XLR UserResults

XLReporter
Getting Results
Version 12.3
SyTech, Inc.
The Complete Reporting Solution
Getting Results -i-

Information in this document is subject to change without notice. SyTech, Inc. assumes no responsibility
for any errors or omissions that may be in this document. No part of this document may be reproduced or
transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the prior
written permission of SyTech, Inc.
Copyright 2000 - 2017, SyTech, Inc. All rights reserved.
XLReporter is a registered trademark of SyTech, Inc.
Microsoft and Microsoft Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.

All registered names are the property of their respective owners.
- ii - Getting Results
Contents
Welcome to XLReporter 9
Welcome ....................................................................................................................................9
Installation ................................................................................................................................10
Licensing ..................................................................................................................................10
Software Requirements ............................................................................................................10
Getting Started 11
Overview ..................................................................................................................................11
Creating a Project .....................................................................................................................11
Project Explorer Panels ............................................................................................................13
Left Panel ...................................................................................................................13
Right Panel .................................................................................................................13
Registration ..............................................................................................................................13
Move a License ..........................................................................................................14
System Check ...........................................................................................................................14
Connector .................................................................................................................................15
General .....................................................................................................................................15
Template Design 16
Overview ..................................................................................................................................16
Template Library ......................................................................................................................16
Step 1 - Select a Template from the Library ..............................................................16
Step 2 Specify the Template Name and Connector.................................................16
Step 3 - Customize the Content of the Template .......................................................17
Step 4 Setup a Schedule ..........................................................................................17
Step 5 Select Publishing Options ............................................................................18
Template Studio .......................................................................................................................18
Studio Ribbon ............................................................................................................18
Steps to Design A Template .....................................................................................................19
Step 1 Layout ..........................................................................................................19
Step 2 Data Connect................................................................................................19
Step 3 Interactive Designer .....................................................................................19
Step 4 Report Names ..............................................................................................19
Step 5 Schedule .......................................................................................................19
Themes .....................................................................................................................................20
Deployment ..............................................................................................................................20
Review: Data Placement 21

Overview ..................................................................................................................................21
Layout ........................................................................................................................21
Data Connection ........................................................................................................21
Preview the Template ................................................................................................22
Choosing Placement...................................................................................................23
Review: Report Names 24

Overview ..................................................................................................................................24
Layout ........................................................................................................................24
Data Connection ........................................................................................................24
Naming Convention ...................................................................................................24
Design a Schedule ......................................................................................................25
Schedule Reports .......................................................................................................26
View Reports .............................................................................................................26
Multiple Worksheets in a Workbook .......................................................................................26
Getting Results - iii -

View Reports .............................................................................................................27
Creating Report Folders ...........................................................................................................27
View Reports .............................................................................................................28
Report from Real Time 29

Overview ..................................................................................................................................29
Exercise: Daily Values Report - Library ..................................................................................29
View Reports .............................................................................................................30
Enhancement: Add Additional Column ...................................................................................30
Layout ........................................................................................................................31
Data Connection ........................................................................................................31
Exercise: Daily Summary Report - Studio ...............................................................................31
Layout ........................................................................................................................32
Data Connection ........................................................................................................32
View Reports .............................................................................................................35
Enhancement: Add intermediate calculations ..........................................................................36
Layout ........................................................................................................................36
Data Connection ........................................................................................................36
Enhancement: Add a summary and chart .................................................................................37
Summary Calculations ...............................................................................................37
Chart ..........................................................................................................................38
View Reports .............................................................................................................38
Exercise: Publish Web reports .................................................................................................38
View Reports .............................................................................................................39
Exercise: Enabling Web Portal ................................................................................................39
Enable Internet Information Services.........................................................................39
Enable Web Portal .....................................................................................................40
Access Web Portal .....................................................................................................40
Review: Register Variables 41

Overview ..................................................................................................................................41
Register Variables ......................................................................................................41
Report from Real Time on Event 42

Overview ..................................................................................................................................42
Exercise: Daily Event Report ...................................................................................................42
Layout ........................................................................................................................43
Data Connection ........................................................................................................43
View Reports .............................................................................................................45
Summary Calculations ...............................................................................................46
Chart ..........................................................................................................................46
View Reports .............................................................................................................47
Exercise: Cycle Report .............................................................................................................47
Layout ........................................................................................................................48
- iv - Getting Results
Data Connection ........................................................................................................48
View Reports .............................................................................................................52
Enhancement: Add user comments ..........................................................................................52
Layout ........................................................................................................................52
Data Connection ........................................................................................................53
Produce Reports .........................................................................................................53
View Reports and add Comments ..............................................................................53
Report from Historians 54

Overview ..................................................................................................................................54
Exercise: Daily Values Report Template Library .................................................................54
View Reports .............................................................................................................55
Exercise: Daily Summary Report .............................................................................................55
Layout ........................................................................................................................55
Data Connection ........................................................................................................56
View Reports .............................................................................................................59
Enhancement: Add intermediate calculations ..........................................................................59
Review: Connection Scope ......................................................................................................60
Exercise: Daily Process Book ..................................................................................................60
Layout ........................................................................................................................61
Data Sheet ..................................................................................................................61
Summary Sheet ..........................................................................................................62
Trends Sheet ..............................................................................................................62
View Reports .............................................................................................................63
Review: Scheduler 64
Overview ..................................................................................................................................64
Designer ...................................................................................................................................64
Producing Reports ....................................................................................................................64
Start/Stop ..................................................................................................................................65
Scheduler Setup ........................................................................................................................65
Run as a Service .........................................................................................................65
Run on the Desktop....................................................................................................65
Review: Date Time Variables 66

Overview ..................................................................................................................................66
Date Time Variables ..................................................................................................66
Report from Historians on Event 67

Overview ..................................................................................................................................67
Exercise: Discrete Report .........................................................................................................67
Layout ........................................................................................................................68
Data Connection ........................................................................................................68
Getting Results -v-

View Reports .............................................................................................................71
Report from Historians On-Demand 72

Overview ..................................................................................................................................72
Exercise: On-Demand Summary Report ..................................................................................72
Produce Reports .........................................................................................................72
Exercise: On-Demand Report ..................................................................................................73
Layout ........................................................................................................................73
Data Connection ........................................................................................................73
Produce Reports .........................................................................................................75
Exercise: Data Management.....................................................................................................75
Format Range .............................................................................................................75
Value Limit Range .....................................................................................................76
Exercise: Excel .........................................................................................................................76
Layout ........................................................................................................................76
Report from Text Files 78

Overview ..................................................................................................................................78
Text Historian ............................................................................................................78
Database .....................................................................................................................78
Exercise: Cycle Report .............................................................................................................78
Connector ...................................................................................................................79
Template ....................................................................................................................80
Header ........................................................................................................................80
Data Connection ........................................................................................................80
Preview the Report.....................................................................................................82
Exercise: Enhanced Cycle Report ............................................................................................82
View Reports .............................................................................................................85
Email and SMS 86

Overview ..................................................................................................................................86
Exercise: Email Daily Summary Report ..................................................................................86
Validate the Schedule ................................................................................................88
Exercise: Sending SMS Messages ...........................................................................................89
Create a Configuration ...............................................................................................89
Validating the Schedule .............................................................................................90
Exercise: Adding Custom Keywords .......................................................................................91
Modify Configuration ................................................................................................91
Validate the Configuration .........................................................................................91
FTP Transfer 92
Overview ..................................................................................................................................92
Exercise: Uploading Reports to an FTP Server ........................................................................92
Validate the Schedule ................................................................................................93
File Manager 94
Overview ..................................................................................................................................94
Exercise: Copying Reports to a Shared Folder.........................................................................94
Create the Configuration ............................................................................................94
Validate the Configuration .........................................................................................95
- vi - Getting Results
Design the Schedule ...................................................................................................95
Exercise: Compressing Reports................................................................................................95
Create the Configuration ............................................................................................95
Design the Schedule ...................................................................................................96
DeltaV Analyze 97
Overview ..................................................................................................................................97
Exercise: Export Analyze Data ................................................................................................97
Settings ......................................................................................................................98
Executing Manually ...................................................................................................99
Exercise: On-Demand Report ..................................................................................................99
Select a Template .......................................................................................................99
Specify the Template Name .......................................................................................99
Customize the Content ...............................................................................................99
Produce Reports .........................................................................................................99
Upgrade 100
Before the Upgrade ................................................................................................................100
Copy the version 7.0 to 11.7 project ........................................................................100
Stop the Schedule.....................................................................................................100
Install Version 12 .....................................................................................................100
How to start the Upgrade .........................................................................................100
After the Upgrade ...................................................................................................................100
Register the product .................................................................................................100
Run a General System Check...................................................................................100
Schedule Automatically ...........................................................................................101
Test Schedule Commands ........................................................................................101
Getting Results - vii -

Welcome to XLReporter
Welcome
Welcome to XLReporter, the award winning reporting software to produce Workbook, encrypted
PDF and Web reports from Excel templates. Reports are produced automatically or on-demand from a
single workstation to any place in the organization and distributed via email, web portal, FTP and
more.
Templates (from which reports are produced) are designed in either the Template Library or the
Template Studio. Library templates are pre-built templates and are configured by providing a few
basic settings. For users that require custom templates the Design Studio, integrated into Microsoft
Excel, provides all the features of Excel along with XLReporter functions specifically designed for
industry.
XLReporters proprietary reporting engine is a standalone application that transforms templates into
Workbook, PDF and Web reports. No need for third party products such as Excel.
The main components of XLReporter are:

Data Logging
- Log the content of a worksheet to a database or text file using Data Management.
Example: Export the summary values from a daily report to a comma separated file.
- Log process values to a database with Analytics.
Collect real-time process data and store to a database. In addition to the raw data,
analytics, such as average and maximum, can also be stored.
Data Connectors
- Real time connectors provide the current values in real time servers such as iFIX,
InTouch, RSLinx, or OPC Server.
- Historian connectors provide raw and analytical information from third party
historians such as Canary Labs, Proficy Historian, FactoryTalk Historian, DeltaV
Historian, KEPServerEX Historian, Wonderware Historian or OPC-HDA Server.
- Database connectors provide information from relational databases e.g., Microsoft
Access and SQL Server, for alarm, event and batch data.
- Form connectors provide raw and summary information from data collected
manually using Interactive Forms.
- Text file connectors provide raw and analytical information from text files that are
produced by third party products such as Allen Bradley Panel View Plus and Red
Lion.
- Analytic connectors provide raw and analytical information from relational
databases e.g., Microsoft Access and SQL Server that are maintained by Analytics.
Data Entry Forms
- Data Entry Forms are used to store manual data to a database, e.g., operator rounds
and laboratory result. The information in the database can be used for reporting
purposes, alongside other data sources.
The forms are used on local workstations, any place in your network or from mobile
tablets. In the latter case the data is either stored directly to the database or stored
on the tablet and pushed to the database when a wireless connection becomes
available.
Automatic Reports
- Automatic Reports are produced by the Scheduler. Reports harness the powerful
features of Excel and yet a copy of Microsoft Excel does not need to be deployed to
the target system.
Reports are built at one-time or over a period of time.
Getting Results -9-

Completed reports use a custom naming convention and can be automatically sent to
printer, Email, web server or published to PDF or HTML formats. Additional tools
such as file management and FTP transfer are provided.
On-Demand Reports
On-Demand reports are produced by specifying custom settings e.g., a date range.
The reports are used on a local workstation or any place in your network, each
producing reports based on their security credentials.
Installation
During the installation, pre-requisites are checked and if they are not satisfied, such as the correct
version of .NET is not installed, they are installed.
To use the Team Edition or the Web Portal, the IIS feature of the Windows operating system has to
be turned on.
Licensing
XLReporter provides four editions, Standard, Suite, Professional and Team. A comparison of the
editions can be found on our web site www.sytech.com.
The software can be installed in evaluation mode. In this mode, a report template is limited in data
connections and will operate in two hour periods (which can be extended). For more comprehensive
evaluation modes, contact SyTech.
An evaluation license can be made permanent by installing a software license key which is obtained by
entering the unique lock code provided SyTech.
Software Requirements
The following software is required for all editions:
Microsoft Windows Operating System
.NET 3.5 framework
The following software is required for template design only:

