About Report Writer

Report Writer is one of the most important features of Issuetrak. This article will help you understand its terms, capabilities, and the reasons to use this feature. It empowers you to construct reports that gather and structure data from your Issuetrak site.

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Quick Overview

Report Writer has two distinct functions: Reports and Scheduled Reports.

1. Reports are an information gathering tool that can be logically divided into two stages:
    
   1. The first stage consists of data selection: You select the datasets and fields you want to use, optionally followed by applying any filters you might want on that data. If you just want to quickly grab information from Issuetrak, then you don't need to go any further than this.
       
   2. The (optional) second stage is effectively a process of customizing how your report results are presented when you run the report with formatting. You determine whether you want your data sorted or grouped, as well as make decisions on how the report is formatted. Once complete, the report will run based on how you've configured it.
       
2. Scheduled Reports automatically run a report and delivers it to specific recipients. You select which report you want to run, decide how often it should be delivered, and who should receive it. 

To see a demonstration of how to create a report, click the Continue button to start the presentation below.

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Terminology

It’s best to be familiar with several terms going forward:

Term	Definition
Table	Basic database repository for information stored in Issuetrak. For example, the organization table contains information about all of your Organizations. Report Writer is fed information from these tables.
Field	A piece of information about a specific record in a database table, such as an address or phone number for a user.
Dataset	A collection of data from multiple tables that allows us to provide various fields for your reports. For example, to display a user record, data from the Users, Organizations, Departments, and Locations tables is used.
Filter Expression	A filter that limits the data you view in a report. For example, a report can be filtered so that issues submitted last week are the only viewable data.
Filter Statement	A combination of filter expressions that allows for more complex filtering of data. For instance, you can create a report to display all issues assigned to a specific user that were submitted last week.
Data Scope	The combination of dataset and filtering, which selects the data a report will contain. Report Writer allows you to select fields and create filters to select a subset of data from the raw dataset.
Presentation	While you are building a report, you can optionally fine-tune how the results are presented. Methods include selecting fields to group results by, as well as sorting, column formatting, subtotal counts or sums, and whether the text is justified.
Record	The basic unit of the information displayed in your report. Each record displays one row. A record can be an issue, a user, an asset, a task, or any other item that you need to report on with your selected fields displayed.

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Getting Started

Think about the data you want to see in the report, what needs to be included, and how you want it presented. This will help guide you through the report creation process.

Use the following points to decide how to create your report:

Consideration	Details
Dataset	Determine if you need data about assets, users, issues, or something else.
Filter Expressions/Statement	Based on the selected dataset, identify which records to include. Are you looking for specific time frames, customers, or departments?
Defining the Data Scope	Decide whether to display all fields for each record or only certain fields, and what filter criteria to use.
Report Formatting and Presentation	Consider how to format results, whether to sort or group them, and if averages, counts, or sums are needed for specific columns.

Configuration and Feature Specific Datasets

Issue Related Datasets

User Related Datasets

Additionally, you should have a look at the Report Writer Defaults, as they will govern (to some extent) the way your results will be presented.

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Creating a Report

We're going to go through the motions of creating a new report.

Steps:

1. From the left menu, navigate to Reporting > Custom Reports.
2. Click New Report at the top of the Reports list that is displayed.
3. Name your report something descriptive so that you can easily find it again.
4. (Optional) Provide the Report Title that will appear on the report results.
5. (Optional) To share the report, check the box next to Share. Use the type-ahead field and magnifying glass button to add users that will have access to this report.
6. (Optional) Set a description for your report to explain the purpose or context of this report.
7. Broadly define the data scope.
   1. Choose the Data Set you want to gather information from.
   2. Drag and drop the fields you want this report to display in order from the list on the left to the box on the right. (To remove fields, drag and drop them back into the lefthand list.)
8. You can choose to:
   1. Save & Run - Immediately run the report and see the results.
   2. Save & Exit - Save the report and go back to the initial Select Report screen.
   3. Click Next to continue to the Create a Report screen and fine-tune your report with filters and formatting. (Continue to step 9.)
9. (Optional) Narrow the data scope.
   1. Beneath the Filtering header, define any filters to limit the scope of data in the results.
      1. The left dropdown menu lets you select the field to filter by.
      2. The right drop down menu lets you select the condition to filter the field.
      3. The Filter Logic field allows you to define a Filter Statement that combines the filters in the way you want.

