Custom Reports

The Custom Reports feature allows you to create report templates based on any combination of criteria, with many formatting options.  Formatting options include headings, columns, sorting, and color graphs.  Single and two-level metrics based on any fields can be included.  Report output can be exported to another application (such as Excel) and can be scheduled to be run on a regular basis.

Report Options

Note

The names of many of the fields in FootPrints can be changed by the administrator (Title, Priority, Status, Description, etc.), as well as the name of the records (Issue).  Custom fields can also be created.  For clarity, this manual always refers to FootPrints records as “Issues” and uses the default terms for the other field names.

To create a custom report, select Reports | Custom from the FootPrints Toolbar. The Custom Report Wizard is displayed:

1. Step 1: Style—Select the output style of the report.  Choices are:
2. Columns—Issue data is displayed in fixed columns. One Issue is displayed per row. Columns can be selected from any available fields.
3. Wrapped—Each Issue returned is displayed in its own mini-table. Line breaks can be used to wrap data to multiple rows, for example, to place the Description in its own row. This style is useful for printing reports that contain many fields.
4. Metrics and Graphics—Create custom metrics and graphs of counts, averages and sums on any field. Single and two-level metrics are supported. Output options include table, bar, and pie charts.
5. Export—Export data to atext file that can be saved to your local desktop. Use this format to import FootPrints data into a spreadsheet or other programs 
6. Include metrics...—Column and Wrapped reports can also contain metric charts and graphs. Check this box to include metrics in a Column or Wrapped report (not available for Export option).

2. Click GO to display the rest of the report options. The steps on the next page depend on the report style selected in Step 1.
3. Step 2: Heading—Define what is included in the heading at the top of the report output. Available for all styles except Export. Options include:

• Title—This is displayed at the top of the report.
• Date—The date the report is run (updates each time the report template is re-run).
• Time—The time the report is run (updates each time the report template is re-run).
• Project name—The name of the Project.
• Logo graphic—The logo image displayed in the current Project.

4. There are two possible steps 3. One if for column and wrapped reports and the other is for metric reports and combo reports.
1. Step 3: Fields Displayed—Select the columns to display in the report. All fields are available. This option is available for all styles except Metrics. For example, to display Title:
2. For Type of Field, choose FootPrints Fields.
3. Highlight Title under Fields.
4. Click Add Field.  Title now is added to the Selected Fields box.
5. History—The History field is a special field that includes the Issue history in the report.  This provides an audit trail in reporting.  Because this type of report searches every record of every change to the Issues that are being reported, using this field can cause a slowdown in the reporting.
6. Re-order—To change the order of fields to be displayed, highlight a field in the Selected Fields box and click the up or down arrow to move it.
7. Line Break—Insert a line break (Wrapped style only).
8. Description—Choose which descriptions to include in the report and when to wrap the data (only applies if  Description is included in the Selected Fields box).  You can include the original, newest, two most recent, or three most recent descriptions in your report.

Note

An Original Description option is not available for the FootPrints database.

• Assignees—If Assignees is selected, the full names of the assignees are displayed in the report (e.g., Bob Smith).  This is not suitable for importing the report output into another Project, as user ID’s must be specified in a data import file.  To create a file that includes assignees user IDs (e.g., Bob Smith), use the System Administration Export Project Data option.
• Metrics and Graphics—Create custom metrics and graphs of counts, averages, and sums on any field. The option is available for Metric style, and for Column and Wrapped style if the Combo checkbox is checked. Metrics and Graphics Options

Note

This section only determines which fields to display; it does not determine the selection criteria for the report.  The criteria are chosen later in the report.

Select the columns to be displayed in the report
 

5. There are two possible Step 4. The first is for reports to be displayed in the FootPrints interface and the second is for reports that are to be exported to a file.
1. Step 4: Sort Order—Define how Issues are sorted in the report output. This option is available for all styles except Metrics.  The  default is by Issue number in ascending order (from lowest to highest).  Optionally sort on up to any three fields, ascending or descending.  Issues are sub-sorted within each field based on the sort order.  Clicking the Heading box separates Issues into groups with the field name as header.  For example, if sorting by Status with Heading checked, all Open Issues are grouped under the heading Open, Closed Issues are grouped under the heading Closed, etc.

Sort the Issues in the report on up to 3 fields

2. Step 4: Text File Format—Select the format for text file output.  This only applies to Export style. Choices are comma-delimited file (.csv), tab delimited (.tsv), or your custom delimited (.txt).
   Note on Data Encoding.
6. Step 5: Select Report Criteria—With metric reports, this is Step 4. Choose the criteria for the report.  Only select the criteria you want to search on.  The FootPrints Advanced Reporting criteria section uses the same mechanism as the Advanced Search.  Refer to section above on Advanced Search for detailed explanation of criteria.

Note

It is important to understand the meaning of relative periods and aging in order to obtain accurate information, especially as the searching and reporting functions of FootPrints rely on the same types of criteria.  If a search is requested on Issues for "the previous three months," and the date is the 15th of May, then the period searched or reported on will be from February 15th through May 14th, inclusive.  That is, the report or search will exclude the current date and give the three month period prior to the current date.  This is to ensure that reports and searches yield consistent results.  If reports and searches included the current date, then the results might differ depending on the time of day at which the search or report was performed.

7. Step 6: Run Report—Click GO to run the report. To save the report, enter a name before you run it.  Choose Personal to save the report for yourself.  Choose Shared/Internal to share your report template with other internal FootPrints users. Shared/Public reports are available to all users including customers (the report only contains data the user is allowed to see).  Shared/Public reports appear on the customer Pre-Defined Reports page.  Each time a saved report template is run, it returns the latest matching data.

Note

Saving the report here only saves the report formatting options and criteria chosen in this form, notthe results of the report.  This feature can be used to run the same report in the future, for example, once a week.  Each time the report is run, it returns the latest data from the current Project.  Saving report output is covered in the topic on Saving and Printing Report Data.

After clicking GO, the report is displayed in a separate browser window.  Large reports sometimes take a few minutes to run.  To view the details of an Issue, click the Issue number (or whatever field is in the first column) in the report.  This displays the Details page for that Issue in the main FootPrints frame.

The report can be saved or printed from the browser window.  If the Export style was selected, a Save As dialog box is displayed.  Save and name the report to your local hard drive.

Note on Permissions

Reports can be restricted based on a user's RoleA user type assigned to one or more users to define permissions. Both built-in roles and custom roles can be assigned to users. Examples of built-in roles include Agent, Customer Read/Submit, and Project Administrator.. Custom Reports may not be available or some options may not appear if your role does not allow access.  Please consult your FootPrints administrator for more information.