IBM Tivoli Software

Maximo Asset Management Version 7 Releases

Maximo 7.6 Report Administration and Feature Guide
Pam Denny

Maximo Report Designer/Architect

CONTENTS
Revision History

vi

Overview
1.1

Installation................................................................................................. 9

1.2

Report Execution...................................................................................... 11

1.3

Report Queue .......................................................................................... 13

1.4

Report Objects ......................................................................................... 14

1.5

Report XML ............................................................................................. 16

1.6

Report File Structure ................................................................................ 18

1.7

Report File Dependencies.......................................................................... 20

Report Parameters

21

2.1

Parameterized Reports Type 1 ................................................................ 21

2.2

Application Reports Type 2 ..................................................................... 23

2.3

Both Application and Parameterized Reports Type 3 ................................. 25

2.4

Bound and Unbound Parameters ............................................................... 26

Report Scheduling
3.1

29

Schedule Report....................................................................................... 30

Maximo 76_Report Administration and Feature Guide

3.2

Scheduled Email Formats .......................................................................... 32

3.3

User Viewing of Scheduled Report ............................................................. 34

3.4

User Management of Scheduled Reports .................................................... 36

3.5

Best Practice - Report Schedule Limits ........................................................ 38

3.6

Administration - Scheduled Report Cron Task ............................................. 39

3.6.1

3.7

Schedule Only Reports.............................................................................. 41

3.7.1

Scheduled Reports and Time Zones ........................................................... 40

Schedule Only Reports Reserved Processing Time .................................... 43

Report Security

45

4.1

Which security groups can run reports? ...................................................... 45

4.2

What reports can security groups run? ........................................................ 46

4.3

How Security and Report Access Work Together ......................................... 47

4.4

Security Notes Data Restrictions ............................................................. 49

Report Utilities - Importing, Exporting, Updating

52

Report Administration Features

54

6.1

Report Administration - Report Header Section Details ................................ 55

6.2

Report Administration - Report Settings Section Details .............................. 58

6.3

Performance Tab: Individual Report Performance ....................................... 64

6.4

Administration: Report Usage ................................................................... 65

iii

6.4.1

Report Administration Actions

7.1

67

View Report Processing and Cancellation ................................................... 69

7.1.1

Administration: Report Usage Report ........................................................ 66

Cancelling Report Jobs .............................................................................. 71

7.2

View Scheduled Reports - Administrator .................................................... 72

7.3

View Group Security ................................................................................. 72

7.4

Set Security Group Limits.......................................................................... 73

7.5

Setting Application Level Security ............................................................. 74

7.6

Setting All Application Level Security ......................................................... 75

7.7

Remove all application security.................................................................. 75

7.8

Set Report File Export Options .................................................................. 76

7.9

View Library Files Action ........................................................................... 77

7.10

Report Specific Actions ............................................................................. 78

7.10.1

Import and Exporting Individual Reports .................................................... 79

7.10.2

View Report Dependencies Action ............................................................. 81

7.10.3

Duplicating Reports .................................................................................. 82

7.10.4

Deleting Reports ....................................................................................... 83

7.10.5

Setting Individual Report Security .............................................................. 85

Miscellaneous Features

86

8.1

Report List Portlet .................................................................................... 86

8.2

Multiple KPI Report Linkage ...................................................................... 89

Maximo 76_Report Administration and Feature Guide

8.3

Property Files and Cron Tasks .................................................................... 90

8.4

Cron Tasks ............................................................................................... 93

8.5

Functionality not Supported ...................................................................... 94

Reference Materials

95

Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2015

US Government Users Restricted Rights Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP
Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

REVISIONHISTORY

Date
February 2015

Version

Revised
By

Comments

PDenny

Initial Release

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Overview

In the Maximo 7.6 (76) releases, Releases, a variety of tools are available for you to analyze the
vast amounts of data that Maximo produces. One of those tools is BIRT: Business Intelligence
Reporting Tool. BIRT is an Eclipse-based tool for developing and viewing reports. The BIRT
report engine uses XML report definitions to produce reports in a web-based report viewer in
HTML.
The reporting process contains many components - including the configuration of the system,
administration of the individual reports and the system and running reports from within Maximo.

Configuration
Configuration is the architecture of the entire system; including the application server and
database.
Design
The design process includes the report tool, access, parameters, field selection and display. .
Development
Development is the creation of the report contents by taking the design inputs and transforming
them into the individual report design file.
Administration
Report administration includes registering and maintaining individual report files, along with the
entire reporting process, including security, configuration, performance and server maintenance.
Execution
The last stage of the reporting process is when users runs reports. This can be from any of the
access points in the applications, report menus, start center portlets or kpis.

This guide focuses on the Administration process of the Maximo BIRT reporting functionality.
It starts with an overview of the installation process, file and database structure, and then moves
into reviews of scheduling, emailing and security. It concludes with detailed reviews of each of
the Report Administration actions, along with property settings and cron tasks. Throughout the
guide, best practice recommendations are highlighted.

The remaining reporting processes - Configuration, Design, Development and Execution each
have their own separate guide or guides detailing their unique functionality as highlighted in this
diagram. Information on these can be found in the Reference Material Section at the end of this
guide.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

1.1

Installation

BIRT Reporting is installed during the Maximo installation process. The report engine and the
report files are enabled via the three key steps highlighted below.

1. Maxinst is first initiated. This creates database entries in the REPORT, REPORTLABEL and
REPORTLOOKUP Tables.
a. The data for REPORT and REPORTLOOKUP comes from the applications reports.xml
file.
ex. <maximo76>\reports\birt\reports\ASSET\reports.xml
b. The data for REPORTLABEL table comes from the properties file.
ex. <maximo76>\reports\birt\reports\libraries\asset.properties
2. Next, the Maximo EAR is deployed. The Maximo Ear contains the BIRT Platform Classes This
process initializes the BIRT Report Engine, and imports the report designs into the database.
*NOTE: During startup, a copy of the BIRT platform classes is made to a temporary location on
the Server. These files are used to initialize the BIRT report engine. To specify the temporary file
location, reference the Property File Settings at the end of this document. Otherwise, the
temporary location will default to <c>:\temp
2a. The report design data held in REPORTDESIGN, REPORTDEPEND and REPORTPARAM
comes from a variety of places including the reports.xml files, the report design files and the
system library.
<maximo>\reports\birt\reports\ASSET\reports.xml
<maximo>\reports\birt\reports\ASSET\asset_measurehistory.rptdesign
<maximo>\reports\birt\libraries\libraries.xml
At the end of this step, the BIRT Engine is embedded, and the report files are in the database.

Note: To verify report designs have imported, utilize one of these sql statements on the
configured database:
Select reportname from reportdesign (to verify reports loaded)
Select * from report design (NOTE: This statement will take considerably longer as it will pull
all the reports.xml files, which are stored as CLOBs in the Database)
3. In the third step, an administrator, with security privileges, accesses the Report
Administration application. The administrator generates the Reports Request Pages by
clicking on the Generate Request Page button in the lower right section of the page. This
creates the REPLIBRARY presentation in the database.

If the request pages have not been generated, and a user tries to run a report from an
application, they will receive the error below: BMXAA3515E The report is not available
because its request page has not been generated.

Installation Notes:
1. For additional information on the request page xml, reference section 1.5 below.
2. For Maximo 7.6, the recommended screen resolution for the applications remains at 1280 x
768.
3. A separate installation is required for developers utilizing the BIRT Report Design tools to
develop or modify custom report design files. Information on this installation guide can be
found in the reference materials section.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

1.2

Report Execution

When a report is executed, the process below occurs.

1. First, the Maximo users submits his report request. He can do this in a number of ways
including using the Submit button on the Request Page, or one of the Report Icons in the
applications toolbar.
This request is passed through to the report service.
2. The report service queries the database for the report design file.
3. The report design XML file is extracted from the database. It is stored in a temporary location
within the application server.
4. The XML design file is updated with information passed from the application.
This includes the users locale, time zone, parameter info, etc.
Note: This is a temporary update of the xml file only for this particular report instance. There are
no updates made to the actual report design file stored in the database.
5. The report is then executed, and displayed to the user in a separate browser session.

11

Report Execution Notes:

1. When immediate reports are executed, the temporary files are removed from the file server
via a cleanup mechanism when any of the following occur:
A. If the user runs the same report multiple times, the previously run report information
from the temporary folder will be removed.
B. If the user signs out, all the temporary report information related to all the reports that
the user has run from the browser will be removed.
C. If the user session times out (which is by default, 30 minutes), then all the temporary
report information related to all the reports that the user has run from the browser will be
removed.
D. If the server is restarted, then all the temporary report information related to all the
reports that any user has run from the browser will be removed.
2. This process will vary slightly depending on:
A. If the report is scheduled
B. If the report is enabled for Browser View, Direct Print or Direct Print with
Attachments.
In these cases, the access point for the submitted job will vary (for example a Browser
View report request is initiated from an icon in the toolbar versus an immediate job is
initiated via the Submit Button on the Request Page.)
3. You can specify the location for the report temporary files by setting the JVM System
Property, mxe.report.birt.tempfolder property. Details on this can be found in the Properties
Section of this document.
4. There are a variety of ways in which systems can be configured to use the report engine.
These include the ability to separate out the Report Server on its own, or to configure a clustered
environment, and utilize the Cron cluster to run scheduled Reports. Each of these configurations
and others are reviewed in the Report Performance Guide referenced at the end of this
document

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

1.3

Report Queue

When numerous reports execute at the same time, performance can be adversely affected. To
manage this, you can configure the number of jobs that can be executed at any given time. This
distributes the load on the server from reports, and reduces the wait time for users.
Report Queuing handles the load of report jobs. The Queue Manager oversees the report
queuing process. It manages the scheduled jobs that enter the queue and the workers who
process the jobs.

Property Settings and Cron Tasks

A. The property setting, mxe.report.birt.maxconcurrentrun, manages the number of BIRT
Immediate and Scheduled Reports that can be run concurrently. Its default value is 5.
This property file is used by each application server. If there are 4 application servers running, the
maxconcurrentrun property applies to each application server. Each server would be added as a
separate value in the Instance Properties section.
B. A second property, mxe.report.birt.queueidletimeseconds, is used by the Queue Manager to
poll the queue for new report jobs.. Its default value is 60 seconds.
C. The Report Queue Lock Release Task uses a parameter - Lock Interval Minutes. This
determines if Locked Report Jobs should continue to be executed, or if they should be stopped,
and re-entered into the queue.

