Recently @lubos mentioned he is working on Advance Queries to see data from other sources/tabs. I would like to make a suggestion that is to implement this by introducing “Custom Columns” in settings just like “Custom fields”.
It will eliminate the need of further bloating Advance Queries (which was one of the reasons of moving away from Custom Reports or else they were perfectly fine) these custom columns can then be used in Advance Queries and as Merge Tags in Footers.
Example is let’s suppose i want to see Deliveries done for Invoices in Sales Invoice Tab. Then in custom columns one can define a column with placement at Invoice Tab and create condition when invoice number matches it shows “quantity delivered”.
If one wants to show references of deliveries made, then all the DNs references separated by a comma.
Introduction of some logics would be great like if column Qty (This column doesn’t exist on Sales Invoice but in case its added) equals Total of Qty delivered on Delivery Notes for that reference then it shows status delivered.
These are just few examples there can be numerous applications and use cases without making everything hardcoded.
It’s an interesting idea. I need to bring Advanced Queries to have feature parity with custom reports so custom reports can be eliminated.
Then we can look how the feature can evolve further.
We can start simple. Custom column could be simply showing some dynamic value based on values in other columns. I think there have been some feature requests asking for something like this.
According to my understanding that can be done by introduction of Custom fields on Transactions page (On Summary Tab) and with some running balance capabilities too.
By directly making Advance Query of every tab to match Custom Report capability can create Users permission issues.
But you have better understanding how to carry this.
Did a quick search couldnt find it. Thats why created a new topic.