Author Topic: Improving the Reports Menu (Read 5737 times)

Dave Greenberg · August 28, 2012, 06:31:45 pm

Hi folks - Xavier posted an issue for 4.3 (which I've taken on) to deal with the fact that the current Reports menu is so long that it's overrunning some screens (and scaring users).

Suggested solution was to sub-divide the Reports menu by component (as the Reports Listing page does):

Contact Reports ->
» Constituent Report (Summary)
» Constituent Report (Detail)
etc.
Contribution Reports ->
» Contribution Summary Report
» Contribution Detail Report
etc.

... and / or to add a Reports item with the associated reports as sub-items below each of the top level (component) menus

Contacts ->
» New Individual
etc.
--------------
» Reports ->
» Constituent Report (Summary)
» Constituent Report (Detail)
» etc.

There was a related discussion on the 'planning' mailing list a few weeks back (snippets pasted below) which focused on changes to the reports menu which would help users realize that the list of reports were just "examples" and they should feel free to create their own instances.

Suggestion was to put all the default report instances under a sub-menu "Report Instances" or "Example Reports" ...

Combining these threads, I'm thinking of the following:
1. Reports menu has only two items ...

» "Existing Reports (all)" (or maybe stick with "Reports Listing")
» "Create New Reports from Templates" (or maybe just "Create New Reports")

2. Under each top menu item (Contacts, Contributions etc.) we can add 2 similar items which present a filtered listing of existing reports or templates (i.e. only the Contribution related reports / templates)

Contributions
» Dashboard
» etc.
----------
» Existing Reports (Contributions)
» Create New Contribution Reports from Templates
----------

Erik Hommel · August 28, 2012, 11:33:51 pm

Makes sense.....it is nice to have the example reports, but they should not be so 'in your face' visible in the standard menu

xavier · August 28, 2012, 11:42:23 pm

Hi,

Seems that we are trying to catch two birds here: dealing with too many entries and clarifying the difference between template and report.

I'm not sure I fully understand the differences either. For what I see, the template is a 'normal' report where you can easily adjust some param (eg. what columns to display/filter to add) and you can then save a specific combination of params into a new report.
But then, can't you re-use this report and tweak params, in essence using it as a template?

ie. template: /civicrm/report/contact/summary?reset=1
report: /civicrm/report/instance/1?reset=1
A few things blurry the lines between template and report;
- they are almost similar (I'd have to look at the url to know if it's a report or a template)
- the template is named "report"
- there is an almost 1-1 between each template and the example report,
- the example report has the same name as its template

What I did find myself looking at was a "clone" button on existing reports (eg. I go to an report, play with the param and save as a new report, rather than going through the create new report from template.

btw, the create new report page contains 96 times the word report!
/civicrm/admin/report/template/list?reset=1
I'd suggest
- we remove "report" from the name of each template
- we modify the layout of each line/template to have a more "usual civi" layout (name,description, actions "create", "view existing")

Anyway, back to the menu reshuffling

Quote

Contributions
» Dashboard
» etc.
----------
» Existing Reports (Contributions)
» Create New Contribution Reports from Templates
----------

Would you have all the existing reports be subitems under the Existing reports?
Would the create new Report" show the create new report page with only the block about contribution?

IMO "Reports" is as clear and shorter than "Existing Reports (Contributions)" same goes for "Create new Report" "Create New Contribution Reports from Templates"

andrewhunt · August 29, 2012, 07:08:36 am

I still prefer having a submenu of "sample reports" in addition to the "Reports Listing" for several reasons:

It's relatively consistent for people who are used to the way things are,
It highlights how they're samples, implying that you can create a bunch of reports from those same templates,
It shows that you can create reports and choose to whether and where to put them in the menu (and shows an example of a submenu), and
People evaluating CiviCRM are impressed with the range of reports they see in the menu, and indicating they're just examples of the range of things you can do is further evidence of the reports' flexibility.

