Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics

This guide is the second guide in a series of eight. The other guides in this series are:

• Creating reports from scratch - Introduction
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 1 - Titles and Topics
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 2 - Effective Date
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 3 - Select columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Steps 4 & 5 - Ordering and sorting columns
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 6 - Filters
• Creating reports from scratch - Step 7 - Groupings

• Creating reports from scratch - Step 8 - Collations and reviewing your report

   

Introduction

The first step to building a report from scratch involves giving your report a name and telling Arbor what your report is about (so the system knows which data to base the report on).
 

Unlike the other steps in the setup, this step is completed on a slide-over that opens when you click the green Create New Report button on the School > Custom Report Writer page, rather than a separate page.
 

Completing Step 1

• Click the green Create New Report button in the top right corner of the School > Custom Report Writer page (see image above).
   
• On the slide-over, click Create a new Report.

  

• Select a Report Focus using the drop-down - this is the main subject of your report, for example, students, staff or courses/classes. 
  
  You can think of your report's focus as the dataset or library the report writer uses to create your report. Each row within your report is a record in that data set (or book, if you think of this as a library).
  
  The report focus you select determines:
   
  • The data you see on each row of your report. For example, if your report's focus is 'Students', each row of your report shows data related to a different student.
     
  • The columns, filters and groupings you can use in later steps; different report focuses have different available columns, groupings and filters.
     

• Set a Title for your report by typing this into the box - this is the name of the report you see for the report in Arbor once you have created it. 

  So, if you set your report title to Student Names, you will be able to find your report on pages like School > Custom Report Writer and Reporting > Report Library by looking for a report with the name Student Names. 
  
  Things to note:

  • You can give reports any title you want
  • You can edit report titles later on if you wish

  • Report titles do not have to be unique; multiple reports can have the same title.
     

    

     

Once you're happy with your choices, hit the green Next button to proceed to Step 2 - Effective Date.