ICIS Reports - Best Practices - ICIS Customer Support · ICIS Reports - Best Practices April 24,...

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ICIS Reports - Best Practices

April 24, 2008

ICIS Reports – Best Practices

April 24, 2008 Page 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS ..........................................................................................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION .........................................................................................................................................................................................................2 PURPOSE.......................................................................................................................................................................................................................2 SETTING USER PREFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................................................2 SETTING DESKTOP INTELLIGENCE PREFERENCES .....................................................................................................................................2 SETTING WEB INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENT PREFERENCES ......................................................................................................................3 IE SETTINGS - DOWNLOADING FILES ................................................................................................................................................................3 VIEWING REPORTS IN PDF.....................................................................................................................................................................................4 INFOVIEW – SCHEDULE PROPERTIES................................................................................................................................................................4 WEBI – SETTING THE DESIRED DATE FORMAT..............................................................................................................................................5 WEB INTELLIGENCE REPORT OPTIONS............................................................................................................................................................6 MANAGING REPORTS ..............................................................................................................................................................................................7 GUIDELINES TO SCHEDULE REPORTS...............................................................................................................................................................9 REPORT SCHEDULING STEPS..............................................................................................................................................................................10 SAVING CONTEXT FOR REPORTS......................................................................................................................................................................13 CLEARING PROMPT VALUES FOR WEBI REPORTS .....................................................................................................................................14 CHANGING THE ORDER OF THE USER PROMPTS IN WEBI REPORTS...................................................................................................15 SAVING REPORT RESULTS TO CSV FILE.........................................................................................................................................................18 EXCEPT OPERATOR................................................................................................................................................................................................21 FORMATTING DATA THAT CONTAINS MORE THAN 2 DECIMAL PLACES...........................................................................................23



INTRODUCTION

PURPOSE

The purpose of this document is to provide ICIS users with resolutions to some common user issues, provide the knowledge required to perform everyday reporting tasks efficiently, and to describe of some of the key features of Business Objects –XI.

SETTING USER PREFERENCES

1. Click on the “Preferences” Icon on the right side of the tool bar.

2. You can set preferences for various categories like General, Desktop Intelligence, Web Intelligence etc.

SETTING DESKTOP INTELLIGENCE PREFERENCES

Select a View Format

Choose Portable Document Format (Adobe Reader required), to view the Desktop Intelligence documents in PDF format.



SETTING WEB INTELLIGENCE DOCUMENT PREFERENCES

Select a View Format

Choose Portable Document Format (Adobe Reader required) – To view the web Intelligence documents in PDF format.

Select a Report Panel

Choose Java Report Panel for running Webi reports.

Note: After the preferences are chosen click ‘OK’ or ‘Apply’ button to apply these preferences.

IE SETTINGS - DOWNLOADING FILES

Issue:

Users get the following message when attempting to download reports from XI and they cannot download the report files:

Resolution:

1) From IE, go to Tools > Pop-up Blocker > Set to > Turn off pop –up blocker.

2) From IE, go to Tools > Internet Options > Click on Security Tab >Click Trusted Sites > Click “Sites” button and enter the following site.

https://*.epa.gov



VIEWING REPORTS IN PDF

Issue:

Users aren’t able to view reports in PDF, even when there preferences are set.

Resolution:

1) Close all Internet Explorer windows.

2) Open Adobe Acrobat Reader. Click Edit > Preferences.

3) Click Internet in the Categories column of the Preferences property sheet.

4) Choose Display PDF in browser check box.

5) Click OK.

INFOVIEW – SCHEDULE PROPERTIES

Issue:

Users see “Never Run” in the Last Run column when looking at their reports in InfoView, even though they have run the report.

Explanation:

The Last Run column is only for scheduled jobs. That column only changes from "Never Run" to a date and time-stamp if the report has ever been scheduled. The purpose of this column is for users to keep track of their scheduled jobs.



WEBI – SETTING THE DESIRED DATE FORMAT

Issue:

Users want to set the date format in reports to something other than the default

Resolution:

1) In the “Edit Report” panel in Webi, select the date column (including the values) you want formatted.

2) Right mouse click and choose “Format Number”.

3) Choose ‘Date/Time” as the ‘Format Type’ .

4) Select the Date/Time format you want. (see screen shot below).



4) Click ‘OK’ to set the desired date format.

WEB INTELLIGENCE REPORT OPTIONS

When you have multiple queries in your report, by default, BO links the queries. If you want them to be treated as separate queries, turn off the “Auto-merge dimensions” option in Document Properties

1) In Web Intelligence, in the “Edit Report” tab, right click somewhere in the white space in your report.

2) Select Document Properties from the list.

3) Scroll down to Data Synchronization Options and un-check “Auto-merger dimensions”



4) This option will be turned off for only this report. You will need to turn it off for all other reports as needed.

