ReportMagic - Getting Started

This tutorial covers the basics including:

• Running your first macro and storing your files
• Creating a report template and running a schedule
• Connecting to your cloud systems (for example, LogicMonitor)
• Viewing LogicMonitor data in ReportMagic

Preparing to Run Your First Macro

The codes that tell ReportMagic what data to insert into a report are called macros. Macros are always surrounded by square brackets, have a colon at the end of their name, and contain a number of parameters. For example, the following macro sets a preferred filename for the finished report:

[MagicSuite:SetReportProperty: property=outputFileName, value="My Project Report"]

In this example:

• MagicSuite - the category (or group) of macros
• SetReportProperty - the type of macro within that category
• property=outputFileName - specifies which report property to set (in this case, the output file name)
• value="My Project Report" - the value to assign to that property

Before you start writing macros from scratch, go to Report Studio and start with one of the examples from the Help. Then you can see immediately whether everything has worked. First, though, let's set up some folders to store our files.

Creating Folders for Your Files

To create a folder for your files:

1. Click Files.
2. Navigate to an appropriate area.
3. Right-click on the blank space in the right-hand pane and from the menu that appears, click New folder.
4. Create a folder called Tutorial Input where your report templates (and any relevant CSV files) will be stored.
5. Create a second folder called Tutorial Output where the automatically-generated reports will be saved.

These folders need to exist prior to running your reports.

Using Report Studio

Report Studio is an integrated development environment where you can produce ad-hoc reports and easily check if macros work correctly before you use them in a report. If they don't work, you will see immediate feedback about why, so you can change them and try again.

When you open Report Studio, type in the left pane, output is shown in the right pane, and a Progress pane shows information as you run the macros.

Run Your First Macro

Follow the steps below to create a simple example:

1. In Report Studio, click the Insert button in the toolbar.
2. In the pop-up that appears, type String.
3. Click Insert Example 1 from the [String:] macro that appears to paste into Report Studio.
4. Click the green Run button.
   The String macro executes and the output is shown on the right-hand side.

Create a Simple Report Template

Report Studio is great for designing and testing, but you'll need to have macros saved in HTML, DOCX or PPTX documents - these are your report templates. The macros in these templates tell ReportMagic what data to use and how to use it, so that the reports you require are produced correctly.

Easy ways to get started with templates include:

• Typing in Report Studio and saving your work, which we will do in this tutorial
• Downloading then amending one of the available templates from the ReportMagic library

Save a Template

Since we're in Report Studio already, let's save what we have as a template:

1. In Report Studio, from the File menu, click Save As.
2. Navigate to an appropriate folder and click the button to create a new folder within it called Tutorial Input.
3. Type a file name including .docx as the extension.
4. Click Save and a message notifies you of success; click to close that dialog box.

To see where the report template has been saved:

1. From the ReportMagic menu, click Files.
2. In the left-hand pane, navigate to the folder where you saved the file.
   You can rename, download or manage the file by right-clicking on it.
   You can also upload more files (including images and CSV files) by right-clicking on the blank space and choosing Upload Files.
3. Using that right-click context menu, create an additional folder called Tutorial Output.

Now let's set up a schedule which uses this file and folders.

Creating a Simple Schedule

A Schedule contains information about how, when and what reports will run, such as the folder location where your templates are. Once you are happy with a report template, you should create a Schedule for it, even if you don't run the Schedule straight away.

To create a Schedule:

1. Click Schedules.
2. Click Create.
3. In the dialog box that appears, type a Name and choose the type as Free.
4. Click the icon next to Input Folder and choose the folder where you stored your first report template, Tutorial Input.
5. Click the icon next to Output Folder and select your Tutorial Output folder.
6. Ensure Error Handling is set to Do Not Stop.
7. The only choice for Free reports is PDF output, so select that, and leaving all other settings as they are, click Save.

Now let's run the report by running the Schedule.

Running a Schedule

When you have a Schedule, you can set it to run at a certain time or run it immediately. We are going to run it immediately:

1. If you are not already on the Schedules page, click Schedules.
2. Find your Schedule in the list and click the Run button next to it.
   The Progress page appears and the Schedule runs.
3. Click the Output button to be taken to the Files area. You will see that an output subfolder, named with last month's date, has been created.
4. Expand the dated folder and open the PDF to see your finished report.

Congratulations - you have now written a macro, saved it as a template, created a Schedule and produced your first report using ReportMagic!

Download and Open a Library Template

Now let's see what a more advanced report looks like by downloading one of the report templates in the library and running it. You will be able to view some statistics on ReportMagic itself:

1. In the Files area, click Library.
2. Under ReportMagic, open the Report Schedules folder and download the ReportSchedules report.
3. In Microsoft Word, open the file and click Enable Editing.
   On the first page, you will see a macro like this:

Created for [MagicSuite:ReportProperty: property=TenantName] with ReportMagic on [DateTime:]

The macro name, within square brackets, consists of:

• MagicSuite - the macro group (category)
• ReportProperty - the individual macro, one that inserts a property of the report itself
• property=TenantName - the parameter specifying which property to retrieve

The [DateTime:] macro inserts the date and time the report was created.

Now let's run the template to get some output.

Produce a Report from the Library Template

Continue with the following steps:

1. Scroll to the last page and view a table which for each Schedule, will show information such as the name, time of last run, and so on.
2. Click Files.
3. Double-click on the Tutorial Input folder.
4. Right-click on the white space and choose Upload Files.
5. Browse to the downloaded Library file, and click Open to upload it.
6. Click Schedules and click the Run button next to the Schedule you created.
   The Progress page appears showing the report running and completing.
7. Click the Output button.
8. Double-click to expand the dated folder and open the new PDF to see your finished report.
9. Observe the information that has been completed in place of the macros.

Congratulations. You've used one of the supplied templates and seen how macros can report on the ReportMagic system itself.

What Next?

ReportMagic is most valuable when you connect it to your cloud systems - for example LogicMonitor, ServiceNow and so on. Read the topic on creating Connections to start doing this.