Reports

All reporting is done via Crystal Reports.

Custom Logos

A custom logo can be assigned in the Appliance Settings page under Reports. Reports must be configured to load that logo. You do not need customised reports to replace the default Wise Owl logo.

TODO: standard logo size.

Reports and Slots

Reports are stand-alone entities, which may or may not be referenced in other parts of your Appliance. Custom reports can be added and out of the box reports can be replaced (although standard reports cannot be removed or overwritten by end users). A list of reports is shown on the Metrics page and in the Appliance Settings under Reports.

Report Slots are how you can set a report against a particular page in Wise Owl. Reports are assigned to slots based on a page data model or the page name. The former is best used by developers, the latter can be used by anyone. When a report is assigned to a slot, the Print ico, (in the top right of all pages) is enabled; clicking it will display the report.

Named Report Slots are used for various special reports throughout the Appliance. You can add new named slots, but they will never be used as they need to be referenced in the Appliance code. However, you can swap out a report assigned to a named slot for a customised version, if you desire.

TODO: Karen to give me a list of named reports

Crystal Reports

This details conventions and requirements for developing Crystal Reports.

Crystal Reports Runtime v13 is being used on the Appliances themselves. Report development is being done in v14 on Stella.

Database Connections in Crystal

There are two ODBC connections available:

1. The main database (WOL_Prod)
2. The logs and stats database (WOL_Prod_Log)

ODBC connections are configurable in Site Settings. But generally shouldn't need to be changed from their default in production environments.

Reports themselves have their connections remapped to the config settings. The convention is as follows:

1. Any DSNs which do not start with WOL_ are not touched
2. Any DSNs which start with WOL_ and end in _LOG are remapped to the logs and stats database
3. Any DSNs which start with WOL_ and do not end in _LOG are remapped to the main database

Parameters

The following common parameters are passed to every report:

Other parameters are passed based on view model data, ONLY when the report is assigned a to slot and the user clicks on the Print icon, base on the following rules:

• Any readable property of the view model is mapped to a corresponding Crystal Parameter based on name.
• The Crystal Parameter may be prefixed with a "p". That is the view model property "MatterNumber" can be mapped to either "MatterNumber" or "pMatterNumber" on the Crystal Report
• Mapping is case-insensitive.

The actual values in view model data varies from page to page, however the following pointers should help you find the right parameters:

• Most pages which show a single record will have an ID property which relates to the primary key of a database table.
  • Trust Transaction Lines, however, have a composite primary key based on the transaction id and line number.
• Pages which allow searching of records commonly have a Name property.
• You can view the raw view model data by appending ?__ViewModelDebug=y to a page you load. This will show all the view model properties available; usually there will be enough there to pass to a report.

Any report parameters not mapped by Wise Owl will be shown on the usual Crystal Reports parameter dialog. This allows for a last ditch attempt to map parameters, but is generally not the best experience for the user.

Any reports viewed directly from the report list will rely on the Crystal Reports parameters dialog.

Reports in Named Slots will have specific parameters required. As these parameters are known beforehand, developers will assume the reports have them and set them via code.