Microsoft Excel 2007 and above
The following Windows feature is required on the server for the Team edition:
Internet Information Services
Excel 2007 Users

To use Excel 2007, Service Pack 3 or higher must be installed.
- 10 - Getting Results
Getting Started
Overview
This document provides a number of exercises on XLReporter. For more details on the concepts
used, please refer to the User Guide.
Creating a Project
The Project Explorer provides easy access to all the features of XLReporter. It is opened from the
Start menu of Windows or from the shortcut added to the desktop during installation.
The interface consists of a menu ribbon and multiple panes for viewing project templates and status.
When the Project Explorer is opened for the first time, a demo project is shown. The various
elements of this project are described by selecting Demo Project from the Documentation menu
option.
It is strongly recommended that a new project is created for your templates instead of adding them to
the demo project. If there is a need to revisit the demo project, it can be re-opened from the File, Open
menu option (shown in green).
To create a project, select the File menu and select New Project to start the Project Wizard.
Getting Results - 11 -
The Project Wizard guides you step-by-step in creating a new project.
Step 1
Enter a Project Name and Description. The Project Location determines where the project
will be saved which, by default, is a sub folder of the project.
Step 2
Accept the defaults. Click Next
Step 3
Accept the defaults. Click Next
Step 4
Accept the default. Click Next
Step 5
Configure data connector(s) to your data sources.
Connectors provide the definition of the data sources. An advantage of this approach is that a
change in the Connector definition does not have any cascading effect on other configuration
performed in the project.
If a data source is not readily available, use the XLReporter Simulation data sources that
provide all the functionality of a real data source.
Click Finish
The settings made in the wizard can be modified at a later date using the Project tab or Data tab of the
Project Explorer.
Project Explorer Panels
Left Panel
The left panel of the Project Explorer shows a list of all the templates defined in the project. Selecting
a particular template updates the lower half of the panel with the items defined in the template.
A template or a specific item in the template can be modified by double clicking the item or right
clicking and selecting an option.
Right Panel
The right panel of the Project Explorer shows the registration status of the project and a list of
licensed project components (showing which are enabled based on the license).
The status panel turns yellow when registration times out. At this point open registration to extend the
evaluation period. If the project is off-line the status panel turns red.
Registration
The Project Explorer menu ribbon consists of four tabs Home, Data, Project and Tools. The current
status of the license is also displayed.
If you have not done so, register the product for evaluation. From the Home tab, select Register
Product to open the registration dialog.
Evaluation License
Enter the information required and select Start Trial to start the evaluation. When the evaluation
period expires, you can re-open this display and select Extend Trial.
The evaluation license runs continuously for two hours and limits the number of data connections
updated in a report template. When the product is registered, this limit is removed.
Full License
Select Enter Key to obtain the lock code. Contact SyTech and provide the lock code and product serial
number to obtain a key code.
Move a License
To move the registration to another PC, select Options, Move Registration to obtain a transfer code.
Contact SyTech and provide the product serial number and transfer code along with lock code from the
new installation.
System Check
From the Tools tab of the Project Explorer, select System Check to perform a scan of the
installation, and to repair any defects.
In rare cases you may find that the XLReporter menu option does not appear in Excel. In this case
use the menu option Tools, Repair Design Studio as an attempt to correct this situation.
Two tabs are displayed, Connector and General.
Connector
The Connector tab is used to verify reading/writing to the data connectors.
Select Add, choose a real time Connector and some Items provided by the connector.
If you are using the XLReporter simulator connector

Expand User Defined
Select the tags that start with Cycle_
Click Start to have the values update at the rate specified in Edit, Update Rate. Click Stop to stop
the update.
If the item support writes, highlight the row containing the item and click Modify to set a new value
for the item.
The File, Save from the menu is used to save the configuration for future use.
Select File, Save As
Set Name to Cycle Values
Click OK
The lower part of the display shows any errors that occurred when the items are read. In the lower right
are the scan times of various operations. Open Server items (ms) indicates the speed to establish
communications and Read Server items (ms) indicates the speed at which the items are read.
General
The General tab is used for general tests. Click the Start pushbutton to have the installation scan and
repair defects. When complete, the display shows the results of the scan.
Template Design
Overview
Reports are produced from Templates. There are two ways to build a template, either the Template
Library or the Template Studio. In this chapter an overview of each method is provided.
Template Library
The Template Library is used to create a fully functional template in a few easy steps to produce
reports automatically, on-demand or both. The library creates an Excel template directly so an
installed copy of Excel is not required.
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer, select Template, Library.
Step 1 - Select a Template from the Library

In this step a library template is selected.
The current list of templates in the library is displayed in the left pane. Highlighting a template shows
a sample of a completed report.
Step 2 Specify the Template Name and Connector

In this step a template name and the connector to use are specified.
Set the Name, Description and the Connector that is used to access data. The Reporting Method
determines if the template is to create report On-Demand using custom parameters or Scheduled
automatically.
Step 3 - Customize the Content of the Template
In this step the content of the template is customized by specifying captions and labels. For Reporting
Method of Scheduled (in Step 2) the tag names are also specified.
The next two steps are only applicable to a Reporting Method of Scheduled.
Step 4 Setup a Schedule

In this step the frequency of when reports are produced is specified. The settings also determine the
naming convention used for the workbook/worksheet reports.
Set the Period to the time span of the report and the Start to the time of the first entry. The rows (or
columns) in the report can be set at an Interval. For example for a Period of 1 Day and an Interval of
1 Hour, produces a report with 24 hourly rows.
Reports can be collated into a single workbook by specifying the Collate Period.
Examples:
Period Interval Collate
Day 15 minutes Month
A daily report with a row every 15 minutes, stored in a monthly workbook.

Month 1Day Year
A monthly report with a row every day, stored in a yearly workbook.

Month 1Day Month
A monthly report with a row every day, stored in a monthly workbook.
Step 5 Select Publishing Options
In this step select options to automatically publish the report. Any options selected at this step will add
a command to the schedule (see Scheduler).
Select alternative outputs such as Web Page (HTML) and PDF.
For Email and FTP, a configuration is specified by clicking the browse button [...]. The configuration
can be modified in Tools tab of the Project Explorer by selecting Email and SMS or FTP Transfer.
Template Studio
The Template Studio is used to create highly customized templates in a few easy steps from which
reports are produced automatically, on-demand or both. The Template Studio is integrated into
Microsoft Excel so that templates can harness over 400 functions, charts and formatting capabilities in
addition to the XLReporter functions that are built specifically for industry.
From the Home tab of Project Explorer, select Template, Studio. To open an existing template,
double click the name in the left pane. If the icon is disabled then XLReporter has not detected an
installed copy of Excel.
Studio Ribbon
From the Excel menu, click XLReporter to display the Template Studio ribbon.
When selected, most ribbon items display a panel which is initially at the left edge. To move the
panel, click and hold the mouse on the panel title and then drag to the location of choice.
To create a new template, select File, New from the Template Studio ribbon.
Enter a meaningful Name for the template
Click OK
An empty template is displayed.
Steps to Design A Template
The steps to design are template are:
Layout. Add the background static content, charts, formatting, formulas
Data Connect. Select the Connector for the data and where the data will be located
For on-demand reports:

Interactive Designer. Select the methods the user will use to specify report settings
For automatic reports:

Report Names. Specify the name of the workbook and worksheet when it is created.
Schedule. Specify when the report is generated
Step 1 Layout
Use features such as formatting, formula and charts to produce a layout of the template.
Accelerate development by using the Content wizard in the ribbon. The wizard uses the active theme
(see Themes).
Step 2 Data Connect

Use Data Connect to specify the connector providing the data and where the data will be placed.
This can be setup to use relative timeframes e.g., last day with the intention of Scheduled reports or can
contain variables with the intention of using the template On-Demand.
Step 3 Interactive Designer

This step is only applicable to templates that are On-Demand.
Use Interactive Designer to specify the method by which users are to set variables. In most cases the
Studio automatically performs this setup.
Step 4 Report Names

The next two steps (steps 4 and 5) are only applicable to templates that are Scheduled.
Use Report Names option to specify the naming convention of the completed report at both the
workbook and worksheet level. For example, for a workbook every month called
Monthly_{MMM}{YYYY} and daily reports called {DD}.
Step 5 Schedule
Use Schedule to specify when the template is scheduled together with publishing options (see
Scheduler).
Themes
Themes are used to maintain a consistent appearance across reports. Theme settings set default
template color options for connections, charts and conditional formatting.
To create a new theme, select Themes from the Tools tab of the Project Explorer. Assign colors to
each of the various options.
To use a theme while designing templates, select the Content, Theme ribbon option in the Design
Studio.
The use of the wizard is not essential since all of its features such as formatting, calculations and charts
can be achieved by using Excel directly. It simply makes access to these features easier.
Deployment
When a project is deployed, it does not require an installation of Excel to produce Workbook, PDF or
Web reports. The output of each format is consistent to the template.
To avoid deploying third party report viewers, XLReporter provides viewers for each of the file
formats it supports. They can be opened from the Home tab of the Project Explorer, the desktop or
from third party applications such as HMI/SCADA displays.
To add a shortcut to the desktop, expand the XLReporter folder in the start menu of Windows, select
the item and Send To Desktop.
Review: Data Placement
Overview
Reports are populated by data produced by data connections (see Data Connect in the Template
Studio). Each data connection is defined by a data Source and the Placement of the data on the
report.
In this review we will concentrate on the Placement setting and illustrate its effect on data from an
Expression connector type. In practice, the Placement setting can be applied to any connector type.
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select Template, Studio to open Excel.
From the XLReporter ribbon, select Template, New to create a new template.
Set Name to rvPlacement

Click OK to display a blank worksheet.
Layout
Content
Set C4 to H4 with the labels Direct, Append, Offset(mD), Offset(mD/15), Insert At Start,
Insert At End
Set C7 to H7 with the formula =SUM(C5:C6), =SUM(D5:D6) and so on
Data Connection
Data connections are added to row 5 for each Placement Type. Click Data, Connect to open the
Connection dialog.
Under Source
Select the Expressions Connector
Click the browse [] pushbutton and browse an expression like Second
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $C$5
Set Type to Direct
Click Add to add the configuration to the grid
To change a cell setting, click the Cell field and then click on the desired location in the worksheet.
Using the same Source settings

Under Placement
Set the Cell to $D$5
Set Type to Append
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $E$5
Set Type to Offset
Set the Offset to mD (minute of the day)
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $F$5
Set Type to Offset
Set the Offset to mD/15 (15 minute interval of the day)
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $G$5
Set Type to Insert At Start
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $H$5
Set Type to Insert At End
Preview the Template

Select Report, Preview to open the On-Demand Reports dialog.
Click Refresh to refresh the report to populate the report with current second.
Is this what you would have expected? If you are wondering where the values for Offset are scroll
down since they are based on the minute of the day or the 15 minute interval of the day.
For this test, we need to update the existing report because on each Refresh, a new report is produced.
Click Options
On the Content tab check Update existing report
Click Refresh to refresh the report
Is this what you would have expected? Notice that the Insert types affect the cells below them.
Wait at least a minute. Click Refresh to refresh the report

Notice that the Append type has jumped over the calculation, Offsets have added a second value and
Inserts have updated and pushed the calculations down.
Choosing Placement
So when is each Placement type used?
Direct
Use when the placement is fixed. Updates overwrite the cell content. This placement does
not affect the location of other cell values.
Append
Use when the placement is indeterminate e.g., adding values on events. Updates append to
the populated cells. This placement does not affect the location of other cell values.
Offset
Use when the placement is determinate e.g., hour of the day. Updates overwrite the cell
content until the offset changes. This placement does not affect the location of other cell
values.
The support for scaling e.g., 15 minute interval of the day, adds greater flexibility to the
placement.
Insert At Start / Insert At End
Use when content existing content on the report has to be moved when the insert takes place.
Updates do not overwrite the cell content. This placement does affect the location of other cell
values. The difference between Insert at Start and Insert At End is the ordering of the values
inserted.
Excel elements such as formula and charts that are configured to the top two rows of the data
area are updated automatically.
Review: Report Names
Overview
Automatic reports are produced by the scheduler on time or events. The report name is usually
configured to reflect the report content e.g., Machine2_20Jan2017. Names can be set at both the
workbook and worksheet level e.g., daily sheets named after the day produced in a monthly workbook.
In this review we will concentrate on Report Names.
Set Name to rvReportNames

Layout
Content
Set C4 to the text Date
Data Connection
Click Data, Connect to open the Connections dialog.
Under Source
Set the Connector to Expressions
Set the Name to {DATIM} by clicking browse [] and selecting Date (local format)
Under Placement
Set Type to Append
Naming Convention
Select a naming convention for daily reports stored in daily workbook.
Select Settings, Report Names to open the Report Names dialog.
Under WORKBOOK, select the row and click Modify to open the Name browser.
For Name, click browse [] and specify Year-Month-Day
Under WORKSHEET select the row containing Template and click Modify.
For Name, click browse [] push button and specify Day
Close the dialog
Design a Schedule
The template will be scheduled every hour to add a new row of values to the report.
Select Settings, Schedule to open the Schedule Designer
Highlight an empty row and click Add.

Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Start to 12:00:00 AM
Under Action
Select Produce Reports, Update Worksheet
For Worksheet, use the browser and select rvReportNames.xlsx.Template
Click OK
Schedule Reports
Simulate the production of reports.
Highlight the schedule row containing rvReportNames
Click Test and enter the test date range April 1, 2016, 00:00:00 to April 4, 2016, 00:00:00
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm that the report is being updated for each Day.
When the updating is complete, close the display, select File, Save to save the changes and
File, Exit to close the Schedule Designer
View Reports
To view the reports created, open the Reports folder of the project.
Note that the current Reports folder is displayed Settings, Workbooks from the Project tab of the
Project Explorer.
Notice that a new report workbook has been created for each day tested. Each report workbook
contains a single worksheet named after the day.
Multiple Worksheets in a Workbook

XLReporter can be configured to save multiple worksheets in a workbook by selecting appropriate
names for each.
Naming Convention
Select a naming convention for daily reports stored in Monthly workbook.
For Name, click browse [] and specify Year-Month
Close the dialog
Schedule Reports
View Reports
Notice that a new report workbook has been created for the month. The report workbook contains a
worksheet named after each day.
Creating Report Folders

Report access is simplified if the reports are organized in folders. When a report is saved to a folder
that does not exist, XLReporter creates the folder automatically. Folder can be named after the Year,
Month, Day or a Register Variable.
Naming Convention
Select a naming convention for daily entries stored in monthly workbook. The workbook will be stored
in a yearly folder.
For Folder, click browse [] and specify Year (4 digit)
For Name, click browse [] and specify Month (Jan-Dec)
Under WORKSHEET select the row containing Template and click Delete.
Close the dialog
Schedule Reports
View Reports
Notice that a new folder for the year containing a report workbook for the month. The report workbook
contains a worksheet with multiple updates.
Report from Real Time
Overview
XLReporter connects to real time servers such as OPC, iFIX, InTouch and Kepware to produce a
wide range of reports such as snapshot and summary reports. These reports do not require a historian
or database; instead the values are read from the real time server and placed directly in the report
according to the user settings.
A few examples are as follows:

Shift totals in separate sheets in a daily workbook
Hourly readings in a daily worksheet
5 minute readings in a batch report during a machine cycle
Before you begin, create a Connector to a real time data source. If you do not have access to a data
source, create a connector to the XLReporter Simulator Real-time values.
Exercise: Daily Values Report - Library

This exercise uses the Template Library to show you how to produce a daily report of hourly process
data. The daily reports are stored in a monthly workbook.
The Template Library is used to create a fully functional template in a few easy steps to produce
reports automatically, on-demand or both. The library creates an Excel template directly so an
installed copy of Excel is not required. However, the template enhancement exercises will require a
copy Excel to be installed.
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select Template, Library to open the library wizard.
Select a Template
From Real Time, expand General and select the Values template
Click Next
Specify the Template Name and Connector
Enter the Name rtLibSummary
Select the Connector that represents the data source
Click Next
Customize the Content of the Template
Under Report Content
Enter a Title for the report
Under Tag Details
Select up to 40 tags. The Caption shows the default text that appears as column headings in
the report, modify as needed.
Click Next
Setup a Schedule
The defaults are setup for a daily report with data shown in an Interval of 1 hour. The reports are
collated (saved) in monthly workbooks.
Click Next
Select Publishing Options
Click Finish
Schedule Reports
Simulate the production of reports. From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, select Schedule,
Designer.
Highlight the schedule row referencing rtLibSummary
Click Start to simulate hourly updates over the date range. A display is shown to confirm
that the report is being updated for each hour.
When the updating is complete, close the display and then select File, Exit to close the
Schedule Designer
View Reports
To view the reports created, choose the Home tab of the Project Explorer and select View,
Workbook Reports. This is a viewer for Excel files that does not require an installation of Excel.
In the upper left, under Scheduled, select rtLibSummary.
Click the report rtLibSummary_Apr2016 to view its content.
Notice a row of values for each hour and a new worksheet for each day.
Close the viewer
Enhancement: Add Additional Column

This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how to add an additional column of
data to the report.
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, double click the template rtLibSummary to open the
template in Excel.
Layout
Add an extra column using the Cells options.
Highlight column D. This is done by clicking DE in the header of the worksheet.

From the XLReporter ribbon
Click Cells, Insert to add an addition column
Set the heading label
Using the Cells option modifies the cell references of any data connections that are affected by the
change.
Data Connection
The connection providing the data needs to be modified to account for the additional column in the
template.
Click Data, Connect to open the Connection dialog.
Modify a Data Group
Double click the connection in the grid to open the data group.
On the Columns tab
Right click the third row and click Insert
The empty row in the group accounts for the calculation in the template.
Browse for the new tag

Click File, Save and exit the data group
Exercise: Daily Summary Report - Studio

This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to design a template from blank. This
reproduces the previous exercise to produce a daily summary report of hourly process data. The daily
reports are stored in a monthly workbook.
Set Name to rtSummary
Layout
Theme
Layout in the template is performed using a theme. Select a Theme from the list.
Add a Header
From the XLReporter ribbon, select the Content, Design.
Select Header
Set the cursor in Target and select the cells starting at $B$2 to the cell where the title should
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Select an optional company logo or image
Click Insert
Whenever the symbol is displayed, cell references can be specified by placing the cursor in the field
and then selecting the range of cells on the worksheet. Using this approach, the field (such as the
Target above) automatically updates with the cells selected.
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data source for the template.
Select cell $B$6
Click Data, Connect to open the Connections dialog (this dialog can be re-positioned by
holding the mouse on the title bar and dragging).
Notice that the cell reference is automatically set under Placement.
The display contains a grid showing all the connections of the template (which should be empty at this
stage). If the grid is not shown, widen the display.
When an entry in the grid is highlighted, its settings are shown in the left pane. The Add, Modify and
Delete pushbuttons are used to add/modify/delete the settings to/from the grid.
There are two steps in adding a data connection. The first step is to define a data group which
represents the data source the second step is to place the data group on the template.
Define a Data Group
Under Source
Select a real time Connector
Set Name to <add group >
Click the browse [] pushbutton to open a real time data group
On the Columns tab

Under Name, click the browse [] pushbutton
In the Tag Browser, select at least 4 tags using the [>] or [>>] pushbuttons and click OK
Click Preview and Refresh to view the current values of the tags. Close Preview.
Click File, Save and use the Name rtSummary
Exit the data group.
Notice the data group name has been placed in Name field on the connections display
Place the Data Group

The second step is to specify the placement of the data group on the template. The placement is
configured relative to $B$6 based on the hour of the day e.g., at midnight place at B6 whereas at 3AM
place at an offset of 3 down i.e., cell B9.
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $B$6. This is done automatically if the Data Connections is opened with the
cell selected.
Set Type to Offset
Set Direction to Down
For Offset use the browser [] pushbutton and select Hour of the Day (hD)
Notice that the layout for the data group is automatically added to the template, using the active theme.
Use Excel to modify the layout such as column widths and custom formatting. For example,
Highlight the cells $C$5 to the right most cell in the header
Right-click and select Format Cells
On the Alignment tab, check Wrap Text
Click OK
Naming Convention
Set a naming convention to reflect to reflect that daily reports are stored in monthly workbook.
For Name, click browse [] and specify rtSummary followed by the Month and Year
Close the dialog

Click Refresh to refresh the report. If the template needs adjusting, close this display, make
changes to the template and preview again.
Notice the tab on worksheet reflecting the current day of the month and that the output from the data
group has been placed relative to B6 based on the hour of the day.
Close the dialog and return to Excel
Design a Schedule
The template will be scheduled to update every hour to add a new row of values to the report.
Select Settings, Schedule to open the Schedule Designer (there may be other schedules displayed
from other exercises).

Under Condition
Select Continuous
Set Start to 12:00:00 AM
Set Every 1 hour
On <every day>
Note that typically the Schedule runs at the same frequency as the Offset connection for a live value
time triggered report. e.g., place the offset for Hour of the Day (hD) then schedule the report
continuous every hour.
To have the report time period be from 05:00:00 AM to 04:00:00 AM the next day set the Action Time
Adjustment to 5 hour(s).
Under Action
For Worksheet, use the browser and select rtSummary.xlsx.Template
Click OK
Schedule Reports
Highlight the schedule row containing rtSummary
Click Start to simulate hourly updates over the day. A display is shown to confirm that the
report is being updated for each hour.
View Reports
To view the reports created, select Report, Open
Under Reports select rtSummary
Click the report rtSummary _Apr2016 to view its content.
Notice a new worksheet for each day
Note that when a report opened using XLReporter ribbon, it opens Read-Only.
Close Excel.
Enhancement: Add intermediate calculations
This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how to add an intermediate column
in the template that contains calculations using the values from the process. The exercise can be
applied to either the Library or Studio exercise.
From the Project Explorer double click the rtSummary template in the left pane to open it in the
Template Studio. This opens Excel with the selected template loaded. Alternatively, open Excel and
use File Open from the XLReporter ribbon.
Layout
Highlight column E. This is done by clicking E in the header of the worksheet.
From the XLReporter ribbon
Click Cells, Insert to add an addition column
Set the heading label to Total
Add the calculation to E6
Select $E$6
Set the formula to =SUM(C6:D6) and click enter
Copy this formula and paste it to the other cells in the column
Select $E$6
Right-click Copy
Highlight cells $E$7:$E$29
Right-click Paste Special and select Formulas
Data Connection
The connection providing the data needs to be modified to account for the additional column in the
template.
Modify a Data Group
Double click the connection in the grid to open the data group.
On the Columns tab
Right click the third row and click Insert
The empty row in the group accounts for the calculation in the template.
Click File, Save and exit the data group
Enhancement: Add a summary and chart

This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how to add summary calculations
and a chart using the Content Design options. The exercise can be applied to either the Library or
Studio exercise.
Summary Calculations
From the ribbon, select the Content, Design.
Select Calculation Summary
Set the cursor in Source and select the cells starting at $C$6 to the cell in the lower right of
the table (e.g., $K$29).
Set Target to Template!$C$30
Check one or more calculations
Click Insert
Chart
Expand the height of row 4 to 200
From the ribbon, select the Content, Chart. With 2Axis selected,
Under Chart Values
Set Vert. (Y) to Template!$C$5:$D$29
Set Vert. (YS) to Template!$E$5:$E$29
Set Hori. (X) to Template!$B$5:$B$29
Check Header Rows and set to 1
Click Insert
Move the chart into row 4
Schedule Reports
Simulate the production of reports to verify that it is ready to deploy.
Select Schedule from the ribbon.
Highlight the schedule row containing the template name
Click Test and enter the test date range May 1, 2016, 00:00:00 to May 4, 2016, 23:00:00
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm that the report is being updated for each hour.
Schedule Designer
View Reports
Click the report to view its content.
Close Excel
Exercise: Publish Web reports