Report Queuing Process

The Report Queuing Process is made up of two components: Scheduled Report jobs and
Immediate Reports jobs. Scheduled Report Jobs are controlled by the Queue Manager. The
Queue Manager and Worker Threads Do Not apply to Immediate Report jobs. The Queue
Manager and worker threads apply ONLY to Scheduled Report jobs.
To limit the number of report jobs that can be executed on a server at any time, the
maxconcurrentrun property setting is used. By default this value is set to 5. Before Immediate
Report Job Requests are accepted, the availability is checked to see if the immediate job can be
processed or not. This is done using the formula:
# Actively Running Scheduled Jobs + # Immediate Jobs < maxconcurrentrun
If # Actively Running Scheduled Jobs + # Immediate Jobs < maxconcurrentrun, the Immediate
Job is Processed.
If # Actively Running Scheduled Jobs + # Immediate Jobs = maxconcurrentrun, the Immediate
Job is not Processed.

13

1.4

Report Objects

The repository for the report design files is the Maximo database. During the deployment of the
Maximo Ear File, the import process brings the report design files, and any of their dependant
report files (ex. libraries or resource files) into the database.
Additionally, a number of other database objects are required to support the reporting
functionality, including security, scheduling, processing and usage tables. The top level diagram
below highlights the key reporting objects within categories on how they are used. The new
objects added in Maximo 76 are highlighted in grey.

Notes on Report Objects

1. Additional internal and non-persistent objects are used for reporting, including REPORTBROS
and REPORTATTACHEDDOCS. However, they are not included in this listing.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

REPORT: Parent Object

REPORTDESIGN: Report designs XML
REPORTDEPEND: Dependencies of report designs (ex. MaximoSystemLibrary)
REPORTPARAM: Report design parameters
REPORTLABEL: Text values of report titles and column headings.
L_REPORTLABEL: Localized text values of REPORTLABEL.
REPORTLOOKUP: Text values of report parameters.
L_REPORTLOOKUP: Localized text values of REPORTLOOKUP.
REPORTAPPAUTH: Security group authorizations on report application security level
REPORTAUTH: Security group authorizations on report level
REPORTOSAUTH: Security group access to Report Object Structures for Ad Hoc Reporting
REPORTDIALOGDET: Values for Ad Hoc Preview, Scheduled Reports and Report Server Limits
REPORTADHOC: Design information on ad hoc report (ex. Sort, group, filtering)
REPORTADHOCFIELD: Details fields used within ad hoc report design
REPORTADHOCCALC - Ad Hoc Calculation or Expression Values
REPORTADHOCSUM - Ad Hoc Summaries
REPORTEXPVALUE - Expression Library Listings
REPORTDS: Data Source Information for multiple databases.
REPORTDSPARAM: Data Source Parameter Information on multiple databases.
REPORTFILEEXP - Listing of report file export types from the Report Viewer
REPORTLISTCFG: Lists Reports displayed in Report List Portlet of Start Center
REPORTJOB: Lists jobs that are being run for View Report Processing Action in Report Admin
REPORTRUNQUEUE: Report queuing
REPORTRUNLOCK: Processing information of queued report
REPORTRUNPARAM: Parameter information of queued report
REPORTSECATTKEY - For secured attached document printing
REPORTSCHED: Report schedule information
REPORTOUTPUT: Details on executed report
REPORTOUTPUTCNT: Content of executed report
REPORTOUTPUTHAUTH: Lists users who have access to executed report
REPORTPROCRESERVE: Holds reserved processing times for complex, batch reports.
REPORTPROCSCHED: Shows available schedule time for complex, batch reports
REPORTUSAGELOG: Detailed information on executed BIRT Reports. Information is held in this
table until the REPORTUSAGECLEANUP Cron Task removes the entries.

15

1.5

Report XML

Report request pages enable a user to input parameter, schedule and email inputs for reports.
Report request pages vary by the type of report that is used (BIRT, Cognos or Custom) and by the
types of parameters that are used.
The report request page information, including the parameter input dialogs, for all reports is held
in one XML structure in a library called REPLIBRARY. This REPLIBRARY presentation is often
referred to as the Request Page xml.
Request Page XML Generation
The request page xml is generated with the Report Administration application. To do this, an
administrator, with security privileges, accesses application. Then, on the bottom right hand side
of the page, the administrator clicks on the Generate Request Page button. This creates the
REPLIBRARY presentation in the database.
Before the request page xml is generated, the REPLIBRARY presentation in the database has no
values. After it is generated, the REPLIBRARY is created, and reports can then be executed.
If the request page xml has not been generated, you will be unable to execute reports. An error
message will display stating:
BMXAA3515E The report is not available because its request page has not been generated.
REPLIBRARY presentation Location
The REPLIBRARY presentation is a system library, stored in maxpresentation. It is not associated
to a specific application. You can export it via the Application Designer application from Maximo
by selecting Export System Library from the action menu, and choosing REPLIBRARY.
Confirming if a request page is in the REPLIBRARY presentation
To confirm if a request page is included in the presentation, export the presentation. Then,
search thru the xml by looking for the applicable reportnum. Each report dialog ID for a request
page is in the format reportd<reportnum>.
The reportnum value is not available from the Report Administration application. However, you
can find it by querying the database with a script similar to as shown below:
select reportnum from report where reportname=<value> and appname=<value>
Customizing the REPLIBRARY presentation
The replibrary presentation is not externalized or recommended for modifications. However, if
you must make changes to it, you can export and import it through Application Designer. First,
generate the request page xml from the Report Administration application, then export the
presentation. Apply your customizations, and then reimport the presentation through
Application Designer.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

*NOTE* If you re-generate your report request pages from Report Administration, it will
overwrite any customizations you have made to the presentation. Additionally, if you have a
multi-language environment, the cron task REPORTADHOCLOC will overwrite this presentation
When to generate Request Page XML
The request page xml should be generated under any of the following conditions
1. When you perform a new Maximo installation
2. When you apply a Maximo Fix pack
3. When you add a new enterprise report. This could be a BIRT, Cognos or any other external
reporting tool you use through a Integration.
4. When you modify any of the reports parameters or parameter settings. These settings
include: Parameter name, attribute name, lookup, Display name, Display Sequence,
Required, Multi-lookup enabled, default value or Operator
5. If you change the settings for a report including: Schedule Only, Priority, No Request Page
6. If you add or delete Reserved Processing Times for a Schedule Only Report
7. If you have a multi-language environment, please see the requirements for these
environments in the section below.
When you do NOT need to generate Request Page XML
The request page xml does not have to be generated in these conditions
1. If you add a new JVM to a clustered environment. In this case, the JVM will take the request
page xml (REPLIBRARY) from the database.
2. If you modify any of the Browser View, Direct Print or Direct Print with Attachments settings.
3. If you modify the Use Where Clause setting
4. If you modify existing Reserved Processing Times for a Schedule Only Report
5. If you modify the report design file.

Requirements for Clustered Environments

In a clustered environment, initially, you must generate the request page xml for each individual
instance, or all JVMs have to be restarted after generation of request pages in one JVM.
However, when you add new reports or modify existing ones, the request page xml needs to be
generated on a single server only.

Requirements for Multi-Language Environment

For multi language environments, the cron task REPORTADHOCLOC should be active to enable
the additional localized property values to display in the report request pages. This cron task
determines the frequency that report request pages are enabled in multi-language
environments. This cron task is for multiple language environments only. In a single language
environment, this cron task can remain inactive.

17

1.6

Report File Structure

The Maximo report structure contains not only the files required for the report engine, but also
the design files, libraries, templates and various tools used during the reporting processes as
detailed below.

birtplatform: Contain files required for the BIRT engine. These files should not be modified.
libraries: Library, Resource and Property files required to support the report design files.
A. Library. Libraries store re-usable components, functionality and images. Libraries
enable consistent and automatic updates of content. Maximo uses one system library,
MaximoSystemLibrary.rptlibrary, which contains:
1. Master Pages. Defines items including print margins and the controls used for
page formatting (ex page n of m). This is used on all reports, and rarely changes.
2. Themes. This contains the style sheet, which defines the font type, font size
and other text characteristics used in the reports. The theme in the library is
referred to as the style in the report design. Maximo's theme contains the
specific colors and formatting for the reports.
The libraries.xml file imports the MaximoSystemLibrary file.
B. Resource. Resource files are .gif or .jpg images used in report designs. The delivered
reports use a single resource file, IBM_logo_black.gif, which is displayed on each
delivered report. Resource files are imported into the database as zipped files.
You may want to customize your reports for your own corporate logos. Information on
how to do this is in Changing Logos in BIRT Reports available in the reference materials
section. .
C. Properties File. Each application with reports has a property file, defining the text
values of the report titles, and column/Subheader labels.
Property files are created at the application level as , because reports within an
application frequently share the same text label values. (Example: Asset Reports often
use the same labels of Asset, Location, Site, multiple times.)

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

reports: Report Design files stored within their corresponding application subfolder. Also
contains the reports.xml file used for importing report designs.
Scriptlibrary: Contains script library classes and mxreportdatasources.properties file used by
BIRT Designer tool to connect to databases.
For the integration of BIRT, when a report developer creates a report, a Custom Scripted Data
Source is used. This Scripted Data Source is called maximoDataSource.

A scripted data source is used to fully utilize the specific functionality for Runtime Data
Translation and Time Zone Conversions. An example of this is the localized values of
Description. For example, if you are running both English and Spanish environments, and the
English values of descriptions been localized into Spanish, the scripted data source is required to
insure the localized Spanish descriptions display in reports.
Templates: Twelve Template files are delivered, and must be used if you are creating any custom
reports directly in the Report Design Tool. Each template type is delivered in both landscape and
portrait format. The landscape file is listed in the table first, followed by the portrait template
Note: You must use these templates when creating custom reports as they contain the data source
and scripting classes required to properly execute from Maximo. If you do not use them, your custom
reports may initially execute, but will eventually fail as the reports cannot be processed correctly.
Tools: Used for importing, exporting and updating report design files. More information on
these can be found in the import/export sections and in the 'Update Utility Guide'
Additional Notes on Report Source:
1. There are no separate library or design files for the three database types that are supported.
Within the report source, the sql is being written in ANSI Standards, so it will be applicable to any
of the three database types. There may be some reports where the database specific sql is
required. In these cases, the sql will be written with conditional statements
2. For best practice recommendations on configuring the report source for your custom or
modified reports, please reference the Report Development guide.

