v4.0 User Guide

Getting Started

ReportPlus is a self-service mobile business intelligence tool that puts the power in your hands to do dashboard reporting - all without the need for custom programming. With ReportPlus you can quickly create and edit dashboards, easily query and filter enterprise data sources, build meaningful visualization over data and effortlessly share your work with others whether or not they are existing ReportPlus users.

When you first open ReportPlus, you are greeted by a dashboard selector which gives you the ability to:

• Open dashboards saved in the device. These are the ones displayed as thumbnails in the initial view, and you open them by tapping on the corresponding thumbnail image.
• Create a new dashboard. By tapping the + button in the top left corner of the initial view you can start to create your own dashboard.
• Access General Settings. By tapping the button with the gear icon in the top right corner of the initial view you access the general settings dialog, which, among other things, allows you to: set offline mode, manage accounts, reset the global cache, and access ReportPlus help's content.
• Delete dashboards in the device by tapping the Edit button, and then tapping the remove button on the dashboard you wish to delete.

You can open existing dashboards by tapping on the dashboard thumbnail image, in the initial view.

A dashboard is composed by a tile of visual blocks called widgets. Each widget is meant to display a different piece of related information, allowing you to communicate insight at a glance. This dashboard-widget structure allows you to better digest the bigger picture in your business.

It's possible to maximize any of the dashboard widgets just by tapping it.

The maximized view not only allows a larger display of the information, but can also enable some interactions. For instance, the grid view supports horizontal and vertical scrolling, and the chart view supports zooming and panning. Also drill down & drill up actions become available if the underlying data model supports it.

Depending on the definition of the dashboard it might be possible to filter information at a widget or a dashboard level. Widget filters (aka QuickFilters) are displayed on top of a widget once it's maximized. Global Filters are displayed on a collapsible pane on the right hand side.

When first opening a dashboard, you will be browsing it in view mode. This mode allows you to navigate and filter the information displayed in it but you won't be able to change the dashboard definition. In order to apply changes to a dashboard you must switch to the edit mode. You do this by tapping the blue button labeled Edit in the right corner of the upper bar. This enables editing options, such as: adding, removing, resizing & styling widgets. Dashboards can be saved and shared in a read-only mode; the user is required to enter a numeric passcode in order to switch to the edit mode.

To exit edit mode you must tap the Done button in the same location as the Edit button. This switches back to the View Mode, which optimizes navigating the contents of a dashboard by removing unnecessary visual clutter.

This orientation is by far the most intuitive and natural when using an iPhone. ReportPlus has the portrait orientation available for both iPad and iPhone.

When you rotate your device, all ReportPlus screens adapt to the new orientation except the Widget Editor, which is always displayed in landscape orientation.

Dashboard Creation Process

ReportPlus is a unique tool with a mobile-first approach, since it allows you to connect to data sources and author new dashboards from scratch with ReportPlus iOS and ReportPlus Desktop.

In order to start the dashboard authoring process you must first tap the + button on the top left corner of the initial dashboard selector view of ReportPlus.

Once you tap the + button, the Dashboard Template selector is displayed. When creating a dashboard you can opt to start one from scratch using any of the blank templates, which only predefine a layout for the widgets, or you can select any of the existing Dashboard Templates.

Dashboard Templates are pre-canned dashboards, that just need to be plugged in to your data to be used. Each template has a data contract that needs to be fulfilled to be instantiated. Some are bound to a specific type of data source. For instance the Google Analytics dashboard is meant to be used only with Google Analytics connections. Others can connect to any data source, as long as the mapping between the fields the template requires and the ones provided by the new data source is defined.

Dashboard Templates are good starting points to analyze common business scenarios. Once a template is successfully used, it will display your data, and you can modify it, as any other dashboard, to tailor it to your needs.

If a blank template is selected in the template selector, the following dashboard canvas is displayed.

A new window will pop up displaying the defined data sources. You can configure a new data source by tapping the + button next to Cancel. In the Local Files folder, you can find Excel spreadsheets that can be used as sample data sources. This window can be opened again by tapping on the blue + button on the bottom right corner.

On the bottom you can find the navigation bar, which provides access to the Undo and Redo buttons, and the Tools and Themes menus. A panel to the right can be expanded by tapping the button at the top right corner. This panel corresponds to the Global Filters. To learn more about Global Filters check this section.

In order to enable the creation of dashboards, ReportPlus provides the capacity to connect to a number of enterprise data sources to retrieve information from. The ReportPlus application connects directly to the supported data sources, meaning it does not require any changes to be made on the server side. For any user to be able to create a connection to a data source, they need to have a set of credentials with permissions to read the data. It's also possible to push the information into ReportPlus, for instance as an excel spreadsheet sent by email or from another iOS app. ReportPlus supports more than 20 different data sources, including Excel, SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Google Analytics and more. A separate option is left for joining data sources into a new data source. This last option is listed as Multiple Data Sources.

Creating dashboards based on Excel spreadsheets or CSV files are common scenarios. It's possible to do this in three ways: either sending the file from another iOS app, pulling it from a content repository in the cloud, or pulling it from a public URL configured as a web resource. In the first case the file is copied to the Local Files folder, that appears listed in the Data Sources panel. For more detail on these three methods check the How to import spreadsheets article.

The + button on the top pane prompts the new data source wizard dialog. This dialog is meant to guide you in the process of configuring a new connection to a data source.

The first input you need to provide is what type of data source you wish to configure. For instance, suppose you'd like to create a connection to a SharePoint site. In order to do this you would have to select Content Managers, then SharePoint Server. You would need to enter both the URL for the SharePoint site along with authentication credentials (user, domain, and password information).

The specific fields required to configure a connection vary between the different data sources. Once you have entered all the required information you must tap the Verify Connection button, which attempts to establish a connection with the data source, and confirms whether it succeeded or not. If it succeeded you may tap the Save button afterwards, and a new item will appear in the Data Sources panel, corresponding to your new data source connection. You will be able to navigate the contents of this new data source by tapping on it.

In the case of SharePoint connections, you can navigate the hierarchy of sites, subsites, and lists. In the dashboard creation process you can use files, such as Excel spreadsheets hosted in document libraries, by marking the item and then tapping Select. You can do the same with any SharePoint list. If you select a list, you will see a grid listing the list's contents, with columns corresponding to the list content type, with some generic fields such as Created Date and Created By.

Another example would be to configure a connection to a SQL Server database. In this case you'd have to select Datastores, and then SQL Server. In this case in particular you are presented with an option to discover SQL Server instances in the network, displayed as a button in the Hostname field. Once you save the connection you will be able to navigate it to list all databases in a SQL Server instance, and within a database see all tables, and views.

Once you select a data source, you can easily add a new data set to the dashboard. Just tap the round marker, on the left of the dataset, and then tap the blue Select button on the top right.

After a dashboard is created, it is still possible to change the widget's linked data sources. To do so, access the Dashboard Settings menu by tapping on the wrench icon in the bottom right corner and select Change Data Sources

Tapping on the data set you wish to change will take you to the Change Data Sources menu, where you will be able to select the updated data source. For each of the fields in the old data source, select a corresponding one in the new one.

ReportPlus' cross-platform compatibility means that you can also import dashboards from different platforms into iOS. The data sources linked to the dashboard do not need to be added to iOS before the dashboard is imported; they can be added during the import through the Data Source Import Wizard.

For example, let's import a pre-existing dashboard from the Mail application into ReportPlus:

After tapping on ReportPlus, you will be taken to a Data Source Import Wizard dialog, where you will see a list of the data sources needed to render the dashboard correctly.

After you enter the details for each data source and tap Import, the dashboard will be displayed in ReportPlus and the data sources you have configured will be saved and will appear in the Recent Data Sources menu.

Once a data set is selected the widget editor is automatically displayed. This view helps you massage the data, and select the most suitable visualization for it, making it as easily to digest as possible. From this view you can:

• Hide & reorder data columns
• Sort & filter data
• Aggregate data in the pivot table
• Chart & format data visually
• Bind the widget data to a dashboard page selection

After you're done building the report and selecting the appropriate visualizations, tap the Done button to return to the dashboard editor. In the editor you can take control of the layout and resize and move widgets around to any position in the dashboard grid.

Speed up the creation of dashboards by reusing existing widgets; you just need to duplicate or copy & paste any widget you want.

Duplicate. Create an exact copy of the original widget within one dashboard. Sometimes you need to duplicate an already customized widget and then tweak the duplicate's data set. For example, the charts below show Hires Over Time for all offices and a specific one separately

Copy & Paste . You can copy & paste any widget within a dashboard or even across dashboards. Note that you can create new dashboards by mashing up widgets from other dashboards.

In addition, you can paste your widgets on third party apps like Mail, Keynote, Numbers, and more. As a result, you get an image with a capture of the visualization. The only exception is when you copy widgets with the grid visualization; in that case, the result is a table with figures.

ReportPlus supports styling of a dashboard through the use of one of the included themes. Currently, you can apply more than 20 different, dark and light, themes.

In order to change dashboard style settings, go to Style Settings which is the second icon in the bottom right corner, and then select the desired theme.

