03. Building a Basic Pages Report
Learn how to create a basic Pages report, to better understand the functionality of the Pages interface and the relationship between Pages, Layers and Components.
Pages allows you to quickly create powerful interactive, reporting dashboards using an intuitive drag-and-drop interface. This guide will help you get up and running with that interface.
Covering the considerations that you’ll have to make, and the functionality that you’ll need to use, to create a basic Pages report.
To create a basic Pages report, you need to:
- Set up your Pages workspace.
- Add reporting components.
- Resize and reposition components on the report’s workspace.
- Save and share your report.
Who can create a Pages report?
If you want to create a Pages report, your CXAir user must have been granted the Pages user functionality permission or have been added to a CXAir user group that has been granted the permission.
Setting up your workspace
Think of your workspace as the digital representation of a single page in a physical report. But because it’s digital, it also allows you to add some clever interactive.
So, when creating a Pages report, the first step should always be ensuring that the workspace looks and behaves how you want it to do.
In practical terms this means setting the options for:
- The whole Report.
- Each individual Page.
You should always configure your report before adding any components as changing some of the following settings resets the report – removing all components that have been added. This guide covers the commonly used options that you’ll need to define when creating a basic Pages report. While there are additional options, we’ll ignore them for the purpose of this guide.
Learn more about the Structure of a Pages Report >
Setting Report options
The Report options allow you to set the size of every page in your report, what elements appear on those pages and how the workspace behaves.
To set the Report options:
- Click anywhere on the workspace. This displays the Report Style icon on the Dynamic Toolbar.
- Click the Report Style icon to display the Report Style pop-up dialog box.
These are the essential options you should consider setting:
Page Size
Though Pages enables you to share reports electronically, you might also need to save and share these reports as PDFs – either to take a snapshot of a moment in time or to share the report with those unable to access CXAir.
Ensuring that your workspace is the same size as the popular paper sizes, makes the saving process seamless.
The Page Size option allows you to select from a common set of paper sizes (for example, A4) and monitor display sizes.
Cell Size
This sets the size of the grid cells on your workspace.
By default, components ‘snap’ to grid cells. This makes it easier for you to position and align the components on your report.
Setting the cell size to “Small” give you greater control over the position of components on your workspace.
Show Header & Footer
This option allows you to add a text component to the top and bottom of every page in your report. The text and images that you add to one these areas are duplicated across all other pages.
Selecting “Yes” to show headers and footers makes it easy for you to add titles, logos and copyrights to your reports but removes the flexibility of having different information of different pages.
Setting Page options
The Page options allow you define how your page will look and feel and how it will interact with the data used by the components you add to the page.
Page options can be set for each individual page in your report and will only affect that page.
To access the Page configuration options:
- Click the Page title in the Report Structure Panel. This displays the Page Style icon on the Dynamic Toolbar.
- Click the Page Style icon to display the Page Style pop-up window.
These are the essential options you should consider setting:
Orientation
This allows you to set the orientation of each page in your report.
By default, this is set to portrait, making your workspace taller than it is wide.
Setting this to “Landscape” makes the report wider than it is tall, reflecting both the dimensions of a monitor and of the layout common in static reports created in PowerPoint.
Background Colour
Clicking this field displays a colour picker, that enables you to select a colour that will be applied to the background of this page in your report.
When selecting a colour, keep in mind readability (not just text by chart lines and columns, and gauge areas) and also whether to document is likely to be printed.
Auto Refresh
By default, data in a Pages report is ‘frozen’ – components display the latest data at the moment the report is opened.
If your report includes data that’s frequently updated, or the report will be displayed on screen for long periods, you can specify frequency (in seconds) with which the data is automatically refreshed.
Adding Reporting Components
Once you’ve set up your workspace, you can begin building your report by adding components to it.
As we’re only creating a basic Pages report, we’ll focus on adding the 5 components that display data in your report:
- Crosstab
- Chart
- Gauge
- Saved Query
- Venn
To add a component:
- Click the icon on the Dynamic Toolbar for the report component that you want to add, then drag it onto the Workspace.
This displays a green outline, indicating the position of component when you drop it onto the workspace.
The next step changes depending on the type of component that you’ve just dragged onto the workspace.
Adding a Crosstab
Dragging the Crosstab icon onto the workspace displays a small pop-up menu giving you the option to choose whether to:
- Create New – this gives you access to CXAir’s crosstab builder functionality enabling you to select the row & columns, the measures and conditions, the layouts and drill functionality for a new instance of a crosstab.
- Load Existing – this option allows you to add an existing saved crosstab (that uses the currently selected Index) to your workspace. This creates a new version of the selected. Any changes made to the crosstab only affect the instance added to your Pages report.
