Block Reporting

Block Reporting is a feature of Databridge that allows you to create custom reports. 

In order to access the Block Reporting page, you will need the permission 'MIS and Block Reporting'. 

Note:
'MIS' was the previous area on Databridge for creating custom reports. It is still available now, however we encourage users to use Block Reporting instead.

To access the Block Report page, click on Reporting > Block Reporting in the list on the left. 

Viewing and Editing Existing Block Reports

Once you've accessed the Block Reporting page, all existing Block Reports will appear by category on the screen. Click on the plus symbol next to each category to expand it and see all of the reports within that category. On the right of each category heading, there are two icons:

• Folder icon - This icon allows you to create sub-categories for an existing category, simply click on the icon and then input the title of the sub-category into the window that appears and click Save.
• Trashcan icon - This icon allows you to delete a category of Block Reports

To add a new Category in, click on 'New Category' on the right, and then give the category a title in the window that appears, and it will then show in the list below.

Warning:
Deleting a category will also delete any sub-categories and reports within that category

When you expand a category to reveal the reports available underneath, you will see four icons next to each report:

• Trashcan icon - Clicking this will delete the individual report selected
• Notepad icon - Clicking this will take you to the configuration screen for the selected report. To learn more about configuring reports, read the chapter in this article 'Adding Block Reports'
• Print icon - Clicking this icon will print the block report to Word
• Excel icon - Clicking this icon will print the block report to Excel

Adding Block Reports

To create a new Block Report, click on New Report in the column on the right. This will take you to a new screen where you can now build your Block Report. 

There are two fields at the top of the page. Give your report a title in the Report Name field and then categorise it using the Category dropdown.

You now need to specify what information you want to appear on the Block Report. 

Example:
For the purposes of this article, let's say that we want to create a report that shows us the Address, Name, and Unique Learner Number of all Current learners in the Education Department.

First we need to add the 'Block'. This is where you specify the general area on Databridge that the report comes from. Click on 'Add Block', and then from the window that appears, use the dropdown to select the area you are reporting on. For this example, we want the Block labelled 'Learners'. Once selected, click the blue Add Block button.

A section will appear on the page now, split into two areas. We now need to add Datasets and Fields. Datasets act as filters, allowing you to be more specific on what data it is that you are reporting on. 

Click on Add Dataset, and a window will appear. You can rename the Dataset using the textbox at the top of the window.  

Click the Add Filter button to then bring up a window where you can then use the dropdown to select the specific criteria you want the report to check for. For example, if you want to view all learners in the 'Education Department' that have a current status, you would need to add two filters:

One filter to specify the 'Education Department'. To add this, in the field window, select 'Department', the 'Filter How' field to 'Equal To', and the 'Criteria' field to 'Education Department'. Click Update to add the filter.

The other filter is for the learner status. Simply repeat the process to add another filter to the Dataset. For this example, we would add a filter that looks like this:

Once the Dataset has all of the required filters added, click Close. The Dataset and filters you have added will appear on the left side of the screen.

Now we need to add the Fields. This is where you specify what information you wish to appear on the report as well as how it appears on the document. 

Click on the Add Field(s) button. This will bring up a window with a list of the different fields that you can include on the report. Use the checkboxes to select the fields you require. 

For this example, I would tick the following checkboxes:

'Learner'

'Basic - Address'

'Personal - Unique Learner Number'

Once selected, click on the Add Selected Field(s) button. They will now appear on the right side of the screen in a table. 

Field	Function
Field Name	Shows the fields that you have selected
Label	Allows you to change the title of each field
Order?	Allows you to specify the order that the data for each Field appears in
	Use the arrow icons to move the fields up and down the list - this will set the order that the fields appear on the report. Use the trashcan icon to delete the field from the report

Once done, click Save Changes in the top right of the screen.

Printing a Block Report

There are three ways to print a Block Report. 

The first is to go to the Block Report list by going Reporting > Block Reporting, and then selecting the Block report you wish to print, and clicking either the Word icon or the Excel icon. The printout will appear in your task alerts once finished.

You can also print a Block report when on the configuration page for a Block Report. Click on File in the top left, and from the dropdown select either Print to Word or Print to Excel. 

You can also use the Report Shortcuts page if the report that you want to print has been shared. To learn more about the Shortcuts screen, you can read the short article here.