Customizing Vault Reports

TIFFANY HAYDEN: Hello, my name is Tiffany Hayden. I'm an application developer with material handling systems out of Louisville, Kentucky. Today, we will be discussing customizing vault reports with Visual Studio 2015. This class is important to me, because there doesn't seem to be much documented on editing vault reports with Visual Studio, and I created this class to help users navigate that process.

Some of our learning objectives that were going to go over today are how to identify and modify existing report templates, how to use graphs and charts in Visual Studio 2015. How to group and filter information on those charts, and how to write coded expressions for filtering purposes. So the first objective we just went over was identifying and modifying existing report templates.

When we get started, I'm going to give a brief introduction to Microsoft Visual Studio 2015. I'm going to create a report project, clean that project up a little, and then add reports to that project. Once we do that, we're going to create a class report that will get us started on the reporting process. The next section we're going to cover after we do that is a brief introduction to Autodesk report utility.

We're going to open a class report, edit a few properties, and then save over the report that we created. So let's go to Visual Studio, and we'll get started. So this is Visual Studio 2015, and to create a new project, I'm going to File, New, Project, and then if you're not familiar or you haven't dealt with reporting in the past, this may not be set to reporting.

So you'll want to go to Templates, Visual Basic, and then click on the Reporting and. What you're looking for is a reports application. You'll just select that, and then what we'll do is we'll name the project. Name the project au2021_customizingvaultreports.

And then we're going to put it in just a shortened folder structure. I'm going to name it code/au2021. And we're going to leave this solution name the name of the project. And then click OK.

So when you're creating a project in Visual Studio, especially a reporting one, it's going to ask to import that data set. For Autodesk reports, we don't actually need a data set. We are going to use Autodesk vault data set for that report itself. The data set for the reporting is the list of properties that is associated with that report.

So for Visual Studio, we're not going to actually import one. So I'm going to hit Cancel and then hit Cancel, and then yes to confirm the wizard. For this class, I don't need a form one and a report RDLC file, so I'm going to select both of those and delete them. And then the next process is I need to import the already existing report templates from-- import them from the directory that Autodesk stores them.

So I need to right click on the VB line and then hit Add Existing Item, and then it's going to default to the project location, and I need I need to go to where the templates are stored. So that is the C drive program files Autodesk Vault Client 2021 Explorer, and then you want to go to Report Templates. Don't be alarmed if this folder is completely empty for you.

For Visual Studio, it's looking for a VB code file. And what we're doing here is we're actually going to import our DLC file, and the filter down here is designated as a VB code file. So I just need to change this filter to either RDLC file or an all files filter. I'm just going to change it to RDLC since that's what we're looking for. And then just select all those, and then hit Add.

And then they will pop in to the Visual Studio. And so we have the list of every template that exists so far for 2021 vault. I'm going to choose the item-- no, the file table. The file table, and then I need to make a copy of this file, this RDLC file, so I'm going to right click and hit Copy, and then I'm going to click in the space right here and go down to the Control or go down into keyboard and do Control-V, and that will make a copy of that file.

The next thing we'll do is rename the RDLC file we just copied, and the name that we're going to give it is au2021_customizingvaultreport. Yeah. That's right. Customizing vault.

And it's going to pop up at the top of the RDLC file or at the top of the list. And if you go over to the left near the data sets, you'll see a list of properties associated with this report. And this is just the list of properties associated with this specific report.

And the next thing, I need to open up the Autodesk vault utility. The report template utility. This is saved-- this utility is saved in this location. And if you just type a report, it will be one of the top ones that pops up, and you just double click on that.

It's going to prompt you to log into Vault, so you'll just need to add your credentials and your server name and your vault name and walk in, and then you will see this utility pop up. So the next thing I'm going to do is I need to open up the report that we just created in Visual Studio. And when you hit Open, it's going to default to the report template location.

I need to change it to where-- I need to change it to the project location. This is where our-- our project is in this location, and that is the file that we're going to edit. So you can either double click on this or you can select it and then hit Open. And when it pops in, you will see all of the properties associated with your vault.

This list will not be the list that you see when you open your vault or your template utility. The I properties that are checked are the I properties that are in the data set for the report. So the properties that are unchecked are not in the data set. I need to add three new properties to this report to be included in the data set.

And currently, their file extension isn't in here. Path and vault status, so those are the three that we're going to add. So I'm going to check on File Extension and just scroll down, check on path, and scroll down and check on vault status. And then I need to Save As and select the report from the project location and hit Save.

And yes, I do want to replace it. So at this point, we are done with the utilities. So I'm going to close it down or just minimize it. And then come back to Visual Studio, and I get this notification, because Visual Studio senses that a report has been edited outside of Visual Studio.

