Maximizing Efficiency: How to Utilize Active Reports in Active Workspace
- Glen Keller
- Feb 6, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: May 20, 2024
Active Reports are a dynamic reporting capability inside of Teamcenter's Active Workspace Client (AWC). Active Reports provide a method of creating a Dashboard of standard reports that users can view directly in the AWC.
Table of Contents
The 2 types of Active Reports
Active Summary Reports: When viewed, Active Summary Reports automatically execute a search against the data in the Teamcenter database and displays the dynamic data in a table. In addition, various types of charts are available to configure to aid in displaying the resulting data in a consumable manner.
Active Item Reports: When viewed, Active Item Reports provide a report for a specific object and its properties. This differs from Active Summary reports as they do not summarize the data from multiple objects using a search and may not be available to be added to the My Dashboard sublocation.
How are Active Reports defined differently from Teamcenter Report Builder Reports?
Unlike Report Builder Reports Predefined Reports (or customized reports), Active Reports are built with a simple interface. This style of reporting is less configurable for deep dive reporting, but counters with ease of use and quick (on the fly configuration).
Watch the video demonstration
We recommend watching our instructor demonstration. In this post, the demonstration is spliced together from multiple topics in our courses. Learn how to interact with Active Reports, create new Active Summary Reports, and edit existing Active Reports all in the Active Workspace Client (AWC). There are also step by step instructions below and links to other types of Active Reports and how to build them.
Access Active Reports in Active Workspace
To access the Active Reports in the Active Workspace Client, click the Reports Tile on the Home Page.
The Reports location will open and display the My Dashboard sublocation.
Note. If the Reports tile or resulting Reports location does not display, ensure the Reporting feature is installed for the Active Workspace Client and Server features in the Teamcenter Environment Manager (TEM), or Deployment Center (DC) installation applications. The Active Workspace Client Features and Server Extension Features documentation can be found in the Active Workspace Installation guide. If all of the features are installed correctly, make sure to check and see if the Reports tile is hidden.
Explore the Reports Location and Sublocations
The Reports location is made up of several sublocations, of which 2 are utilized for Active Reports.
My Dashboard: a list of your favorite reports. You can add and remove reports in this location as needed from the Templates sublocation.
Tip. Only Active Summary Reports and Reporting and Analytics Reports may be added to the My Dashboard sublocation. Active Item Reports are not available in this spot because they execute against a singular object and do not need a summary of objects.
Templates: a list of all Active Item and Active Summary reports. From this location, you can add to your My Dashboard location or execute Active Reports directly.
How to Utilize Active Reports in Active Workspace
As mentioned earlier, Active Reports are created in the Active Workspace Client interface. To begin, on the My Dashboard sublocation select New > Add.
Use the resulting Add panel to Utilize Active Reports in Active Workspace details, including ID, Name, Description, and Type. Next, click Add.
The next steps vary based on the selection in the Type field:
Active Summary Reports
Active Item Reports
Create the Search Data for an Active Summary Report
The following example provides the configuration options for an Active Summary Report Search Data. In addition, for an alternate example and support documentation from Siemens see the Create and generate and active summary report topic in the Active Workspace Fundamentals document in the online (or locally installed) help.
After clicking Add in the previous Add Panel, the Configure Report Panel opens and provides options for defining the search and layout of the Active Summary Report.
Tip. The Search Data field utilizes the Global Search feature in Active Workspace. View the Global Search Tips and Techniques guide in the Active Workspace Fundamentals documentation to view strategies to aid in defining the search to meet your requirements.
In this example, the Active Summary Report searches for all objects that are Item Revisions and owned by the Engineering Group.
There is more than one way to define the search in this example. In the image (below) we entered:
Type:ItemRevision Next, we applied the Type and Group ID Filters.
Create the Set Layout for an Active Summary Report
After the Search Data is completed and the Results tab displays the information to report against, select Set Layout tab.
In the Set Layout tab, provide the Title of the Report (Text), Color theme and Font type to be used in the display of the Active Summary Report.
Tip. There are a lot of available Colors and Fonts. Use the Show Preview command to view the report during configuration.
After deciding on the previous selections, (optionally) add a Chart (up to 3) to provide interactive visual aids to users accessing the Active Reports.
To begin, click the Add command in the CHARTS section.
Tip. Make sure to expand the arrow next to the CHARTS section title after clicking Add to display the new chart configuration information.
Add Charts and define the Title, Type of chart, Chart On and Set as Thumbnail details for each chart. Remember to click Show Preview to see the iterations of the work.
Title: This is the title of the individual chart.
Type: Choose between Line, Pie or Column chart types.
Chart On: Select a property to display in the chart information. For example, if Type is selected the chart will contain Columns, Pie divisions, or points on a graph depicting the types of objects returned from the search.
Set as Thumbnail: This sets the chart as interactive and displays it in the My Dashboard sublocation if the Report type is added to the My Dashboard.
Tip. Click Show Preview to view the chart types. If the Configure Report panel closes, use the Edit > Edit Report command to open the panel to continue editing.
After defining the charts to configure the Active Summary Report, optionally define a Table to display the results in. Select the Column Names for the table and decide to display the table as a thumbnail on the My Dashboard sublocation.
Tip. Explore the available preferences for controlling which Column Names are available and adding additional (custom) properties for custom object types.
Important. After the Active Summary Report is completed, click Save.
Validate the new Active Summary Report is available in the Templates sublocation in the Reports location, and in the My Dashboard (if added during the creation process).
Use Preferences to configure options for Active Reports
The preferences in this section pertain to the Active Reports functionality in Teamcenter and Active Workspace. All Preferences in Active Workspace (configured for a given site) may be accessed via the Preferences location.
Search on REPORT_AW* to quickly locate the preferences that pertain to this feature.
REPORT_AW_ItemReport_Objects_FilterProperties
REPORT_AW_MyDashboard_PageSize
REPORT_AW_MyDashboard_TC_Report
REPORT_AW_ObjectType_Properties
REPORT_AW_Show_GenerateReport_Command_for_Multiselect
Practice with additional examples
Though the example (earlier in this post) provides 1 example of constructing an Active Summary Report, there are more examples available in the Siemens provided online help and locally installed documentation.
For practice. review the following links and information and practice with either the use cases provided or with custom data in a similar way. These examples are also in the local help in the Active Workspace Fundamentals document.
Documents to consider online and locally
The following links are produced and maintained by Siemens Digital Industries Software (as well as the links in the document). We provide only a guide to these links. For more information related to our documentation syntax and linking, see the Documentation links and syntax post on our Blog.
Caution. The information and links in this post are directed to the Active Workspace 6.0 online help.
Below are links other versions for the information. As a quick reference, the information related to Active Reports are located in the Active Workspace Fundamentals document for each version.
The information for Active Reports in all versions are contained in the Active Workspace Fundamentals documentation in both the online help (links provided), and the locally installed online help. If navigating the local help in all versions, use the search at the top of the help and the Category and Type filters to locate the Active Workspace Fundamentals document.
Fun Fact. The Active Reports feature was added in the Teamcenter 13.2 Active Workspace 5.2 versions of the software.