Customizing Data Tables and Statistics

Overview

By adding a Dataplane Customizer Script to your report, you can modify the presentation and behavior of the data tables and summary statistics shown in report results.

Customizing Data Tables

Using a Customizer Script you can specify the default sort order within the data table shown on the Data tab of report results. This same setting also sets the table sort order within PDF, Excel and CSV report exports.

To customize the sort of these data tables, use the sort keyword followed by the name of the column to be sorted in quotation marks. You can specify multiple sorts to force secondary sorting after the first specified sort.

For example, to sort a report first by descending priority and then by ascending status, the following customizer script can be used:

customizeTable {
    sort "Priority" order "desc" // sorts by descending Priority
    sort "Status"                // sorts by the Status column in ascending order
}

Sorts can also be listed all on the same line for brevity. The following script is treated identically to the previous example:

customizeTable {
    sort "Priority" order "desc" sort "Status"
}

Customizing Statistics

At the top of most reports, Dataplane displays a set of statistics based on the underlying data, such as shown in the following report:

Each of the individual statistics sections can be shown or hidden, renamed, or can have the statistic itself displayed in a custom format.

The following statistics can be manipulated through the Customizer Script:

All statistics are customized in a customizeRender section in the Customizer Script, using the stat command followed by one of the statistics names from the table above.

For example, to hide the "Total Issues" statistic from a report, use the following customizer script:

customizeRender {
    stat "total" show false
}

In addition to hiding a statistic, you can also re-title the statistic using the title keyword. For example:

customizeRender {
    stat "min" title "Smallest # of Issues"
}

To display the statistic value in a different format, use the format keyword.

The format keyword uses a standard, Java-based format string to define how to display the statistic. Although many more complicated transformations can be performed, in general, the characters "%f" will be replaced with the value of the statistic.

For example, if a Sum Numeric Field Report is used to sum a field that contains a quantity of US Dollars, you could use the format keyword to display the value in a more clear currency notation, such as:

customizeRender {
    stat "total" format "USD %f"
}

Certain characters in the format string, such as the $ sign, need to be escaped with a "\" character.

For example, to display all statistics with dollar signs in front:

customizeRender {
    stat "total" format "\$%f"
    stat "min" format "\$%f"
    stat "max" format "\$%f"
    stat "ave" format "\$%f"
}

If we want to customize the statistic further so that dollars are displayed with the "," character separating groups of thousands and two digits to display cents, we can use the following:

customizeRender {
    stat "total" format "\$%,.02f"
    stat "min" format "\$%,.02f"
    stat "max" format "\$%,.02f"
    stat "ave" format "\$%,.02f"
}