Create reports

You can create reports using Report Builder in the web client.

Create report

Use Report Builder to create a report in the web client. To create a public report, you need the Manage Public Reports privilege.

To create a report:

  1. In the web client, open the Reports view.

  2. In the navigation pane, select the appropriate object class folder, such as Items, Requests, Projects/Streams, or Baselines.

    Note: Dimensions CM Report Builder doesn't support external requests.

  3. On the toolbar, click New Report.

  4. In the Report Builder dialog box, on the Edit tab, set up report generation criteria.

    Field Description
    Report name

    Enter a name for the report.

    By default, Dimensions CM creates a private report that only you can see. To make the report visible to others, select the is public option.
    Product Select one or <<ALL>> products from the list.
    Request type(s) Depending on the object class, accept the default object type, for example, all Item type(s), Request type(s), Project/stream type(s), or Baseline type(s), or browse to select specific types for the report.
    Report type
    Type

    Select the report type, for example, Bar Chart.

    Depending on the type selected, an additional Then by field is displayed. If you select a date attribute for Then by, an addition Date span field is displayed.

    Group by

    (Then by / Date span)

    For Group by and, if present, Then by and Date span, select the attribute type to group the elements of the generated report.

    Select Ascending or Descending to view the element grouping in ascending or descending order. The default is ascending order.
    Attributes to display

    Select the attributes to include in the report.

    Move attributes from the Available list to Selected one by one. Or CTRL+click to select multiple non-consecutive attributes and SHIFT+click to select consecutive attributes.

    The report includes only the attributes from the Selected list.

    For report types that support subsequently generated child drilldown reports, these attributes are displayed in the child drilldown report. Otherwise, the attributes are displayed in the generated listing report.
    Filtering

    System attributes and/or relationships that you include in the Selected list can have sophisticated boolean filtering criteria applied to them when you generate the report.

    Expand the Filtering section and specify the filtering criteria. For details, see Enter reporting criteria.
    Sorting

    Expand the Sorting section and specify the sorting options:

    1. Sorted by. Select an attribute type and click Ascending or Descending to decide how to sort the elements in the report.

    2. Then by. Refine your attribute sorting criteria.

  5. To test run the client report before saving it, select the Preview tab. For details, see View the client listing or summary report.

  6. Click Save.

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Enter reporting criteria

When creating a report, enter your reporting criteria in the Filtering section.

To specify the filtering criteria:

  1. For Field, select an attribute or relationship.

    If you select an attribute, the Value field is displayed.

    If you select a relationship, the Operator field is replaced by a selection of either related to or not related to, and the Relationship field is displayed.

  2. Specify the criteria for the selected attribute or relationship.

    Attribute criteria

    1. Enter the required value, or click the browse button to find the value. Depending on the attribute, you can select certain special values like <Query at Runtime>, a variable that enables you to specify the value at the time the report is run.

      Note: The <Query at Runtime> variable can be selected for only one attribute or relationship.

      For text fields, you can use wildcards & or *. This works when the logical operator is equal to or not equal to, and is equivalent to the expressions like and not like in some other query syntaxes. For details, see Report notes and examples.

      To specify attributes, follow the Guidelines for filtering attributes.

    2. From the Operator list, select a logical operator, which specifies how to filter depending on the value you selected.

      For example, the filter can select all titles that match (Equal to) or do not match (Not equal to) the entry in the Value field.

      Here is a list of available logical operations:

      • For date attributes: equal to, not equal to, before, after, not after, not before, is null, and is not null.

      • For other attributes: equal to, not equal to, less than, greater than, less than or equal to, greater than or equal to, is null, and is not null.
    Relationship criteria

    1. Enter the required relationship, or click the browse button to find the relationship. Depending on the relationship, you can select certain special values like <Query at Runtime>, a variable that enables you to specify the relationship at the time the report is generated.

      Note: The <Query at Runtime> variable can be selected for only one attribute or relationship.

    2. For the Operator, select Related to or Not related to.

  3. Click Add to post your current attribute/relationship filter criteria to the list where the compound filter criteria is built up.

  4. Repeat the procedure to add more filtering criteria (including where conditions). Use the filtering buttons to manage the criteria. For details, see Manage filtering.

Guidelines for filtering attributes

Attributes that take a date format

Click the calendar picker next to the prepopulated entry of DD-MMM-YYYY to open a calendar and select the date.

Click the browse value button to specify one of the following special values:

<Query at Runtime>, <Today>, <Today>+ 7, <Today>-7, <Today>+30, <Today>-30, <Today>+365, <Today>-365

Attributes that take a user identity values

(for example, Originator, Owner, and Sender ID)

 Click the browse value button to open a user picker and select a user.

Attributes that have related valid sets

(for example, an item report of Item type EXE with a Filtering  user attribute of Operating System

Click the find value button to open a valid set selector.

You can select multiple values and create multiple OR/AND criteria at one time using the Add Multiple 'OR' or Add Multiple 'AND' buttons.

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Manage filtering

Use the following buttons to apply the conditions for filtering attributes or relationships:

Add, Delete, And/Or, (, ), Modify, and Delete All

Filtering guidelines:

  • When you add a filter criterion, as described in Enter reporting criteria, by default it has a logical AND relationship with the previously added filter criterion. To change to an OR relationship for the selected filter criterion only, click the And/Or button.

  • To delete a filter criterion, select the criterion and click Delete. To delete all filter criteria, click Delete All.

  • To modify a filter criterion, select the criterion, modify the system attribute's Value and/or Operator fields or relationship's Relationship field, and click Modify.

  • To add an opening parenthesis to a filter criterion, select the criterion and click the Add Opening Parenthesis button rept_builder_filter_mgmt_add_open_barce_button.gif.

  • To add a closing parenthesis to a filter criterion, select the criterion and click the Add Closing Parenthesis button rept_builder_filter_mgmt_add_close_barce_button.gif.

  • To remove an opening parenthesis from a filter criterion, select the criterion and click the Remove Opening Parenthesis button rept_builder_filter_mgmt_remove_open_barce_button.gif .

  • To remove a closing parenthesis from a filter criterion, select the criterion and click the Remove Closing Parenthesis button rept_builder_filter_mgmt_remove_close_barce_button.gif.

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View the client listing or summary report

The Preview tab displays the client listing report or summary report to be generated based on your selections on the Edit tab. For details, see Drill down into client report.

If you are satisfied with the preview of the report, click Save. Otherwise, return to the Edit tab to refine your reporting choices.

After a report is saved, it is displayed in both the navigation and content panes of the web client's Reports tab when you select the relevant folder in the navigation pane. In the navigation pane, the report is added to the appropriate folder, such as My Reports or Public Reports.

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Report notes and examples

When entering report details, take into account:

  • Your filter criteria are optimized by the Dimensions CM web client. The criteria may be displayed in a slightly different format than the one specified, but it doesn't affect client report results.

  • For item reports, the retrieved items are restricted to the selected project. But items can belong to more than one project, so the number of retrieved item revisions may be greater than the one displayed when you run the report.

Example 1: 

To create a report to find CR requests that are not closed and are critical or severe, or CRs that are raised, use this filter:

(Status != 'CLOSED'

And

Severity/Priority = '1_critical'

Or

Severity/Priority = '2_severe')

Or

Status = 'RAISED'

Example 2: 

To create a report to find all the zip files  that do not contain the string “output” in the file name and are owned by JSMITH, use this filter:

Filename = ‘%.zip’

And

Filename <> ‘%output%’

And

Owner = ‘JSMITH’

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See also: