Introduction

Reports and publications are two ways to generate printed material directly out of Perfion. In this article we will describe where and how you can generate reports and publications.

TECH NOTE 1: Reports and publications rely on templates created with the Perfion Report Tool. Please refer to separate documentation for this.

TECH NOTE 2: To generate a report or a publication, the Perfion Application Service must be installed and running. Please refer to separate documentation for this.

Reports

Reports are typically used to generate printed output like datasheets, pricelists, simple catalogs, etc.

Reports from a data grid

To generate a report from a data grid, simply select the items you need in the report, and select New Report from the right-click menu:

This will open the Report Options dialogue:

In this dialogue you have these options:

Select Report	This drop down contains the templates you can choose from. NOTE: If no templates exist, your administrator has not prepared report output for the selected item type.
Output filename	Type in the filename you want for the generated report file.
Output language	Choose between the languages in your user profile. The report will be generated wit data in the selected language.
Output file format	PDF is suggested as the default output file format. You can switch to Word or XLS. If you choose XLS, the output will be a “visual excel-file” and not a regular excel data file.
Quality	This option affects the image quality in the report. Choose between Low, Medium and High.
Additional Options	Additional options are custom parameters used for report specific purposes. If you see this section, please consult your Perfion administrator.

When you click ‘Generate Report’ the application server will start generating the report in the background. You can follow the progress by clicking the Jobs icon in the top right corner:

When the report is ready, you can click the link in the jobs list to download the report.

Reports from a categorizer

Reports can also be generated from categorizers. The principle is the same as in data grids:

Select one or more categorizer nodes
In the right-click menu, select New Report
Generate the report via the same dialogue as above

TECH NOTE: A categorizer report typically contains data for all related items in the data grid. In the example above, the report will contain data for all products in the categories Cups and Thermo Jugs.

Reports for a channel node

Reports can also be generated for channel nodes, either from the Channels section or from Publish work mode:

Publications

Publications allow you to generate complete catalogs with a front page, separator pages, index, various layouts, tables of contents and a lot more.

Publications are generated from a Catalog node (recognized by the book icon). A publication will automatically contain data for all child nodes below the “book” (the full catalog) and all related items to all child nodes:

When the menu item Publishing is selected, the Publication Options dialogue appears:

In this dialogue you have these options:

Select Publication

This drop down contains the publications you can choose from.

NOTE: If no publications exist, your administrator has not prepared publication output for the selected channel.

Output filename

Type in the filename you want for the generated publication.

When you click “Generate Publication”, the application server will start generating the publication in the background. You can follow the progress and download the publication via the Jobs icon in the top right corner.

Export Report Data

Perfion report data can also be exported for use in an external design tool. This could typically be inDesign with EasyCatalog as bridge between the two systems.

To export report data, right-click an item and select Export Report Data. This option is available in main grids, categorizers and channels:

Export Report Data opens a window where specifiy the output you need:

Select Report	This drop down contains the templates you can choose from. NOTE: If no templates exist, your administrator has not prepared report output for the selected item type.
Output filename	Type in the filename you want for the generated export file.
Output language	Choose between the languages in your user profile. The report will be generated with data in the selected language.
Images	Choose whether you want images exported with the data file
Paths Only	Images will not be exported. The data file will contain image paths.
As Separate Files	Images will be exported to separate folders (one folder pr image type). The data file will contain image paths.
Quality	This option is only available when As Separate Files is chosen in the Images drop down. Choose between Low, Medium and High.
Output file format	Choose whether you want the data file in Excel or Xml format
Excel	With this option you can choose whether you want feature captions in Excel file as names or for re-import (unique feature names).
Xml	With this option you can choose whether to include Xml schema in the data file and whether you want feature metadata as standard (included for for each item) or compacted (once in the beginning of the file).

When you click “Generate Export”, the application server will start generating the export in the background. You can follow the progress and download the export file via the Jobs icon in the top right corner.

If you chose Paths Only (= no images or files), the export will generate a single Excel or XML file:

If you chose As Separate Files (export images and files), the export will generate a single zip file:

The zip file will contain a data file at the root and images/files in separate folders (named after each feature):

1 Introduction
2 Reports
- 2.1 Reports from a data grid
- 2.2 Reports from a categorizer
- 2.3 Reports for a channel node
3 Publications
4 Export Report Data

Perfion Knowledge Base

Reports and Publications