Reportwriter

This page describes the Report Writer feature and its usage

Introduction

The PLS_Tools/Solo ReportWriter is a feature which allows the user a convenient way to create a summary report of their current work . It is available as a menu item in the analysis GUI or as a command line function. The summary includes details of the data and analysis used, and of the model, if one was created. Figures opened by the analysis are also included in the report. The report is generated in HTML format as a webpage by default. Microsoft Word or Powerpoint document output formats are also available on Windows platforms.

Usage

The Reportwriter is available from the analysis GUIs “Tools” menu item.

You can choose to create the report in HTML format on Mac OSX, or in HTML, Powerpoint or Word format on Windows platforms. Select the format of choice and you are presented with a text entry window allowing you to add comments which will be included in the report. Clicking the “OK” button on this window initiates the creation of the report, whether you added comments or not. Clicking “Cancel” will abort the creation of the report. When a report is generated it opens automatically (Word or Powerpoint documents will be minimized to the taskbar). In the case of HTML format the report document and associated image files are saved in a folder with a name of the form “AnalysisReport_20100828T173449” (plus a suffix). You can use the application’s save function to save a copy of the report to a permanent location using a new name, if desired. The Report Writer drop-down choice “Open Report Folder” allows you to open the folder where report files are saved on your computer.

In the case of HTML you can save the report as follows: Firefox: Menu: “File”->”Save Page As…” CHECK: note the eps/fig links do not work. They still point to old locations

IE: “File”->”Save As”, using “Web page complete” option. CHECK: figs did not appear when I opened report in IE. Similarly the saved page did not show the figures.

Contents of the Report

There are two main sections to the report, namely, the “Analysis Details” section and the “Associated Figures” section, as shown in the example below taken from the PCR GUI using the plsdata dataset. The “Analysis Details” section can contain subsections named “Model” if a model has been built, “SSQ Table” if the model is of a type which includes such sums of squares information, and “Prediction” if the model has been applied to test data. There is also a “Comments” subsection which contains any comments the user can optionally insert as they create the report.

The “Figures Associated with the Analysis” section shows all figures which were opened from the analysis GUI. When the report is in HTML format these figures are .PNG format but they are also available in .FIG and .EPS formats by following links which appear below the figure labeled “View as EPS” and “View as .FIG”.

Finding Saved Figures

Reports are saved to the EVRI temp directory (see evridir function) in a folder named “analysisreports”. This folder contains a folder named “html” (and “word” and “powerpoint” for Windows case). This subfolder contains all reports created using that format. Considering the HTML format for example, there will be a file and a folder created in the html folder for each new report. They will have a name formed using a date and timestamp, for example, “AnalysisReport_20100828T173449.html”. The folder will have the same name as the file (minus the suffix) and will contain the image files for the figures shown in the report. There will be three versions of each image file, .PNG, .EPS and .FIG..

Reportwriter also removes old report files from the analysisreports sub-folders itself. When reportwriter runs it deletes files from its temporary directory which are older than options.maxage (days), which has a default value of 10 days.