Reporting
- Morten Lindequist Køhler
Purpose
The purpose of the Perfion Reporting is to create reports from product data stored in Perfion. These reports are also the base for generating publications.
Prerequisite
To be able to manage reports In Perfion, the user must have the role “Can design reports”.
Perfion must be at lease version 2020 R2 SR2 (4.8.6).
The database needs to be upgraded to at least version 4.8.1 using the Perfion Database installer (4.8.2).
Pre Perfion version 2020 R2 SR2 (4.8.6)
Before Perfion version 2020 R2 SR2 (4.8.6) all reports where stored in the selected report file path in Administration -> Settings. It was up to the user to create the correct file structure and store the report design files (repx) in them when saving a report designer file.
An example of this can be seen below
Grace period between 2020 R2 SR2 (4.8.6) and 2021 R1
Within this grace period, the old way of managing reports, described in “Pre Perfion version 2020 R2 SR2” is still available. This means that upgrading to version 4.8.6, does not remove or change behavior for any of the old reports stored in the report folder path. From version 4.8.6, the right click option in the grid will look like this.
External being the reports stored in the report file path and internal being the reports stored in the database.
It is possible to hide the external reports by changing a setting. Go to: Administration -> Setting and remove the check mark from “Show reports from filepath”.
Managing reports
This chapter describes how to manage and use reports in Perfion.
Reports UI
To get started with Reports, go to Tools -> Reports.
This will open the Reports UI and allow the user to manage reports, report templates and publications.
Menu items
In the top menu there are the following options, many of them do not need further explanation. They all run on the reports grid. Many of these features are also found in the right click menu. To manage folders, use the right click menu.
Options:
New
Copy
Edit
Delete
Refresh
Refreshes both the folders and the reports
Save to file
Saves the selected report to a .pr file.
Load from file
Loads a .pr file and allows the user to edit and save it.
Report templates
Opens the Report Template UI
Publications
Opens the Publications UI
Assigning reports to folders
By default, a report is added to the selected folder when created or copied. But if the folder should be changed, simply drag a report to the desired folder.
Report editing UI
When creating or editing a report the edit report dialog is shown. It is a simple editor that allow the user to define a report. The UI looks like this.
A report consists of the following properties:
Name
Template
The template is used to define the report design itself and other styles. See chapter “Report template UI”
This field is not mandatory, but if it is left empty, the report cannot be used for generating a report! See chapter “Designing reports”.
Super query
The super query defines how data is collected for the report along with parameters. See the “Perfion SuperQuery Factsheet”
Visibility
When the “visible for all users” setting is disabled, the report will not be visible for users without the “Design report”-role. This is to allow the designers to finish their work before allowing others to execute them.
Report Template UI
Report templates are used to store the structure files for a Perfion Report. The UI looks like this.
Menu items
In the top menu there are the following options, many of them do not need further explanation. Many of these features are also found in the right click menu.
Options:
New
Copy
Edit
Delete
Refresh
Save to file
Saves the selected template to a .prt file.
Load from file
Loads a .prt file and allows the user to edit and save it.
Report Template editing UI
When creating or editing a report template the edit report template dialog is shown. It is a simple editor that allow the user to define a report template. The UI looks like this.
A report template consists of the following properties:
Name
Master report file
The master report file is a .repx file from DevExpress. It can be loaded from the “…”, but it does not have to. The value can be left blank when creating a template. If the report file is empty, it will only be possible to design a report for it, not actually generating the report.
Rich editor styles
The rich editor styles hold the css formatted text for styling any rich editors incorporated into the report.
Table designer styles
The table designer styles hold the xml formatted text for styling any table designs incorporated into the report.
Note that the global table designer style is used when this is empty.
The global table editor style can be found under Administration -> settings
Designing reports
This chapter describes how the user designs the reports that are stored in the database.
If you are looking for how to use the report designer for DevExpress, look at the documentation developed by them:
DevExpress Report Designer Guide - Perfion Knowledge Base - Perfion Knowledge Base (atlassian.net)
Getting started designing
To get started, create at least one report. (See chapter “Managing reports”). Make sure that the super query matches the context that you want to design the report for.
Right click an item and select the report that you want to design.
When doing so, the following screen will appear.
For designing the report, hit the “Design…” button. Note that the “View…” button, is only active when the report has a saved report template with a report file attached to it.
Hitting “Design…” will launce the report designer tool from DevExpress.
A lot can be done in the report designer, and we refer to the DexExpress documentation for any questions about this. When any changes have been made, simply hit the “Save” button, and the report designer will automatically save the report design to the currently running report.
If the report does not have a report template, or the template does not have a report file, it will automatically be created and attached.
Generating a finished report
Generating a report is almost the same process as designing a report. To be able to generate a report, make sure that a report is created and has a report template with a report file stored on it.
Right click an item and select the report that you want to generate.
When doing so, the following screen will appear.
Hitting the “View…” button will generate the finished report. This report will be shown in a DevExpress report viewer. And can from here be stored or emailed in different formats.
The supported export formats are as follows:
Pdf
Html
Mht
Rtf
Docx
Xls
Xlsx
Csv
Text
Image
Export or send as email by click one of the two buttons below.
Changing over reports to 4.8
When upgrading Perfion to version 4.8.1 or never, you will most likely need to convert your reports from the old way of storing them in the report folder to the new way as described in the chapters above.
Report template
On the reports template UI create a new report template, by clicking “new”, give it an appropriate name and import the desired .repx file from the stored location into the master report file by clicking on the “…” button and selecting the file.
Report
Create a new report, if needed under a desired structure, and link it to the template. Under the super query you need to copy in the XML query from the “view” file of that same report template from the previous stored location. Hit validate query to check if the report will work. Check the “Visible for all users” if you are ready to display the report for all users that does not have “design reports” rights.