Getting it out - Reports and Dashboards

Xperios Essentials, section 5 of 7. Choosing between a query, a report and a dashboard - and sending a report out on its own.

What you will be able to do

• Choose correctly between a query, a report and a dashboard
• Run a report and answer its parameters
• Send one person's section of a report to that person
• Set a report to go out repeatedly with nobody pressing anything
• Know what a dashboard tile is actually made of

Step 1 of 6

A report is a query, presented

A report is a saved way of presenting a query's results. It remembers the query it came from, the values to run it with, which columns to show and how to lay them out. There are two shapes. A saved view, which is a results screen you kept. And a designed layout, built in the Report Designer, which is a paginated document meant to look right on paper.

Use the arrow keys to move between steps.

A report is a query, presented — press Escape or click to close

1. A report is a query, presented

   A report is a saved way of presenting a query's results. It remembers the query it came from, the values to run it with, which columns to show and how to lay them out. There are two shapes. A saved view, which is a results screen you kept. And a designed layout, built in the Report Designer, which is a paginated document meant to look right on paper.

2. Running one, and what Master means

   Running a report prompts you for its parameters, already filled in with the values saved against it, so most of the time you accept them and carry on. Reports come from the Master set the same way queries do. One that came from Master can be run and favourited like any other, but it offers no Edit, and there is no copy to take.

3. Sectioned by record, and emailing a section

   A report can be marked as sectioned by record. One section per teacher, for example. That does two things. A list of sections appears down the side, so you can jump straight to one person instead of scrolling the whole thing. And Email Section sends each section to the right person, looked up from a column on that section. You can change the subject and the message, and the report arrives attached as a PDF.

4. For something repeating, schedule it

   Email Section is a one-off, done when you press it. For something that should go out again and again with nobody pressing anything, use Schedule instead. Daily, or weekly on a chosen day, at a time you set in UTC. Each recipient is picked individually and gets either a notification inside Xperios or a plain email with the PDF attached, so somebody without a login still receives it.

5. A dashboard is for glancing at

   A dashboard is different again. Not a document you print, but a screen you keep open and glance at. Tiles made of numbers, charts and tables, each one built from a query. A dashboard item is a saved snapshot of a query's results with its parameter values locked in, so it sits there and updates quietly rather than asking you anything.

6. Which of the three

   So, three tools and one rule for choosing. If you want to ask the data something, that is a query. If you want a document to print, export or email, possibly split one per person, that is a report. If you want a live number on screen that you look at rather than read, that is a dashboard. All three start from the same query.

The recap

• A report is a saved way of presenting a query's results, remembering its parameters, its columns and its layout.
• A Master report can be run and favourited, but not edited, and there is no copy to take.
• Sectioned by record gives a list of sections to jump to, and lets each section be emailed to the right person.
• An emailed section arrives attached as a PDF, with a subject and message you can change.
• Email Section is one-off. For something repeating, with nobody pressing anything, use scheduled delivery.
• A dashboard tile gets its numbers from a query, with its parameter values locked in so it updates quietly.
• Query to ask, report to print or send, dashboard to glance at.

Now take the test

Six questions, in Xperios under Training. Everything it asks is in The recap above.

If you want the detail

• Reports — the two shapes, and the list
• Sections and emailing
• Scheduled delivery
• Dashboards — items, parts and canvases