Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of TracReports


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Timestamp:
8 Aug 2013, 11:42:37 (11 years ago)
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trac
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  • TracReports

    v1 v1  
     1= Trac Reports =
     2[[TracGuideToc]]
     3
     4The Trac reports module provides a simple, yet powerful reporting facility
     5to present information about tickets in the Trac database.
     6
     7Rather than have its own report definition format, TracReports relies on standard SQL
     8`SELECT` statements for custom report definition.
     9
     10  '''Note:''' ''The report module is being phased out in its current form because it seriously limits the ability of the Trac team to make adjustments to the underlying database schema. We believe that the [wiki:TracQuery query module] is a good replacement that provides more flexibility and better usability. While there are certain reports that cannot yet be handled by the query module, we intend to further enhance it so that at some point the reports module can be completely removed. This also means that there will be no major enhancements to the report module anymore.''
     11
     12  ''You can already completely replace the reports module by the query module simply by disabling the former in [wiki:TracIni trac.ini]:''
     13  {{{
     14  [components]
     15  trac.ticket.report.* = disabled
     16  }}}
     17  ''This will make the query module the default handler for the “View Tickets” navigation item. We encourage you to try this configuration and report back what kind of features of reports you are missing, if any.''
     18
     19A report consists of these basic parts:
     20 * '''ID''' — Unique (sequential) identifier
     21 * '''Title''' — Descriptive title
     22 * '''Description''' — A brief description of the report, in WikiFormatting text.
     23 * '''Report Body''' — List of results from report query, formatted according to the methods described below.
     24 * '''Footer''' — Links to alternative download formats for this report.
     25
     26== Changing Sort Order ==
     27Simple reports - ungrouped reports to be specific - can be changed to be sorted by any column simply by clicking the column header.
     28
     29If a column header is a hyperlink (red), click the column you would like to sort by. Clicking the same header again reverses the order.
     30
     31== Changing Report Numbering ==
     32There may be instances where you need to change the ID of the report, perhaps to organize the reports better. At present this requires changes to the trac database. The ''report'' table has the following schema ''(since 0.10)'':
     33 * id integer PRIMARY KEY
     34 * author text
     35 * title text
     36 * query text
     37 * description text
     38Changing the ID changes the shown order and number in the ''Available Reports'' list and the report's perma-link. This is done by running something like:
     39{{{
     40update report set id=5 where id=3;
     41}}}
     42Keep in mind that the integrity has to be maintained (i.e., ID has to be unique, and you don't want to exceed the max, since that's managed by SQLite someplace).
     43
     44You may also need to update or remove the report number stored in the report or query.
     45
     46== Navigating Tickets ==
     47Clicking on one of the report results will take you to that ticket. You can navigate through the results by clicking the ''Next Ticket'' or ''Previous Ticket'' links just below the main menu bar, or click the ''Back to Report'' link to return to the report page.
     48
     49You can safely edit any of the tickets and continue to navigate through the results using the ''!Next/Previous/Back to Report'' links after saving your results, but when you return to the report, there will be no hint about what has changed, as would happen if you were navigating a list of tickets obtained from a query (see TracQuery#NavigatingTickets). ''(since 0.11)''
     50
     51== Alternative Download Formats ==
     52Aside from the default HTML view, reports can also be exported in a number of alternative formats.
     53At the bottom of the report page, you will find a list of available data formats. Click the desired link to
     54download the alternative report format.
     55
     56=== Comma-delimited - CSV (Comma Separated Values) ===
     57Export the report as plain text, each row on its own line, columns separated by a single comma (',').
     58'''Note:''' The output is fully escaped so carriage returns, line feeds, and commas will be preserved in the output.
     59
     60=== Tab-delimited ===
     61Like above, but uses tabs (\t) instead of comma.
     62
     63=== RSS - XML Content Syndication ===
     64All reports support syndication using XML/RSS 2.0. To subscribe to an RSS feed, click the orange 'XML' icon at the bottom of the page. See TracRss for general information on RSS support in Trac.
     65
     66----
     67
     68== Creating Custom Reports ==
     69
     70''Creating a custom report requires a comfortable knowledge of SQL.''
