Launching and Manipulating a Report

From Informer 4 Wiki

Access to launch and manipulate reports provides users the ability to customize standard report results through adding and removing fields, grouping, sorting, normalizing, visualizing, and analyzing result sets as needed without affecting the views of other users. By the end of this section you will be able to:

• Organize reports for yourself and others using tags, favorites, and more utilities
• Execute a report with various runtime options
• Customize reports in-place for one-time optional view
• Save customizations so you will always view a report with your customizations applied
• Use the Analytics Panel to drill down into large result sets
• Use the Charting Panel to visualize result sets
• Export report results to a number of formats

Informer is designed to provide quick access to the most common use cases. You can log in, execute a report, manipulate and visualize the results, then export to a desired format within seconds.

This section contains the following topics:

• Using the Report Dashboard – How to use the report dashboard to search for and organize reports
• Executing a Report – How to execute a report and retrieve results
• In-Place Report Customization – How to use in-place customizations to affect your current report view
• User Settings – How to manipulate a report view to fit your specific needs and have your modifications saved, without affecting the view for other users
• Analytics – How to use the Analytics Panel for advanced pivot table like views of report results
• Charting – How to use the charting panel to visualize report results

Contents 1 Using the Report Dashboard 1.1 Report Filtering 2 Executing a Report 2.1 Runtime Criteria 3 In-place Report Customization 4 User Settings 5 Analytics 5.1 Working with the Analytics Panel 5.2 Filtering Reports through Analytics 6 Charting

Using the Report Dashboard

Once you have logged into Informer with your username and password, you will be presented with the Informer homepage. This displays your report dashboard including two main components, the Filter Reports panel on the left side and the Reports Listing to the right of the panel.

Under Filter Reports, you will see that you will have the following options to filter the report listing :

• By Set : choose to display all reports or only those you’ve tagged as favorites
• By Datasource : choose to list reports from a specific database.
• By Tag : choose to list reports by a specific tag.

Once you highlight the desired filter, the Report Listing displays the associated reports. Each report in the list provides the following items:

• Report Title : is the name the report author provided for the report. The title is also a link to the details tab of the report page.
• Report Description : is a more extensive description of the purpose and operation of the report.
• Launch hyper text : launches the report.
• Details hyper text : is a link to the details tab of the report page.
• Favorite : identifies the report as one of your favorites. If colored gold, the report is designated as one of your favorites. You can change the favorite status by clicking on the star.
• Created by : identifies the full name of the report author.
• Last Executed : can be a time, day, or date. If the report was last executed today, it will show the time. If it was last executed this week, it will show the day. If it was last executed prior to this week, it will show the date.

Report Filtering

Informer allows you to filter the reports displayed with filter controls to the left of the report listing. Filtering can be applied by set, by datasource, and by tag. Combining these filters help you quickly and easily find the reports you need.

You can select only those reports that run against a specific data source, and / or fall in a specific tag, and / or you have designated as one of your favorites. When specifying your filtering, it is important to make your filter selections from the top down.

For example, if you want only your favorite reports on the ERP Datasource in the Accounting area, it is important to designate your filtering in that order. If you first designate Accounting and then Favorites, you will see all favorites regardless of designated tag.

• By set : If you want only your reports you’ve previously noted as favorite, click the My Favorites link filter.
• By datasource : By clicking on the designated datasource all reports designated for that datasource will be displayed. If you want only your favorite reports for that datasource, first click on favorites and then click on the desired datasource.
• Tags : Tags allow you to group similar reports according to report focus, author, sensitivity, etc. By tagging 8 reports as accounting reports, a tag will allow a quick reference to this group of reports.
• Searching : Perhaps the easiest way to find a specific report is to use the search function. Informer will display all reports that contain any part of the search argument in its title. For example, a search argument of “Order” will find all reports that contain the word “order” regardless of location in the title or case.

Executing a Report

When you click the Launch hyper text link, Informer will immediately launch the report. For many reports, runtime criteria are required and you will be prompted to enter values. For reports without runtime criteria, the report will immediately execute and a loading message circle is displayed indicating the report execution is processing.

You can also launch a report from the report page by clicking the Data tab.

Runtime Criteria

Many reports are authored to allow for runtime selection criteria. Runtime criteria allow the user to focus results on the designated criteria. Some Informer features assist this process:

• For criteria involving dates, Informer provides a calendar Icon allowing the user to review and designate date ranges by clicking on the calendar dates.

• For selection criteria confined by validation codes (or code files) Informer allows the user to review a list of acceptable codes and select from known values for results.

• For selection criteria that allows for unconstrained choices, for example Company Name, as the end-user begins typing the criteria, Informer will autosuggest known values from the database. The option to provide this list is defined on the property mapping. With each letter, the available choices will become more focused.

• Runtime Keywords such as TODAY, MONTH_END, can be entered for selection criteria. These will substitute the corresponding date for the value of the keyword. They can be also complemented with numeric expressions, for example “Today -7”. See the Runtime Criteria Appendix for all available options.

• A criterion that is not completely intuitive can be further explained by Comments defined on the specific property mapping. If this comment is available, a “?” will appear next to the criteria in the selection box. By clicking the “?”, the user is presented with a popup containing the comments

• Once the criteria are entered, click on the “Launch Report” button to initiate the selection process.

In-place Report Customization

The results of a report execution, unless previously customized by the user viewing the report, are in the format defined by the report author. This includes default columns, column order, sorts, and normalization. Note that the following in-place customizations are not saved, so will not be applied the next time you execute the report.

