A report template shows how the report works, so it's a good place to start when deciding what changes to make to a report or troubleshooting a report to figure out why a record isn't appearing when it's run.
There are two kinds of reports available in your Reports utility: full-service reports and self-service reports. Each of which has a unique method of downloading their report template and will appear differently.
Full-Service Report
How to download the report template
The report template for a full-service report can be downloaded by going to the Reports utility, selecting the title of the report and clicking on the "Download this report's template" hyperlink. The report template will automatically download as a word doc file to your computer after you click the hyperlink. This hyperlink is only available for full-service reports, which are reports created by the Watermark team.
How to view the report template
When you view the report template, it will display the following information in a gray box to help you determine where the information is coming from in Faculty Success and if there are any criteria that a record must meet in order to appear on the report.
- Screen: The name of the screen from your Activities utility from which the record is being pulled.
- Items: The system is going through "All Records" or "Records Not Displayed Above" to pull records for the screen.
- Criteria: Data must meet the criteria in order for a record to be returned.
For another example, the gray box on an AACSB report displays the following:
Screen: Intellectual Contributions
Items: All records
Criteria: Contribution Type contains the text “Journal Article” and Current Status is one of: “Published”, “Accepted” and AACSB Classification has a value and Is this publicly available? is not equal to “No” and Was this peer-reviewed/refereed? is equal to “Yes” and Difference (in days) from Date Accepted (End) to Report Start Date is less than or equal to 0.0 and First value of [Date Accepted (Start)] and [Date Published (Start)] to First value of [Date Accepted (End)] and [Date Published (End)] overlaps with Report Start Date to Report End Date (Does not include ongoing or undated records)
So, to digest the criteria,
- Status needs to equal “Published” or “Accepted”
- AACSB Classification can NOT be blank
- Is this publicly available? is NOT equal to “No”
- Was this peer-reviewed/refereed? IS equal to “Yes”
- Date Accepted is on or after the Report Start Date
- Date Accepted or Date Published falls within the report data parameters
That said, if a record isn’t marked as peer-reviewed in the database, it won’t be counted in this column. For this particular report, each contribution type has a similar criteria that can be viewed in the report's template.
Note: The report template will also show the format of which records will be displayed in the report, as shown below.
Self-Service Report
How to view the report template
The report template for a Self-Service Report differs from a Full-Service Report in that it is created by an individual within your organization. To view the template of the Self-Service Report, select the report from the Reports utility. Once selected, it will show the sections of the report, each of which when selected will display which activity screen from which it is pulling information from.
In the example below, the section "Professional Memberships" was selected, and once selected, we can see "Activities from Professional Membership" which indicates that it is pulling records from the Professional Membership activity screen.
How to read the report template
The Self-Service Report will display a number of records, each of which will pertain to a different section, and each section of a self-service report will display which activity screen it is retrieving records from and will allow you to edit or add records wherever these changes apply.
The Self-Service Report can be used in a variety of ways, including pulling records for yourself or others, as well as creating a new report that can be shared with users in your organization. To learn more about how to use Self-Service Reports to create a new report, see Creating a New Report: Formatted article.