About Report Definitions
 

Report definition rules define reports of two types:

• Summarized reports. Examples include a line chart showing the number of work items of a given type resolved each week for the last four weeks, broken down by class of customer and work unit. A column shows the average number of complaints entered each month, by severity and product category.
  These reports contain two types of columns. At least one of the columns in the report must be a summarized column;  that is, it contains data that is summarized using one of the following built-in functions:  COUNT(), SUM(), AVG(), MIN(), and MAX().  Examples include counts of class instances (or record counts), total dollar amounts, average elapsed time between the entering and resolution of a work item, the most recent (maximum) date value, and the earliest (minimum) date value.
  All non-summarized columns on the report are considered group by columns, since the summarized data is grouped by, or broken down by, these other columns, display counts of class instances (or record counts) or summarized values based on numeric properties. 

• List-type reports. These present unsummarized or detailed data for individual work items or other class instances.

 Report definition rules are easier to define and work with than the V5 ListView and SummaryView report rules. Managers can create, share, and schedule Report Definition reports through the Report Browser, and modify them through the Report Editor, with little or no assistance from developers.

In addition to producing a report display or chart, report definitions can be used to assemble a clipboard page (typically of class Code-Pega-List) for use in other processing. Your application can reference a report definition in these places:

Both developers and managers can create, update, and execute report definitions.

• Developers — can create and update report definitions within the Designer Studio as they do other types of rules. These rules appear under the Reports category in the
  Application Explorer. The following section describes how to complete the rule form when creating a new report definition.
• Work managers — can browse and search for existing reports available to them, re-organize these reports within user-defined categories, run these reports, and create new reports within the Report Browser in the Manager portal. To create reports, managers need access to a local RuleSet. See Using the Report Browser.

Using a single shared, unlocked local RuleSet for reports for all access groups for the whole application simplifies maintenance and migration of the report definitions, categories, and shortcuts.

When a report executes, its results appear in the Report Viewer. The Report Viewer offers many options for manipulating the displayed report, such as () printing it and () exporting it to Excel. From the Report Viewer, you can edit a report using the Report Editor, which lets you:

• adjust column display order, sort order, headings and widths
• format values
• specify which rows of data to include.
• specify which data columns to include, and in what order

You can save the updated report, or save a copy as the basis of a new report. See Report Viewer.

When creating a new report definition using the rule form, complete the tabs in the following order:

1. Use the New dialog box to enter a name for the report that meaningfully describes, using short words and abbreviations, the purpose of the report.
2. Complete the Design tab to:
   • Define which properties, functions, or expressions are to be included as columns in the report, and the settings that control how each column appears (heading, width, format, sort order, and so on.)
   • Define filtering conditions that define which class instances are to be included as rows in the report or in summarized data.
   • Define other general settings to control the appearance of the report.

   At any time while completing this tab, you may click the Save & Preview button to save the current report definition and display the results in the Report Viewer. See Completing the Design Tab

3. Optional. In the Chart tab use the Chart Editor to design a chart to present the report's data. This is only available for summary-type reports. See Working with the Chart Editor. 
4. Optional. Complete the User Interactions tab to control how users can interact with the report within the Report Viewer, such as:
   • Whether users can modify the report, print it, export it to Excel, and so on.
   • Whether SmartInfo icons appear on each row of detailed reports, to display additional information about each row. See Completing the User Interactions Tab
5. Optional. Complete the Data Access tab to:
   • Define joins to other classes, declarative indices, and/or reports. See Completing the Data Access Tab
6. Optional. Complete the Parameters tab to document the name, description, and data type of parameters used in the report definition. See Completing the Parameters Tab 
7. Enter a Full Description on the History tab which explains the report in more detail (this more detailed description is displayed in the Report Browser when the cursor hovers over the report listing).
8. Click () to Save the rule or the Save & Preview button to save and preview the rule in the Report Viewer.

You can't run report definitions defined from the following classes from the rule form, but can run them in the Report Browser:

• rules defined on Work- or abstract classes derived from Work-
• rules defined on History-Work- or abstract classes derived from History-Work-
• rules defined on Assign- or abstract classes derived from Assign-

When you run such rules in the Report Browser, the Applies To class of the report is resolved as follows:

Report definition rules are instances of the Rule-Obj-Report-Definition class. They are part of the Reports category.