Quality Collaboration By Design

Quality Collaboration By Design

QCBD Report Engine User’s Manual Version 6.0.0.0

Table of Contents

OVERVIEW ......................................................................................................................................................................................... 1

REPORT ENGINE CONSOLE ................................................................................................................................................................. 2

EMAIL CONFIGURE ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 2

REPORT SETUP ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

SCHEDULING REPORTS ................................................................................................................................................................................. 8

LOG – REPORT HISTORY ............................................................................................................................................................................... 9

REPORT ENGINE SERVICE ................................................................................................................................................................. 10

APPENDIX A – INSTALLATION AND SETUP ....................................................................................................................................... 11

FIRST TIME INSTALLATION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 11

SET UP APPLICATION (RE SETUP.EXE) ........................................................................................................................................................... 12

INSTALLING THE RE CONSOLE APPLICATION ................................................................................................................................................... 13

INSTALLING THE RE SERVICE APPLICATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 13

APPENDIX B – TROUBLESHOOTING ................................................................................................................................................. 16

REPORTS DO NOT RUN ............................................................................................................................................................................... 16

APPENDIX B – INSTALLING UPDATES ............................................................................................................................................... 17

Overview

QCBD Report Engine is an application which allows you to select and schedule reports to run automatically.

Reports run unattended, according to a selected schedule. The reports are emailed to recipients that you

select. All reports are output as Excel files which are then attached to the email.

All reports are based on queries run against the information contained in the QCBD database. QCBD Report

Engine includes a large number of standard module-based reports. In addition, any saved queries created by

QCBD users which are saved as “public queries” are available to include as reports in QCBD Report Engine.

Selecting which reports you want to schedule is easy and quick (see the section Report Engine Console).

There are two software components that make up the QCBD Report Engine. The Report Engine Console

(RE Console) and the Report Engine Service (RE Service). There is a third application Report Engine

Setup (RE Setup) which is used to install and turn on or turn off the other two RE components.

The RE Console is where all settings and report selections are made. It is the administrative component of the

Report Engine.

Quality Collaboration By Design QCBD Report Engine User’s Manual Version 6.0.0.1

The RE Service is the software component that runs as a service on your server. The service runs silently in

the background and runs reports according to a schedule and sends reports silently (via email) to a list of

recipients. (The scheduling of reports and selection of email recipients is managed in the RE Console.) There

is no user interface for the RE Service.

QCBD Report Engine is designed to work with your existing installation of QCBD and requires the purchase of

a separate QCBD Report Engine license key.

NOTE: RE Console and RE setup applications can only be run by users that have been given QCBD System

Supervisor rights.

Report Engine Console

The Report Engine Console (RE_CONSOLE.EXE) is used to configure reports and the email settings used to

send the reports. The QCBD Report Engine Console application requires that you log on with QCBD System

Supervisor rights.

Topics

Email Configure

Report Setup

Scheduling Reports

Log – Report History

Email Configure

The EMAIL CONFIGURE tab is where you tell the QCBD Report Engine how to send emails. Here, you define

the parameters used by an SMTP mail server for outgoing mail.


Begin by creating an email profile. An email profile provides all the required SMTP Server information needed

to create and send outgoing mail messages.

Select the command and

enter a name to use for this mail

profile

In QCBD Standard Edition, you can

only select the USE SMTP MAIL option.

QCBD Enterprise Edition users can

also select the USE SQL SERVER

DATABASE MAIL option.

With the SQL SERVER DATABASE MAIL

option, you only have to enter the

database mail profile name. No other

settings are required.

(See your SQL Server documentation for configuring SQL Server Database Mail.)

With the USE SMTP MAIL option

selected, you must provide the SMTP

Server name, Port and a reply to email

address.

For USE SMTP MAIL users, if your

outgoing mail SMTP server uses

Secure Socket Layer, check this

option and if necessary, assign the

required SMPT Port.

(example - settings used for gmail)

For USE SMTP MAIL users, if your

outgoing mail SMTP server requires

authentication, enter the appropriate

credentials.

After entering all the required information, you can send a test message by pressing the

command. After successfully testing your email settings, be sure to press the command.


You can create one or more email

profiles. If you create more than one

email profile, you must designate

one of the profiles to be the default

profile.

The default profile is the profile used by QCBD Report Engine when

sending emails.

Report Setup

The REPORT SETUP tab is where you tell the QCBD Report Engine the what, who and when for sending

reports; what reports you want, who you want the reports sent to and when you want the reports to be run.

Start by selecting the CREATE NEW command.

Step 1. (WHAT Report)

Select which QCBD module you

want to report on.

All the QCBD modules will be listed

here in alphabetical order.

Two additional report selections are

listed at the bottom: Dashboard

View and Open Tasks.


Step 2.

