NVSM – Reports and Templates

Reports is a reporting module available in NetVision SM. These reports are generated using Templates. The reporting format may be selected as Word, HTML or Excel. It includes tabular data with or without graphical illustration.

A template is a well-defined structure of information gathered from graphs.  User don’t need to recreate the file each time. Once a template is created, it can be reused further. So, if user finds creating similar reports over and over again, it might be a good idea to save one of them as a template. Then user won’t have to format reports each time to make a new one. Just use the template and start from there.

To access the Reports page, click the Reports button on the NetVision SM Home page.

Before generating a report, user should be aware about how to create a template and how it is used in report generation.

Layout of Template Management Window

Template Management window also consists of two panes – left pane and right pane. Left pane consists of System templates and User templates. Right pane consists of description of the templates.

Left Pane

• System Templates: These are system defined templates. User cannot add/edit/delete such templates, but can view them only.

• User Templates: These are user defined templates. User can add/edit/delete/view such templates and can create a report(s) under them.

Right Pane

• Template Name: Name of the template.
• Report Sets: Number of reports under the template.
• Last Modification Date: Date and time when the template was last modified.
• Owner: Owner of the template.
• Template Description: Description of the template.
• Action: Actions that can be performed on the template, such as adding report ( ), edit the template ( ), and delete the template ().

Creating a Template

User needs to follow the below mentioned steps for creating a template:

1. On the NetVision SM Home page, click the Reports button, the Scheduled Tasks section of the Report module is displayed.

2. Next, click the Create Template icon . The Report Template Management window is displayed. This window consists of system templates and user templates.

3. Right click on User Templates and click New Template. The New Template page is displayed.

4. Enter the following Template details:
   • Template Name: Name of the template.
   • Template Description: Description of the template. 
5. Enter the following Report details:
   • Chart Type: Graphs are most important part of any report. They need to be selected in all type of templates. All graphs are time X-axis based graphs.
     • Simple: Simple graphs have graph data on Y axis. Simple graphs have single graph on each panel.
     • Multi: Multi graphs are also called merged graphs. Multi graphs have multiple graphs on Y axis with same X axis.
     • Tile: Tile graphs have multiple simple graphs in tiled form. Tile graphs can have two or more graphs’ graphical view of data at same time in multi panel from top to bottom.
     • Correlated: These graphs show correlation with other graphs.
     • Percentile: A percentile is the value of a variable below which a certain percent of observations fall. So the 20th percentile is the value (or score) below which 20 percent of the observations may be found. The pth percentile is a value so that roughly p% of the data is smaller and (100-p) % of the data is larger. Percentiles can be computed for ordinal, interval, or ratio data.
     • Slab count: Slab count graph is used to count number of samples in a particular time interval. User can change all graphs to Slab Count Graph. Earlier, user was able to convert only those graphs which have Percentile Data File (PDF) file associated with them.
     • Frequency Distribution: This chart is similar to slab count chart, but instead of bars, system represents the data points via dots.
     • Multi with Layout: This is similar to multi graphs, but instead of displaying all graphs on the same panel, system displays them in separate panels based on the reports. It is applicable for Word report only.
     • Bar: In this case, line chart is converted to Bars.
     • Pie: It is useful in case of multiple graphs. If one graph is converted into Pie, then a simple circle filled with one color is displayed. It is needed to take average value or Last value of graph. If graph type is cumulative, then it takes last sample value otherwise average value.
     • Area: An area chart displays graphically quantitative data. The area between axis and line are commonly emphasized with colors and textures. Area chart is used to represent cumulative data using numbers or percentages over time. Use the area chart for showing trends over time among related attributes. The area chart is like the plot chart except that the area below the plotted line is filled in with color to indicate volume.
     • Stacked Area: Stacked Area chart means area chart of each graph is stacked on each other.
     • Stacked Bar: In this case, graph is converted to Stacked Bar chart. Stacked bar chart means bar of each graph is stacked on each other. It is useful in case of multiple graphs. If one graph is converted into Stacked Bar, then it looks like normal Bar graph.
     • Donut Chart: Donut chart is represented in the form of a donut. User needs to specify the criteria either last or average.
     • Line Stacked Bar:  If user wants to see combined graphs of a stacked bar and line chart, then Line Stacked chart is used. In Line Stacked chart, first selected graph displays as line graph and other displays as Stacked bar graph.

User can select scaling on graphs, such as Multi, Tile, Percentile, Slab count, Frequency distribution, Multi with layout, Bar, Area, Stacked Area, and Stacked Bar.

• Graph Type
  • Normal: If user selects Normal graphs, then graphs are selected as it is from the Graph metrics and user cannot perform arithmetic operations on the graphs.
  • Derived: If user selects Derived graphs, then user can perform arithmetic operations on the graphs.

• Group Metric(s): Select the Group metrics from the drop-down list. All the available graphs are displayed under Graph metrics.
• Report Set: Enter a valid report set name. Report name must start with alphabet. Maximum length should be 128. Allowed characters are Alpha, numeric, space and special characters (/%()_;:,.-)
• Graph Metric(s):
  • In case of Graph type as Normal: Select one or more graphs and click the  icon, the selected graphs are added on the right side under Selected Graphs area. 
  • In case of Graph type as Derived: Select a graph from the graph metrics and click the  icon. Then, add any arithmetic operation (that needs to be performed) and select another graph with the same process.