19

1.7

Report File Dependencies

BIRT report design files can only have a dependency on either another design file (.rptdesign) or
another library file (.rptlibrary) For Maximo, each BIRT report is dependent on the Maximo
System Library.
The Maximo System Library file has its own import file, called libraries.xml. If a change is made
to the Maximo System Library, the libraries.xml file imports the updated library file into the
database.
The Maximo System Library file contains references to the resources, or image files. These
typically have a .gif or .jpg extension. When a resource file is imported into the database, the
files are converted to .zip format. (These files are stored as BLOB data types in the database.)
Properties files are also resource files. Properties files are referenced in the reports.xml which
imports reports into the database.

File Name
jobplan.rptdesign

Dependency

Resource

maximoSystemLibrary.rptlibrary
.gif/.jpg files
asset.properties
Reports.xml

Description
Job Plan Design File
Maximo System Library
Resources or Image
Files
Asset Property file
Information on report
and its parameters.

Subfolder
reports
libraries
libraries
libraries
reports

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Report Parameters

Reports can execute against three different sets of parameter types. These types are:
1. Parameterized Reports
2. Application or Launch in Context Reports
3. Both Parameterized and Application Reports

2.1

Parameterized Reports Type 1

Reports that have user inputted parameters have values defined in the Parameters Section in the
Report Administration application. These values are contained in the REPORTLOOKUP table in
the database.
The Inventory Cycle Count report is an example of a parameterized report. The report has two
parameters Storeroom and Site. Its field 'Use Both Parameter Options*' is not enabled, so it
executes against the two parameter values only.

*Note: The field 'Use Both Parameter Options' was previously called ' Use Where Clause' in
earlier versions of the Maximo 7.1 and 7.5 releases.

21

This parameterized report will take the values from these two parameters and use those as filters
to run against ALL records in the database. Even if the user has a selected record set in his
applications Query - this report again will always execute against ALL records.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

2.2

Application Reports Type 2

When a report has no parameters defined, it executes against the current or selected record set
of the application. This is often referred to as an application or Launch in Context report. .
This Job Plan List report is an example of an Application report. Its record in Report
Administration shows no values in the parameters section. Also, the 'Use Both Parameter
Options' field is disabled.

When a user accesses this report from the Job Plan application, the parameter section in its
request page does not display as no input is required.

23

The current or selected query is passed from the application to the report server. For example, if
the user filters on job plans where the duration is > 4 hours and the site is Bedford, this filter will
be passed in the where clause to the report. The report will then only display those records from
his query.

When the report developer develops a report to use the application record set, he does not
define any report parameters in either its report design or reports.xml file.
This type of report is the most flexible as it is the only type of reports that can use the quick
access fields of Browser View, Direct Print, Direct Print with Attachments and Record Limits.
More information on these fields and others are contained in the Report Toolbar Access_Direct
Print and Related Information document referenced at the end of this guide.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

2.3

Both Application and Parameterized Reports Type 3

The last type of report enables an application record report to execute along with user defined
parameters.
In this case, the report would have parameters defined in the Report Administration application,
and the 'Use Both Parameter Options' field would be enabled. Both of these requirements must
be met to enable the report to execute against both the application AND parameter set.
The example below shows an example of this using the SLA List report. The delivered version
contains no parameters, but in this example, a parameter, Status, has been added. Additionally,
the 'Use Both Parameter Options' flag has been enabled. After saving and re-generating the
report xml, the report will run against both the User Inputted Value of Status + the application
record set that is passed to the report.

*Note: In order to do this on the delivered report you will have to (1) remove the Browser View
Settings and (2) update the BIRT Design File to call out the new status parameter.
Parameter Notes
1. The delivered reports do not utilize the 'Use Both Parameter Options' , or Type 3 Parameter
type.

25

2.4

Bound and Unbound Parameters

When a report has parameters defined, it is important to note that the individual parameters can
be either bound or unbound. This is critical for the Report Administrator and Developer to
understand as it impacts whether the parameter can have a corresponding lookup.
Bound parameters either
exist in the main table of the application the report is registered to or
exist via a maxrelationship that has been set up for the application.
To identify if an existing parameter is bound, look at its Attribute Name field in the Report
Administration application. Bound parameters will ALWAYS have the Attribute Name Field
Populated whereas Unbound Parameters will NEVER have the Attribute Name field Populated.
Bound parameters are appended to the where clause. Examples of bound parameters are in the
Security Group report. Notice all four of its parameters have the attribute name field populated.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Unbound parameters
do not exist in the main table of the application and
are not available through any relationship (defined in maxrelationship) for the main
table. Unbound parameters are not included in the where clause.
An example of unbound parameters are in the Electronic Signature Transaction report. Each of
the four parameters are unbound as they do not exist in the main table of the application
(CONFIGUR) and do not exist in one of the maxrelationship to this application. All of their
attribute fields are blank
.

27

The Chart below recaps each of the fields available for parameters in Report Administration, and
whether or not they should be populated for bound versus unbound parameters.

Advantage

Bound
Can have lookups, and do not need to
be defined in reports design.

Unbound
Flexibility.

Parameter Name

Do not need to be defined in Reports

design file

Must be defined in Reports design file

Attribute Name

ALWAYS Populated

NEVER Populated

Lookup Name

Can either be populated or not

Can only be used for Unbound Dates

(*DateLookup Only)

Operator (>, >=, <, <=)

Optional

NEVER Populated

Multi-Lookup Enabled?

Yes or No

Yes or No

Display Sequence

Numeric Value

Numeric Value

Override Label

Any Text

Any Text

Default Value

Can either be populated or not.

*NOTE: Default Values are not
enabled for localization

Can either be populated or not

*NOTE: Default Values are not enabled for
localization

Required?

Yes or No

Yes or No

Parameter Notes:
1. The maximum number of parameterized values for a single report is 23. These include 15
Non-Date Time Parameters, and 8 Date-Time parameters.
If more than the 15 Non-Date and 8 Date-Time Parameters are entered, invalid bindings will
display on the reports request page.
2. Bound and Unbound parameters will behave the same way when a user enters values on the
Request Page. Specifically, this means that if there is a parameter for Status, the following will
occur:
User entered parameter value
=APPR
APPR
%APPR

Report Results
Records where status = APPR
Records where status = WAPPR, APPR
Records where status = WAPPR, APPR

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Report Scheduling

Reports can be run in a variety of ways, including

(1) Executing immediately
(2) Executing a report at a single date/time in the future
(3) Executing a report on a recurring basis in the future
Running a report right now is known as an immediate job, and passes its job request to the report
engine immediately. The other two options running a report at a single point in the future or
on a future recurring basis involve scheduling. The report schedule options are detailed below.

Scheduling Reports involve four distinct stages: Scheduling, Managing, Executing and Viewing.

29

3.1

Schedule Report

At This Time
The first type of Schedule Report Request is an At this time or a single scheduled report. This is
done by entering a single value for the future date either directly or via the date/time lookup.

Recurring
The second type of schedule report request is a Recurring schedule request. Recurring schedule
request occur at regular intervals like once a week, once a month, or every Friday at 3pm.
Recurring schedule values must be selected via the lookup. A unique schedule lookup is available
for reports. It is similar to the Cron Task Scheduler Lookup. To prevent potential user schedule
errors and performance impacts, it does not include the cron task values of Every Second and
Every Minute.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

After selecting his recurring option from the lookup, it will display as Selected on the request
page.

When the user clicks submit for either a single or recurring schedule request, he receives a
confirmation message:

View: Opens the Schedule Detail dialog page for the user to review or edit his schedule inputs
Delete: Will delete the scheduled report request
Cancel: Will close the window

31

3.2

Scheduled Email Formats

You can receive your scheduled report in a variety of formats including pdf or xls options, or via a
file url.

Email with a file attachment

If you select this option, the scheduled report is sent to the specified email addresses in either
PDF, XLS, XLSX or XLS Other formats. With this option, the scheduled report can be sent to
Maximo or Non-Maximo users.
Email with a file URL
This is an excellent option for very large reports which may not be able to be sent thru the SMTP
Server. With this option, users will receive an email with a url where the scheduled report can be
accessed, which is in the Report Viewer application in Maximo. When emailing with the file
URL, the user receiving the scheduled report url must be a Maximo user. This is required
because the report content is only available within the Report Viewer application. If you enter an
email address for someone who is not a Maximo user, the error message below will display:
BMXAA8113E: The following email addresses are not in the Maximo database: [email protected]
Remove these addresses and resubmit the report request.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Email Notes - Validation

The users inputs for his scheduled report request are validated to confirm:
A. If the At this Time Option is selected, the inputted date/time is greater than the servers
current time.
*Note: The scheduling time inputted is based on server time.
B. If At this Time is typed in, both a date and time are entered.
C. At least one email address has been specified.
D. That the user scheduling the report has a valid email address in the email table. This
address is required to populate the From Email section.
E. The recurring schedule report cannot be scheduled to occur for less than an hour.
F. If the Email file with URL option is selected, the recipients must be valid Maximo users to
access the scheduled report output.
G. Each At this Time scheduled report has to be scheduled within a time period of less than
363 days from the current date. For example, if today is 5/25/14, the report must be
scheduled to run anytime before 5/23/14. If a report is scheduled on 5/28/14 to be run on
9/1/15, the report will unable to be scheduled.
H. No validation of email addresses is performed
Email System Property Settings
A. For report emailing to occur, the smtp server must be defined in the System Properties
application.
B. Additionally, you may want to evaluate setting the mxe.email.content.type setting property
from text/html to text/plain. Changing to text/plain will enable your users to receive text that
has been input in a Reports Email Comment section with carriage returns as shown below.
When mxe.email.content.type set to text/html, email comments received as:
This is a test. It shows how text displays using mxe.email.content.type. This is a test
test.
When mxe.email.content.type set to text/plain, email comments received as
This is a test.
It shows how text displays using mxe.email.content.type.
This is a test test.

33

3.3

User Viewing of Scheduled Report

When a user schedules a report, its delivery format is either sent via an email as either a file
attachment or file URL. Emailing is only used for BIRT reports when they are scheduled.
Emailing is not available for Immediate report requests.
Email with a file attachment
It the scheduled report was selected to be sent via a file attachment, the user would receive the
scheduled report output in either pdf or xls file format in their email as shown below.

Email with a file url

It the scheduled report was selected to be sent via a file URL, the user would receive the
scheduled report output in either pdf or xls file format in their email as shown below.

