The Reports tool was the first reporting feature designed for Smartabase and contains Smartabase’s most basic and general-use reporting features. A report lists all records that have been saved to Smartabase within the specified parameters in the sidebar (i.e. the event form, date range and people whose data is included in the report).
If your role has the necessary permissions to delete records from Smartabase, it is important to note that deleting records from the Reports tool will delete all instances of the records shown in the report from Smartabase.
This article covers:
- Generating a report.
- Using the quick editing feature in reports.
- Saving a report.
- Sharing a report.
- Exporting a report.
- Other report tools.
Generating a report
When you use the Reports tool, you choose the event or profile form containing the data you're interested in, then select whose data you want to see and choose any filtering options you need. The Reports tool will then tabulate and display this data for you.
When you are looking at the report data, you may have access to the Save, Export and Other menus or the Send Message button at the top of the page, depending on your role.
The number of records shown in a report can be set by selecting a total number of records to be shown using the drop-down menu at the bottom of the page. If there are more records than the value selected, the report will consist of multiple pages that can be selected at the bottom of the page.
Here's a screenshot from the Reports tool. On the left is the report sidebar which is used for selecting the form, athletes, date interval and other options. Once the report settings have been specified, we used the Run report button beneath to generate the report, which tabulated the data we were interested in. Each row of the report shows one daily diary entry for an athlete, including the color from the relevant performance standard.
This section covers:
- Filtering report data
- Adding extra information to a report
- Viewing comparisons within a report
- Customizing the fields in a report
- Including people with no data in a report
- Ranking data within a report
- Grouping report data
- Steps to create a report
Filtering report data
If you want your report to contain data from a specific time period or meet a certain criteria, you can use the filtering options to narrow the results. To set a filter, select the field name that you want to search within, the search condition and the desired response.
The search conditions will depend on the field type.
Field type | Condition options | Value type |
Number | Less than, less than or equal to, equal to, greater than, greater than or equal to, not equal to. | Number |
String | Contains, equal to, not equal to. | String |
Date | Less than, less than or equal to, equal to, greater than, greater than or equal to, not equal to. | Date |
Option (excluding multiple selection field) | Contains, equal to, not equal to. | Options from the field selected. |
In the example below, we’ve created a report based on a daily diary event form, which is filled out on a daily basis and asks athletes whether they're available to train. We set the date interval filter to only show records created in the last two weeks and we also used a data filter to fetch the records where athletes indicated that they were not available.
Adding extra information to a report
If you want to append additional information to a report with details not included in the form you're using, there are three types of options available in the Advanced section of the report sidebar.
- You can add account-related details for the people shown in your report, such as their date of birth, age or group membership.
- It's also possible to append metadata about the records shown in your report, such as creation date or the date of last update.
- You can add data from a profile form to a report about an event form. This includes the ability to filter the event form results using data from the profile form.
In this example, we've run a report on a profile form and used the advanced option to append the date each person's profile data was last updated.
In this example, we've run a report on event form data (not shown) and added the information from the profile form called Athlete Details. We've also used a filter based on the profile data to restrict which event form data is included in the results. In this scenario, the results that are shown for this report would only include athletes whose dominant hand is recorded in the profile form as their left hand.
Viewing comparisons within a report
When you want to change which performance standard is applied to your report or compare data in your report to a particular person, you can use the Compare To section of the report sidebar. This allows you to:
- Choose different coloration using the Performance Standard option. This is useful if there are multiple performance standards for the form, but in many cases you'll only see one option here.
- Automatically create and apply a performance standard based on a specific person's data using the Athlete option. This allows you to choose one athlete from the report results and compare others' results to theirs. For this to be useful, the form must be built with the Best value advanced property enabled.
- Remove a performance standard or athlete comparison from your report using the None option.
Customizing the fields in a report
You can customize which fields are included in the report by using the View fields section of the report sidebar. By default, reports will show any fields which have the advanced property Show in tables set to True but you can view all available fields and make your own selections in the View fields section. Keep in mind that you will only see fields where their advanced properties are set so that they are visible in the form and in reports. You can also use the tick boxes to select all or none of the fields, or invert your selection. If the form contains a large number of fields, the search box may be useful to help find the relevant field.
The View fields section is also where you can choose whether to include the names of the person who entered the record (By) and who the record is about (About). The default options for these fields are enabled in the form advanced properties.