At some point in the dashboard creation process you will want to save your progress. You should know that dashboards are automatically saved locally every 30 seconds. If the application is terminated for any reason, you should see a screen such as the following the next time you open ReportPlus. This will allow you to retake your effort where you left it.

You can also choose to explicitly save your dashboard, in which case you must provide a name, and define whether to save it locally or in a shared repository.

You will be able to share your dashboards easily by using the following options:

• Email. Email the dashboard to another ReportPlus user.
• Email Screenshot. Email a screen capture of the dashboard.
• Export. Export a document with a snapshot of the dashboard's data and email it, or send it to another app.

All these options allow you to introduce annotations to the shared image or the exported document screen captures.

Data Visualizations

In order for users to get the most insight possible out of business data, ReportPlus provides several options to customize the way information is visualized. This document describes different data visualization & styling options available when presenting data and building your dashboard.

Once a data set is selected, the Widget Editor is displayed with the visualization options menu presented in the upper part of the right-hand panel with a set of icons for the different visualization types. The lower part displays the configuration options for the currently selected visualization type, while the visualization preview is displayed in the central section of the screen.

Once in the widget editor, you can tap the magic wand button to display the Chart Wizard. Its goal is to assist you in the process of choosing the best way to visualize the information contained in the selected data set. It suggests chart types typically used on common data analysis scenarios. By forcing you to choose whether you want to do a comparison, analyze a relationship in the data, a distribution, a composition, or performance, it guides you through the process of selecting the fields required from the data set to do so.

The grid view is the default visualization option for displaying data and it presents the information in a matrix. You can resize the width of a column in the grid just by tapping the grid header, which will highlight the column in the grid, and then drag the resize handle in the column header. Slide it left or right to modify the column's width.

Note: The grid view is suitable in a dashboard when the number of rows, and columns is less than 10. When you're dealing with small amounts of data, the preferred approach may be to "just show the numbers".

The grid view, among other views, allows you to provide different formatting of the cell depending on the values found in a numeric column. For instance, values in the lower 50% range of a grid, can be colored with a red adorner to signal a problem.

To enable conditional formatting on a numeric column, tap the column item on the fields list to prompt the column settings dialog. If the grid view is selected, and the column data type is numeric, then the conditional formatting configuration item is displayed, but it is initially disabled.

The conditional formatting configuration allows you to establish styling rules, per ranges of data, up to three ranges (typically used for styling, upper, middle, and lower ranges). Depending on the nature of the information, low values might be a good or bad sign, so you have flexibility to configure the styling as best suits your situation.

Styling options in conditional formatting include: adorner and foreground color, as well as the use of a marker icons available from a pre-configured set which ship with ReportPlus.

The Text View displays information that follows a key-value pattern, such as a contact's card information (e.g. Name: John). It does so by displaying only the first row of data paired with the column's label. In order to display a specific row it's possible to apply filters to make sure that's the only row displayed, so it's the one picked up by the Text View.

The Text View supports conditional formatting, as explained in the previous section (the ability to style with different colors and icons). The text view is useful when you want to allow the viewer to easily digest the attributes of a single entity. Examples include product specifications, personal contact information, etc.

To display information graphically on a map you can select the Map visualization option, which attempts to bind each row in the data set to a location in the world map.

The map type displayed can either be the standard political map, a satellite picture, or a hybrid between the two. This is configured through the map Type settings.

In ReportPlus, the intelligence of where to plot points in the map, based on the data set values, is based on one of two methods: geocoding or geo-coordinates (e.g., latitude and longitude).

Geocoding assumes that the text value describing the location comes in one of the datasets columns, and will be translated into a geographical location. This location feature works well for country, state, and town names, but for more ambiguous locations it might not generate the expected result.

On the other hand, geo-coordinates assume that latitude and longitude information comes as part of the data set, and is present in some columns. Accepted formats by ReportPlus are two:

• Only one column containing both latitude and longitude information separated by a comma.
• Two different columns that must be mapped to latitude, and longitude respectively.

By default the map is configured to attempt geocoding based-localization, based on the values of the first column of type text. To change the default configuration you must change the Geo Location Type setting in the Map configuration dialog, to switch between geocoding and geo-coordinates.

To change the column that contains the expected location information, you must change the selection associated to Geocoding Column.

By default the map view plots each row of the data set with a blue pin marker in the map. Whenever you tap on a pin, the text contained in the column configured as Label is displayed.

Sometimes you want to do more than just displaying a pin in a map. For instance, you may need to display a magnitude for each point or a state. For these cases, ReportPlus allows you to associate a numeric value column to the point that was located using the methods described in the previous section. This allows two additional formatting capabilities in the map view. The first one is to display colored circles sized by the magnitude of the value. This is achieved by selecting a value in the Value Color configuration in the map settings.

The second formatting option is to enable conditional formatting on the map view and allow different icon markers to appear differently on the map. This is achieved through the conditional formatting configuration of the numeric column selected as Value in the Map View settings.

By default, the popup displays a text label, but you can change this behavior by selecting a value column. By doing so, when tapping a pin in the map the corresponding value will be shown in the popup.

The Web View displays information in an embedded browser by making a request to a URL and displaying the results. It works only with the first row in the data set, and displays the contents of the column set as URL Field in the visualization's Image Settings.

This view is a very versatile visualization option which can be used to display images, HTML pages, or event text content. If the URL Field setting is configured to a text column, it will display the text; if it's a valid URL, it will retrieve the contents of that URL and display the page.

The Gauge View displays a single value or a list of values, comparing them with range thresholds. The gauge also allows for conditional formatting of the different ranges. To select the gauge view, tap on the gauge-shaped icon on the Visualization options menu.

ReportPlus gauge support comes in four different flavors: Linear, Circular, Text and Bullet Graph Gauge. You can switch between gauge types by changing the settings in the gauge Type field.

The Linear Gauge displays a label, the value of which is taken from the Label Column configuration, and a value that comes from the configured Value Column. The value is charted as a rectangle within the ranged gauge, and also the value appears to the right of the gauge in a numeric format.

This gauge type is suitable to compare the values of different rows side by side.

The Circular Gauge displays the band's minimum and maximum thresholds, and the current value. It also paints the background with the color of the current range.

The text gauge simply displays the text in a large font. It is suitable for very high priority metrics.

The Bullet Graph gauge is very similar to a Linear gauge; it displays a label from the Label Column and a value from the Value Column. The value is charted as a horizontal line, and it is also displayed on the right in a numeric format.

The Bullet Graph adds a new visual indicator to the Linear gauge: a vertical mark that is based on a target value from the Target column. This new indicator is retrieved from a numeric column, meaning that you need two numeric columns and a text column to configure this view.

This gauge type is useful for comparing values side by side, while also evaluating the performance from the value (horizontal line) against the target value (vertical mark).

Each gauge type has a common band range configuration, which is similar to the one used in conditional formatting. The configuration dialog requires:

• Minimum and maximum values.These values are automatically set as the lowest and highest value in the data set for the specified value column, but they can be manually overridden with constant values.
• Bands configuration.This section requires you to establish two thresholds to split the range in three spaces. The thresholds can be defined as a percentage, or as a constant value. Additionally, the definition of the color to associate to each band can be configured here. By default the upper band is colored green, the middle one yellow, and the lower one red.
• Empty values treatment. Configure the Gauge View to display zero when the data set has no value or a generic notification there's no data to display.

You can display data in charts either by following the Chart Wizard or just selecting an available chart in the Visualization options menu. The Chart Wizard will guide you through a sequence of dialogs that help you define which is the best chart given your requirements. To start the wizard, tap the magic wand icon on top of a chart.

You can select any of the chart icons displayed in the Visualizations options menu as long as it is suitable for your data. ReportPlus will select the first numeric columns in the dataset and attempts to match the selected chart type data series requirements. For instance, in a Column Chart all numeric columns are added to the chart, and for a OHLC chart, different columns with the Open, High, Low and Close series are expected. The automatic selection of columns done by ReportPlus can be modified in the Chart Settings configuration.

There are different chart types available:

• Single series chart types
  • Column Chart
  • Bar Chart
  • Line Chart
  • Area Chart
  • Spline Chart
  • Spline with Area Chart
  • Circular (aka Radial) Chart
  • Pie Chart
• Two or more series required chart types
  • 2 Y-Axis Chart
  • Stack Chart
  • Stack Area Chart
  • Scatter Chart
  • Bubble Chart
  • OHLC Chart
  • Candlestick Chart

General configuration settings for all chart types are described in the following sections.

Chart settings enable the display of trend lines, which are lines that are painted across a chart based on an algorithm. Trendlines are a very simple, yet powerful tool to help you determine trends in data sets, and define thresholds for taking action. Among the supported algorithms are: Linear fit, Exponential Fit, Simple Average, and Weighted Average.

When you choose a chart type, ReportPlus will automatically select the columns used for the X Axis & Y Axis data. But this selection may not always have the expected outcome when visualizing the data. You may use the Chart Wizard to follow a more guided process to define the chart columns required by each chart type, or change the columns selection in the Chart Data configuration. The Chart Data configuration option allows you to select which columns must be taken into account for the chart creation. This involves selecting a column for populating the X Axis and numeric columns to chart in the Y Axis.