When the user accesses the url, it will either take them to the Report Viewer application in
Maximo if they are logged in, or bring them to the Maximo log in page if they are not logged in.
After selecting his report, the user can click on the download icon to open or save the report
output.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Additionally, the user may need to access the scheduled report output at another time. This can
be down by accessing the Report Viewer application via the new Analytics Section, or by making
it a favorite application on the Start Center.

Report Viewer Notes

1. To prevent large number of scheduled report outputs from accumulating, the Report
Administrator may want to utilize the Report Output Cleanup Task to delete these files on a
configured time period.

35

3.4

User Management of Scheduled Reports

After the report job has been scheduled, the user can then manage his scheduled report requests.
This is done through the Scheduling Status tab and or the Scheduling Details dialog.
The Scheduling Status tab is in the Reports window, and shows reports that are scheduled to
occur on a recurring basis, or at a time in the future. It does not include reports that have already
been executed.

The Schedules tab lists the BIRT report schedules which can be viewed or modified. The
information is displayed in ascending order of next run time. The Next Run Time is a nonpersistent field that is calculated via the schedule cron task.
In this tab, the user sees all reports that he has scheduled regardless of the application he is in.
In the screen shot above, scheduled reports from the Work Order, Inventory and PO applications
display This enables the user a central location to manage all his schedule report jobs.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

The Schedule Details can be accessed through either the (1) Schedule Confirmation Message
shown above or (2) by expanding a record in the Schedules tab. .From this window, the user can
update his schedule report or email criteria, or cancelled the scheduled report request.

Notes:
1. Report parameters are not displayed in the Schedule section. Once the parameters are
inputted by the user in the Reports request page, they are not available for viewing or editing.
2. Report security (what reports a user has access to) is given by Security Group. However,
because report scheduling is user specific - what parameters the user enters, who the report will
be emailed to etc - scheduling is done by user. This means that the user will only be able to see
which Scheduled Report Jobs have only been input by them.

37

3.5

Best Practice - Report Schedule Limits

A reporting best practice is to define report schedule limits for your users. Users may submit
recurring schedule requests for reports that they initially believe they will always need. However,
once the need for the report output goes away the user may not take the action to delete the
scheduled report request. This leads to wasted, unnecessary resources as the processing
continues while the consumption has stopped.
To minimize this, you can limit the number of report schedule requests your users submit thru
the report schedule limit functionality. By limiting them to a maximum number of scheduled
jobs, users will only submit schedule requests for reports they need, and delete requests for
obsolete report jobs.
When scheduled report limits are enabled, and a user inputs a scheduled report request that
exceeds his maximum allotted number, he will receive the message below. He then has to review
his existing report requests, and delete one of them before he can submit a new request.

If a user is member of multiple security groups, the scheduled record limit for the user is the
minimum value set for the various security groups.
This functionality has been introduced in the 7.5 release. Therefore, if you are upgrading from
7.1x , your users scheduled report requests will upgrade as is. If you then implement this
functionality, it will not take effect until the users next new scheduled report request.
Details on how the report administrator can implement this are in the Report Administration
Action section at the end of this guide.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

3.6

Administration - Scheduled Report Cron Task

The REPORTSCHEDULE cron task enables the execution of scheduled reports. A unique cron
task instance is created for each scheduled report. Therefore, the number of cron task instances
you may have will be very dynamic depending on the number of scheduled jobs at any point in
time.
The REPORTSCHEDULE Cron Task is read only, and is not intended to be modified or used to
manage report schedules.
Both the instance name and schedule values are auto-assigned values from the cron task.

Notes:
1. Administrators can manage and delete report schedule instances thru the action 'View
Scheduled Requests' in the Report Administration application..
2. The Report Schedules Cron Task parameter values will vary widely from report to report. One
reason for this is reports which utilize user inputted parameters have more parameters than
those that dont.
3. Only active scheduled jobs are displayed in the Cron Task application.

39

3.6.1

Scheduled Reports and Time Zones

When a report is scheduled, the scheduled date/time will be based on the Time Zone of the
application server.
For example, user Liberi is on Pacific Standard Time. The application server is on Eastern
Standard Time. The administrator, Wilson, is on Eastern Time.
User Liberi schedules the PO Status Details to execute on 4/6/15 at 4:00 PM. When her
scheduled report request is submitted, it is stored in the database with a scheduled time of 4/6/15
7:00PM EST (the time of the application server).
When Liberi views her schedule details, it will show as 4/6/15 at 4:00 PM the date she scheduled
the request.
However, if the administrator, Wilson, views the scheduled report requests in Report
Administration, each request will display the server time that it will execute. So in the case of
Liberis 4pm Pacific Standard Time, it will display/execute at the server time of 7:00 pm Eastern
Standard Time.

Scheduling Notes:
1. The Maximo Server and the Database Server must be configured in the same time zone.
2. If a scheduled job executes, but does not email the output to the user, the failure will be
logged in the REPORTUSAGELOG Table. Only one field is currently included in the
REPORTUSAGLOG table to track failures whether those failures are due to the report not
executing or not emailing.
3. The Report administrator can view and manage future Scheduled Report Jobs in the Report
Administration application via the View Scheduled Reports action. Details on this are in the
Report Administration Action section at the end of this guide.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

3.7

Schedule Only Reports

You can configure complex, batch reports to only be executed via Report Scheduling. This
prevents users from running large, complex reports during peak use of the application, database
and report server, which can negatively impact overall system performance.
Every organization has a wide range of complexity in reports. Some reports are very simple, like
list reports or single grouped reports, whereas others are very complex due to the number of
subreports they encompass or the hierarchy levels they span through. Report complexity is
defined by the processing the report has to do not by the number of records it displays. A fifty
page list report could execute much faster than a complex two page report due to the processing
within the reports design.
The pie chart below represents a sampling of report complexity. Complex and very complex
reports are time consuming to design and develop, and are continually analyzed for performance
efficiencies. These are typically a small percentage of your report volume. Traditionally, they are
referred to as batch report due to their large processing requirements.

Because of the processing load complex reports have on a system, you can configure them to
only be executed via report schedules. Additionally, the very complex reports can be configured
to only execute via schedules at specific times of the day. This will minimize the impact these
complex reports have on overall system performance.
The functionality is explained by using the example of the Cost by System report. First, click
Preview from the list tab to see what the reports request page looks like. Notice that three
Execution Options display Immediate, Schedule At this Time, or Schedule Recurring. These are
the three default run report options.

41

Now, enable this report for Schedule Only. Close this window and on the Report Tab, enable
the value for Schedule Only.
Save the change, and generate the Request Page XML. Click Preview, and an updated request
page displays. Now, the Immediate Report Execution Option is no longer available. Only the
two options for scheduling are presented to the user.
Note that the Schedule Only functionality for a report can also be viewed and enabled on the
Performance Tab of Report Admin.
Notes:
1. If the Schedule Only field is enabled, the following fields cannot be enabled:
No Request Page?
Browser View?
Direct Print?
Direct Print with Attachments?
This occurs as each of those fields relies on the request page NOT being displayed to the user. In
the case of Scheduled Only reports, the request page needs to be displayed so the schedule
inputs can be made.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

3.7.1

Schedule Only Reports Reserved Processing Time

In addition to enabling Schedule Only functionality for very complex, batch reports, you can also
configure what times are available for the report scheduling. This will prevent users from
scheduling report jobs of complex reports at the peak times of server use. For example, you
may not want your users to run very complex batch reports on Monday morning, when many
users are trying to execute their daily or weekly transactional reports.
Reserved Processing time will detail the busy days and time within a week that server processing
time is reserved for immediate report jobs and other maximo application functionality. This
functionality will be based on days of the week. It is not based on calendar days, example
January 1, due to fluctuations with calendars and holidays.
Reserved Processing Time can be set on any day of the week (Monday thru Sunday) and for any
amount of time less than 24 hours. On the Performance Tab in Report Administration, the
administrator will click New Row and specify the day of the week, and the times during that day
that report processing is NOT available for that report job. This functionality is enabled by
individual report because of the range of report complexity.
To set the reserve processing time for a report, the administrator must first enable the Schedule
Only? Flag. Then, under the Reserved Processing Time section, click new row to define the Day,
Start Reserve, End Reserve and Total Reserved Time.

After the values are defined, the administrator saves the change, and must regenerate the
request page xml.

43

What the Reserved Processing Times Looks like to a User

Report users want to know when they can execute a report, so the reserved processing times on
the report request page - - will show instead as the Schedule Availability.
The Schedule Availability shows the opposite of the reserved processing time in Report
Administration. In Report Administration, the administrator is concerned with reserving time
that the report should NOT be enabled to execute.
On the report request page, the user will also see the time zone in which the report availability
was SET. This may not match the time zone of the user. However, it is expected this
functionality will be enabled on complex reports executed by fairly technical users, who have an
understanding of time zone impacts.

Schedule Only Notes:

1. Due to potential conflicts with varying time zones, and the complexity involved with Daylight
Savings time being utilized in some time zones but not others, the administrator can only reserve
processing time for each report using the same time zone.
This means that if he reserves a processing time of 7 AM to 4 PM EST for the Asset Cost Rollup
report, any other reserved processing time made for Asset Cost Rollup must be made in the EST
time zone.
2. Due to the wide range of unique environments and requirements that each of you may have,
no out of the box reports delivered have this functionality enabled. It is meant to be a
configurable option that you can enable for your individual business environments.
3. After a Schedule Only report has been scheduled, its available processing time will not show
on the Scheduling Status Tab. If the report schedule needs to be modified, it is recommended
that the original report schedule be deleted, and a new one input.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Report Security

Report security enables users within security groups to see and execute the reports that they
have access to. There are cascading levels of report security, with the first two levels being 1. Which security groups can run reports?
2. What reports can security groups execute?
These two access levels will first be discussed, and then information on how data restrictions and
report interact will be detailed.

4.1

Which security groups can run reports?

From the Security Group application, the administrator defines which security groups have Run
Reports access to the various applications. This is shown below where the OPSMGR security
group is given Run Reports security access to the Assets application.

Once this access is granted, a member of this security group will be able to see the Run Reports
action from the Action menu of the application.

45

4.2

What reports can security groups run?

After granting Run Report security access in the Security Group application, the administrator
then defines which specific reports each security group can access. This report security can be
set at
The Individual Report Level
All Reports registered to an application
All reports for all applications the security group has access to
These three different levels of report security access are defined in the Report Administration
application. This level of security enables the members of the security group to see and execute
a list of specified reports in the Reports window. In this example, the OPSMGR group was given
access to All reports in the Asset application, resulting in the listing of 20 different reports below.

