Calendar Reports

Calendar reports enable you to visualize temporal data in a calendar format. When date-sensitive items are shown in a calendar format, you can instantly see the timing of tasks and how they fit together in your schedule. Each item that is returned in the Calendar report can display a few relevant fields of important information.

Also, Calendar reports can be combined into a Multi-Calendar report, which provides a comprehensive view of the data. For more information on Multi-Calendar reports, see Multi-Calendar Reports.

Key Benefits

  • Allows you to visualize date-centric data in a user-friendly calendar format.
  • Allows you to quickly and easily answer questions such as "Who is on vacation this month?" and "What are the critical milestones for my department in the next two months?"

Content Options

The following options are available in the Content area for Calendar reports.

  • Report Item Type

    Contains the primary table for the selected application and any auxiliary tables for which you have privileges. Select the table that contains the information for the report.

  • Report Project

    For reports based on primary tables, the project you select when creating a report determines which items are returned in your report. The project selection also determines where the report is stored and which users can access the report. For example, if you select Project A, only users who have privileges to run reports in Project A can run the report.

    For details, refer to Selecting a Report Project.

  • Event Start Field
    Select a Date/Time field that represents the starting date and time for the event you want to view. If an item's start date is null, the item does not appear on the calendar.
    Tip: Some months display days from the prior month and the following month. If an event time range spans any part of the visual date range, it appears on the calendar even if the event does not actually start or end within the selected month.
  • Event End Field

    Select a Date/Time field that represents the end date and time for the event you want to view.

    Use the Event End Field field if you want to view a date span for the item. If you do not want to view a span, do not select an end field.

    If an item's end date is empty, the item appears on only one day in the calendar. If an item's end date is less than the start date, the item will only span one day.

  • Use Value Display Format

    Or

    Primary Display Field

    and

    Secondary Display Field

    Select the Use Value Display Format check box to display item details on the calendar using the current value display format. Otherwise, clear the check box and select primary and secondary fields to display for each item instead.

  • Initial Date

    Enter an Initial Date to start tracking. Click the calendar icon to select a specific date or click the Date/Time Keywords link to select a Date/Time keyword, such as Now or Startof_NextWeek.

  • Initial Time Period

    Set the Initial Time Period for the calendar to display. This controls whether the calendar initially displays in Days, Weeks, or Months.

  • Default Event Color

    Select a default color to display for all items in the calendar for this event. Click the current color to open the color picker. In the color picker, you can select a different color or type a HEX value to use a color of your choice.

  • Field Event Color

    Optionally, in the Field Event Color drop-down list, select a field and assign a color value to each of the field values. For example, assign different colors for active and inactive items.

    If you select (Default), the Default Event Color is used.

  • Default Event Icon

    Select a default icon to display for all items in the calendar for this event. Click the current icon to open the icon picker.

  • Field Event Icon

    Optionally, in the Field Event Icon drop-down list, select a field and assign an icon to each of the field values. For example, assign different icons for different Priority field values.

Search Filters

Search filters enable you to narrow your search for items. Depending on your privileges, you can define basic conditions or Advanced SQL Conditions.

Note: You can change the type of condition the report uses, but your search criteria is not converted. For example, if you specify an Advanced SQL condition, and then select the Use Basic Conditions option, your Advanced SQL is not converted to a basic condition.

Select the following options for creating a search filter for your report:

Option Description
Include Items From Sub-projects Select this check box to include items from sub-projects of the project selected from the Report Project list. This option is not available for reports created against auxiliary tables.
Show Search Filter In Results Select this option to display your Search Filter settings in the output of the report. This option allows report viewers to see which filters are used in the report. It is also helpful when you select to print a report, since it displays which Query At Runtime parameters were selected.
Limit selections using field dependencies and project selections

Select this check box to use the project's field dependency rules.