You can then perform fast and immediate manipulations of the data several ways:

• Column sorting : You can quickly sort report results by clicking any column header. Informer will use that column to sort the data in ascending order. By clicking the column header again, Informer will reverse the sort and sort the column in descending order.

• Column reordering : Columns can be rearranged by simply dragging and dropping a column to the desired location. Simply click and hold a column to display the column drag controller, once you let go of the column, it will be placed in location.

• Column grouping : You can display your results grouped by any column displayed in the report. Simply click and hold a column header, and drag it to the grouping box titled ‘drop columns here to group’. Your results will immediately return grouped by the selected column and a grouping indicator for that column will appear at the top of the report noting the column being grouped and the sort order. Group by as many columns as you require. To remove a column from the grouping order simply click the delete button next to its’ grouping indicator. You can also apply aggregates to display total value, average value, maximum value, and minimum value for each group. These options appear in the group indicator row as checkboxes, and are applied per group. Any columns displaying properties defined as numeric, monetary, or date will display the select aggregates per group.

Your in-place customizations are not saved. If you customize a report in-place and navigate away from the report results page, you lose your customizations. If you wish to always apply a specific set of customizations to your personal view of a particular report, be sure to make use of the User Settings tab.

User Settings

If you create a report for public use, chances are many of the users who will use that report need a slightly different view. Their needs may require an additional property or two added to the column list, they may require the report always be grouped or sorted a specific way, etc. Informer empowers end-users to make these customizations intuitively and at will, without affecting the default report template, and without affecting how other users in the system view the same report. A single report can be viewed and saved in a number of different ways.

Note: One enormous benefit of Informer is it allows end-users to modify reports based on specific individual needs without affecting the way the same report is viewed by other users in the system.

In many cases, in-place customization will suffice for the needs of these users. However, some users may choose to save their customizations, effectively creating a new, personal view based on the default. They want the report to be grouped by a specific column, and they want to view the report that way each time they launch it. This is accomplished through the application of User Settings on a report-by-report basis.

Note: If you create a customized view of a report through User Settings, any changes made to the default report view will not appear in your customization.

To access User Settings, browse to a report and click the User Settings tab. The following options for viewing user settings are available:

• Overview : Displays the current settings for customizable options of the report, If you have current user settings applied to the report, a information bar appears on the page letting you know.

• Columns : Allows you to modify the column order for your customized view, and add or remove columns displayed, including columns from your datasources as well as calculated columns. This page also allows you to modify column display properties for individual column display options.

• Sorts : Allows you to modify the default sorts for your customized display.

• Groups : Allows you to modify default groups and per-column aggregate selections for your customized display.

• Normalize : Allows you to modify normalization settings for your customized report

There are two actions available from the User Settings tab as well:

• Clear Settings : Clears all customizations and returns the report to the state as originally authored

• Copy as New Report : Copies your customized report as a new report in the system available for sharing. Your customized view then becomes the default template for the new report.

Analytics

The analytics panel allows you to display summary data based on any combination of columns or column aggregates included in the report, creating pivot table like drill-down capability. Though useful for any size result set, analytics become especially powerful when a report contains an enormous number of records, providing instant retrieval of particular values within the results, sortable aggregates per column combination, and more. The analytics panel is available as a tab from the report result screen.

Working with the Analytics Panel

The analytics panel displays each column in the report as well as aggregates options for numeric, monetary, and date values. Check the checkbox beside a column or aggregate title to display in the analytics result. Uncheck the checkbox to remove from display. Selecting a column for display displays all unique values from the result set. Selecting an aggregate displays the associated aggregate value for the selected combination of columns.

If your result contains thousands of records but, say, only five distinct values for “Company Name”, then selecting the Company Name column displays only those five values in the analytics panel. If you then select “Total” aggregate beneath “Invoices Amount”, the analytics panel displays the total of the Invoices Amount column for each distinct company name.

Below the list of available columns and associated aggregates from your report is an implicit aggregate available for every report titled “Count”. Selected alone, count simply displays the number of records in the result set. Selected in conjunction with columns and aggregates, count displays the total number of records comprising the given row in the analytics set.

Filtering Reports through Analytics

Analytics provides one-click drill down into your report by filtering the report results to display only those records you select in the analytics listing. Simply click one or more rows in the analytics results listing and notice the Report Results tab now is displayed with a *. This indicates the results are now filtered by the selection from the analytics results listing. Double-clicking a row in the analytics panel will automatically navigate to the relevant detail records.

To expand on the previous example, let’s once again assume you have five distinct company names displayed in your analytics results listing. If you select two of them using ctrl+click, you will notice the * appear beside the Report Results tab header. Clicking back into report results now displays only the records associated with the selected analytics rows. To remove the filter from your result set, simply click the Clear Filter button in the results menu bar.

Charting

The charting panel allows you to visualization of report results in chart format for column by numeric or monetary aggregate value and record count. Graphs are two-axis with X axis displaying the distinct column values, and Y axis displaying the aggregate.

Note : The charting panel requires your browser contain the most recent Adobe Flash plug-in.

Any aggregate value available from your report, in addition to the implicit “Count” aggregate can be assigned to the X axis against any column value selected. Again, using the example from the previous analytics section, you can chart Company Name by Invoice Amount (total).

Current charting options include bar, pie, and area. By default, Informer will show only the top 10 results of your chart. Displaying many results might result in poor chart performance and decreased chart legibility. You can choose to display more than ten results by modifying the top/bottom X value, or by selecting show ‘all’ from the chart controls beneath the chart. You can also choose to hide or display label values by toggling the Show Labels checkbox.