Creating custom reports

You customize the reports and channels in the BMC Discovery which provides easier access to the information that you need to make decisions.

Reports are defined in an XML file that you upload to BMC Discovery through the UI.

Although channels can be created using this method, you might find doing so simpler by using the Channels page.

Naming your XML files

Naming the files is important as it specified the order in which the files are processed. This order is important as later definitions for a named report override those loaded earlier.

The directories are parsed in alphabetical order, with numbers before letters. The standard reports are contained in a file called 00reports.xml.

You cannot add context-sensitive reports to the discovery status page.

You cannot customize the Host Profile report.

Writing the custom reports files

The custom reports are defined in simple XML files, the elements of which are described in this topic.

Elements of the XML files

The root element of each reports.xml file must be <reports version="2.0">. The <reports> element can have several types of elements:

Standard reports:
- <report>: a report. See <report> elements.
- <chart>: a chart. See <chart> elements.
Channels:
- <chart-channel>: a simple chart channel. See <chart-channel> elements.
- <chart-multi-channel>: a chart channel with multiple values per column. See <chart-multi-channel> elements.
- <report-channel>: a channel containing a list of charts and reports. See <report-channel> elements.
- <summary-channel>: a channel containing node kind counts. See <summary-channel> elements.
- <time-series-channel>: a chart channel containing values over time. See <time-series-channel> elements.
- <video-channel>: a video channel. See <video-channel> elements.
- <web-channel>: a channel containing a web feed. See <web-channel> elements.
Page information:
- <page>: the selection of channels on one page. See <page> elements.

<report> elements

A <report> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the report.

Tag	Details
Title	Provides the main page title for the report. This tag is mandatory. <title>Hosts ordered by Host Owner</title>
Description	Populates the title attribute of the HTML link. Presented as a tooltip. Also shown as a subtitle in the following example is the main page title. This tag is mandatory. <description>Shows a list of all Discovery Hosts, ordered by their Owner</description>
Kind	Kind to use in search. Multiple kinds can be specified in a comma-separated list or by using the * wildcard. <kind>Host</kind>
Flags	Any flags to include in the search query. This tag takes an optional keyword attribute which, when given value False, prevents the addition of the FLAGS( prefix and ) postfix. The attribute is normally used if parameters are used to control the flags. <flags>include_destroyed</flags>
With	Any with functions to evaluate in the search query. <with>value(NODECOUNT(TRAVERSE Host:HostedSoftware:RunningSoftware:SoftwareInstance)) AS si_count</with>
Where	Any conditions in the search query. This tag takes a couple of options attributes: keyword which, when given value False, prevents the addition of the WHERE keyword when constructing the query. For example, TRAVERSE :::Host must not be prefixed by WHERE. start which, when given value False, places the parameter conditions at the start of the query rather than the end. Normally parameter queries are added after the <where> text. However, if there is a need to perform tests before a traversal then they can be placed at the beginning. <where>version = ''</where>
Order-by	Sort results of a query by specified order. <order-by>name</order-by>
Show	List of attributes to display. This tag takes an optional keyword attribute which, when given value False, prevents the addition of the SHOW keyword. <show>name, os, #InferredElement:Inference:Primary:HostInfo.hostid</show>
Url	Redirect the browser when the report is selected. <url>NetworkMismatchSummaryReport</url>
Imports	List of <import> each of which contains a Python module to import. These are used by the <parameters> for <convert>, <default> and <eval> described in the following section. <imports><import>common.timeutil</import></imports>
Parameters	List of <parameter> each of which contains an interactive parameter filled in by the user. These are described in detail in the following section.

<parameter> element

Interactive parameters are defined using <parameter> elements. They must have a name, representing the name of the parameter, that is unique in the report.

Tag	Details
Title	Label of the parameter shown when it is rendered in a form. This tag is mandatory. <title>Start date</title>
Type	Type of control widget to use for the parameter in the form and is detailed in the following section. This tag is mandatory.
Key	References a replacement construct in the constructed query. <key>from</key>
Where	Query fragment to add to where clause of the parent element's search string. The reports system inserts the value of the parameter using string substitution with a key of value. <where>name HAS SUBSTRING %(value)r</where>

When the query is built from parameters all the parameters are evaluated as specified by <type>. If a parameter has a where clause it is substituted into the where clause with a key of value. All parameters without a key are then joined together using AND and inserted either at the beginning (<where start="True"> specified) or end of the where clause in the report. The complete query is then constructed. If there are any parameters with a key the completed query has those parameters inserted using string substitution with the specified key of the parameter.

