Creating and managing custom report templates

Overview

Business Analyst gives you the opportunity to create custom report templates to run using your custom data or Business Analyst data. This tool allows you to create new report templates by modifying existing standard Esri templates or creating new ones from template patterns. The template can be saved and accessed through the Business Analyst wizards and is fully integrated into any tool that allows you to run demographic reports. You can also manage your own custom report template by creating, deleting, renaming, or editing it with the Create Custom Report Templates tool.

Input Requirements

Standard or custom Business Analyst Dataset (BDS).

The General toolbar contains options that enable you to set preferences on your templates.

• Save/Load: Save or load a report template pattern without the need to finish the report.

• Preview: Preview your work in the editor immediately in PDF or Excel formats.
• Styles: Format templates with the look and feel of either the Classic style (found in previous versions of Business Analyst) or the new Modern style.
• Picture: Insert logos or graphics into your reports. The Inside Table option inserts the image into a predefined cell in a table, and the Floating option can insert an image into the null space outside a table (see any standard Esri Business Analyst template logo placement). The floating option gives you complete control of where the image is placed on the report.
• Chart: Insert column, bar, or pie charts into your reports. Display any variable contained in your custom report or BDS layer, whether it's a standard variable or a calculated variable. Modify the look and feel of the charts and insert custom graphics as a background.

• Map Image: Insert a map image into your report. The map image will keep the current Data Frame or Map Layout options active when the report is generated.
• Group by Store ID: Organize your report by unique store identifiers.
• Page Setup: Select standard page setup options.

Insert and modify section properties by right-clicking in any Details section. You can remove entire sections, duplicate sections and all their data and formatting, or insert new blank sections.

In the Section Properties dialog box you can manage sections with page breaks to indicate the page where your data table resides. You can add pre-formatted lines to sections for clean formatting by clicking the Horizontal line on top of the section or Horizontal line at bottom of the section check boxes. You can suppress or hide sections rather than deleting them by clicking the Suppress section check box.

To add a variable, left mouse click from the list of variables on the right and drag and drop it to the desired cell. Select Fields for standard variables and select Calculations to access any precalculated variables.

Each cell in a custom report can be formatted and edited by right-clicking in a cell to display the dialog box.

• Click Edit to edit a script contained in the cell.
• Click Insert to manually insert rows and columns to tables.
• Click Delete to manually delete rows and columns to tables.
• Click Column Width to edit each cell's width for consistent formatting.
• Click Row Height to edit each cell's height for consistent formatting.
• Click Cell Style for formatting to simulate standard Esri report templates using the Cell Style dialog box.
• Click Table Properties to adjust the column and row count for the entire table. You can choose from General Data for one trade area per page or Multi-Ring Table for two or more trade areas per page. You can also set offsets in the report. The Position (in) section allows you to shift tables inside a section. This is used to insert custom logos or graphics as floating pictures.

Table properties also allow you to set offsets in the report.

You can use the Calculation button at the top of the template to create a new calculated variable. You have four options to generate a custom variable. To use the options to generate a custom variable, select the cell in the column on the left that you want to contain the custom variable. The variable available in the BDS layer are in the Fields section. You can enter a custom calculation (which supports VB scripts) and select how calculations are returned, as values or text, using the Return Type drop-down menu.

Calculation types are described below:

• Percentage: To calculate a percentage, you need to drag the variable on which you want to calculate your percentage into your cell. This calculation considers the selected variable as the numerator, and the denominator will be selected automatically.

For example, to create a percentage of the variable Current Year Total Population 20–24 based on Current Year Total Population, select Current Year Total Population 20-24 (this will be your numerator) from the Variable list and drag it into the desired cell on your report. Highlight it to make it active, click Calculation at the top, choose the Percent option (this automatically selects the denominator; in this case, Current Year Total Population), then click Apply.

