Release 10.1A: OpenEdge Reporting:
Report Builder Deployment

> ## Prompting for user input

> You can use both predefined and user-defined parameters to prompt users for input. However, the user must be using the machine where Report Engine is running.

> ##### Prompting for input with a predefined parameter

> There are two ways to prompt for user input using predefined parameters. The first way is to write your own 4GL code to prompt users for input, then pass the values to Report Engine using predefined parameters. The second way to prompt for user input is to use the built-in Report Engine prompting mechanism. Several of the predefined parameters allow you to specify a question mark (?) as the parameter value. When you specify a question mark, Report Engine automatically prompts the user for input for the parameter.

> You can specify a question mark for the`RB-PRINT-DESTINATION`, `RB-PRINTER-NAME`, `RB-PRINTER-PORT`, and `RB-INCLUDE-RECORDS` parameters.

> ##### Prompting for input with a user-defined parameter

> You can prompt a user for other report information using a user-defined parameter.

> In the "Specifying an author’s name" section, the example shows how to print the report author’s name at the top of the report.

> | To prompt the user to enter his or her name:

> 1. In the Report Builder, create a calculated field named MYNAME with the following expression:

>     RUNTIME-PARAMETER("MYNAME")

> 2. Place MYNAME in the title band line.

> 3. When you run the Report Engine, you can:

> - Use the Report Engine prompt to prompt the user to enter his or her name using the following code in the `RB-OTHER-PARAMETERS` parameter:

>     "MYNAME = ?"

> A dialog box similar to the one shown below appears:

> - Customize the prompt using the following code:

>     "MYNAME = ?Please enter your name:"

> A dialog box similar to the one shown below appears:

> Note that the title of the two dialog boxes shown is customer. This is because when you prompt users for input, the dialog box title bar contains the value of the `RB-WINDOW-TITLE` parameter. If `RB-WINDOW-TITLE` is empty or UNKNOWN, Report Engine uses the report name as the dialog box title.

> You cannot modify the dimensions of the dialog box to accommodate the anticipated user input. The dialog box always remains the same size and users can enter up to 512 characters. If the user chooses the Cancel button, Report Engine does not run the report and writes the “Cancelled” message to the report status file or the `RB-STATUS` field, depending on the interface and command-line parameters you use. See the "Verifying report status" section for information about the status file.

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