iDocuments Smart Reporting

First published on: 09/07/2023/4:20 pm

User Guide

Overview

Introduction

iDocuments Smart Reporting is an easy to use web-based report writer for designing reports with rich data visualisation.

It offers drag-and-drop simplicity for filtering and data selection, allowing users to define bespoke iDocuments reports and share them internally and externally.

Video: Overview of Smart Reporting

Examples

Report Creation

New Reports

Each new report is created or copied from an existing one but can also be saved as a draft so the active version isn't affected until the creator is ready for an updated version.

To create a new report, go to the 'Design' option in the 'Smart Reporting'.

Click the ‘Add new’ button if reports have already been created; otherwise, a new report design will default.

Choose the type of report you want to create from the drop-down menu.

Give the report a descriptive name. (Note: A name is mandatory but can be altered later if needed.)

By default, the report is active, but it's only available to the creator until they share it.

Notes: 

• Only 1 layout can be active at a time.
• You can copy the entire report using the main "copy" button.
  • This also lets you copy it to a different company.

Design Canvas

You'll design the report in the 'Design Canvas'.

• Column choices are on the left
• Report filters are in the middle pane
• Report layout is on the right.
  • The default report layout is a table, but you can change it or combine it with one of the other component options.

• Choose the page title and the layout option.

• Choose the table title.
• Select the required columns by dragging and dropping them on the report layout where the message shows ‘Drop column here (table column)'.
• At each stage, you'll be asked for a column width.
  • This will default if you don't have a specific need.
    • Select ok to just use the defaults.
  • You can freeze this column when scrolling.

• Once you've chosen the columns, you can add report filters.
  • When the report is run, you can easily filter it by different ranges to reduce the data where needed.
  • Similarly, they would be dragged and dropped from the columns to the ‘Drop column here (filter by)’ area.

• The filter type depends on the database field type (e.g., if a date field is chosen then a from date/to date selection will be on the filter).

• To evaluate the report options, you can save it
  • You'll see a prompt (as seen below) to overwrite the old report or create an updated version.
• A confirmation message (as seen below) will show that the save occurred successfully.

• Alternatively, you can ‘LOAD’ the report to preview it after you update any filters and click apply.

Viewing

The report viewer has multiple button controls that depend on the component chosen.

For a table type, you'll see a page selection, size, and refresh option at the bottom.

You could also see the options below.

• Zoom – Full Screen
  • This option expands the page and shows more entries.
• Add to the homepage with the current filters.

  • This can then be removed by selecting the same option again, which will be red when enabled.

    

• The next three are options allow outputs in the standard formats:
  • Print (PDF)
  • Export (Excel)
  • Download (CSV)

Access

By default, you'll have access to the run and can change the report's design.

You can transfer ownership to:

• Any other user
• Everyone in the company
• Everyone with access to specific groups in the company
• Specific people in the company

The data shown in reports shared this way will take users' access levels into account.

History

At each save, a history item is recorded. You can see them in the history tab.

Report Options

Sharing

Once you've run a report and applied filters to it, you can share it with other users via the ‘Internal Sharing’ or ‘External Sharing’ options.

You can alter the title subject for the individual(s) selected and add an expiry date/time.

When those users view the report, the filters are pre-applied, and data access is based on the sharing user, so the same data is seen.

You can use the access tab in the designer to restrict data access to match the user's access level.

Users may further share the report. These shared reports will have the same subject and expiry date/time.

Options for sharing externally are similar, but you can only share with users who have been pre-registered. 

The information below is provided for information purposes only; it requires Vision33 to configure initially.

To register, follow these steps:

• Go to the “Smart Reporting” tab in the iDocuments maintenance (which can be updated by Vision33)
  • If there isn’t a valid entry, click “Add” (top right of grid)
    • This will add a new row
  • Enter a name
  • Click “Save” (top right of grid)

• For this registration to be used, the external company will also need:
  • AppID from this entry
  • Secret from this entry
    • They should not share this with anyone and keep a secure note of it.
      • For example, our secret for Saltbox integration is encrypted in our database using a different algorithm.
  • The API DLL, which you can get from Vision33

The sample code below will get them started:

-------------CODE SAMPLE-------------

SmartReporting.Request request = new SmartReporting.Request();

request.AppID = ""; //UNIQUE TO THE EXTERNAL COMPANY

request.Registration = ""; //UNIQUE TO THE EXPOSED INSTANCE AND PROVIDED BY USER

request.Report = ""; //UNIQUE TO THE EXPOSED REPORT AND PROVIDED BY USER

request.Component = ""; //UNIQUE TO THE EXPOSED COMPONENT AND PROVIDED BY USER

string Host = https://test.idocuments.io; //TO THE SITE CONTAINING THE COMPONENT

string Secret = ""; //UNIQUE TO THE EXTERNAL COMPANY AND SHOULD MATCH THE APP ID REGISTERED

SmartReporting.Postman postman = new SmartReporting.Postman(Host, Secret);

SmartReporting.Response response = postman.SendAndReceive(request);

if (response.StatusCode == HttpStatusCode.OK)

{

string url = response.Data.URL;

}

else

{

string error = response.StatusMessage;

}

• To then expose a component:
  • Load a report
  • Run any filters needed
  • On the left menu, pick “External Sharing”
  • Pick the component name and external company
  • Click “Add”
    • This will snapshot the applied filters and generate a unique registration for that component, report, and external company.

• From the actions in the grid, click the blue info button.
• Copy the information in the popup message so they can put the values into the code (sample below):

• Providing everything validates that all aspects of the report, type, company, user, etc. are still enabled and the OTC is valid.
  • This will return a URL that can be loaded without any further authentication.

Notes:

• Firewall or IIS settings may need to be altered so the connection can take place (e.g., adding trusted domains to the IIS config).
• Note: Any external sharing will be given full access based on the report criteria selected, so that should be granted only where needed, after the reporting extracts have been fully evaluated.

Printing

Selecting ‘Print all’ allows you to print all pages or reorder/remove certain pages on the pop-up message screen.

When printing, the system creates the file and then supplies a download link for that file.

Create a Pack

‘Create a pack’ allows you to merge multiple report outputs into a single pack for sending.

The default filename will be Smart Reporting.pdf within the Smart Reporting.zip

Frequently Asked Questions

The speed of the report is too slow and gives a yellow timeout error.

• Initial load – The first time you run any type of report (e.g., the first PI header or PI line report), iDocuments creates a temporary copy of the data, which is then topped up each time it runs. 
  • For the first time, if there's a lot of data, the initial load could be more than the 30 seconds allowed by iDocuments.
    • Leave it to complete for a few minutes.
    • Try to load the report again. 
      • This would normally be covered in any training sessions, but when it hasn't occurred, local admins should run one report for each type before users start creating reports.
• Bad selections for filters – Text fields (e.g., a description or payment reference) that are different on every document shouldn't be used as filter options because they're data points you can then search/filter on the results page.
  • System text fields such as status or document type are OK to use because there are a limited number of these codes.

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