Using BIRT® Designer Pro with LearnCenter

Insight Reporting will be disabled on January 31, 2016. Please begin using Bi Reporting.

LearnCenter is integrated with Actuate® BIRT® Designer Pro. BIRT  Designer Pro is a stand-alone report development tool that is easy to use, supports extensive customization, and is used to create reusable report components, interactive web reports and dashboards. You can create your own customizable reports using Designer Pro, and then import (or "sync") them to LearnCenter where you can further modify, schedule, or share them with other Users.

For complete information about Designer Pro, visit http://www.actuate.com/products/birt-designers/birt-designer-pro/.

Things You Should Know About This Integration

For this integration:

• Designer Pro (Version 11 SP2) is sold separately, and by Actuate. Visit http://knowledgeexchange.taleo.com/docs/DOC-4902 for purchasing and pricing details.
• To download a free trial version of SP2, visit http://www.actuate.com/info/taleo/. Complete the required fields and click Submit. Click Go to Resource Now! to automatically downloads the package.
  
• You will need to install the software on each User computer to be used by your designated Designer Pro Admins.
• Each User installation requires a license. You will receive license keys from Actuate Licensing when you purchase the product from them.
• Browsers supported by Designer Pro Version 11 SP2:
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer®: 7, 8, and 9
• Mozilla Firefox®: 3.0, 3.6.9, 4, and 5
• Apple Safari®: 4 and 5
• Google Chrome: through version 12
• LearnCenter includes two (2) iServer Profile Account usernames, which you will use to access the Actuate® BIRT® iServer. Initially, one account is assigned to the default LearnCenter "ADMINISTRATOR" username, but you can reassign it to another User. You can assign the second account username to any other LearnCenter Admin who will be responsible for working with Designer Pro. Contact your Taleo Learn Customer Account Manager if you need more than two iServer accounts. There is no charge for additional accounts. See Report Settings for additional details about these accounts.

• With Designer Pro, you do not need a copy of the database.
• A list of available Information Objects (IOBs) is provided on the Knowledge Exchange.
• Your Designer Pro Admins may need to go through some training if they are not already familiar with Designer Pro.
• Basic level training will be provided by Taleo Learn University. Details forthcoming.
• Advanced/Higher training for Designer Pro will be provided by Actuate. Contact Actuate University for details.
• Documentation for using Designer Pro is provided by Actuate.
• Documentation for using the Designer Pro settings and options within LearnCenter is provided here in LearnCenter online help.

• Technical Support for Designer Pro is available from Actuate.
• Technical Support for LearnCenter is available through My Oracle Support.

Basic Designer Pro Terminology

Some Designer Pro terminology is mentioned in this document:

• IOB - This is an Actuate information object file type that contains an Actuate SQL query.
• Data Source - A relational database or other data repository. For example, an Extensible Markup Language (XML) file, a flat file, an information object, or a Java application can be a data source. A report or spreadsheet can include any of these types of data. This data source provides data rows to a report or a gadget on a dashboard through a data source component or data source element.
  or
  A design construct that retrieves data rows from a relational database or other data repository.
• Data Set - A definition of the data to retrieve or compute from a data source.
• Actuate BIRT iServer - Referred to in this documentation as "iServer". The Actuate server that stores report documents in an Encyclopedia volume, manages user information, handles report requests, and analyzes and delivers report documents.
• Volume - An Actuate BIRT iServer System repository for managing data and metadata. Your volume number is provided by Taleo Learn and can be located on the Insight Reporting Settings page.

For detailed training and documentation on Designer Pro, refer to the links provided in the section called Things You Should Know About This Integration.

Setup in LearnCenter

Once you have obtained Designer Pro and are ready to begin using it with LearnCenter there are a few setup items to take care of:

• Determine who in your organization will be working with Designer Pro, and assign the iServer Profile account to their usernames in the Report Settings section of System Options. (Ensure your Designer Pro Admins have Designer Pro installed properly on their computers.)

• Assign the appropriate Insight Reporting User Permissions to your Designer Pro Admins.

• Be sure your Designer Pro Admins can view the Insight Reporting Settings page.

Typical Workflow

With this integration, you now have the ability to create and design your own reports in Designer Pro and then import (sync) them to LearnCenter. The following steps outline the typical workflow to create a new report in Designer Pro and import it into your LearnCenter.

These instructions are intended as a guideline. Refer to Designer Pro documentation, Designer Pro online help, and Designer Pro training for a deeper understanding of Designer Pro.

First, create a new project and indicate the Designer Pro folder in which the report will reside.

1. Open Designer Pro and create a new Project if needed.
2. Click File > New > Folder. The New Folder window opens.
3. Select an existing folder from the list.
   or
   Create a new folder by typing the Folder name.
4. Click Finish. If you created a new folder, it displays on the Navigator tab.

Next, create the new report in Designer Pro.

1. Click File > New > Report. The New Report window opens.
2. Select the folder you just created from the list.
3. Type the File name for the report. You must use the ".rptdesign" extension for the file name. For example, you may call your report "New_Report_3.rptdesign".
4. Click Next.
5. Select an available report template. You can preview the design of these templates in Designer Pro. These template designs are not modifiable. Choose one of the following:

• Blank Report - contains no pre-defined content.
• My First Report - provides instructions for building a customer listing report.
• Simple Listing - a listing report with fields from the data source.
• Grouped Listing - a listing report with grouping on some fields.
• Dual Column Listing - a grouped report with 2 sub groups.
• Dual Column Chart & Listing - a grouped report with two "chart and listing" sub groups.
• Side by Side Chart & Listing - a grouped report where each group contains a chart and a listing side-by-side.
• Chart & Listing - a grouped report with a chart giving a visual representation of each group data.
• Cross Tab - includes a tutorial to help you build a cross tab report.

