Designing Custom Reports (Enterprise MFT Edition Only)

The Reporting topic described how reports are enabled and view. For users of the Enterprise MFT Edition, the ability to create custom reports offers a personalized view of event data. Designing custom reports allows administrators to tailor the data presentation to specific needs, ensuring that the most relevant information is always at their fingertips. Whether you're looking to track specific user activities, monitor protocol usage, or analyze data transfers, custom reports provide the flexibility to focus on what matters most.

Understanding the Reporting Structure

At the heart of the reporting feature is a pivot grid. A pivot grid is a data summarization tool used in spreadsheets and business intelligence programs. It allows users to reorganize and summarize selected columns and rows of data to obtain a desired report. In the context of CompleteFTP's reporting feature, the pivot grid lets you view event data from different perspectives by "pivoting" data fields.

Here's a breakdown of the main components of a pivot grid:

• Row Area: Fields placed here will be displayed as rows in the report. For example, if you want to see data categorized by Protocol, dragging the Protocol field to the row area will list all protocols as individual rows.
• Column Area: Fields here will be displayed as columns. This is useful for breaking down data within each row category. For instance, if Protocol is in the row area and Event is in the column area, you'll see a breakdown of events for each protocol.
• Data Area: This is where you define what data you want to analyze. If you drag the Bytes field here, the grid will show the total bytes transferred for each combination of row and column fields.
• Filter Area: Fields here allow you to filter the data that's displayed in the grid. For example, if you only want to see data for a specific user, you can drag the User-name field to the filter area and select the desired user.

The beauty of a pivot grid is its flexibility. By simply dragging and dropping fields between these areas, you can quickly change the perspective of your data. Want to see data transfers by user instead of by protocol? Just drag the User-name field to the row area. It's that simple.

Now that you have a grasp of the pivot grid concept, let's dive into designing custom reports in CompleteFTP.

Creating Custom Reports

Here's the general process for generating a new custom report:

1. Start a New Report: Click on the ellipsis button (⋯) and select 'New'.
2. Drag and Drop Fields: From the filter area, drag fields of interest into the row, column, or data areas. For instance, if you want to view the number of bytes transferred by each protocol, drag Protocol to the row area and Bytes to the data area.
3. Apply Filters: Hover over a field button to reveal a filter icon. Clicking this allows you to filter data based on specific criteria.
4. Group Time Fields: If you're interested in viewing events by a specific time, drag the Year field to the row area. The other time-fields will follow. You can then expand or collapse those fields to control the level of granularity you need.
5. Save the Report: Once satisfied with the design, click on the ellipsis button (⋯) and select 'Save'. Provide a name for your custom report.

Managing Reports

The CompleteFTP reporting feature provides an intuitive interface to manage your custom reports. Whether you're creating a new report, editing an existing one, or organizing your report list, the management tools are just a click away.

To access the report management options:

1. Click on the ellipsis button (⋯) located at the top-right corner of the reporting panel.
2. A dropdown menu will appear, presenting you with the following options:

• New: Start creating a new custom report from scratch.
• Edit: Modify the currently selected report. This allows you to change the fields, apply new filters, or adjust the layout of the report.
• Save: Once you've made changes to a report, use this option to save those changes. Remember, any unsaved changes will be lost if you navigate away or close the application.
• Rename: Give your report a new name. This is especially useful if the current name doesn't accurately reflect the report's content or purpose.
• Delete: Remove the selected report. Be cautious with this option as deleted reports cannot be recovered.

These management tools ensure that you have full control over your reports, allowing you to quickly adapt to changing requirements or data analysis needs.

Understanding Available Fields

When designing custom reports, it's essential to understand the available fields, their significance, and how they can be utilized to present the data you need. Each field represents a specific type of data or event attribute, and knowing how to use them effectively will allow you to create insightful reports.

Some fields, like Year, Month, Day, Hour, and Minute, are interrelated and can be grouped for a hierarchical view. For instance, if you drag the Year field to the row area, you can expand it to view data by month, day, hour, and minute, providing a detailed time breakdown.

By understanding and effectively using these fields, you can tailor your reports to focus on the specific data and insights you're interested in.

Tips for Designing Reports

Going from a reporting requirement to configuring a pivot grid can be done using the following approach:

1. Understand reporting requirement: Before you can configure the pivot grid, you need to have a clear understanding of the requirement. What specific data is needed? What insights or patterns are you trying to uncover?
2. Identify relevant fields: Based on the requirement, list down the fields that will be relevant.
3. Determine layout: Decide how you want to present the data. Which fields should be rows, which should be columns, and which should be data values?
4. Configure pivot grid: Now, you can start configuring the pivot grid by dragging and dropping the identified fields into the appropriate areas.
5. Grouping: If your data has inherent hierarchies, decide how you want to group them. In the pivot grid, you can drag multiple fields into one area. Their order will determine the grouping hierarchy.
6. Iterate: The initial configuration might not provide the exact view or insight you were aiming for. The report will be updated in realtime, making it easy to adjust and refine the pivot grid setup until it aligns perfectly with the requirement.
7. Save the report: Once satisfied, save the report, giving it a useful name.

Examples

Below is a set of examples to illustrate how specific reports are designed according to requirements.

Example 1: Logins by user

If you're keen on understanding which users are most active on your server, tracking the number of successful logins can be insightful. This report will show you a breakdown of successful logins for each user over a specified period. Here's how to set it up:

• Adjust the date range as needed using the date range control, for instance, 'last 30 days' if you want a monthly overview.
• Start a new report.
• Drag User-name to the row area to list all users.
• Drag Event to the column area.
• Hover the mouse over the Event button and click on the little filter icon that appears in the top-right corner, then select Login.
• Drag Successes to the data area to count the number of successful logins for each user.
• Save the report with a descriptive name, such as "Logins by user".

With this report, you'll have a clear overview of which users have been most active in terms of logging into the server, helping you identify frequent users or spot any unusual login patterns.

Example 2: Logins by protocol per site

Imagine you want to analyze the frequency of different protocols used across various sites over the past week. You aim to understand which protocols are most popular on specific sites. Here's how you can design this report:

• Adjust the date range as needed using the date range control, for instance, 'last 7 days' if you want a weekly overview.
• Start a new report.
• Drag Site to the row area to list all the sites.
• Drag Protocol to the column area. This will create columns for each protocol like FTPS, SFTP, HTTPS, etc.
• Drag Event to the column area next to the Protocol field.
• Hover the mouse over the Event button and click on the little filter icon that appears in the top-right corner, then select Login.
• Drag Successes to the data area to count the number of successful logins for each user.
• Save the report with a descriptive name, such as "Logins by protocol per site".

By following these steps, you'll have a report that displays a matrix of sites against protocols, allowing you to quickly identify which protocols are most frequently used on each site over the past week.

Example 3: Osman's data transfers

Suppose you're interested in monitoring the data usage of a particularly busy user with user-name, 'osman'. Here's how you can set up this report:

• Start a new report.
• Drag User-name to the column area.
• Hover the mouse over the User-name button and click on the little filter icon that appears in the top-right corner, then select 'osman'.
• Drag Year to the row area. When you do this all the other time fields will follow.
• Make sure that Year and Month are expanded, but that Day is not expanded (unless you want an hourly breakdown)
• Drag Bytes to the data area to sum up the amount of data transferred on each day.
• Save the report with a meaningful name, such as "Osman's data transfers".

With this report, you'll get a clear picture of Osman's data transfers. This can be particularly useful for security audits or understanding user behavior.