In the 2 Y-Axis chart it allows you to select which numeric columns are displayed in the left and right axis.

ReportPlus also allows to configure the Y Axis Configuration by setting the range of minimum and maximum values for the Y Axis and to specify whether it's linear (by default) or logarithmic.

ReportPlus supports styling of a dashboard through the use of one of the included themes. Currently, you can apply more than 20 different, dark and light, themes.

In order to change dashboard style settings, go to Style Settings which is the second icon in the bottom right corner, and then select the desired theme.

Do-It-Yourself Visualizations

ReportPlus offers multiple components for visualizing data, including the grid view, gauge view, map view and several chart types. There are some cases, though, where you would like to have another visualization method, not supported or out of the box, that you feel would be a better fit for your scenario. It is for these cases that ReportPlus introduces the ability to do your own custom visualization component and display it in a widget as part of a ReportPlus dashboard.

In order to do this you must select the DIY Visualization option, in the Widget Editor. Then, tap the + button on the top right bar to add the url address of a web page that generates the custom visualization of your choice. These custom web components can access the data retrieved by ReportPlus from any of the supported data sources. Custom web components interact with a Javascript API provided for that purpose.

Web components can be referenced either from a public url address or as a local .webarchive file.

A gallery with the following custom html visualizations is provided to be used as samples:

• Sample table view. It generates a table with the data set retrieved from ReportPlus. At the end of this guide there's a step by step tutorial that shows how to reproduce this sample.
• U.S. States Map. Map showing the 50 states of the US. It expects a data set with two columns, the first one with the name of the state and the second with a number used to color the state.
• Sample World Map. World Map sample that expects two columns, the first one with the name of the country and the second with a number used to color each country.

The Javascript API offers a way for any html page to interface with the ReportPlus application and access the data retrieved from any of the supported data sources, and even signal events back to the application to enable interactivity. For instance you can create a custom map that reacts to the user tapping on certain regions and triggers the navigation to another dashboard.

The interactions between the web component and the host can be the following:

1. dataReady event handler of the RPBridgeListener object is declared. This notifies the host that the view is ready to receive the data. You can do this calling RPBridgeUtils.notifyExtensionIsReady.
2. RPBridgeUtils.notifyExtensionIsReady. Function used by the web component to notify the host that it's ready to receive data.
3. RPBridgeUtils.sendMessageToHost. Function used by the web component to signal events to the host. Receives the following parameters: (message, action, rowData)
   • message. Possible values are: runAction to signal the host that a tap took place or openURL to notify the host to open a url.
   • action. Text parameter. If the message's type is runAction, it must match the given name given to Dashboard navigation action
   • rowData. Parameter used to pass the value of the selected data item to the host.

This section shows how you can use the DIY Visualizations feature to create your own personalized view of your data.

It illustrates the following tasks:

Steps:

• Creating an HTML file and adding the necessary script references.
• Adding javascript code in order to handle visualization data sent by ReportPlus (the host application) and also signal events.
• Reading incoming data and creating a custom representation of it.

1. Create the HTML file

Create an empty html file with references to jquery and ReportPlus bridge utils.

The first reference is just to help you manipulate the DOM and the second one has to do with connecting the visualization with the host.

Once you do this your html code should look similar to the following:

        
	<html>
		<head>
			<script type="text/javascript" src="rplus_bridge_utils.js"></script>
			<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script>
		</head>
		<body>
		</body>
	</html>

        

      

2. Notify the host we are ready to receive data

As a second step you need to add the necessary javascript code in order to:

• Notify the host that the view is ready to receive the data. To do this call RPBridgeUtils.notifyExtensionIsReady.
• Register a "dataReady" event handler that will be called by the host after the data is ready to be consumed.

After this step your code should look like this:

        

	<html>
		<head>
			<script type="text/javascript" src="rplus_bridge_utils.js">
			</script> <script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script>
			<script type="text/javascript">
				window.RPBridgeListener = {
					dataReady: function (tabularData) {

						// Render the view

					}
				};

				$(function () {
					RPBridgeUtils.notifyExtensionIsReady();
				});
			</script>
		</head>
		<body>
		</body>
	</html>

        

      

3. Create the html elements that will render the custom view

Finally, you need to process the data sent to the dataReady function, and dynamically generate the html tags used to render the data.

In this case we iterate over the tabularData.data array creating table rows and then we add it inside "myTable" div in the HTML DOM.

        

	dataReady: function (tabularData) {

		var tableView = $("<table></table>");
		var headerRow = $("<tr></tr>").appendTo(tableView);

		for (var c = 0; c < tabularData.metadata.columns.length; c++) {
			var column = tabularData.metadata.columns[c];
			var headerCell = $("<th></th>").append(column.name + ":" + getColumnTypeName(column.type));
			headerRow.append(headerCell);
		}

		for (var i = 0; i < tabularData.data.length; i++) {
			var rowData = tabularData.data[i];
			var rowView = $("<tr></tr>");

			for (var j = 0; j < rowData.length; j++) {
				var cellValue = rowData[j];
				var cellView = $("<td></td>").append(cellValue);
				rowView.append(cellView);
			}

			tableView.append(rowView);
		}

		$("#myTable").append(tableView);
	 };

        

      

Complete Sample Code

        

	<html>
		<head>
			<script type="text/javascript" src="rplus_bridge_utils.js"></script>
			<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-1.11.0.min.js"></script>
			<script type="text/javascript">
				window.RPBridgeListener = {
				dataReady: function (tabularData) {

					var tableView = $("<table></table>");
					var headerRow = $("<tr></tr>").appendTo(tableView);

					for (var c = 0; c < tabularData.metadata.columns.length; c++) {
						var column = tabularData.metadata.columns[c];
						var headerCell = $("<th></th>").append(column.name + ":" + getColumnTypeName(column.type));
						headerRow.append(headerCell);
					}

					for (var i = 0; i < tabularData.data.length; i++) {
						var rowData = tabularData.data[i];
						var rowView = $("<tr></tr>");

						for (var j = 0; j < rowData.length; j++) {
							var cellValue = rowData[j];
							var cellView = $("<td></td>").append(cellValue);
							rowView.append(cellView);
						}

						tableView.append(rowView);
					}

					$("#myTable").append(tableView);
				}
			};

			$(function () {
				RPBridgeUtils.notifyExtensionIsReady();
			});
		</script>
		</head>
		<body>
			<div id="myTable" style="height:100%"></div>
		</body>
	</html>

        

      

Data Filters

This section describes the different options for applying transformations to data sets, such as: sorting, filtering, and aggregating data. By applying filters, the information in your reports can be optimized for business analysis. You can remove unnecessary noise, highlight the most valuable aspects, and summarize information in many useful ways.

The data filtering options are accessible through the widget editor, which is displayed automatically when a data set is added to the dashboard.

The widget editor is the place to go to apply transformations to the data retrieved from the data source, and to define its visualization.

Column settings allows the following operations on columns:

• Changing visibility.
• Label renaming.
• Sorting data by that column.
• Formatting rules for the column.
• Applying filters.

Columns of Date type additionally support turning on Fiscal Years formatting, and when aggregated in the pivot table they also allow you to configure the granularity level of the aggregation in Days, Months, Years.

The first option in the column's settings is to change the visibility settings. This setting allows you to remove a specific column from the data set for the current widget.

When you need to change the visibility settings for most columns in the data set, it might be more straightforward to tap on the Hide all button on the bottom bar of the left pane, and then enable visibility only for the columns which you require in your widget.

Hidden columns are removed from the current visualization method and are grayed out in the fields list pane on the left. For example if you hide a numeric column from a chart, the series of values in that column are removed from the chart.

This option allows renaming column's labels. It's for display purposes only as fields are always referenced by their original name in calculated field expressions. Once renamed, erase the label completely to go back to the original value.

To sort by column, tap the desired sorting orientation, ascending (Asc) or descending (Desc) in the Sorting switch control of the column's settings pane. When sorting is enabled for multiple columns, precedence is given by the columns position on the data set.

A column with sorting enabled is signaled with an icon in the fields listing on the left pane.

Numeric and Date fields enable a new option, formatting, in the settings dialog.

To format date fields, select the desired date/time format you want to display from a list of possible options.

In the case of numeric fields, the options are more sophisticated. The user has the ability to configure:

• Type. Whether to display the number as percentage, currency, or number.
• Fraction digits. The amount of digits to display to the right of the decimal point.
• Show 1000 separator. Configures whether to display the thousands separator or not.
• Negative numbers. Allows you to select between enclosing negative numbers in parenthesis or prefixing with the minus symbol.
• Currency Symbol. Allows you to choose from several currency formats.

ReportPlus provides the ability to filter rows in the data set that have null or empty values on a specific column by enabling the filter empty values configuration setting.

This type of filter supports the definition of the set of values to display for a column, filtering every other value. To enable this type of filtering, tap on the Select Values configuration setting. This in turn displays the list of possible values for a column, and there you tap to mark only the items you want to remain in the data set. Rows with values excluded by the filter aren't displayed in the column.

Filter by rule enables the definition of more complex rules. The available rule options change depending on the nature of the data type of the selected column and are explained in detail in the following sections.

