Reports Overview

Standard report log templates

Project Center comes with a default report template named standardreport.xlsx. It is located on the Project Center Server machine under Templates\Twelfth Edition. Use this report to summarize and communicate project information, as well as to record project information at a point in time. You can generate a log report from each activity center. The information that appears in each standard report is based exactly on the layout of the activity center log view from which you generated the report.

Specialized report templates

Specialized report templates are Microsoft Excel files (they can also, in some instances, be Word files) that contain column labels and Smart Marker calls to query the Project Center database to fill in the desired project information in your generated specialized reports. With these templates, you can specify the exact column layout as well as leverage Excel formulas to perform special processing functions. For example, you could set up a column to calculate the days late for some or all of your submittals.

Use these reports to control your generated transmittals for areas such as the project team, the action items log, submittals, RFIs, and general layouts from the log views. Since they're based on Microsoft Excel, you can customize them using any of the Excel formatting components to make your reports look the way you want them to for your branding and layout needs. Understanding your company's workflow processes is essential to understanding which reports you want to customize.

Using reports

View and generate reports

See Generate a Standard Activity Center Log Report or Create a Multi-Project Report.

Generate report specialized for contracts or RFIs

See Generate a Specialized Contract or RFI Report.

Configure the appearance of reports

See Customize Your Log View.

Use a different report template in a project or activity center

See Apply a New Report Template Style to a Project or Activity Center.

Select a custom template for a multi-project report

See Select a Custom Template for a Multi-Project Report.

Custom report templates

Project Center allows you to create and use custom report templates for each activity center. To do this, the person creating the custom report templates must have an advanced knowledge of Microsoft Excel and know how to use Aspose Smart Markers. See http://www.aspose.com/docs/display/cellsnet/Smart+Markers for more information about Smart Markers.

Use Aspose Smart Markers

You can insert Aspose Smart Markers in an Excel spreadsheet that contains visual formatting styles and formulas. Smart Markers reference data sources that can be merged into the spreadsheet programmatically. Smart Markers make report templates easier to customize and provide automatic filling of formulas and subtotals in a spreadsheet.

Customize Excel-based specialized reports with Smart Markers

Open the Customizing Excel Specialized Reports Templates User Guide Word document and refer to the following two Excel files: Specialized Report Template - Log with Details and Specialized Report Template - Log Only.

Smart Marker field reference guides for creating custom reports in each activity center

Smart Marker reference guides for creating custom reports are available for most activity centers. See Smart Marker Field Reference Guides for Creating Custom Reports in Each Activity Center for a list of Microsoft Excel custom report spreadsheets containing available Smart Marker fields.

Use your own custom report templates in activity centers

A folder called Report Templates is automatically added to all activity center folders on the Project Center Server under Templates\Twelfth Edition, as shown in the example below. A readme.txt file explaining how to add your custom report templates to the folder has been added to each folder. After you create your custom reports, you can Configure Project Center to Use Specialized Report Templates in Activity Centers. After doing so, you can access the new report templates by opening the appropriate activity center and clicking the Create a Report task to open the Create Report dialog box. The new template will be listed in the Specialized Report drop-down list.

Query Definition tab in specialized reports

You can add a Query Definition to your Microsoft Excel spreadsheet report templates. See Smart Marker Report Query Definition Tab in addition to the following information:

The Query Definition tab is a worksheet contained within a Project Center specialized report. This worksheet defines static grouping, sorting, and filtering criteria. This criteria is applied to the log view data present when the report is generated. 1.    Grouping 2.    Sorting 3.    Filtering

 

Grouping

You can group the report on any column. Enter the name of the column in the column B adjacent <group>.

Grouping brings together items in the specified column based on the order data is returned from Project Center. It is recommended that the field specified in <group> is also specified as the first <sort query table> entry.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sorting

The <sort query table> contains a list of columns <fieldname>s to sort on and the direction in which to sort. Sort <direction> can be either ASC (ascending) or DESC (descending).

The sort list will be applied in the sequence entered. In the example shown here, the data set is first ordered by Submittal ID and then by Status.

 

Filtering

  

Filtering allows static filtering criteria to be embedded in the report.

<fieldname>   Column to filter on.

<operator>     Filter operator. Valid arguments are:

=                Equal to <value>

Like            Search for <value>

<>              Not Equal to <value>

>                Greater than <value>

<                Less than <value>

>=              Greater than or equal to <value>

<=              Less than or equal to <value>

<value>            Value filtering for based on operator.

<combine operation>   For the second and subsequent filter criteria:

And             Filter criteria is cumulative

Or               Filter results are cumulative