Purpose
HRMS Web Reports is a web-based reporting tool which is capable of producing
simple, cost-effective reports in a timely manner. Currently, Web Reports is intended to be used as a supplement to the latest version of the HRMS Reporting Tool.
Technical Architecture of Web Reports
Web Reports is a Domino-based XML generator which uses a Microsoft Internet Explorer's built-in XML parsing and transformation capabilities to display XML with or without XSL stylesheets applied.
How to Use Web Reports Security
Web Reports uses the same built-in security as HRMS. In order to view Web Reports, users must have the appropriate access rights. Once a user is logged into the HRMS system, access to the individual web reports is granted according to the user's group membership.
Location
To get to Web Reports click on the “Reporting” link on the HRMS Homepage
Web Reports Main Page
Number: This is a unique reference number for each web reports.
Source: Lists the developer(s) of the web report. Most of the reports will have DPI listed as the source for the web report. However, with sufficient training, HRMS users will be able to create their own web reports. In appreciation of the contribution, when an HRMS user contributes to the design of a web report, the user's name will be listed here.
Report Name: A simple description of the report
Exportable Stylesheets: A list of stylesheets that may be downloaded for use with XML report data, either in the browser or Excel. This topic is addressed further under the Content Type section below. To save the stylesheets to your PC, you right click on the style sheet icon and select “save as”. The stylesheets must be saved in the
“C:\HRMS_Stylesheets” folder to work with reports exported to Excel. You will need to create this folder yourself, and it must be directly off the root of the C: drive. Creating a folder in this location may require system administrator access to your PC.
Note: if you wish to save the stylesheet to a network location for common access, the downloaded XML file must be altered to hard-code the new location of the stylesheet. A more typical solution would be to print the formatted report to a PDF file, using a utility such as such as CutePDF or the full version of Adobe Acrobat.
To run a web report, simply click on the report name of your choice. Once a report has been selected, a new page will open with report specific options. Certain reports are auto-launching. For auto-launching reports, you will not be asked to specify additional options, and the report will appear automatically. You may need to wait a while for each report to appear. Watch the browser's active indicator in the upper right corner to
determine if the system is busy retrieving data.
Reports
All web reports have a similar user interface; however, the amount of user input required, if any, varies by report. Please read the instructions on each report page carefully before submitting.
Description: Each Web Report will display the report-specific input criteria, if any, what data is going to be displayed, how the data will be sorted on the report, and a
description of what the report could be used for.
Stylesheet: This selection allows the user to specify if the browser should format the XML data using the stylesheet associated with the report. If “None” is selected there will be no stylesheet applied to the XML data, and the data will appear in the browser window in raw XML form
Content Type: This selection allows the user to choose between “XML”, “Plain Text XML”, and “Excel”.
a) XML: This is the default choice and should generally be used to view all reports. Using this option, the user may view the report data in the browser in XML, or if a stylesheet is used, see the report formatted according to the selected stylesheet.
b) Plain Text XML: This choice displays XML data, but the output type to the browser is plain text. This option does not result in formatted data. This output provides a way for a user to save XML report data to a text file. If a stylesheet is selected, the XML command that includes the stylesheet is included in the plain text, but the stylesheet is not applied in the browser. The user may then change the stylesheet specified, if desired, to use another
"home-grown" stylesheet. Users are encouraged to contribute such stylesheets to the HRMS project.
c) Excel: This option allows a user to export a report’s XML data to an Excel file.
Note: Users must save the Excel file to their machine prior to opening it, as clicking Open in the dialog box may not return any data. There are two
methods of viewing XML data through Excel. The first, and preferred, method is to open the XML data with the appropriate stylesheet downloaded from the Exportable Stylesheets page. This is accomplished by running the report with “Excel” selected as an option. When prompted select save the file to any desired location. Only the stylesheets have to be in the
C:\HRMS_Stylesheets directory. The XML data can be saved anywhere you like, including a network drive.
Contributors: A list of people who helped in the design of the web report
SQL: Some of the reports may display the SQL queries associated with them at the bottom of the report. NOTE: if the SQL from the report is being run on the Query Tool the “Select” statement must be removed from the SQL query in order for it to run.
Certain reports use nested queries. If nest SQL queries are posted, they will be number in such a way as to indicate the nesting order. In the case of nested queries, you will not be able to return the data using the Query Tool, but you can return the data in XML format in the Web Reports tool.
Exercises
1) Run a basic Web Report
2) Open a Web Report’s data in Excel
3) Run a Web Reports SQL statement in the Query Tool 4) Save The XML data from a report on your hard drive
*Take notice of the SQL Statement this can be used in the Query Tool we will discuss later