The Reporting section in the Beeks Analytics app plugin in VMX Explorer allows you to set up reports based on your existing dashboards. The reporting mechanism extracts the data from a selected dashboard and puts it into a PDF.

You can:

  • set up a report to run an an ad-hoc basis or regularly on a schedule.
    If you do not set a schedule, the report will be generated immediately.

  • configure the report to be emailed to recipients automatically.

Create a new report

To create a report, follow the steps below:

Before you start

These instructions assume a dashboard already exists, which you will use to generate this report.

  1. Select Create Report in the menu.

  2. Complete the fields:

  • Name
    The name of the report.

  • Dashboard
    Choose a dashboard to generate the report from. When you select a dashboard, the time range fields are autopopulated with the time range set in that dashboard.

  • Orientation
    Choose Landscape or Portrait.

  • Layout
    Choose Simple to generate a report in which the panels sit one below the other - or Grid to generate a report in which the layout of the panels is the same as in the selected dashboard.

  • From & To
    Time range, that is auto populated with the time range in the selected dashboard.

  • Timezone
    An auto-populated timezone for the times in the report.

  • Enable Scheduling
    Enable to generate this report on a schedule. Populate the schedule fields to set a Day and Time.
    If disabled, the report will be generated immediately.

  • Save Definition
    If this is checked, a report definition is saved, which you can use to generate reports in future. If you set a schedule, this will be checked automatically.

  • Schedule Active
    Enable/disable the schedule whilst retaining the schedule settings.

  1. Select Create to either generate the report now (if Enable Scheduling is disabled) or generate the report at the scheduled Day/Time (if Enable Scheduling is enabled and a Day/Time set), or simply save the report definition without generating the report (Save Definition is enabled, Enable Scheduling is active, and Schedule Active is disabled).

View Reports

Once a report is generated, it is listed on the View Reports page. These reports list the reports you have generated in the past, and also any standard reports (with VMX-SYSTEM in the User column) that have been pre-configured by the Beeks team, which run on the Analytics server rather than from a dashboard. The listing shows the time the report was generated, its name, and the user that generated the report, and gives you the option to view or delete the report.

  1. Select View Reports in the menu.

  2. Complete these optional fields if you want to filter the report listing:

  • Start Time & End Time
    Set a time range if you want to return only the reports in this time period.

  • Report Definition
    Select a report definition to show only reports generated by this report definition.

Tip
There is an implicit time range in the API of last hour - so you may get more results by setting the Start Time to something further back.

  1. Select Search.

  2. To view the report, select the View icon in the Controls column.

Delete a report

To delete the report, select View Reports from the menu and then select the Delete icon in the Controls column for that report.

Manage Report Definition

Once created, your report definitions are listed in the Manage Report Definition page, where you can perform the following for any report definition:

  • view the report definition.

  • generate a report.

  • edit the report definition.

  • manage email recipients.

  • copy the report definition.

  • delete the report definition.

  1. Select Manage Report Definition from the menu.
    The reports are listed by name and description (the name of the selected dashboard by default).

  2. Perform any of the following:

  • View
    Opens the report definition fields in read-only mode.

  • Copy
    Duplicate the report definition. The name for the new report definition must be unique.

  • Edit
    Change the settings in the report definition.
    Note: The name can’t be changed. To change the name, duplicate the report definition and give the duplicate the new name.

  • Manage Emails
    Configure which (if any) recipients should be emailed the report upon generation.

  • Generate Report
    Generate a report immediately that’s based on the selected Report Definition.

  • Delete
    Delete the selected Report Definition. You must confirm by selecting “Yes” on the radio buttons. See important note below.

Important
Deleting a report definition will also delete all associated reports created from that definition.