Understanding the Sections of a Report

Overview

In this video, you will learn about the components and settings of a report. It is important to know these elements before creating or editing your first report, so you will know how to configure your report properly.

Learning Objectives

Test your knowledge by completing the following tasks in your own TeamDynamix environment.

• Create a new report and experiment with the different sections
• If you already own a report, edit it to see the sections

Transcript

In this video, you will learn about the components and settings of a report. It's important to know these elements before creating or editing your first report so you will know how to configure your report properly.

When creating a new report, or editing an existing one, you will see 11 different sections within the report builder screen. We will take a moment to discuss each of these 11 sections in detail.

The "Name your report" section allows you to provide a report name. The name of the report is what will appear in the list of existing reports and will also display if the report is added to a desktop. It's best to use a report name that is descriptive enough to suggest what the report is about.

The "Describe your report" section allows you to provide a description of the report, which anyone with access to the report can see in the report details. This section is used to add context and other notes that will be helpful to those running the report.

In the "Select the columns you would like to see" section, you can define the fields that will be returned when the report is run. If you imagine your finished report, these columns would be the headers across the top of the report. You can see all of the many options by clicking the dropdown menu.

For report columns that return numeric data, you can optionally select a way to aggregate the data at the bottom of the report. Available options are average, minimum, maximum, and sum. For report columns that return data in a date format, you can define the date format to display. For a more detailed explanation of any of the items in the dropdown menu, click the Help button on the menu bar at the top of the report.

Use the "Add filtering to your report section" to define what content is included or excluded from the report results. If no filters are included, the report will return every result for whatever report you are running. Available fields for both columns and filters include all standard TeamDynamix fields, custom attributes, and KPI, or key performance indicator calculations.

When you select a filter, you will be asked to provide an operator and a value. Available operators depend on the type of file you are filtering on. There are arithmetic operations, such as greater than, less than, or equal to, but also choice-based operations, such is one of, is not one of, has a value, or is blank. You can use the Prompt checkbox to enable those running the report to set or edit that filter at the top of the report every time it's run, rather than having a value hard coded into the report.

By default, if you have multiple filters, they will behave in an AND relationship, meaning the report will only show records where all of the filters are true. You can use the Show Advanced button to define specific logic, including AND, OR, and NOT conditions.

You can order your report to set a default sort order when the report is run. For example, you can set the report to display the dates in descending order, meaning the most recent record show first. You can use the Add button to add additional sorting logic. For example, you can have the results be sorted first by date and then alphabetically by requester name.

"Set the maximum number of rows to retrieve" allows you to define how many rows should be returned when the report is run. In some cases, you may want to increase the number from the default value if you know your report will need to return many rows. The number of rows must be from one to 50,000.

You can use the "Choose a report folder" section to specify a custom report folder to add the report to. Report folders are helpful in organizing reports and are displayed in the application on the left navigation bar. If a custom report folder doesn't exist yet, you can click the plus sign to create one ad hoc. If you choose not to specify a report order, the report will be listed in the navigation under the type of report it is, such as Ticket Reports, Project Reports, or Issue Reports.

The "Set the visibility of this report" section allows you to determine who can view and run the report. Regardless of the visibility settings, the only person who can edit the report is its owner.

There are three different levels of visibility to choose from. "Just Me" is the default value, and it means that only you, the owner of the report, can see it in the navigation menu and run the report.

"Everyone with this Application" allows anyone who has access to the application to run the report. For example, if you created the report in the ticketing application, this setting would mean that anyone with access to the ticketing application could see and run the report.

"Me and people in these Groups" allows you to define specific groups who can see and run the report in addition to yourself. You can add multiple groups. Note that group members must have access to the application in order to be able to view and run the report.

You can use the checkbox to hide the report from the list of reports in the navigation menu on the left side of the screen. This is helpful when creating a report specifically to use in desktops that you don't want cluttering up the list of reports.

"Add a chart" allows you to define a specific chart to appear below the report results. A chart could help to enhance the date included in the report by providing a visualization of the results. Charts are typically helpful when the report includes a count of results, such as a ticket count.

Most of the charts require two fields, name and value. The name dropdown defines the X-axis, or the bars, or slices to display. The value dropdown defines the Y-axis, or the values to use when creating the graph. For example, in a bar graph, whatever is the name field is displayed as bars and the value determines the hight of each of these bars. Similarly, for a pie chart, whatever is in the name field displays as slices and the value determines the size of each slice.

The "Desktop delivery" section allows you to define how the report results are displayed when added to a desktop, such as a technician's desktop in TDNext. You can choose between a standard grid or a chart, if a chart has been added. For the grid option you can also define how many rows to show before the viewer has to click to a next page.

Finally, the "Email Delivery" section enables you to set a schedule to send results of the report to a list of predetermined recipients. Click the Add button to define an interval and time to send the report, format for the report, and any recipients. More than one delivery schedule can be added to a report. For instance, you could send the report to different audiences at different intervals, like delivering the report to leadership once a month and to technicians on a daily basis.

Now that you know about the sections of a report, you can confidently create new reports or edit any existing reports that you own.