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Installing and Running Custom Reports

Once you have defined your XML report file and (optionally) your .xls spreadsheet template file, you can install them in one of two ways:

From the GUI

  1. Compress them into a .zip file, typically using Windows Send to > Compressed (zipped) folder command.
  2. Install the .zip file by selecting Tools>Spreadsheet Reports>Install Spreadsheet Reports.
  3. Run the report with Reports>Spreadsheet Reports.

By Copying

Copy the files to:

C:\Users\myUserName\aPriori\version\watchpoint-report-defs

Caveats

  • The installer recognizes only .zip files. Within the .zip file, only files with the following extensions installed .xml, .xls, .xlsx, .xlsm. Any other file is ignored.
  • Even if an XML file is successfully installed, it not appear in the list of available reports unless the name ends in .watchpoints.. A report named report.xm does not appear. A report named reports.watchpoints.xml" does appear.
  • If you try to install a custom report with the same name as an existing system-defined report, aPriori displays the error "The following reports already exist and were not installed"
  • If you install a custom report with the same name as an existing custom report, aPriori overwrites the older report.

Defining a shared store

It is possible for a System Administrator to define a property so that custom spreadsheet reports are accessible by multiple users via a shared folder.

  1. Choose a shared folder that multiple users can access, and create a subfolder there named templates.

    For example: F:\shared\apriori_reports\templates

  2. Ensure that aPriori is not running, otherwise you might lose any changes to the properties file when you restart aPriori.

  3. Change to the folder: C:\Users\<user>\AppData\Local\aPriori\<version>

  4. In this folder you can make edits to one of two files:

    • apriori.user.properties This file gets overwritten every time you exit aPriori.

    • apriori.system.properties This file does get overwritten when you exit aPriori. This file may not already exist in this folder. If it doesn’t, create the file.

    • Add the following entry to file, pointing to the shared folder that you created in Step 1.

      For example: apriori.watchpoint.report.dir=F\:\\shared\\apriori_reports

    • You must preface special characters and spaces with "\", and that you do not include the template sub-folder in this line.

  5. Save the file you edited.

  6. Start aPriori.
  7. Click Tools > Spreadsheet Reports > Install Spreadsheet Reports
  8. Navigate to the .zip spreadsheet report file(s) that you wish to share and click OK to install them. When done, these files should exist in the shared folder you specified.
  9. For all users who should have access to shared reports, repeat Steps 2 through 6.
  10. For any of these users who have reports to contribute to the shared folder, ensure that they have write access to the shared folder, then repeat Steps 7 and 8.