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Report Details

Report Details

Jan 16, 2025

Overview

Reports are based on the Reportable tables in the Universal Controller database.

To create a report, you create a Report Details record and select a single Reportable table containing the data that you want to include in the report output. You can create a report as a list of table records or as a graphic.

To generate report output, you run the report either:

  • Manually

  • Automatically, as a Widget on any Dashboard. (If you delete a report from which a Widget was created, the Widget will no longer function.)

  • On schedule, by attaching the report to an Email Task or Email Notification action for any task type, and then defining a trigger for that task. When the task is triggered, the report is run.
     

Note

Some reports require specific roles; Reportable Tables identifies these tables.

Creating a Report

Step 1

From the Reporting navigation pane, select Reports. The Reports list displays a list of all existing reports.
 
To the right of the list, Report Details for a new Report displays. (You also can click the 

button to display Report Details for a new Report.)
 

Step 2

Enter/select Details for a new Report, using the field descriptions below as a guide.

  • Required fields display an asterisk ( * ) after the field name.

  • Default values for fields, if available, display automatically.

To display more of the Details fields on the screen, you can temporarily hide the list.
 

Note

If you view Report Details for an existing Report by clicking a Report in the list, and then want to create a new Report, you must click the New button that displays above and below the Details.

Step 3

Click a 

 button. The Report is added to the database, and all buttons and tabs in the Report Details are enabled.

Report Details

The following Report Details is for an existing Report.

Depending on the values that you enter / select for these fields, more (or less) fields may display. See the field descriptions, below, for a description of all fields that may display in the Report Details.
 

Report Details Field Descriptions

The following table describes the fields and buttons that display in the Report Details.

Field Name

Description

Field Name

Description

General

This section contains general information about the Report.

Title

Title (name) of the Report.
 
Report titles must be unique per visibility (see Visible To field, below):

  • Any Report that you make visible to Me (the logged in user) must have a unique Title among all Reports visible to Me.

  • Any Report that you make visible to Everyone (all users) must have a unique Title among all Reports visible to Everyone.

  • Any Report that you make visible to a Group or Groups must have a unique Title among all Reports visible to the Group or Groups .

Reports visible to Me, Everyone, and any number Groups can have the same title. However, there can only be a single Report, of the same title, visible to a particular Group.

For example, there can be multiple Reports titled Report #1 as long as only one is visible to Me, one is visible to Everyone, and only one Report titled Report #1 is visible to any specific Group.

Description

Description of this record. Maximum length is 255 characters.

Type

Type of Report (see Report Output).
 
Options:

  • List

  • Bar Chart/Horizontal

  • Bar Chart/Vertical

  • Pie Chart

Table

Universal Controller Reportable table in the Controller database on which the Report is based.

Visible To

Users that will be able to view this report.
 
Options:

  • Me
    User creating this Report.

  • Everyone
    Any logged in user.

  • <group name>
    Any user in the specified group or groups, selected from a list of groups that the user creating this Report is a member of or groups that this Report is currently already visible to.

List Fields and Ordering

For List reports; this section allows you to select and arrange fields for the report based on the selected Universal Controller table.

Field(s)

Fields in the selected Universal Controller table that you want displayed on the report.

Sort By:

Specifications for how you want fields in the Report to be sorted (see Sorting).

Chart Options

For Chart reports; this section allows you design the chart for the report based on the selected Universal Controller table.

Chart Size

Size of the displayed report.
 
Options:

  • Small

  • Medium

  • Large

  • 100% (full screen)

Group By

Field in the selected Universal Controller table by which you want to group the fields in the report.

Group Threshold

Maximum number of groups to display on the chart, specified by the Report Group Threshold Universal Controller system property. All groups above the threshold will be displayed in one group named Other.

Group Order

Sequence of the groups shown in the key below the chart graphic.
 
Options:

  • Label
    Ascending alphanumeric order by Label (for example, Name)

  • Label/Descending
    Descending alphanumeric order by Label (for example, Name)

  • Count
    Ascending alphanumeric order by number of records in the group

  • Count/Descending
    Ascending alphanumeric order by number of records in the group

Group Date/Time Format

Formatting of the Group By field value when grouping by a Date/Time field (such as Created or Updated).
 
Options:

  • - - None - -

  • yyyy

  • yyyy-mm

  • yyyy-mm-dd

  • yyyy-mm-dd hh

  • yyyy-mm-dd hh:mm

Group Date/Time Format is applicable (and visible) only when selecting a Date/Time field as the Group By field.

Stack By

Field in the selected Universal Controller table by which you want to sort records within each Group.

Sum Field

Sum of the integers in the field in the selected Universal Controller table by which you want to group the fields in the report.

Bar Thickness

Thickness of the bars on the chart.

Show Average

Indication of whether or not to display the average line on the bar chart.

Average Color

If Show Average is checked; Hexadecimal color of the average line. If an average color is not specified, the color is determined by the Report Average Color Universal Controller system property.

Show Threshold

Indication of whether or not to display the threshold line on the bar chart.

Threshold Color

If Show Threshold is checked; Hexadecimal color of the threshold line. If a threshold color is not specified, the color is determined by the Report Threshold Color Universal Controller system property.

Threshold Value

If Show Threshold is checked; Integer value for the threshold line.

Threshold Label

If Show Threshold is checked; Label for the threshold line. If a threshold label is not specified, the label will be Threshold.

