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Home > Guides > Reporting > Report Writer > xBuilding Reports > Functionality > Data Sources

Data Sources

A data source is the section of data that will be referenced for the report.  Each report MUST have at least one data source.  

The page is broken down into  three sections.  

Recent Sources

If a data source has been used recently, find it in the drop-down at the top.  The rest of the page will grey and nothing else can be selected.  

New Source

If the source is not in the list, check mark data source to use.

Multiple Sources

Click on the Advanced button in order to select more than one data source.  

If this option is selected, use the drop-down to select the main data source.  Always start with the Data Source which has the most amount of information. Then, click on the  icon to add another data source.  Select the 2nd source and enter in the necessary information to connect the two sources. Cyber Recruiter uses Codes and Keys to relate data to other places to look it up. When joining data sources, the creator the report simply needs to know the field name in both data sources which will match. This is very much like math where you say that two things are equal.

For example: 9 + 3 = 15 – 3 both equal 12 and make the equation true. The goal when making data connections is to make the equation true, thus linking the two sources.

The two most unique codes/ keys in the system are the Requisition Code (in the view this will be Code or Req Code) and the Applicant Number (ApplNum).

So, a report is needed which displays the Requisitions and which Applicants have a Security Clearance, connect the data sources which store this information and then connect it via the key field. Writing this out on a spec sheet would look like the example below.

View_ ApplicantSecurityClearance.ApplNum = View_ ConnectorAppReq.Applnum

The ‘.’ says ‘go look to this field’, the = says ‘make it match this other field’.

Join Type

The last thing to remember when joining data sources is the Join Type. This tells the report how frequently to make connections. For usage in Cyber Recruiter, typically one of the first two options will be used.

INNER (DIRECT)

The Inner(Direct) join is the default and means ‘only display records if there is a match’.  Using the join type of Inner(Direct) will ensure only records where there is an applicant who has a security clearance will be displayed. If a person who applies to a position does not have a security clearance record, he/she will NOT show on the report.

LEFT (FIRST EXISTS)

The Left(First Exists) join means ‘display all records as long as there is a record in the first data source’.  Using the join type of Left(First Exists) will ensure all records of who applies to a position will display and if there is a security clearance that information will display and if not the space will be blank on the report.

RIGHT

The Right join means ‘display all records as long as there is a record in the second data source’. Typically just two data sources are used and it is recommended that the 1st data source will be the source with the most number of records – so “Left (First Exists)” will be the join most commonly used. However, if more than two sources are joined, the “Right” option might be needed. This join can also be used if the main source is a source which might not have as many records and instead of re-writing the report another fuller data source is added. 

Full

Returns all the rows from the 1st source, and all the rows from the 2nd source (there still must be a common field). If there are rows in the 1st source that do not have matches in the 2nd source, or if there are rows in 2nd source that do not have matches in 1st source, those rows will still be listed. In Cyber Recruiter, it is recommended to use one of the above sources instead of this one because of the pre-joining done in the view.

Cross

Produces the Cartesian product of the tables involved in the join. The size of a Cartesian product result set is the number of rows in the first table multiplied by the number of rows in the second table. This is not typically used in Cyber Recruiter.