Creating or Modifying a Report Using the Desktop Client

Purpose

Use these Serena® Dimensions® CM Desktop client operation to:

• Create, modify, or delete a report

• Add a report to, or remove it from, Favorite Reports.

PRIVILEGES  To create, or modify, or delete public reports you need the Manage Public Reports privilege.

Creating a Report

1. In the Reports and Lists window, either:

a    right-click the My Reports tree node:  or the Public Reports tree node: , select New, and then select an object class report to be created (for example, Items Report, Requests Report, or Baselines Report) from the list; or

b    if a report of the appropriate object class has already been created, you can right-click on that object class tree node (which groups all currently existing reports of that object class) and select New <object class>s Report (for example, New Items Report).

NOTE  Currently Desktop client supports more object classes for reports than web client. Consequently, certain object class reports that you create in Desktop client will not be visible in web client.

2. On the Report Builder dialog box, set up the report generation criteria and then click the Run button to generate a preview of the client report based on the choices you make. The generated preview report will be displayed in a standard right-hand desktop client view (inheriting the functionality such views afford).

Setting Up the Report

NOTE  After installation of Dimensions CM, all Report Builder menu areas are initially collapsed; to expand them, click the  buttons. The collapsed or expanded state of these menu areas is saved when the Report Builder dialog box is closed, that is, the next time the Report Builder dialog box is opened they will be in the same state.

Enter your reporting criteria as explained below:

1. Enter a Report Name.

If you do not check the is public check box, after the report is created its name will appear in the appropriate object class tree node below the My Reports tree node  in the Reports and Lists navigation window. Only you will be able to see this report name in the navigation pane.

Alternatively, if you do check the is public check box, after the report is created its name will appear in the appropriate object class tree node below the Public Reports tree node  in the Reports and Lists navigation window. All users will be able to see this report name in the navigation pane.

NOTE  If at any stage in the remainder of this procedure you wish to clear your currently entered reporting criteria and reset them to the defaults for this object class, click the Clear Report button

 

2. In the Context menu area:

a    Select one or <ALL PRODUCTS> products from the Product drop down list.

b    Select from the Type filter the object class types that you wish to include in the scope of the report. The types available for selection will depend on the class of Dimensions CM object and product you selected earlier.

3. In the Report Type menu area:

a    For Type, select the report type.

Depending on the type of report selected, selection in the additional Then by fields may be non-enabled.

Selection in the additional Date span field only depends on the attribute selected in any of the Group by fields; if at least one of them is a date attribute, then the Date span field will be enabled regardless of the report type selected.

b    For Group by and, if selectable, Then by and Date span, select the desired attribute type to be used to group the elements of the generated report. Where present and selectable, click the Ascending or Descending radio button to specify whether you wish the element grouping to be displayed in ascending or descending order respectively—the default is ascending.

4. In the Attributes to Display menu area, system attributes that you include in the Selected list are displayed when you generate the report.

NOTE  For report types that support subsequently generated child drilldown reports, these attributes will be displayed in the child drilldown report; otherwise, the attributes will be displayed in the generated report itself.

To manage the attributes in the Selected list, do the following:

a    First expand System Attributes in the Available list by clicking on the '+' sign. This will display a graphical tree of all the system attributes for this object class that are available for adding to the Selected list.

b    To add an attribute to the Selected list, select it (single click) in the Available list and click the button (which will now be enabled).

c     To remove an attribute from the Selected list, select it (single click) in the Selected list and click the  button to move it back to the Available list.

d    To move an attribute up the Selected list, select it and click the button.

e    To move an attribute down the Selected list, select it and click the  button.

5. In the Filtering menu area, attributes and/or relationships that you include in the Selected list can have sophisticated Boolean filtering criteria applied to them when you generate the report.

To manage the filtering, do the following:

a    Expand System Attributes, User Attributes (if present), and/or Relationships in the Available list by clicking on the relevant '+' sign. This will display a graphical tree of all the attributes and/or relationships for this object class that are available for adding to the Selected list.

b    Select an attribute or relationship (single click) in the Available list and click the button (which will now be enabled):

•      If an attribute is selected, a value specification dialog box is displayed and for date/time attributes there is an associated find button .

•      If a relationship is selected, a relationship specification dialog box is displayed and for most relationships an associated find button  and an associated keywords button .

c     For a system attribute or user attribute (if present):

•      Select a logical operator from the Date must be or Value must be drop down list, if not grayed out. The logical operator specifies how you wish to filter with respect to the this date/time or this value field, for example, filter to show all Titles that match (Equal to) or do not match (Not equal to) the entry in the Value field. The full list of filtering logical operations available is:

•      For date/time attributes: equal to, not equal to, before, after, not after, not before, is null, and is not null.

•      For other attributes: equal to, not equal to, less than, greater than, less than or equal to, greater than or equal to, Is null, and is not null.

•      Provide an attribute value by one of the following means:

•      Directly type a value in the this date/time or this value field. For text fields, you can use “&” or “*”as a wildcard character. Note that this works when the logical operator is equal to or not equal to, and therefore is equivalent to the expressions “like” and “not like” in some other query syntaxes. (See Examples: .)

•      Select one of the pre-populated values from the this date/time or this value selection pick list. Depending on the attribute you selected, you can select certain special values, for example:

•      <Query at Runtime> a variable that enables you to specify the value at the time the report is run.

