Create a Custom Report

The information you will require to complete this exercise must be provided to you by the person who created your *.rpt file.  You may wish to provide this person with the CI Custom Report Type Template file to ensure that all of the required information is provided.

To create Custom Report Type

1. Open the Reports Manager.
2. Highlight any of the integrated report names (i.e., Highlight Activity in the tree).
3. Select File/ New Custom Report Type from the main menu.

The New Custom Report Type wizard appears.

4. Enter a name for the new report.
5. (optional) If your installation contains more than one language, enter the translation for this report by clicking on the next to the name field.
6. Enable the roles that will be allowed to use this report type.
7. Click Next>

The Layout page appears.

8. Click Add.

The Edit Report Layout page appears.

9. Select the language of this layout.

If your installation contains more than one language pack, you will have to enter the language of each layout separately - mainly because you will have to attach to different *.rpt files.

10. Select between 8 1/2x11 and A4 as the paper type.

If you have international locations, you may want to create a layout that uses A4 and another that uses 8 1/2x11.  These must be created separately since they will be using different *.rpt files

11. Enter a name for the layout.

If you have a single layout for this report, it does not matter what you enter as a layout name - since the name will never been seen.  If you have several layouts for the same report, you may wish to indicate the differences in layout in the name of the layout.

12. Click to browse to the location of the *.rpt file.
13. Next to the Connect Information field, there are 4 choices.  Select one of the four.

Whoever created the file should have provided you will all of the information required to create the new report type.  However, here is a brief description of each connection type.

3. Use Settings in Crystal Report File - the person who created the *.rpt file indicated where to look (which directory) and what to look for (file name).  All you do is select this option.

4. Connect to TRACCESS Main Database - all of the information required to populate the report is in the main database.

5. Connect to Data Warehouse Tables - all of the information required to populate the report is in the Data Warehouse tables.

6. Specify Connect Information - this is the only case where you must ask where the external data source resides.  More specifically, you will have to ask for the following:

   • SQL Database - you will require the Server Name, User ID, Password, and Database name.

   • Oracle Database - you will require the Oracle Service Name, User ID, and Password.

14. Click OK to return to the Layout page.
15. If you wish to add another layout, do so now.  Otherwise, click Next.

The Parameters page appears.  

Once again, the creator of the *.rpt file must indicate which parameters must be passed to the report.  If you attempt to generate a report if not all parameters have been passed, your report will generate an error and the icon will look like .

For a more detailed explanation of the use of the parameters, click here.

16. Enable the required parameters, and click Next.

The User-Defined Parameters page appears.  The creator of the *.rpt file must indicate which parameters must be passed to the report.  

17. If your report requires that the end user enter specific information, create a user-defined parameter here, and click Next.

The Options page appears.  The settings that have been made on the previous pages of the wizard will affect what is shown here.

• The Use Report Filter field will be active if any of the following parameters are selected on the parameters page of the wizard:  OrgMgrLearners, OrgMgrOrgUnits, OrgMgrOrgUnitLearnerPair, AssignedLearning.  This is because the filters can only be applied to Employees and Tasks, and unless these parameters are selected, the end user will not get the chance to select Employees or Assigned Learning.

• Since this is not an integrated Report type, if you wish to create help on this particular report, enter the address for the help information in the help link field.

• The LearnerID match property field is active if any of the following parameters are selected on the parameters page of the wizard:  OrgMgrLearners, OrgMgrOrgUnits and OrgMgrOrgUnitLearnerPair.  If your data source is either the TRACCESS Main tables or the TRACCESS Data Warehouse tables, accept the default.  If you are using an external data source, you must select the Learner property that "matches" between information in TRACCESS and the external data source.  This would likely be Employee Number or Email address.

• The OrgUnitID match property field is active if any of the following parameters are selected on the parameters page of the wizard:  OrgMgrLearners and OrgMgrOrgUnitLearnerPair.  In the case of Org Units, there is only a single match property:  OrgUnit ID.  If you are using the TRACCESS main tables or the TRACCESS Data Warehouse tables, simply accept the default.  If you are using an external data source, you must enter a field next to the Org Unit name that is the TRACCESS Org Unit ID.

• The AssignedLearning match property is active if the following parameter is selected on the parameters page of the wizard:  AssignedLearning. The match properties in this case as Task ID or Task Name.

17. Click Finish.

The new custom report type appears in alphabetical order - together with the integrated reports.  

To enable the report for the selected roles

1. Select Tools/ Role Permission Sets from the main menu.
2. In the Role field, select the role that was enabled during the Custom Report Type creation.

The Role Permission Sets for the selected role appears.  

3. Click on the Report Permissions tab.

The dialog changes to match the selection.  

4. Check the checkbox next to the Custom Report type to enable it for the specified role.
5. Repeat steps 2 through 4 for each of the role you wish to enable.

To create a report template

1. Right-click on the "Custom Report Type" and select New.
2. Make any required selections (depending on the parameters selected above, you may or may not have selections to make).

To generate a report from a template

1. Select a template from under the Training Information heading in the Report Manager tree.
2. Right-click on the Template and select Generate Report.
   OR
   In the context view, click the Generate button.

The Generate Report dialog appears. The Title field is populated with the name of the template.

3. (optional) Enter a name for the report in the Title field.
4. (optional) Enter a description of the report.
5. Click Generate.

In the context view, a new report appears in the Generated Reports box.  While the report is generating, appears in front of the report name.  This icon changes to a icon once the report is generated.

To view a generated report

1. Select a template from under the Training Information heading in the Report Manager tree.
2. In the context view, select the report and click View.