Notes:
1. This report security access is for view and run access only - it does not give the security
group the ability to delete a report he has access to.
2. Each of the ways the administrator can set these levels of report security is described in
the Report Administration Action section later in this guide.
3. Also, this does not include security access for ad hoc reports. A review of the ad hoc
security access and best practices can be found in the Maximo 76 BI recording page
referenced at the end of this document.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

4.3

How Security and Report Access Work Together

After security groups have been granted report security privileges, users will be able to access the
report capability in a number of different ways. Four ways in which reports can be accessed are:
(1) Reports Window On Demand Reports Tab
(2) Report Menu
(3) Report Icons from an Applications toolbar
(4) Preview Button from Report Administration
The security for each of these options is described below:
(1) Run Report List and (2) Report Menu
The list of reports that the user has access to will be derived from
(1) the security groups that the user belongs to and
(2) the report authorization granted to those security groups from the REPORTAUTH and
REPORTAPPAUTH database tables.

(3) Report Icons from the Applications Toolbar

If a user does not have security access to a report, the report Icons (
visible to them on the applications toolbar.

47

or

) will not be

(4) Preview Button from Report Admin

The Report Administration application manages all reports their report settings, parameters,
security access and design files. Therefore, if an administrator is granted access to the Report
Administration application through the Security Groups application, they will be able to see ALL
registered reports. This means that if there are 100 reports registered, the administrator can see
all 100 reports within the application.
However, you may not want the administrator to have security rights to each report. Therefore,
report security is applied in the Report Administration application at the report Submit level.
This means that an administrator can take action on a report (ex. Add or delete a parameter)
that he does not have access to, and preview it. But as soon as the administrator clicks on
Submit on the request page, if he does not have security rights to that report, an error message
will display
BMXAA5529E - Your security privileges do not allow you to Run or Schedule this report.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

4.4

Security Notes Data Restrictions

Data Restrictions can be enabled to restrict what database records individual security groups see.
These restrictions can be used to configure your environment for your unique business needs.
Data Restrictions are set in the Security Group Application, and can then be applied to the
various applications. There are three different levels of data restrictions, which are
(1) Set Data Security, or Qualified Object Restrictions
(2) Row Level Data Security, or Hidden or Read Only Object Restrictions
(3) Field Level Data Security. This is also known as Hidden, Read Only or Required
Attribute Restrictions.
For Reporting, only the first level or Qualified Object Restrictions can be applied. The other two
levels cannot be enabled for reporting. This occurs because in addition to severely impacting
performance, the dynamic placement or non-placement of fields and rows would be extremely
difficult to manage.
To enable Set Data Security for reporting, the following conditions must be met:
1. The Data Restriction can only be set on the main table (object) of the Application
where the report is registered to.
2. The type of Data Restriction must be qualified. It cannot be Hidden or Read Only.
3. The Conditional Expression must utilize proper syntax.
4. The SQL of the Report Design must include the main table of the application.
Each of these conditions will be explained in more detail using the Inventory application. In this
example, the Security Group Purchasing needs to be set up so it only sees records from the
Central Storeroom Location, located in Site Bedford. Even though there are other storeroom
locations in Bedford (ex. PKG and GARAGE), the Purchasing Group can only see data from the
Central Location.
To enable this, define the storeroom data restriction in Conditional Expression Manager. Then,
go to the Security Group application, and filter for Security Group Purchasing. Confirm they have
all Options Granted for the Inventory application on the Application Tab. Next, go to the Data
Restrictions Tab. Enable the data restriction by implementing the conditions below:
1. The Data Restriction is set on the main table (object) of the application where the
report is registered to. In this case, it is the INVENTORY application.
2. The type of Data Restriction is set to Qualified.
3. The Conditional Expression utilizes proper syntax

49

After saving the new restriction, confirm the Purchasing Security Group has access to the
inventory reports via the Report Administration application. The View Group Security Action
confirms this. Sign out of Maximo.
The final step to apply the data restrictions is done in the BIRT Report Designer by confirming
that the main table of the application that the report is registered is included in the report's sql
statement. Continuing with the Inventory example, the main table of the Inventory application
(INVENTORY) will be confirmed to be in the Inventory Balance report. To do this, either open up
the Report Design file (inventory_balance_tbl.rptdesign) located in
<Maximo76>\reports\birt\reports\INVENTOR in the BIRT Designer or in a text editor.
Scroll down to find the reports sql and confirm that INVENTORY is included. In this case, it is, so
the data restrictions can properly pass to the report.
If the main table was not included in the reports sql, it would have to be added in order for the
data restrictions to pass properly.

Note: If modifications are made to the reports sql, the updated design file must then be
imported into the database.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Once the setup items are completed, confirm that the data restrictions are configured correctly.
To do this, sign in as a member of the Purchasing Security Group: Liberi. Go to the Inventory
application, and run the Inventory Balance report. Enter parameter values for the Storeroom
(Central) that she has access to, and the report displays correctly with values from Central.
Repeat this process by running the same report against a storeroom she does not have access to.
In this case, she runs it against Storeroom PKG.

The report displays correctly with no data. Even though data exists, the user does not have
security rights to view it.

Finally, if you need to implement Hidden or Read Only Object or Attribute Restrictions (the 2nd
and 3rd Data Restriction Level) for a specific security group, there are a few different options
available. This is explained using an example from the Work Order Tracking application.
A security group has access to Work Order Tracking, however, this group does not see the
Planned Labor and Actual Labor Costs within this application. These fields are hidden, which is
field level security. This field level security cannot be applied to reports. Therefore, if there are
reports that contain Planned Labor and Actual Labor Costs (like Work Order Details), the
following Options exist:
1. Do not grant report security access to these reports to this security group.
2. Make a copy of the Work Order Details report and re-name it to something like Work
Order Details View 1. Remove the planned and actual labor costs from this report. Grant
report security access to this report to the specific security group.
Notes on Data Restrictions and Reporting:
1. Collections are a 'special' type of object restriction related to collections of assets or locations.
A collection restriction is at the set and row level - creating hidden and qualified object
restrictions. Collection data restrictions are also not applied to reporting.
2. If you are hyper linking to a report, and data restriction is in place, make sure to qualify the
table (object) name. If it is not qualified, the hyperlinked report may display blank data.

51

Report Utilities - Importing, Exporting, Updating

The repository for the report design files is the Maximo database. These files are extracted at run
time to meet the individuals report request.
During Maximo's installation process, importing of reports takes place. Additionally, if a JVM is
restarted, the reports directory is checked to see if any new reports have been added. If new
reports are detected, the import process is initiated to bring in new files only. A complete import
of all reports is not done on a JVM system restart.
Note: A JVM restart will not import updated report design files. If you have updated
your report design files, you need to import them thru the import utilities or via the
Report Administration actions described below.
Administrators and developers may need to import or export report design files from the Maximo
database outside of an install or JVM restart process. For example, they may need to export
existing or ad hoc report design files from the database so the design files can be modified in the
report design tool. Then, once the updates are made, the administrator would import the
updated design file into the database.
If you have a large number of report files to import or export, command utilities are available or
this. Enabling these utilities is a properties file called reporttools.properties. This property file
contains information on the application server, the file directory where the reports designs are
either coming from or going to, and more.

Complete details and instructions on how to import and export design files using the Command
Utilities can be found in Section 11 of the Maximo76_Designer431_Report Development Guide.
Information on accessing this guide can be found at the end of this document.
Additionally, you can import and export individual report design files in the report administration
application. This is an excellent mechanism if you do not have access to the server, or for a small
number of reports.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Additional update utilities can be used to automate the process of applying updates to report
designs, rather than manually editing each report. These are known as update utilities, and
supplement the existing utilities of importing and exporting report designs. The update utilities
are available for both Enterprise Reports, and Ad Hoc or QBR Reports.
Specific details on how you can use these utilities can be found in the Update Reports Utility
document accessible below.
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21605830

53

Report Administration Features

This section details the various features enabled within the Report Administration application.
Additionally, it provides more information on individual features including report names,
sequencing, priorities, application access and many other features.

Every report accessible from Maximo must have a corresponding record in Report Administration
For BIRT reports, each of the three tabs are used: Report, Security and Performance.
The report tab is made up of three sections: Header, Settings and Parameters. Key areas within
the header and settings sections are noted below. Details on the Parameters section is noted
earlier in this guide.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

6.1

Report Administration - Report Header Section Details

Report Description and Name

The listing of report names that displays via the 'Run Report' action correlates to the
REPORT.DESCRIPTION. It is critical to use a name that is quickly and easily identifiable to all
users of the report.

The reports description is visible in the Report Administration application. It is an optional field.
If no text is entered, the report's file name will display in the report listing.

If report file names are used, the user will be unable to filter his listing of reports from the Run
Report dialog. If he tries to filter thru the reports, an error will display that filtering is unavailable.
BMXAA8597E - The results cannot be sorted or filtered because one or more reports do not have
descriptions.

55

Application and Folder Name

Within the header section, the application field identifies what Maximo application the report is
available from. This field is key as it determines the main table name that is passed to the report
when it is executed.
The report folder name is where the report is stored in the Maximo directory as noted in section
titled 'Report File Structure'. If a new report is registered directly in the Report

Administration application, the folder name defaults to the value of the application
name. However, these values do not need to be the same.

Import Information
The last Import Date and Imported By fields show the date the report was last imported in the
Maximo database. For ad hoc reports, this is the date that the report was saved or last edited.
These fields can be very important as you apply fix packs or upgrade your Maximo versions.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Ad Hoc Reports - Created By and Saved Where Clause

Ad Hoc or QBR reports have two additional fields in the Header Section. The QBR created by
field identifies the user who created the ad hoc report. This is the only user who has the ability to
edit or delete the ad hoc report. (With the exception of the Report Administrator)
The Saved Where Clause identifies the application query that was applied to the report when it
was created. This is critical information for the administrator to help him identify ad hoc reports
which should have record limits applied to them.
- Reports that do not have a Saved Where clause can execute against very large record
sets. Therefore, it is critical that record limits be applied to those reports.

