This section helps identify the report and determine which roles besides portal administrator have access to run the report in Report Writer.

• Name: Provide a meaningful title for the report.
• Description: Optional. This is useful for providing information about what the report is for and any tips on how to use the filters. The description will appear under the name in the report list.
• Language: Defaults to English. 
• Folder: Select the folder in which the report will reside.
• Entity: Select Course. 
• Share with Roles: Once you have the report working as desired, you can share it to other roles, if desired. It will then appear for them when they open the Reports feature. Results will be scoped only to those learners that the logged in person has the rights to view.
• Click Continue to move on to the Standard Filters section.

Standard Filters are dynamic and you can change the values and even add more filters to the report when you run it without altering the saved version of the report.

The important concept to understand about Standard filters is that each filter listed is joined by an implied Boolean “AND” operator. This requires your filtering logic to be carefully constructed. You cannot add two standard filters  “Course is Basics 101” AND “Course is Advanced 502” because on a single transcript, there is no way to have it represent BOTH courses. The filters are mutually exclusive and your report would show no results.

Standard filters can be set up but it’s not required to provide a value during setup. If left blank, the value can be entered during execution, or not entered at all – in which case, all relevant records would be returned.  

To use more complex and detailed filters, you will need to consider advanced filters.

• Use the dropdown list in the box on the left to select the filter.
• Select the comparison such as “Is”, “Isn’t”, “Last 7 days” or whatever is available for each filter. 
• Enter a value to filter for or leave blank to filter for all values or simply to let the report runner choose the value at the time the report is executed – this makes your report much more flexible over time.
• Click “+” to add a filter or “–” to remove it.

Click Continue to move on to the Advanced Filters.

Advanced Filters let portal administrators define more complex criteria that will drive results data. These filters are “hard-coded” into the report and are not displayed to report runners. While Advanced Filters are optional, they are highly recommended for returning expected results. If you prefer a broad data extraction and plan to do more data manipulation in Excel or Access, you can limit the entries here or leave this section blank.

Advanced filters are very useful for:

• Including/excluding active or inactive records
• Listing multiple values to include/exclude (e.g. the “is in list” option)
• Reducing duplicate result lines when multi-value columns list the same results more than once in order to show all the values for a user. (e.g. if a person has multiple positions or locations and you use position or location as a column)
• Ensuring that elements of the report that should never vary are locked in for the report runners.

It is important not to create Advanced filters that logically conflict with the Standard filters. This is why describing the report under Description is important for people using the report.

• Click Add new filter to select an additional filter. Filters are sorted into categories to help find them more easily.
• Select the comparison by clicking on the default comparison to see all options, such as “Is Primary” or “Is Equal to“. 
• If offered, select one or more values to target, such as Course IS [enter course name] or Course IS IN LIST [check the courses from the type-ahead list, then click Apply.]
• Delete a filter by clicking the “X“.

When ready, move to the Columns section.

Decide which data you want to view in your results file and define each as a report Column. Consider how you want to sort them and make sure your primary sort column is before any secondary sorting. 

In addition to sorting, once listed, you can rearrange columns by dragging and dropping them into a new position. You can also change the name of the column from its default expression to the title you wish to appear on the report output.

• Click (A) [Add new column ] to select an element. Reports must have at least one column to save. 
• Drag and drop columns into the desired order.
• To sort based on a particular column, hover to the left of the column expression (B) to display a sort menu. Secondary sorting should be done by columns below the primary.
• To change the displayed title of the column (C), click the name and enter new text.
• Delete columns by clicking “X“.

When you are finished, click Save. If you are finished, click Finish. You should then run your new report to test it for accurate results.