Fields with numeric types, such as integers, decimals and currencies, support the following type of rules:

• Top Items
• Top Percent
• Bottom Items
• Bottom Percent
• Above Average
• Above Value
• Below Average
• Below Value

All these rules take one parameter, which by default is set to 10, but that value can be changed to be any numeric value by entering the desired value in the white text box below the listed rule types. By default, when filter by rule is enabled on a numeric field, it's set to Top 10 Items.

Rules such as Top & Bottom 10 don't necessarily mean that 10 items will be retrieved. It filters the Top or Bottom 10 values, and, if there are multiple items with the same value, then more than 10 values will make the cut. For instance, the top 10 countries with more sales may yield 12 countries in the case that the last three countries have the same amount of sales.

Text columns support the following type of rules:

• Equals
• Contains
• Starts with
• Ends with

Similarly, these rules also take one parameter: the value of the 'starts with' or 'equals' that the rule will use to evaluate, and is entered in a text box in the same position.

ReportPlus allows you to define new fields in the data set, named calculated fields. These fields are built based on expressions that may compose existing fields, constant values, and a set of predefined functions. In order to add a new calculated field, you must tap on the + button in the top bar of the left hand panel. Once you do it, you will be prompted to enter a name for the new field and the expression to calculate the value of the field.

The following are a set of calculated field sample expressions:

Calculated fields created this way are evaluated prior to executing pivot table aggregations. If you need calculation to take place after the summarization of the pivot table then you should use Pivot Table Calculated Fields.

The use of this type of fields is suitable when:

• There's a need to analyze derived information. For instance, if a data set has values per day, it might be interesting to chart the variation between days as a percentage of the total.
• There's a need to bind widget information with pages binding, but neither the pages data set nor the widget data set has the columns data in the expected format. In these cases, creating a calculated column with a more "massaged" format may help make possible the join between data sets.

A Pivot Table is a data summarization tool, which among other functions allows you to automatically count, average and total the data stored in a tabular format, typically grouped by values. For instance if you have the following table:

And you need to do the following type of analysis:

You can achieve it by using a Pivot Table where the Product field is dragged and dropped in the Rows placeholder, so that all products are listed as rows, and by dropping the Region field in the Columns placeholder, columns are created in the dynamic table for every value in the Region field.

When a field is added to the rows, columns, or values pivot table placeholders, tapping on the field displays the summarized settings of that field.

• For fields in the Values placeholder, this means the ability to configure the summarization function used (average, count, sum, etc).
• For date fields dropped in the Rows placeholder it means the ability to choose the level of detail in the summarization (hour, day, month, year).

Column filters defined in the column settings become part of the dashboard definition, and can't be modified by consumers of the dashboard. On the other hand, when designing the dashboard, Quick Filters allow you to establish filters that can be dynamically changed, like parameters, by dashboard users without editing the dashboard.

In order to define a quick filter, drop a column in the Filters placeholder of the pivot table. If the visualization is either grid or chart, then a button is displayed on top of the control, which, if tapped, displays a popover dialog to customize the filter values.

You can add up to four filters at the same time per dashboard widget, and the filter options displayed in the popover filter dialog depend on the data type of the field. There are three different filter dialogs, for text, numeric, and date fields.

The list of possible values to select from, displayed in QuickFilters, will be filtered based on previous QuickFilters selections. Fields on the left take precedence and determine the list of possible values on filters to the right. For instance, if the field "Country" is dropped first, and the field "City" is dropped second, the list of shown cities will be filtered by the current country selection.

You can add calculated fields to a pivot table that will rely on already summarized values. This is useful to apply arithmetic operations between metrics in the values placeholder. For instance given the following summarization in the pivot table:

You could add a calculated field on the pivot to analyze the average order size, with the following expression: [Orders Total $]/[Orders Count], which would result in the following table:

Pivot Table Calculated Fields are added by tapping the button for that purpose in the values placeholder.

ReportPlus supports the ability to override the query sent to relational databases and Analysis Services connections. You can achieve this by tapping the Query button displayed on the top bar in the widget editor, which displays the currently generated SQL or MDX query, given the existing filters configuration. This feature enables advanced users to have a more detailed level of control over the information retrieved from the data source, enabling more sophisticated scenarios where information is pulled from multiple tables, and views.

Customizing the query disables filter settings. To enable them back just erase the custom query.

Global Filters and Binding

ReportPlus allows the configuration of Global Filters as a means to easily slice the contents of all the widgets in a dashboard all at once. The data sets added to the Global Filters collection remain in context for all dashboard widgets to be bound to, enabling dynamic filtering of the widget contents as the filter selection changes. For instance, a data set with the list of locations around the world or a company's Departments can be added to enable binding all widgets of a dashboard. In this scenario, the contents of each widget can be filtered by department or location by the user browsing the information in that dashboard.

ReportPlus also supports activating a Date Range, as a Global Filter. This enables the filtering of all widgets by a specific period of time.

The global filter dataset is defined in the Global Filters pane. To expand the right hand side pane, tap the button displayed at the top right corner of the screen. To add a new dataset just tap Tap here to add a global filter and select the dataset to be used in global filters. This will result in the display of a list with the contents of the dataset in the panel to the right hand side.

ReportPlus attempts to locate the first column whose title contains the text Name, to use as label of the filter. If it doesn't find one, it will select the first column with the type String as label.

You can change the displayed column in Edit mode. Tap on the global filter and then on the settings icon (gears) to display the global filter configuration dialog. From this dialog you can change the displayed field, as well as apply sorting and filtering to the dataset columns, and enable multiple selection.

To remove a data set from the global filters list, just swipe the corresponding row from right to left and a Delete red button will appear on top of the row. Tap the button to remove the data set from global filters.

Binding dashboard widget's data to a global filter can be done in two ways: either as part of the Global Filter configuration or in the Widgets Binding section, which allows to centrally configure the binding between a global filter and all widgets in a dashboard.

Otherwise a widget can be bound to a global filter within the widget settings in the binding pane section. To open the binding pane, tap the icon that looks like two linked chains in the bottom right of the widget editor.

In both cases, the binding is defined by adding rules that link a field in the global filter data set with a corresponding field in the widget's data set ("field binding") or one of the widget's data source parameters ("parameter binding").

Field binding allows you to configure a join relationship between the global filter dataset schema and the widget's dataset schema. To do this, tap the + button in the binding pane to display the field binding dialog.

In this dialog you must configure:

• Field. Represents the column in the widget's dataset that will be used as key to join with the global filter dataset. For instance: EmployeeId, ProductId, DepartmentId, etc.
• Operation The join operation that will be used, which can be one of the following:
  • EQUALS. Requires the field value and the global filter selection to be equal.
  • CONTAINS. Generally used with fields of type String, enables the join when the field value contains the global filter selection. For instance: Field value='FRANCE' CONTAINS Page selection='FRA'.
  • BETWEEN. Only available for Date type fields and meant to be used with the Date Range global filter.
• Global filter. The specific global filter form the global filters list that will be joined.
• Value. The column to participate in the join on behalf of the global filter dataset.

The data sets used in the creation of a dashboard may have parameters depending on the data source they were retrieved form. For instance, if an Excel spreadsheet is used as a widget's data source it will have as parameters the Sheet Name used, and the range of cells within than sheet. On the other hand, data sources such as Reporting Services reports have their own parameters which are defined as part of the report definition.

Global Filters allow you to modify these parameters dynamically depending on the value selection in the global filter. This can be used for instance to target different sheets within one same Excel spreadsheet. Sometimes Excel spreadsheets have different sheets with the same structure of data, but with different dimensions of analysis, such as different months or different clients, etc. Parameter binding enables to switch the Excel sheet used or the parameter sent to the server, with a simple tap in the global filters list.

In order to configure Parameter binding, you must select the Parameter option in the segmented control on top of the field binding dialog. This will bound the selected global filter to the parameter of the widget data set.

For some data sources there's another type of binding available, called URL binding, which allows you to link global filters to data sets or assets that can be retrieved with a URL, such as SharePoint, OData, and Web Resources.

If this is the case, a different configuration option is made available in the Binding Pane. You will be able to turn on URL Binding, and define a URL Binding Path expression.

This feature enables the report to query different items dynamically from the data source, depending on the global filter selection. This matching is based on a dynamic path and not on field rules between the datasets.

For instance, the tasks list of a SharePoint Project site could be retrieved with an expression as follows:

/projects/[ProjectName]/Tasks

Where ProjectName is the name of a column in the Global Filters dataset.

The URL Binding Path editor requires you to select a global filter to do the binding, and provides the following assistance:

• It provides the base static URL to act as starting point.
• With tap and hold the user is able to select from a list the column names in the global filters dataset. .

ReportPlus supports enabling a range of dates as global filters to bind to. This enables time based analysis scenarios, changing one data range and filtering the whole dashboard.

In order to enable the date range in the global filters section you must tap on tap here to enable date filtering in the global filters pane.

The initial date range selected is the last seven days. Once the date global filter is enabled it becomes available to be used in field binding expressions.

This setting specifies the current data set's column that will be used to display values in the Global Filter. Listed values will not be repeated even if they appear multiple times in the data set.

