Components of a prompt

The pieces that make up a prompt control how a prompt appears and how it functions. These components include the following:

Answer requirement: This component lets you determine whether users will be required to answer the prompt or an answer will be optional. If an answer is required, a report with this prompt cannot be executed until an answer is provided.

Keep in mind that, because a report with a required prompt cannot be executed until an answer is provided, a report with this type of prompt is not a good choice to be subscribed to. This is because the subscription will be unable to answer the required prompt and thus unable to execute the report. The subscription is then automatically invalidated and deleted. To avoid this scenario, always add a default prompt answer when you make an answer required.
Default prompt answers: This component lets you include a pre-selected answer for the prompt, which the user can then accept, replace with a different answer, or accept and add more answers.
Personal answers: This component lets a user save prompt answers for a specific prompt, and then reuse the answers on any report that uses the prompt. Personal answers are saved for each prompt and each user, but they can be used on different reports. Allowing users to save personal answers can help reduce the storage space taken up by saved static reports.
Title and instructions: This component lets you provide a useful name for the prompt, which can significantly impact how straightforward or complex a user finds prompts to be. You can also include instructions on how to use the prompt.

Consider your users' needs as well as the purpose of the report and the objects on it when you decide on these options.

These prompt components are defined using the Prompt Generation Wizard. For links to instructions to create different types of prompts, see Allowing personal answers for prompts.

If you plan to apply a schedule to a prompted report, the decisions you make about answer requirements and default answers will affect how the report is filtered when it is automatically executed on schedule. For a table showing how various combinations of these options affect how a scheduled report is filtered when executed, see Prompts in scheduled reports.

Answer requirements

You can either require users to answer a prompt when they execute a report, or you can make an answer optional.

Required: A required prompt means at least one prompt answer must be selected from the available choices, or the report cannot be executed.
Optional: An optional prompt does not require a prompt answer to be selected. The report can be executed without any input from the user.

If you determine that a prompt must be answered, consider also providing a default answer. Default answers allow users to execute prompted reports quickly because they can simply accept the defaults. Default answers are especially useful if you have a large number of users of a given report who will likely choose the same answer for the prompt. See Default prompt answers below.

To specify whether an answer is required or optional, select the Prompt answer is required check box in the Prompt Generation Wizard. See Types of prompts for a link to the procedure for the type of prompt that you want to create. The procedure includes the steps to define this setting when creating a prompt.

Default prompt answers

You can specify default answers for prompts. Users can then do one of the following:

Execute the report using the default answer(s)
Select a different answer
Keep the default answer and add additional answers

Providing default answers allows users to execute prompted reports more quickly, because they can simply accept the defaults with a single click and run the report. If default answers are not provided for prompts, users must take the time to answer each prompt question individually, unless answers are not required.

Default answers are particularly useful if a large percentage of your users will answer the prompt the same way. A common example is a prompt on the Year attribute, from which users can choose the attribute element (for example, 2024, 2025, or 2026) that they want to see data for. If many users will choose the current year every time they run the report, then providing the current year as the default answer can save users time.

You can also determine minimum and maximum numbers of answers a user can select. When deciding on whether to limit users to a certain number of answers, keep in mind that, from an analyst's perspective, for most types of prompts, the more answers that they can select, the more information is displayed on the report.

The maximum and minimum number of answers option does not apply specifically to default answers. It applies to the total number of answers allowed for the prompt.

To specify default prompt answers and the minimum or maximum number of prompt answers allowed, select the Choose Default Prompt Answers check box in the Prompt Generation Wizard. See Types of prompts for a link to the procedure for the type of prompt that you want to create. The procedures include the steps to define this setting when creating a prompt.

The default prompt answer is always displayed when a value prompt is used, even if the default prompt answer was cleared and then the report is reprompted.

Title and instructions

You can customize a prompt's title and instructions, which are displayed to users when they are answering the prompt.

Think about a name and instructions carefully, with your users in mind. The title and instructions that you provide for a prompt can make the difference between users finding prompted report execution confusing and users completing rapid report execution that displays exactly the data that they want to see.

Example of an ineffective prompt title and instructions

You create an attribute element prompt. You select the Year attribute, from which the user will be asked to select one or more attribute elements (years) to see data displayed for. You name this prompt "Attribute element prompt" and you provide the following instructions: "Choose an attribute element."

This title and instructions are not useful to the majority of users, who likely do not know what an attribute element is. A better choice is described below.

Example of a useful prompt title and instructions

You create an attribute element prompt. You select the Year attribute, from which the user will be asked to select one or more attribute elements (years) to see data displayed for. You name this prompt "Year(s)" and you provide the following instructions: "Select one or more years for which you want to see data."

This title makes sense to all users and defines the prompt generally enough so it can be easily used by report designers on other reports. The instructions are useful not only because it uses language that users will understand, but also because it is more than just a repeat of the title. It provides basic information to the user who may never have used a prompt before, and it emphasizes that more than one year can be chosen, in case a user missed that information at the top of the prompt screen.