The variable name changes to the variable name with a _P at the end (for example, POP20_CY_P), and this sample calculation will look like this:

( "Current Year Total Population 20-24"/" Current Year Total Population")*100

• Average: This calculation considers the selected variable as the numerator, and the denominator will be selected automatically. An average calculation assumes that the numerator has already been aggregated for the variable itself.

For example, to create Current Year Average Household Income, select Current Year Aggregate Household income (this will be your numerator) from the Variable list and drag it into the desired cell on your report. Highlight it to make it active, click Calculation at the top, select Average (this automatically selects the denominator; in this case, Current Year Households by Income Base), then click Apply.

The variable name changes to the variable name with an _A at the end (for example, AGGHINC_CY_A), and this sample calculation will look like this:

"Current Year Aggregate Household Income"/" Current Year Households by Income Base"

• Index: An index estimates the propensity to find a particular variable as compared to a base with a value of 100 being average. If a variable has an index value of 100, your percentage of that variable is the same as the base. Therefore, a value of less than 100 indicates that the target variable represents less than average (compared to the base), and a value greater than 100 indicates that the target variable is higher than the base. An index of 725 means that this variable is 7.25 times more likely to appear than the average in the base profile. An index is calculated by dividing the target percent composition by the base percent composition and multiplying by 100. For example, if you were trying to determine how likely it is that households are going to spend money on the Consumer Expenditure variable Children's Apparel in your county compared to the U.S. average, an index would give that propensity. An index of 220 for Children's Apparel would mean that households in your county are 2.2 times more likely to purchase children's apparel than the United States as a whole, where the United States would represent the base.

This dialog box displays only variables that are indexable from the standard Business Analyst dataset or any custom variables you have included through Analysis Layer Setup by creating your own Business Analyst Dataset (BDS). Any variable that is selected from the standard Business Analyst dataset will also have the national average automatically selected and displayed on the dialog box.

• Custom: To create a custom calculation in your report, click in the desired cell and click Calculation. The Calculated Field Setup dialog box appears allowing you to create complex custom variables. You can verify, save, and load calculations created in other custom reports.

This allows you to generate your own custom variables by creating your own calculations. The available variables to calculate can be selected from either the standard list of Business Analyst variables or any custom variables you create using the Analysis Layer Setup tool in Business Analyst. This dialog box acts like the standard field calculator in ArcMap. As a default, this variable name is SCRIPT until you change it. To change the names, type the desired name into the Field Name dialog box.

For example, to create a new age range of 0–14 for Current Year Total Population, click the cell where you want the variable, click Calculation at the top, then click the Custom check box. A dialog box appears with the option to create your new custom variable. Name your new custom variable by typing Current Year Total Population 0-14 in the Field Name dialog box. Then from the Fields list, select Current Year Total Population 0-4 and click the + button and then select Current Year Total Population 5-9 and click the + button and then select 2006 Total Population 10-14 and click Apply.

The variable name appears in the report based on the name on the Field Name dialog box (in this case, Current Year Total Population 0-14), and this sample calculation will look like this:

[POPU5_CY] + [POP5_CY] + [POP10_CY]

You can send your custom reports to other users by copying the folder from the following directory: Local Drive:\My Output Data\Report Templates_USA_ESRI and instruct the recipient of the folder to copy it to the same directory.

When you first see a blank template, you will notice many rows and columns that represent placeholders for variables. Any fields not populated will not appear in the report.

Crystal Reports is no longer needed to create or run reports. You can still install and use Crystal Reports to modify existing reports, but support will be limited. Additionally, any modifications performed in Crystal Reports will be reset if you run that report back through the Advanced Editor in Business Analyst.

When a report is processed through the Advanced Editor, Business Analyst checks for a report with the same name in the C:\My Output Data\Report Templates_USA_ESRI directory. If there is a report with the same name, the original report will be backed up in LocalDrive:\My Output Data\Report Templates_USA_ESRI_backup.