ReportPlus supports the selection of multiple global filter values simultaneously. This is meant to enable side by side comparison between different elements in a collection. For instance, in the HR Dashboard dashboard you can compare the hires and absences over time of different offices by enabling multiple selection.

In order to enable multiple selection you must switch the dashboard to the Edit mode. Once you do this, the global filters pane displays a button with the gears icon. Tap it to access the global filters settings, which allows you to turn on the Multiple Selection mode for a specific global filter dataset.

Global filters can be configured to require a selected option or not. By default a selection is required. Making selection optional allows the user to tap on the selected row to deselect it, which removes the filter from the performed query. The query retrieves all data from the data source and No selection is displayed in the global filters row. Sometimes this may not be recommended; for instance, for user experience implications, since all the charts being cluttered with tens of data series makes the data hard to read. It's up to the dashboard's author to determine which the the best option is.

Enabling the Dynamic Filter setting on a data set dropped in Global Filters enforces a cascading filters behavior on the list of displayed values in Global Filters. If the same data set is dropped more than once, the second filter will honor the selection made in the first one and show a list of values already filtered by the current selection. For instance, if a data set is dropped containing both Countries and Cities, and the first filter is used to display "Country" as the Displayed Column, and then the field "City" is dropped second the list of shown cities will be filtered by the current country selection.

Disabling this option forces to display all the existing values in the data set for the displayed column. If the same data set is used for a third time, it will honor the selection in the second filter, despite the Dynamic Filter configuration of the second filter.

In the Dashboard view mode, the global filters pane displays a Play icon on top. When tapped, a slideshow is automatically started, changing the values of the selected global filter with a delay of 5 seconds in each global filter.

With Dashboard Variables, ReportPlus brings the what-if analysis, also known as sensitivity analysis, to the table. This type of analysis is commonly used to determine how different values of one external variable will impact other dependent variables in a given scenario.

ReportPlus-related examples are:

• A dashboard with forecast analysis that includes a variable with the interest rate value.
• Dashboards about profit margin of a new product, with fixed and variable costs.
• A dashboard about sales projections that ultimately depend on a specific large deal with a big company or the exchange rate used at the time of a transaction.

To create a new dashboard variable in Edit mode, just go to Global Filters in the right corner of the screen and tap the placeholder below Variables. Finally, give the dashboard variable a name, data type, and value.

Dashboard Variables referenced in widgets work like Global Filters and can be changed dynamically while you are browsing the dashboard. But, unlike Global Filters, they are not restricted to a set of predefined values and can instead take any value you enter.

A particular widget can reference Dashboard Variables through calculated fields and widget binding.

Calculated fields

When working with calculated fields, you can reference a dashboard variable using a new function (VARIABLE). This function receives a text parameter with the name of the referenced dashboard variable.

Widget binding

Once a dashboard has at least one dashboard variable created, a new data set is made available for widget binding. The new data set (Global Variables) contains a field for every dashboard variable.

Export Options

The information displayed in dashboards will change over time as the data changes in the data source, but there will be scenarios where you will profit from sharing a snapshot of the data in that specific moment in time. For instance, to highlight an unexpected value that may provide some business insight and requires attention right away. Also, the dashboard format allows you to pack a lot of information in a single view, but it may not be the best format to provide a more detailed, corporate branded walk-through and discussion around the information upon sharing. For these cases, ReportPlus provides the ability to generate a branded document with a snapshot of the current state of the dashboard's widgets, annotate it, and email it. This way, you can share any conclusion or insight derived from the data in an easy way to understand for anyone in the company, and also to serve as report to be stored over time. In order to access the export feature, you must navigate to the dashboard actions menu.

Supported export formats are the following:

• PowerPoint Slide Deck. A capture of the dashboard's widgets as a collection of annotated slides. Suitable for presenting the information to groups of people, one slide at a time.
• PDF Document. A read only PDF document, that generates one page for each widget's capture and corresponding annotations.
• Word Document. A Microsoft Word document, with a similar structure as the PDF export but which enables collaboration with other teammates to keep evolving the document with changes.
• CSV Files. A zip file with a collection of CSV (Comma Separated Values) files containing the information displayed in each widget in a raw format. Suitable for sharing only the data retrieved by ReportPlus from the data sources.

ReportPlus allows you to configure a set of export settings that empower you to customize the generated document to better suit your needs. You can access these options through the Export Settings button on the right side of the top bar.

From this dialog you can configure the following settings:

• Author Name. Name that will be used in the generation of the report as author of the document. This entry is optional.
• Company Name. Name of the company that will be used in the document if the Company Logo is empty. This entry is optional.
• Company Color. The color that the brand is most identified with. It's used to brand the generated document. You can select it with the color palette by tapping the colored square, or by entering the RGB hexadecimal format.
• Company Logo.

• Max Number of Columns. Whenever a widget with a grid visualization is exported, ReportPlus will generate a table. By default only the first 8 columns are displayed, to make sure the information is not crammed and remains readable. You can tailor this figure if you want more or less columns displayed for grid visualizations.
• Max Number of Rows. This setting allows to customize the number of rows that are exported for widgets with grid visualizations up to a maximum of 200.

Dashboards with Global Filters will display the export scope dialog, which allows you to choose between the following two export types:

• Current Values.The export generation takes place as if no Global Filters have been defined, and generates one page per widget with the current values, given the current filters selection.
• Multiple Filter Values. ReportPlus will traverse the first data set defined in Global Filters, and for each of the selected values it will generate a different page.

This step in the export process allows you to select which widgets, or global filter values, are going to be used in the export process.

If the dashboard has global filters defined and the export scope selection is multiple values, then for each global filter value a row will be displayed in a list. Otherwise, the list contains one row for each widget. From this list, you can select which elements are to be included in the generated document by switching the Visible control contained in each row. No more that 50 elements can be included in the export.

Tapping on the pages rows prompts the page detail view, which allows you to change the title, add text notes to a page, and annotate the captured image.

Once you access the image annotation mode, you will see a top toolbar with two options. The first one allows you to add shapes and free style annotations.

The second top level option allows you to add text on top of the image. It provides options to customize the entered text, such as: border colors (foreground, background), font family, font size, and font color.

Once you are done annotating the image, you must tap the Save button on the top right corner, and then, if you want to commit the changes, the Done button.

Once you have edited the title, description, and annotated the pages you can preview the exported document with the preview button on top.

Finally you can email, print, or send the document to a third party app either by tapping the actions button on the preview screen, or in the last export step, in the Export Options dialog.

Combining Data from Multiple Data Sources

You can combine data from multiple data sources into one data set by creating a Multiple Data Sources connection. This enables mashing up data from different enterprise systems to analyze it and chart it side by side in the same dashboard widget. For instance you may compare web site visits over time retrieved from Google Analytics, with sales figures coming from an enterprise ERP system to gain insight about the correlation of these two variables.

Once a new Multiple Data Sources element has been created, it can be used to create dashboards as any data set in ReportPlus. It remains listed under the Multiple Data Sources item of the data sources catalog, right below the Local Files folder, allowing it to be reused in different dashboards.

Connections to Multiple Data Sources can be created in two different ways. The first one is by tapping the + button on the data sources pane, and by selecting the Multiple Data Sources option located at the bottom of the dialog.

The second, and most straightforward way of working with Multiple Data Sources, is using the Tools menu. Tap on the wrench button on the bottom bar of the dashboard, and then select Merge widgets. This will prompt the same dialog, but with most options preloaded.

In order to create a new Multiple Data Sources connection you have to configure the following:

• Name. Name of the new combined data source.
• Data sets to combine. You must browse the existing data sources and select two data sets to combine. For instance, Employees and Offices.
• Join condition. The equality condition that needs to match for two rows to be joined. For instance Employees.OfficeId = Offices.OfficeId.
• Selected Fields. Fields that will be carried over to the combined data set.

The definition of a Multiple Data Sources connection requires that you configure two data sources to merge. If you need to combine more than two, you can generate a first connection with only two data sources and later add another Multiple Data Sources connection combining the first one created.

Once you browse and select a data set you can configure filters, pivot table summarizations, or add calculated fields.

Calculated Fields, for instance, give a good degree of flexibility when joining two data sets, as they allow users to make adjustments and apply transformations to field values in order to suit them better to the join condition.

If you want to erase a data source that has already been configured, you must swipe the row from right to left and a red Delete button will be displayed. Tap the button to remove the data set.

The join condition dialog allows you to configure two things: the equality condition, needed to link rows of different data sets, and the criteria of what to do when the condition is not met.

For instance, take a look at the following data sets, which have been joined with a B=B' condition:

The criteria definition allows the following type of behaviors for the join operation:

Discard all non matching rows			A B B' C a1 b1 b1 c1
Include all left			A B B' C a1 b1 b1 c1 a2 b2
Include all right			A B B' C a1 b1 b1 c1     b3 c3
Keep all on both sides			A B B' C a1 b1 b1 c1 a2 b2         b3 c3

By adding a calculated field, it's possible to create a column containing all values of B and B'. Adding a calculated field named B+ with condition: IF(ISEMPTY([B]),[B'],[B]) allows charting using the B+ column in the x axis. For example, charting metrics over time using Date columns with different names. For the proposed example this would generate the following data set:

You can remove a condition in the same way that you delete data sources, by swiping from right to left on the condition row.