Option	Description
Field	All Available Fields in the selected Data Set will be shown in the Field list
Condition	The Conditions available are based on the data type of the field selected for filtering. Most conditions are self-explanatory. A few that may not be are In and Like. The In condition allows you to type a series of values separated by a semicolon. For example, Priority In Medium;High means that all records with a Priority of Medium OR High will be returned. Note—no space is used after the semicolon. The Like condition will search for the value anywhere in the field selected. For example, Priority Like I will return records containing both the Medium and High values since both values contain the letter I.
Field Value	This field will only appear when a condition of =, <>, >, =, <= is selected, requiring a discriminating value. Field values can be manually entered or selected using the search (magnifying glass) icon. When selecting the search icon, a dialog box containing all the possible values for the specified field will display. Values for the specified field may be selected individually, or all values may be selected by clicking the Select All button. The CONTROL and SHIFT keys may also be used as described in Step 1. Click Update when all desired values have been selected.
Filter Expression	This section lists all individual filters that have been created for the report. Each individual filter is assigned a sequential letter of the alphabet for identification purposes. Filter Expressions may be modified by clicking the EDIT link associated with the expression or deleted by clicking the DELETE link.
Filter Statement	Filter Expressions can be related to one another using the Filter Statement. By default, the Filter Statement includes each Filter Expression with the AND operator. The Filter Statement can be modified as desired, using the operators: AND, OR and NOT. Parentheses can also be added for more advanced relations

9. (Optional) Under the Sorting and Grouping header, you may choose to sort or group your data. To do this, use the dropdown menu to select a field that you want to sort or group data for, then click Add.
   1. A line item will appear for the field you selected. You may now choose the sorting direction, whether the data is grouped by this field, and whether the Header or Footer is present. Additionally, you can choose the order that these fields appear on the report using the up and down buttons or click the X button to remove the line item.
10. (Optional) Under the Defaults and Formatting header, you may choose to do the following:
    1. Show Only Distinct Results: Enabled by default. Changes the behavior of report results. When enabled, only unique rows in each column are returned as results.
       When disabled, your report results will no longer incur the slight performance penalty of determining which results are unique, so you should see your report results return a little bit sooner than if you'd left it enabled. On the other hand, your results could contain duplicate rows when the data has a one-to-many relationship. For example, one issue might have many tasks, so a report that provides every task associated with each issue could have a lot of results if you utilize tasks.
    2. Make the report very brief by checking Suppress Report Details.
    3. For each line item, you can choose:
       1. Format (Date and numeric fields only) - Select how dates or numbers are presented.
       2. Subtotal - A count of the values for this column.
       3. Justification - Paragraph formatting.
       4. Width of the field.

11. Click Save & Run.

The current results for your new report will appear when this process is complete.

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Running a Report

You can select and then run a report in two different ways from the Select Report screen:

1. Click Run. This is the quickest method, and it gives you just the data results from the report.
2. Click Run with formatting. This takes slightly longer, but if there are formatting options selected for the report, it will apply those options when the results are displayed.

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Exporting a Report

You can select and then export a report in three ways from the Select Report screen, once you've clicked the Export button:

1. Excel - Runs the report without any formatting and outputs to an .XLS file for download.
2. Excel (formatted) - Runs the report with all formatting options that were selected for the report and outputs to an .XLS file for download.
3. CSV - Runs the report without any formatting and outputs to a .CSV file for download.

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Scheduling Reports

The Report Writer then allows you to create a schedule that emails reports to users of Issuetrak. Scheduled Reports allow you to keep staff informed of what is going on, without your administrator being involved.

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Best Practices

The information outlined above introduced the basics of Issuetrak’s Report Writer. We will now discuss some best practices for working with this feature.

Recommendation	Explanation
View All Data Sets / Fields	Sometimes, determining which data set to use can be challenging. On the Create a Report page, click the view all data sets/fields link to open a popup window displaying each data set and its associated fields. After that, pressing CTRL + F will open a search box, allowing you to quickly find specific fields without scrolling through the entire list.
Use Filters to Limit Your Data	Reports can use a lot of system resources when calculating, so make sure to match your needs with the appropriate data filters. For example, if you only need to see the 150 issues that were submitted this week, make sure to use an expression that specifies “This Week” instead of “This Year.” Making filter statements with more than one expression narrows down your results so you only see the required values.
Use Grouping to Deal with Duplicate Data	Datasets such as Issues/Notes or Issues/Tasks use a combination of information that displays a line in the report for each note or task added to a particular issue in a one-to-many relationship. You can use grouping in the report to limit duplication where possible.
Use Report Descriptions	The Description for a report is displayed on the Select Report screens in Report Writer. This information can include a statement of purpose with a list of the fields in the report. Having that information makes it easier to find the report you need, especially if you have a lot to choose from.
View Report Definition	To view detailed information about an existing report, first select the report on the Select Report screen, then click the view report definition link. A popup will appear showing the report's details, including the fields, grouping, sorting, and filters used.
Change Default Format and Settings	The Settings area of Report Writer allows you to set different formats for the field data types. To improve output on all reports, you may want to modify the defaults. For example, decimal fields can be changed to “display as currency” fields with a dollar sign automatically added. Remember that this will change the value for each field using that data type. We also recommend the following modifications for the settings at the bottom of the page: Increase the maximum number of records returned by a report to allow more results. The default of 1,000 may cause frustration if your users are trying to create a report that needs to return more than 1,000 results.   Increase the number of records printed per page to avoid blank spaces when printing your report. Increase the number of records displayed per page or set it to 0 for an unlimited value. This keeps you from having to click “Next Page” when viewing results within Issuetrak.   Increase the number of records displayed per page or set it to 0 for an unlimited value. This keeps you from having to click “Next Page” when viewing results within Issuetrak.
Use Formatting on Specific Reports	If you don’t want to modify the default settings, formatting changes can be made on a specific report. On Step 5 of building a report, the formatting page allows you to make modifications for each field appearing in that report.