The <type> tag must have a name attribute which specifies the type of the parameter. It should have one of the following values:

TextField: a text entry field.
SelectField: a list.
RelationshipSearchField: a popover node-selection field.
DateTimeField: a time field.

The tags that can be used with <type> depend upon these values.

Tag	Details
All	If type is SelectField add an All option to the select list (the default). When given value False prevents the addition of the 'All' option. <all>False</all>
Convert	Function used to convert the default value and user-typed value for use in the query. For example, the function could be common.timeutil.convertFromUnix. This will convert the value to UNIX form, which can then be added to the query. Referenced functions should be fully specified, and the packages and modules required should appear in <imports> elements, described in the previous section. Functions are referenced rather than called so do not need parentheses. The function can also be a lambda function taking one parameter. <convert>common.timeutil.convertFromUnix</convert>
Default	Expression that defines a default value for the parameter. Referenced functions should be fully specified, and the packages and modules required should appear in <imports> elements, described in the previous section. <default>common.timeutil.convertToUnix(common.timeutil.currentTime())</default>
Escape	Escape string value. By default string values are escaped. When given value False prevents the escaping. <escape>False</escape>
Kind	If type is RelationshipSearchField is used to determine which source kind when finding a list of relationships defined in the taxonomy. <kind>Host</kind>
Size	If type is TextField specifies the size of the text field otherwise specifies the number of visible options in the list. <size>2</size>
Options	If the type is SelectField then there are several ways to specify the selection options: eval which evaluates the expression. Referenced functions should be fully specified, and the packages and modules required should appear in <imports> elements, described in the previous section. <eval>api.audit.getEvents()</eval> option which contains the option text. The <option> takes an optional value attribute that is used when the option is selected. If no value attribute is present the option text is used. Multiple <option> values can be provided. <option value="21">FTP</option> query which performs a search query the first column of which is used as selection values. <query>SEARCH Location SHOW name</query> Only one of the selection option forms can be specified.
Validate	How to validate the parameter. Currently supports: integer: value is an integer number: value is a number boolean: value is a boolean NotEmpty: value is not empty If the value does not validate the form will present an error to the user. <validate>NotEmpty</validate>

Bringing all this together, the following element defines a parameter that appears in the UI labeled Type as a list with three specified values and no All entry. The <where> tag means that should the user choose Host then kind(#) = 'Host' will be added to the report query.

<parameter name="DQ_Report_Global_type">
   <title>Type</title>
   <type name="SelectField">
      <all>False</all>
      <options>
         <option value="Host">Host</option>
         <option value="SoftwareProductVersion">Software Product Version</option>
         <option value="BusinessApplicationInstance">Application Instance</option>
      </options>
   </type>
   <where>kind(#)='%(value)s'</where>
</parameter>

The following report will count the number of instances of software instances on the host optionally limiting the software instances to a particular type chosen by the user from a list.

<report name="Software.Report.InstanceSummary">
   <title>Software Inventory</title>
   <description>Shows summary of distribution of a piece of software</description>
   <kind>SoftwareInstance</kind>
   <show>
      type AS "_|Type|_",
      product_version AS "_|Product Version|_"
      PROCESS WITH
         countUnique(1,0)
  </show>
  <parameters>
     <parameter name="Software_Report_InstanceSummary_type">
        <title>Product type</title>
        <type name="SelectField">
           <options>
              <query>
                 SEARCH SoftwareInstance
                 ORDER BY type
                 SHOW type
                 PROCESS WITH unique()
              </query>
           </options>
        </type>
        <where>type = %(value)s</where>
     </parameter>
  </parameters>
</report>

<chart> elements

The <chart> element in fundamentally the same as the <report> element with the following changes:

the default type of chart can be specified by adding the default attribute to <chart>,
the <show> tag is used to determine the click-through columns of the chart.

Additional tags are:

Tag	Details
Split	Indicates the column to chart. This tag takes an optional columns attribute which specifies the number of columns generated by the split. For example, <split columns="2">endtime PROCESSWITH bucket(3600, 3, 48)</split> retrieves the endtime and puts the values into a list of buckets producing 2 columns, the time and the count. The title of the column is used as the axis title. A maximum of 2 <split> tags can be defined, the first for the x-axis, the second the y-axis. <split>os AS 'Detailed OS'</split>
Y-axis-title	Indicates the title of the y axis column. This will default to Count unless the <split> provides a second column. <y-axis-title>Hosts</y-axis-title>

Tag

Details

Split

Indicates the column to chart. This tag takes an optional columns attribute which specifies the number of columns generated by the split. For example,
<split columns="2">endtime PROCESSWITH bucket(3600, 3, 48)</split>
retrieves the endtime and puts the values into a list of buckets producing 2 columns, the time and the count. The title of the column is used as the axis title. A maximum of 2 <split> tags can be defined, the first for the x-axis, the second the y-axis.
<split>os AS 'Detailed OS'</split>

Y-axis-title

Indicates the title of the y axis column. This will default to Count unless the <split> provides a second column.
<y-axis-title>Hosts</y-axis-title>

For single columns the supported charts are:

pie (default)
bar
column

For two columns the supported charts are:

line (default)
column

The following chart will show a count of different OS classifications. By default a pie chart will be shown and when clicked through a summary report for the appropriate hosts. When displaying bar and column charts the y-axis will be labeled Hosts.

