1. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu

2. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu What is reporting? Production of a “document” from the results of a search Export information, uni-directional Formatting of information Interpretation of original data source Possible data computation (e.g. totals, averages, counts) Visual representation of search results (e.g. table, graph).

3. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Why do we need reports? Extract information in a portable format. Provide information in a “user-friendly” format. Interpret “raw data” in different ways. Layout data in a specific pre-defined format. Supply information to third party products. The boss asked for it!

4. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Why is it sometimes difficult? Requires an understanding of the underlying data structures Different data models between KE EMu (object) and reporter (relational) data sources Need to deal with column names Different data representations (e.g. partial dates) Need to group fields to get correct table structure Wide range of report writers available Skills required to master each report writer

5. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Differing data models – ODBC, CSV emultime.csv emultimedia_key irn MulTitle MulDescription MulCreat.csv MulCreator_key emultimedia_key MulCreator

6. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Differing data models - XML

7. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu How does KE 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 Media Filter XML Filter CSV/XML/Other 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 XML

8. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Some Reporters for KE EMu Crystal Reports Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel Microsoft Powerpoint XML CSV

9. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu 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 scripting for full access to server side tables Can be scheduled to run at designated times Generally written by IT staff

10. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu XML Reports XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides a text based format for data interchange. “Report writers” can process the data to produce a variety of output formats and structures. XSLT (eXtensible Style sheet Language Transformations) provides a mechanism for transforming XML into a large variety of output formats (e.g, HTML, PDF, PCL, etc). Still early days for XSLT but removes dependency on legacy ODBC style data formats.

11. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu XML based reporting XSLT Document texserver XML List of files to client XML XSLT Processor Report XML/HTML/PDF/PCL/Other

12. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu 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 tools which require a level of skill to use, are there features that could make this process easier?

13. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu 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?

14. Collections Management Museums Reporting in KE EMu Summary Reporting? While viewing matching records, produce a summary: Copy results of summary to clipboard in a variety of formats (e.g. text, csv, RTF, etc)? Provide a nicer printing option?