Once the Multiple Data Sources icon is tapped the dashboard enters selection mode, allowing you to select any two widgets to combine them.

As soon as you tap the second widget, the Multiple Data Sources dialog is prompted with the name, data sources, and possibly the join condition preloaded.

ReportPlus automatically attempts to determine the join condition given the two selected data sets. It will take into account the configuration of the visualization type, the pivot table configuration (if any), and the name and type of the fields to find matches. If ReportPlus doesn't automatically find a probable join condition to load, it falls on the user to define the join criteria. In this case, the dialog jumps directly to the join condition dialog to speed up the process.

In some scenarios, when merging charts or pivots with compatible field types, ReportPlus will automatically generate a calculated field containing the union of the two fields participating in the join condition to facilitate the analysis process. For instance when analyzing metrics over time, if the join is based on the Date fields, ReportPlus will generate a new Date field to allow charting metrics coming from the different data sets over time as well.

Once all the required fields are entered in the dialog you must tap the Save button. This will create a new widget in the dashboard canvas with the merged data set ready to be used in dashboard creation. ReportPlus will try to honor the existing visualizations used in the selected widgets.

Navigation Between Dashboards

ReportPlus supports the navigation between dashboards triggered by specific events, such as:

• Maximizing a widget.
• Tapping on a grid row.
• Tapping on a chart column/bar.

This feature takes the concept of drill down navigation to a new level; for instance, if you want to provide more detail on the information displayed in a widget you can use a whole new dashboard to do so. This can be very useful to establish top down analysis paths, where you go from a high level overview of a business' reality to a more detailed views with the specifics.

A good example is the implementation of a Company 360 dashboard, which provides key performance indicators for each area. Once you tap any of the widgets to maximize it, ReportPlus opens another dashboard with more details for the selected department.

It's possible to associate actions to specific events. Opening another dashboard is one of two supported actions. The second one is opening a specific URL. This enables many extensibility scenarios such as interacting with third party web applications as part of the dashboard navigation.

In order to configure this feature you must select the actions tab in the Widget Editor, which displays the following configuration dialog:

The control on top of the Actions dialog selects the event or trigger that will be used to fire the action. Possible options are:

• Row Tap. This event is triggered whenever you tap on a row in a grid view; however, in other visualization methods such as charts, it's triggered when you tap on a data item of the chart, such as column, or bar, depending on the chart type. On custom visualizations, this event can be fired through the API.
• Maximize. This event is triggered whenever a widget is maximized in the dashboard view.

Actions

Possible actions when an event is fired are:

• Open Dashboard. Enable this action to open another dashboard when the selected event takes place. If the selected dashboard happens to have global filters you will have to configure how to populate it for each global filter. Available options are:
  • Column. Get the value from one of the columns of selected row.
  • Literal. Manually enter a fixed value.
  • Global Filter. Get the required value from one of the global filters of the starting dashboard.
  
• Open Url. Enabling this action will open the configured URL in the device's browser.

Import Spreadsheets

ReportPlus supports importing Excel (.xlsx, xls) or CSV files to be used as data source in the creation of dashboards.

To import spreadsheets you can:

• Send the file from another iOS application
• Load it with iTunes File Sharing
• Configure a connection to a content repository & save locally

The iOS platform allows to share files between apps. A good example of this is the email client app, which allows you to send attachment files to other applications. If you tap and hold an email attachment, a popover is displayed listing all the apps that support receiving that type of file.

ReportPlus supports incoming files of.xls,.xlsx and .csv, among other file types. When a file is sent to ReportPlus the application starts, and the received file is stored in the Local Files folder. If the file already exists you may choose to overwrite it.

This option enables some key business scenarios, such as:

• Using spreadsheets received by email in ReportPlus.
• Creating spreadsheets in the device and then sending the file to ReportPlus. You can use any third party application such as Numbers or Documents To Go. Sending a spreadsheet from Numbers can be achieved with the following options Share > Open in Another app > Chooose Excel > ReportPlus.

iTunes provides a File Sharing feature, that allows you to copy files to ReportPlus's storage directly. For a more detailed explanation of iTunes File Sharing you may check this article.

In order to copy files you must plug the device to your laptop/desktop, then go to the apps section and to the File Sharing dialog at the bottom of that screen. Drop files in the documents list, files copied in this way will appear available in the Local Files folder of ReportPlus.

When possible, it's best to configure a connection to a shared file content repository such as SharePoint, Dropbox, or Google Drive. Once a connection has been configured, files available in these repositories can be added to the dashboard directly. In this case, the dashboard will keep a reference to the file and will reflect changes if the file is modified.

If you need to carry this file with you, there's always the option to copy the file from the content repository to Local Files. This ensures availability of the file in offline scenarios, or even the chance to create new dashboards with the local copy. In the iPad, copying is achieved by dragging files to the folder with the disk drive icon in the bottom toolbar. In iPhone just select the file, and then tap the corresponding icon.

Configuration Settings

This section has information on the configuration options available in ReportPlus, which can be divided in application (or general) settings, dashboard settings, and widget settings.

General settings affect the application's behavior for all your dashboards.

The available configuration options in General Settings are:

• Offline Mode. When enabling the offline mode, ReportPlus no longer attempts to connect with data sources and instead is forced to rely on the cached data. This means that the spinning wheels (activity indicator animation) will not be displayed when opening a dashboard. The offline mode it's useful for demos or presentation environments where quick access is critical.
• Disable Auto-Lock. This setting prevents the device from locking itself while you are using ReportPlus
• Manage Accounts. Centralized access and management for the accounts of all your data sources.
• Default Formatting Settings. This settings allow you to configure the default formatting settings for all your dashboards, like date format and the currency symbol.
• Recycle Bin. The place where you will find the deleted dashboards and where you will be able to restore them.
• Reset Cache The Reset Cache option forces the deletion of cached contents for all dashboards. Note that when applying this option while offline, some dashboards may not be displayed. As dashboards that rely on external data sources (not in Local Files) will be unable to retrieve their data.

These settings affect the behavior of the current dashboard only.

The available configuration options in Dashboard Settings are:

• Dashboard Title. Short text used to identify the dashboard, also displayed in the initial screen.
• Dashboard Description. Long text that states the purpose of the dashboard. It's used when exporting the dashboard to a slideshow.
• Password. This section enables a passcode lock for the dashboard, blocking editing capabilities and only allowing users to navigate the locked dashboard.
• Change Data Sources. This option prompts a wizard to guide you while connecting the dashboard to a schema compatible data source.

These settings configure the theme of a dashboard. Applying a theme updates the visualization color palettes as well as the widget and dashboard background.

The style settings can be access in Edit Mode, by tapping the button with the paintbrush icon.

The available configuration options in a widget's General Settings are:

• Title. Short text used to describe the contents of a widget in the dashboard.
• Last Update. Last time data was retrieved from the widget's data source. Tap the refresh button on the dashboard canvas to update.
• Show Title. Display or hide the widget's title bar.
• Expiration. The fixed duration for the data retrieved from the data source. By default, data from the local cache (that has not expired) will be used instead of querying the data source.

The following are the available data source settings in the General Settings widget. They are meant to be informative and read-only.

• Name. Name of the data set retrieved from the data source. For instance, when the data source is a database it will display the name of the table or view the data is coming from.
• Path. Path in the data source to the data set used by the widget. For instance, if the data set comes from a SharePoint connection, this option will display the route in the server to the list or the document within a document library.

How to Work with Data Sources

appFigures

How to configure appFigures as a Data Source

In this walkthrough, you will create an appFigures Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need an appFigures account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting appFigures as your provider.
3. Entering your appFigures details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select appFigures as your provider





3. Enter your appFigures details.



You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Account: an account to connect to the appFigures app tracking platform.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see appFigures within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with appFigures

When you create a dashboard with information from appFigures, you need to enter parameters for the information to be displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The only mandatory parameters are startDate and endDate.

Dropbox

How to configure Dropbox as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Dropbox Data Source for ReportPlus. If necessary, you can use more than one Dropbox account as a Data Source.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will only need a Dropbox account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Dropbox as your provider.
3. Entering your Dropbox details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Dropbox as your provider





3. Enter your Dropbox details

You will see a Login Prompt. Enter your details and tap on "Sign in and Link"



If you wish to enter more than one account, simply click on Link Another Account in the main menu and repeat the process.

4. Tap Save

You will then see Dropbox within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Suported files

When working within ReportPlus, you will be able to use a wide variety of files:

• Spreadsheets: Excel (.xls, .xlsx) or CSV, which you can use dynamically within ReportPlus.
• Other files (including images or document files such as Word, PDFs, etc.), which will be displayed in a preview mode only.

Dynamics CRM

How to configure Dynamics CRM as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Dynamics CRM Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need a Dynamics CRM account.

