Using Report Tags to Generate Reports

If you would like reports to be automatically generated on a regular basis, you can add one or more Report tags to your application.  These can be configured to generate any report, on any time interval that you require, using a saved tag group. 

You can also configure report tags to respond to a trigger.   For example, you might want a report to be generated immediately when a particular alarm occurs, or whenever a related tag changes its value.

The steps below will guide you through the process of configuring a report tag. In this example, we will configure a daily total report that will be generated each morning. It will include data from the previous day and be produced in a formatted Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file format.

1.   Open the Tag Browser.

2.   Select Report from the Types drop-down list. The Tag Browser will display any report tags that have been configured for this application.

3.   Click the New button.

A new report tag properties folder will open and display the ID tab.

4.   Enter a name for this report tag in the Name field.

The name you enter should be consistent with the other tags in your application, and should be meaningful (e.g. "Daily Holding Tank Levels").

5.   Select an area from the Area drop-down list.

 You might wish to specify a special area that will be used for all report tags that will later enable you to group report tags together (e.g. "Reports").

6.   Enter a description for this report tag in the Description field (e.g. "Daily Holding Tank Level Report").

7.   Select a report type from the Report Type drop-down list (e.g. "Daily Snapshot Report").

8.   Click the Tag tab.

The tags available for inclusion in the report will be displayed in the Tags Available list, based on the type of report you have chosen for this tag.

9.   Decide whether to load a saved tag group or select tags for a new group.

•   If loading a group, click on the Load Group button and select the .GRP file.

•   If selecting tags:

a)   Select the tags in the Tags Available list

b)   Move them to the Tags in Report list by clicking on the > button.

c)   Click on the Save Group button.

d)   Provide a name for the .GRP file.

e)   Click OK to save the group.

You must save the selected tags in a group file before continuing.

10. Click the Period tab.

11. Select a time period for this report from the Presets drop-down list (e.g. "Previous Day").   

You may select the Custom option if you would like to configure your own period type and duration.  See: Report Tag Type Properties: Period Tab for instructions.

12. Click the Trigger tab.

13. Select the radio button to choose when the report will be triggered to run (e.g. Daily).

14. Enter the name of the workstation upon which you wish the report data to be saved in the Workstation field.

15. Click the Destination tab.

16. Select an output type for the report from the Output Type drop-down list. In this example, we wish the data to be saved to a Microsoft Excel formatted spreadsheet file, so Formatted Excel XLS File is selected. (Detailed information on all report output types can be found in Report Output Formats.)

17. Enter the full path to the directory into which you wish the report data to be saved. If the specified path does not exist, VTS will create it for you.

18. Click the Options tab.

19. Select any of the following checkboxes as required:

•   Use Excel to display screen reports: If your selected report output is Screen Display (unlike our example), you can select this checkbox to have the screen display open in a Microsoft Excel file.

•   Use separate sheets/tables: If your report is being saved as a Microsoft Excel file (like our example) or a Microsoft Access database file, select this checkbox to have the data for each tag in the report saved on a separate page or in a separate table within the output file.

•   Rename sheets/tables: If your report is being saved as a Microsoft Excel file (like our example) or a Microsoft Access database file and you have selected the Use separate sheets/tables checkbox, select this checkbox to have each separate page or table within the output file labeled according to the name of the tag whose data appears on each page or in each table.

20. Click the OK button. The completed report tag will be added to the Tag Browser's list of available tags.

The result of the above configuration is a daily total report that is generated each morning at 7 am, includes the data for the previous day, and is produced in a formatted Microsoft Excel spreadsheet file format. The data for each tag included in this report will be saved in separate spreadsheets (within the Microsoft Excel file), each named according to the tag whose data is reported. The report data will be saved to C:\SCADA Reports\Aug 2009\, and will be named using the format Report Type-YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM.XLS (e.g. Daily Snapshot Report-2009-08-15-07-00.XLS).