Financial Modeling Language

The Financial Modeling Language (FML) is used for creating, calculating, and presenting financially-oriented data such as balance sheets, consolidations, or budgets. These reports are distinguished from other reports because calculations are inter-row, as well as inter-column.

Use the following guidelines when scheduling Financial Modeling Language (FML) reports that use the POST and PICKUP commands. Separate the POST and PICKUP steps into two procedures:

POST is required to save the results of the FML report. The POST command should be used within a pre-processing step. The ON TABLE HOLD syntax must be included in a POSTed report to not generate a report during pre-processing execution. This procedure must reside on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server.
PICKUP is required to retrieve POSTed data. It is the procedure to schedule. This procedure may reside on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server, in a Managed Reporting Repository, or in a local application.

Note: Bursting an FML report is not supported, since there is no BY field.

Example: Using the POST Command in an FML Request

The following code creates an FML report and POSTs two tag rows to the LEDGEOUT work file. This procedure must reside on the WebFOCUS Reporting Server.

FILEDEF LEDGEOUT DISK D:\IBI\LEDGEOUT.DAT
DEFINE FILE LEDGER
CUR_YR/I5C=AMOUNT;
LAST_YR/I5C=.87 * CUR_YR - 142;
END
 
TABLE FILE LEDGER
SUM CUR_YR LAST_YR
FOR ACCOUNT
1100 LABEL AR POST TO LEDGEOUT OVER
1200 LABEL INV POST TO LEDGEOUT OVER 
RECAP CA=R1 + R2; AS 'ASSETS' ON TABLE HOLD 
END

Example: Using the PICKUP Command in an FML Request

The following code retrieves the POSTed data from the LEDGEOUT work file and uses it in the RECAP calculation. ReportCaster distributes the output from this procedure.

FILEDEF LEDGEOUT DISK D:\IBI\LEDGEOUT.DAT
DEFINE FILE LEDGER
CUR_YR/I5C=AMOUNT;
LAST_YR/I5C=.87 * CUR_YR - 142;
END
 
TABLE FILE LEDGER
SUM CUR_YR LAST_YR
FOR ACCOUNT
1010 TO 1030 AS 'CASH' LABEL CASH OVER
DATA PICKUP FROM LEDGEOUT AR
AS 'ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE' LABEL AR     OVER
DATA PICKUP FROM LEDGEOUT INV
AS 'INVENTORY' LABEL INV              OVER
BAR                                   OVER
RECAP CUR_ASSET/I5C = CASH + AR + INV; 
END