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Creating ad hoc views

The Ad Hoc editor supports the creation of views for various types of reports: tables, crosstabs, and charts. You interact with the editor to create these views by dragging and dropping elements. You can add and summarize fields, define groups, label and title the report, and format data for each field.

To open the Ad Hoc editor:

  1. Log in to Analytics as an administrator or superuser.
  2. Click Create > Ad Hoc View. The Select Data screen is displayed.
  3. Select your data source from the list. Note: You can also navigate through the data source by clicking on the View as tree icon. (root > Organization > Zenoss > Ad Hoc Components)
    • Topics - These can be either a JRXML file that is associated with a data source on the server or can be created from a domain with one or more filters applied to it. Using a topic as your source generates an empty view, which allows you to begin adding data to your view right away, without choosing, pre-filtering, or changing display names of the data (all of which are required steps when creating a Domain-based view).
    • Domains - They specify tables in the database, join clauses, calculated fields, display names, and default properties, all of which define items and sets of items for creating Ad Hoc views.
  4. Fill out the New Ad Hoc View screen based on the data you selected. For more details on the functionality and toolbar icons, see the JasperReports Server User Guide .
  5. Select a view type:
    • Tables - Used to view values in the database and to summarize the values in columns.
    • Charts - Used to compare one or more measures across multiple sets of related fields. Charts summarize data graphically. Some types of charts include bar chart, line chart, and pie chart, among others.
    • Crosstabs - Used to aggregate data across multiple dimensions. Crosstabs are more compact representations than tables; they show only computed values, rather than individual database values. Columns and rows specify the dimensions for grouping; cells contain the summarized measurements.
  6. When completed, save your Ad Hoc View. This view is saved in the repository. You can use this view to create reports or you can save the view as a report itself so that you can embed the data content into a dashboard or see the data in the interactive report viewer. Note: When you create a report from an Ad Hoc view, the report is considered "dependent" on that view. If you later edit the Ad Hoc view, the dependent reports are not updated with the new changes to the view.