Every User Gets Their Perfect View
Interactive Reports let users customize their view: change columns, add filters, sort, group, and compute. Saved Reports preserve these customizations so users do not have to recreate them every time they visit the page. Understanding the hierarchy of default and user reports helps you design reports that work well for everyone.
Report Hierarchy
There are three levels of saved reports. The Primary Default report is what every user sees initially. Alternative Default reports are developer-created named views that appear as tabs above the report. Private Reports are user-created customizations visible only to the user who created them.
Creating Alternative Default Reports
Run the page, customize the IR to show the desired view (e.g., filter to “Overdue” status, sort by amount descending, add a sum aggregate). Then click Actions, then Report, then Save Report. Set “Save As” to “Default Report Settings” and choose “Alternative” with a name like “Overdue Orders.” This creates a new tab that any user can click to see the pre-configured view.
Common Alternative Report Patterns
Create 3 to 5 alternative reports covering the most common ways users view the data: “All Active Orders” (default, no filters), “This Month” (filtered to current month), “High Value” (filtered to amount > threshold), “By Department” (with control break on department). These alternatives save users time and guide them toward useful views they might not discover on their own.
Enabling and Disabling User Saved Reports
In the IR Attributes, the “Enable Users To” section controls whether users can save their own reports, save the default report (developer privilege), and subscribe to reports. For applications where the report layout must be consistent (like regulatory reports), disable user saved reports. For analytical applications, enable them to maximize user flexibility.
Subscriptions
Users can subscribe to receive the IR results by email on a schedule. They configure the email recipient, frequency (daily, weekly, monthly), and the report is emailed as an HTML attachment. This is powerful for operational reporting where managers want a daily summary without logging in. Enable this only when your APEX instance has email configured through APEX_MAIL settings.
Resetting to Default
Users sometimes customize a report extensively and want to get back to the original view. The “Reset” option in the Actions menu restores the primary default report, clearing all user customizations. This does not delete their saved private reports, which remain available in the Reports dropdown.