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

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). What is reporting?

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!

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

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

Differing data models - XML

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

Some example reports Crystal Word Excel Powerpoint XML CSV

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

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

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

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.

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

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?