For example, in Project A, the Priority field has a dependency with the Severity field. The dependency states that when the Severity field is Critical, then the Priority field must be 1 or 2.

You create a Details report on Project A and add a Search Specification of Severity in Critical. Then, you add a Search Specification for the Priority field. The available Field Values for the Priority field will be limited to 1 and 2.

Note: Changing this setting does not affect values that have already been selected.
Use Basic Conditions Allow you to define a search filter by making selections from the list of fields. For detailed information about using basic conditions, refer to Using Basic Conditions in SBM Reports.
Use Advanced SQL Conditions

(on-premise customers only)

SQL (Structured Query Language) is an industry-standard language for selecting records from a database. For detailed information about using Advanced SQL conditions in SBM reports, refer to Using Advanced SQL Conditions in SBM Reports.

Additional Options

The following options are available in the Additional Options area of the Calendar report form.
  • Footer
    Optionally, supply a footer for your report.
    Note: The footer renders some common HTML tags such as <i>, <b>, and <font>. However, this means that character entity references such as >, <, ", and & are not encoded in the footer. Therefore, in order to display <Some Text> in the footer, you must send the following encoded sequence: &lt;Some Text&gt;.
  • Optional HTML Template
    This drop-down list contains HTML templates for customizing the look of your report. Provided templates include excellist.htm, which improves the display of Listing report results when they are exported (by right-clicking the report output and then selecting Export to Microsoft Excel), and massselectlist.htm, which provides buttons at the top of the page, enabling you to select or clear the check boxes for all items in the results list. Your administrator can customize report templates, and the templates in the list may or may not apply to the type of report you are creating. Select the template from the drop-down list.
    Note: This option is available for applicable report types in the SBM User Workspace and for Listing reports in Serena Work Center.

Results

Calendar reports appear in a single frame in the content pane. Calendar reports can be combined into a single Multi-Calendar report view.

Click on items that appear in the report to view the item's details and change them. The item appears in a new content pane. After viewing, updating, or transitioning the item, click the X button to return to the original report.

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Use the following navigation and display options in the Calendar report:

  1. The sidebar summarizes the number of items that are displayed for each field value (and their associated color or icon). Select or clear the check boxes to toggle the current display of these items. For example, if you want to temporarily hide all items owned by Samir, clear the check box next to his name under the Owner field.

    The field values that appear in the sidebar depend on the items that are displayed for the current time period (month, week, day). For example, if Samir does not own any of the items that are displayed in the current month, his name does not appear under the Owner field (even if you assigned a specific color or icon to his name). However, if he owns items that are displayed in the previous month, his name appears in the sidebar when you view that month.

    The sidebar does not appear if there are no events configured in the Calendar report.

  2. Click the left arrow to hide the sidebar. Click the right arrow that appears while it is hidden to view the sidebar again.
  3. Use the left and right arrows to shift to the next month, week, or day (depending on which option is currently selected in the Initial Time Period setting that is designated in the Calendar report).
  4. Click Today to view the current day on the calendar.
  5. Click the down arrow next to the current month, week, or day to display a specific date using a calendar.
  6. Click the reload button to refresh the calendar's display. This means if a new item meets the report criteria, it will appear in the report. The current display options are not changed.
  7. Change the calendar view to display by Month, Week, or Day by clicking the corresponding option above the calendar.

In addition:

  • Hover over a displayed item to view the item's details and the event date span of the item.
  • In the Month view, a number indicator (like +3 more) appears at the top of days that have additional items that can be viewed. Click the number that appears to switch to the day view and display the entire list. Click Month to return to the month view.
    Tip: The number of additional items that are displayed depends on the current size of your browser. For example, if five items are currently displayed and you resize the browser to smaller size, less items are displayed and the indicator for the number of additional items to view increases.
  • In the Month view, select a cell for a specific day and click Day to view the list of items for that day.
  • In the Month view, if days from the preceding or following month are displayed, click them to display either the prior month or next month.