This exercise continues from the previous exercises to demonstrate how to publish reports as web
pages which then makes the report viewable from a web browser. The approach presented can easily
be extended to PDF reports. The exercise can be applied to either the Library or Studio exercise.
Design a Schedule
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer select Schedule, Designer to view the current
schedules.
Highlight the schedule below the template and click Add.
Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Time to 11:00:00 PM
The report contains values daily from 00:00:00 to 23:00:00 so the web page is created when the report
is complete at 23:00:00 (11:00:00 PM).
If the report contains values from 05:00:00 AM to 04:00:00 AM the next day set the Time to 04:00:00
AM with an Action Time Adjustment of 5 hour(s).
Under Action
Select Publish Reports, Save Workbook to Web Page(s)
Use the browser and select the template name
Leave Target empty (this uses the naming that was setup earlier in the exercise)
Click OK
The command to produce the web page is placed after update command since the schedule executes
the commands top to bottom in the list. To optimize efficiency, do not stagger schedule lines.
Schedule Reports
Click Test and enter a test date range for the updated report
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm that the report is being updated for each day
When the updating is complete, close the display.
View Reports
The web pages are saved to the Web folder of the project. Open Windows Explorer and navigate to
the Web folder of the project.
Open the template folder
Highlight the web page, right-click and Open to open the page in the default web browser.
Exercise: Enabling Web Portal

One advantage of production web pages is that they can be viewed in web browsers making them
easily accessible. Web browsers are readily available in the Windows operating system, in tablets and
mobile devices.
So how do you open a web page in a browser? In the previous exercise this was done by opening it
from the hard drive which will not be easy to perform by users on the network. A better method is to
give access to the pages using XLReporters web portal.
Enable Internet Information Services

The web portal uses a Windows component called Internet Information Services (IIS) which is
delivered with the operating system. This component needs to be enabled for the web portal and
instructions on how to do this can be found in the Web Portal chapter of the User Guide.
Enable Web Portal
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, select Web Portal.
The Folder setting is the folder where web pages are published by default.
Check Enable Web Portal
Enter a Name. This is the name users will use to reference the portal from their browser.
Click Setup IIS and wait for acknowledge that the setup was successful.
The remaining settings are optional

Set the Title. This will be text on the home page of the portal.
Set the Logo. This is the image of the portal.
Set the Welcome. This is the image on the welcome page.
Click OK
Access Web Portal

Access the portal by the URL http://ip address of host/portal Name/webreports.aspx
Browsing from a remote device may require the firewall settings. Browsing from wireless devices
may require wireless authentication setup.
If hosting is from a remote server, use XLReporters FTP client to transfer the web pages.
Review: Register Variables
Overview
XLReporter provides three categories of variables; Function, Analytic and User Defined. This
review discusses the Function category called Registers.
From the Data tab of the Project Explorer select Variables to open the Variable Editor.
Clicking on a specific category type like Register lists all the register variables in the grid. Every
variable has a friendly name and an internal name e.g., the internal name for a register is RGxxx where
xxx is a number from 000. When using variables either name can be used.
Once a Function variable is given a value, it remains permanent until it is overwritten with a fresh
value.
Register Variables
Register variables are placeholders for values. Normally, a value is assigned to a Register using an
Action of the Scheduler. Another method for setting a value is in the Variable Editor.
Use the Action as follows:

Set a Value to a Variable
This action overwrites the current value of the Register with the one specified.
In a later exercise we will use a Register to hold the report name which is read from the process when
an event occurs.
Expand Function and select Register. Highlight the top row in the grid and select Modify (or double
click).
Set the Description to Report name for each cycle
Click OK
By selecting the variable, its current value can be seen in the right pane.
Click Set Value and give it a value and give it the value Test value.
Click OK
Report from Real Time on Event
Overview
XLReporter connects to real time servers such as OPC, iFIX, InTouch and Kepware to produce a
wide range of reports such as exception reports. These reports do not require a historian or database;
instead the values are read from the real time server and placed directly in the report according to the
user settings.
Unlike reporting on time where values are captured periodically, reporting on event values are captured
when triggered by process conditions.
A few examples are as follows:

A log of the start and stop of a machine
A report of operator events
A list of process exceptions
Before you begin, create a Connector to a real time data source. If you do not have access to a data
source, create a connector to the XLReporter Simulator Real-time values.
Exercise: Daily Event Report

This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to design a template from blank to
produce a daily report of process data collected each time an event occurs. The daily reports are stored
in a monthly workbook.
Set Name to rtEvent
Layout
Add a Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Click Insert
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data source for the template. Click Data, Connect to open the
Connection dialog.
Define a Data Group
Under Source
Click the browse [] pushbutton to open the real time data group
On the Columns tab

In the Tag Browser, select one or more tags using the [>] or [>>] pushbuttons and click OK
Click File, Save and use the Name rtEvent
The second step is to specify the placement of the data group on the template. The connection is
configured to insert a new set of values at row 8 each time the report is updated, moving existing
content according to the Direction.
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $B$8. This can be done by clicking into the input area and then clicking on the
cell $B$8 on the worksheet.
Set Type to Insert At Start.
Use Excel to modify the format of the cells in row 8 only such as the date\time format and the
number of decimal places. When new rows are added the formatting is propagated.
Naming Convention
Set a naming convention to reflect that daily reports are stored in monthly workbook.
Under WORKBOOK, select the row and click Modify to open the Name browser
For Name, click browse [] button and specify rtEvent followed by the Month and Year
Under WORKSHEET select the row containing Template and click Modify
Close the dialog

Design a Schedule
The template will be scheduled to update on a process event causing a new row of values in the report.

Under Condition expand Event
Set a Tag that you would like to monitor.
Set the Condition and Value
Under Action expand Produce Reports

Select Update Worksheet
Use the browser and select rtEvent.xlsx.Template
Click OK
The tag shown in the display above is from the simulator connector provided by XLReporter.
Schedule Reports
Uncheck all the schedule lines except the row containing rtEvent
Start the scheduler by selecting Scheduler, Start (note that this is where you would also stop
the scheduler)
The scheduler will open with all the disabled lines colored red, and the enabled line in grey.
Toggle the event bit to update the report. If you are using the simulator connector then this can be
done using the system check application. From the Tools tab of the Project Explorer, select System
Check and open the configuration saved in a previous exercise
Select File, Open
Choose Cycle Values
Click Open
To set the event bit.
Highlight the row containing the tag Cycle Start
Click Modify
Set the value to 1
The schedule executes by showing the time of execution and turning blue.
Toggle the bit a few time from 0 to 1 (pausing a few seconds or more)
Close System Check
Stop the Scheduler
Select File, Exit, save edits and close the Schedule Designer
View Reports
From the ribbon, select Report, Open.
Click the report rtEvent_monthYear to view its content.
Notice a new worksheet for each day with an entry corresponding to the occurrence of a
simulated event.
Close Excel.
This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how to add a summary calculations
and a chart using Content Design options.
Since the number of rows in the report is determined by the number of events that occur during the
day, the chart and summary are configured to the top two rows of the data placement and are
expanded as new rows are added.
Summary Calculations
Select Calculation Summary
Set the cursor in Source and select the cells starting at $C$8 to the rightmost cell on row 9
(e.g., $J$9).
Set Target to Template!$C$4
Check three calculations
Click Insert
Chart
Expand the height of row 3 to 200
From the ribbon, select the Content, Chart. With Scatter Chart selected,
Under Chart Values
Set Vert. (Y) to Template!$C$8:$C$9
Set Hori. (X) to Template!$B$8:$B$9
Click Insert
Move the chart into row 3
Note when plotting time-series data where the time is not periodic, a scatter chart will account for the
unequal spacing.
From the XLReporter ribbon, click Save.
A prompt will appear indicating that report workbook already exists and that changes will
only come into effect if it is archived.
Click Yes to archive or No if you wish to wait for the changes to come into effect on the next
creation of the report workbook.
Schedule Reports
Simulate the production of reports by following the instructions of the previous exercise.
View Reports
Click the report rtEvent_monthYear to view its content.
Notice a new worksheet for each day with an entry corresponding to the occurrence of a
simulated event.
Close Excel.
Exercise: Cycle Report

This exercise uses the Template Studio to produce a cycle report which contains values that are
recorded during the cycle e.g., a batch cycle, machine cycle or alarm cycle. The cycle reports are
stored in a daily workbook.
A common feature of a cycle report is that the start and end of the report is determined by process
conditions such as the time when a pump started/stopped or when a batch started/finished. Another
characteristic of this report is that the name of the report usually contains text that identifies the cycle
such as a batch ID or machine name.
In this exercise, the cycle report will start on an event condition, update its content periodically while
the condition holds and complete the report when the condition clears. The condition could be
machine running or when the speed greater than 20 RPM.
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select Template Studio to open Excel.
Set Name to rtCycle

Layout
Add a Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Click Insert
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data sources for the template. Select cell $B$6 and click Data,
Connect to open the Connection dialog. Notice the Placement cell has been set to $B$6.
Define a Data Group
Under Source
Click the browse [] pushbutton to open the real time data group
On the Columns tab select the tags that provide the content of the report during the cycle.
In the Tag Browser, select one or more tags using the [>] or [>>] pushbuttons and click OK
Click File, Save and use the Name rtCycle
The second step is to specify the placement of the data group on the template. This is configured so
that a new set of values is inserted at the end of the existing content starting at row 6, moving any
existing content according to the Direction.
Under Placement
Set Type to Insert At End.
Use Excel to modify the format of the cells in row 6 only such as the date format and the
number of decimal places.
Naming Convention
Set a naming convention to reflect that the cycle reports are stored in daily workbook. The workbooks
are organized in monthly/yearly folders that are created automatically.
Select Report Names to open the Report Names dialog.
Under WORKBOOK, select the rtCycle row and click Modify

For Folder, click browse [] push button and specify select Year-Month. Change to \ to
create new folders automatically.
For Name, click browse [] push button and specify rtCycle followed by the Year-Month-
Day
Under WORKSHEET, select the Template row and click Modify to open the Name browser
For Name, click browse [] push button
Expand Variable (at the end of the list)
Select the Register RG000 which was configured in the review exercise Register Variables.
Close the dialog

Note the report name (worksheet tab) is named by the value of the variable. This was manually set in
the review exercise Register Variables.
Close the display and Excel.
Design a Schedule
A schedule is configured to produce the report in stages. When the cycle starts, the cycle name is read
from the process and stored to a variable (RG000 in our case). While the cycle is in progress, values
are added to a report named after the cycle name.
In the Project Explorer, from the Project tab, select Schedule, Designer (there may be other
schedules displayed from other exercises).