I was concerned that sub-submenus (needed if the sample reports submenu isn't going to be just as long as the reports menu is now) would be clunky, but it wouldn't be too bad to have several sample report submenus. The result would be like:

Reports
- Reports Listing
- Create Reports from Templates
---------(divider)------------------
- Sample Contact Reports >
- - Constituent Report (Summary)
- - Constituent Report (Detail)
- - etc.
- Sample Contribution Reports >
- - Contribution Summary Report
- - Contribution Detail Report
- - etc.
- Sample Event Reports, and so forth

ptpmark · August 29, 2012, 07:49:06 am

I'd like to chime in to support this restructuring of reports, both David's suggested ideas (including number 2, putting some reports on the associated application menu) and Xavier's effort to clear up the language.

We find that folks who are deeply involved with one aspect, such as contribtions, don't even realize these reports exist and they come and ask us to produce some for them. It would simplify our training tasks if they were more self evident.

To throw another ingredient into this menudo, I would like to see better integration of the so-called custom searches with the component menus. The contribution searches are barely "custom" to my way of thinking. I believe they ship with the base software. What about putting the relevant ones on the contribution menu?

Michael McAndrew · August 30, 2012, 09:52:28 am

Hey there,

(I've said it before and I'll say it again!) I like the idea of removing all sample reports from the basic install CiviCRM.

So the reports menu would just say:

* create reports from templates
* show existing reports

When you click on "Create report from templates' you will then be shown a list of report templates. When you click on one of those templates you basically see the sample report since IIRC there is no difference between the sample report and the default options that report templates come with.

Advantages of this approach are
* we implicitly teach people about the fact that to create a report, they start with a report template (this is really not obvious in the current set up)
* we don't have to deal with the question 'where is the best place for all these sample reports?'
* people can choose the most appropriate place for their reports themselves.

Disadvantages are
* we still don't solve ptpmarks issue that

Quote

folks who are deeply involved with one aspect, such as contribtions, don't even realize these reports exist

But I am sure there is a solution to that - we just haven't thought of it yet

PS. I did suggest this a while back and had some interesting discussion then (http://forum.civicrm.org/index.php/topic,22299.0.html).

totten · August 30, 2012, 08:20:20 pm

1) I mostly like Dave's proposal of moving reports under the relevant component menus. However, if we did that, then we could entirely remove the "Reports" menu. Those two links are already available under "Administer => CiviReport."

2) I agree with Xavier and Michael that there isn't much difference between an "example report instance" and "the default behavior of a report-template" and that it would be better to erase that distinction.

2a) Michael seems to propose the simpler change (i.e eliminating "example report instances"), but that still leaves some wonkiness -- all report use-cases would still begin with a user choosing a "report-template" which can be "previewed" or used to "create a report." That sounds pretty abstract to me -- not sure it would make any sense to a new user evaluating Civi.

2b) I think Xavier's approach of reworking the language will ultimately create a more intuitive UI -- but it requires more fiddling (at a minimum, updating the menu as well as the titles, labels and buttons on several screens).

Coleman Watts · September 02, 2012, 09:49:51 am

I second Michael's plan of removing all sample reports. It may look good to prospective users, but it's not actually good (a fact which some of the more astute ones may even notice). Perhaps we can think of another way of showing off all the templates that works better for both trial users and real users alike.
Maybe something like a report wizard that steps you through creating a report from a template, while showing you all the available templates (both locally and in the extensions directory!)

xavier · September 02, 2012, 12:53:38 pm

I find the create from template page not engaging at all and quite confusing, beside making it harder (as in more than one click) to have a view of what the report does.

Let's imagine we remove/hide the templates: you pick up the example report, have a look at what it does, add a few fields, fiddle with the filters and when you are happy with it, you "clone" it.

ie. instead of having classes and object, you get object prototypes that you clone if you want a new instance. That would save us to introduce a new concept (template) that so far have had a hard time to introduce.

This being said, if the template page is easier to navigate, might be a solution. Not sure about the wizard, that tends to introduce more clicks to get the result IMO.

I don't know how far we are on the API, but would probably helps to make it possible for an extension to create a new
report.

