International Software Forum

I just want to record and discuss a few thoughts I have regarding built-in Email Services and Report Services. Mostly wish list items from the point of view of someone who likes creating custom components.

First, I think both emails services and report services are awesome and I especially appreciate the fact that we can create our own custom services that use custom sql queries and have access to the CF application. I love being able to create a built-in service for email or reporting needs that would have to otherwise be handled by a separate system.

That being said, here are some things that I think could make email and reporting services even more awesome.

• Consider combining report and email services into one service or make them functionally identical - Each service has capabilities that I think would be useful and possible to add to the other service so why not make them the same thing.
  • Email services allow for tabs with multi-select options. I don't think that's possible with report services but it would be nice.
  • Report services allow text fields for string/date filters which would be nice on email services.
  • Email services only output a certain set of columns in the data export. Would be nice if they could return any columns included in the query like report services does.
  • It would be awesome if we could send emails from report services as long as the query included the necessary identifiers (idnumber)
• Add file input field for report/email services - It'd be awesome if report/email services could accept a file as an input. For example, a service could be created that accepts an xls or csv file with data and the report could return the data with additional sunapsis columns added, or it could trigger some sort of process within the database (Ex. update records for mass adjudication).

Thank you Bryant for taking time to record the ideas for report and email services enhancements.
Wow! User friendly, robust reporting tool is such a fundamental need out in ISSSland. I think all of the ideas need reviewed for consideration to improve the custom report builder and email services as it would make more sense to have one place to go for reports and sunapsis reports would be so much more powerful if your wish list were to come true! And, I just have to say that the following ask would save so much time for those who are running reports and have to do that vlookup between two separate reports to get what they want!

Add file input field for report/email services - It'd be awesome if report/email services could accept a file as an input. For example, a service could be created that accepts an xls or csv file with data and the report could return the data with additional sunapsis columns added, or it could trigger some sort of process within the database (Ex. update records for mass adjudication).