LG Inform Report builder

Transcription

1 LG Inform Report builder January

2 This document goes through the process of building a basic report in LG Inform and how to save it. Report builder The ability to build reports is only available to people who have registered and signed in to LG Inform. If you have not registered for an account you can do this from the options at the right of the top purple toolbar. Log into LG Inform and you will see the Report Builder option on the purple toolbar, when you click on it you will be given an empty report canvas, shown below. This box is a wizard that will walk you through creating a report. A report can be made up of just one component, a text box, chart, map or table or several components. 2

3 This guide will work through the sections on this wizard in turn to create a short report. 1. Top grey headers these allow you to set the main properties of your report. a. Report properties This allows you to name your report, as well as adding service areas and tags. The report name will be the name that will be displayed in Search and My library of LG Inform so it is best to include enough information so you can find your report at a later date and ensure that other users can find it when you share it. Description (optional field) this is a free text box where you can add a description of your report which is shown in LG Inform but not on the actual report. This can be a description for you as a reminder of what is still to be added to the report, a quick overview of what you have included, or notes to fellow users of the report. 3

4 Category tags (optional field) these can be added to a report and can be used when you are searching for a report. Service (optional field) these are pre-set service areas in LG Inform, which you can select and will be linked to your report, which you can use as additional search terms. Insert references page if you tick this box you will get a list at the end of the report listing the sources of the metrics you have used in your report b. Previous versions Every time you save your report the system automatically saves a new version of your report. Once a report has been saved for the first time the system also autosaves your report after every change. To access previous versions or autosaves click on the previous versions button and a light box will open showing you your report history, click on any of the time stamped versions to load that into the report builder. 4

5 . c. Add logo You can add a logo to your report by clicking on the Add logo box. This will open up a light box where you can select from the logos you have previously saved into LG Inform. You cannot add multiple logos to one report, so if you need more than one logo on the top of your report, you can combine them in a jpeg and upload the combined logo to the system. To be able to add a logo here, you need to have preloaded it in to LG Inform. To do this you need to go to My LG Inform on the purple toolbar and select Preferences, Save logo and you can upload a logo ready to use in any report. 5

6 d. Add Report title This box will let you give your report a title that will appear on the first page of your report only. You will need to give your report a name before it can be saved. The next stage for your report is to add your first component. You can choose from the purple boxes on the left, either a text box, chart, map or table. Alternatively, there is the option to Import content from your library. This will allow you to search through reports you have previously created and import them. If you have a format of a report you like you can import it and then edit the metrics or change the design if needed. 6

7 Add text 2. Component buttons how to add a text, chart, map or table component Select Add text, this will add a text box to your report canvas on the right hand side of your screen. A light box will open up in which you can add text and edit the layout of it. You can add images, tables and links. There is also the option to use text tokens. These make your text dynamic and will update when you view your report to the relevant information, for example instead of typing in the authority name you can use a text token that will always put in the authority name the user has selected, when they opened the report. This is in development stage and will be completely finalised later this spring. Your text will look quite small on the wizard as is being shown at three quarters of the scale of the final report. There are three buttons at the top right of a component when you have created it. Copy - this will create a copy of your component you can then edit. For example, if you have built a map, you can copy it and just change the metric, so you keep the design and layout the same. 7

8 Edit You can edit the text box at any time using the pencil icon in the top right of the box, when you click on this the box will open up and you can edit the content as required. Delete will delete your component. Add Chart Selecting Add chart will open up the wizard to the left of your page from which you can select the data, areas and chart type by completing each of the steps. There are additional options in the wizard to allow you to customise your chosen chart. 8

9 The first thing you will need to do is add a metric. In the search box type a key word from a metric name, such as crime, planning or waste and select from the dropdown list the metric(s) you are interested in including and click Add. 9

10 If you hover over the question mark at the end of the metric it will display more details about it, such as the source and polarity, as well as a short description of the data. The metrics will be shown in bold and un-bold text. If the text is bold it means the metric can be broken down in greater detail. For example, if you select Crime Total annual [ID:1068] and click Add, you get a line beneath it Show metric options. Selecting this will show you how your metric can be broken down and will allow you to select these options to be shown in your report. When you have chosen the options you need, click Next. By default your chart will display the latest raw value for your chosen metric for the most recent period available, you have the option to change this by clicking on the show metric options link. Within this step you can view breakdowns of data, change the value type or the number of periods displayed. 10

11 When you have selected the data you need, click Next and the Select area section will expand. This is filled in with your default area from your registration, which you can change if needed. Along with your authority you show select other areas to be show on your chart, for example, All London Boroughs or specific authorities such as North Yorkshire. You also have the option at this point to create your own display group by selecting the Create new display group option and working through the light box that opens up. Through this you can make a group of authorities whose data you are interested in seeing on your chart. When you have selected your area and any other display areas, select Next and the available chart types will be displayed. Depending on the data and area options you have selected the appropriate chart types will be enabled. 11

