Working with Analytics Objects
- Analytics Administrator
- General System Administrator
New for February!
Using Analytics Objects you can subscribe to and schedule analytics reports and dashboards, you can mark reports and dashboards as favorites, and you can configure analytics reports as widgets that can be displayed on your home page. Each analytics object can be associated with a report or dashboard and then scheduled or used as a widget.
Displaying the Analytics Object List
To display the Analytics Object List, select Analytics > My Analytics > Analytics Object List. The following appears:
The Analytics Objects list displays your Analytics Objects. For each object, the following information is displayed:
- The name of the object, the type of the object, and the subject area being reported on
- The folder path in which the report or dashboard is located, the creator and last modifier of the object, and the dates this was done
- Whether the object is marked as a favorite and appears in the Favorites List under the main Analytics menu and if the report is scheduled, added as a widget, and if you are subscribed to the report
From the Actions column, select View full report to display the full analytics report or dashboard and select the More Actions icon to remove an Analytics Object and Add/Remove an Analytics Object from the Favorites List.
Objects you mark as favorites appear under the Analytics main menu:
To remove Analytics Objects in bulk, select the checkbox next to the objects you want to remove and select Remove Objects from the top row.
From the top row of the Analytics Object List, you can search for an object by name or location, sort the list, and filter the list by Type, Origin, and Subject Area.
Displaying the Analytics Object List in Split View
To display the Analytics Object List in Split View, select the View Settings icon at the top right of the page or select the analytics object. The following is an example of the Analytics Object List in Split View:
Split View allows you to edit an object in the right pane, while also displaying the List of Objects in the left pane. A preview of the report appears in the right pane that allows you to quickly see if a report is running properly.
Creating an Analytics Object
You can create Analytics Objects, which you can use to subscribe to and schedule analytics reports and dashboards and create widgets that can be displayed on your home page.
- Select Add New Alma Analytics Object. The following appears:
New Analytics Object
- Select the analytics folder where the report or dashboard in located.
- Select the report name.
- If you want the display name to be different than the report name, select the pencil icon and edit the display name.
- Select Save. The Object Page appears where you can edit the analytics object:
Object Page
Editing the Report Summary
You can edit the report summary area of the analytics object you created by selecting the Summary area. The following fields become editable:
- Analytics folder - select another report location for this object
- Report Name - select a report for this object
- Display Name - edit the name displayed in the Analytics Object List and the name displayed to subscribers
- Description - edit the description for this object
Sharing Analytics Objects with Other Users
You can share the report or dashboard associated with an analytics object with other users from your institution. The users access the shared report or dashboard from a direct link sent to them in an email or from the Shared with Me list.
From the Internal Users area, you can add users to receive the report or dashboard.
From the Roles area, you can add roles and profiles to configure who can subscribe to the report. Users must have at least one of the roles defined for the object to subscribe to or view the object.
Users can see the reports that are available to them by selecting Analytics > Shared With Me.
Scheduling and Subscribing to Reports and Dashboards
You can schedule reports and dashboards to be run on a specific schedule and subscribe users to receive them. From the Schedule section, toggle Schedule Report to display the scheduling options:
You can schedule how often you want the report to run and be sent. Select if you want the report run hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly. The relevant options appear according to your selection. Users with the roles you indicated in the Roles section receive the report.
When you edit the delivery options, the following appears:
Select whether you want the report sent as an attachment or just as a link to the report. If you select Attachment, select the format in which you want to report to be sent.
To configure the report to be sent to an FTP server, select FTP and select the FTP configuration and the sub-directory. Select Timestamp to include a timestamp in the file name. This prevents the file from being overwritten the next time the report is run.
To subscribe yourself to receive the report, toggle Subscribe to the analytics object.
To manage the list of people subscribed to the object and subscribe individuals outside your organization, select Manage Subscription. The Manage Subscription page appears:
To subscribe additional people to the object, select Add Row. The following appears:
Enter the user if the recipient is internal or add the recipient's email to the Preferred Email box if the recipient is external to your organization. Select Add to add additional subscribers and select Add and Close when finished.
Displaying A Report Preview
From the Report Preview section you can view a preview of the report without having to open it in the analytics interface. To open the report in the analytics interface, select View full report.
If the Analytics Object is a report (and not a dashboard), you can select the Add as widget checkbox to have the object available to be added to the homepage in Alma.