The default appearance of reports, including the fields shown by default, is set in the builder interface. For more reporting options, please speak to your Smartabase builder.
Including people with no data in a report
By default, a report will only display records based on the settings applied in the report sidebar. This means that if someone has no records that match the criteria, they will not be included in the report. You can choose to include those people by ticking the Include missing users option in the View fields settings. Their names will be listed at the bottom of the report alongside the current date. The missing users list is generated based on athletes in the currently loaded group who do not have a record on the current page of the report. If there are multiple pages in your report, someone may be included in the missing users list if their record appears on a different page. It is therefore important to ensure that if you are using this feature, your report is set up to include all records on the same page.
Ranking data within a report
Using the View fields section of the report sidebar, you can select to rank any numeric or scored option field. You can also show the percentage change of the data and compare it to the most recent entry or the first recorded record for that person. These options will only be available if a field in the event form has a best value selected in their advanced properties. Enabling the options will display rank and change as a percentage in columns to the right of the field.
Grouping report data
If a form includes a body diagram field, then the Reports tool gives you some extra abilities for grouping and visualizing the body diagram data. You can use an option field from the form to show which body diagram data corresponds with each of the options. In the example above, the injury record form contains an OSICS injury diagram field and an option field for the athlete’s current status. We've grouped the injuries in our report by status, which shows us the injuries of unavailable players, players who require modified training and so on. To use the grouping option for reports, follow the steps below.
- Log into Smartabase to view your home page.
- Open the Reports tool from your home page.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need, including the body diagram field of interest.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Using the drop-down menu above the body diagram results, choose which option field you want to group the results by.
Steps to create a report
- Open the Reports tool on Smartabase Online.
- Using the report sidebar menu, configure the relevant settings:
- Choose whether you want to create your report from an event or profile form.
- Select which event or profile form you want to use.
- Select the people to include in your report.
- For event forms, choose how many records to include in the report based on a Date interval and number of records. Since profile forms are not recorded chronologically like event forms, there is no option to choose a date interval or number of results when you run a report about a profile form.
- For event forms, choose whether to include draft records in the report.
- Add filters to set criteria for which data should appears in the report.
- If applicable, include additional fields from the Advanced section of the report sidebar.
- If applicable, use the Compare to section to select a performance standard or an athlete.
- Use the View fields section to customize the fields displayed in the report.
- Use the Run report button to return your results.
The choices you make to create a report are applied in the order they're shown in the report sidebar. So, for example, if you choose a date interval of the last 16 weeks and a filter, the results will first be restricted to records from that time period and then filtered to meet the criteria you've set. Similarly, if you set a date interval with a specific start and end date, then set a maximum record number of 4, you'll get the 4 most recent records for each athlete from within that time period.
To revert your report selections back to the default settings, select the Clear button in the report sidebar. Clearing a report from the sidebar closes the report but does not delete any records from Smartabase.
Using the quick editing feature in reports
If quick editing has been enabled on a form that you include in a report, you'll see a pencil icon for each row in your report. You can select the pencil icon to access a pop-up screen and quickly update important fields from that record.
In this example, the quick edit feature has been enabled on an injury form. This would help medical staff when they need to efficiently update the injury status of several athletes in one session. The doctor can use the pencil icon to access the key details of each injury and update the necessary information without needing to view the entire injury record.
Once the fields in the pop-up screen are filled out, they can be saved. The information shown in the report will be updated to reflect any changes which have been caused by the quick edit, such as a new status. The doctor can then move on to the next athlete's injury shown in the report. Note that quick edits are only able to be saved and closed. If the Save and Lock or Save and Enter Another functions are enabled for a form, you'll need to open the record to perform these functions.
To use the quick edit feature, follow the steps below.
- Sign in to Smartabase to view your home page.
- Open the Reports tool from your home page.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need to see.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Select the pencil icon for the record you want to make a quick edit to.
- In the pop-up screen, fill out the available fields.
- Save the record, which will return you to your report.
Saving a report
The option to save a report is a very useful function because it means that you can set up reports with complex settings and run them again in exactly the same way. Saved reports can be accessed through the Reports tool or you can view the reports on your front page, if included in your page layout.
Saving a report stores the settings used to create a report, not necessarily the exact results you saw when you first ran the report. If subsequent data are recorded, that information will be included if a saved report is run again (unless the saved date filters exclude it).
