What is Tabulate ?
"Tabulate" is one of the modules of "eZ_Tools" and it will allow you to tabulate and summarize data in a report created with "eZ_Reports".  Reports compatible with "Tabulate" and "eZ_Tools" are inicated as such at the end of the report.

There are actually four Tabulate modules: Tabulate.exe, ReTabulate.exe, FB_Tabulate.exe, and FB_ReTabulate.exe.  They all function the same way.  "ReTabulate" can be used to tabulate or summarize data after running the "ReSort" module.  Tabulate and ReTabulate do their processing in memory, are fairly quick, but can process only upto 10,000 data records per report.  The File Based versions, FB_Tabulate and FB_ReTabulate, do their process by writing to a database, are a bit slower, but can process data with more than 10,000 records.  When tabulating or summarizing is needed, Tabulate and ReTabulate are the default modules, but if there too many records in the report, FB_Tabulate and FB_ReTabulate will be started automatically.

Part 1 - To use "Tabulate" you must first run the report in PowerSchool and then optionally sort it using "PostSort".  On occasion you will get a report directly from PowerSchool that is already sorted - but more often than not you will need to sort it with "PostSort".  Remember that the report engine can only sort by fields in the master table.

Part 2 - During the development phase there are two ways to startup "Tabulate".  You can start it up from "eZ_Tools" or from "PostSort".

Method 1 - Startup "eZ_Tools" and click on the "Setup and Advanced Features" button.

Now click on the "Start Tabulate" button

Step 1 - Browse. Click on the "Browse" button and find the file you just saved. Then click on the "Open" button. Remember if you have sorted the data with "PostSort", you need to use the file that begins with "Sorted_".

Method 2 - The second method is to start "Tabulate" from "PostSort" by clicking the "Tabulate" button at step 5. Using this method you will not need to browse for the input file - it will be filled in automatically.

Regardless of which method you use to start "Tabulate" the "Output FileName" text boxes will be filled in automatically.  The text "Tabulated_" will be added to the input filename to create the output filename.  Use can use the second "Browse" button if you wish to change it. However, if you plan on using the automate function, do not change the Output FileName.

Step 2 - Click on the "Open File" button. The Report column headers will be displayed. The titles that appear are the titles you filled in on the Template tab in "eZ_Reports".  As the file is being read the "Records Available" and "Records Used" counters will change to track the program's progress.

Step 3 - Lets say we want a report that simply gives the number of males in the selected class that each teacher has during the selected term and period.  In the summary line we want a count of the number of males in the "Student Number" column.  We don't need to display the "Student" column. "Class", "Term", and "Period" are the same for all students so we can print them once at the top of the table. "Course" and "Teacher" should display the appropriate data.

We need to specify a display parameter for each column.  The default is "Display".

Tabulate creates a summary row whenever the value in one column changes.  That column in the "Break" column. We want to add up males in each class, so the "Break" column for this report is "Course".

To count the number of males we select the "Count all" parameter for the "Student Number" column.  If we wanted the column heading to display differently, for example "Number of Students" we would have to specify that title when we created the report originally with "eZ_Report".  We can however annotate the output by including a label in the bottom text box.

Since we don't want the "Student" column in the report, we put a check in the "Hide" check box.

The data in the columns "Class", "Term" and "Period" is the same for all records.  To print this out once at the top of the report, we put a check in the "Head" check box.

The entire parameters for this report is shown here:

There are 17 parameters that can be used for each column. For a description of all the parameter options click here.
 

To save these setting for another time, click on the "Save Settings" button.

A filename is generated by adding the prefix "Settings_" and changing the extention to ".dat".  It is strongly suggested that you not change the name. Click the "Save" button.

Next time you open the report in "PostSort" or "Tabulate", the settings filename will appear in the text box.

Step 4 - Click on the "Tabulate" button.  The "Records Processed" counter will increment to indicate the progress.

Step 5 - Click on the "Launch" button to launch your web browser and view the resultant file.  Alternately, you could click the "ReSort" button to ReSort the data if more processing is required.

The conversion is complete.  If your web browser is at "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IExplore.exe", your document will open automatically, otherwise you may need to open it manually with your browser. Go to [File] ==> [Open] then select [Browse] and find the file. Remember the resultant file will begin with "Tabulated_".