12 Some chart types will be greyed out if the options selected for the data are not appropriate. For example, pie charts can only show one years worth of data, so if multiple years have been selected the pie chart option will be greyed out. Scatter charts also require two metrics to be selected. 12

13 Click on the chart type needed and it will be added to the canvas on the right. There is a new feature on this page that gives you the option to change the component point to a map or table. This saves you going into the component and editing it. At this point you can either go on to Customise it further or save the component as it is shown. To edit click Customise further. The next section of the menu will open up Compare against. 13

14 In this section you can choose to add one or more summary statistics to your chart for example - Minimum - Maximum - Mean - Median - 25 th percentile - 75 th percentile - Etc. The options shown in this section will depend on the chart type selected; some chart types such as pie, bullet and gauge will have no options in this step. Again, at this stage you can either save the component as it is or customise it further. The next customise options are for the labels and legends. By walking through the next options, Customise labels and layout you can adjust axes options and adapt the chart display, for example, adding Area names or select Show metric source details. Within this last option you can add details about the metric below your chart, for example, unit of measure or polarity. The next Customise further sections looks at the colours used on your component. There are sixteen palettes that you can select from. The palettes 1-8 are predominately used for charts and where polarity for the metric is not applicable, whereas palettes are predominately used for maps or where polarity is applicable. If you intend to print your report in black and white we would recommend palettes 8 and which are made specifically clear when printing out in black and white. The colours are picked from the palettes in a specific order so there is the most contrast between the sections on a chart depending on the number of colours used. 14

15 The last section of the accordion is advanced functionality and lets you add selection boxes to a component so the person viewing the report can select their own metric; area or groups. When you click on Finish the accordion collapses and your finished component is shown on the right hand side. You now have a few options: Preview allows you to see the report as it would look when printed out, when you are editing the report the ratio of screen to final view is 63%. From this preview page you can print or export your report as a PDF, RTF or embed code. If you embed your report into another website the figures in the components will update as they are updated in the back end of LG Inform. New if you have saved your report, it will close and a new empty canvas will be shown Share if you have published your report you then have the options to share it with individuals or groups, more details about this can be found in how to share guide Delete all versions including your saved report will be deleted Export this allows you to export your whole report in either a PDF or RTF 15

16 Print this opens up a new window from which you can print your report Save saves your report to your library. Or you can carry on adding components, text, charts, map and tables to build up your report Add Map By clicking on the Add Map button the accordion will open up for you to select your metric and area required, the steps are exactly the same as there were for Add chart. - Search for and select your metric - Search for and select your areas - Select map At this point you can either go on to edit this map further or save the component as it is shown. 16

17 The next section of the accordion is Compare against. In this section you can choose how maps are coloured, you can choose from the supported performance measurement scales (quantiles, equal ranges, standard deviation or custom), the number of bands to divide the map into and the comparison group to be used in these calcualtions. Again, at this stage you can either save the component as it is or customise further. The next customise options are for the labels and legends followed by colour selection. Add Table The final component type available is the Add table option. Again, by working through the accordion you can add the metrics and areas to your table and then customise it as needed in the same manner you would charts and maps. One noticeable difference is within the Customise labels and layout step, tables are designed to be dynamic and the Group axis options allows you to specify which data is displayed in rows and which data is displayed in columns along with the order of that data. 17

18 Unlike other components which dynamically resize, tables are by default 30 rows long and you will need to manually adjust it to fit your contents. If your table is longer than the page scrollbars will be enabled on screen, but the table will print out in full when exported. If your table is wider than the width of the page you can adjust the columns using the purple arrows. Resizing, moving and hover text The report page is set to be optimised for A4 printing but within this you have control to resize charts and maps to fit your needs. There are intelligent controls included that will alert you if you have overlapping content or if it crosses a page break. If a component covers a page break or another component it will be highlighted with a red border. All components must fit within the A4 template to ensure that printing is not compromised. All content added to a report can be moved using the drag and drop functionality, simply place your cursor over the yellow bar at the top of the component you want to move and the cursor will change, click and drag the component to its new location. 18

19 If you want to move a whole page you can do this using the move page buttons at the side of the report canvas. To resize a component click on the dashed line, which is around the component to move the edge of it. To move from page to page click on the header of the component, when your curser changes to a four pointed arrow hold your left mouse button down and drag the component around your report canvas. All charts and maps now support hover text and this will uniquely describe any bar, column, line or point that you hover over. 19

20 For more information please contact Local Government Association Local Government House Smith Square London SW1P 3HZ Telephone: Contact the Local Government Association Telephone: Website: Local Government Association, January 2017 For a copy in Braille, Welsh, larger print or audio, please contact us on We consider all requests on an individual basis. 20