Document Designer

You must have designer-role rights to use this tool.

You can use the Document Designer to present data-source content in the formats of MS Word, Excel, HTML, PowerPoint, or PDF. You can incorporate any number of components of any type into a document, because you don't have the onscreen space restrictions of a dashboard.

You can customize the document with a Word template that uses an Xtraction-generated framework with placeholders indicating where the content is to go. You have the freedom to tailor the template, but for a successful export, ensure that the placeholders remain intact within the final document.

The key design steps for using this tool are to:

•Include any number of components of any type (no onscreen space restrictions).

•Use a Word template to enable custom formatting.

•Export the content for review outside of Xtraction.

Interacting with the Document Designer

When using the Document Designer, the details pane shows two distinct sub-panes:

•The central pane graphically displays one component at a time that's included in the document.

•The right pane lists all components included in the document composition. You can click any one of the listed components to display it individually in the central pane.

To create a document, use the same methods as you do for the Dashboard Designer:

•Open the Document Designer tool by clicking the icon in the toolbox left of the navigation pane. Before setting up a document design, you need to define some preliminary settings, such as defining design defaults, selecting the data source, and applying any optional filters to the content.

•Use the navigation pane to find components to include in the document.

•Drag components onto the central pane; it doesn't matter if a component is already shown, dragging another one to that area adds it to the composition. Continue adding components to the central pane until you have a complete document.

•Use the document components list at right to bring a component into focus.

•In the central pane, use the action icons to interact with a component and tailor its design settings.

•Right-click any component in the document components list to edit, copy, or remove it. Or you can clear all listed components by selecting Clear Components.

•Click on details within a displayed component to work with filters applied to it, or to view its underlying record list.

•Use the Tools menu to incorporate any dashboards.

•When your design is complete, use the File menu to save as you would for a dashboard. If you choose to export the document, it's saved to the Downloads folder defined for your browser.

Using parameters

You can associate parameters with a document that prompt a user to enter certain values in order to view the document. These values are passed to variable condition filters that replace the variables with the associated parameter values that were entered. For example, if a document shows all open incidents, you can set up a parameter to prompt for the priority of those incidents.

1.Open the appropriate document in the Document Designer.

2.In the document header, click the icon to open the Document dialog.

3. Click the Parameters tab.

4.Right-click the blank area and select Add parameter.

5.In the Parameter dialog, enter the parameter details:

•Text: Text that displays to the user when prompted for parameter values.

•Variable name: The variable that's replaced in variable condition filter.

•Associated field: If this parameter is associated with a field, you can select that field here; the user can then do a look-up when prompted for the parameter value.

When the document displays, the user will be prompted for the parameter values in a dialog that looks like this:

Exporting documents

You can export documents to these formats: Word, PDF, HTML, Excel, or PowerPoint. To schedule periodic exports, see Scheduling content exports.

1.In the details-pane header, click the icon to export all included content. To export at the individual component level, click the same icon in the header of the component that's in focus. (You may need to click the icon to show the export icon.)

2.In the Export Document dialog, set the following options:


•Format: Select the file format for the export. If exporting to HTML, the file will export to a .ZIP file instead of displaying onscreen.

•Theme: Select the overall background color to be black or white. The white theme helps save on toner when printing.

•Use template: Export the document to the template. (If the document wasn't designed for a template, this option doesn't appear.)

•Show description: Include a summary of the series, data source, and filter conditions used in the content.

•Show notes: Include any of the optional notes that are part of this document.

•Show table data: Include data that's presented in tables. Consider the number of records, as this option can export a lot of data.

•Show URL record link: For list components, embed URLs for any included links in the record list (for example, links that open an incident for a service desk).

3.Click OK.

4.Click Save File, then OK to save the file in the Downloads folder defined for your browser.

Exporting documents to a template

You can export a document to an Xtraction-generated Word template to customize its format. To do so, complete a three-procedure process—create and edit the template to your liking, upload the template into Xtraction, and finally export the document content to the template.

Before exporting, make sure that your document composition is complete, contains all components to be included in the result, and has been saved.

1.On the menu bar, click Template > Create > Landscape or Portrait.

2.Xtraction creates the template and opens the standard Windows Open/Save dialog.

3.Click Save File, then OK to save the file in the Downloads folder defined for your browser. If you want to edit the template after saving, right-click the DOTX file and select Open to open it. (To ensure that you open the DOTX file and not a DOCX version of the file, don't double-click to open it.)

The template created by Xtraction is simple in layout. There is one table in the template for each component that exists in the document. The tables do not have outlines; however, you can select an entire table to see the extent of it by clicking the icon in the top-left corner.

Each table contains hidden metadata that enables Xtraction to insert components into the template. Each table has the word TITLE in the top row, which will be replaced by the source component title when the document is exported (components are exported in top-down order from the document components list). You have the freedom to tailor the template, but for a successful export, ensure that the tables remain fully intact within the final document.

Some of your formatting options include:

•Changing or deleting the Xtraction-generated titles.

•Interspersing the Xtraction picture placeholders anywhere within an existing document.

1.In the menu bar, click Template > Upload Template.

2.Your browser opens a window enabling you to locate the template in your folders.

3.Double-click the document and click Upload. Xtraction acknowledges this process by confirming the upload.

4.In the menu bar, click File > Save to have the template saved with the design.

The menu bar's Template option also enables you to download a template, provided that one already exists.

Once the template is uploaded and saved, you can export the document content to the template following the "Exporting documents" procedure above.

To schedule periodic exports, see Scheduling content exports.