X+

Michael McAndrew · September 03, 2012, 01:57:08 am

Quote

Let's imagine we remove/hide the templates: you pick up the example report, have a look at what it does, add a few fields, fiddle with the filters and when you are happy with it, you "clone" it.

Are we getting into semantics here (in a good way)? I think you might be able to exchange template and example in Xavier's quote above and it becomes similar to what I was suggesting.

Let's imagine we remove/hide the examples: you pick up the template, have a look at what it does, add a few fields, fiddle with the filters and when you are happy with it, you "create" it.

So it looks like part of the problem is that we have both templates and examples, and the solution is to just choose one (I vote templates).

And another part of the problem is that the UI for working with reports needs to be improved. I suspect that might be the bigger issue of the two. Not sure what the solution is (yet)...

Dave Greenberg · September 03, 2012, 02:51:39 pm

A few consensus points I'm picking up here:

1. We should make reporting functionality visible in the component menus so more folks "discover" them.
2. The templates and the "example reports" are potentially redundant in a new install.
3. We want users to be aware that they can put reports anywhere they want in the menu structure.

Another issue that I've heard is that users have a tendency to make (and save) changes to existing "shared" reports - which "messes up" other users that use the same report.

I think the "templates" or "base reports" terminology can be useful in encouraging users to create the reports they need (and potentially name them in a way that connects to the owner / department / etc.).

At some point I think we need to introduce shared and "private" reports - but that's for another discussion. For now my tendency is to remove the "samples" and make the "templates" a bit more accessible. Something like this:

Contributions
» Dashboard
» etc.
----------
» Contribution Reports
» Create New Contribution Report
----------

Memberships
» Dashboard
» etc.
----------
» Membership Reports
» Create New Membership Report
----------

Reports
» Reports Listing
» Create New Report

If no "sample reports" are distributed then the "Contribution Reports", "Membership Reports" and "Reports Listing" would go to empty listing pages with a "create new report" link. The "Create New <component> Report" links would go to the existing templates listing - filtered to show only that component's templates.

JoeMurray · September 04, 2012, 11:40:04 am

I like the menuing suggestions from Dave but disagree with the thrust of many here regarding the usefulness of having reports available out of the box, rather than merely the templates.

Perhaps it is a menu wording issue, but I think the default install should be targeted to providing good defaults for most users, and by most users I mean lowest common denominator users rather than sophisticated power users or those that can afford to ask consultants about reports.

I would include all relevant existing default reports under Contributions >> Contribution Reports, Memberships >> Membership Reports, etc.

Removing these currently included reports in favour of having the user go through the 20 or 30 reports and click a few times on each to put them into the menu system may also affect evaluations of our software by 3rd parties, however unfair that may be.

I don't think making it harder for users by removing sensible defaults is a good strategy for engaging users to make use of pretty convenient customization functionality.

Dave Greenberg · November 06, 2012, 03:22:28 pm

I've implemented a "hybrid" of many of the suggestions above - removing specific report instances from navigation menu and replacing w/ links to filtered listings of reports by components. So Reports menu:

Contact Reports
Contribution Reports
.... etc.

... and these links are also added to each component menu, so:
Contributions ->
- Dashboard
- ...
- Contribution Reports

http://issues.civicrm.org/jira/browse/CRM-10621

xavier · November 06, 2012, 11:13:24 pm

Hi,

did svn up my trunk and no changes. Is there an update script or do I need to re-install the db?

Dave Greenberg · November 07, 2012, 09:09:59 am

Since most these changes are in the meta-data, you need to either run setup.sh (which will reload the DB), or just drop and reload manually.

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Author Topic: Improving the Reports Menu (Read 5737 times)

Dave Greenberg

Improving the Reports Menu

Erik Hommel

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

xavier

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

andrewhunt

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

ptpmark

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Michael McAndrew

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

totten

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Coleman Watts

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

xavier

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Michael McAndrew

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Dave Greenberg

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

JoeMurray

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Dave Greenberg

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

xavier

Re: Improving the Reports Menu

Dave Greenberg

Re: Improving the Reports Menu