Ask At Run-Time support refers to the common task of allowing the end-user to specify parameter values that can be used to limit the scope of a report.  As an example, for an invoice report, the end-user might specify a company name and date range.

ReportBuilder’s AutoSearch feature offers a RAD solution to the drudgery of adding ask-at-runtime support to your reports.  ReportBuilder’s Query Designers can be used to designate search criteria as AutoSearch.  Thereafter, any time the report is executed, ReportBuilder will display an ask-at-runtime dialog and use the parameter values entered by the end-user to dynamically generate the SQL Where clause for the report.

The following screen shot shows an example of an ask at run-time dialog generated and displayed by ReportBuilder.

The default AutoSearch dialog can be replaced by a customized version that you create and register with ReportBuilder. A demo of this technique is provided in the Demos\EndUser\5. AutoSearch \4. Custom AutoSearch Dialog\ directory.