Widgets are the building blocks for your report. Widgets can be dragged into report pages from the Widgets menu to the left of the workspace. Commonly used widgets can also be added to the page using the ‘jigsaw bar‘ that appears on the report and contains buttons to add a widget or to paste a widget that has been copied to the clipboard.

Once they have been added to a report page, widgets can be selected by clicking on them and resized by clicking and dragging the handles on the widget outline. Widget outlines show by default but can be turned off using a setting in the Report Builder editor page user settings in the top menu.

When first added to the page, a widget will display a selection of data from the report source(s). Note that depending on the nature of the data in your data sources, Report Builder may not be able to draw a sensible widget until you make changes to the data and/or settings, particularly in the case of widgets that are highly data-dependent. Click on the widget to make changes – a toolbar will appear in the top right corner. The widget toolbar provides access to the following options:

• Data & Settings – this will open the Data & Settings window. See below for more information on this window.
• Cut – cut the widget
• Copy – copy the widget
• Paste (before) – paste a widget you have copied before the widget you have selected
• Margins – set predefined or custom margins for your widget. Widget margins are shown using grey hatching when a widget is selected.
• Anchor – anchor the selected widget to the left or right of the page. This is useful if you wish to arrange widgets side by side.
• Size – choose the appropriate size setting for the widget. Auto-Height is recommended for table and text widgets.
• Move – move the widget up/down on the page.
• Format Painter – copy the styling for the selected widget, select a different widget and use the Format Painter option to paste the styling.
• Delete – delete the widget.

Data & Settings Window

The Data & Settings window contains multiple tabs:

• Data – used to select the data you wish to display in the widget. Most widgets display data, although a small number do not e.g. the Navigator or Line Break widgets.
• Settings – used to edit the settings used to control widget appearance and behavior.
• Shortcuts – used to quickly apply combinations of settings in one click.

There are Ok, Apply and Cancel buttons at the bottom of the window and a toggle button to optionally dock the window to the right.

Data Tab

The Data tab will list the different data sources for your report as top level folders.

The contents of a folder can look different depending on the type of data source. A Data Catalog can have indicators organised into subfolders whereas a web map cannot. For a web map, Report Builder will list the fields in the data layer whereas for a Data Catalog it will list the indicators registered in the catalog.

Each field or indicator has a checkbox that enables it to be selected. For a Data Catalog, you can choose to show the latest X or specific dates. If you choose latest X dates, type a number into the box e.g. 12 if you wish to show the latest 12 dates in the indicator’s time series. In this case, the widget will automatically show these when new dates are added to the underlying Data Catalog. This means that the report will remain up to date without you having to make manual changes to widgets.

Settings Tab

The Settings tab organises the widget settings into groups. The heading of each group can be clicked to expand or collapse it.

 

When the Settings tab is active, an additional toggle button is displayed in the bottom right corner of the window. This enables you to show/hide advanced settings.

The settings that are generic to most widgets are described on the Widget Settings page.

Shortcuts Tab

The shortcuts displayed will depend on the type of widget you are editing.

Each shortcut has the following buttons:

• Update Settings – this will update the settings that are used for this shortcut. If the Apply widget shortcuts instantly setting is activated in the Report Builder editor page User Settings (top menu), the settings will be applied to the widget when this button is clicked. If not, the settings will be updated but will not be applied to the widget until you click the Apply or OK button at the bottom of the window.
• Filter Settings – this will filter to the settings that are used for this shortcut so that you can see them but will not update them.