When saving your report, you can choose whether to only include the currently selected users or include all users. This means that if people are added to the group later on, they can be included in the report.
To save a report, the report name must be unique. However, you can receive a report from someone else which has the same name as one of your existing reports.
If you apply performance standards to an event form after a report is saved, the saved report will not automatically display the performance standards. This is because the report was initially saved when there were no comparisons, instead of a performance standard being selected
Managing saved reports
To access a saved report, open the Reports tool and select one of the reports you've saved in the past. Reports are grouped into front page reports and regular reports. If there is another report on the page and you cannot see your saved reports, select the Clear button. A saved report can also be set to appear on your home page for easy access or, with appropriate permissions, can be sent to someone else's home page.
Use the arrows next to your saved reports to change the order that they are displayed. To remove a saved report, select the trash icon next to the report on your list of reports.
Steps to create a saved report
- Open the Reports tool on Smartabase Online.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Select the Save option from the Save menu.
- Enter a report title.
- Choose whether to save the report for all users or only those currently selected, and click OK.
Saving the report for all users means that if people are added to the group at a later date, the report will include all of them in the report automatically.
Steps to create a front page report
- Open the Reports tool on Smartabase Online.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Select the Send to front page option from the Save menu.
- Enter a report title and click OK.
- Refresh your browser to see your new front page report.
If your front page report doesn’t appear on your home page after you’ve refreshed your browser, it may be the case that your page layout doesn’t accommodate front page reports. You will need to speak to the Smartabase contact person at your organization to discuss modifications to your page layout.
Sharing a report
In addition to saving reports, you may also be able to send saved reports to other professional and non-professional users on your Smartabase site, depending on your role. Users will only be able to view data in a report if they have a minimum of Read access to the form to ensure that they only see the data they are permitted to see, but they will still be able to see the report name in the Reports tool. They will also only see data for the people that they have permission to see based on the group they currently have loaded.
- Open the Reports tool on Smartabase Online.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Select either the Save copy to users or Send to front page of users option from the Save menu.
- Enter a report title and click OK.
- Select the users that you would like to share the report with and click Save.
Note: once you have sent a report to other people, editing or deleting the report will not impact their version of the report. If you need to change the report that other people see, you will need to ask them to delete the previous version of the report and send them the new version.
Exporting a report
Depending on your role and site permissions, you may be able to export your report data as a CSV (Excel) or PDF file and download multiple files associated with the records in a report. This can be useful when sharing data with people who don’t have access to Smartabase, if you need to manipulate the data in Excel or to create a back-up of the data when updating fields in a form.
When exporting the report as a CSV, you can choose whether to include all fields or only export the columns currently selected in the report. You will also see an option to email a copy of the CSV to another user in the current group. The file will be downloaded to your device.
Fields which are hidden in the form or in reports will not be shown in the report on Smartabase Online. To include any hidden fields in the exported report, you must choose to include all fields when exporting the data.
When exporting as a PDF, you can export the data as it appears in your report by selecting the PDF option. Alternatively, you can export a PDF of each individual record in the report in one file by selecting the PDF (Form) option. Select the number of columns to display the data (usually a maximum of 2) and create the report. Reports saved as PDF files will be downloaded to your device.
The file download option allows you to download files associated with the records shown in a report. This includes files stored in file upload fields (single file uploads and multiple file uploads) and form attachments. The files are exported as a .zip folder, allowing you to review them externally and share with others.
To download multiple files, follow the steps below:
- Open the Reports tool on Smartabase Online.
- Create a report using the form, date interval, filters and fields you need. Note: to download files from a single or multiple file upload field, you must select that field in the View Fields section.
- Use the Run Report button to return your results.
- Select the Download Files option from the Export menu.
- Select the files to download and click Download.
Other report tools
If visible, the Other menu contains options for less frequently used functions, including:
- Summary statistics: a basic summary of the report data including mean, median, etc. in a PDF file. This has largely been replaced by the Dashboard builder tool.
- Investigate: generates a PDF report with patterns of associations between the data. You can select to view the strength of relationships between data, including linear correlations.
- Pivot table: produce a pivot table of the data in an Excel file. This has largely been replaced by the Excel reports and Dashboard builder tools.
- Delete all: delete all of the data on the report page from Smartabase. This action cannot be undone and all data will be removed from your site completely. You will be asked to confirm the data deletion after selecting the button.
- Send messages: send emails to all people who are included in the report.