Advantage allows you to download data from any document in Advantage into a user-selected template (for example an Excel spreadsheet), which can then be saved as an external file and is available for use outside of Advantage. Any document is eligible for download, regardless of the document’s Phase, Function or Status. The download functionality is limited; however, by the templates that are available for your site. The templates are not part of the CGI Advantage baseline software package. Sites can create their own templates and then reference the Template File Names on the Document Download Template (DDTPL) page. For more information about the DDTPL page, please refer to the CGI Advantage System Administration Guide.
The download capability is a securable action; therefore, a System Administrator can set up Page level security so that the Download Document action is restricted for a user or group of users. Please refer to the CGI Advantage System Administration Guide for information on setting up Page level security.
Clicking on Download Document from the Action Menu within a document transitions you to the Document Templates (DTPL) page. This page allows you to search for and select the template that you want to use. The DTPL page displays all available templates for the given Document Type and Document Code, with an associated Department and Description to help you choose the most relevant template for your needs. If a System Administrator has set up row-level security, then access to the templates may also be restricted based on your Department. As mentioned previously, template files are not provided with CGI Advantage baseline, so unless your site has established templates, the DTPL page will be empty.
To narrow the list of templates, enter search criteria and then click on the Browse link. The search results are displayed in the grid. Select the row of the template that you want to use, and then click on the Generate File link. The Generate File link initiates the download process. You are then prompted to either Open the file to view it immediately, Save it to a local location or Cancel the download process. It should be noted that you must explicitly save the file to a local location, either by doing an Open then Save or just by doing a Save from the prompt. The file will not otherwise be saved within or outside of Advantage. After saving the generated file, you can attach it to the Advantage document, if you wish to keep it within Advantage. Once a document has been downloaded, the link between Advantage and the external file is not maintained. For example, if you update the data in your external file, it will not update the corresponding CGI Advantage document. Similarly, if the document is modified, the external file is not automatically modified.
Limitations exist for the size of data that can be downloaded. The Document Download functionality supports the download of a document up to a configurable limit of lines, which is the cumulative total of all document component lines. The upper limit is set on the Application Parameters (APPCTRL) page, and can be further limited per Template using the Document Download Template (DDTPL) page. You will receive an error when trying to perform the download if the limit set is exceeded. Please note that row and column limits are also set by Microsoft Excel and other similar products.