Changes

| align="left" | Navigating data in IMSMA^NG

General summaries of pre-provided data

*Simple cross tabs

*Monthly progress reports for internal consumption

*Any report where the data is more important than the formatting

*Pivot tables and charts based on one item

*Building customised reporting tools for IMSMANG data

*Linking data to ArcGIS Desktop, Crystal Reports and other tools

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| align="left" | '''Benefits'''

*Requires little or no training

*Can be preformatted and available on a network

*Backed up and stored

*Users can simply run these reports as opposed to building them

*Supports charts

*Can manipulate data in common applications

*Can manipulate data in advanced or custom reporting applications

*Can be linked with external databases

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| align="left" | '''Challenges'''

*Limited to printing and reports provided with the software. No customisation.

*Not ideal for incorporating multiple reports together within a larger report

*Not ideal for incorporating multiple reports together within a larger report

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==Basic Reporting==

IMSMANG also includes a Map Layout manager that allows users to define map layouts and print high-quality maps with IMSMANG data. Information managers can define map layout templates that include scale bars, annotations and legends or use more sophisticated tools like ArcGIS Desktop to prepare more complicated map layouts for displaying IMSMANG data.

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===iReports===

With the iReport tool, information managers have access to an entire suite of report generation functions. iReport provides the ability to design report templates from the desired data elements; add page layout and formatting information including images, colours and text; and import the reports into IMSMANG for data entry personnel to run. Information managers can also design complex reports to summarize data using sum, count, average, subreports and other statistical reporting functions similar to packages such as Crystal Reports. Being fully integrated into IMSMANG, iReport can be translated into any language supported by the system. Using this approach, only information managers are presented with the complexity of designing reports while traditional users simply have to select a report (and any preceding search) and run it.

Typical uses for iReport include producing reports commonly required by multiple users within a programme. These reports can include:

Because iReport templates are initiated with a search, they provide a scalable reporting solution that allows one template to be developed for many reports. For example, a report template that shows number of hazards and size of hazards by province can produce different reports depending on the search parameters.

In the first example, no search parameter is applied and all data in IMSMANG is used in the report. But by adding a search parameter, for example, limiting this to hazards whose status is active, a different report is generated.

Moreover, if the hazards are further limited to hazards that are minefields (excluding UXO and battle areas), another report is generated, all using the same template. In this way, information managers can build templates and searches to fulfil multiple reporting needs.

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===Data Export===

IMSMANG also provides data export functionality designed to allow users to export data to external tools such as Microsoft Excel for additional reporting and analysis. This lets users take advantage of functionality in these tools such as sums, counts, charts, pivot tables and other data manipulation functions to format and present data. Users access this functionality by performing a search in IMSMANG and then exporting the results to .CSV format. Users can choose which columns to export, and the data can be manipulated in any external tool that supports .CSV.

The process for connecting external reporting tools is essentially the same for all tools. External tools connect to the IMSMANG relational database via an ODBC connection. Information managers establish this connection by installing the ODBC driver for MySQL. When this is complete, information managers can connect any ODBC-compliant tool to the IMSMANG database, including reporting tools, other database packages and SQL management tools. Examples include:

When connecting an external reporting tool to IMSMANG, it is recommended that information managers build database views within the database to do any necessary data transformations. While it is possible to directly import or connect IMSMANG database tables in external tools and perform transformations within the external tools, the recommended method is to do transformations within the IMSMANG database using database views and then import the resulting views into the external tools.

Using database views, information managers can perform statistical and other operations on the IMSMANG set for reporting purposes including sum, count and average or more complicated functions available in SQL. These operations can be combined with search criteria to provide a highly precise mechanism for providing data to reports. For example, information managers can create a view that returns the name of each clearance and a sum of the hours worked, AP mines found and area cleared on all progress reports linked to each clearance.

CL-2345 1,920 4 20 1

This view could then be pasted into Excel, linked with additional IMSMANG data or external data or linked with a map to provide additional analysis. As such, database views provide a powerful way of formatting and analysing IMSMANG data.

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* Database views created in IMSMANG are backed up by the IMSMANG backup functionality. However, it is important to correctly set the database permissions on views or it will cause problems when restoring the databases.