6. Click Finish. The report is created and listed in the folder you indicated.

Next, create a new Data Source.

1. In the Navigator, select the folder that contains your new report.
2. Click the Outline tab.
3. Under your folder, right-click Data Sources, and select New Data Source. The New Data Source window opens.
4. Select Actuate Information Object Data Source.
5. Type a Data Source Name.
6. Click Next. The New Actuate Information Object Connection Profile window opens. At this time you may want to sign in to the appropriate LearnCenter, and navigate to the Insight Reporting Settings page. You will need the information on this page for the following set of steps.
7. Type the Data Source Connection Properties. Some of this information can be copied and pasted from the LearnCenter Insight Reporting Settings page.

1. Type (or copy and paste from LearnCenter) the Server URL from the Insight Reporting Settings page.
2. Type (or copy and paste from LearnCenter) Volume from the Insight Reporting Settings page.
3. Type (or copy and paste from LearnCenter) User Name from the Insight Reporting Settings page.
4. Type your LearnCenter Password.

Be sure that you are copying this information from the LearnCenter in which you intend to use this report. Each sub LearnCenter has different information.

5. Select Yes for Use Logged in user credentials on iServer.

8. Click Test Connection. If it passes, continue to the next step. If it fails, return to the Insight Reporting Settings page in LearnCenter and determine whether you have properly copied the Server URL and Volume, or determine whether you have correctly typed your username and password. Be sure that you are obtaining this information from the correct sub LearnCenter. Test the connection again. If it passes, continue to the next step. Contact Customer Support through My Oracle Support if you have verified the information has been entered correctly and the connection still fails.
9. Click OK to close the Success pop-up message.
10. Click Finish. The new Data Source is created and listed in the Data Source folder.

Next, you will create Data Sets.

1. On the Outline tab under your report name, right-click Data Sets.
2. Select New Data Set. The New Data Set window opens.
3. Type or select the Data Source Selection.
4. Select the Data Set Type.
5. Type the Data Set Name.
6. Click Next.
7. In the Available Items pane , click LCIOB, and then click Information Objects. The list that displays contains all of the standard .IOBs provided by Taleo Learn. You will use these to design your reports.
8. Click an .IOB from the Available Items pane, and drag it to the editor pane on the right.

9. Continue clicking and dragging IOBs to the editor pane until you have all of the IOBs you want.
10. Make joins and parameter settings as needed, and verify that they are correct.
11. Click Next. The query is built. If it is successful, no error messages display.
12. Preview the results by clicking Preview Results in the left pane and then clicking OK.
13. Click Finish. A summary window opens displaying all of your selections. If needed, you can edit the data set now by clicking Edit.
14. Your data set is created and listed under selected Data Sets on the Outline tab.

You can now design your report using the Report Designer window in Designer Pro. Refer to Designer Pro online help for step-by-step instructions. When you are ready, publish the report to iServer.

1. Log in to LearnCenter, navigate to ControlPanel > Reports > Insight Reporting > Custom Reports tab. Ensure that the folder you want to use for your Designer Pro report exists. If it does not, add it now.
2. Return to Designer Pro, and click File > Publish Report to iServer.

3. Select iServer Profile from the drop-down list.
4. Click Browse next to Publish Location. The Browse for Folder window opens.

5. Under LCUsers, select your UserID (the first 6-digit number from the Username field on the Insight Report Settings page), and then select your LCID the second 6-digit number from the Username field on the Insight Report Settings page).
6. Under the LCID, select the custom folder you want to use. This is the folder on the LearnCenter Custom Reports tab to which you will sync the report.
7. Click OK.
8. Select either Replace the latest version or Create New Version.

Currently Insight Reporting supports multiple versions from iServer if the reports were created using Designer Pro. iServer adds a version number to the end of the report design path. For example, if you create 3 different versions of a report in Designer Pro, they are stored in iServer as: /LCUsers/userId/lcid/report.design;1 Version 1 /LCUsers/userId/lcid/report.design;2 Version 2 /LCUsers/userId/lcid/report.design;3 Version 3 Currently, in LearnCenter, the multiple versions of a report display in Insight Reporting as the same name repeated. For example: report report report You will not see any difference in the report names, but each one represents a version in the iServer. When you select Replace the latest version you are replacing the last version of a report design. So in the example reports above, you would be replacing report.design;3 (Version 3). If you selected Create a new version, you are creating a new version of the report. In the example above, if you publish a new version of the report and select Create a new version, iServer creates report.design;4 (Version 4). In Insight Reporting in LearnCenter, you will see a fourth report of the same name.

9. Click Publish Files. The report is published and you can now sync the report from iServer within LearnCenter.
10. In LearnCenter, navigate to ControlPanel > Reports > Insight Reporting > Custom Reports tab.
11. Sync Report from iServer. The report becomes available on the Custom Reports tab. You can now access, run, customize, and share the report.

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