Depending on which module

you select, you can select the

appropriate class.

NOTE: Three modules

(Equipment, Supplier and

Training) do not have a class

option.

OR

Step 2A.

For the Equipment and Training

modules, instead of a class

option you must select from a

Report Type option instead.

Step 3.

Select a Report Style. A report

style defines the fields that will

be displayed in the report.

The Report Style selections

come directly from the Report

section in QCBD. Report Styles

are created by you in QCBD and

define the fields which you want

to appear in the report.

This is a screen shot taken from QCBD.


The Report Style selections you

see listed are standard QCBD

reports which have been

configured as a “public” report.

This is a screen shot taken from QCBD.

Step 5.

For most modules and report styles,

you have must select a query.

The Query selections come directly

from the Filter Criteria section of the

Reports screen in QCBD. Saved

Queries are created by you in QCBD

and define the data which you want

to appear in the report.

The Query selections you see listed

are the Saved Queries you see in the

QCBD reports screen. Only saved

queries that have been saved as

“public” will be listed.

These screen shots were taken from QCBD.

Step 6. (WHO to send to)

Select who you want the report sent

to.

There are two ways to select users;

by name and by role.


When selecting users by name, you

select individual QCBD users from a

list of available users.

These users must have read and

report privileges for the selected

report module.

When you select users by role, you

select from the special role names

listed at the top of the available

choices list.

The roles that appear will vary depending on the selected module.

Role Explanation

%APPROVER% Selecting %Approver% will substitute the names (email addresses) of actual

approvers for any records that match the report or query criteria. %Approver%

appears as a choice for any module with an approval tab (CAPAs, Complaints,

Change Orders, etc.).

%ASSIGNED TO% Selecting %Assigned To% will substitute the name (email address) of QCBD

users whose name appears in the ‘assigned to’ field. %Assigned To% appears

as a choice for modules that have an ‘assigned to’ field (CAPAs, Complaints,

and Nonconformance’s).

%APPROVAL

COORDINATOR%

Selecting %Approval Coordinator% will substitute the name (email address) of

QCBD users who have been assigned as a “approval coordinator” (refer to the

approval tab in QCBD).

%CHANGE

COORDINATOR%

Selecting %Change Coordinator% will substitute the name (email address) of

QCBD users who have been assigned as a “change coordinator” on the

Masterlist Change Order form.

%EMPLOYEE% %Employee% is used with training module reports and will substitute the name

(email address) of the employee.


%INITIATOR% Selecting %Initiator% will substitute the name (email address) of QCBD users

whose name appears in the ‘initiator’ field. %Initiator% appears as a choice for

modules that have an ‘initiator’ field (CAPAs, Complaints, and

Nonconformance’s, etc.).

%REPORTS TO% %Reports To% is used with training module reports and will substitute the name

(email address) of employees whose name appears in the ‘reports to’ field.

%USER ACCOUNT% %User Account% is used with Dashboard View reports and will substitute the

name (email address) of QCBD user whose name appears in the ‘User Account’

field.

Reports that use roles in the email address will be emailed directly to the QCBD user represented by that role.

Roles permit you send reports directly to relevant users without having to select individual users by name.

Step 7. (WHEN to send)

Select when you want the report be

sent. You select the frequency (how

often) the report is emailed to the

targeted recipients.

The “Waiting for Approval” reports

have a special frequency selection.

These reports are sent to approvers

who have not responded to their

initial request for approval (they have

neither approved nor rejected, their

approval is still waiting).

“Waiting for Approval” reports are

used to notify the approver that

action is required.

Scheduling Reports

The SCHEDULE tab allows you to view when your reports were last run and when they are scheduled to run

next. You can change the next scheduled run date or run the report immediately.


The STANDARD RUN TIME is the time of day when the report is schedule to run. It is based on a 24 hour

clock (01:00 is 1:00 AM and 24:00 is 12:00 AM). All reports run according to the day/time on the server where

the SQL Server resides. This time may not be the same as your local time. It is recommended that you run the

reports during off hours when there are fewer users and less demand on server, network and mail resources.

You can change the scheduled run time or the next scheduled run date by selecting a date. Be sure to select

the SAVE command.

You can run a report immediately using the RUN NOW command. Once the report has completed, it will

automatically be rescheduled to run according to the frequency interval you selected for that report (see Step 7

in Report Setup above).

Log – Report History

The LOG tab displays a history of all reports run during the last 60 days.


The log tells you when a report ran and who it was emailed to. If there are errors attempting to run a report, the

error will be listed in the Error Message column.

Log entries for reports that were run longer than 60 days ago are automatically deleted.

Report Engine Service

Once the QCBD Report Engine Service application has been installed and started, you can view its status by

opening the Windows Event Viewer console.

Look for entries where the ‘source’ is

QCBD_RE_SERVICE.