So it's going to ask, do you want to reload it, and then you just hit Yes, and once you do that, I usually click away from the report and then click on the report again, and the data set properties should be updated. So now it includes file extension, path, and vault status. The next objective I'm going to cover is using charts and graphs in Visual Studio 2015.

I'm going to cover how to place charts, resize charts, duplicate charts, and add a few names to the charts that we place. So for Visual Studio, I need to expand the report size, so I'm just going to grab the bottom of this report and just drag it down. You can always minimize it later if you need it. For this class, I need to delete this table out, because I don't actually need a table, so I'm just going to right click and delete.

To add charts, just right click in the white space, hit Insert, then Chart, and then the first chart we're going to add is the 3D stacked cylinder chart. And then I'm going to add another chart and do a pie chart. And now, I need to resize the charts, because they're much too small right now. So I'm going to just resize them a little bit, and you can do it however you see fit.

However you want your report to look. So this is up to you. OK, so I need to duplicate these two charts, because I need two charts. So I'm going to select both of these charts, and then on a keyboard, hit Control-C, And then click in the white space and do Control-B and it will duplicate the charts for you.

You can also do a right click, go to Chart, Add, and then Charts, just like we did before, or you can duplicate it using the keyboard. Either way. And like I just did there, you can multi-select, keep them multi-selected and weave them all together so they align with each other. With Visual Studio, it actually creates-- it tells you how far away each feature is away from each other.

So right now, it's 5 points away, 2 points away. You're looking for 0 points if you want them all aligned with each other. I do, so I'm going to make them 0 points away from each other.

Now, I'm going to add a few names to these charts. So this chart is going to be-- this one is going to be a drawing. Dates. Then the pie charts are going to show vault status, so we're going to do model vaults, Students, and I'm drawing what's set.

The next objective I'm going to cover is grouping and filtering of chart information. So the next task is to add charts-- or add chart groups, clean up those charts, organize chart information to improve readability. After we do that, we're going to add a few filters, both model and drawing extension filters, and then add a null state filter.

This is simply how to ignore empty data. So we need to add filters. So you just click twice, so I'm going to click away, and then just click twice, and it will add this chart data. Since we're filtering or grouping by lifecycle states, I need to add lifecycle state, which is just states.

And then to the category groups, I'm going to add state and the same for this one. And then for the two pie charts, I'm going to be grouping by vault status. So for both of those, I need to add vault status. OK, and then on the two life cycle states, since the lifecycle states are in the chart as an axes, I do not need it in the legend, so I'm going to delete the legend out.

And then I need to rename some axes. This is going to be model [INAUDIBLE]. Lifecycle. And I was doing it kind of fast, but to edit these, you just slow click them twice and then you can edit the text box.

And then I am going to-- sometimes you want to show information in the charts more accurate information not looking at a specific column and going over to the axes. So I'm going to add some chart labels. So show labels. You just right click on one of the bars and do show data labels, and I'm going to do that for both of the bar charts.

I'm also going to do it for the pie chart. Just right click on the pie chart and go to Show Data Labels. And for a little bit of contrast, I want to change the data labels to white. So just click right click on the data labels and do Series Label Properties. And go to Font, and change it white. And I'm going to do that for all four charts.

OK, for the two pie charts, I need to change the label data to percent. I want to show I want it to show me how much of a is checked out versus checked in. For this purpose, you want to change the label data to percent, and then when you do this, it's going to prompt you, whether you want to change the use value as label to false, and you do, so yes and then hit OK, and you'll do that for both of the pie charts. And then I am going to move the legend for the two pie charts down to the lower center.

That just makes it a little bit-- that'll make the pie chart a little bigger, because this legend won't be this big. And then I want to add model and drawing filters and middle state filters that we discussed earlier. So in the white space around the chart, just right click and go to Chart Properties. And go to Filters, and I need to add two filters to this one.

This one is going to represent model information, so I need to go to File Extension equals IN, and then state doesn't equal nothing. And then for the drawing, the only thing that's different about what we were doing is going to be that file extension equals DWT and then state doesn't equal-- no. And we're just going to duplicate the process for these two charts.

File extension equals IN, and then state. State doesn't equal-- OK. And for the last one-- All right, and all of our filters are added. So the next objective I'm going to cover is how to add coded expressions.

Some ways for you to clean up information or to organize information on charts is to add label expressions. I'm going to add label expressions, group on expressions, and then I'm going to show you a contrast of why I'm doing this. Why do this versus just leaving it by itself, and I'm going to show you the before and after. And so I'm going to right click in the white or slow click twice for the data charts to show up, and then right click on the Category Groups, and then Category Group Properties.

