CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hello,

Can we remove all the example reports that get shipped with CiviCRM?  I don't think they add anything or help people's understanding of how to create reports.  In fact, I think that they hinder it because they make it harder to understand the difference between a report and a report template.

If we shipped CiviReport with a very small menu which said 'create report from template' and view existing reports that would help people get their head around the fact that they can create whatever report they like and name it what they like.

It would also save me having to delete all the example reports each time i do a new installation for a client

I third it and commit to doing it at the Netherlands code sprint unless there are any objections.

Michael

OK.  I'm going to back track.  The main reason that I want to remove report instances that list is not that I am lazy.  I think it is really confusing for people.

Its a good set that most people are used to when installing a package

They will see that list when they click on "create report from template".

And when the click on 'Report listing' they will see a message that says, you have not created any reports yet click here to create one from a template, and they will learn that they have to create reports from templates.

I would be OK with removing the list of reports from the top level, if they remained accessible by clicking the Report Listing.

Clients often use this list when trying to understand the CiviCRM report features.  They may not have the permissions or the skill or comfort level to create a report from a template.  They may also not want to be changing anything on the system by creating entities, and are only looking to browse around.

Having this list readily available often means I do not have to create a set of sample reports, and it seems to be helpful to the users in clarifying their own requirements.  I also have the option to just include links to these sample reports in an email, if they don't navigate to the reports through the menu.

I understand the sample reports may not be helpful to some users, but my comments hoped to highlight the helpfulness of the readily available sample reports to those users who are not admins and may be read only users of the system.  These may be board members or those assessing whether to go further with their organization's adoption of CiviCRM.  They often want to look over features quickly.  I think we should keep the report listing of sample reports for this important group of users. 

At least the admin has the permissions to delete the sample reports his organization may not want.

Hi Mark,

I don't think it is possible to create all three of the supplied dashlets from the supplied report templates?  For instance the Activities dashlet has an Activity Type selector which I don't think would be possible when created from a report template.

Correct - the upcoming activity dashlet is an out of the box report that - unlike other dashlets - isn't created from a report.