Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Reporting in KE EMu

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

What is reporting?

• Production of a “document” from the results of a search• Export information, uni-directional• Formatting of information• Interpretation of original data source• Possible data computation (e.g. totals, averages, counts)• Visual representation of search results (e.g. table,

graph).

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Why do we need reports?

• Extract information in a portable format.• Provide information in a “user-friendly” format.• Interpret “raw data” in different ways.• Layout data in a specific pre-defined format.• Supply information to third party products.• The boss asked for it!

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Why is it sometimes difficult?

• Requires an understanding of the underlying data structures• Different data models between KE EMu (object) and

reporter (relational) data sources• Need to deal with column names• Different data representations (e.g. partial dates)• Need to group fields to get correct table structure• Wide range of report writers available• Skills required to master each report writer

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Differing data models – ODBC, CSV

emultime.csv

emultimedia_key

irn

MulTitle

MulDescription

MulCreat.csv

MulCreator_key

emultimedia_key

MulCreator

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Differing data models - XML

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

How does KE EMu’s reporting work?

Server generates report data in XML S

Media filter adds in media paths

Filter transforms XML to required format

Files are transferred from server to client

Report writer is invoked

Report is viewed by user

texserver

Media Filter

XML

Filter

CSV/XML/Other

Files to client

CSV/XML/Other

ActionReporter format

Report

System|Setting|Reports|Media Filter|crystal|reportsmedia

System|Setting|Reports|Filter|crystal|texxmlodbc

System|Setting|Reports|Action|crystal|Run ODBC crystal.exe

XML

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Some Reporters for KE EMu

• Crystal Reports• Microsoft Word• Microsoft Excel• Microsoft Powerpoint• XML• CSV

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Admin Reports

• Ability to run server side reports• Provides reporting across all modules and aspects of the

system• Hooks into the client reporting system to produce standard

reports• Provides scripting for full access to server side tables• Can be scheduled to run at designated times• Generally written by IT staff

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

XML Reports

• XML (eXtensible Markup Language) provides a text based format for data interchange.

• “Report writers” can process the data to produce a variety of output formats and structures.

• XSLT (eXtensible Style sheet Language Transformations) provides a mechanism for transforming XML into a large variety of output formats (e.g, HTML, PDF, PCL, etc).

• Still early days for XSLT but removes dependency on legacy ODBC style data formats.

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

XML based reporting

XSLT Document

texserver

XML

List of files to client

XML

XSLT Processor

Report

XML/HTML/PDF/PCL/Other

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

How can we make reporting easier?

Simple reports• Are there any features that would allow simple reports to be

produced more easily?• Are there other simple reporting mechanisms that would be useful?

Complex reports• While recognizing that complex reporting requires powerful tools

which require a level of skill to use, are there features that could make this process easier?

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

List / Worksheet Mode Reporting?While viewing records in List/Worksheet mode select records:

• Copy onto Windows clipboard for pasting?

• Select print button for “excel” like print?

Collections Management Museums

Reporting in KE EMu

Summary Reporting?While viewing matching records, produce a summary:• Copy results of summary to clipboard in a variety of formats (e.g. text,

csv, RTF, etc)?• Provide a nicer printing option?