And then I'm going to go to the label and then the expression for the label. The expression for the label, I'm just going to paste in here, and then I'm going to explain it. So for this, it's going to say if the left 13 characters of the vault status, that value, is not checked out all in one word, then I want the legend to-- the label legend to say not checked out.

If it doesn't say not checked out all in one word, I want you to say checked out. And because I'm going to use this several times, I'm going to copy this and also use it on the group on expression. And then do it again for the drawing ball properties. And group on for the drawing.

And then I'm going to-- let me open up and show you a before and after of this picture. So this picture shows adding that expression as a filter, and then this shows if you don't add that expression. So if you need certain information in this vault status, then this may not work for you. But for me, all I needed to show was whether a file was checked out versus a file checked in, and that was the only real way for me to capture that information is to use the left feature or the left parameter function.

The left function that will grab the left 13 characters. Some of the bonus content that I have is it hits on some of the hard lessons that I learned while I was learning the report process. The resizing of the report was a hard lesson for me. It threw me a curveball trying to remember or trying to figure out why, when I exported the report to the PDF, why it wasn't exporting correctly, and that is all to do with the size of the report.

So I'm going to show how to add the report ruler, how to resize the features, resize the report, report, and then make some report header adjustments. And then after that, I'm going to show you how to export the report, how to run the report in vault, and then show you a few examples of some live data. So how to add the report ruler.

You go up to the Report tab, and then View, and then Ruler, and then you'll see the ruler show up over here. So you see that this report is almost 11 inches wide, which is far too wide for 8 and 1/2 by 11 vertical page. So I need to decrease the size of my features and how I'm going to do that is I'm going to select both of them, and I need them to be approximately 5 and 1/2 inches wide, so I'm just going to decrease it down to that size, and then I'm going to move these two to move that one.

And then decrease the size of this down to about eight inches. And once you do that, then the report size actually will decrease down to 8 and 1/2. I need it to be on the list the left side of 8 and 1/2 inches. Just shy of 8 and 1/2 inches, and then I need to change the report properties. So go to Report Properties, and I need to change the size of the report. I'm going to do 8 and 1/2.

OK, and then I need to rename the report title. So just right click where your expression will show up. So I need the expression and the vault title or the report title will be my cycle state, and vault status dashboard. So hit OK.

And then I'm going to add the expression for the folder name. The folder name is pretty much the pack name of where you're running. So I'm going to use the Split function to split the folder name value with all the forward slashes into a zero based array, and then I'm going to pick the last number always.

So it doesn't matter if you have five folders or 10 folders, it's going to only pick the parent of that folder that you're going to run the report from. And then I'm going to add a expression for the generated by, and what this is going to do is it's going to split the username with a backslash and pick the first of those. So it's going to split the username.

The username is usually the domain backsplash the username. And I want to grab that username from the-- the actual username not with the domain. So I'm going to just grab the username. And then I need to export the report, but firstly, I need to save this.

And then I'm going to export the report from the project location. So I'm going to get another. Now it's worse, I can show you side by side.

So what I'm going to do is I'm going to copy this vault report that we're creating, and I'm going to put it into the template supports. So you do need admin privileges to do this. So hit Continue, and then it is in the location that you need to run the reports from vault. So I'm going to go into vault, and I have a few shortcuts of reports that I'm going to show you.

So you need to select them folder you want to run and hit Report. Since I ran this report several times, it automatically has mine loaded. But to do that, you just hit Browse, and it should browse to the report templates. So I'm going to select that, hit Open. And I don't want it to run subfolders.

If you do want it to run subfolders, go ahead and select it. I don't need it to for the information I want to show you. You can see that the name has been changed. The folder that I'm running it is called installation, the generated by is me, T. Hayden, and then here are some of the data.

And it looks like I didn't fix something, so just make sure that your lines are lined up when you're doing this. Actually, we have a little bit of time. I'll fix it. Let's export it again.

I'll just copy it again. and paste it into report support. And we'll run the report. So let's find a different one. So click on a folder, find a report, and then hit OK.

So you see this one has many different lifecycle states. 0.1 is not checked out or it is checked out. The rest is checked in, and then this one has many lifecycle states of different quantities. Let's look at one.

So that's another one. Well, this last one just to show you a little bit different. Here we go. So just to recap over our learning objectives, we identified and modify some existing report templates.

We use charts and graphs to visually represent data, vault metadata. We learned how to filter information in those charts. We also learned how to write coded expressions, and we even covered a little bit of bonus content. I really think that, if you want to dive further into the coded expressions, I do go through those a little bit more in detail in the handout, so I would recommend you going through the handout and trying these yourself.

Again, thank you for watching customizing vault reports with me, Tiffany Hayden. I really appreciate it. Thank you.