Overview

This procedure has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Dynamics CRM as your provider.
3. Entering your Dynamics CRM details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Dynamics CRM as your provider



3. Enter your Dynamics CRM details


You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. URL: the URL for the Dynamics CRM site.
3. Account: the credentials you use to log into the Dynamics CRM site.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Dynamics CRM within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Excel, CSV, Documents and Images

Introduction

ReportPlus supports importing Excel (.xlsx, .xls), CSV, documents (.pdf, .docx, etc.) or images (.jpg, .png) to be used as data source in the creation of dashboards. The options to import spreadhseets are the following:

• Configuring a connection to a content repository & saving locally.
• Importing them from your email.
• Sending them from another iOS application.

Local files can also be attached when sharing a dashboard by e-mail.

Connect to Dropbox, Google Drive or SharePoint & save locally

When possible, it's best to configure a connection to a shared file content repository such as SharePoint, Dropbox, or Google Drive. Once a connection has been configured, files available in these repositories can be added to the dashboard directly. In this case, the dashboard will keep a reference to the file and will reflect changes if the file is modified.

If you need to carry this file with you, there's always the option to copy the file from the content repository to Local Files. This ensures availability of the file in offline scenarios, or even the chance to create new dashboards with the local copy. In the iPad, copying is achieved by dragging files to the folder with the disk drive icon in the bottom toolbar. In iPhone just select the file, and then tap the corresponding icon.

For instructions on how to configure Dropbox, Google Drive or SharePoint, click on the below links:

• How to configure Dropbox
• How to configure Google Drive
• How to configure SharePoint

Import files from your email

To import excel and CSV files or documents from your email into ReportPlus, you will need to:

1. Tap and hold the file.
2. Tap on "Open in ReportPlus".

To import images from your email into ReportPlus, you wil need to:

1. Tap and hold the file.
2. Tap Quick Look.
3. Tap the Actions menu on the top right corner.
4. On the top menu, select the Open in ReportPlus option.

Send files from Numbers

To load a Numbers sheet into ReportPlus, follow the instructions below:

1. With your spreadsheet open, tap Share in the upper right-hand corner.
2. Tap Open in Another App
3. Tap on Excel.
4. Choose ReportPlus from the list of applications.

The excel file has now been imported locally to your iPad and can be used within ReportPlus. When you create a dashboard, you will see this imported file in the Local Files section.

Send files from other iOS applications

The iOS platform allows to share files between apps. A good example of this is the email client app, which allows you to send attachment files to other applications. If you tap and hold an email attachment, a popover is displayed listing all the apps that support receiving that type of file.

ReportPlus supports incoming files of .xls, .xlsx and .csv among other types. When a file is sent to ReportPlus, the application starts, and the received file is stored in the Local Files folder. If the file already exists, you may choose to overwrite it.

This option enables some key business scenarios, such as:

• Using spreadsheets received by email in ReportPlus
• Creating spreadsheets in the device and then sending the file to ReportPlus. You can use any third-party application such as Numbers or Documents To Go. Sending a spreadsheet from Numbers can be achieved with the following options: Share > Open in Another app > Choose Excel > ReportPlus.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Excel

When you create a dashboard with Excel as a data source, you can enter parameters to change how the information is displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The available parameters are:

• First row contains labels.If unselected, the application will ignore the values in the first row.
• Automatic range selection.. If unselected, you can manually select a custom cells range. This can be achieved by:
  • Tapping on a grid cell, holding and dragging to select.
  • Manually entering a range in the custom cell range field.

Facebook

How to configure Facebook as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Facebook Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need:

• A Facebook account.
• To configure Facebook under Settings > Facebook on your device

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Facebook as your provider.
3. Configuring Facebook on your Device.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Facebook as your provider





3. Configure Facebook on your device.

While it is not necessary to have the Facebook app on your device, it is necessary for you to configure your account on your device. To do this:
1. Go to the device's Settings module.
2. Go to Facebook. Enter your details and tap on "Sign In".
3. Return to ReportPlus
4. You will see a message saying "The Facebook data source needs an account configured in the device. To setup a Facebook account in your device go to Device Settings > Facebook. You'll be able to access all accounts (i.e. fan Pages) that you own or are administrator of". Since you have already configured Facebook on your device, you can ignore it.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see Facebook within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Facebook

When you create a dashboard with information from Facebook, you need to enter parameters for the information to be displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The only two mandatory parameters are the account and metric_period ones. However, it is strongly advisable to choose a date range (since and until) to get more accurate results.

Flurry

How to configure Flurry as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create an Flurry Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need a Flurry account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Flurry as your provider.
3. Entering your Flurry details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Flurry as your provider





3. Enter your Flurry details.




You will need to enter the following information:
1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. API Access Code: the access code to connect to Flurry analytics. You can get this from your Flurry account by signing in and clicking on manage on the top left menu. You will see a message saying "Your unique API access code is" and the value.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see Flurry within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Flurry

When you create a dashboard with information from Flurry, you need to enter parameters for the information to be displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The mandatory parameters are apiKey, startDate and endDate. Keep in mind that you can only request a year's worth of data at a time when using Flurry.

Google Analytics

How to configure Google Analytics as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create an Google Analytics Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need a Google account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Google Analytics as your provider.
3. Entering your Google details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Google Analytics as your provider





3. Enter your Google details.

You will need to enter the following information:


1. You will see a Login Prompt. Enter your details and tap Sign In.
   
   
   
   
   
2. You will then see an Authorization Prompt. Tap on Allow.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see Google Analytics within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Google Analytics

When you create a dashboard with information from Google Analytics, you need to enter parameters for the information to be displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The mandatory parameters are ids, start-date and end-date. While dimensions and segments are optional parameters, it is advisable to fill them in to get more accurate results.

Google Drive

How to configure Google Drive as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Google Drive Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will only need a Google account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Google Drive as your provider.
3. Entering your Google Drive details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Google Drive as your provider





3. Enter your Google Drive details


1. You will see a Login Prompt. Enter your details and tap on "Sign in and Link"





2. You will then see an Authorization Prompt. Tap on "Allow".


4. Tap Save

You will then see Google Drive within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Supported files

When working within ReportPlus, you will be able to use a wide variety of files:

• Spreadsheets: Excel (.xls, .xlsx) or CSV, which you can use dynamically within ReportPlus.
• Other files (including images or document files such as Word, PDFs, etc.), which will be displayed in a preview mode only.

Hadoop Hive Server

How to configure Hadoop Hive as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Hadoop Hive Server Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need:

• A server with Apache Hive Server installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Apache Hive Server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Hadoop Hive Server as your provider.
3. Entering your Apache Hive Server details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Hadoop Hive Server as your provider





3. Enter your Apache Hive Server details




You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (10000) by default.
4. Account: an account to connect to the Apache Hive server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Hadoop Hive Server within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

IMAP Mail Server

How to configure IMAP Mail Server as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create an IMAP Mail Server Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need an IMAP-supported e-mail domain. For a complete list of IMAP-supported domains, please visit the ARCLAB Knowledge Base.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu
2. Selecting IMAP Mail Server as your provider
3. Entering your IMAP Mail Server details
4. Saving your Data Source

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select IMAP Mail Server as your provider





3. Enter your IMAP Mail Server details.



You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: you can find the complete list of hostnames in the ARCLAB Knowledge Base under "Server" for each IMAP-supported domain.
3. Security: you can find the complete list of security authentication modes in the ARCLAB Knowledge Base under "Authentication" for each IMAP-supported domain.
4. Account: credentials to connect to the IMAP Mail Server.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see IMAP Mail Server within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Microsoft Analysis Services

How to configure Microsoft Analysis Services as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Microsoft Analysis Services Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need:

• A server with the Microsoft Analysis Services database installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Microsoft Analysis Services server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source menu.
2. Selecting Analysis Services Server as your provider.
3. Entering your Analysis Services details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Analysis Services Server as your provider





3. Enter your Analysis Services details



There are two modes you can use to connect to Microsoft Analysis Services depending on your server's settings:

1. Using Native.
2. Using HTTP.

Using Native

You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Connection Mode: Native.
3. Server Host Name: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



4. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (2383) by default.
5. Account: an account to connect to the Analysis Services server.

Using HTTP

You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be disaplyed in the Data Sources list.
2. Connection Mode: HTTP.
3. HTTP Service URL: the URl to the server. For example, 10.1.0.15/olap/msmdpump.dll

Note: To enable HTTP access you need to configure and point to MSMDPUMP.dll (an ISAPI extension that communicates with both ReportPlus and Analysis Services server). For further information, refer to Configure HTTP Access to Analysis Services on Internet Information Services (IIS) 8.0.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Analysis Services Server within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Dimensions and Features

When you create a dashboard with information coming from Microsoft Analysis Services, you will see fields organized differently as seen in the following screenshot:

As you can see, there is no "Fields" heading. In its place, you will see two sections in their own query field:

• DIMENSIONS
• MEASURES

For more information on dimensions and features, please visit this Technet article.

Microsoft Reporting Services

How to configure Microsoft Reporting Services as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Microsoft Reporting Services Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A server with Microsoft Reporting Services installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Microsoft Reporting Services server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Reporting Services as your provider.
3. Entering your Microsoft Reporting Services details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Reporting Services as your provider





3. Enter your Microsoft Reporting Services server details



You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Server URL: the URL to the server.
3. Initial Folder: the default folder that will be opened when connecting to Microsoft Reporting Services.
4. Server Mode: depending on your server's settings, you can choose one of two:
   • Native Mode: this is the default mode for report server instances. In native mode, a report server is a stand-alone application server that provides all viewing, management, processing and delivery of reports and report models.
   • Integrated Mode: in a SharePoint integrated mode, a report server must run within a SharePoint server farm.
5. Account: the credentials to connect to the Microsoft Reporting Services server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Microsoft Reporting Services server within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Microsoft Reporting Services

When you create a dashboard with information from Microsoft Reporting Services, you will see data in a report format by default and will not be able to modify the visualization.