Scheduled Options

This section allows you to override the values of Universal Controller System Properties for scheduled reports.

PDF Orientation

If Type is List; Orientation of the scheduled report PDF.
 
Options:

PDF Size

If Type is List; Size of the scheduled report PDF.
 
Options:

Image Width

If Type is Bar Chart/Horizontal, Bar Chart/Vertical, Pie Chart; Width (in pixels) of the scheduled chart report (overrides Scheduled Report Image Width system property).

Image Height

If Type is Bar Chart/Horizontal, Bar Chart/Vertical, Pie Chart; Height (in pixels) of the scheduled chart report (overrides Scheduled Report Image Height system property).

Filter

This section allows you filter entries displayed in the Report (see Filters).
 

If you are filtering on date-related fields using the between (inclusive) comparison operator (SQL BETWEEN condition), the database query can produce unexpected results when the later date is specified before the earlier date.

Metadata

This section contains Metadata information about this record.

UUID

Universally Unique Identifier of this record.

Updated By

Name of the user that last updated this record.

Updated

Date and time that this record was last updated.

Created By

Name of the user that created this record.

Created

Date and time that this record was created.

Buttons

This section identifies the buttons displayed above and below the Report Details that let you perform various actions.

Save

Saves a new Report record in the Controller database.

Save & New

Saves a new record in the Controller database and redisplays empty Details so that you can create another new record.

Save & View

Saves a new record in the Controller database and continues to display that record.

New

Displays empty (except for default values) Details for creating a new record.

Save As...

Saves the Report under a different Title and/or as being visible to different users.

Update

Saves updates to the record.

Run

Generates the report and displays it on a new tab. (Clicking Run does not save any new data entered for the report.)

Delete

Deletes the current record.

Refresh

Refreshes any dynamic data displayed in the Details.

Report Output

Report output can be created in either of four types, as specified by the Type field in the Report Details:

  • List

  • Pie Chart

  • Bar Chart/Horizontal

  • Bar Chart/Vertical

The following sample report outputs for each type were created from the same Universal Controller Reportable Database table: All tasks (ops_task).
 

List Report Output

List reports are output under a new tab.

By default, entries in List reports are not sorted; you must specify a sort method in the Sort By field in the Report Details.

Chart Report Output

Chart reports are output as pop-up graphics.

Chart reports entries are grouped by Type. You can see what percent of report entries are in each type by hovering your cursor over the graphic for that type.

List Report

Pie Chart Report

Bar Charts Reports - Horizontal and Vertical

The following Bar Chart reports show horizontal and vertical types both with and without an average line and a threshold line.

Vertical Bar Chart: Group By with Average Line 

Horizontal Bar Chart: Group By with Average Line

Vertical Bar Chart: Group By and Stack By with Average Line

Horizontal Bar Chart: Group By and Stack By with Average Line

Vertical Bar Chart: Sum Field with Average Line

Vertical Bar Chart: Average Line and Threshold Line

Built-In Reports

The Controller provides a series of built-in reports that are based on various Reportable Tables.
 

The title of each built-in report is preceded by UAC -.

Built-in reports are not editable, but you can use Save As to create a renamed copy of a built-in report, and then edit that report.

Exporting and Importing Reports

If you want to maintain the same reports across several environments (for example: Development, Staging, and Production), you can export Reports from any Controller cluster node and import those same Reports into any Controller cluster node.

Since every Report is Visible To a specific user, specific group(s), or Everyone (all users and groups), make sure that for every Report being exported which is visible to a specific user or group(s), that same user or group(s) also exists on the cluster node(s) to which the Report will be imported.

Exporting Reports

From the Reports list, you can export one Report, multiple Reports, or all Reports. To select specific Reports to be exported, apply a filter prior to exporting.

Each report is exported as an individual XML file to the cluster node location specified in the Export Path Universal Controller system property.
 

Note

You cannot select Reports on a list to indicate which are to be exported; you must filter the list.

 

To run the export:

Step 1

Display the Reports list.

Step 2

If you do not want to export all Reports, apply a filter.

Step 3

Right-click in any column header of the list to display an Action menu.

Step 4

Select Export > XML.

Step 5

When the export is complete, an Exported message displays above the list, indicating that the export is complete.

Importing Reports

You can import Reports, using the XML files created via a Reports list export, by using the Import action that is available from the Reports list (and from any list where the record type can be imported).

 

Note

Reports from Controller 5.x and earlier are not supported in Controller 6.x.

 

To run the import:

Step 1

Display the Reports list.

Step 2

Right-click in any column header of the list to display an Action menu.

Step 3

Select Import. An Import pop-up displays.
 

Step 4

Enter the directory containing the Report XML file(s) to be imported and click OK.

Step 5

Refresh the Reports list to view the imported reports.

The import performs a pre-validation on the XML files; if any files are found to be invalid, a warning displays on the Console and the import operation is aborted. Any invalid XML files should be fixed or removed from that location.

Scheduling a Report

To schedule a Report:

  1. Select a Report or Report Variable in an Email Task or an Email Notification action for any task type.

  2. Select a method of running the task.

When the task is run and the task instance has been created, an email is sent with the Report output attached.

Report Specifications

The Controller provides system properties that let you specify the layout and content of scheduled reports.

You can override some of these system properties in the Scheduled Options section of the Report Details.

Methods

To run a task that generates an email with an attached report, you can: