Create a new report from a feature layer

This page describes how to create a new report from an ArcGIS feature layer.

Step 1 – Create a report and choose a feature layer

On the Report Builder home page, click the orange New Report button top right. Choose the from Feature Layer option.

The Choose Feature Layer window will open. This will list feature layers saved in your organisation or in another organisation, depending on the only search in my organisation toggle at the bottom of the window. For this tutorial, turn off the toggle to only search in your organisation and type ‘BRFSS US States Demo Data’ into the search box to the left of the toggle.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Choose Feature Layer screen

Click on the ‘US_States_Data’ feature layer to select it and click the Choose button.

Step 2 – Choose a core layer

You will be prompted to choose the core layer (you can think of this as the geography layer) to use for the report.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Choose Core Layer screen

Tick the checkbox and then click the Choose button.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Editor screen

Step 3 – Edit the feature ID and Name fields

Before adding widgets to the report, you should check that the correct fields in the layer are being used to provide the IDs and Names of the features. In the Report Builder Editor top menu, click Report, Settings. The Settings window will open. Under Features, use the menus to set the ID Field to ‘ST_FIPS’ and the Name Field to ‘STATE_NAME’. Then click the OK button.

Step 4 – Add a Bar Chart widget to the report

Drag and drop a Bar Chart widget from the Widgets menu on the left-hand side onto the page in the workspace.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Bar Chart widget

 

Step 5 – Edit the widget data

The widget will by default use the first few fields in the layer that contain data. To edit the data displayed in the widget, click in the middle of the Bar Chart widget to select it and click the Data & Settings button in the widget toolbar. The Data & Settings window will open. Click the Data tab and expand the ‘US_States_Data’ folder. Click the Select no indicators button, third from left in the toolbar in the bottom right corner of the window. Then tick the checkboxes for the ‘1990_POP’, ‘2000_POP’ and ‘2010_POP’ fields in the layer as shown below.

Report Builder for ArcGIS data selection dialog

Then click the OK button.

The chart will now be showing just three bars showing three years of population estimates. To improve the display of the X axis labels, click in the middle of the Bar Chart widget to select it and click the Data & Settings button in the widget toolbar. The Data & Settings window will open. Under the Settings tab, scroll down to the setting called Indicator Aliases in the Text & Labels group. Click the Set indicator aliases for this widget button.

Click on each row in the window and click the Rename button to change the alias in each case to remove ‘_POP’.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Edit Aliases screen

 

Then click the Save Changes button and the OK button. The chart will now show more suitable labels on the X axis. There are many more possible changes that could be made to the chart via the Data and Settings tabs.

Report Builder for ArcGIS Edited Bar Chart

 

Next steps

The process for building your report is essentially the same as that described in this guide for creating a report from a web map. Visit the Editor page for information about the Editor menus and the Widget pages for more information on how to use specific widgets.