     71
     72'''Note that you need to set up [TracPermissions#Reports permissions] in order to see the buttons for adding or editing reports.'''
     73
     74A report is basically a single named SQL query, executed and presented by
     75Trac.  Reports can be viewed and created from a custom SQL expression directly
     76in the web interface.
     77
     78Typically, a report consists of a SELECT-expression from the 'ticket' table,
     79using the available columns and sorting the way you want it.
     80
     81== Ticket columns ==
     82The ''ticket'' table has the following columns:
     83 * id
     84 * type
     85 * time
     86 * changetime
     87 * component
     88 * severity 
     89 * priority
     90 * owner
     91 * reporter
     92 * cc
     93 * version
     94 * milestone
     95 * status
     96 * resolution
     97 * summary
     98 * description
     99 * keywords
     100
     101See TracTickets for a detailed description of the column fields.
     102
     103Example: '''All active tickets, sorted by priority and time'''
     104{{{
     105SELECT id AS ticket, status, severity, priority, owner,
     106       time AS created, summary FROM ticket
     107  WHERE status IN ('new', 'assigned', 'reopened')
     108  ORDER BY priority, time
     109}}}
     110
     111
     112== Advanced Reports: Dynamic Variables ==
     113For more flexible reports, Trac supports the use of ''dynamic variables'' in report SQL statements.
     114In short, dynamic variables are ''special'' strings that are replaced by custom data before query execution.
     115
     116=== Using Variables in a Query ===
     117The syntax for dynamic variables is simple, any upper case word beginning with '$' is considered a variable.
     118
     119Example:
     120{{{
     121SELECT id AS ticket,summary FROM ticket WHERE priority=$PRIORITY
     122}}}
     123
     124To assign a value to $PRIORITY when viewing the report, you must define it as an argument in the report URL, leaving out the leading '$'.
     125
     126Example:
     127{{{
     128 http://trac.edgewall.org/reports/14?PRIORITY=high
     129}}}
     130
     131To use multiple variables, separate them with an '&'.
     132
     133Example:
     134{{{
     135 http://trac.edgewall.org/reports/14?PRIORITY=high&SEVERITY=critical
     136}}}
     137
     138Dynamic variables can also be used in the report title and description (since 1.1.1).
     139
     140=== !Special/Constant Variables ===
     141There is one dynamic variable whose value is set automatically (the URL does not have to be changed) to allow practical reports.
     142
     143 * $USER — Username of logged in user.
     144
     145Example (''List all tickets assigned to me''):
     146{{{
     147SELECT id AS ticket,summary FROM ticket WHERE owner=$USER
     148}}}
     149
     150
     151
     152== Advanced Reports: Custom Formatting ==
     153Trac is also capable of more advanced reports, including custom layouts,
     154result grouping and user-defined CSS styles. To create such reports, we'll use
     155specialized SQL statements to control the output of the Trac report engine.
     156
     157=== Special Columns ===
     158To format reports, TracReports looks for 'magic' column names in the query
     159result. These 'magic' names are processed and affect the layout and style of the
     160final report.
     161
     162=== Automatically formatted columns ===
     163 * '''ticket''' — Ticket ID number. Becomes a hyperlink to that ticket.
     164 * '''id''' — same as '''ticket''' above when '''realm''' is not set
     165 * '''realm''' — together with '''id''', can be used to create links to other resources than tickets (e.g. a realm of ''wiki'' and an ''id'' to a page name will create a link to that wiki page)
     166 * '''created, modified, date, time''' — Format cell as a date and/or time.
     167 * '''description''' — Ticket description field, parsed through the wiki engine.
     168
     169'''Example:'''
     170{{{
     171SELECT id AS ticket, created, status, summary FROM ticket
     172}}}
     173
     174Those columns can also be defined but marked as hidden, see [#column-syntax below].
     175
     176See trac:wiki/CookBook/Configuration/Reports for some example of creating reports for realms other than ''ticket''.
     177
     178=== Custom formatting columns ===
     179Columns whose names begin and end with 2 underscores (Example: '''`__color__`''') are
     180assumed to be ''formatting hints'', affecting the appearance of the row.
