Discoverer Reports with Portal- Report in Memory

Question

Hi-
I have Discover reports on a dashboard looking portal page. I use page parameters to populate the reports. The thing is, when I navigate to that page after I log in, the last report I generated on the last login is still up and the parameters dont match. The parameters default back to the 1st ones in the LOV.
Is there any way to have a blank discoverer portlet, and not have the report up when I navigate to the page, until I submit the parameters?
Also...off topic...can a simple parameter form have a LOV of values that are dynamic? A sql statement? Right now I am hardcoding them in a LOV.
Thanks!!

Answer 1

1. I believe the parameters will always display what was used in the last run. Is this what you're asking?
2. Yes, a LOV can be associated with a table or view no problem. The simplest way to do it is to create a complex folder in the EUL (Admin version) that has the simple SQL you want to run. For example, it might be something such as:
folder name: cust_lov
select distinct customer_name from cust_table where cust_date >= '01-JAN-2006';
Then you would associate any item in any folder to use this item (customer_name) from this folder (cust_lov) as a LOV in the EUL via Admin.
So, you're just redirecting where each existing item you associate this LOV with to go there instead for it's values.
And as you want, as the table increases with more distinct customers, so does your LOV grow.
Two suggestions - or concerns to be aware of.
a. You don't want to generate your LOV on a large, repeating table (ie: you would not use something like an order table where each customer may have 100 different orders as this will bog down the LOV retrieval. Usually, use a smaller table that only has the distinct values (so you wouldn't really have to use the distinct clause in the select as shown).
b. You should turn off the user's visibility to that LOV folder (ie: not visible to user under that folder's EUL properties), otherwise they may use it and it's not guaranteed to be perfect. Alternatively, another method that NoetixViews used to (and may well still) use was to create a business area for all this good stuff (kind of like tools business area) and then stick this kind of thing in it. Then it keeps specially written LOV folders out of a particular business area (ie: ar_folder) and is not repeated in many business areas (as you know to just use the 'tools' business area for this sort of thing).
Hope it helps.
Russ