SIS Resources

RE - Reporting Engine

The reporting engine is a great reporting tool that is heavily utilized by Premier programmers, but underutilized by users. The main reason for the underutilization is a lack of documentation and understanding of what it can do. There is a manual in the files section of PSUG and it's useful to get a basic understanding of the different parts to the reporting engine, but it does not cover how to use it in an SQL environment. This section will show you how to use it in an SQL environment to create reports and to extract data into delimited files.

First off, let's answer the question of why would you want to use the reporting engine:

Access To All Tables - unlike report templates like object reports that can only pull information from a limited amount of tables, the reporting engine report can pull information from any table.
Flexibility - ODBC products can also pull data from any table as well, but you have to type in exactly what you want. For example, if the HS schoolid is 100, then in the ODBC programs you have to tell the SQL to look for schoolid=100. But with the reporting engine, you can use system and user variables in the SQL. For example, instead of typing in schoolie=100, you could use schoolid=~(v.curschoolid).
User Variables - you can build reporting engine reports that ask for user input before running and use that input to help create the report.
Delimited Data Files - the reporting engine can create files that you can save locally, or ftp to another server to use. You can set the report to run on a schedule, such as daily, weekly, monthly, etc. If you've used the AutoSend function in PowerSchool, you can create a similar file, but you're not limited to certain tables or results like in AutoSend.
Built-in Editor - you don't need another program to create or edit your report. You do all the editing within Premier, which means even if you're an ASP customer you have the same access as everyone else.

So why wouldn't you want to use the reporting engine? If all you need is a basic report, then building an object report or putting a custom page on the server may be adequate and you wouldn't need to use the reporting engine. Or maybe the AutoSend feature is all you need for a delimited file. All of them though have limitations which the reporting engine overcomes.

People tend to shy away from the reporting engine, but if you follow what's in the links below, you should feel comfortable enough with it to do some amazing things.

Reporting Engine Basics - a link to the basics in the FAQ section

Editing a Premier Specific Report - how to take an existing sql-based report and modify it

Reporting Engine Reports - reports that you can download and use or view the setup of to learn more about creating these types of reports