- Link Existing – like Load Existing, this option allows you to select a previously built crosstab to you report. However, any changes you make to the crosstab in the Pages report are reflected back in the saved version.
Click the Save Crosstab button to add the crosstab to the workspace.
Adding a Chart
Dragging the Chart icon onto the workspace displays a small pop-up menu giving you the option to choose whether to Create New, Load Existing or Link Existing.
- Create New – this gives you access to CXAir’s chart builder functionality enabling you to select the row & columns, the measures and conditions, the layouts and drill functionality for a new instance of a chart.
- Load Existing – this option allows you to add an existing saved chart (that uses the currently selected Index) to your workspace. This creates a new version of the selected. Any changes made to the chart only affect the instance added to your Pages report.
- Link Existing – like Load Existing, this option allows you to select a previously built chart to you report. However, any changes you make to the chart in the Pages report are reflected back in the saved version.
Click the Save Chart button to add the chart to the workspace.
Adding a Guage
Dragging the Guage icon onto the workspace displays CXAir’s gauge builder, enabling you to select the rows, measures and conditions used, the layouts and drill functionality and the type of gauge.
Click the Save Gauge to add the gauge to the workspace.
Adding a Query
Dragging the Query icon onto the workspace displays the Saved Query dialog. This allows you to select and configure a previously saved CXAir query.
Click the … button next to the Saved Query field to display a list of all the saved queries.
Only saved queries built using the currently selected index are shown.
Click on the name of the saved query you want to use to select it.
Click the Apply button.
Adding a Venn
Dragging the Venn icon onto the workspace displays the Venn Report dialog.
Click the … button to the Venn Report field to display a list of all the saved Venn reports.
Only Venn reports built using the currently selected index are shown.
Click on the name of the Venn report you want to use to select it.
Click the Apply button.
Resizing & Repositioning Components
By default, when a new component is added to the workspace it appears as a small square. But to make sure it fits with the position of other components, it gives the correct visual priority and that its contents are readable, you’ll most likely want to resize and reposition the component.
Resizing components
To resize a component:
Hover over the component to displays the component’s 8 resizing drag handles. These allow you to resize a component horizontally, vertically, and diagonally by clicking then dragging the appropriate handle.
Clicking the component displays additional layout options on the Dynamic Toolbar:
Component | Layout Option | What it does |
Crosstab Query | Fit to container | Resizes the component, in Run mode, to ensure it fits the smallest dimension, either the width or the height, of the container’s defined space, set in Edit mode. |
Fit Width | Resizes the component, in Run mode, to ensure it fits in the width of the container’s defined space, set in Edit mode. This may add a vertical scroll bar to the component in Run mode. | |
Fit Height | Resizes the component, in Run mode, to ensure it fits in the height of the container’s defined space, set in Edit mode. This may add a horizontal scroll bar to the component in Run mode. | |
Original Size | The component is not resized to fit the containers defined space. This may add both a vertical and a horizontal scroll bar to the component in Run mode. | |
Chart Gauge Venn | Fill Page | Resizes the selected component so that it covers the entire page of your report. Keep the order in which components are stacked on the report, as selecting this option may cover other components, preventing them from being displayed. |
Repositioning components
To reposition a component:
Click anywhere in the centre of the component then drag it.
As you begin to drag the component, the new position of the component is illustrated with a green outline.
You can move components so that they overlay each other. This is useful when designing the look & feel of your report, however, be aware that overlaying components can cause readability and interactivity issues.
Removing a component from the workspace
If you want to remove a component from the workspace, you have two options:
- Removing it from the workspace, but to save it for use elsewhere in the report.
- Removing it permanently from the report.
Containers and Placeholders can only be permanently removed from the report.
To remove the component from the workspace, but to save it for use elsewhere in the report:
- Click the component on the workspace then click the Remove From Page icon on the Dynamic toolbar.
This adds the component to the Report Structure Panel under a new section – Unused.
To permanently remove the component from the workspace, and from the report:
- Click the component on the workspace then click the Remove From Report icon on the Dynamic Toolbar.
If you’ve added components to a Container component, removing the Container from the workspace does not completely remove its contents from the report. Instead, the contents are saved to the Unused section in the Report Structure Panel.
Saving and Sharing Your Report
Once you’re happy with the report you’ve built, saving it in a Public Reports folder will share the report with anyone who has permissions to access that folder.
To save your report:
- Click the Save icon on the top tool bar. This displays the Save Report dialog.
- Enter a name and a description of your report in the appropriate fields.
- By default, the report will be saved to your My Reports folder. If required, select a location to save the report by clicking the name of the available folders displayed in the bottom half of the dialog.
- Click the Save button.
- Click the OK button.