InstantAtlas Report Builder version 2.0 is a complete rebuild taking the best features from Report Builder version 1 and making it faster and more responsive. As part of this process we’ve looked at every part of the product and reviewed every widget – fixing bugs, cleaning up settings and dealing with inconsistencies in the way widgets behaved. In some cases we have been forced to make breaking changes between version 1 and 2. To allow reports built with version 1 to open in the new Report Builder we have built in an auto-migration process. Nearly all reports will auto-migrate with no problems. However, we can’t catch every difference – it is possible that some of your widgets may look different or behave in a different way and you will have to update the widgets via the editor page. The changes between versions are detailed below. If you encounter problems when upgrading your report please contact the support team at support@instantatlas.com.
Changes & Issues
Data Sources & Selection
If you are using data from an InstantAtlas Data Catalog (either with your own data or using data from the National Data Service) you are unlikely to encounter any migration issues. If you have data problems after migration with this type of data source please contact support@instantatlas.com for advice.
In version 1 of Report Builder data chosen from CSV or Feature Layers or Tables was referenced by column index. This caused issues when the underlying data source was updated so in version 2 this type of data is referenced by field name (or column name). The auto-migration process will try and adjust this for you but if your data has changed in any way it might not always get a perfect match – in particular when using variables (like #IVALUE{12}) in text widgets. We recommend that you check your reports carefully after migration if you are using this type of data – you may need to adjust your widget settings to re-select your data fields. If you have data problems after migration with CSV or feature layer data please contact support@instantatlas.com for advice. Note that this change does impose some restrictions on field names if you are using multiple CSV files – see the CSV data source help page for more details.
As noted above version 2 of Report Builder fixes some longstanding bugs and inconsistencies from version 1. Some of these relate to the handling of comparison areas from CSV data. In rare cases this may mean that you see comparison data in charts or tables in version 2 that were not there in version 1. To fix this simply edit the report and select/deselect comparison areas as necessary in the widget settings dialog.
Cartesian Chart Widgets (Bar, Line, Scatterplot)
Axis labelling has been significantly improved in Report Builder 2. Unfortunately this means that some charts designed in version 1 may have inconsistencies or conflicts in the axis settings. The auto-migration process will attempt to fix these (for example turning off label word-wrapping where it is not appropriate) but we recommend checking these charts after migration.
Please note that if the chart grid lines are the same colour as the plot background in Report Builder 1, the grid will be switched off in Report Builder 2.
In Report Builder 2 you have a lot more control over the value labels, including style and position. If you find that the labels in your migrated report are slightly truncated, please see the available settings to adjust the labels to suit your needs. You might also be able to use the Plot Area Margin settings to fix truncated labels.
If the tooltips of your charts in Report Builder 1 showed confidence limit values, your migrated Report Builder 2 report will not show these in the chart tooltips. You will need to add them manually into the Report Builder 2 chart settings. The variables are #YMIN and #YMAX.
Bar Chart Widget
In version 1 of Report Builder the bar chart widget had a number of inconsistencies and bugs in the way it bound data to the chart. Most notably it was inconsistent in the way it applied the Series Binding setting. In version 2 this has been fixed and as part of the auto-migration process Report Builder may adjust your old report design to try and fix the old inconsistencies. If your bar chart looks odd in version 2 check the Series Binding setting first.
In version 2 the bar chart applies indicator ordering more strictly. If you have used the Indicator Aliases & Ordering setting the chart will respect this order unlike version 1 which sometimes re-ordered the X axis labels alphabetically.
Table Widgets
The download data button is now displayed underneath the table to avoid obscuring the table cells. If your table widgets have a fixed height this may cause the button icon to be cut off – the simplest fix for this is to edit your report and set the table widgets to auto-height (which is generally best practice anyway). If you have squashed a large number of widgets on a fixed size page this may also result in some widgets “escaping” your page – we would recommend applying a redesign in that case!