Adding an extra display field to a report template

There may be instances when you wish to add display fields to a CiviCRM report that is not available on the report template. For example, you might want to add the external identifier field.

How to do it…

In this example we will add the external identifier as a display option for a report.

1. Set up a custom report template and register it with CiviCRM.

2. Open the report PHP file. In this example we will use the special.php template created in the Adding custom fields to a report recipe in this chapter.

   Around line 49 we can see the code that generates the Contact checkboxes.

   protected $_customGroupGroupBy = FALSE; function __construct() {
       $this->_columns = array(
         'civicrm_contact' =>
         array(
           'dao' => 'CRM_Contact_DAO_Contact',
           'fields' =>
           array(
             'sort_name' =>
             array('title' => ts('Contact Name'),
               'required' => TRUE,
               'default' => TRUE,
         ...