds of parameter visualization available, exposing the features of each one of them
We will discuss how to make our SQL queries dynamically constructed according to the values the final user has provided through the use of parameters
As an extra, we will invite you to create your own report from the ground up, as well as give you a few tips to assist you in its creation.
Starting practice
In this chapter we will create a new report. We will then do the necessary changes in its layout for the final result as follows:
We are going to allow the end user to select the rating they want to analyze, as well as the year and month in which the films were rented.