Select the Tag that indicates the cycle is in progress. If you are using the simulator, expand
User Defined and select Cycle_Start.
Set a Condition and Value (if applicable)
To set the variable to the report name, under Action expand Manage Variables
Select Set a Value to a Variable
Use the browse [] pushbutton to set Variable to RG000.
For Value click the browse [] pushbutton and select Connector Item (at the end of the list)
For Items click the browse [] pushbutton and select a tag that provides the name for the
report. . If you are using the simulator, expand User Defined and select Cycle_ID.
Click OK
To update the report every 10 seconds during the cycle, highlight the next empty row and click Add.
Check Recur
Set Start to Event Time
Set Every to 10 seconds

Use the browser and select rtCycle.xlsx.Template
Click OK
Adding an Outline to a set of schedule lines adds informative text to the grid.
Highlight the first schedule row that will be included in the outline
Click Outline button
Enter a Description and click OK
Schedule Reports
Uncheck all the schedule lines except the rows used in this exercise
Start the scheduler by selecting Scheduler, Start (note that this is where you would also stop
the scheduler)
The scheduler will open with all the disabled lines colored red, and the enabled line in grey.
Toggle the cycle bit to update the report. If you are using the simulator connector then this can be
done using the system check application. From the Tools tab of the Project Explorer, select System
Check and open the configuration saved in a previous exercise
Select File, Open
Choose Cycle Values
Click Open
To produce the report
Highlight the row containing the tag Cycle_ID and enter an ID
Highlight the row containing the tag Cycle Start and toggle its value to 1
Notice the schedule execution time changing every 10 seconds
Stop the cycle

Highlight the row containing the tag Cycle Start and toggle its value to 0
To simulate another cycle, repeat the steps above. When finished,

Stop the Scheduler
Select File, Exit, save edits and close the Schedule Designer
View Reports
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select View, Workbook Reports.
Expand rtCycle, Year, Month
Click the report rtCycle_year_month_day to view its content
Notice a new report for each cycle.
Enhancement: Add user comments

This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how to make provision for user
input such as comments. The comments can be entered into the active report even when it is being
updated by the Scheduler!
From the Project Explorer double click the template rtCycle in the left pane to open the template in
the Template Studio. This opens Excel with the selected template loaded. Alternatively, open Excel
and use File Open from the XLReporter ribbon.
Layout
The layout is adjusted for user comment.
In the first empty column to the right,
Widen the column
Select row 5 and add the text Comment
By default, all cells are locked so that when they are viewed in the viewer they cannot be edited. To
unlock a cell for editing select the Content, Design.
Select Cell Locking
Set the cursor in Cells field and the select the cell immediately below the Comment text.
Click Unlock
Cells can also be unlocked in Excel by right-clicking a cell, selecting Format and then the Protection
tab.
Data Connection
When a new row is added to the report, the existing content of the report is moved down. The number
of columns affected by the move is determined by the number of columns configured in the data group.
In this exercise we need to expand the data group columns to account for the Comment column. The
Comment is done by adding a Static column to the group.
Open the Connections dialog and highlight the connection in the grid and double click to open the
data group.
Add a * on the last row to designate it as a static. Any text after the * e.g., *enter comment, is
written to the report. In this case no text is written but the group considers the column when
inserting.
Click Save on XLReporter ribbon and close Excel
Produce Reports
Simulate the production of reports by following the instructions of the previous exercise.
View Reports and add Comments

Expand rtCycle, year, month
Click the report rtCycle_year-month-day to view its content
Enter a comment and click Store (Ctrl-S)
Report from Historians
Overview
XLReporter connects to the leading historians from GE Digital, Rockwell Automation, Emerson
Process Management, Canary Labs, Wonderware and Kepware to produce a wide range of reports such
as summary reports.
Before you begin, create a Connector to a historical data source. If you do not have access to a data
source, create a connector to the XLReporter Simulator Historical values.
Exercise: Daily Values Report Template Library

This exercise uses the Template Library to show you how to produce a daily report of hourly process
data. The daily reports are stored in a monthly workbook.
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select Template Library to open the library wizard.
Select a Template
Expand History.
From General select Values
Click Next
Enter the Name hdValues
Select the Connector that represents the data source
Select Reporting Method Scheduled
Click Next
Under Report Content
Enter the Title or use the default
Under Tag Details
Select up to 40 tags. The Caption shows the default text that appears as column headings in
the report, modify as needed.
Click Next
Setup a Schedule
The defaults are setup for a daily report with data shown in an Interval of 1 hour. The reports are
collated (saved) in monthly workbooks.
Click Next
Select Publishing Options
Click Finish
Schedule Reports
From the Project tab, of the Project Explorer select Schedule Designer. Notice the wizard created a
schedule to update the report every day.
Highlight the schedule row referencing hdValues
Click Test and enter the date range April 2, 2016, 00:15:00 to April 4, 2016, 00:15:00
Click Start
Schedule Designer
View Reports
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer, select View, Workbook Report.
Click the report hdValues_Apr2016 to view its content. Notice the daily worksheets with
hourly values.
Since this report was generated from historical data, it represents an actual report.
Exercise: Daily Summary Report

This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to design a template from blank. This
reproduces the previous exercise to produce a daily summary report of hourly process data. The daily
reports are stored in a monthly workbook.
Set Name to hdSummary

Click OK
Layout
Theme
Layout in the template is performed using a theme. Select a Theme from the list.
Add a Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Click Insert
Whenever the symbol is displayed, cell references can be specified by placing the cursor in the field
and then selecting the range of cells on the worksheet. Using this approach, the field (such as the
Target above) automatically updates with the cells selected.
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data source for the template.
Select cell $B$6
Click Data, Connect to open the Connection dialog (this dialog can be re-positioned by
Notice that the cell reference is automatically set under Placement.
The display contains a grid showing all the connections of the template. If the grid is not shown, then
widen the display.
When an entry in the grid is highlighted, its settings are shown in the left pane. The Add, Modify and
Delete pushbuttons are used to add/modify/delete the settings to the grid.
Define a Data Group
The first step is to define a data group to represent the data for the report.
Under Source
Select a historical Connector
Click the browse [] pushbutton to open the Select Group Type dialog
The options enabled depend on the Connector. Most servers support raw and summary values.
Select Summary Values from Server and click OK.
On the Columns tab
Under Name, click the browse () pushbutton
Select one or more tags
Then select calculations e.g., average
On the Time Period tab the default settings are for a Period of a day with an Interval of 1 hour which
is the requirement of this exercise.
Validate the output of the group by clicking Preview
Close the display

Click File, Save and use the Name hdSummary
Exit the data group
Notice the data group name has been placed in the Name field on the connections display
The second step is to specify the placement of the data group on the template.
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $B$6. This is done automatically if the Data Connections is opened with the
cell selected.
Set Type to Direct
Use Excel to modify the format of the cells such as the date format and the number of decimal
places.
Naming Convention
A naming convention is required to reflect that daily reports are stored in monthly workbook.
For Name, click browse [] and specify hdSummary followed by the Month and Year
Close the dialog

Select Report Preview to open the On-Demand Reports dialog.
Select a date and click Refresh to refresh the report. If the template needs adjusting, close
this display, make changes to the template and preview again.
Notice the tab on worksheet reflecting the day of the month set as the Start.
Close the dialog and return to Excel.
Design a Schedule
The template will be scheduled for a new report every day.

Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Time to 12:15:00 AM
Set Action Time Adjustment to 1 day(s)
It is good practice to generate historical reports after the end reporting period (15 minutes in this case).
However, since the report required at this time is for the previous day, the Action Time Adjustment is
used to compensate for the time offset.
Under Action
For Worksheet, use the browser and select hdSummary.xlsx.Template
Click OK
Schedule Reports
From the Schedule Designer
Highlight the schedule containing hdSummary
Click Test and enter the date range April 2, 2016, 00:15:00 to April 5, 2016, 00:15:00.
When the updating is complete, close the display, select File, Save to save the settings and
View Reports
Click the report hdSummary_Apr2016 to view its content.
Notice a new worksheet for each day
Close Excel.
Enhancement: Add intermediate calculations

To add an intermediate calculation, follow the steps in Enhancement: Add intermediate calculations.

To add summary calculations and a chart, follow the steps in Enhancement: Add summary and chart.
Review: Connection Scope
Open the hdSummary template in Excel.
Highlight the connection in the grid to display its settings in the left pane
The Scope is set to AnySheet. This means that when the report is updated (using an UpdateWorksheet
command), this connection will output its data to the active sheet. For example, if the template is
updated on the 1st it populates the sheet called 1, on the 2nd it populates the sheet called 2 and so on.
When the Scope is set to a specific sheet, the connection will only update that sheet. The update will
happen on the UpdateWorkbook command or the UpdateWorksheet command with the sheet specified.
Note that a connection with a Scope of AnySheet does not output to the report when it is updated with
an UpdateWorkbook command. When an entire workbook is updated, only connections with a Scope
specified with a specific sheet will be updated.
Exercise: Daily Process Book

This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to design a template that produces a process
book every day. The daily books are stored in folders for the year and month.
A process book contains a number of worksheet reports, each displaying their own specific
information. An example of a process book would be a collection of worksheets showing trends,
summary values and alarms.
Set Name to hdProcessBook

Click OK
Layout
Rename the Template sheet to Data
Make two copies of Data by right clicking on the sheet name and selecting Move or Copy
Rename the new sheets to Trend and Summary
Add headers to each sheet.
Data Sheet
Data connections represent the data source for the template. The values will be added to the Data and
Summary sheets, while the Trends sheet will show trends of values on the Data sheet
Select cell $B$6 on the Data sheet
Click Data, Connect to open the Connection dialog (this dialog can be re-positioned by
Define a Data Group
Under Source
Select Raw Values and click OK.
On the Columns tab

On the Time Period tab the default settings are for a Period of a day which is the requirement of this
exercise.
Set the Interval to All to indicate that all the values in the period are required
Click File, Save and use the Name hdProcessBook_Raw
Exit the data group
Scope
The default value of Scope is AnySheet which means that the connection will populate any sheet on an
update. In this case we need to limit this connection to only populate the Data sheet.
Change the Scope to Data
For the Placement,
Set the Cell to $B$6
Set the Type to Insert At End
Click Add
Summary Sheet
Repeat the steps for the Summary sheet by following the instructions for the Data sheet. Build a data
group Summary Values from Server called hdProcessBook_Total that returns hourly totals over the day
to cell $B$6. Place this connection at Cell to $B$6 using the Type Direct.
Trends Sheet
The Trend sheet will show a chart of the values on the Data sheet.
From the ribbon, select Content, Chart.
Select the X and Y ranges to trend on the Data sheet, limiting the selection to the top two rows of data
(the data connection will expand this when the data is inserted). If the range contains headers, indicate
this in the Header Rows.
Naming Convention
A naming convention is required to reflect that daily reports are stored in monthly workbook.
For Folder specify {YYYY}\{MMM}
For Name specify hdProcessBook_{YYYY}-{MM}-{DD}
Close the dialog and exit Excel.
Design a Schedule
The template will be scheduled for a new book every day.
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, select Schedule Designer.

Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Time to 12:15:00 AM
Set Action Time Adjustment to 1 day(s)
Under Action
Select Produce Reports, Update Workbook
For Workbook, use the browser and select hdProcessBook.xlsx
Click OK
If the sheets are updated at different times, then use the Update Worksheet command for each sheet.
Schedule Reports
From the Schedule Designer
Highlight the schedule containing hdProcessBook
Click Test and enter the date range April 2, 2016, 00:15:00 to April 5, 2016, 00:15:00.
View Reports
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer, select View Workbook Reports
Note that the sheet displayed is the one that was visible when the template was saved. It is suggested
that when a template is saved, the visible sheet is the one you would like to show when the report is
opened.
Review: Scheduler
Overview
The Scheduler is provided to automatically process commands periodically or on event triggers.
Commands range from producing reports to maintaining files on the hard drive (see Actions).
Commands that need to be executed at the same time are performed in the order they are listed in the
Designer. This means that if you need to set values to variables which are used for updating reports,
make sure these are higher in the list. The list can be shuffled by using the up/down arrows in the top
right of the display.
The Scheduler can handle the execution of multiple schedule lines at the same time so users are urged
to not stagger schedule lines that need to be performed at the same time as this is less efficient. This
also means that if you need to set values to variables which are used for updating reports, make sure
these are higher in the list.
A schedule consists of a Condition (when to perform) and an Action (what to perform).
The Condition is based on time e.g., every hour, or on events e.g., machine cycle complete. When a
condition is met the Action is performed e.g., update report, email and print.
Designer
The Schedule Designer is where schedules are configured.
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, select Schedule, Designer to open the current list of
schedules. To add a schedule, highlight an empty row and click Add.
For a set of schedules that are related e.g., an update and print of a report, an Outline (shown in green)
can be added to emphasize the relationship and also to add a meaningful description to a set of
schedules. An outline can also contain a filter which can be used in the Outline dropdown at the top
right of the main display.
Producing Reports
A powerful feature of the Scheduler is the capability to run selected schedules for any time frame,
producing reports from the past!
For a single schedule, highlight the schedule line and click Test. For historical/database sources, the
results are exactly what would have been created if they had run in the past.
For multiple lines, highlight the schedules lines and select Tools, Report Backfill. This option runs
the schedule lines for the time period specified including printing and publishing. For
historical/database sources, the results are exactly what would have been created if they had run in the
past i.e., reports are truly being backfilled.
Start/Stop
To start/stop the Scheduler, select Scheduler Start/Stop from the Project tab of the Project
Explorer.
The Scheduler opens on the desktop showing the schedule lines in gray. They change color when
processed.
Note that the scheduler can be started automatically by specifying a shortcut in the Windows start
folder or by configuring it as a Windows Service.
Scheduler Setup
The scheduler can be setup to run on the desktop, in the background or as a windows service.
From then menu option, select Scheduler, Setup.
Run as a Service
As a service, the scheduler is automatically started by the operating system using the Account
specified. By default the Account is LocalSystem which would be suitable for most cases. However,
if the command requires specific rights e.g., running a book macro or moving the workbook to a
protected fileserver, then use an Account that has the appropriate rights.
A service Account that is not LocalSystem must be an administrator and have a Password.
Run on the Desktop

