Support
Reports User Guide
Before You Start
Before installing, upgrading or uninstalling any extensions, it is always a good idea to take a full backup of your site's files and data. Refer to your hosting service for how to do this.
If possible, it is good practice to make changes to extensions on a test copy of your site prior to making changes on your live site.
The installation, upgrade or uninstall processes in Joomla! do not have built-in roll-back support. It is your responsibility to ensure you can recover from any failure caused by changes to your site.
Installing for the First Time
Download the Reports package from this site. This package contains all of the extensions required for Reports, including components, modules, plugins and language files. They are all installed in the one operation.
Install the package file in the normal way.
Select Extensions -> Install/Uninstall from the main menu.
Click browse, and find the JXtended Libraries plugin file. Click Upload File & Install.
Click browse again, and find the Reports component package file. Click Upload File & Install.
When the installation process is finished, a list of all the extensions that were installed will be displayed.
The JXtended Libraries
Reports requires additional support from the JXtended Libraries (used by most of our products). You must install the JXtended Libraries Plugin and then publish it.
If you forget to install the libraries and try to use Reports in the Administrator, a warning will display.
If you have install the libraries and forgot to publish it, simply click Enable the Plugin in the warning message. The message will then close and you will be able to use Magazine successfully.
If you have already installed the libraries, and it is out of date a warning will display. If this occurs, download the latest version of the JXtended Libraries plugin, uninstall the existing plugin, and then install the new one. Then, go to the plugins manager and publish the plugin.
Things to Know Before You Upgrade
Before you upgrade Reports (version 2.1.0 or later), you must export your configuration settings and then import them after the upgrade is complete. The upgrade process unfortunately does not preserve these settings.
Please note that in versions of Reports earlier than 2.1.0, there is no ability to export the configuration settings. You will need to note these down before you upgrade and reset them when the upgrade is complete.
To export your settings, select Extensions -> Reports from the Menubar.
Click the Configuration Toolbar icon. The configuration panel with overlay the screen.
Click the Export button and save the file to an appropriate location.
Upgrade Reports as described in the next section and return to the Dashboard.
Click the Import Configuration Toolbar icon.
Browse for the file you previously saved and select it. Click the Import button at the top of the configuration panel.
If you have made changes to the built-in reports, copy these to a safe location before you upgrade. The
Upgrading Reports
Upgrading Reports is simple. Download the new package from this site when it is released.
Install the package again as if you were installing it for the first time.
Uninstalling Reports
To uninstall Reports, you only need to uninstall the Reports Component. This will automatically uninstall the other modules and plugins that were originially installed in one simple step.
Running Administrator Reports
To use the reports from the Joomal! Administrator, select Components -> Reports from the menu.
To see the list of available reports, click Reports in the Linkbar. This will present a list reports with descriptions (if available) and the author.
To run a report, click the report name.
Configuration
Reports has several configuration options. Click Dashboard in the Linkbar, then click Parameters in the Toolbar.
- Date Format
- This allows reports to take on a default date format (where available).
- Include Default Stylesheet
- This determines whether frontend reports will include a default stylesheet. This is useful where the site template does not include styles that are usually present in the administrator template.
- Frontend Builtin Reports Access
- This allows you to select groups that can have access to all the builtin reports. You may select no groups or multiple groups.
- Frontend Custom Reports Access
- This allows you to select groups that can have access to all the custom reports. You may select no groups or multiple groups.
Custom Reports
Several builtin reports are provided with Reports and can be found in the following directory:
/administrator/components/com_reports/reports/
If you want to write your own reports, you can copy the format of the builtin reports into the following directory:
/administator/custom/com_reports/reports/
Running Frontend Reports
Provided you have allowed access to either builtin or custom reports, you can also run reports from the frontend site. To do this create a new menu item for the Reports component.
Select Menu ->Main Menu from the Administator Menu (or select a different menu).
Click New in the Toolbar.
Select Reports from the list of Internal Links.
Enter a title for the menu item and select an appropriate access level (usually Registered) and then save.
0 Comments