Creating Custom Reports

[DavidGreenberg]

• Overview
• Two Kinds of Searching Within the CMS
• Building Reports
• Creating an Advanced Search
• Viewing the Custom Report

Overview

Note: This article applies to searching for content while authoring in the CMS. For Web Site Search for your site, the CrownPeak Search and Search G2 articles are more applicable.]

Two Kinds of Searching Within the CMS

In the CMS, there are two Search options. Quick Search is a full search ofyour content. The results, however,can easily overwhelm you with too many returned items. Advanced Search solves this problem by allowing you to to narrow your results to things like specific assets, published dates and/or users who last edited files. You can use the Advanced Search feature to search using any combination of fields andcriteria.By refining your search parameters you can be sure the custom reports will include the data you desire instantaneously.

Building Reports

When an Advanced Search returns the desired results, you can save the criteria for later use and view the data using the Custom Report option.

The Advanced Search and custom reportingcan bevaluable tools for all members of your organization. Searches can be set-up for multiple members of your organization; authors looking for their current Draft work, marketers trying to find the latest blog posts, developers interested in assets using specific templates and admins tracking Live pages. Here are some sample searches which may be useful to your organization:

Persona	Name	Search Parameters
Author	My Draft Assets	[CreatedBy] Equals {username}And [Status] Equals Draft
Author	My Recently Published Assets	[PublishDate] Equals "9/15/2015" And [CreatedBy] Equals {username}
Marketer	Recent Blog Posts	[Template] Equals "blog template" and [Status] Equals "Live" and [PublishDate] GreaterThan "9/15/2015"
Developer	Assets using Product Template	[Template] Equals "Product"
Admin	Latest Published Assets	[PublishDate] GreaterThan "9/1/2015" And [Status] Equals "Live"

When using the Advanced Searchyou will search on the Search Field, Comparison (equals, not equal, greater than, greater or equal, less than, less than or equal) and the Value. Each Search field will allow you to select the Comparison and the Value. The following lists a short description of the Search Field along with the parameters. Multiple parameters must be joined using the Boolean Join options "AND" or "OR".

Field Name	Definition	Value Type
BranchId	Branched Assets Id	Numerical
ChangeDate	Date asset was changed	Calendar Date
ChangedBy	User who last changed the asset	User drop-down list
CheckedOutBy	User who checked out the asset	User drop-down list
CheckedOutDate	Date asset was checked out	Calendar Date
CreateDate	Date asset was created	Calendar Date
CreatedFromModel	Assets created from the chosen model	Model drop-down list
FolderId	Folder Id	Numerical
Id	Asset Id	Numerical
Label	Asset label	Alpha-numeric entry
LastPublishedBy	User who last published the asset	User drop-down list
LastStatusBy	User who moved the asset to the current status	User drop-down list
Model	Available models	Model drop-down list
ModifiedBy	User who last modified the asset	User drop-down list
ModifiedDate	Date the asset was last modified	Calendar Date
PublishDate	Date the asset was last published	Calendar Date
ShortCutId	Shortcut Id	Numerical
Status	Asset status, for example: Draft, Stage, Live	Status drop-down list
StatusDate	Date the asset was moved to the status	Calendar Date
Template	Template used for assets	Template drop-down list
Type	Asset type	File or Folder drop-down
Workflow	Workflow attached to the asset	Workflow drop-down list

Note: The ID parameters for an asset can be viewed under the Asset General Properties

Creating an Advanced Search

Creating advanced searches within the CMS can be very useful for compiling data you wish to review on a regular basis. Once an Advanced Search is created, the report can be viewed in the Advanced Search window or under the new My Custom Reports tab.

To create the Advanced Search report, use the following steps:

1. Click the Advanced Search link to display the advanced search options (Figure 1)
2. Enter your search criteria (Figure 2)
3. Optional: Click Search to review the results
4. Click Save as Custom Report and enter a report name (Figure 3)

Figure 1. Advanced Search Link

Figure 2. Advanced Search Criteria

Figure 3. Advanced Search Report Name

Viewing the Custom Report

1. From the Reports section select My Custom Reports
2. Choose the report from the list (Figure 4)
3. Optional: Reports viewed here can be downloaded as a CSV file (Figure 5)

Figure 4. My Custom Reports Advanced Search Report List

Figure 5. Custom Report Sample CSV file