About reports

This feature allows users to generate reports based on queries that they have created. The report contains all the required information to generate reports from the saved TEXTML Server query in IXIA CCMS Desktop.

Reports are created with the Create report editor as shown below:
Figure: Create report editor
The Create report editor has the following tabs:
  • Report: Specifies all the information required to create a report.
  • XML: Provides the XML view of the report. You cannot modify the XML source.

A Report contains the following sections:

  1. General Information
  2. Notify
  3. Parameters
  4. Schedule
Note: The Schedule section is only applicable to scheduled reports and requires that the Scheduler is installed and running.

General Information

Select the query, viewpoint, and XSL transformation template used to convert the report to an HTML output, as follows:

Field Description
Report name Name given to the report.
State Select one of the following:
  • To generate the report, select Enabled.
  • Otherwise, select Disabled. This is useful when you are working on a report and do not want to generate it right away.
Query Shows all the saved TEXTML search queries. Choose the search query of your choice.
Viewpoint Shows all the available viewpoints. Choose the viewpoint of your choice.
Note: The color of the Viewpoint field indicates its status, as follows:
  • Red: No viewpoint is selected. The report cannot be Enabled without a viewpoint.
  • Orange: A valid viewpoint is selected, but it is different from the one saved with the TEXTML Server query.
  • Black: The viewpoint selected matches the one in the TEXTML Server query.
XSL template Shows all the available templates used to convert the report to HTML. By default, only the report2html.xsl XSL template is available, but additional templates may have been added for your deployment by your CMS System Administrator. Select the template to use for this report.

Note to CMS System Administrators: XSL templates are stored in the Content Store's Repository at the following location: /system/xsl/report. You can customize the existing template or create multiple ones as appropriate for your deployment. When you add templates to the location above, they are listed in the XSL template field.
Attach Dataset Select this option to receive the report.xml, xslTemplate.xsl, textMLQuery.tql, Output.xml, and Output.tsv files as attachments along with the report sent as HTML in the email notification.

Notify

You can enter a list of all emails that should receive the generated report.

Field Description
Email Email address of the person to notify when the report is completed. This does not have to be a user. You can enter multiple addresses.
Type The email can be sent directly, as a carbon copy (cc), or as a blind carbon copy (bcc).

Parameters

You can define the value of parameters used for the report. These parameters are contained in the selected XSL template.

Field Description
Key Parameter name.
Value Value of the parameter.

Schedule

The Schedule allows you to specify the interval at which the report will run. It is a combination of minutes, hours, days, months, and weekdays.

Note: Reports are generated in relation to the GMT (Greenwich Mean Time) time zone.
Field Description
Value Enter the exact time to schedule the report.
Note: The scheduled value converts to a cron job: <schedule>minute hour day month weekday</schedule>
Description Choose the time interval: minutes, hours, days, months, or days of week.

The table below describes various available options for the Value field in the Schedule section. Examples for scheduling in minutes is shown, along with their respective Cron jobs. The scheduling can be extended to hours, days, months, and weekdays.

Table 1. Schedule values, value description, example for scheduling in minutes, and the respective Cron job
Value Description Example - Schedule in minutes Cron job
Any Runs every minute Every minute <schedule>* * * * * </schedule>
Fixed Runs at a fixed time At 2 minutes past the hour <schedule>2 * * * * </schedule>
Range Runs within a certain time range Between 0 through 5 minutes past the hour <schedule>0-5 * * * * </schedule>
List Runs at all the listed times At 1,3,5,7,and 9 minutes past the hour <schedule>1,3,5,7,9 * * * * </schedule>
Repeated Job repeats itself Every 2 minutes <schedule>*/2 * * * * </schedule>
Note:

For more information about all available Cron options, see the following URL:

http://www.sauronsoftware.it/projects/cron4j/manual.php#p02