Select this option to run the Scheduler on the desktop. The startup can be Normal, Minimized on the
taskbar or Background with no icon on the taskbar.
A benefit of running Normal on the desktop is that the progress of the schedule is visible providing
valuable insight during development.
To run on the desktop, drag the shortcut of the scheduler in the XLReporter Start menu to the
Windows Startup folder, configure XLRschedule.exe as a startup task in your HMI system (if
supported) or use the start option from the Project tab of the Project Explorer.
Run on the desktop in special cases when the Scheduler cannot run as a service due to the limitations
of the Connectors (see Connectors).
Review: Date Time Variables
Overview
XLReporter provides three types of variables; Function, Analytic and User Defined. This review
discusses the Function category called Date Time.
From the Data tab of the Project Explorer select Variables to open the Variable Editor.
Clicking on a specific category type like Date Time lists all the register variables in the grid. Every
variable has a friendly name and an internal name e.g., the internal name for a register is DTxxx where
xxx is a number from 000. When using variables either name can be used.
Once a Function variable is given a value, it remains permanent until it is overwritten with a fresh
value.
Date Time Variables

Date Time variables are placeholders for timestamps of two events. Normally, values are assigned to
a Date Time using an Action of the Scheduler. Another method for setting a value is in the Variable
Editor.
Use the Action as follows:

Reset Variable
This action clears the Date Time and sets its Start time.
Update Variable
This action sets end time of the Date Time and calculates the time span.
In a later exercise, we will use a Date Time to capture the start and end time for a cycle report.
Expand Function and select Date Time. Highlight the top row in the grid and select Modify (or
double click).
Set the Description to Start, End time of a cycle
Click OK
By selecting the variable, its current value can be seen in the right pane.
Click Set Value
Set the command to RESET and click OK
Click Set Value
Set the command to UPDATE and click OK
Report from Historians on Event
Overview
as process, regulatory and compliance reports.
Exercise: Discrete Report

This exercise uses the Template Studio to produce a discrete report, e.g., a batch cycle, machine cycle
or alarm cycle. The report is named from a value from the process such as a product code.
The main feature of a discrete report is that the start and end of the report is determined by process
conditions e.g., the start/finish of a batch, start/stop of a machine, the active/inactive state of an alarm.
It is common to have the report name include an identification of the cycle such as a batch number or
cycle name. In this exercise this will be captured at the beginning of the cycle and stored to the
Register variable RG000.
The date and time of the start of the event and the end of the event need to be captured so that they can
be used retrieve data from the historian. This is done using a Date Time function DT000.
Set Name to hdDiscrete
Layout
Add a Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Click Insert
Content
Set cell labels
Set $B$5 to Start Date
Set $B$6 to Start Time
Set $B$7 to End Time
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data sources for the template. Click Data Connect to open the
Connection dialog.
Variable Connection
The Variable values captured in the Date Time function are displayed adjacent to the labels entered in
the previous step.
Under Source expand Connector and select Variables
For Name, click the browse [] pushbutton
Expand Date Time and select DT000

Select the Field Start Date
Click OK
Under Placement
Set Type to Direct
Repeat the above steps for the Start Time, End Time
Data Group Connection

Under Source
On the Columns tab

Select a calculation e.g., first sample
On the Time Period tab
Under Period
Set the Type to Variable
Under Start
Set Date to {DT000:Date}. This represents the start time captured
Set Time to {DT000:Time}
Under End
Set Date to {DT000:Edat}. This represents the end time captured
Set Time to {DT000:Etim}
Under Interval
Set Every to 1 minute
Click File, Save and use the Name hdDiscrete
Exit the data group
Under Placement
Set the Cell to $B$10
Set Type to Insert at Start
Click Save to save the connections.
Use Excel to modify the format of the cells such as the date format and the number of decimal
places. Only format row 10 since the Placement Type above carries the format from this row
to all the other rows.
Naming Convention
A naming convention is required to reflect a workbook name for each cycle. One of the captured
analytic values is used together with the date.
Select Report Names to open the Report Names dialog.
For Folder select Year-Month
For Name, click browse [] and specify the Register RG000 followed by the Year Month
Day
Close the dialog and close Excel.
Design a Schedule
A schedule is configured to produce the report in stages. When the cycle starts, the cycle name is read
from the process and stored to a variable (RG000 in our case) and the start time is stored in a variable
(DT000 in our case). When the cycle ends, the end time is stored in a variable and the report is
updated.
In the Project Explorer, from the Project tab, select Schedule, Designer (there may be other
schedules displayed from other exercises).
Configure the following schedule lines:
Note that the BATCH_LOTID is text tag simulated by XLReporter.
Schedule Reports
The report is generated from four schedule lines.
Highlight the first line and click Test
Enter the date Feb 1, 2017 11:00:00 and click Start
Repeat the above for the second line
Highlight the third line and click Test
Enter the date Feb 1, 2017 14:00:00 and click Start
Repeat the above for the fourth line
View Reports
Report from Historians On-Demand
Overview
as process, regulatory and compliance reports.
With data in historians, on-demand reporting is possible where users can specify report parameters,
such as the timeframe of the report or alarm limits, and then have the report generated using the
settings.
On-demand reports can be performed locally where XLReporter is installed (Suite Edition and
Professional editions), remotely or from mobile tablets (Team edition).
If user security is enabled, security credentials ensure that users only have access to templates that
have been assigned to them.
Exercise: On-Demand Summary Report

This exercise uses the Template Library to show you how produce a report interactively from
historical data by selecting tag names and time period.
Select a Template
From History, General select the Comparison template. This template compares values
from two different time periods.
Click Next
Enter the Name odComparison
Select the Connector that is providing the data
For Reporting Method, select On Demand
Click Next
Click Finish
The template is ready.
Produce Reports
Produce a report on-demand. From the Home tab of the Project Explorer, select Interactive, On-
Demand Reports.
Select odComparison from the template pane to expose the parameters of the template.
Enter a Start Date
Select a Duration and Interval
Select a set of tags
Click Refresh
Exercise: On-Demand Report
This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to design a template from blank to
produce an interactive report providing user setting for the date range and high/low filters which are
applied to the report data.
Set Name to odValues

Click OK
Layout
Add a Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data sources for the template. Select cell $B$9 and click Data,
Connect to open the Connection dialog. Notice the Placement cell is set to $B$9.
Define a Data Group
Under Source
On the Columns tab

Expand Variables, User Defined
Select one or more Variables. Variables are displayed in {} e.g., {Tag1}, and are assigned a
real tag name by the user when the template is deployed.
Set the calculation first sample
Check Include Heading so the real tag names specified by the user appear in the report.
On the Time Period tab
Set the Period Type to Variable

Set the Interval to Every {Interval} minute
Click File, Save and use the Name odValues
Close the dialog.
Under Placement
Set Type to Direct
Produce Reports
From the ribbon, select the Report, Preview.
Enter a Date range
Enter an Interval
Select a set of tags
Click Refresh
Close the display
At this point the values appear in the report but need formatting. It is tempting to go back to the
template and use standard Excel formatting. However, since the data is dynamic, i.e., the number of
row depends on the date range and interval, a better approach would be to use Data Management.
Exercise: Data Management

Data Management is a powerful set of functions that add features to a template beyond the standard
features provided by Excel.
This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate a few data management functions.
Format Range
The Format Range function propagates formatting from the Topmost Row or Leftmost Column.
Apply formatting to the cells in row 11 (top row where the values appear) such as date and decimal
places.
Click Data, Connect to open the Connection dialog and select the Manage tab.
Set the Category to Worksheet
Set the Type to Format Range
Under Apply To
Set the Start to the top row where data appears e.g., $B$11:$J$11
Click Add
From the ribbon
Click Report, Preview to see the effect of this change
Value Limit Range

The Value Limit Range function filters/color codes a range based on a Low Limit and High Limit
using Show Values to show All, Between Limits or Outside Limits. If Show Values is All, no values
are removed but can be color coded to show they violate the limits.
Example: Color code temperatures below 140 and greater than 200
On the Manage tab

Set the Category to Presentation
Set the Type to Value Limit Range
Under Apply To
Set the Start to the top row where data appears e.g., $C$11:$J$11
Under Setting
Set the Low Limit and High Limit values
Set Show Values to All
Set Low Format to Sky Blue
Set High Format to Light Red
Click Add
From the ribbon
Exercise: Excel
With templates designed in Excel, templates can harness the power of Excel, such as formulas.
This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate a few advanced Excel formulas. In
particular, the maximum, maximum time, minimum and minimum time are computed for the first
column of values.
Layout
Add Labels
Set $B$5 with the text Maximum
Set $B$6 with the text Maximum Time
Set $B$7 with the text Minimum
Set $B$8 with the text Minimum Time
Add Format
Set the format of $C$5 and $C$7 to number
Set the format of $C$6 and $C$8 to date (with time)
Add Formula
Since the data range is dynamic (number of rows unknown), all the formula entered references the
top row and then later, Data Management expands the formula to the entire range.
Before the configuration is performed, lets discuss two Excel functions, MATCH and OFFSET.
MATCH(lookup value, lookup array, [match type])
This function takes three settings and returns the position of the lookup value in the lookup array
according to the match type. The returned position is 1 based.
OFFSET(reference, rows, columns)

This function returns the value of the cell relative to the reference by the number of rows and
columns e.g., if the reference is B4 and rows is 2 and columns is 3, then the return value is from
C6.
Set the formula in $C$5 to =MAX(C11)
Set the formula in $C$5 to =OFFSET($B$11,MATCH($C$5, C11, 0) - 1,0)
Set the formula in $C$7 to =MIN(C11)
Set the formula in $C$5 to =OFFSET($B$11,MATCH($C$7, C11, 0) - 1,0)
Now add Data Management to expand the formula

Click Data, Connect to open the Connection dialog and select the Manage tab.
Set the Category to Worksheet
Set the Type to Formula Range
Under Base
Set the Start to the top row where data appears for the formulas e.g., $B$11:$C$11
Under Setting
Set Formulas to $C$5:$C$8
Click Add
From the ribbon

Report from Text Files
Overview
XLReporter connects to CSV and text files to produce a wide range of reports such as process,
regulatory and compliance reports.
There are two families of files that are supported and reporting from each requires a different approach.
One family uses the Text Historian connector whereas the second family uses the Database connector
(which is the subject of this chapter).
Text Historian
When the files have a date as part of their naming convention then the Text Historian connector is
used (see the Data\Packing folder of XLR_Demo project for samples). For example, the Rockwell
PanelView Plus can be configured to create a new file each day with the name
YYYY_MM_DD_0000_descriptor.csv where YYYY, MM, DD are date attributes
The connector stitches the files so that they can be treated as a single entity.
For more information, see the PanelView Plus guide or the Text Historian guide.
Database
When the files do not have relationship in their naming convention but the columns in each is the
same, the Database connector is used (see the Data\TextFiles folder of XLR_Demo project for
samples). For example, the Rockwell PanelView Plus can be configured to create a new file for each
machine cycle or batch with the name PPxxxxxII.csv where PP, xxxxx and II are custom text string.
Exercise: Cycle Report

