More about Report Definitions
 

For report basics presented as short video demonstrations, see PDN article 26386 Reporting in V6.2 — Nine tutorial videos. You can access these MP4 videos directly at http://video.pega.com/ozatum9v.

Use the Rule-Obj-Report-Definition.pxRetrieveReportData activity to execute the retrieval and sorting operations, but not the formatting and display processing, of a report definition.

Specify both key parts of a report definition.

Parameter	Description
pyReportClass	Select the Applies To key part of a report definition. This may identify an internal class or class group, or an external class.
pyReportName	Select the Purpose key part of a report definition.
pyPageName	Optional. Enter the name of the clipboard page that will hold the report results. If you do not add a value, the results are shown in the default Code-Pega-List page called pyReportContentPage.
pyReportParamPageName	Optional. Use this parameter to override the columns returned by the report. This parameter enables you to add or remove the columns that the report returns. You can also change the sorting order of these columns. This parameter is page name of class Embed-QueryInputs. The page structure is shown below.

Embed-QueryInputs page structure

<? xml version="1.0" ?>
<pageData>
     <pxObjClass>Embed-QueryInputs </pxObjClass>
     <pyListFields REPEATINGTYPE="PageList">
               <rowdata REPEATINGINDEX="1">
                      <pxObjClass> Embed-ReportListFields </pxObjClass>
                      <pyFieldName>.pyLabel</pyFieldName>
                      <pyPrefix>PCO</pyPrefix>                                                           <pySortType>ASC</pySortType>
                      <pySortOrder> 1 </pySortOrder>
                </rowdata>
     </pyListFields>
     <pyMaxRecords>Maximum no. of records to fetch</pyMaxRecords>
     <pyPagingSettings>
     <pxObjClass>Embed-PagingSettings</pxObjClass>
     <pyPageIndex>Page Number</pyPageIndex>
     <pyPageSize>Records per page</pyPageSize>
     <pyPagingEnabled>True/False<pyPagingEnabled>
  </pyPagingSettings>
</pagedata>

The system uses rule resolution to find the report definition and executes it, but does not produce any HTML output display. The selection criteria of the report definition rule and the sorting requirements (recorded on the Design tab) are converted to an SQL query that is sent to the PegaRULES database.

The database results are organized into a results page of class Code-Pega-List. The name of this page is the value you provided for the pyPageName parameter.

Each embedded page contains the properties listed on the Design tab. If the Maximum Number of Rows to Retrieve field on the Data Access tab is not blank, the activity returns at most the number of embedded pages specified in the Maximum Number of Rows to Retrieve field.

However, if report paging is enabled on the User Interactions tab, only the rows for the first page are returned.

This method can return thousands of database rows and create large clipboard pages. Use care to retrieve only the rows (instances) and columns (properties) you truly need.

Typically, managers do not need the ability to check in or check out rules. Use a dedicated RuleSet to hold manager-created reports. See Using the Report Browser.

The pzOpenAndRunReport activity runs a report rule and displays the results in a separate window.

The <pega:chart> JSP tag can be used to embed a chart created by a report definition in a section.

You can display the results of a report definition in a Grid layout within a section. The section can be referenced in a flow action or harness.

To add the layout, either drag and drop a report definition from the Application Explorer onto a section, or create the layout in the section and specify the report definition as the data source in the grid's repeating area. In the Grid layout, use SmartPrompt to select Column Name values to define the grid's columns.

You can specify joins in the grid. The presentation is determined by the Grid layout settings (column widths, show/hide, sorting, and so on), not the report definition settings. Grid report rows are read-only and cannot be re-sorted. See Harness, Section, and Flow Action forms — Adding a Grid layout.

The standard class Log-ReportStatistics contains an instance for each execution of a report. You can review or summarize this log to understand who is requesting reports, which reports have run, and the total resource requirements. Use the Rules Explorer or Class Explorer to navigate to, and run, these standard reports:

• Log-ReportStatistics.pyDefaultReport — Detailed statistics on report usage
• Log-ReportStatistics.pyDefaultSummary — Summary statistics on report usage
• Log-ReportStatistics.pyReportErrorSummary — Summary statistics on report usage
• Log-ReportStatistics.pyReportUsageByUser — Summary statistics on frequency of report usage by user

Data in this class is added by the Pega-RulesEngine agent, which if enabled runs once per hour. You can disable report logging through a dynamic system setting reporting/enablestatistics, which is enabled by default.