 This process can be repeated and user can perform any arithmetic operation (from the available operations) and create a derived graph.

To clear the selected graphs, click the   icon.

6. Click Add Report, the report gets added.

User can add any number of reports under a template by following the above mentioned process. To Edit a report, click the  icon. To Delete a report, click the  icon.

7. Click the Save button, to save the template. The saved template is displayed on the Report Template Management window.

Operations on Left Pane for Report Template

In this section, user can add report to a template, edit a template, view a template, save a copy of template, and can delete a template.

Operations on Left Pane for Report Set

In this section, user can edit a report set, save a copy of the report set, view the report set, and can delete a report set.

Scheduling a Task

User can schedule a report by specifying certain information. Scheduling is performed to generate reports on continuous intervals.

1. Click the  icon under the Reports tab, the Scheduled Tasks window is displayed.

2. Click the  icon to add a task, this navigates to the first step of task creation.

Step – 1: Select the Report Type and Template 

1. Select the Report Type (for example, Excel/Custom).
2. Enter the Report name. By default, it is ExcelReport.
3. Select the Template from the drop-down list.

After template creation, user needs to upload it to the system. The uploaded templates are displayed in the list. Refer upload a template to know how to upload a template.

4. Click the Next button to navigate to the next step.

Step – 2: Select Preset Option

1. Select the Preset option from the drop-down list. It is the time period for which the report needs to be generated. For example – Last 15 minutes, Last 8 hours and so on. The date and time are filled automatically.

If user selects the Custom option, then needs to specify the Start date/time and End date/time.

2. In the View by option, user can specify the format of aggregated data (such as hours, minutes, seconds) based on the selection of Preset option. For example, if user selects ‘Last 15 minutes’ in preset option, then ‘View by’ option displays ‘Seconds’ and ‘Minutes’ only. If user selects ‘Last 4 hours’ in preset option, then ‘View by’ displays ‘Seconds’, ‘Minutes’ and ‘Hours’.

3. To include charts in the report, select the Include Chart check box.

4. Select the format of the report, either Word or HTML.

 Step – 3: Schedule the Report

 Hourly

For Report generation on hourly mode, follow the below mentioned steps.

1. Specify the report generation frequency in hours. For example – 4 hours, 8 hours, and so on.

OR

2. Specify the time for the report generation.
3. Specify the schedule expiry date and time.
4. Enter task description.
5. Click the Next button to navigate to the next step.
   

Weekly

For Report generation on weekly mode, follow the below mentioned steps.

1. Select the day of the week on which report needs to be generated.
2. Specify the start time.
3. Specify the schedule expiry date and time.
4. Enter task description.
5. Click the Next button to navigate to the next step.

Monthly

For Report generation on monthly mode, follow the below mentioned steps.

1. Specify a day of a month on which reports need to be generated.
2. Specify the start time.
3. Specify the schedule expiry date and time.
4. Enter task description.
5. Click the Next button to navigate to the next step.

Step – 4: Enter Mailing Information

1. Enter the mail subject.
2. Enter recipients of the mail.
3. Enter the description in the Body section. User can pick Report name, Start date, and End date from the Hints section. This automatically fills the specified information in the mail body.
4. Click the Next button to navigate to the next section.

Step – 5: Report Scheduling Summary

1. This step shows the summary of the report specified by the user. It contains following specification user mentioned in earlier steps.

• Report name
• Template name
• Report type
• Report format
• Report duration
• Schedule
• Schedule expiry time
• Mail to
• Mail subject
• Mail body

2. Click Finish, the task is added in the Scheduled Tasks Page.

There are following headers in Schedule Tasks page:

• Task Type: This denotes the type of the task. For example – Word/Excel/HTML report
• Description: This denotes the description of the task.
• Schedule Time: This denotes the schedule time for the task execution
• Schedule Expiry Time: This denotes the schedule expiry time for the task
• Status: This denotes the status of the task, either enabled or disabled
• Actions: User can delete /update/disable the task.

Viewing Generated Reports

User needs to follow the below mentioned steps for viewing the generated reports.

1. Click the Available Reports icon [ ] under Reports tab. The Generated Reports page is displayed.

2. Next, click the Report name that needs to be viewed. A dialog box to open/save the report is displayed.

Below is a sample report for understanding the structure better:

Sample information in Performance Metric sheet:

Sample information in Page Availability sheet:

 

Color Coding Schemes

3. Open the file or save it to the system.

There are following headers in this section.

• Report Type: This denotes the type of the report. For example – Word
• Report Name: This denotes the name of the report
• Creation Date/Time: This denotes when the report is created
• Owner: This denotes the owner of the report
• Template Name: This denotes which template is used to generate the report
• Action: User can delete the report using the  icon

To delete all reports at a time, click the Delete Reports button.

Uploading/Downloading Templates

User can upload the created template to the system and can download the uploaded template from the system. User needs to click the Upload/Download Template [ ] icon under the Reports tab.

To Upload a Template

1. Click Choose file button under the Upload Options section.

2. Locate the template file in the system.
3. Click the Upload button to upload the template to the report management system.

If user selects the “Overwrite if exists” check box, the template is overwritten if it already exists in the system.

To Download a Template

1. Select the template from the drop-down list under the Download Options section.

2. Click the Download button.
3. A dialog box is displayed to open/save the template.

User can make changes in the downloaded template and re-upload it after making changes. To delete a template, click the Delete button.