AssetWise Director Help

Contextual Reports

Contextual reports provide a method to display information about the object displayed in the Content pane of ALIM Web. This information can be displayed in the same window, in a new window, or in a new tab.

There are several advantages of displaying object information in contextual reports rather than in a topic.

  • Qualified Lists - You can have a separate contextual report to display each relationship type or group of relationship. Topics list all relationships of an object type.
  • Configurable Columns - You can define the columns and their display order in contextual reports. You are very limited in what you can configure in Topics.
  • Sort order - You can define the initial sort order in a contextual report. Topics have no sort control.
  • Selection Control - Check box selections are presented in the contextual report result set providing the full complement of tasks on the primary object in the result set.

Contextual reports are configured in the System Admin tab and can be added to any class or class template using the Contextual Reports topic. This topic accepts both interactive reports and external reports.

Contextual reports will only accept interactive reports if they have a single ID parameter in the Where clause, since the ID of the object in the ALIM Web Content pane is passed to the contextual report when it is invoked.

The following Where clause is acceptable in a contextual report:

Where

  • Documents.RelationshipType.LeftName = ‘Referenced By’
  • AND Documents.Right.Id = @ID
  • AND Documents.Left.Id = Id

Contextual reports also accept external reports created using Microsoft’s SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS). Using Reporting Services, you can create and manage interactive reports for your organization.

Note: If you are in the process of upgrading from AssetWise 15.4.1 or earlier and you have existing layouts defined in ALIM Web Layout Editor, the existing layouts must be updated in order for the Contextual Reports topic to be visible in the ALIM Web Content pane. This is done in ALIM Web Layout Editor using the File > Update All Layouts menu item. Default layouts include this topic.
Parent topic: Managing Classes and Attributes

To Add a Contextual Report to an Object Class or Class Template

  1. Open the System Admin tab (View > System Administration).
  2. Click the Information Modeling icon .
  3. Set the default scope.
  4. Expand Classes & Attributes and select the object class or class template you want to modify.

    The item opens in the Content pane.

  5. Expand the Contextual Reports topic.
  6. Do one of the following:

    To add an interactive report, click the Query Reports link to search for interactive report(s), then drag the interactive report(s) you want from the search results into the Contextual Reports topic.

    or

    To add an external report, click the Add External Report link. The External Contextual Report dialog opens. Do the following:

    1. In the Name field, enter the report name.
    2. In the Code field, enter the report code.
      Note: The code must be uppercase.
    3. In the URL field, enter the URL.

      The URL supports the following variables. These variables will be replaced with specific object values:

      • $(Id) - ID of an object.
      • $(TypeID) - ID of the object type.
      • $(PersonID) - ID of the person.
      • $(ConnectionString) - Value entered in the $(ConnectionString) field.
      Note: Any additional parameter from the Additional Parameters field can be appended to the URL string.
    4. In the Connection String Parameter field, enter the optional connection string parameter.

      The $ConnectionString in the URL will be replaced with the contents of this field when the final URL is generated.

    5. In the Additional Parameters field, enter any additional parameters.
    6. Click OK.

      The external contextual report is added to the Contextual Reports topic.

  7. Click the Save icon in the action bar.
    Tip: Click the Delete (X) icon next to any report you want to remove from the object class or template.