Rolling Over Your BI Tool Reports

Those of using custom reports, not SQL, as the data source for our BI Tool Reports need to “roll over” our BI Tool reports each summer. Here are a few tips for how to go about rolling over your reports.

IMPORTANT: If your custom reports are using “Current” fields (i.e. Current Site, Current Grade Level, Enrollment is Current, Roster is Current, etc.), please refer to this document.

How to Roll Over BI Tool Reports

Part 1: Roll Over Your Custom Report

1. Duplicate the custom report from the previous academic year.

   • Don't change the existing report. Create a copy instead. Your users will want the ability to look back at the previous year's data by running the previous year's version of the report.

     
2. Change any "Academic Year" filters in your custom report to the new academic year.
3. Carefully look at each column in your custom report, one by one. Identify any columns containing data that is specific to an academic year. Typically, assessment data is specific to an academic year. For example, your custom report may contain a column called "2017-2018 Interim Assessment" or "Spring 2017-2018 Reading Level", etc.

4. Delete these columns from your custom report, and replace it with the corresponding columns for the new academic year.

   1. I recommend doing this one column at a time.

   2. This requires that the assessments for the new academic year are have been created. These assessments don't need to have any data, but they do need to have been created.

5. Revise the title of your custom report so it clearly indicates the academic year of the data.

Part 2: Update Your Jasper Report in Jaspersoft Studio

Key Concept: The columns in your custom report must match the "fields" in your Jasper report. Otherwise, the report will not run.

1. Open your Jasper Report (.jrxml file) in Jaspersoft Studio.

2. Select File > Save As to create a copy of your Jasper Report.

3. Look for any static text fields in your report that indicate a specific academic year, and change them to the new academic year.

   • If your report does not have a static text field indicating the academic year of the report, you should probably add one.

4. Change the names of the fields in your Jasper report to match the names of the columns in the new custom report you just created.

   • If you were consistent with your naming conventions, this should simply mean changing the year in the names of your fields (i.e. a field named "2017-2018 ELA Interim Assessment" would be changed to "2018-2019 ELA Interim Assessment).

   • Remember, the columns in your custom report must match the "fields" in your Jasper report.

     
5. Save your work.

6. Create a NEW Jasper report in Illuminate: Click Reports > Create a Jasper Report

   • Don't overwrite last year's version of the report. Your users will want the ability to look back at the previous year's data by running the previous year's version of the report.

7. Select your new .jrxml file.

8. Select your new custom report for the new academic year.

You're done!

If the assessments for the new academic year do not yet have any data, the report will likely not show any data at this time. But, as soon as you have data in the assessments for the new academic year, the report should run.

We're happy to help you with this process! Feel free to submit a help ticket by emailing [e-mail] if you would like us to walk you through the process.