A basic guide to report design using ODS

Using ReportNet successfully will require an understanding of your data. You will need to think about the purpose of your reports, the fields that need to appear on them, and how the report should be laid out. IRT can help you understand how to use the ODS resources to identify your fields, but you will need to give some thought to report preparation. The following pages will provide a process for this preparation.

So what is the Operational Data Store (ODS)? Simply put, it is a data repository built specifically for query purposes. It contains data collected from selected Banner tables, arranged in logical views. Having many of these views, with the logical relationships already established between them, makes it easier for the user to pull data from more than one view to complete a report. IRT can help you learn how to navigate through the resources provided for the views, but your familiarity with your data will contribute greatly to your success in using the ODS.

• Dynamic Help Query within Internet Native Banner, found on the Banner HELP menu.
  
  You will need to identify the names of the fields that will be used in your report, both as printed items and as criteria items. You can find the name of your fields in Banner by using the Dynamic Help Query option found on the Help menu. You can find more information on identifying these fields by clicking here.
  
•  ODS Administrator’s Guide.
  
  https://banneradmin.stthomas.edu/docs/bdoc6x/ods2x/ods_ag.pdf
  This on-line PDF document is the full ODS documentation from SCT. Chapter 3 of this document provides descriptions of the primary reporting views provided in the ODS. If you are unsure of just what view a particular field belongs to, the information in Chapter 3 will provide descriptions and a summary of the kind of field information found in a particular view.
  
• Operational Data Store (ODS) Reporting View Metadata Reports.
  
  https://banner.stthomas.edu/odsp/metadata/ODS)index.html
  Once you have found the Banner field name for a report item, you’ll need to find its equivalent name in the ODS. This on-line document is your guide to hunting down the ODS field name. You can find more information on identifying these fields by clicking here.

Overview of Steps Overview Steps (Use with the Report Design Worksheet)

1. Determine the Purpose of the Report (includes research)
What information does this report need to convey? What question(s) does it need to answer? Who else will use this report? Talk to those people. Find out what they need to know. Find out how they would like the information on the report presented. Doing this research up-front will save you from making multiple revisions to the report every time you show it to someone.

2. Determine the Report Output
Will the results of the report need to be directly viewed or printed, or will the results of the report simply be exported to some other tool like Excel? These are questions you need to consider.

3. Sketch a Draft Layout of the Report
Grab a pencil and paper. Take a few minutes and sketch out the report based on the information you’ve gathered from your research. Pencil in what fields or text headings you need in your rows and columns, even if they are just in your own words. Pencil in any totals, sub-totals, or other calculations. This process will often tell you if your report will fit on one page, or need to be designed in portrait or landscape format. This sketch can also serve as a guide when you begin actually building the report in ReportStudio.  You can use this Report Preparation Template to facilitate this process.

4. Identify the Required Report Fields in the Operational Data Store (ODS)
This step may require the most time. How much time will depend on how well you know your data. The accompanying document called “Identifying the Required Report Fields in the ODS” assumes you need to start from scratch. As you gain experience, you may be able to skip some of these steps.

5. Determine any Report Calculations
It’s time, as they say, to ‘do the math’. Do you need any subtotals or grand totals? Do you need to count or tally the number of occurrences of something? Remember, there are some calculated fields available in the ODS that may provide what you need.

6. Identify your criteria
Report criteria are the conditions that must be met to get the results you need. Criteria act like a filter to determine which records to find and which to leave out. For example, in an enrollment report, you may want students only from a certain term, and a certain class. The ‘term’ and ‘class’ are criteria that filter your results. You’ll need to know the ODS field name for those criteria fields to use them when building the report in ReportStudio.

7. Build report in ReportStudio
When your report requirements have been documented, you can begin building the report in ReportStudio. ReportStudio provides a graphical interface for report design. It is there that you add the report fields, specify your criteria, create calculations, and apply layout and formatting to the report. You can test your reports and check results directly in ReportStudio.