Adding Data Sources to Reporter

Table of Contents

Create a PostgreSQL query, view, or table for your data source
Add a new class to fm_IDL.xml for your data source
Restart the affected services to see the new data source in the reporter

You can further customize your Evergreen reporting environment by adding additional data sources.

The Evergreen reporter module does not build and execute SQL queries directly, but instead uses a data abstraction layer called Fieldmapper to mediate queries on the Evergreen database.Fieldmapper is also used by other core Evergreen DAO services, including cstore and permacrud. The configuration file fm_IDL.xml contains the mapping between Fieldmapper class definitions and the database. The fm_IDL.xml file is located in the /openils/conf directory.

There are 3 basic steps to adding a new data source. Each step will be discussed in more detail in the

Create a PostgreSQL query, view, or table that will provide the data for your data source.
Add a new class to fm_IDL.xml for your data source.
Restart the affected services to see the new data source in Reporter.

There are two possible sources for new data sources:

An SQL query built directly into the class definition in fm_IDL.xml. You can use this method if you are only going to access this data source through the Evergreen reporter and/or cstore code that you write.
A new table or view in the Evergreen PostgreSQL database on which a class definition in fm_IDL.xml. You can use this method if you want to be able to access this data source through directly through SQL or using other reporting tool.

Create a PostgreSQL query, view, or table for your data source

You need to decide whether you will create your data source as a query, a view, or a table.

Create a query if you are planning to access this data source only through the Evergreen reporter and/or cstore code that you write. You will use this query to create an IDL only view.
Create a view if you are planning to access this data source through other methods in addition to the Evergreen reporter, or if you may need to do performance tuning to optimize your query.
You may also need to use an additional table as part of your data source if you have additional data that’s not included in the base Evergreen, or if you need to use a table to store the results of a query for performance reasons.

To develop and test queries, views, and tables, you will need

Access to the Evergreen PostgreSQL database at the command line. This is normally the psql application. You can access the Postgres documentation at the Official Postgres documentation for more information about PostgreSQL.
Knowledge of the Evergreen database structure for the data that you want to access. You can find this information by looking at the Evergreen schema Evergreen schema

If the views that you are creating are purely local in usage and are not intended for contribution to the core Evergreen code, create the Views and Tables in the extend_reporter schema. This schema is intended to be used for local customizations and will not be modified during upgrades to the Evergreen system.

You should make sure that you have an appropriate version control process for the SQL used to create your data sources.

Here’s an example of a view created to incorporate some locally defined user statistical categories:

example view for reports

create view extend_reporter.patronstats as
select u.id,
grp.name as "ptype",
rl.stat_cat_entry as "reg_lib",
gr.stat_cat_entry as "gender",
ag.stat_cat_entry as "age_group",
EXTRACT(YEAR FROM age(u.dob)) as "age",
hl.id as "home_lib",
u.create_date,
u.expire_date,
ms_balance_owed
from actor.usr u
join permission.grp_tree grp
    on (u.profile = grp.id and (grp.parent = 2 or grp.name = 'patron'))
join actor.org_unit hl on (u.home_ou = hl.id)
left join money.open_usr_summary ms
    on (ms.usr = u.id)
left join actor.stat_cat_entry_usr_map rl
    on (u.id = rl.target_usr and rl.stat_cat = 4)
left join actor.stat_cat_entry_usr_map bt
    on (u.id = bt.target_usr and bt.stat_cat = 3)
left join actor.stat_cat_entry_usr_map gr
    on (u.id = gr.target_usr and gr.stat_cat = 2)
left join actor.stat_cat_entry_usr_map gr
    on (u.id = gr.target_usr and gr.stat_cat = 2)
left join actor.stat_cat_entry_usr_map ag
    on (u.id = ag.target_usr and ag.stat_cat = 1)
where u.active = 't' and u.deleted <> 't';

Add a new class to fm_IDL.xml for your data source

Once you have your data source, the next step is to add that data source as a new class in fm_IDL.xml.

You will need to add the following attributes for the class definition:

id. You should follow a consistent naming convention for your class names that won’t create conflicts in the future with any standard classes added in future upgrades. Evergreen normally names each class with the first letter of each word in the schema and table names. You may want to add a local prefix or suffix to your local class names.
controller=”open-ils.cstore”
oils_obj:fieldmapper=”extend_reporter::long_name_of_view”
oils_persist.readonly=”true”
reporter:core=”true” (if you want this to show up as a “core” reporting source)
reporter:label. This is the name that will appear on the data source list in the Evergreen reporter.
oils_persist:source_definition. If this is an IDL-only view, add the SQL query here. You don’t need this attribute if your class is based on a PostgreSQL view or table.
oils_persist:tablename="schemaname.viewname or tablename" If this class is based on a PostgreSQL view or table, add the table name here. You don’t need this attribute is your class is an IDL-only view.