In order to modify the visualization, fields and other aspects of your widget:

1. Go to General.
2. Under the Render section, choose Data.

You will then be able to work with a Pivot Table to change your data as needed.

Microsoft SQL Server

How to configure SQL Server as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Microsoft SQL Server Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A server with Microsoft SQL server installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Microsoft SQL server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting SQL Server as your provider.
3. Entering your Microsoft SQL Server details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select SQL Server as your provider





3. Enter your Microsoft SQL server details






You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (1433) by default.
4. Database Name. To find your database name, open up an SQL query in the Server Management Studio and enter DB_NAME([database_id]).
5. Account: the credentials to connect to the SQL server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see SQL Server within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

MySQL

How to configure MySQL as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a MySQL Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A server with MySQL Server installed.
• Credentials to connecto to the MySQL Server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting MySQL as your provider.
3. Entering your MySQL Server details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select MySQL as your provider





3. Enter your MySQL server details




You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.
• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (3306) by default.
4. Account: the credentials to connect to the MySQL server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see MySQL within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

OData Service

How to configure OData Service as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create an OData Service Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need an OData URL.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting OData Service as your provider.
3. Enter your OData details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select OData Service as your provider





3. Enter your OData Service details.




You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. URL: the URL where the service is located (for example, http://services.odata.org/Northwind/Northwind.svc for the Northwind OData Test Service).
3. Account: credentials to connect to the OData Service (if applicable).


4. Tap Save.

You will then see OData within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Oracle

How to configure Oracle as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create an Oracle Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A server with Oracle Database installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Oracle database.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Oracle as your provider.
3. Entering your Oracle details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Oracle as your provider





3. Enter your Oracle details



There are two modes you can use to connect to Oracle depending on your database's settings:

1. Using SID: the unique name of your Oracle database instance.
2. Using Service: the alias used when connecting to the database instance.

Using SID

You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (1521) by default.
4. Connection Mode: SID.
5. SID: the unique name of your Oracle database instance. By default, the SID for Oracle is orcl. To find your SID, log into Server Manager and type select instance from v$thread. This will return your ORACLE_SID.
6. Account: the credentials to connect to the Oracle database.

Using Service

You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be disaplyed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (1521) by default.
4. Connection Mode: Service.
5. Service: the alias used when connecting to the database instance. To find your Service, log into Server Manager and run select sys_context('userenv', 'service_name') from dual;. This will return your Service_name.
6. Account: the credentials to connect to the Oracle database.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Oracle within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

PostgreSQL Server

How to configure PostgreSQL as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a PostgreSQL Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need:

• A server with PostgreSQL installed.
• Credentials to connect to the PostgreSQL server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting PostgreSQL as your provider.
3. Entering your PostgreSQL details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select PostgreSQL as your provider





3. Enter your PostgreSQL server details




You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (5432) by default.
4. Connection Database: the default connection database, if applicable. When left empty, you will see all databases within the server (which ones you see will depend on your permissions).
5. Account: the credentials to connect to the PostgreSQL server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see PostgreSQL within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Salesforce

How to configure Salesforce as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Salesforce Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need the following:

• Salesforce Enterprise Edition account or
• Salesforce Unlimited Edition account

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Salesforce as your provider.
3. Entering your Salesforce details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Salesforce as your provider





3. Enter your Salesforce details


1. You will see a Login Prompt. Enter your details and tap on "Log in to Salesforce"





2. You will then see an Authorization Prompt. Tap "Allow"


4. Tap Save

You will then see Salesforce within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

SharePoint Server

How to configure SharePoint Server as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a SharePoint Server Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need the following:

• A SharePoint URL.
• A SharePoint account.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting SharePoint Server as your provider.
3. Entering your SharePoint account details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select SharePoint Server as your provider





3. Enter your SharePoint details




You will need to enter the following details

1. Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. URL: the URL where the SharePoint site is located.
3. Mode: the authentication mode must match the SharePoint site's method. If you don't know which one to choose, ask your Help Desk or IT Manager.
4. Account: credentials to connect to the SharePoint server.
5. Advanced Settings: these are optional settings, and they include:
• Timeout (sec). This will let you configure the amount of time (in seconds) that ReportPlus will try to connect using a network. If there's no response within this time, the appliction will stop trying and give a Connection timeout error.
• User-Agent. The ReportPlus user agent. If empty, the standard agent is used.
• View Mode. Either ReportPlus or Safari.


4. Tap Save

You will then see SharePoint within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Sybase

How to configure Sybase as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Sybase Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A server with Sybase installed.
• Credentials to connect to the Sybase server.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Sybase as your provider.
3. Entering your Sybase details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Sybase as your provider





3. Enter your Sybase server details



You will need to enter the following information:

1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. Hostname: the computer name or IP address assigned to the computer on which the server is running.


• You can find your Hostname information by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open the File Explorer. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Open System Preferences. 2. Right click on My Computer > Properties. 2. Type in $hostname 2. Navigate to the Sharing Section. Your Hostname will appear as "Computer Name" under the Computer name, domain and workgroups settings section. Your Hostname will appear along with your DNS domain name. Make sure you only include Hostname in ReportPlus. Your Hostname name will be listed under the "Computer Name" field on top.



• You can find your IP address by following the steps below. Please note that the commands should be executed on the server.



WINDOWS LINUX MAC 1. Open a Command Prompt. 1. Open a Terminal. 1. Launch your Network app. 2. Type in ipconfig. 2. Type in $ /bin/ifconfig 2. Select your connection. IPv4 Address is your IP address. Inet addr is your IP address. The IP Address field will have the necessary information.



3. Port: if applicable, the server port details. If no information is entered, ReportPlus will connect to the port in the hint text (5000) by default.
4. Account: the credentials to connect to the Sybase server.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Sybase within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Twitter

How to configure Twitter as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Twitter Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you need:

• A Twitter account.
• To configure Twitter under Settings > Twitter on your device.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Twitter as your provider.
3. Configuring Twitter on your Device.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Twitter as your provider





3. Configure Twitter on your device.

While it is not necessary to have the Twitter app on your device, it is necessary for you to configure your account on your device. To do this:

1. Go to the device's Settings module.
2. Go to Twitter. Enter your details and tap on "Sign In".
3. Return to ReportPlus
4. You will see a message saying "The Twitter data source needs an account configured in the device. To setup a Twitter account in your device go to Device Settings > Twitter". Since you have already configured Twitter on your device, you can ignore it.


4. Tap Save

You will then see Twitter within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with Twitter

When you create a dashboard wtih information from Twitter, you need to enter Parameters for the information to be displayed. You will find the fields in the Parameters Settings tab.

The only mandatory parameter is the q (query) one.

UserVoice

How to configure UserVoice as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a UserVoice Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need:

• A UserVoice account.
• A UserVoice subdomain.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting UserVoice as your provider.
3. Entering your UserVoice details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select UserVoice as your provider





3. Enter your UserVoice details.

You will receive three different prompts when logging into your UserVoice account:
1. A subdomain Sign in prompt, where you will need to enter your UserVoice subdomain. To find which your subdomain is:
   1. Log into your UserVoice account.
   2. Click on Settings (top right in the Admin Header).
   3. Choose Web Portal from the dropdown menu.
   4. Scroll down to Domain Name and click Edit. You will then see Hosted Subdomain with your current one listed.
2. A profile Sign in, where you will need to enter your UserVoice credentials.
3. A UserVoice Authorization Prompt. Tap Allow access.


4. Tap Save.

You will then see UserVoice within the list of Data Sources in the main page.

Advanced Configuration: Working with UserVoice

When you create a dashboard with information from UserVoice, you need to enter parameters for the information displayed. The parameters required will vary according to the data you choose.

The following example was created by choosing the Users file; the only mandatory field, in that case, was the filter field.

Web Resource

How to configure a Web Resource as a Data Source

Introduction

In this walkthrough, you will create a Web Resource Data Source for ReportPlus.

Requirements

To complete this procedure, you will need a Web Resource.

Overview

The process has 4 steps:

1. Accessing the Data Source Menu.
2. Selecting Web Resource as your provider.
3. Entering your Web Resource details.
4. Saving your Data Source.

Steps

1. Access the Data Source Menu





1. Tap the blue sign on the bottom right corner.
2. Tap the + sign next to "Choose Data Sources".


2. Select Web Resource as your provider





3. Enter your Web Resource details.

You will need the following information:
1. Data Source Name: this field will be displayed in the Data Sources list.
2. URL: the URL where the Web Resource is located (for example, www.exceldashboard.org/Northwind.xls for Northwind Sample Data).
3. Account: credentials to connect to the OData Service (if applicable).


4. Tap Save.

You will then see your Web Resource within the list of Data Sources in the main page.