•      <Today>, <Today>+ 7, <Today>-7, <Today>+30, <Today>-30, <Today>+365, <Today>-365 variables for date/time attributes.

IMPORTANT!  <Query at Runtime> can currently only be selected for one attribute or relationship.

•      For date/time attributes, click the find value button to invoke an associated calendar dialog box to enable you to select an appropriate date.

•      Click the OK button.

The selected attribute with specified value will be included in the selected list. If you want this attribute value to be included in a NOT logical relationship, click the button (which will now be enabled).

d    For a relationship, provide a relationship value by one of the following means:

•      Directly enter the required relationship in the <Object_class> object to relate to field.

•      Click the find relationship button  to invoke an associated find dialog box (access the help if you need assistance in using the find dialog box).

•      Click the keywords relationship button to select one of several pre-populated relationship values. Depending on the relationship you selected, you can select certain special values, for example:

•      <Query at Runtime> a variable that enables you to specify the relationship at the time the report is run.

•      <Current <Object Class>>, for example <Current Project>.

IMPORTANT!  <Query at Runtime> can currently only be selected for one attribute or relationship.

•      Click the OK button.

The selected relationship with specified value will be included in the selected list. If you want this relationship value to be included in a NOT logical relationship, click the button (which will now be enabled).

e    Repeat Step b and Step c or Step d as many times as required to build up the compound filter criteria in the Selected list as explained below (the various buttons mentioned below will be enabled or disabled depending on context).

•      To add a filter criterion, complete Step b and Step c or Step d above. As each filter criterion is added, it will be placed by default into a logical AND relationship with the previously added filter criterion. To change the relationship, click the relationship and the appropriate button as follows:

	Click to change the logical relationship back to the default AND.
	Click to change the logical relationship to OR.
	Click to logically negate the currently selected expression.
	Once you have started populating the Selected list, for certain attributes, when you then select in the Available list, the  button will change to an  button.   This button performs the same function as the  button but places the attribute value specifically into a logical AND relationship with the last relationship currently in the Selected list.
	Once you have started populating the Selected list, for certain attributes, when you then select in the Available list, the  button will change to an  button.   This button performs the same function as the  button but places the attribute value specifically into a logical OR relationship with the last relationship currently in the Selected list.

•      To delete a filter criterion, select it and click the  button. To delete all filter criteria, click the button.

•      To modify a filter criterion: select the criterion and click the  button; modify, as appropriate, the system attribute value in the value specification dialog box or the relationship in the relationship specification dialog box. The filter criterion will be updated appropriately.

•      To move an attribute or relationship criterion up the Selected list, select it and click the button.

•      To move an attribute or relationship criterion down the Selected list, select it and click the  button.

NOTES:

•      Filter criteria that you enter are optimized by the Dimensions CM desktop client. Consequently, the criteria may appear in a slightly different format to that specified. However, client report results are not affected.

•      For item reports, the items retrieved are restricted to the selected project. However, items can belong to more than one project, therefore the number of item revisions retrieved may be greater than the number that are displayed when you run the report.

•      Examples:

To create a report to find CR requests that are not closed and are critical or severe, or CRs that are raised, your filter in the Selected list will look like this:

Status <> [CLOSED]

AND

Severity/Priority = [1_critical]

OR

Severity/Priority = [2_severe']

OR

Status = [RAISED]

To create a report to find items of file extension .zip that do not contain the string “output” in the filename, and are owned by JSMITH, your filter will look like this:

Filename = [%.zip]

AND

Filename <> [%output%]

AND

Owner = [JSMITH]

6. In the Sorting menu area:

NOTE  This menu is only applicable to a listing report and a drilldown list.

a    For Sorted by, select the desired attribute type and click Ascending or Descending to decide how the attributes are sorted in the elements of the generated report.

b    For subsequent Then by fields, further refine your attribute sorting criteria.

7. Proceed to Test Running Your Report to test run your report prior to saving it or modifying your reporting selections.

Test Running Your Report

1. Click the Run button to generate a preview of the client report based on the choices you made. The generated preview report will be displayed in a standard right-hand desktop client view (inheriting the functionality such views afford).

An example of a preview report is shown below. The highlighted area contains the toolbar buttons used to save the preview report, edit the preview report if you wish to make changes to it prior to saving it, export the preview report to a file, or in a preview report.

The preview shows you the client report or summary report (see Drilling Down into a Client Report Using the Desktop Client) that will be generated based on the choices you made when setting up the report

If you are satisfied with the preview of the report, click the save toolbar button . The report will be added the left-hand Reports and Lists navigation pane to the  or tree node as appropriate.

If you wish to refine your report, click the edit toolbar button . You will be returned to the dialog box you used to set up the report, see Setting Up the Report.

If you wish to export the report in various formats, click the export toolbar button . The formats into which you can save the report depend on the report type, but comprise in total:

• Comma separated variables (CSV) suitable for importing into other tools.

• BMP image file.

See Exporting a Client Report Using the Desktop Client for more details.

If you wish to select all the objects in the report, click the select all objects toolbar button .

Related Topics

Drilling Down into a Client Report Using the Desktop Client

Exporting a Client Report Using the Desktop Client

Report Builder

Running a Client Report Using the Desktop Client