Defining reports and permissions

The Report form stores report definitions and metadata for all report types, including Web reports and reports. It also stores metadata about the report, including the following information:

The report name, report type, and description
The associated form and the report definition file
The report permission and availability settings
An optional base qualification and query override controls
Localization settings

Configuring report permissions and visibility settings

When a new report is created, it is automatically available for any users who are members of the same groups as the user who created the report, except for Public. (If the user creating the report is a member only of Public, then the report is available to Public.) The groups that have permission to a report are listed in the Assignee Groups field of the Report form.

To control whether other users can see a report, you can change several settings on the Report form:

Mark the report private—For Web reports, select the Private check box in the Report Designer. This removes all groups from the Assignee Groups field in the Report form when the report is saved. In this case, only the report creator and Administrator can see the report. This is the default setting when a new report is created.
Set report permissions—Add or remove groups in the Assignee Groups field in the Report form.
Mark the report invisible—To prevent a report from appearing in the Report Console or the ReportSelection form, but still allow workflow to run the report, set the Visible in Console field in the Report form to No.
Set status to inactive or pending—To prevent a report from appearing in the Report Console or ReportSelection forms, and prevent workflow from running the report, set the Status field to Inactive or Pending. You can use the Pending status to let reviewers know that the report is ready for review.

Controlling query overrides

When a user selects a report to run in the Report Console, the Override check box appears. If allowed, the user can determine whether a qualification added at runtime will override the query built into the report, or be added to the built-in query with an AND operator. The report creator or an administrator can configure settings in the Report form to control whether overrides are allowed.

Overrides do not affect a base qualification. Users can override a query built into the report definition, but if there is a base qualification defined in the Report form, the base qualification is always included when the report runs, whether or not Override is selected.

To manage override behavior, use these fields on the Report form:

Override Query in Report?—This field sets the default value of the Override option in the Report Console. If this is set to Yes, the Override check box is selected, and if it is set to No, the Override check box is blank. This field is automatically set to Yes for reports and to No for Web reports.
Lock Override Option—This field determines whether the Override check box is read-only in the Report Console. If this is set to Yes, the Override option is read-only and the user cannot select whether an added query will override the report query. If this is set to No, the user can change the Override option before running a report. The default value for this setting is No for both and Web reports.

Tip

By setting Override Query in Report? to No and Lock Override Option to Yes, you lock in the query in the report definition so that the user can only further refine the query, and cannot broaden it.

Combining report queries

Reports can include query definitions of the following types:

Query contained in the report definition—This is any query in the report definition, for example, when you create an ad hoc report in the Report Console.
Base qualification—The administrator can enter a base qualification using standard syntax in the Base Qualification field of the Report form. This allows the administrator to add a query to an existing report, without modifying the report definition itself.
In a base qualification, you must use the database field name and not the field label on the form.
Runtime qualification—The user running the report can add additional qualifications to the query at runtime.
Active link query—An active link that runs a report can include a qualification.

In any case where the Override option is not selected and the report includes more than one of these qualifications at runtime, the different queries are joined with an AND operator. Base qualifications are never overridden and are always joined to other qualifications with an AND operator.

Therefore, the effect of combining qualifications is to narrow the report to include only those entries that match all conditions of the combined queries.

Report form fields used by applications

Some fields on the Report form are used by reports installed with Remedy applications (but not with ad hoc reports created in the Report Console). These include:

Category fields—These cause reports to be filtered by the Category menu in the Report Console. They form a hierarchy with three levels. All three, or none, should be set. You can create your own categories by using these fields if you need to.
Date range fields—These are used by Remedy application reports only.
Report set name—This field used by Remedy application reports only. The combination of the report set name and locale must be unique.

Displaying external reports

If you create a report by some means outside of the Report Console (such as a report definition in a browser) and you want it to appear in the Report Console or in the ReportSelection form, you must manually add an entry for the report to the Report form and attach the report definition file in the Report Definition File field.

If your server is a Unicode server, you cannot create a record in the Report form by attaching an .arr file created in a browser. Instead, use the ReportCreator form to create reports on a Unicode server.

Deleting report definitions

Only the administrator and the person who created a report can delete it. You can delete a report definition in either of the following ways:

Select the report in the Report Console, and click Delete.
Search the Report form for the report, select the entry in the results list, and click Delete.

To make a report unavailable without deleting it, select Inactive or Pending in the Status field of the Report form, or set Visible in Console to No.