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Tips and Tricks

Enhance your reporting capabilities with these practical tips and tricks. From formatting adjustments to efficient data management, these strategies will help you create clearer, more impactful reports.

Recommendation	Explanation
Displaying Date and Time	In a report, by default, fields such as “Submitted On” only show the date. To display both date and time when building a report, on the formatting step, remove the formatting value from the specific columns. After removing the formatting on the “Submitted On” field, the time value displays.
Creating Summary Reports	When building a report, you can create your own summary reports by using the Suppress Report Details option on the formatting page. This option limits the report to show only the headers and footers for each grouped section. Make sure to turn off the option to show headers when setting your group defaults and leave the footer option selected. This results in a formatted report that shows the footer totals.
View in Full-Screen Mode	When viewing the results of a report, this option removes the Issuetrak menu and allows the data to fill the entire browser window for less scrolling. This can be useful when you need to see extra columns or rows.
Exporting Data	You may elect to export your results to Excel or CSV. This allows for additional manipulation of data, such as creating graphs and charts based on your results.
Reporting on Inactive Types and Subtypes	Issue Types and Subtypes can be marked as inactive so that they can’t be selected on issues. To report on these inactive objects, you must temporarily reactivate the type or subtype long enough to create a filter in your report that includes those values. Once your report is created, you can deactivate the value. When you run the report, the deactivated value will be included. Alternatively, you can manually type the name of the inactive Issue Type or Subtype in the input conditions field when creating the filter, instead of selecting it with the magnifying glass icon. This method doesn’t require reactivating the inactive Issue Type or Subtype

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Advanced Search

When working with reports or searches, renaming columns and applying search operators can greatly enhance clarity and precision. Adjusting column names helps make data more intuitive, while operators and modifiers allow for flexible and refined searches. The section below outlines this in greater detail.

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Renaming Columns

By default, report columns display the actual field names. Renaming columns can provide more clarity and meaning to the data shown in reports.

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Search Modifiers and Operators

Issuetrak supports various operators and modifiers for search criteria, allowing searches to be refined for more precise results. By using specific characters, searches can be customized to match entire words, parts of words, or exclude certain criteria. The following table outlines the symbols, their descriptions, and examples:

Symbol	Description	Example
%	Represents zero or more characters	bl% finds bl, black, and blue
_	Represents a single character	h_t finds hot, hat, and hit
[]	Represents any single character within the brackets	h[oa]t finds hot and hat, but NOT hit
^	Represents any character NOT in the brackets	h[^oa]t finds hit, but NOT hot and hat
-	Represents any single character within the specified range in the brackets	c[a-c] finds cat, cbt, and cct, but not cdt

Additional notes

• The ^ character is only treated as a special character when placed inside brackets.
• The - (dash) character is treated specially by Issuetrak.
  • Starting a search with - followed by text searches for results not containing that text.

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Escaping Special Characters

When there is a need to search for %, _, or [ characters in the search text itself, they must be surrounded with brackets:

• % → [ % ]
• _ → [ _ ]
• [ → [ [ ]

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Special Handling

• To search for the - character at the start of a term, use brackets: [-].
• The ] character can be used normally in search text; it only has a special meaning when combined with [.

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Example of Searching for Special Characters

To search for the text [ytdsgPh87], enter [[]ytdsgPh87] in the search field. Without escaping, searching for ytdsgPh87 would locate individual characters like 'y', 't', 'd', etc., instead of the full text.

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Closing Thoughts

Issuetrak's reporting tools offer powerful insights into your data, helping you track performance, identify trends, and make informed decisions. Whether you're using out-of-the-box reports or customizing your own, there's a wide range of options to suit your needs. For more complex reporting requirements, our Professional Services team is available to assist with building advanced reports tailored to your specific goals. Reach out to your account manager or contact the Professional Services team directly to learn more.