57

6.2

Report Administration - Report Settings Section Details

Settings: Record Limits

Users may inadvertently execute reports against large or very large record sets within an
application. This can cause negative performance impacts on both the application and database
server.
An example of this is a user wants to print out 10 new work orders. The user is in a hurry and does
not filter their query. Instead of submitting a Work Order Details report request for only the 10
new work orders, they input a Work Order Details report request for all work orders - which
totaled over 1,800 records. This request can impact the application performance because the
Work Order Details report is a very complex report. This can be compounded if the user does not
see his report immediately, he may submit this same job request multiple times.
To minimize these errors, it is a BEST PRACTICE to define record limits for complex, heavily accessed
reports. This functionality can be set for reports that use the application record set detailed in the
section Application Reports Type 2
The record limit functionality can be set for a report in the Report Administration application by
following these steps:
1. Enable the Limit Record Flag
2. Input a value for the Max Record Limit. The value must be greater than 1, but there is
no limit on the maximum number that can be input.
3. Save the record, and regenerate the request page xml.

Note: This value can also be defined on the Performance Tab of the individual reports record.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

When a user executes a report where these values are defined, a count of the users current
record selection is made from the application they are in. This value is then checked against any
record limits set for the selected report.
If the current record set is greater than the record limit, a message is displayed
to the user to reduce his query.
If the current record set is less than the record limit, the report is executed.
If a user tries to execute a report within the application against a record set of 1,810 records - and
the report has a limit of 400 - an error message will display:
BMXAA3412E Result set exceeds maximum allowed count of 400 for the report. Please
narrow your result set and request the report again.

Notes:
A. To enable Direct Print (DP) and Direct Print with Attachments (DPA) Functionality, the Record
Limit flag must be enabled and a max record limit set.
B. A number of Out of the Box Reports have these values set. A listing of them can be found in
the Report Booklet referenced at the end of this guide.
C. The corresponding database fields enabling this functionality are:
REPORT.DETAIL = Limit Records YORN Field
REPORT.RECORDLIMIT = Maximum Record Limit
D. If a report has record limits enabled, it cannot be executed from
1. The Preview Button in Report Administration
2. The External Reports Menu from the application
The report can only be executed from within the application so a count of its records is available
before the report is executed.

59

Settings: Report Priorities

Report priority is used for report queuing. Report jobs are prioritized in the reporting queue
based on ascending order of priority. This value is stored in the database as REPORT.PRIORITY.
An administrator can assign priorities to reports other than BIRT. Although they are not used in
external report by default, you could potentially use them to extend the reporting functionality.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Settings: Display Order

Administrators can specify the order of the reports displayed in the Report Run Dialog. By
defining a value in the 'Display Order' field, users can quickly see their most frequently accessed
reports in the report display window.
The Display field applies to a variety of report types BIRT, QBR, Cognos, or Custom. The
Display Order field is not required. If the Display Order is not specified, the reports will display in
alphabetical order. Also, the display order can be applied to some reports within an application
and not others.
Unlike the reports toolbar sequence value (Browser View, Direct Print) the display order field
does not have to be unique within the application. This eases the management for report
administrators as new reports get added or others deleted. The combination of the sequence
field and the reports description (ascending order) determines the display order of the reports.
The screens below show this functionality. Within the Asset application, users requested the
heavily accessed Summary of Asset Failures report to be displayed first. So, the administrator
accesses the Report Administration application, and sets its Display Order Field to 1.

After saving and regenerating the request page XML, the Summary of Asset Failures report then
displays first in the list of Asset Reports.

61

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Number of request page columns

In Maximo 76, a new feature has been added for you to configure the number of columns your
parameters display on the request page. This can be especially helpful for reports with large
number of parameter values to reduce vertical scrolling.
To highlight this feature, notice the delivered report 'Drilldown of Asset Failures' contains 9
parameter values. Its request page is extremely lengthy and has extra horizontal space.

To change this, go to the Report Administration application. Set the value for 'Number of
Request Page Columns' to 3. Save and regenerate the xml. Now when you view its request page
- it maximizes the space available making the parameter values and the page easier to work with.

63

6.3

Performance Tab: Individual Report Performance

The Performance tab provides information on report performance and configurable settings.
This is critical information for both very simple and complex reports.

The first section of the Performance Tab is Historical Values. This contains value information
from the last time the report was executed. In the example below, it shows that the Work Order
Details report registered in the Work Order Tracking application was last executed by user
Wilson on 1/22/15 at 8:58 am. The report executed in 2 seconds.
This information is held in the REPORTUSAGELOG table and can also be displayed by executing
the Report Usage report.
Enabling the display of these values quickly gives administrators a data point on how long reports
are taking to execute. This is valuable information in a development-type environment as
administrators can identify long-executing reports, and enable features like Schedule Only or
Record Limits to minimize their performance impact.
The second section of the Performance Tab is Settings. This contains the settings that directly
impact performance. These settings are also displayed on the Report Tab, but are also enabled
here for ease of use by the administrator. For example, if he sees a long executing report, he can
quickly set its Limit Records? Flag here on this tab.
The third and final section of the Performance Tab is Reserved Processing Times. This is
functionality enabled for Schedule Only reports. Details on this functionality are contained
within this document.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

6.4

Administration: Report Usage

In addition to monitoring performance, administrators are often asked to monitor report usage
to assist in answering key questions often raised by Development and IT, including:
Which reports take the longest to execute?
Who uses this report? If no one is using it, can it be archived?
Are users taking advantage of the scheduling functionality? Or are they causing performance
constraints by always running reports immediately?
Monitoring of report usage is enabled thru the REPORTUSAGELOG database table. Each time a
user executes a report, an entry is made in this table. This data includes when the report request
was submitted or scheduled, when it actually executed, how long it took to execute, and what
server it was executed on. This information is vital to answering the questions on report
execution and performance above.
The REPORTUSAGELOG table can get populated very quickly as it records data whenever any
report is executed whether it is an enterprise report or a Query Based Report. Therefore, a cron
task is used to delete the entries from the REPORTUSAGELOG table in a specified period of
time. The cron task enables you to configure both the frequency of the database cleanup and the
length of time the usage records are retained to a schedule that is best suited for them.
This cron task is called, REPORTUSAGELOG, and has a default value of 30 days.

65

6.4.1

Administration: Report Usage Report

The data in the REPORTUSAGLOG Table can be evaluated via a delivered report, called Report
Usage (reportusage.rptdesign). It contains information on reports that are executed
immediately, scheduled to execute at a future time, accessed via hyperlinks or are QBR Report
Types.
One of the most important fields in the Report Usage Report is the Run Time Field. The data
from this field comes from REPORTUSAGELOG.RUNTIME, which is stored in the database in
milliseconds. The Run Time field is the amount of time the BIRT Report Engine takes to execute
the Report, which is the REPORTUSAGELOG.ENDDATE REPORTUSAGELOG.STARTDATE.
If a user executes an immediate report, the runtime may be less than the physical time the user
actually experiences. This is because the report runtime does not include the time for tasks like
opening up the report browser, and copying the report temporary files. However because of the
report scheduling queuing process, this is the best consistent indicator of a reports run time.
The Report Usage Report converts the runtime data from milliseconds to HH:MM:SS Format for
ease of analysis.

Query Based Reports (QBRs) are also captured in the Report Usage Table. Because these reports
often may be executed only a single time, their corresponding run times will be displayed in a
separate section, called Transient Reports at the end of this Report.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Report Administration Actions

Multiple actions are available within the Report Administration application to enable the
administrator to monitor, manage, define and view individual reports and features.
This next section highlights actions available on the list tab of this application. The list tab
actions are system level actions - like security - or those that apply to multiple reports.

67

Action
View Report Processing

View Scheduled Reports

View Group Security

Set Security Group Limits

Set Application Security

Set All Application Security

Set Report Object Structure

Security

Remove All Application

Security
Define Ad Hoc Reporting
Library

Set Report File Export

Options
Configure Data Sources

View Library File

Import Library File
Export Library

Description
Displays reports that are either being
processed by the report engine, or are in
the queue waiting to be processed
Enables the administrator a view of all
the scheduled reports currently in the
system.
Displays which applications the selected
group has report access to
New in Maximo 76, this dialog enables
you to specify Report Server, Ad Hoc
Preview and Scheduled Reports Limits
Grants report security access to all
reports within a selected application
Grants reports security access to all
reports for all applications that a security
group has access to
Report Object Structures (ROS) are base
of Ad Hoc Reporting. Each application
can have multiple ROS, so this action
defines which security groups have
access to individual ROS
New in Maximo 76, this dialog quickly
removes security group access to all
reports
New in Maximo 76, the Ad Hoc reporting
library defines which sql expressions are
available to power users in the 'Calculate'
portion of ad hoc reporting
New in Maximo 76, this dialog enables
you to configure the report file export
options available from the Report Viewer
Enables use of non-production database
for report execution

Displays all library files in Maximo

database
Imports individual library into Maximo
database
Provides the ability to export the
selected library file

Additional Information
Page 69

Page 72

Page 72
Page 73

Page 74
Page 75

Reference Document
V76 QBR Ad Hoc
Reporting

Page 75

Reference Document
V76 QBR Ad Hoc
Reporting
Page 76

Reference Document
Enabling secondary
Database Configuration for
BIRT reports
Page 77
Page 79
Page 79

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.1

View Report Processing and Cancellation

You can view which reports are being executed via the View Report Processing action. It shows
all reports that are either being processed by the report engine, or are in the queue waiting to be
processed. The records are displayed based on ascending order of Start Time. This display of
records enables the administrator to focus on those report jobs that are taking the longest time
to execute.

The unique values in this view include:

Start Time: The date/time the report began executing.
For Immediate Jobs
The Start time is the time that the job is accepted when report processing is available.
For Scheduled Jobs,
The Start Time is the time that it (1) enters the report queue and (2) is locked by a worker
thread to begin processing. The time that it begins processing may not be the exact time
it was scheduled for due to unavailability. For example, if a report was scheduled to
execute at 6:00 AM, it may not actually execute until 6:01:46 due to availability. So
the actual Start Time of a report will not always be the Reports scheduled time.
If a scheduled report job has (1) entered the report queue but has not been locked by a
worker thread to begin processing, its Start Time will be null. In this case, its Status will
be queued.
Processing Time: The amount of time the report has been processing, and can be recalculated at
any time when the user clicks on the REFRESH Button on the screen. It is calculated by:
Current Server Time Start Time
Last Active Time: Highlights the last time processing was performed on the report job. This is
critical information for determining if a report is stuck. If a report has not been active for some
time, the administrator may want to cancel the report job.
Status: Status of the report Job. Status values can be ACTIVE or CANCEL. After a report is
cancelled, this value changes to CANCEL.