     181 
     182 * '''`__group__`''' — Group results based on values in this column. Each group will have its own header and table.
     183 * '''`__grouplink__`''' — Make the header of each group a link to the specified URL. The URL is taken from the first row of each group.
     184 * '''`__color__`''' — Should be a numeric value ranging from 1 to 5 to select a pre-defined row color. Typically used to color rows by issue priority.
     185{{{
     186#!html
     187<div style="margin-left:7.5em">Defaults:
     188<span style="border: none; color: #333; background: transparent;  font-size: 85%; background: #fdc; border-color: #e88; color: #a22">Color 1</span>
     189<span style="border: none; color: #333; background: transparent;  font-size: 85%; background: #ffb; border-color: #eea; color: #880">Color 2</span>
     190<span style="border: none; color: #333; background: transparent;  font-size: 85%; background: #fbfbfb; border-color: #ddd; color: #444">Color 3</span>
     191<span style="border: none; color: #333; background: transparent; font-size: 85%; background: #e7ffff; border-color: #cee; color: #099">Color 4</span>
     192<span style="border: none; color: #333; background: transparent;  font-size: 85%; background: #e7eeff; border-color: #cde; color: #469">Color 5</span>
     193</div>
     194}}}
     195 * '''`__style__`''' — A custom CSS style expression to use on the `<tr>` element of the current row.
     196 * '''`__class__`''' — Zero or more space-separated CSS class names to be set on the `<tr>` element of the current row. These classes are added to the class name derived from `__color__` and the odd / even indicator.
     197
     198'''Example:''' ''List active tickets, grouped by milestone, group header linked to milestone page, colored by priority''
     199{{{
     200SELECT p.value AS __color__,
     201     t.milestone AS __group__,
     202     '../milestone/' || t.milestone AS __grouplink__,
     203     (CASE owner WHEN 'daniel' THEN 'font-weight: bold; background: red;' ELSE '' END) AS __style__,
     204       t.id AS ticket, summary
     205  FROM ticket t,enum p
     206  WHERE t.status IN ('new', 'assigned', 'reopened')
     207    AND p.name=t.priority AND p.type='priority'
     208  ORDER BY t.milestone, p.value, t.severity, t.time
     209}}}
     210
     211'''Note:''' A table join is used to match ''ticket'' priorities with their
     212numeric representation from the ''enum'' table.
     213
     214=== Changing layout of report rows === #column-syntax
     215By default, all columns on each row are display on a single row in the HTML
     216report, possibly formatted according to the descriptions above. However, it's
     217also possible to create multi-line report entries.
     218
     219 * '''`column_`''' — ''Break row after this''. By appending an underscore ('_') to the column name, the remaining columns will be continued on a second line.
     220
     221 * '''`_column_`''' — ''Full row''. By adding an underscore ('_') both at the beginning and the end of a column name, the data will be shown on a separate row.
     222
     223 * '''`_column`''' — ''Hide data''. Prepending an underscore ('_') to a column name instructs Trac to hide the contents from the HTML output. This is useful for information to be visible only if downloaded in other formats (like CSV or RSS/XML).
     224   This can be used to hide any kind of column, even important ones required for identifying the resource, e.g. `id as _id` will hide the '''Id''' column but the link to the ticket will be present.
     225
     226'''Example:''' ''List active tickets, grouped by milestone, colored by priority, with  description and multi-line layout''
     227
     228{{{
     229SELECT p.value AS __color__,
     230       t.milestone AS __group__,
     231       (CASE owner
     232          WHEN 'daniel' THEN 'font-weight: bold; background: red;'
     233          ELSE '' END) AS __style__,
     234       t.id AS ticket, summary AS summary_,             -- ## Break line here
     235       component,version, severity, milestone, status, owner,
     236       time AS created, changetime AS modified,         -- ## Dates are formatted
     237       description AS _description_,                    -- ## Uses a full row
     238       changetime AS _changetime, reporter AS _reporter -- ## Hidden from HTML output
     239  FROM ticket t,enum p
     240  WHERE t.status IN ('new', 'assigned', 'reopened')
     241    AND p.name=t.priority AND p.type='priority'
     242  ORDER BY t.milestone, p.value, t.severity, t.time
     243}}}
     244
     245=== Reporting on custom fields ===
     246
     247If you have added custom fields to your tickets (a feature since v0.8, see TracTicketsCustomFields), you can write a SQL query to cover them. You'll need to make a join on the ticket_custom table, but this isn't especially easy.
