Reporting in EMu

1. Reporting in EMu Crystal != Reporting or Why is reporting so difficult and can we do anything about it? Bernard Marshall KE Software

2. What is reporting? • Produce a document from the results of a search • Export information, uni-directional • Interpretation of original data source • Formatting of information • Possible computation of data (eg. totals, averages, counts, etc) • Visual representation of search results (eg. table, graph, etc).

3. Why do we need reports? • Extract information in a portable format. • Provide information in a “user-friendly” format. • Interpret “raw results” in new and informative ways. • Layout data in a specific pre-defined format. • Supply information to third party products. • Boss asked for it!

4. Why is it so difficult? • Requires an understanding of the underlying data structures • Different data models between EMu (object) and reporter (relational) data sources • Different data representations (partial dates, etc) • Need to group fields to get correct table structure • Wide range of report writers available • High level of skills required to master each report writer • Need to deal with column names

5. Differing data models – ODBC, CSV • emultime.csv • emultimedia_key • irn • MulTitle • MulDescription • MulCreat.csv • MulCreator_jet • emultimedia_key • MulCreator

6. Differing data models - XML

7. How does EMu’s reporting work? texserver Server generates report data in XML S xml Media Filter Media filter adds in media paths xml System|Setting|Reports|Media Filter|crystal|reportsmedia Filter transforms XML to required format Filter CSV/XML/Other System|Setting|Reports|Filter|crystal|texxmlodbc Files are transferred from server to client List of files to client CSV/XML/Other Report writer is invoked Action Reporter format System|Setting|Reports|Action|crystal|Run ODBC crystal.exe Report is viewed by user Report

8. Some example reports • Crystal • Word • Excel • Powerpoint • XML • CSV

9. List/Worksheet Mode Reporting While viewing records in List/Worksheet mode select records: • Copy onto Windows clipboard for pasting • Select print button for “excel” like print

10. Summary Reporting While viewing matching set, produce a summary: • Copy results of summary to clipboard in a variety of formats (eg. excel, text, rtf, etc). • Provide a nicer printing option

11. Admin Reports • Ability to run server side reports • Provides reporting across all modules and aspects of the system • Hooks into the client reporting system to produce standard reports • Provides sophisticated scripting for full access to server side tables • Difficult to write reports

12. XML Reports (the future)? • XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides a simple text based format for data interchange. • “Report writers” can process the data to produce a variety of output formats and structures. • XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformations) provides a mechanism for transforming XML into a large variety of output formats (eg, html, pdf, PCL, etc). • Still early days (XSLT is very ugly) but removes dependency on legacy ODBC style data formats.

13. XML based reporting texserver texserver xml xml XSLT Processor List of files to client XSLT Document XML/HTML/PDF/PCL/Other xml List of files to client XSLT Processor XML/HTML/PDF/PCL/Other XML/HTML/PDF/PCL/Other Report Report

14. How can we make reporting easier? Simple reports • Are there any features that would allow simple reports to be produced more easily? • Are there other simple reporting mechanisms that would be useful? Complex reports • While recognizing that complex reporting requires powerful and possibly hard to use tools, are there features that could make this process easier?