Reporting FAQ

Please view the Reporting Samples to see some examples of report creation. Key things to remember when building reports include:

1. When building Reports it is easiest to build a section at a time and view the output via a Browse Tool or Render Toolto make sure content and styles are appearing as desired.  
2. The Report Text Tool does not require an input so it can be used at the top of a stream or in a stream with other tools. It can also be used to just attach a header or footer to another reporting snippet including a Layout tool. The Report Text Tool must be placed downstream from a snippet to attach it.
3. To create a Table and Chart of the same data, two streams from the data must be created. The Charting Tool and Table Tool tools cannot be placed in the same stream.
4. The Image Tool, like the Report Text Tool does not require an input and can be used at the start of a stream or in a stream with other tools.
5. To add multiple Reporting Snippets into oneLayout Tool, aJoin Tool, Join Multiple Tool, or Union Tool must be used.
6. A Layout Tool is not always needed. A Layout tool is not required when rendering just one reporting tool or when rendering a reporting tool with text tools attached.
7. All Reporting tools, with the exception of the Allocate Report Tool, require the Render Tool to view the output of the report.

Headers and footers should be created as a separate section of the report. Any of the Reporting Tools can be used to create a header or footer.

Once the headers and footers are developed,

1. Stream them into a Join Tool or Join Multiple Tool.
2. Send them through a Layout Tool, and ensure they are de-selected.
3. Add to the report via the Render Tool.

The Charting Tool has a preview image that uses sample data to display a chart with the styles of your choosing. This gives you a good idea as to how the final chart will look. You can also output to a Browse Tool and run the workflow to see the chart with your data. You can see the resulting chart on the Report tab.

From the Set Up Chart Appearance panel, select Legend/Data Layout. You can choose to plot data by field or by record.

Consult the Help page for the Charting Tool.

You can choose colors individually per series. For chart types such as Pie charts, you can select from different color palettes.

1. From the Set Up Chart Appearance panel, select Legend/Data Layout.
2. Next click on the Label Data Points dropdown and select Yes.

1. From the Set Up Chart Appearance panel, select Legend/Data Layout.
2. Choose to plot data by field. Select your preferred color palette.

Consult the Help page for the Charting Tool.

The default polygon is set to a 50% opacity so the user can see through the polygon. The legend will show objects with the same opacity. If you notice a difference, specify the background color of the Legend to be a similar color to the map background color. 

To change the background color of the legend from theReport Map Tool configuration window:

1. Click on the Legend Tab.
2. Set the Background Color.

From the Report Map Tool configuration window:

1. Click on the Layer Tab.
2. Identify the layer you would like to change. Click on the + to reveal attributes for that layer.
3. Click Style and specify 0 for Outline Size.

From the Report Map Tool configuration window:

1. From the Layers Tab, ensure the correct layer on the left was expanded when editing the Points, Lines and/or Polygons.

Yes.

1. From the Report Map Tool configuration window, click on the Legend Tab.
2. From the Position dropdown, specify Separate Field.
3. Add a Report Text Tool downstream and choose Attach to Existing Field and Legend from the drop down.  
4. Another option is to add another Report Text Tool downstream and attach a title to your Map.  

Note: When outputting Legend as a separate field a Layout Tool needs to be used so both the Map and Legend can be output to a file.

The Table Width needs to be set to 100% within theTable Tool Configuration properties.

1. Go to Edit table settings. See Table Settings Style Editor.
2. From the Table tab, specify Table Border.

Header border color only pertains to column borders.  To have column borders appear:

1. Click on the data field in Per Column Configuration in the Table Tool.
2. Chose Left and/or Right borders from the drop down menu.

Yes, you can change the size of the image

1. Click Edit Image Settings at the bottom of theImage Tool Configuration window.  
2. Choose Use Fixed Width and set the fixed width in the box below.

If the field coming into the text tool is a Integer, the tool is designed to display it as a number with commas and decimal places, depending on the locale settings of the machine.  

To have the data displayed without commas and decimal places, use a Select Tool and change the field from an integer to a string.

Yes. From the Report Text Tool Configuration Window, when adding an available field that is an Integer, the field displays as:

 [data field:2]

The "2" represents the number of decimal places. The number can be edited to reflect however many decimal places are desired; use "0" for no decimal places.

None of the Reporting tools accept multiple inputs.  A Join Tool, Join Multiple Tool or Union Tool must be used to combine Snippets of a report to a Layout Tool.

Before rendering your report, use a Layout Tool. Specify the Layout Mode to Each Group of Records and choose the grouping field for your individual sheets. In the Orientation, be sure to specify Vertical with Section Breaks. Then render to Excel using the "Layout" field.