Normal processing events are

logged at the information level.


Problems or errors are logged at the

error level.

Appendix A – Installation and Setup

Topics

First Time Installation

Set up Application (RE Setup.exe)

Installing the RE Console Application

Installing the RE Service Application

Installing QCBD Report Engine is simple and fast.

NOTE: You must be logged on to Windows with LOCAL ADMIN rights in order to perform any of the installation

steps described in this section.

First Time Installation

The software is installed from a self extracting

file provided by CAMA Software.

Download the QCBD Report Engine installation

file from the CAMA Software website (contact

CAMA Software).

The install application will attempt

to locate the QCBD folder on the

server.

If it is unable to locate that folder,

you will be prompted to enter the

folder location.


Log on using a QCBD user account

with QCBD System Administrator

rights.

The installation is fast. A new folder

will be created in the QCBD Public

folder on your server.

All the required files will be copied

to this folder.

The RE_Setup.exe application will

open (see below).

Set up Application (RE Setup.exe)

The RE Setup application is used

to install the RE components that

you need for the current computer.

Refer to the sections below of

installing different RE components.


Installing the RE Console Application

The Report Engine Console (RE Console) application is used by system administrators to configure and

monitor the performance of the QCBD Report Engine (see Report Engine Console for how to use the Console

application). The RE Console is installed on one or more computers where the QCBD client software is

installed. The RE Console application can be installed on as many computers as you want but is normally only

installed on one or two computers used by the person(s) who administer the reports.

Step 1:

To start the installation, go to the

REPORT_ENGINE folder in the QCBD

Public folder on the network.

Double-click the RE_SETUP.EXE file.

Step 2:

Select the INSTALL command for RE

Console.

The consoled application will be copied to

your local workstation and a shortcut will

appear in you QCBD start menu.

Installing the RE Service Application

The QCBD Report Engine Service application is designed to be installed as a Windows service application

running on the server where QCBD is running. For the Standard edition, this is the server where the QCBD

network files are located. For the Enterprise edition, this is the server where the SQL Server is installed.

The Service application will run silently in the background and runs reports at their scheduled time.

Step 1:


To start the installation, go to the

REPORT_ENGINE folder in the QCBD Public

folder on the network.

Double-click the RE_SETUP.EXE file.

Step 2: Click the Install command next to the RE Service description.

Step 3:

Once the service has been installed it will be started automatically.

If for some reason the service is not able to start automatically, you be prompted to manually start the service.

To manually start the service, go to the server where the Service application has been installed. Use the

Control Panel and open Administrative Tools. Select Services to open the Windows Services MMC.

Scroll down and select QCBD_RE_Service and then select Start the service.


Step 4:

Verify that the service started and is running. From the server where the Service application has been installed,

use the Control Panel and open Administrative Tools. Select Services to open the Event Viewer MMC.


Appendix B – Troubleshooting

Reports do not run

Follow this guide if you have reports scheduled to run but the reports are not being received.

Step 1. Open the Report Engine Console. Go to the Log tab and clear the log.

Step 2.

Verify that the Report Engine Service is

installed.

Open the SERVICES on the server

where the RE Service is installed.

Select RESTART to start the service.

Step 3.

Open the EVENT VIEWER on the server where the RE Service is installed. Review the entries in the EVENT

VIEWER. If there are reported errors, record the error messages and send a screen shot of the event viewer,

along with any error message to the CAMA Software Help Desk.


Step 4.

In the Log tab in the Report Engine Console, press the REFRESH command. Look at the report entries and

check to see if any reports show as FAILED. If there are failed reports, note the error messages. If there are

reported errors, note the error messages. Use the Export to Excel command and send the log to the CAMA

Software Help Desk.

Appendix B – Installing Updates

Updates are issued on a periodic basis. You can check for updates by selecting HELP > CHECK FOR

UPDATES in either the RE Console or the RE Setup application.


If there are updates available select DOWNLOAD

1. The installer file RE_Installer.exe will be downloaded. Copy this installer application file to the server where the RE

Service is running. (Note: If the RE Service is not installed, run the installer application from a computer that has the

QCBD client installed and proceed to step 3.)

2. Log onto the server. You will run the installer application directly on the server (proceed to step 3).

3. To install the update, double-click the installer application (RE_Installer.exe). (If the RE Service is installed and running

the installer app will automatically stop the service and will re-start the service once the updated version has been

installed.)

4. Installation of the update is complete.

Refresh the RE Console application.

Users that have the RE Console application must uninstall (remove) and re-install from their local computer. Navigate to

the ReportEngine sub-folder on the server and start the RE_Setup.exe application.

1. To uninstall the RE Console application select the REMOVE command.


2. Now, re-install the updated RE Console by selecting the INSTALL command.

Documents

Quality Collaboration By Design