For each column in the view or query output, add field element and set the following attributes. The fields should be wrapped with <field> </field>:

reporter:label. This is the name that appears in the Evergreen reporter.
name. This should match the column name in the view or query output.
reporter:datatype (which can be id, bool, money, org_unit, int, number, interval, float, text, timestamp, or link)

For each linking field, add a link element with the following attributes. The elements should be wrapped with <link> </link>:

field (should match field.name)
reltype (“has_a”, “might_have”, or “has_many”)
map (“”)
key (name of the linking field in the foreign table)
class (ID of the IDL class of the table that is to be linked to)

The following example is a class definition for the example view that was created in the previous section.

example class definition for reports

<class id="erpstats" controller="open-ils.reporter-store"
oils_obj:fieldmapper="extend_reporter::patronstats"
oils_persist:tablename="extend_reporter.patronstats" oils_persist:readonly="true"
reporter:label="Patron Statistics" reporter:core="true">
  <fields oils_persist:primary="id">
  <field reporter:label="Patron ID" name="id" reporter:datatype="link" />
  <field reporter:label="Patron Type" name="ptype" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Reg Lib" name="reg_lib" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Boro/Twp" name="boro_twp" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Gender" name="gender" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Age Group" name="age_group" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Age" name="age" reporter:datatype="int" />
  <field reporter:label="Home Lib ID" name="home_lib_id"
    reporter:datatype="link" />
  <field reporter:label="Home Lib Code" name="home_lib_code"
    reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Home Lib" name="home_lib" reporter:datatype="text" />
  <field reporter:label="Create Date" name="create_date"
    reporter:datatype="timestamp" />
  <field reporter:label="Expire Date" name="expire_date"
    reporter:datatype="timestamp" />
  <field reporter:label="Balance Owed" name="balance_owed"
    reporter:datatype="money" />
</fields>
<links>
  <link field="id" reltype="has_a" key="id" map="" class="au"/>
  <link field="home_lib_id" reltype="has_a" key="id" map="" class="aou"/>
</links>
</class>

fm_IDL.xml is used by other core Evergreen DAO services, including cstore and permacrud. So changes to this file can affect the entire Evergreen application, not just reporter. After making changes fm_IDL.xml, it is a good idea to ensure that it is valid XML by using a utility such as xmllint – a syntax error can render much of Evergreen nonfunctional. Set up a good change control system for any changes to fm_IDL.xml. You will need to keep a separate copy of you local class definitions so that you can reapply the changes to fm_IDL.xml after Evergreen upgrades.

Restart the affected services to see the new data source in the reporter

The following steps are needed to for Evergreen to recognize the changes to fm_IDL.xml

Copy the updated fm_IDL.xml into place:
```
cp fm_IDL.xml /openils/conf/.
```
(Optional) Make the reporter version of fm_IDL.xml match the core version. Evergreen systems supporting only one interface language will normally find that /openils/var/web/reports/fm_IDL.xml is a symbolic link pointing to /openils/conf/fm_IDL.xml, so no action will be required. However, systems supporting multiple interfaces will have a different version of fm_IDL.xml in the /openils/var/web/reports directory. The right way to update this is to go through the Evergreen internationalization build process to create the entity form of fm_IDL.xml and the updated fm_IDL.dtd files for each supported language. However, that is outside the scope of this document. If you can accept the reporter interface supporting only one language, then you can simply copy your updated version of fm_IDL.xml into the /openils/var/web/reports directory:
```
cp /openils/conf/fm_IDL.xml /openils/var/web/reports/.
```
As the opensrf user, run Autogen to to update the Javascript versions of the fieldmapper definitions.
```
/openils/bin/autogen.sh
```

As the opensrf user, restart services:

osrf_control --localhost --restart-services

As the root user, restart the Apache web server:
```
service apache2 restart
```
As the opensrf user, restart the Evergreen reporter. You may need to modify this command depending on your system configuration and PID path:
```
opensrf-perl.pl -l -action restart -service open-ils.reporter \
-config /openils/conf/opensrf_core.xml -pid-dir /openils/var/run
```
Restart the Evergreen staff client, or use Admin -→ For Developers -→ Clear Cache

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