69

Important notes on View Report Processing:

It is important to note that there are two main phases for reports: Run and Render.
F0r immediate reports:
The Run phase is where the user sees the 'view report processing' dialog in the report
viewer. After the run phase has completed, the report is rendered and displays in the
report viewer.
When the report contents are exported to pdf, xls etc, the render phase takes longer due
to the additional processing time
Within the report administration view processing dialog, immediate reports only display f they
are in the run phase. If an immediate report is rendering, it no longer shows in the view report
processing window and cannot be cancelled
Additionally, the time displayed in the reportusagelog for immediate reports is for the run phase
only
For scheduled reports
There is only one process which includes both the run and render phases. Therefore,
scheduled reports display in the report processing window and can be cancelled.
The time displayed in reportusagelog for scheduled reports is both the run and render

phases.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.1.1

Cancelling Report Jobs

After viewing the report jobs that are processing, administrators can cancel users report jobs by
selecting the Garbage Can next to its individual report request.
Unique Events triggered from Cancelling Scheduled Report Job
When a scheduled report job is cancelled by the administrator, the following occurs.
1. An email is sent to the user who scheduled the report. The To Email field is the Email address
of the user who scheduled the report.
2. The scheduled report job no longer appears in the View Report Processing window. Note there may be a delay from the time the report is cancelled until it is cancelled on the server..
Unique Events triggered from Cancelling Immediate Report Jobs
When an immediate report job is cancelled by the administrator, the end user will receive a
notification in the Report Viewer that his report job has been cancelled.

NOTES:
1. If a user closes the report browser while an immediate report is still running - the report will
continue to execute in the background.
2. Report job cancellations are logged in the REPORTUSAGE Table.

71

7.2

View Scheduled Reports - Administrator

The Report administrator can view and manage all Scheduled Report jobs via the View
Scheduled Reports action. This view includes information on the type of Schedule (Recurring or
Once) who scheduled it, and the reports priority.
This is useful for the administrator to view the report schedule load on the server, and potentially
distribute the load more evenly if required. Additionally, he has the ability to delete obsolete
scheduled report jobs by clicking on the garbage can icon by the individual scheduled report
request.

7.3

View Group Security

This action provides the administrator with a view as to which selected security groups have
application report level access. This view is especially important during the initial configuration
of a system or security group.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.4

Set Security Group Limits

Introduced in the Maximo 76 release, the Set Security Group Limits dialog provides the
administrator a central location to configure three key values:
Ad Hoc Preview Limits - Preview limits prevent your business and power users with
access to create reports - from creating 'previewing' ad hoc report content against large
database records.
Scheduled Reports Limits - This value limits the number of report jobs your user can
schedule. Setting this limit forces your users to manage their scheduled report content,
and delete scheduled jobs they no longer require.
Report Server Records Limits - This limit evaluates all records in the report's hierarchy
and cancels the report job if the limit is exceeded. This prevents massively large reports
from executing and causing negative performance impacts. This value should be set very
high, and you may only want to use it for a subset of your security groups.
To configure any of these limits. select the Set Security Group Limits action. Input any value or
values for the selected Security group.

73

7.5

Setting Application Level Security

To grant access to all reports within an application, click Set Application Security from the Action
Menu in Report Administration. This brings up a listing of all applications that have reports
registered to them. Select the application, and then click New Row to grant a new Group Access.
Clicking on the lookup displays a listing of all groups that have Run Report Access to that
application.
Additionally, select ALL to grant access to all report types registered to that application or
select one or more of the individual report types. At least one type must be selected.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.6

Setting All Application Level Security

For your business or power users, you may want to quickly grant them access to all reports that
the group has access to. To do this, click Set All Application Security from the Action Menu in
Report Administration.
Select the security group or groups that you want to grant access to. Then, select ALL to grant
access to all report types registered to that application or select one or more of the individual
report types. A minimum of one option must be selected.

7.7

Remove all application security

Likewise, you may need to remove all application security access for a selected security group.
Added in the Maximo 76 release, this feature enables you to quickly do this via one step. This
action can be especially useful during the initial configuration of a system or security groups.

75

7.8

Set Report File Export Options

Starting in Maximo 76, you can define which report file export options are available in the Report
Viewer, and which option is the default option

To configure this, access the 'Report File Export Options' action from Report Administration. In
this dialog all the available report file export options are displayed. Select all the options that you
want your users to have access to, including the default option.
After selecting the values, you must restart the server (including all servers where the report
viewer may be accessed) for the changes to take effect.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.9

View Library Files Action

You can also view all the libraries that are in the report repository via the View Library File.
This view is useful when you may want to import a new report design file. You can view the
action to insure that all the libraries for the new report have already been added.
**NOTE: This will not show a listing of the report dependencies on this file. Instead, it gives a
listing of the libraries currently in the REPORTDESIGN Table (where REPORTDESIGN.ISLIB = 1)

77

7.10

Report Specific Actions

Additionally, there are a number of report specific actions available specific for the
maintenance of the individual reports.

Action
Import Report

Description
Imports report into Maximo database

More Information
Page 79

Export Report

Page 80

View Report Dependencies

New in Maximo 76. Exports report from Maximo

database
Displays report files that the report depends on

Duplicate Report

Duplicates report record

Page 82

Delete Report

Deletes report record

Page 83

Page 81

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.10.1 Import and Exporting Individual Reports

The Maximo database is the repository for the BIRT report design files and libraries. To move
content in and out of the database, you can use the import and export features within the Report
Administration application. These actions are best suited for either an individual or small set of
reports. If you have large amounts of reports to import or export, it would be much quicker to
utilize the Import or Export Utility Commands.

Importing Files
To import a new or updated file into the database, locate the individual design file in Report
Administration, and from the action menu, select Import Report. Browse to the location of the
design file, and the report resource file if required. Follow the prompts in the windows, and once
complete, the updated design file will be imported in the database.

79

Import Notes:
1. Importing overwrites the existing records in the database with the new design/and or
dependant report files. Report records do not utilize revisions.
2. If you are importing a new design file, you must first create its record in Report
Administration, and then import the file.
3. Resource files are image files (gif, jpg). These must be imported thru a zip file. These are not
typically imported. You only need to import if you have modified or new images to import.
4. Libraries must be imported before report designs.
- If the report design references a library that has not been imported, the report design
will not import.
- If the report references an existing library (MaximoSystemLibrary.rptlibrary) that is
already in the database, you do not need to import another copy of that library.
5. Once the process is completed, the Imported By and Last Import Date fields will be updated
with the latest values.
6. Do not copy/paste the location of any of the files to be imported. (Report Design File, Report
Resource File or Library File.) You must use the browse button to properly import the correct
file.
7. The import process validates that the design file being imported matches the current record.
There is no validation on the report designs file during the import process. Errors in the report
design file will import - -it is up to the developer/administrator to insure that the design file is
correct.

Exporting Files
You may need to export a report file for backup or for modification. To export a file,
navigate to its location in Report Administration. Select the 'Export Report' action, and
a zip file of the contents will be exported to your default download directory.
The content of the zip file contains the design (.rptdesign) file, along with the properties
file as shown below.

Similar processes for importing and exporting library files exist in Report Administration

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.10.2 View Report Dependencies Action

You can view all the files that an individual report is dependent on by using the action View
Report Dependencies. These files could either be library files or other design files.
The example below shows the report dependencies for an Ad Hoc report.

The results for this view are derived from the REPORTDEPEND table.
In the bottom portion of this view, there is a Dependant Library Files section. This will show any
children of the selected Library Files. For the Maximo 76 reports, there are no values in this
section. The Maximo System Library does not have any child libraries.

81

7.10.3 Duplicating Reports

You may want to duplicate a report so it can be accessed from a cloned application. Or you may
want to duplicate an ad hoc report, so the duplicated report can be exported to the Report
Development tool for additional modification.
The items below are key characteristics to consider when duplicating a report
A. If you are duplicating a report so it can be accessed from another application, make sure
the main table name of the two applications is the same. This is required so the where
clause can pass the correct information to the application of the duplicated report.
For example, if you duplicated a work order report and registered it to the Invoice
application, the duplicated report would not execute from the Invoice application. This
occurs because the main table used in the work order report is WORKORDER, whereas
the main table passed from the Invoice application is Invoice.
B. When you duplicate a BIRT Report,
- The report file name will display exactly like the record it is copied from
- The application name and report folder will be blank.
C. You can then make any adjustments to the report entries, but you must specify an
application name (along with defaulted report folder) before saving.
D. If you do not change the report file name and use the same application as the duplicated
record, a message will display on saving that this is not a valid combination. (The
combination of report file name and application make the record unique.)
E. Once the user has a unique combination, you are able to save the record, and the
duplicated report will display on the screen.
F. When duplicating a report, the individual report security authorizations are not copied.
When duplicating reports, a copy of the duplicated reports design file is made in the
REPORTDESIGN table. If you want to use a different report design file, make sure to Import the
correct design either via the Action menu in Report Administration, or via the Import Command
Utility.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.10.4 Deleting Reports

Administrators may want to delete reports when they are no longer used or needed. Depending
on the type of report being deleted either Enterprise or Ad Hoc the removal process will vary
slightly.

Deleting Enterprise Reports

An administrator may want to delete an Enterprise Report because it is no longer executed by
users. Enterprise reports differ from Ad Hoc Reports in that they are developed in the report
development tool by developers, and then imported into the Maximo database via the command
utilities or report administration applications.
Enterprise reports do not display the field QBR Created By or 'Saved Where Clause" on the
report tab.

To delete an Enterprise Report, locate the specific record and select Delete Report from the
action menu. After the report is deleted, to prevent the report from being re-imported again on
Server Restart or during a future patch release, its entry must be removed from the reports.xml
file. The reports.xml file is located in <Maximo>\reports\birt\<name of Report Folder>
Deleting Ad Hoc Reports
From within the Report Administration application, you can quickly identify ad hoc reports as
their Created By field is populated. You could sort on this field on the list tab or use a default
query as shown below to quickly identify them.

You can form your own application query to identify ad hoc reports using the simple sql
statement of: userid is not null

83

You may want to delete an Ad Hoc (QBR) report is no longer used by the users who created
them, or when a user leaves his job position or the company.
The screen shot below is an example of an Ad Hoc Report. The message displays when the
administrator selects Delete Report from the Action Menu for this report.