<chart name="Infrastructure.Chart.OSClassification" default="pie">
   <title>Host OS Classification</title>
   <description>Show count of Hosts for each OS Classification</description>
   <kind>Host</kind>
   <order-by>os_class</order-by>
   <split>os_class AS "_|OS Class|_"</split>
   <y-axis-title>_|Hosts|_</y-axis-title>
   <show>SUMMARY</show>
</chart>

<chart-channel> elements

Important

The following points must be considered when creating channels for upload through the BMC Discovery UI, or migration. Reports with channels cannot be uploaded by using the REST API.

The file must have the same name as the <report-channel> name attribute and must contain only one channel.
If you do not do so, you will see:
- Problems previewing and saving the channel
- Messages about Internal errors and only the current channel being saved
Ordering is important. For example, if you edit the 'Discovery Option' channel to add custom reports, these custom reports must appear in the custom reports list BEFORE the newly created Discovery.Channel.DiscoveryReportChannel, otherwise the custom 'Discovery Option' channel will not be able to find the custom reports.
- This will work as '0' (zero) comes before 'D'.
- This will not work as 'D' comes before 'r'.
If you remove a custom channel that is in use, the UI displays a banner with an error.
If you delete custom report(s) used in a custom channel, then that custom channel cannot be loaded, and:
- An error is displayed in the channel if it is being used.
- The channel is not shown in the channels list.

The <chart-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the chart channel. An optional default attribute gives the initial chart type.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Operating Systems</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Operating System Reports and Charts</description>
Kind	Kind to use in search. Multiple kinds can be specified in a comma-separated list or by using the * wildcard. <kind>Host</kind>
With	Any with functions to evaluate in the search query. <with>value(NODECOUNT(TRAVERSE Host:HostedSoftware:RunningSoftware:SoftwareInstance)) AS si_count</with>
Where	Any conditions in the search query. <where>version = ''</where>
Order-by	Sort results of a query by specified order. <order-by>name</order-by>
Split	Indicates the column to the chart. The title of the column is used as the axis title. <split>os AS 'Detailed OS'</split>
Show	List of attributes to display when click-through chart. <show>name, os, #InferredElement:Inference:Primary:HostInfo.hostid</show>

The following channel shows a pie chart of software product categories:

<chart-channel name="Channel.SWCategory" default="pie">
   <title>Software Products By Category</title>
   <description>Shows a list of the Software by Category</description>
   <split>explode(#Element:Maintainer:Pattern:Pattern.categories) AS 'Software Category'</split>
   <kind>SoftwareInstance</kind>
   <show>
      summary,
      #Element:Maintainer:Pattern:Pattern.categories AS 'Software Category'
   </show>
</chart-channel>

<chart-multi-channel> elements

The <chart-multi-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the chart multi-channel. An optional default attribute gives the initial chart type; default="column" displays the legend, default="column_nolegend" hides the legend.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Operating Systems</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Operating System Reports and Charts</description>
Kind	Kind to use in search. Multiple kinds can be specified in a comma-separated list or by using the * wildcard. <kind>Host</kind>
With	Any with functions to evaluate in the search query. <with>value(NODECOUNT(TRAVERSE Host:HostedSoftware:RunningSoftware:SoftwareInstance)) AS si_count</with>
Where	Any conditions in the search query. <where>version = ''</where>
Order-by	Sort results of a query by specified order. <order-by>name</order-by>
Split	Indicates the column to the chart. The title of the column is used as the axis title. There must be 2 <split> tags. <split>os AS 'Detailed OS'</split>
Show	List of attributes to display when click-through chart. <show>name, os, #InferredElement:Inference:Primary:HostInfo.hostid</show>

The following channel shows a column chart of database versions with a column for each product type. Each column contains a list of found versions.