This exercise uses the Template Studio to show you how to produce a cycle report from data in text
files in a specific folder.
Since the set of file names does not adhere to any pattern, the template is designed using a master.csv
file and each of the files are copied to this file when reporting from them is required.
Open Windows Explorer and locate the folder where the files are saved. Copy and paste an existing
file and rename it master.csv. If you do not have any files to use in this exercise, use the sample files in
the folder Data\TextFiles in the XLR_Demo project.
Connector
From the Data tab of the Project Explorer select Sources, Connectors to display the current
connectors of the project.
To define a connector
Click Add
Expand Database and select OLEDB/ODBC
Click OK
Enter a Connector Name

Under Primary Database
Click the browse () pushbutton
Select Text Files

For Folder Name, browse for master.csv
Validate the connection by clicking Test Connection
Click OK to save the connector
Close Connectors.
Template
Set Name to txtCycle

Click OK
Header
Select Header
end (e.g., $J$2).
Enter a Title
Click Insert
Data Connection
Data connections represent the data sources for the template. Click Data Connect to open the
Connection dialog (this dialog can be re-positioned by hold the mouse on the title bar and dragging).
The display contains a grid showing all the connections of the template (which should be empty at this
stage). When an entry in the grid is highlighted, its settings are shown in the left pane. The Add,
Modify and Delete pushbuttons are used to add/modify/delete the settings to the grid.
Define a Data Group
Under Source
Select a database Connector to text files
Click the browse [] pushbutton to open the Select Type dialog
Select Standard and click OK
On the Setup tab

Select master.csv
Click > to move the name to the Selected Tables/Views
On the Columns tab
Expand master.csv
Select the columns for the group
Click File, Save and use the Name txtCycle

Exit the data group
Notice the data group name has been placed in Name field on the connections display
Under Placement
Set Type to Insert At Start
Use Excel to modify the format of the cells in row 6 where data is to be placed e.g., date/time
format and decimal places
If the column names contain braces {} then they are treated as variables (since this is the convention
for showing variables in XLReporter) and as a consequence are added to the template Variable list.
From the ribbon, select Settings, Interactive Designer and remove all the column names that appear
in the Parameter section.
Preview the Report
To preview the report, select Report, Preview to open the On-Demand dialog.
Click Refresh
The display shows the selected columns from master.csv. In other words, manually copying a file over
master.csv and updating the report, will produce a report using the content of the file.
Close the dialog
Exercise: Enhanced Cycle Report

This exercise continues from the previous exercise to demonstrate how eliminate the manual copying
of files and to automate the production of reports. The cycle reports produced are stored in a daily
workbook.
There are two ways to automate reports from text files:

The first is to configure XLReporter to monitor a folder and, when a new text file appears in
the folder, it is used to create the report (this is done using a Schedule Script and is explained
elsewhere).
The second method is to monitor the process for the Cycle Complete event. On the event,
the name of the current file is read from the process to a Variable (e.g., RG000) which is then
used to copy the current file to master.csv and produce the report.
In both cases the Variable contains the name of the file and so it can be used in the naming convention
of the report.
From the Project Explorer double click the template txtCycle in the left pane to open the template in
the Template Studio. This opens Excel with the selected template loaded. Alternatively, open Excel
and use File Open from the XLReporter ribbon.
Naming Convention
A naming convention is required to reflect the requirement.
For Name, click browse [] and specify txtCycle followed by the Year-Month-Day
For Name, click browse [] push button and specify the Variable that holds the file name
e.g., {RG000}
Close the dialog and close Excel.
Design a Schedule
The report is scheduled to update every time an event occurs.
Set a Variable to the name of the file
Set a Tag that you would like to monitor
Set the Condition and Value
Under Action expand Manage Variables

Select Set a Value to a Variable
Set the Variable e.g., RG000
Set the Value to a tag in the real time connector which contains the name of the current file
Click OK
Copy the file to master.csv using the Variable
Use the same Condition as above
Under Action expand Manage Files and Folders
Select Move a Workbook (this does apply to text files)
Set Workbook to Folder\Variable.csv where Folder is where the files are located and
Variable is the variable from the previous schedule
e.g., C:\XLRprojects\XLR_Demo\Data\TextFiles\{RG000}.csv
Set Target to Folder\master.csv where Folder is the same as above
e.g., C:\XLRprojects\XLR_Demo\Data\TextFiles\master.csv
Check Overwrite Target
Click OK
Update the report
Highlight an empty row and click Add
Use the same Condition as above
Set the Worksheet to txtCycle.xlsx.Template
Schedule Reports
To simulate the production of a report
Highlight each schedule line and click Test
Note, if there is no text file named after the current value of the file name tag, the Move Book
command fails. To continue simulation, from the Project Explorer, under the Data tab,
select Sources, Variables and set the Register variable value to one of the existing text files
(with no extension).
View Reports
Notice a new workbook for each day and a new worksheet on each cycle.
Email and SMS
Overview
The Email and SMS application is used for the sending of Email and SMS (text) messages,
automatically or on-demand. A common use of the application is to email process reports to various
departments.
The application supports most email servers including Googles Gmail, Yahoo and Hotmail and other
secure mail servers, Microsoft Exchange Server and directly to SMTP Servers.
In this chapter, we demonstrate how to configure reports to be emailed automatically and show how
SMS messages can be sent to alert people if there are issues.
Before you begin, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with your mail server. You will
need to know the SMTP server name (or Exchange Server name/IP address), Port number and user
account information of a valid email account.
The exercise uses the reports generated in the Daily Summary Report from Real Time exercise in
the Template Library chapter. It is suggested that this exercise is completed before continuing.
Exercise: Email Daily Summary Report

This exercise shows you how to automatically email a daily summary report at the end of the reporting
period.
Design a Schedule
In the Project Explorer and from the Project tab, select Schedule, Designer and click Add.
Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Start to the end of the reporting period
Note - Add an Adjust action time matching the report update if applicable
Under Action
Expand Transfer Reports and select Email a Workbook
For Workbook, select the specific file name
For Configuration, click the browse pushbutton []
In the Email dialog, if Name is a drop down, select <new>. Set Name to SummaryAttachment.
Under Mail Server, click the Servers button to define the email server. In the Servers dialog, click in
the first row under the Friendly Name column and click the browse pushbutton [].
Set Friendly Name to a name that makes sense for your mail server
Under Server, set Server (SMTP) to the name of your mail server. If using Microsoft
Exchange this can be the name or IP address of the Exchange server.
If the Port Number of the mail server is not default (25), uncheck Use Default and specify
the port. For example, if you are using Google Gmail, the Port Number is 465.
If your mail server requires Encryption, select from the drop down list. For Google Gmail,
SSL encryption is used.
Under Logon Information specify the account Name and Password to connect to the mail
server if required
Under Sender Information set Name to the name you want to appear when people receive
your email
Set E-mail to the email address to send the email through
Click Send Test E-mail to send an email to the E-mail address specified to ensure all settings
are correct
Click OK and OK again to return to the Email dialog. The Friendly Name should now be
set with the server you configured.
The Content tab defines who will receive the email and what the email message will contain. Click
To to open the Contacts list.
For every person you wish to receive the email, specify a Friendly Name and their E-mail
address
Click OK. Every selected Contact should appear
For Subject
Enter Daily Summary Report sent on
Right-click and select Insert Expression
Under Calendar, select Date and Time (local format)
Click OK
With Text selected, enter Todays summary report.
Click OK to save the configuration and return to the Schedule dialog. In the Schedule dialog, click
OK to add the row.
Validate the Schedule

Since reports have already been generated for April 1st and 2nd, we can validate this for April 2nd.
Click Test
Enter the test date range April 2, 2016, 23:00:00 to April 2, 2016, 23:00:00
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm the email is sent
When complete, click Close
Save the schedule and close the Schedule Designer
Check the email of anyone who was set up to receive the email to confirm the message has been sent
with the April report as an attachment.
Exercise: Sending SMS Messages
This exercise shows you how you can configure SMS (text) messages that send every time an event
occurs in your process. The message contains live process data and user defined variables.
Create a Configuration
From Project Explorer, under the Tools tab select Application, Email and SMS.
Click the Add button.
On the Server tab

For Name enter smsEventZone1
Set the Type to Text Message
Set Friendly Name to the mail server to send the text messages through or click Servers to
define a mail server
On the Content tab

Click the To button to open the Contacts dialog and select the recipients that have a Phone
number and Provider configured
Under Subject enter Zone 1
The message is a combination of text and tags. When sent, the current values of the tags are
substituted into the message before it is sent.
With Text selected
Enter Date and Time: {DATIM}
Add a new line and enter Mixer Temp:
Right click and select Insert Expression
Click Connector Item
In Add Items select a connector
Click the browse pushbutton [] and select a tag for the connector
Add two more lines each with a label and a tag
Click OK to save the configuration
Design a Schedule
In the Project Explorer, under the Project select Schedule, Designer and click Add.
Under Condition
Expand Event, and select a connector
For Tag, click the pushbutton [].and select the tag to monitor
Set the Condition and Value for the event that would cause you to send a text message
Under Action
Expand Transfer Reports and select Email by a Configuration
For Configuration, click the pushbutton [].and for Name, select smsEventZone 1
Click OK
Validating the Schedule

Click Test
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm that the message is sent.
Exercise: Adding Custom Keywords
Modify Configuration
From the Project Explorer, under the Tools tab select Application, Email and SMS.
Select smsEventZone1 and click Modify
Change Name to smsKeywordAlert
On the Content tab

In Subject, enter {MACHINE} Alert. Any text in {} is treated as a keyword.
Validate the Configuration

To validate, with the configuration selected, click Send.
For MACHINE, enter Mixer

Click Send
Validate the message received has the keyword {MACHINE} replaced with Mixer in the
subject
Design a Schedule
In the Project Explorer, under the Project select Schedule, Designer and click Add.
Under Condition
Expand Event, and select a connector
For Tag, click the pushbutton [].and select the tag to monitor
Set the Condition and Value for the event that would cause you to send a text message
Under Action
Expand Transfer Reports and select Email by a Configuration
For Configuration, click the pushbutton [].and for Name, select smsKeywordAlert
In Value, enter MACHINE = Mixer
Click OK to close the Schedule dialog

Click Test
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm that the message is sent.
FTP Transfer
Overview
The FTP Transfer application is used to transfer files to/from an FTP server, automatically or on-
demand. A common use of this application is to download data from instrumentation such as touch
panels.
The application supports secure, encrypted connection for FTP servers that require it. If a FTP server
is maintaining a folder structure, then the application can mirror this on the local system and maintain
it automatically.
In this chapter, we demonstrate how to configure reports to be uploaded to an FTP server

automatically.
Before you begin, it is recommended that you familiarize yourself with your FTP server. You will
need to know the FTP server name, Port number and user account information.
the Template Library chapter. It is suggested that this exercise is completed before continuing.
Exercise: Uploading Reports to an FTP Server

