The Report Explorer tool is a great supplement to both the Reports tab and the Encompass reporting database.  This tool provides critical information related to fields in reports and fields in the reporting database and their relationship to one another.  Report Explorer also provides a search option to quickly find reports by searching for field(s).  There is also an Action Plan window which helps you to determine what fields may need to be added or removed from the reporting database.

The Report Explorer can be accessed by clicking the Report Explorer button in the ToolShed (loan must be opened) or by going to the Admin – Report Explorer input form in the Forms section.

 

Once the input form opens click on the Report Explorer button and the Report Explorer window will open. 

In the top-left section of the Report Explorer window you will see data related to fields in reports and/or the reporting database.  This is a summary of which fields are in the reporting database (RDB), Encompass reports, or both. 

  

Directly underneath the summary section is the main section of the Report Explorer window.  This section shows a list of all reports in your Encompass system as well as a breakdown of fields in the reporting database, not in the reporting database, invalid fields (no longer exist) as well as an ‘Other’ column, which consists of fields are were created in the report by a user (possibly an Excel calculation field).  

  

You can also double-click on any report in this section to open a Report Details window, which shows both the reportable columns as well as any filter fields used in the report.  

Find Reports and Action Plan Buttons

The Report Explorer tool has two buttons at the top-right hand corner of the screen that provide additional functionality, the Find Reports and Action Plan buttons.  

This window allows the user to search for reports by field or fields.  Simply add one of more fields in the search boxes and the tool will return any reports that include the field (or fields) that you used in your search. The Action Plan button opens the Action Plan window. 

The top-half of this window shows you fields which are in reports but not in the reporting database.  While it is possible to report on a field without the field being in the database, it causes the associated report to generate much slower.  It’s a good idea to add any fields used in reporting into the reporting database.  This section shows the user which fields may need to be added. 

The bottom-half of the Action Plan window shows all fields that are in the reporting database but are not currently being used in any reports.  This gives the user a list of fields that may be able to be removed from the reporting database.  Remember, having too many fields in the reporting database could affect system performance so it is good practice to remove unneeded fields from the RDB.  NOTE:  Any fields used in pipeline views also need to be in the reporting database so make sure to check your pipeline views before removing fields.

This product installs the following to encompass:

Forms