Guidelines for Using Third-Party Reporting Tools

Use guidelines for using third-party reporting tools for useful information and recommendations.

Sort Order

The records in the third-party reporting tools will be returned in the sort order that was configured in the Saved Search in CSM. If you want to change the sort order, edit the sort results order in CSM and then refresh the data in the third-party tool.

To change the sort order:

  1. Open the Search Manager, and then:
    • In the CSM Desktop Client, select a Saved Search. Right-click and select Edit. Under the Sort results by drop-down list, select the sort option. Select OK.
    • In the CSM Browser Client, select a Saved Search and select the Edit icon. Under the Sort results by drop-down list, select the sort option. Select OK.
  2. Use the refresh/run update command in the third-party reporting tool to refresh the results. The new sort order should be reflected. If it is not, wait a few seconds and try again (there can be a delay).

Column Selection

The columns in the third-party reporting tools will be the same columns that are visible in the CSM Desktop Client and the CSM Browser Client when running the same Saved Search for the same CSM User account. In CSM, you can customize which columns are visible and the column order on a per User basis. The per User customizations will also be visible in the third-party reporting tool after refreshing the data. You can customize columns in both the Desktop and Browser clients.

  • To change columns in the CSM Desktop Client, run a Saved Search. View the results in Grid format by selecting View > Results in Grid. Add or remove Grid columns by right-clicking the Grid header and select Customize Columns. To change the order of the columns, move the column header to a new location in the Grid. Select Home to close the Search Results.
  • To change columns in the CSM Browser Client, run a search from the Search Manager. View the results in Grid format by selecting the Show Results Grid button. From the Grid menu bar, select Columns and use the Column Selector to add or remove any column. To change the order of the columns, move the column header to a new location in the Grid. Select Home to close the Search Results.
    The customizations you make to the columns are stored for the logged in CSM User, using the default Grid for the Business Object that the Saved Search is associated with. When logged in to the Desktop and Browser clients with the same User account, all views using the default Grid for the Business Object will reflect the customizations. For example, if you customize the columns for an Incident search (example: All Closed Incidents), other Saved Searches associated with Incident (example: All Assigned Incidents) and other views that use the default Incident Grid will also reflect the customizations.
    If you have already pulled the Saved Search into Power BI or Tableau before amending the visible columns, follow the relevant steps below to ensure the updated columns are properly reflected in the third-party reporting tool.

    Power BI

    1. Select the X to delete the 'Expanded Column1' entry within the Applied Steps section (right-hand side).
    2. On the main toolbar, select the Refresh Preview button.
    3. Expand the record column to see the data similar to how it is now displayed in CSM.

    Tableau

    1. Select Data > New Data Source and create a new data source connection, which will contain updated data.
    2. Import data using the Web Data Connector feature. See Using Search Data with Third-Party Reporting Tools.
    3. After authenticating and executing the query, a data schema will be built in Tableau. If data types are incorrect, they can now be corrected.
    4. Select Update Now to import the data into Tableau. You can arrange the data as needed.
The new columns should be reflected in the third-party reporting tool. If they are not, wait a few seconds and try again (there can be a delay). If the new columns are still not reflected, verify that you used the same CSM User account to configure the columns as you used when configuring the connection using the Web Data Connector.

Limitations and Guidelines

The time it will take for the Cherwell REST API to respond to the data requested from a third-party reporting tool will depend on a number of factors, including:
  • The complexity of the defined search parameters for the selected Saved Search.
  • The number of visible columns being returned for each result record.
  • The number of result records being returned.

Complex searches with many fields returned for many records may take a long time to execute/return all results to the third-party tool. In extreme cases, the search data retrieval may timeout if either the reporting tool or the server have been configured with timeouts that are shorter than the time required to execute the search. It is recommended that you configure search results to only show the minimum fields needed in the third-party tool, especially when working with complex searches or any searches that are likely to return a large number of records.

Third-party reporting queries are executed against the CSM database. Running multiple complex queries simultaneously could cause performance issues and delay the response of CSM applications.

The REST API endpoint used for third-party reporting Saved Searches will only return a maximum of up to 100,000 records. If there are more records than that, only the first 100,000 will be returned.

The REST API endpoint used for third-party reporting Saved Searches also has a rate-limiting to manage load on the server. If the same Client makes too many requests in a short period of time, you may encounter Error Code 429 (Too Many Requests). If this occurs, wait until your existing requests are complete before making additional data requests.