This exercise demonstrates uploading a daily report at the end of every day automatically.
Design a Schedule
In the Project Explorer and from the Project tab, select Schedule, Designer and click Add.
Under Condition
Select Daily
Set Start to 11:00:00 PM
Under Action
Expand Transfer Reports and select FTP a Workbook
For Workbook, specify rtLibSummary.xlsx
For Configuration, click the browse pushbutton []
In the FTP dialog, if Name is a drop down, select <new>. Set Name to ftpUpload.
Under Transfer, set Method to Upload.
Under FTP, click the Servers button to define the FTP server.
In the Servers dialog, click in the first row under the Friendly Name column and click the browse
pushbutton [].
Set Friendly Name to myServer
In Server(FTP), enter the server name or IP address (e.g. ftp.yourcompany.com)
If the Port Number is not default, uncheck Use Default and specify the Port Number
If the server requires Encryption, select the type applicable
Under Logon Information, set the Name and Password for the FTP server. If the server
supports anonymous logon, check Use Anonymous.
Click Test FTP Server to confirm the settings
Click OK and OK again to return to the FTP dialog. The Friendly Name should now be set
with the server you configured.
The Target tab defines where the file is uploaded on the FTP server.
Set Folder to myServer/Reports
Set Overwrite to Size Change. This means that the file on the FTP server is overwritten only
if the source file is a different size.
Click OK to save the configuration and return to the Schedule dialog. In the Schedule dialog, click
OK to add the row.
Validate the Schedule

Since reports have already been generated for April 1st and 2nd, we will validate this for April 2nd.
Highlight the schedule row that uploads the file
Click Test
Click Start. A display is shown to confirm the upload has occurred.
Check the Reports folder of the FTP server to see the April report.
File Manager
Overview
The File Manager application automates file operations such as copying files to a network file server,
moving old files to an archive folder and compressing files into a single compressed folder for sending
or storage.
In this chapter, we demonstrate practical uses of File Manager, including copying reports as they are
generated, sending reports to a compressed file, archiving old reports, and backing up project folders.
the Template Library chapter. It is suggested that this exercise is completed before continuing. Also,
create a folder on your hard drive called Shared Folder. This folder represents a shared folder, server,
or network drive on your machine.
Exercise: Copying Reports to a Shared Folder

This exercise shows you how to automatically copy completed reports to the Shared Folder.
Create the Configuration

In the Project Explorer, under the Tools tab, select Application, File Manager. Click Add.
Set Name to dailyCopy.

In the top row, under the Type column, click the browse pushbutton [].
Set Type to Copy
Under Source, Folder, select Project to choose Excel
Set Subfolders to rtLibSummary
Under Filter, check Date, then set the dropdown to Most Recent
Under Target, set Folder to the full path of your Shared Folder
Set Overwrite to Source is newer
Click OK to return to the Add dialog
Validate the Configuration

Click Perform and check your shared folder to confirm the report was copied. Delete the file from the
shared folder.
Close the File Manager.
Design the Schedule

From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, open Schedule, Designer, and click Add.
Under Condition
Select Daily and set Time to 11:00:00 PM
Under Action
Expand Manage Files and Folders and select Manage by a Configuration
Set the Configuration by clicking the browse pushbutton [] and select dailyCopy
Click OK and OK again

Click Test
Click Start
Check the shared folder
Exercise: Compressing Reports

This exercise shows you how to compress multiple reports from multiple folders into a single file.
Create the Configuration

In the Project Explorer, under the Tools tab, select Application, File Manager. Click Add.
Set Name to monthlyCompress.
In the top row, under the Type column, click the browse pushbutton [].
Set Type to Compress Files
In Source, for Folder, select Project and choose Excel
Set Subfolders to All
Under Filter check Date, then set the dropdown to Within, and the time period to 1 month(s)
In Target, set File Name to C:\Shared Folder\{YYYY}_{MMM}. Use the browse pushbutton
[] and right-click Insert Expression to build.
This creates a compressed file named after the year and month containing the source files for
a month.
Click OK and OK again to save the configuration
Close the File Designer.
Design the Schedule

From the Project tab of the Project Explorer, open Schedule, Designer, and click Add.
Under Condition
Select Monthly
Set Day(s) to Last and Time to 11:00:00 PM
Under Action
Expand Manage Files and Folders and select Manage by a Configuration
Set the Configuration by clicking the browse pushbutton [] and select monthlyCompress
Click OK.

Click Test
Click Start
Check the shared folder for the zip file
DeltaV Analyze
Overview
The information contained in your DeltaV Analyze Alarm Statistics reports is locked in worksheets.
The export feature stores the report information to a relational database. For example, if you are
currently producing Alarm Statistics reports each day, then the raw data in the database consists of
daily records. It is recommended that Alarm Statistics reports are created periodically, e.g., daily.
During the export, the export function maintains a database table containing the header information
of the Alarm Statistics reports. These are:
Data Source
Group Name
Area
Consolidated reports can use this information as additional filtering parameters.
From the data in the database, consolidated weekly, monthly, quarterly and yearly reports can easily be
created using the filters above. For example, if your facility has three areas, you would be able to
produce consolidated reports for one or all areas.
XLReporter supplies a set of DeltaV Analyze Library templates that can be used to produce reports
on-demand or automatically.
Exercise: Export Analyze Data

The database export component requires a database where information from Alarm Statistics reports
are stored. The connection to this database is configured in the DeltaV Analyze Connector.
From the Project Explorer select Data tab, Sources, Connectors to display the connectors defined
for the project.
Click Add to open a list of the supported data source.

Select Emerson Process Management, DeltaV Analyze
In Consolidate to a Database, define the database where the DeltaV Analyze data should be logged.
Based on the SQL security settings, all users under Messenger Users local user group have full
access to the database. The local system administrator account can add a new user to the Messenger
Users. Part of the local group is two Analyze specific accounts; DeltaVAdmin and
MessengerDBUser. If the local system administrator or custom user is working, no passwords are
necessary.
Settings
Click Settings.
Under the Folders tab, define each Folder that contains DeltaV Analyze reports to consolidate. Set
Archive To to the folder where the reports are archived once they are consolidated. If this is left
blank, the files are archived in the archive subfolder of the Folder.
Under the Labels tab, the default labels for Alarm Priority and Alarm Rate are listed. If these have
been customized in DeltaV Analyze, they should be updated here.
The Schedule tab defines when the data is consolidated into the database. In the Schedule a Run
Script command is added.
When the connector is saved, the tables required in the database are automatically created.
Executing Manually
To execute the consolidation manually, from the Project tab in the Project Explorer, select Schedule,
Designer. In the Schedule Designer select Tools, Script Editor. With the DV_export script selected,
click Test. The data in specified reports are consolidated into the database and the reports are
archived.
Exercise: On-Demand Report

This exercise demonstrates an interactive report from DeltaV Analyze where a user can select the time
period to produce a summary report.
Select a Template
From Vertical, Emerson (EPM), DeltaV Analyze Alarms select the Extended KPI template
that corresponds with your version of DeltaV Analyze.
Click Next
Specify the Template Name

Enter the Name Analyze_KPI
Set Reporting Method to On Demand
Click Next
Customize the Content

Click Finish
The template is ready.
Produce Reports
From the Home tab of the Project Explorer select Interactive, On-Demand Reports.
Specify values for the dates and Refresh to generate a report.
Upgrade
Before the Upgrade

XLReporter projects from Version 7 to 11 can be upgraded to the latest version. A project can be
transferred to a new machine and upgraded to the latest version. Files from an older version should be
upgraded as an entire project. Individual files from an older version should not be placed directly into
a new projects Input folder. These files will not be upgraded.
Copy the version 7.0 to 11.7 project

To identify where the project is located in the previous version, in the Project Explorer, on the right
side, at the top, note the Folder. On the left-side note the name at the top of the tree. Combine these to
derive the project folder location. For example, if the Folder is C: and the project name is XLRproject,
the project folder to copy to the new machine is C:\XLRproject.
Stop the Schedule

If the upgrade is done on the same machine XLReporter is currently installed on, stop the schedule\
schedule service and close all XLReporter components. If the schedule runs as a service, note the
service account and password. This information will not be retained for the next version.
Install Version 12
Run the installation of XLReporter V12. Follow the prompts displayed by the installation.
How to start the Upgrade

To upgrade the project on the new machine, from the Project Explorer select File, Open Project.
Click the browse button and select the project XLRproject.prj file in the Input folder of the project.
Click OK to open and start the upgrade. A window will open displaying the upgrade process.
After the Upgrade

If a template contained an error or a feature that is no longer supported, it will be logged to the upgrade
file. The file V12_Upgrade_Results.txt is located under the project folder.
Only templates that were enabled to run scheduled automatically or on-demand will be upgraded when
the project is opened. To upgrade other template files open C:\XLReporter\bin\XLRiUpgradeFile.exe
Register the product

From the Home tab, select Register Product to open the registration dialog. Enter the information
required and select Start Trial to start the evaluation.
Run a General System Check

From the Tools tab of the Project Explorer open System Check. The General tab is used for general
tests. Click the Start push button to have the installation scan and repair defects. When complete, the
display shows the results of the scan. If an issue was found system check will attempt to repair the
issue. Run the general system check again. If the error still occurs, then it indicates an error will need
to be resolved.

Schedule Automatically
The scheduler can be setup to run on the desktop, in the background or as a windows service.
From the Project tab of the Project Explorer select the Schedule, Design.
Then from then menu option, select Scheduler, Setup.
Run as a Service
Select this to run the Scheduler as a service. As a service, the scheduler is automatically started by the
operating system using the Account specified. A service Account that is not LocalSystem must be an
Administrator account and have a Password.
Run on the Desktop
Select this option to run the Scheduler on the desktop. The startup can be Normal, Minimized on the
taskbar or Background with no icon on the taskbar.
A benefit of running Normal on the desktop is that the progress of the schedule is visible providing
valuable insight during development.
To run on the desktop, add the shortcut to C:\XLReporter\XLRSchedule.exe to the Windows Startup
folder, configure XLRschedule.exe as a startup task in your HMI system (if supported) or use the start
option from the Project tab of the Project Explorer.
Start/Stop
To start/stop the Scheduler, select Scheduler Start/Stop.
Test Schedule Commands

Schedule commands can be tested to verify the connections. From the Project tab of the Project
Explorer select the Schedule, Design. Highlight a schedule line and click Test. For
historical/database sources, the results are exactly what would have been created if they had run in the
past. Test can be run over a time period or a single timeframe by making the From and To the same
date and time.

Note that the reports in V12 are automatically stored into a sub-folder named after the template.

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XLReporter

The Complete Reporting Solution

Getting Results -i-

Copyright 2000 - 2017, SyTech, Inc. All rights reserved.

XLReporter is a registered trademark of SyTech, Inc.

Microsoft and Microsoft Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft, Inc.

Review: Data Placement 21

Review: Report Names 24

Getting Results - iii -

Report from Real Time 29

Review: Register Variables 41

Report from Real Time on Event 42

Report from Historians 54

Review: Date Time Variables 66

Report from Historians on Event 67

Getting Results -v-

Report from Historians On-Demand 72

Report from Text Files 78

Email and SMS 86

Getting Results - vii -

The main components of XLReporter are:

Getting Results -9-

The following software is required for template design only:

Excel 2007 Users

Two tabs are displayed, Connector and General.

If you are using the XLReporter simulator connector

Step 1 - Select a Template from the Library

Step 2 Specify the Template Name and Connector

Step 4 Setup a Schedule

Period Interval Collate

Period Interval Collate

Select alternative outputs such as Web Page (HTML) and PDF.

An empty template is displayed.

For on-demand reports:

For automatic reports:

Step 2 Data Connect

Step 3 Interactive Designer

Step 4 Report Names

Set Name to rvPlacement

Using the same Source settings

Preview the Template

Click Refresh to refresh the report

Wait at least a minute. Click Refresh to refresh the report

In this review we will concentrate on Report Names.

Set Name to rvReportNames

Highlight an empty row and click Add.

Multiple Worksheets in a Workbook

Creating Report Folders

A few examples are as follows:

Exercise: Daily Values Report - Library

Enhancement: Add Additional Column

Highlight column D. This is done by clicking DE in the header of the worksheet.

Browse for the new tag

Exercise: Daily Summary Report - Studio

On the Columns tab

Place the Data Group

Preview the Template

Highlight an empty row and click Add.

Enhancement: Add a summary and chart

Exercise: Publish Web reports

Exercise: Enabling Web Portal

Enable Internet Information Services

The remaining settings are optional

Access Web Portal