What is a Report? A Report is the output view of data in a formatted manner and can be delivered as a Data View table, a Comparison Board, or a traditional Dashboard (Figure 1). In essence, a Report is content created through assembling Visuals sourced from one or more Datasets, and is the last step of the standard (but not required), Datasource(s) --> Dataset(s) --> Report workflow. There are four standard types of Reports: Comparison Board, Dashboard, Data View, and Ad-hoc Query. Contact us for more information.

Report Listing Page To access the Reports section of Informer 5, click either the "Reports" link from the Home Page (Figure 1) or the click the "Waffle" icon in the Navigation Bar and choose "Reports" (Figure 2). Figure 1: Reports from the Home Page Figure 2: Reports from the Navigation Menu The resulting page will be a list of all the Reports that are available to the current user (Figure 3). Figure 3: Report Listing Page This listing page provides some basic summary information about the Reports in the system, along with some helpful filtering options to find Reports. Use the search bar at top to dynamically filter the list by typing in any part of a Report’s name. The left panel allows for filtering on the following categories: Personal - displays only the Reports owned by current user Teams - displays Reports separated by Teams who own them Types - displays Reports according to the Report type they are (Ad-hoc Query, Dashboard, etc.) Informer 5 also provides organization of Reports by using Folders and Tags, shown below. Folders Use Custom Folders to divide and store content appropriately. To create a new folder, first click "Folders" and then the "Folder Settings" icon. To create a new Folder, click "+ New top-level folder". When already filtering by a Folder, Informer displays options to rename and delete that Folder (Figure 4). Figure 4: Folder Menu To create a sub-folder underneath an existing Folder, click the existing Folder to highlight it, click the "Folder Settings" gear icon and choose "+ New sub folder" and provide a name (Figure 5). The sub-folder is now accessible to store and view saved Reports (Figure 6). Figure 5: Creating a New Folder Figure 6: Nested Folders Tags Informer 5 also allows sorting by Tags. Tags can contain phrases or keywords that help find content quicker. Click on the "Tags" label to see existing Tags in use and click on the "Manage Tags" gear icon in the left panel to create or edit Tags (Figure 7). Figure 7: Viewing Tags After clicking on "Manage Tags", a panel will display containing a list of all Tags currently in Informer. Available options are to change the name of the Tag, change its color and delete Tags. Additionally, to create a new Tag here, click "New Tag" and assign a specific color (Figure 8). Figure 8: Manage Tags To see detailed information for a certain Report, single-click on it and Informer will display details such as Report Type, when it was created and modified, its owner, whom it’s shared with and the Datasource from which it was created (Figure 9). Figure 9: Report Details Actions To affect a Report in many ways, click on a Report in the Report Listing page and click "Actions" in the bottom-right corner. A menu will display various actions to modify the selected Report. The list of Actions will be different depending upon the type of Report selected (Figure 10). Figure 10: Report Actions menu Add to Bundle - Adds this report to a Bundle. Assign tags - Assigns existing tags to a Report. Bundle and deploy to Tenant - Adds Report to a Bundle and deploys to a tenant. Available only to multi-tenancy installations. Bundle and download - Adds Report to a bundle and creates a download file. Change owner - Gives ownership of the Report to another group or user. Copy - Creates a copy of the Report. Delete - Permanently deletes the Report. Edit - Enters the Edit page of the Report. Alternately, double-click the Report and click "Edit" in the top-right corner. Generate external link - Generates links to the Report, usable outside of Informer 5 with custom access restrictions. Move to folder - Moves the Report to a new or existing folder. Pin copy to Homepage - Pins a copy of the Report to the Homepage. Rename - Changes the name and/or description of the Report. Share - Gives full read access to the Report to one or more teams. View external links - Displays a list of all external links to the Report, with buttons to copy the links or revoke their access to the Report.

Creating a Report From the Report Listing page, click on the "New Report" button. Available types of Reports are: Comparison Board, Dashboard, Data View, and Ad-hoc Query (Figure 1). Figure 1: Report Options After selecting the type of Report, enter a name, select the Dataset (Datasource for Ad-hoc Queries), and then click "Save" to create the Report. Comparison Board Comparison Boards are Reports that allow a side-by-side comparison of a Dataset based on a given Field. When adding a Visual to the Report, one will be created for each comparison point and any change to the configuration of one comparison point will be reflected in the other comparison points (Figure 2). Figure 2: Comparison Board of orders from year to year For more information on Comparison Boards, see What is a Comparison Board? Dashboard Dashboards are customizable layouts of Visuals that provide a quick overview of the data. Each Visual is customizable by moving, resizing, configuring, and filtering separately from each other. To further customize the Dashboard, apply a global Filter to the Visuals if desired (Figure 3). Figure 3: Dashboard For more information on Dashboards, see What is a Dashboard? Data View Data Views provide an easy way to view the data within a Dataset. All fields on the Dataset display in the left panel. Clicking them individually or clicking the “Select All” button in the bottom-left of the page will add them to the Data View Report (Figure 4). Figure 4: Data View For more information on Data Views, see What is a Data View? Ad-hoc Query Ad-hoc Queries do not retain data like Datasets do. Each time an Ad-hoc Query executes, it sends the request to the Datasource and the result set displays inside of Informer. Therefore, Ad-hoc Query results are not available to share in Visuals. There are two ways to create an Ad-hoc Query; using Native SQL and through the Query Designer. Native SQL A Native SQL query is an option for individuals who know how to write native SQL code. This report option allows for more control over a Query’s structure. The SQL statement entered is sent directly to the SQL database “as is” to generate the Query results. Using the Native SQL query removes access to the UI options that the Query Designer provides. However, this is a particularly useful option for migrating pre-existing SQL queries from other systems (Figure 5). Figure 5: Ad-hoc Query created using Native SQL Query Designer For those unfamiliar with writing queries in a native database language (SQL, TCL/ECL, etc.) the query designer is a user-friendly alternative. After a few clicks, Informer 5 will do all the work in the background and translate the Query Designer selections into an executable query that goes to the database for processing (Figure 6).   Figure 6: Ad-hoc Query created using Query Designer