Using the Report Browser to organize and manage reports

Summary
The Report Browser in the Manager portal lets you run reports, as well as browse and
search for existing reports available to you. In addition, you can create new reports and
share them with other users who have access to a Manager portal..
The Report Browser also allows you to re-organize reports within categories you define.

Basic Concepts
Overview
The Report Browser is divided into two sections the left panel displays a search box for
finding reports based on keywords, their name, title, or description (see red box below Search for Reports), and report categories (see green box below). The right panel of the
Report Browser at first lists all reports available to you, and then shows you those reports
that match your search or are in the category you select.

Creating New Reports and Categories

How to create a new report:
1. Click the ( ) icon to create a New Report.
2. At the dialog, fill out the relevant information: the type of data included in
the report, a name, title, and description, and the Personal category to assign
the report. The name should not have embedded spaces or special characters.
The title will appear in the report header.
3. Click OK to create the report.
How to create a new category:
1. Click the ( ) icon to create a New Category.
2. At the Add/Edit Category dialog, add either a Standard, Shared, or Personal
Category, depending on your privileges. These three types of categories are
discussed below.
3. Click OK to create the category (or edit the pre-existing category).
Report Categories Standard, Shared, and Personal Types
Report are grouped into Categories to simplify finding the report your want. Shortcuts to
the same report can appear under more than one category. Each report category is of one
of the following types:

Standard ( ) Reports created by application developers for the use of

work managers, and are accessible to all work managers of an application.
The categories for Standard reports are pre-defined.
Shared ( ) Reports created to share with other users. They are accessible
by the user who created them and by others with the same access privileges
as the users who created them. They only appear in report search results for
these users. The categories for Shared reports are defined by users.
Personal ( ) Reports created by you for your own personal use and are
accessible within the Report Browser only by you. They only appear in
report search results for you.

The number of reports in a category is displayed in parentheses following the category

name. In the example below, categories exist for Standard, Shared, and Personal reports,
but only the Standard Report categories are populated with reports.

Shortcuts
Clicking a category displays a list of shortcuts to reports in that category. Each shortcut
displays the title, name, and description of the report, plus the type or class of data for
which the report is defined.
In the example below, all the reports are Standard reports. Clicking the Work
Management link will display only reports in that category. To display all available
reports, click the magnifying glass ( ) with no search text.

Each report can be assigned to multiple categories, so you may see several shortcuts to
the same report. You can drag and drop any shortcut to a report into one of your Personal
report categories. You can also drag and drop a shortcut to any of your Personal reports to
a Shared report category to share it with others.
Right-clicking a report shortcut also lets you:

Delete the shortcut (if it is one of your own personal shortcuts).

Copy the shortcut to a different category any Personal or Shared category.
Edit the shortcut, changing its title or description.

Search
Use the search box in the left-hand panel above the report categories to find reports by
entering text and clicking the magnifying glass (
) under Find Reports. Search is
limited to the names, titles, and descriptions of reports to which you have access.

In the image below, a search for the keyword "effort" yields all reports you have access to
with the word "effort" in the title and/or description. To display all available reports, click
the the magnifying glass (

) with no search text.

For V5 Reports
V5 reports (base on List View and Summary View rules) open in the V5 report viewer,
not the V6 Report Viewer described here. The V5 report viewer provides only limited
user interaction capability and no ability to save or share reports.
Using the Report Viewer to define and evolve simple reports

Summary
When you run a Report Definition report from the Report Browser of the Manager
portal, results appear in a separate window called the Report Viewer. You can also
access the Report Viewer from the Report Definition rule form.
The Report Viewer offers many options for manipulating the displayed report, such as
Printing it, Exporting it to Excel, and so on.
The Report Viewer also provides intelligent drill-down and drill-up behavior and offers
almost all the functionality from the Design tab of the Report Definition rule form to redesign the report.
Using the Report Viewer, you can:

Change the report title.

Modify filter criteria.
Change column headings, format, and sorting.
Change order of columns.
Add columns.
Save changes to original report, or save changes as a new report.

The Report Viewer features discussed here are available only for reports produced from
Report Definition rules in V6.1+. Reports defined in earlier versions are displayed in an
earlier version of the Report Viewer, which provides more limited user interactions.
For an overview of V5.X reports, see How to create a report (V5).

Suggested Approach
The Report Viewer is comprised of several key areas which allow for data and display
manipulation.
The sample Report Viewer below displays a report on Purchase Orders by Operator
Name, including Create Date and Time, Work ID and Work status.

Command Bar and Search

At the top of the window is a Command bar. It features several icons that provide basic
commands for manipulating the report.
Using the Command Bar icons
The Command Bar icons include:

Save: If this is a report that you have created, this command lets you save
your changes, which overwrite and replace the previous report definition
rule.
Save As: This command lets you save this report, with any changes you
have made, as a new Personal report.
Print: Prints the report.
Edit Columns to Include: Provides a global view of the design of the
report, and lets you change which columns are included, column order, and

all of the column settings listed below.

Append Column: Lets you add a new column to the report. The new
column appears as the right-most column.