<chart-multi-channel name="Channel.SWDBVersion" default="column_nolegend">
   <title>Database versions</title>
   <description>Number and version of all the Database instances</description>
   <split>type</split>
   <split>(product_version or 'Unknown')</split>
   <kind>Pattern</kind>
   <where>
      'Relational Database Management Systems' in categories
      TRAVERSE Pattern:Maintainer:Element:SoftwareInstance
   </where>
   <show>SUMMARY</show>
</chart-multi-channel>

<report-channel> elements

The <report-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the report channel.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Operating Systems</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Operating System Reports and Charts</description>
Image	Image to show for the channel. <image>discovery</image>
Chart	Chart name. The chart definition must appear before this reference. Multiple <chart> tags can be specified. <chart>Infrastructure.Chart.OSClassificationPie</chart>
Report	Report name. The report definition must appear before this reference. Multiple <report> tags can be specified. <report>Virtualization.Reports.ContainedHosts</report>

The following channel contains a link to a report and chart.

<report-channel name="Infrastructure.Channel.NetworkPolicy">
   <title>Network Policies</title>
   <description>Shows a list of Network Infrastructure Reports</description>
   <report>Infrastructure.Report.NetworkMismatchSummary</report>
   <chart>Infrastructure.Chart.IPAddressDistribution</chart>
</report-channel>

<summary-channel> elements

The <summary-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the summary channel.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Operating Systems</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Operating System Reports and Charts</description>
Image	Image to show for the channel. <image>discovery</image>
Kind-count	Node kind for which to show count. Multiple <kind-count> entries can be specified. <kind-count>Host</kind-count>

The following channel shows the number of Business Application Instance and Software Instance nodes.

<summary-channel name="Applications.Channel.Summary">
   <title>Application Summary</title>
   <description>_|Shows a summary of Applications|_</description>
   <image>applications</image>
   <kind-count>BusinessApplicationInstance</kind-count>
   <kind-count>SoftwareInstance</kind-count>
</summary-channel>

<time-series-channel> elements

The <time-series-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the time series channel.

This is identical to <chart-channel> with two exceptions:

It performs a historical search and partitions the result into a number of buckets. By default, this is 5 but can be overridden by specifying the time-series attribute on the <time-series-channel> element.
<split> is optional and if not present the chart will be based on the number of the specified node kind rather than the value of the specified attribute.

The following channel shows the number of Hosts for each UNIX OS over time.

<time-series-channel name="Channel.OSUNIX" time-series="7" default="line">
   <title>UNIX Operating Systems</title>
   <description>Shows a count of Hosts for each UNIX OS</description>
   <split>os_type as "OS Version"</split>
   <kind>Host</kind>
   <where>os_class = "UNIX"</where>
   <order-by>os_type</order-by>
   <show>SUMMARY</show>
</time-series-channel>

<video-channel> elements

The <video-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the video channel.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Operating Systems</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Operating System Reports and Charts</description>
Image	Image to show for the channel. <image>discovery</image>
Src	Video source. This tag is mandatory. <src>/videos/Prerelease3.swf</src>

The following channel shows a video feed for creating host profiles.

<video-channel name="Channel.Video.HostProfiles">
   <title>Feature Tutorial: Host Profiles</title>
   <description>Video Tutorial that explains the Host Profiles feature</description>
   <src>/videos/HostProfiles.swf</src>
</video-channel>

<web-channel> elements

The <web-channel> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the web channel.

Tag	Details
Title	Channel title. This tag is mandatory. <title>Google</title>
Description	Shown when editing the channels. This tag is mandatory. <description>Shows the Google search engine.</description>
URL	URL for the web feed. This tag is mandatory. <url>http://www.google.com</url>

The following channel shows a web feed for the BMC Discovery Community forum.

<web-channel name="Channel.Web.Community">
   <title> Tideway Community Update</title>
   <description>Shows the Tideway Community update.</description>
   <url>http://www.tideway.com/widgets/foundation-forum/</url>
</web-channel>

<page> elements

The <page> element requires a name attribute giving a unique name to the page.

Tag	Details
Channel	Reference a previously defined channel. There is an optional builtin attribute that must be specified if the channel is builtin. Multiple channel tags can be specified. The order in which the channels appear on a page is governed by the order of the <channel> tags. <chart builtin="True">Discovery.Channel.Status</chart>

Built-in channels

The following built-in channels are defined:

Built-In Channel Name	Description
Discovery.Channel.Status	Summary for Discovery status.
Infrastructure.Channel.Explore	Summary for the Automatic Grouping.

Built-in page names

The following are the identifiers for pages with configurable content:

Built-in Page Name	Description
ApplicationHome	The front page of the applications module.
DiscoveryReports	Reports in the discovery module.
Home	The appliance home page.
InfrastructureHome	The front page of the infrastructure module.
Reports	The front page of the reports module.