Configuring Report Types

Report types define what an individual record is in a report, for example, a document, a product, or a specific instance of a workflow. The report type also affects what fields are available as report columns, filters, and so on. When a user creates a new report, the first step is selecting a report type for it.

Vault includes standard, default system-managed report types (displayed on the Report Types page with a Type of Standard Standard Report Type), which are not editable, but also allows you to create custom report types (displayed on the Report Types page with a Type of Custom Custom Report Type). Custom report types are the only way to create certain kinds of reports, such as a report that displays only object data records without including documents, or a report that displays details for custom objects.

Vault also includes some default system-managed report types that are not displayed on the Report Types page, but are available for selection on the Report Types list when creating a report.

Accessing Report Type Administration

From Admin > Configuration > Report Types, you can create and manage report types.

How to Create Report Types

To create a report type:

  1. From the Report Types page, click Create.
  2. Optional: Enter a Label. Users see this label when creating new reports. If you leave this blank, Vault will automatically generate a label based on the selected reporting objects.
  3. Optional: Enter a Name. This is the value that developers can use to access the report type through the Vault API. If you leave this blank, Vault automatically generates it based on the selected reporting objects.
  4. Set the Status. To keep the report type hidden from users, set it to Disabled. To make the report type available to users, set it to Active.
  5. Select Standard, Multi-Pass, or Union-All for the Class. The Class dictates the reporting object configuration allowed for the report type.
  6. Optional: Enter a Description. This value is visible to Admins in the Report Types page in Admin > Configuration and visible to users in the Create Report: Select Report Type page when creating a report with this report type.
  7. In the Report Configuration area, select a Primary Reporting Object. The report configuration is visible to users in the Create Report: Select Report Type page when creating a report with this report type.
  8. Optional: To add additional reporting objects, click Add Related Object and select a related reporting object.
  9. Optional: Click the Add Related Object button again to add more objects to your report type. The Up and Down arrows in the picklist indicate whether an object is an up or down object to the primary reporting object.
  10. Click Save. If the status is Active, the report type is available immediately to users.”

Demo: Creating Report Types

The following video demonstrates how to configure report types:

Details

How to Edit Report Types

For report types with a Class of Standard or Multi-Pass, you can edit the report type configuration and change the status, even if they are in use by a report or report view. However, you cannot remove an object from a Standard or Multi-Pass report type if the object has fields that are in use by an existing report or report view.

For report types with a Class of Union-All, you can change the status, but you can only edit the report type configuration if it is not currently in use by a report or report view.

To edit an existing report type:

  1. From the Report Types page, select Actions > Edit on the report type row, or open the report type and select Actions > Edit..
  2. Make any necessary changes to the objects, relationships, and status.
  3. Click Save.

How to Copy Report Types

You can copy an existing report type and update its configuration to create a new report type. When you copy a Multi-Pass report type, Vault creates the report type only and does not copy the underlying views or report types.

To copy an existing report type:

  1. From the Report Types page, select Actions > Copy Report Type on the report type row, or open the report type and select Actions > Copy Report Type.
  2. In the Copy Report Type dialog, enter the Name of the new report type.
  3. Click Continue. Vault opens the new report type in the Create Report Type page, where you can modify the copied report type configuration as needed.
  4. Click Save to save the report type.

To view a list of reports that use a specific report type:

  1. From the Report Types page, select Actions > View Related Reports on the report type row, or open the report type and select Actions > View Related Reports to open the View Related Reports dialog with a list of all reports that use the report type.
  2. Optional: Click a report name to open the report.
  3. Click Close to close the dialog and return to the Report Types page.

Disabling & Activating Report Types

To prevent users from creating new reports using the report type, you can set the Status field to Disabled. Setting the disabled report type back to Active makes it available again.

Deleting Report Types

Deleting a report type permanently removes it from the Vault. This option is only available for custom report types that are not selected for a report. If a report type is in use, you cannot delete it.

Many-to-Many Relationship Reporting

Complex and simple relationships appear differently to users in reports. If the relationship is complex, the relational object and its fields appear. If the relationship is simple, the relational object does not appear in reports.

Reports with Multiple Up or Down Objects

You can configure report types that include multiple up or down objects, such as a Product with Product Country and Documents type report. In that report type, Product is the primary reporting object, with Product Country and Documents as down objects. The report type could also have an up reporting object, like Application.

An up object is an object related through a reference or parent relationship to the primary reporting object. A down object is a child object, simple join object, an object related through a reference relationship, or related documents. Learn more about object relationships.

By default, you can select up to ten objects in a standard report type.

Document Reports with Up and Down Objects

On reports with Document as the primary reporting object, Vault shows the object relationship as an up object if the field is single-value and as a down object if the field is multi-value.

Example Custom Report Types

The following example shows the GroupMembership, UserListing of all groups and the users who are members of those groups.

Primary Object Related Objects Example Usage
Report Usage Report Name Listing of all reports and dashboards that ran, with details for who ran the report or dashboard, how it was run and when, the number of rows returned, and how many times it was viewed (for flash reports and run-in-background reports only). Including the Report Name as a related object allows users to view the report or dashboard.
Submission Application (Parent), Submission (Document) Listing of all submissions with details for the related application and a list of binders for each submission.
Product Product (Document) Listing of all products and associated documents that you can group by product details like Therapeutic Area or Product Family.
Study Country Study Sites (Child) Listing of all sites under each study country.
Department Owning Dept (Document) Listing of documents organized by Owning Department field and showing the Department Code value for each department.
Product (Parent) Local Product (Child), Country (Co-Parent of Local Product) Listing of all products, any associated local products, and those local products’ parent countries (this is a many-to-many relationship).
Workflow Campaign (Object) Listing of workflow details organized by workflow fields such as Task Owner, Workflow Status, and Workflow Name associated with a Campaign.
Document Study (Object) Listing of documents and details associated with a Study.
Milestone Document (Milestones) Listing of all documents associated with milestones to evaluate the completeness of a project.
Product Product (Document), Product Countries (Simple Join Object) Listing of all products with their product countries and related documents.
EDL Item Matched Document (Child), Document Listing of all EDL Items with their matched documents.
Group Membership, User Listing of all groups and the users who are members of those groups.
Document Change Request Document (Document Reference Field) Listing of all document change requests and any documents referenced through a document reference field on the object.
Rendition Document Listing of all documents with attached renditions.
Document Role Document, User Listing of all document roles with their documents and the users assigned to those roles.
Product Object Role, User Listing of all products with their object roles and the users assigned to those roles.
Product Attachments Listing of products with their associated attachments.
Document Attachments Listing of documents with their associated attachments.