This documentation is no longer maintained and may contain obsolete information.

The Report Builder lets end-users define their own reports based on existing content of the CAST Engineering Dashboard. Building a new report consists of:

Giving the report a name and an ID
Declaring its content as a list of sections to display in a sequential manner
Declaring the parameters to drive these sections, such as the title to use for the section, the Snapshot or Application to look at (note that all sections feed on their own list of parameters so this list dynamically varies)

The page can be accessed from the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG.

Creating a new report

To create a new report, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab):

Next enter the following information in each field:

Report Name > Enter a name for your report (this will be used to identify the report)
Report ID > Enter an ID for your report (the ID must be unique and cannot contain blank and/or special characters)
User > Choose the User for whom you want to create the report

Note that a non-Administrator user can:

List and display its own reports as well as all the reports that have been assigned to the ALL wildcard user.
Delete and update its own reports

A user with Administrator privileges can:

List, display, delete, and update all existing reports
Create a report for any one portal user
Create a report for the ALL wildcard user so that any user can list and display it.

Now click the Create new report button. The Report Builder Content Edition page will be displayed:

Now you need to choose a section to add to your report. You can choose from a wide range of sections listed in the drop down dialog box
Next click the Create New Section button (alternatively click Generate PDF to create a PDF version of the report - you will be asked to choose a location in which to save the file). The Report Section Edition page will then be displayed (this enables you to fill your report with specific sections - you can add as many sections as necessary to one report):

Next enter the following information in each field:
- Section Title > Enter a title for your section
- Other fields depend on the section that has been selected in the prior page, but are self-explanatory.

Note that the following options are available in the Date field:

<Last Date>: most recent Snapshot available
<Previous Date>: second most recent Snapshot available
<First Date>: oldest Snapshot available
Actual dates: actual dates when the snapshot was generated

Note also that with regard to the actual dates displayed in the drop down list: if you have generated snapshots for multiple Applications, the CAST Engineering Dashboard will offer actual dates for ALL available Applications rather than the Application you have selected - so you will see dates that may not correspond the the Application. The list of actual dates will refresh and display correctly if you select a different Application in the Application field and then re-select the Application you require.

Now click the Save button. You should see your new section displayed in a list:

At this point, you can add further sections to your report using the Create new section button, you can simply display the report using the Display button (the report will be displayed in a new browser window) or click Generate PDF to create a PDF version of the report - you will be asked to choose a location in which to save the file.
If you add additional sections to your report the following key table might be of use:

Section type	Lists the Section Type as selected during the creation of the report
Section title	Lists the title you entered
Section parameters	Enables you to edit the specific parameters for the selected section
Move Up/Down	Enables you to move the selected section up or down in the report list (this affects the way the report is displayed)
Delete	Use this to delete the selected section
Force page break before	Use this option to choose whether you would like the CAST Engineering Dashboard to insert page breaks between each report section, specifically for Printing.

Displaying an existing report

To display an existing report, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab). All existing reports will be displayed:

To display the report, click the button next to the report you would like to view.
The report will be displayed in a new window.

Editing the contents of an existing report

To edit an existing report, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab). All existing reports will be displayed:

To edit the report, click the button next to the report you would like to edit. The report to edit will be displayed:

You can:

Modify the parameters for a specific section
Modify the order of the sections within the report (the order in which they are displayed)
Create new or remove existing sections from the report
Add or remove a page break for printing
To view the modified report, click Display.
To generate a PDF of the report click Generate PDF

Deleting a report

To edit an existing report, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab). All existing reports will be displayed:

To delete the report, click the button next to the report you would like to edit. The report will be removed from the list.

Generating a PDF of a report

To generate a PDF of a report, there are two options:

Manually on an ad-hoc basis

To generate a PDF of an existing report on an ad-hoc basis, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab). All existing reports will be displayed:

To generate the PDF, click the button next to the report you require. You will be prompted to select a location for the file.

Automatically when a Snapshot is generated

If you want to generate a PDF report each time a snapshot is generated, then:

Make sure you have filled in the URL of your CAST Engineering Dashboard (in the form http://<server_name>:<port>/<dashboard_name>) into the Dashboard Service editor in the CAST Management Studio
In the CAST Engineering Dashboard, navigate to the Quick Access page - FRAME_PORTAL_QUICKACCESS_ADG. This will display the various Quick Access options:

Select the Access to Report Builder Administration page in the Administrator Pages sub-section. This will launch the Report Builder Administration page (in its own tab). All existing reports will be displayed:

Select the PDF Automation option for each report you want to automatically generate as a PDF
Each time a new Snapshot is generated via the CAST Management Studio, a PDF report will be automatically generated and saved to disk. The default location of the report is set to:

cast.web.home\reports\<user_ID>\<report_ID>.pdf

The location of cast.web.home is determined by your CAST Administrator in the application server web.xml file (see CAST-CED - Configure the hard disk location for auto generated PDF reports for more information). By default it is set to the following location on the machine hosting the J2EE compliant application server (and the user that is used to run the J2EE compliant application server):

%USERPROFILE%\castweb\

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Using the Report Builder