     248
     249If you have tickets in the database ''before'' you declare the extra fields in trac.ini, there will be no associated data in the ticket_custom table. To get around this, use SQL's "LEFT OUTER JOIN" clauses. See [trac:TracIniReportCustomFieldSample TracIniReportCustomFieldSample] for some examples.
     250
     251=== A note about SQL rewriting #rewriting
     252
     253Beyond the relatively trivial replacement of dynamic variables, the SQL query is also altered in order to support two features of the reports:
     254 1. [#sort-order changing the sort order]
     255 2. pagination support (limitation of the number of result rows displayed on each page)
     256In order to support the first feature, the sort column is inserted in the `ORDER BY` clause in the first position or in the second position if a `__group__` column is specified (an `ORDER BY` clause is created if needed). In order to support pagination, a `LIMIT ... OFFSET ...` clause is appended.
     257The query might be too complex for the automatic rewrite to work correctly, resulting in an erroneous query. In this case you still have the possibility to control exactly how the rewrite is done by manually inserting the following tokens:
     258 - `@SORT_COLUMN@`, the place where the name of the selected sort column will be inserted,
     259 - `@LIMIT_OFFSET@`, the place where the pagination support clause will be added
     260Note that if you write them after an SQL comment, `--`, you'll effectively disable rewriting if this is what you want!
     261
     262Let's take an example, consider the following SQL query:
     263{{{
     264-- ## 4: Assigned, Active Tickets by Owner ## --
     265
     266--
     267-- List assigned tickets, group by ticket owner, sorted by priority.
     268--
     269
     270SELECT p.value AS __color__,
     271   owner AS __group__,
     272   id AS ticket, summary, component, milestone, t.type AS type, severity, time AS created,
     273   changetime AS _changetime, description AS _description,
     274   reporter AS _reporter
     275  FROM ticket t,enum p
     276  WHERE status = 'assigned'
     277AND p.name=t.priority AND p.type='priority'
     278  ORDER BY __group__, p.value, severity, time
     279}}}
     280
     281The automatic rewrite will be the following (4 rows per page, page 2, sorted by `component`):
     282{{{
     283SELECT p.value AS __color__,
     284   owner AS __group__,
     285   id AS ticket, summary, component, milestone, t.type AS type, severity, time AS created,
     286   changetime AS _changetime, description AS _description,
     287   reporter AS _reporter
     288  FROM ticket t,enum p
     289  WHERE status = 'assigned'
     290AND p.name=t.priority AND p.type='priority'
     291  ORDER BY __group__ ASC, `component` ASC,  __group__, p.value, severity, time
     292 LIMIT 4 OFFSET 4
     293}}}
     294
     295The equivalent SQL query with the rewrite tokens would have been:
     296{{{
     297SELECT p.value AS __color__,
     298   owner AS __group__,
     299   id AS ticket, summary, component, milestone, t.type AS type, severity, time AS created,
     300   changetime AS _changetime, description AS _description,
     301   reporter AS _reporter
     302  FROM ticket t,enum p
     303  WHERE status = 'assigned'
     304AND p.name=t.priority AND p.type='priority'
     305  ORDER BY __group__, @SORT_COLUMN@, p.value, severity, time
     306@LIMIT_OFFSET@
     307}}}
     308
     309If you want to always sort first by priority and only then by the user selected sort column, simply use the following `ORDER BY` clause:
     310{{{
     311  ORDER BY __group__, p.value, @SORT_COLUMN@, severity, time
     312}}}
     313
     314----
     315See also: TracTickets, TracQuery, TracGuide, [http://www.sqlite.org/lang_expr.html Query Language Understood by SQLite]