Creating your Report Template

Creating your Report Template

Step One: Creating the Template

  1. Click the System Admin
  2. In the Navigation pane, click Custom Report Template
  3. There are two ways to add a Template:
  • Within the tool bar directly above the Navigation pane, click the dropdown arrow next to New. From the list, select Custom Report Template
  • Within the Actions pane, click the Add New Custom Report Template
  1. With either option the General – Custom Report Template window opens. Within the General Information pane, complete the following fields, required fields are marked within an asterisk (*):
  • Report Template Name – type-in the template name, be as specific as possible so when your users know what each template is designed for
  • Description – type-in a brief description of the template, your users will see both the template name and description when selecting
  • Page Report When Out of Space – click the box to insert a checkmark to allow the template to be copied to the next page if the first page runs out of room.

! It’s important to understand that if the Page Report When Out of Space feature is utilized any cells containing report totals/aggregates will display on each page unless you decide otherwise. The totals displayed within the cell(s) will not reflect the totals/aggregates for just that page but for the report in its entirety.

  • Top Level Data Fill Behavior – click the dropdown arrow to access a list, from the list select one of the following options to indicate how CAIRS manages
  • Automatically Determine
  • Duplicate Entire Record
  • New Row Per Record
  1. At this point it is a good idea to save your progress, within the Actions ribbon group click the Save button to save your changes and continue working with the template

Step Two:  Grid Size

  1. The next step is to determine the number of rows and columns within your template, within the Grid Size pane complete the following fields, both field are required:
  • Total Rows – type-in the total number of rows for your template
  • Total Columns – type-in the total number of columns for your template
  1. Notice that after you type a number into the field, the appropriate number of row or columns appear within the Template Setup pan.

! Using the Grid Size pane, to add additional rows and columns adds the rows to the bottom and the columns to the right. Using the Grid Size pane to reduce the number of rows and columns at a later time deletes rows from the bottom and columns from the right including any information they contain.

  1. At this point it is a good idea to save your progress, within the Actions ribbon group click the Save button to save your changes and continue working with the template

Step Three:  Template Goodies

  1. When you highlight a cell or group of cells within the Template Setup pane, the Properties – Selected Cells pane becomes available. This pane allows you to setup data and other properties for the cell.  You have a couple of options:
  • The cell can hold a constant value
  • The field can hold a text as well as include data from the work order or trouble ticket
  • The field can contain a sum of the value of previous fields.
  • You can design the appearance of the text from bold, italic or underline.
  1. The following options are available within the Properties – Selected Cells pane:

Cell Text

Within this field, you can type text to include within the cell.  The text can stand-alone or you can add information from the order/trouble or from anywhere within CAIRS to the field as well.

Text that exceeds the length of the cell will overflow into the cell to the right, if that cell does not contain any other information.  To keep the text within the original cell, expand the column width.

Data Position

This determines where the information from the work order appears within the cell if you have entered text in the above field.  You have two options, before the text or after the text.

! No delimiter is placed between the data and the cell text. If you want to separate the data from the cell text, place the desired delimiter before or after the text. For example, – Work Order Form. To use a space as a delimiter between cell text and data press the space bar after or before the cell text.

Important:  It’s important to know that a cell cannot display alpha numeric information simultaneously. If a cell contains text and then has numerical data associated to it as explained in Selecting a Data Category, Using Related Table Data and Using Related Field Data, the numerical data is converted to text. So for example, if you have a cell with the text Date, and want to display the report date, the best option is to associate an adjacent cell so that the adjacent cell can display the date as a date instead of as text.

Data Category

This field determines where the information you are entering into the field comes from, what table in CAIRS holds the information.  The following options are available:

  • None – Use Related Table and Field – this selection requires that you use the Related Table Date and the Related Field Data dropdowns to populate the cell

The following selections remove the Related Table Data and Related Field Data fields and replace them with a dropdown specific to your selection.

* When the data source is the same for a group of connected cells, you can save time by assigning properties such as a Data Category to all of the cells at once by selecting a range of cells and then setting the cell properties. The cells retain their assigned Data Category and can then be assigned additional properties as needed.

  • Report Information – this selection allows you to insert some necessary report information such as page numbers, date, time, etc.
  • Work Order Custom Fields – this selection pulls information from the custom fields associated to a work order
  • Order Information – this selection pulls information from the work order, for example, work order category, account number, subscriber, etc.
  • Connectivity – this selection pulls information from the facilities section of the component
  • Equipment and Services – this selection pulls information from the equipment and services section of the component, for example, equipment type, cost, location, etc.
  • Set Management Component – this selection pulls information from a set device
  • Circuit Component – this selection pulls information from a circuit
  • Segment Component – this selection pulls information from a circuit segment
  • Non Switch Number Component – this selection pulls information from any component that does not require a switch, for example, a cell phone
  • Account Management – this selection pulls information from a account

If you select None, the Related Data fields are removed and replaced with a field name specific to your selection or Special Data Value.

Related Table Data & Related Field Data

When you select None in the Data Category field these fields become available to allow you to associate information outside the scope of the work order.  For example, if you select the Subscriber Component, the entire range of fields relating to a subscriber becomes available within the Field Data.  The following Related Tables are available:

  • None
  • Work Order/Trouble
  • Circuit Component
  • Segment for Circuit Component
  • Configured Set Component
  • Non-Switch Directory Component
  • Subscriber Component
  • Account Component
  • General Component
  • Notes for Order/Trouble

* When the data source is the same for a group of connected cells, you can save time by assigning properties such as Related Field Data to all of the cells at once. The cells retain their assigned Related Field Data and can then be assigned additional properties as needed.

Data Aggregate Option

This option allows you to have a total for the cells that contain amounts.  For example, if you want to know the total charges for the equipment and services associated to a work order, you would select the Sum directly below the last equipment or service field.  The following options are available:

  • None
  • Group By
  • Count
  • Sum
  • Average
  • Minimum
  • Maximum
  • Combine in Cell

Multiply By

Use Multiply By to multiply a cell’s contents by a specified number. For example, if a cell displays a total or numerical data, by entering a number a 3 in this field, CAIRS multiplies the contents by 3.  The Multiply By field can be used to show a percentage-based tax amount or fee related to a total, or for any situation in which a numeric value needs to be multiplied by a fixed amount.

Font Size, Font Bold, Italic or Underline

Use these options to further customize the look of the information that appears in the selected cell.

As you make changes to your template, remember to click on the Save button within the Actions ribbon group to save your changes and continue working with the template.