Configure General Dynamic Template Designer Components
Prior to configuring the various elements of a report template, you must first select the enterprise object on which you want to report.
See Select an Enterprise Object.
The Dynamic Template Designer window enables the configuration of both the content and the display elements to be included in a report template.
The following components comprise the Dynamic Template Designer, with mandatory elements denoted with an asterisk (*):
- User-defined report name.
- Select a user-defined menu group in which to save the report template.
- Select the format for the report's output:
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type Area.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type bar; or one field of the type caption, one legend field, and one bar field.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one of the type sector; or two or more fields of the type sector.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type bar; or one field of the type caption, one legend field, and one bar field.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type bar; or one field of the type caption, one legend field, and one bar field.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type line.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one of the type sector; or two or more fields of the type sector.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type Area.
- Requires at least one field of the type caption and one or more fields of the type bar; or one field of the type caption, one legend field, and one bar field.
- Requires at least one visible field.
- Select for heterogeneous reports--that is, reports that display data collected from multiple vendor products or subsystems. Otherwise, from the drop-down list, select a specific vendor.
- Select a category for the report template. These correspond with the groupings in the Inventory. Select from: , , , , , , , or . If a category is not selected, report templates are displayed in the under the heading .
- This button appears only when a specific product is selected; for example, Veritas NetBackup. This option enables you to copy the configuration that has been set up for heterogeneous reports so that you can modify the configuration for your specific homogeneous report requirements. This starting point provides characteristics common to all vendor products, to which you can add fields specific to the product you selected.
- Provide a description that will appear in search results, enabling users to determine the intent of the report template and saved reports. This description is limited to 512 characters.
- Use this field to supply additional details such as vendor-specific names and acronyms so that this report will be included in search results. For example, Hitachi NAS reports have HNAS in the long descriptions to enable a Search on the acronym. This description is limited to 4,000 characters.
- Use this search box to find specific available fields to include in a report template. The search will return fields and pre-defined methods that have the string in either the name or description. For example, search for to find both fields and pre-defined methods that can be included in a report template. This search is case-insensitive. Clear this box to reset the list to all available fields and pre-defined methods. If the object name matches the search string, all the related fields will be displayed.
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- Hover your mouse over any column header in the Selected Fields section at the right of the Dynamic Template Designer window. This reveals an arrow, which when selected, provides a list of columns that can be added or removed from this portion of the window. For example, you may want to add to the window so that you can easily identify which fields have had a function applied.
Alias/Group Name
: The name of the alias for the selected field. An alias is assigned when a field is dragged into the Selected Fields panel. This enables ease-of-use when creating custom fields so that a simple alias can be referenced rather than a full field name.
: A group name enables aggregated groupings for tabular reports.
Selected Field
Indicates the field that will be appear in the report. Note that the field is pre-pended with either its enterprise object or the prepackaged method that is applied to the field.
Caption
The caption originally is derived from the data dictionary, but it can be overridden when the field is configured.
Field Type
This indicates how the field will be used in the report template.
Data Type
Indicates the field's data type: date, decimal, or string.
Has Function
Indicates if the field has a function applied to it.
Has Drilldown
Indicates if this field has been configured to be a link to another report.
Source
: Indicates that the field was created from at least one enterprise object, such as a numeric calculation or text appended to a string value.
: Indicates that the field is derived from an enterprise object.
: Indicates that the field was derived from a prepackaged method, listed in the left panel. These methods enable extended functionality for enterprise objects.
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