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Reporting
Creating Custom Report Templates : Creating a custom report template
 

Creating a custom report template

You specify each OpenEdge Management report template's properties and characteristics on two pages. The first template page defines the properties that are related to the type of report. You cannot change these properties in the instances you create from the template. On the second page, you provide default values for the report instances. These values, such as the schedule, can be changed.
To create a report template:
1. In the management console menu, choose one of the following:
*Select Reports > New > Report Template.
*Select Reports > Go to Reports > Create Report Template.
The first of two Report Template pages appears. This first page consists of a Template Properties box divided into four sections. The first two sections are shown:
2. You must provide the following information:
a. In the Name field, enter the report template name. Note that the name must be unique among the report templates. Note also that spaces are not allowed in the name fields on this page.
b. In the Menu group field, enter the name of the new menu group, or choose an existing menu group in the Existing field. (When you choose an existing group, the name automatically appears in the Menu group field.) The menu group is the heading under which the report template name appears (for example, Database Reports).
c. In the Menu entry field, enter the template name you want to appear on the Custom Create Trend Report page (for example, Database Monthly Report).
d. In the Menu description field, enter a brief description of the report template. This is the description that appears in the list of available report templates on the Create Custom Trend Report page under the name specified in Step c.
3. Continue to the third section of the Template Properties box:
Under Source of eligible resources, choose one of the following:
*Resources currently defined on the system — Only those resources, such as databases, defined for an AdminServer. This is the default that all OpenEdge Management-provided report templates use, unless you modify the template to change it.
*Local resources in the trend database — Information obtained from whatever is in the local trend database. This might include resources no longer on your machine; information can be gathered from historical records.
Use this option only if you are trending locally.
*All resources in the trend database — This includes local resources as well as resources that are not local but are trending to the trend database. The report instance will display choices such as the AdminServer name and the resource name. Selection lists for each site will be added to the page.
4. Under Resource types, review the available types: Database, System CPU, System Memory, System Disk, System File system, Network, File, AppServer, and WebSpeed.
Highlight a type, then click the right arrow to move it to the Selected column. To remove a type from the Selected column, highlight the type and then click the left arrow.
When creating a template for an AppServer or WebSpeed resource, indicate if the report should be a performance or profile report.
5. Under Limit how many resources can be included in the report, select how many database resources and how many total resources the report instance is allowed to select. You can choose up to three in each field. (Keep in mind that the All resources field includes databases.)
6. Continue to the fourth section of the Template Properties box:
a. In the Progress 4GL program to run field, enter the path to the ABL (formerly known as Progress 4GL) program to run when this report is scheduled.
When you create a report by using any one of the OpenEdge Management report templates, the particular ABL program that you use to run the report is provided in the <OpenEdgeManagement-install-dir>\src directory. (The default installation location is Progress\oemgmt\src.)
When you create your own report template, you must provide the name of the ABL program to run. To run a program that you've written, copy the program into <OpenEdgeManagement-install-dir>\src and include the fully qualified path of your program in the Progress 4GL program to run field.
For more information about writing programs in the ABL, see OpenEdge Development: Programming Interfaces.
b. In the Title of generated report field, enter the text that you want to use for the title in the report result.
c. In the Output file sub-directory field, enter the location where the generated report output file will be stored when the report is run.
OpenEdge Management stores completed reports in a reports subdirectory in your working directory. You do not need to create this directory; OpenEdge Management creates it during the installation process. Within the reports subdirectory, there are subdirectories based on each Historical report type. Another set of subdirectories, based on the name of each report, is created within the report type subdirectories. OpenEdge Management names reports by their full path, followed by the year, month, day, hour, minute, and second of the report's generation, as well as by the site ID and the resource name.
The default directory for OpenEdge Management-provided reports is:
OpenEdgeManagement-install-directory\reports\<resource-type>
7. Click Save at the top of the Report Template page to save the report template properties.
The second of two Report Template pages (the Report Properties page) appears with the Name field filled:
8. You must provide the following information:
*Description — A description of the template.
*Output Formats — Whether you want the report's output in text, HTML, or both.
*Report Format — The format for your report: Hourly, Daily, Weekly, Monthly. To break the report display into additional columns, select the Report on check box.
*Report period — A previous number of days, or a block of days.
*Time period — Either full day or a block of time.
*Display units — The period of time, such as per second, per minute, per hour, per transaction, raw data, per record.
*Environment— Environment variables. Available environment variables depend on the type of report you are creating and your environment. For a list of environment variables available for the report, run the report with the Generate debug log file option on. The debug log file lists all environment variables and, if applicable, their values. Environment variables are proceeded by env in the log file.
For a detailed explanation about environment variables, see the chapter on jobs in OpenEdge Management: Resource Monitoring.
*User name — Your user name. Providing this information is optional; you can also run the report using another user's name. If you do not supply a name, the report runs under the account given in the AdminServer.
*Password — Your password (optional; required only if you also enter a user name).
*4GL client parameters— Any other client parameters you want to pass to the ABL program that produces the report output.
*Generate debug log file — Whether you want to create a debug log file. Creating a debug log file allows you to examine the report's environment variables. When viewing the debug log file, lines beginning with env show the names and values of applicable environment variables.
Note: See Report instances for details about entering information into the Report Properties page.
9. Click Save. The Report Template Summary page appears.
You can now edit or copy the template's characteristics, delete the template, or create a report instance to run based on the template.
Once you create a report instance from a report template, the two are no longer tied together. You can modify the characteristics of a report instance without affecting the template, and you can update the template without affecting the characteristics of a report instance you have already created.