In the example, the .pyResolvedTime property is appended to the

report.

The Resolution TimeStamp column appears at the end of the report,

following Work Status.

Edit Report Title: Lets you change the report title.

Add or Edit Chart: Lets you add a chart to the report, or modify the
design of an existing chart on the report.
Export to Excel: Exports the data of the report into an Excel workbook.

Export to PDF: Exports the formatted report into a PDF document.

How to Search in the Report Viewer

The Commander Bar also includes a Search box at the upper right. Search from the
Report Viewer allows for quick searching of the currently open report.

To perform a search:

Type any text into this box and press Enter or click the Search icon ( ).
Search finds the first occurrence of the text in the body of the report,
highlights it, and the cursor moves to that position in the report.
Click the Search icon ( ) again without changing the text moves to the next
occurrence of the text within the report, and so on.

Report Header
The report header displays the title of the report, the count of rows displayed in the
report, and the filter conditions that determine which rows are included.

The filter conditions (Filters) are displayed as a hyperlink. Click to open the Rows to
Include dialog (below). This lets you change the conditions that describe which rows of
data to include in the report. This provides the same functionality as the Design tab of the
report definition rule form.

Column Heading
At the top of each column is a column heading that describes the information in the
column.

Click the column heading to sort the report based on the values in that column.
Click repeatedly on the column heading to change the sorting from ascending ( ), or
descending ( ) order.
Settings on the User Interactions tab
It is also possible to set or restrict many of the Report Viewer capabilities from the User
Interactions tab in the Report Definition rule form. Some of the capabilities include:
Save, Save As, Print, Edit Columns to Include, Append Column, Edit Report Title, Add or
Edit Chart, Export to Excel, and Export to PDF.
Report Definition rules - Beyond the basics
Report definition rules provide power, flexibility, and ease-of-use for report designers and
report users, these rules are intuitive, provide an all-in-one-page design interface,
intelligent defaulting and pre-defined reusable report elements.
Use a report definition rule to define a report or a personal version of a report. This rule
generates HTML that displays selected data in many types of formats, and allows a wide
variety of user interactions with the displayed results.
Because the report definition rule is a unified type for all reports, business users can more
easily create and organize their own reports.

Suggested Approach
What are Report Definition reports?
Report definition rules are similar to two other types of report rules: list view and
summary view. Report definition rules, introduced in V6.1, provide much of the
functionality of these earlier rule types, plus new features, and are easier to define than
the list view and summary view rules.
Summarized reports similar to Summary View rules

These reports contain two types of columns. At least one of the columns in the report
must be a summarized column. A summarized column contains data that uses one of the
following built-in functions:
COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), MIN(), and MAX().
All non-summarized columns on the report are considered "group by" columns. The
summarized data is grouped by, or broken down by, display counts of class instances (or
record counts) or summarized values based on numeric properties.
In the example below, the summarized data are the number of Purchase Orders per
Operator. The information is displayed as a bar chart.

List-type Reports similar to List View rules

These types of reports display unsummarized or detailed data for individual work objects
or class instances.

How to Complete the Rule form to create a new Report Definition

Create a new Report Definition rule using the following steps:
1. Use the New dialog box to enter a name for the report that meaningfully
describes the purpose of the report.

2. Complete the Design tab (below) to:

Define which properties, functions, or expressions are to be included

as columns in the report, and the settings that control how each
column appears (heading, width, format, sort order, and so on.)
You can define these by entering the appropriate values in the fields
below, within the Columns to Include section.
Note: You can only show properties that correspond to exposed

database columns.

Define filtering conditions in the Rows to Include section. These define

which class instances are to be included as rows in the report or in
summarized data. The Rows to Include section operates similarly to
the criteria section on the List View form.
Define general settings to control the appearance of the report under
General Report Settings.

Click Include a Chart and then complete the Chart Definition dialog
to add and configure a chart display of the reports data within the
Report Viewer. This can only be done for Summarized reports.
At any time while completing this tab, you may click Save & Preview
to save the current report definition and display the results in the

Report Viewer.

3. Complete the Data Access tab to define joins to other classes, declarative
indices, and/or reports.

4. Complete the User Interactions tab to control how users can interact with the
report within the Report Viewer, such as:

Whether users can modify the report, print it, export it to Excel, and
so on.

Whether SmartInfo icons appear on each row of detailed reports, to

display additional information about each row.
5. Complete the Parameters tab to document the name, description, and data
type of parameters used in the Report Definition rule.
o

6. Enter a Full Description on the History tab which explains the report in more
detail.
7. Click (
) to Save the rule or the Save & Preview button to save and
preview the rule in the Report Viewer.
Tips and Features
AutoComplete is available when defining properties in the Design tab.

AutoComplete replaces SmartPrompt in rule form and Report

Viewer.
o AutoComplete shows matches on name or label.
o Best Bets are properties used in other reports.
o Matches can include properties in other classes.
Click Save & Preview at any time to save the rule and run it in the Report
Viewer. You can edit settings from the Design tab in the Report Viewer as
well (you do not need to close the Viewer and return to the Design tab).
o