MANAGING REPORTS

1. The reports in your Inbox have limited options such as to run the report or to “Mark as Read/“Mark as Unread”. If you prefer having more options such Schedule, Modify, etc., then move the reports to your Favorites folder.

2. To move a report to your Favorites folder, select the report by putting a check mark in the box to the left of the report.



3. From the Organize drop down menu, select “Move to New Folder” or “Copy to New Folder”, then select “My Favorites” (or any subfolders you have created in your Favorites folder). If you select Add to My Favorites it will create a shortcut to the report in your inbox, and renames the file to “Shortcut to <filename>…..”

4. Click on the Favorites Folder, you will have the following options.

• History – shows scheduled runs for the particular report • Schedule – allows you to schedule the report • Modify – Launches Webi to allow you to edit and run the report • Properties – Shows you when the report was created and modified etc. You can add description to the report in this view.



5. Click Modify to open the report in Webi, and you will see the tool bar below,

• Edit Report - allows you to format the report, you can also Save the report from here • Edit Query - allows you to add objects to the query results and query filters, You cannot save from this window.

• Edit Query without running the report - You can add objects to the report, and still save the report without clicking “Run Query”. Once the report has been modified, select Edit report, then click the Save Icon and Select “Save As”.

GUIDELINES TO SCHEDULE REPORTS

Report should be scheduled if it meets any of the following criteria.

1. You anticipate that the report runs for more than 5 minutes.

2. You anticipate the report to generate at least 1000 pages.

3. The report is complex i.e. if the information is retrieved from various subject areas, if the report has complex formatting.

4. If you have never ran this report before and have no idea about how many pages the report might generate.



REPORT SCHEDULING STEPS

1. Click on “Schedule” link on the report.

2. Instance title – This text field allows you to change the report title.

3. Expand “When” and choose the option for “Run Object”.



4. Choose Destination = “Inbox” to forward the report results to a users inbox.

5. Expand Format and choose “Adobe Acrobat” as the format for your report.

6. Keep the defaults settings for “Print Settings”, “Caching Options”, “Server Group”, and “Events”



7. Expand “Prompts” to display the list of prompts.

8. Click on “Modify Values” to enter values for the prompts.

9. Click on “Apply” to complete entering all the values for the prompts.



10. Click on “Schedule” to complete the schedule process.

SAVING CONTEXT FOR REPORTS

The context can be saved in the report by the developer so that the same context is always used and the user is not prompted to select it every time. (That is, assuming the Context used is always the same).

1. Edit the report in Webi

2. Select the “Edit Query” Tab

3. Then Select the “Properties” tab, scroll down to the “Context” section, see below



4. De-select “Reset contexts” on refresh.

5. Repeat steps 1 – 4 for each query in the report that contains a context

CLEARING PROMPT VALUES FOR WEBI REPORTS

For Webi reports using “User Defined Prompts” the prompt values can be cleared so that each time the report is opened, the prompts are blank. The report used in this example, “Schedule Forecast with Violations State Prompt”, has only “User Defined Prompts”, so they can be defined to not save the last values entered into the prompt.

This is an example of “Predefined Prompts”

This is an example of “User Defined Prompts”

From the Edit Query Panel in Webi, for each user defined prompt in the report, click the icon circled in red above. The box below will appear. De-select “Keep last value(s) selected”. (By default, this is selected). Save the report.



CHANGING THE ORDER OF THE USER PROMPTS IN WEBI REPORTS

1. Click on the properties Tab in “Edit Query” panel.

2. Scroll down to the “Prompt Order” section.



3. Select the prompt and move up or down using the arrows keys to set the order of display.



SAVING REPORT RESULTS TO CSV FILE

• CSV files can be saved in XI in InfoView only and not in Webi.

• CSV file can be saved only when the report is viewed in HTML.

• Saving to .CSV file is not available if the report is viewed in PDF mode.

Below are the steps to save the results of a report as .CSV file type.

1. Run the report report in infoview.



2. Toggle to view in “HTML Format” (if your default is to view in PDF).



3. Click on Document menu Save to my computer as CSV to save the results into .CSV file.



EXCEPT OPERATOR

Do not use EXCEPT operator in query filter, instead use “Not in List”(This info is on the ICIS Home page, the users suggested we add it to the document).

MAXIMIZING THE SCREEN FOR WEBI AND INFOVIEW

Suggestions to maximize screen for Webi and Infoview:

1. Point at icon in top left for maximizing screen.



2. Folders in the left hand side can be hidden. Once you click the arrow to hide, to toggle back on you need to select the toggle icon in the top right.



3. Preference settings in the General tab section will allow you to maximize your screen. FORMATTING DATA THAT CONTAINS MORE THAN 2 DECIMAL PLACES

Users can format how the data is displayed in their Webi reports, the "DMR Value" object from the IIRS Universe is an example of an object whose data might contain more than 2 decimal places.

1. -From Webi, in Edit Report, right click on the data you want to format.

2. -Select Number Format

3. -Highlight Custom and add ##.#######

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