A major new version of InstantAtlas Report Builder (version 2.0) is now available. Report Builder 2.0 is a complete redesign and rebuild of the application, keeping all that was good from version 1 whilst making the reports faster to load, easier to create, more responsive to different devices and more accessible to a range of users.
The process of building a report and editing widgets is essentially the same as in Report Builder 1. It was important to us that that existing users did not have to learn how to create reports all over again! However, there are a few notable differences within the Editor user interface that we thought we would point out to make switching to using Report Builder 2 a little easier.
Saved report location
When you create a new report in 2.0, this will automatically be saved either in the root of your ArcGIS Online account, or if you selected a folder on the Report Builder homepage before creating your report, in that folder. You can always move this to a different folder if you need to using the ‘Move’ option in ArcGIS Online.
Context menu
We no longer override the browser’s context menu when right-click with your mouse on a report page in the Report Builder workspace. You can access the same functionality in other ways, either from the top menus, or in the case of pasting a widget, using the ‘jigsaw bar’ at the foot of the page or by selecting an existing widget on the page and clicking the page button that appears in the widget toolbar.
Setting Comparison Areas for a widget
This is now done from the Settings tab of the widget Data & Settings window – in Report Builder 1 it was done under the Data tab.
Setting a widget to show data for all areas
This is now done from the Settings tab of the widget Data & Settings window (usually in the Behaviour settings group which becomes visible when the advanced settings are toggled on) – in Report Builder 1 it was done under the Data tab.
Publishing reports as a bundle of static files
This was an option in Report Builder 1 option but has been dropped. It is unnecessary due to the way the reports load in Report Builder 2. It is entirely possible to use reports ‘live’ so that they always show the latest data in the report data source(s), and so that you do not have to publish them as static files each time the source data is updated.
Report navigation toolbar
By default, reports now show a toolbar at the top. This allows the user to switch page, print and return to the report index page with the list of features to select from. This toolbar can be hidden if necessary by clicking the Pages menu > Advanced.