BMXAA5508I - Are you sure you want to delete the report? Deleting this report will remove
the report from the database and remove any scheduled activities for the report. Click Yes
to proceed, or No to cancel this request.
If you select No, the message will disappear and you will remain on the Report Tab.
If you select Yes, the report entries will be deleted from the Maximo database
Additionally, if you select Yes, any scheduled job requests for this report will deleted.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

7.10.5 Setting Individual Report Security

After a report is imported or registered, the administrator can click on the Security Tab to grant
access to the individual report to security groups. The standard functionality of clicking New
Row adds a new entry. Clicking on the lookup displays a listing of All Security Groups who have
Run Report Access for the application the report is registered to.

85

Miscellaneous Features

8.1

Report List Portlet

You can configure Start Centers for your individual security groups by creating individual
templates (tabs) for users to quickly view and access applications and data. One of the primary
purposes of the templates is to show data via KPI Displays, which provide immediate, visual
status of particular business metrics. Another purpose is to enable quick access to applications,
result sets or reports.
The report list portlet enables a listing of reports on the Start Center. With this functionality, you
can configure a listing of your most frequently used reports to streamline access.
This functionality can be described by using the example of an SLA Administrator who wants to
configure his Start Center for his SLA Related Activities, including a listing of his favorite SLA
reports for quick and easy access.
To configure the Report List Portlet, security rights first need to be granted to each Security
Group who will use this functionality. (In this case, it is the SLAADMIN group). To do this, follow
the steps below:
1. Access the Security Group Application.
2. Select the Security Group. On the Applications tab, enter report list in the description
field.
3. When the results return, select Report List Setup Application. This is the Report List
Portlet.
4. Grant access to Read/Modify access to Report List Portlet and save.

After granting the security group access, sign out of Maximo to refresh the settings. The next
time you sign in, the Security Group should have access to the Report List Portlet.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

To enable the report list portlet, click on the Change Content/Layout Section of the template.
Select the Report List from the Available Portlet window.

This enables the Report List Portlet to display on the Start Center.
Then, click on the Edit icon, and add the frequently accessed reports for display on your portlet.
Note: This list of report that displays are only those that you have security rights to execute.

87

After saving the selections, the selected reports are displayed on his Start Center for quick
access.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

8.2

Multiple KPI Report Linkage

KPIs can be linked to a related report via the KPI Graph or List Portlet on a users Start Center.
This enables you to drill down into additional details on the KPI, which can be critical for KPIs in
red or yellow status.
This functionality is shown below. Notice that some KPIs have Related Reports and KPIs, and
others do not. If a report hyperlink is configured, the report's name displays via a mouse over.

The related report is defined in the KPI Manager application.

89

8.3

Property Files and Cron Tasks

A top level listing of the System Properties used by Reporting is shown below
Property Setting
Description
mxe.report.birt.maxconcurrentrun
Used for Performance Maintenance
mxe.report.birt.queueidletimeseconds
Used for Performance Maintenance
mxe.report.birt.disable.queuemanager
Used for Multi-Server Configurations,
Performance Maintenance
mxe.report.birt.viewerurl
Used for BIRT Report Only Server (BROS)
Configuration
mxe.sessiontoken.timeoutseconds
Used for BROS Configuration
mxe.Reportsinapage
mxe.report.adhoc.editWithGroupAccess

Manages the number of BIRT immediate and Scheduled

Reports that can be run concurrently

Default
Value
5

Frequency that the Queue Manager polls the Queue for

new report jobs

60

Defines whether the queue manager is enabled. If the

queue manager is disabled (value set to 1) scheduled
reports will not be executed on the server.

BIRT Viewer URL for cluster or separate report server, ex:

http://myhost:myport/maximo/report

Token based session timeout in seconds. Used in the

authentication of the user to the Report Server.
Defines the number of reports to display in the Report
Window
Enables editing of Ad Hoc report (QBR) when any security
group has access to the report.

180 seconds
or
3 minutes
5
0 (No)

For QBR (Ad Hoc) Reporting

mxe.report.adhoc.previewLimit
For QBR (Ad Hoc) Reporting
mxe.report.DisableHyperlinkExport
mxe.report.birt.cancelreportinterval

Other Related Property Settings

mxe.email.content.type

-If QBR is created with Public security Access

-If the setting is No, the creator of the QBR cannot edit it
-If the setting is Yes, the creator of the QBR can edit it
No longer used in Maximo 7.6. This property setting has
been replaced by the Security Group Setting, Ad Hoc
Preview Record Limits
New in 76. Disable hyperlinks from exported report
contents in various file types including xls and pdf.
New in 76. Frequency, in seconds, that the server checks
database to see if reports canceled. This should be used
for clustered environments only
Sent the content type for all communications
Impacts display of email text received from the Comment
section of the report request page. If you want text to be
delivered with carriage returns, set value to text/plain.
Reference Blog: http://ibm.co/JOKHEr

0 (No)
20 seconds

Text/html

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

Key Report Property Settings Direct Print, Direct Print with Attachments
Property Setting

Description

mxe.activex

Determines if ActiveX Controls can be used for Direct

Print (DP) and Direct Print with Attachments (DPA)
Defines if inherited docs should be enabled for printing
with Direct Print with Attachments Functionality

mxe.directprint.inherited.attachment

mxe.doclink.defaultPrintDocWithReport
mxe.report.AttachDoc.validateURL

mxe.directprint.javaconsole.debug
mxe.directprint.printtime.wait

mxe.report.birt.PrintSeparateRecord
Other Related Property Settings
mxe.doclink.securedAttachment

Default
Value
Yes
No

Default value of printing attached document with

report if printable type
Property to determine if the URL of the attached
document should be validated before printing from the
Maximo Server.
Enable output to Java Console for troubleshooting of
Direct Print, Direct Print with Attachments
Maximum duration in seconds the current print process
waits before moving to the next process
Notes: Due to architecture changes in Maximo 76, this
setting is recommended to be set much lower than
previous releases
Enables printing of each record separately when no
attachments are in the record set.

Yes

Identifies if the attachment is secured or not

False

If you set this value to true, and you want to print

attachments which are Microsoft Office attachments,
additional configuration may be required depending on
the release you are using. See the Direct Print guide
referenced below for additional details.
Additional details on these property settings for Direct Print and Direct Print with Attachments
can be found in the Report Application Toolbar Access Direct Print Guide. The latest versions of
this guide are listed here: http://ibm.co/14r8jK7

91

Yes

No
10

No

JVM System Properties

Property Setting
mxe.report.birt.tempfolder

Description
Specifies location of temporary folder on the Server for BIRT Runtime and
temporary files created during the report execution process.
*Note: Do not include any spaces in the directory path for this temporary
folder.

io.tmpdir

The setup of this property varies for Websphere or Weblogic.

The IO Temp directory is used for intermittent, individual BIRT report file
generation. This temp directory is deleted when the report completes
execution.
For details on specifying it in Websphere, see below.

To set the report temp directory (mxe.report.birt.tempfolder) in Websphere:

1. Login to Websphere Integrated Service Console
2. Go to servers -> Application servers
3. From the right panel click on the server where you have deployed maximo.
4. Under "Server Infrastructure" click on "Process Definition".
5. Under "Additional Properties" click on "Java Virtual Machine"
6. Add the following to the generic JVM Argument
Dmxe.report.birt.tempfolder=c:\tempReport\BIRT-TEMP
Where you specify the directory of your choice without any spaces
7. Save and restart the server.

To set the IO temp directory, follow the same procedure above, and add the following to Generic
JVM Argument
-Djava.io.tmpdir= c:\tempReport\BIRT-TEMP-IO
Where you specify the directory of your choice without any spaces

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

8.4

Cron Tasks

Cron Task
REPORTSCHEDULE

Description
Used for Scheduling of BIRT Reports. *NOTE: Its Access Level is set to
READONLY. Administrators should monitor report schedules via the Report
Administration application.

REPORTLOCKRELEASE

Monitors the locks on report jobs

REPORTUSAGECLEANUP

Determines frequency that entries in REPORTUSAGELOG Table are deleted

REPORTOUTPUTCLEANUP

Determines frequency that scheduled report outputs in the Report Viewer

application are deleted

REPORTADHOCLOCINST

Determines the frequency that newly created report request pages are enabled
in multi-language environments.
*Note: This is for multi-language environments only. If you using a single
language environment, this cron task should remain inactive.
This process in how this cron task is used includes:
When a report is saved in a multi-language environment, the
SYNCREPORTLABELS maxvar is set to true. The REPORTADHOCLOC cron task
will check the flag and when true, will launch the process to synchronize the
labels. After completion, it will set the maxvar flag back to false.

PurgeReportRelatedRecords

New in Maximo 76. This cron task should be active if you utilize either Attached
Documents or BROS server. It removes old records from REPORTBROS and
REPORTATTACHDOCS objects.
Default value is 5 Days.

93

8.5

Functionality not Supported

The following is a listing of functionality not supported.

1. Ability to run a report immediately and email the report at the same time.
If a user wants to email a BIRT Report, it must be scheduled.
If a user wants to run a report and retain a copy, the report can be downloaded to
.csv or .pdf and a local copy can then be made.

2. Report Browser Back Button

The Report Browser Back Button is not supported. This is best described by the use case below.
A user executes three reports in the same browser session. When the third report is
displayed, he cannot use the arrow buttons to go back to the first or second report.
This is because the executed reports are stored as temporary files on the
application server, and the file paths are not retained. The user may be able to
go back but the functionality is NOT supported as reports will not consistently
display.

Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

REFERENCE MATERIALS
A variety of materials are available for you for additional information on BIRT, Cognos and the
External reporting tools. This section lists new reference materials in Maximo 76, along with
other reference materials noted throughout this guide.
1. Maximo 76 Demos
Access this url for a variety of BIRT, QBR and Cognos demos including an introduction to the
content, navigation and customization of the workspaces for your environment.
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20Maximo
%20Asset%20Management/page/Maximo%2076%20BI%20Recordings
2. Maximo 76 Report Reference materials
This page contains the latest listing of report reference materials, including description, revision
levels and hyperlinks to the documentation. Included within these pages are the reference
guides listed below
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#!/wiki/IBM%20Maximo
%20Asset%20Management/page/Maximo%2076%20BI%20Documentation
3. Maximo 76 BIRT Performance Guide
http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21693526
4. Maximo 7.6 Supported Product Matrix
http://www01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=3214&context=SSLKT6&q1=language&uid=swg27014419&
loc=en_US&cs=utf-8&lang=en
5. Maximo Home BI/Reporting Page
https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/wikis/home?lang=en#/wiki/IBM%20Maximo
%20Asset%20Management/page/Reporting

95


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Maximo 76 Report Administration and Feature Guide

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