Report types define what an individual “record” is in a report, for example, a document, a product, or a specific instance of a workflow. The report type also affects what fields are available as report columns, filters, etc. When a user creates a new report, the first step is selecting a report type for it.
Vault includes standard, default report types, which are not editable, but also allows you to create custom report types. Custom report types are the only way to create certain kinds of reports, including a report that displays only object data records without including documents, or a report that displays details for custom objects.
Accessing Report Type Administration
From Admin > Configuration > Report Types, you can create and manage customized report types. Standard report types are not editable and do not appear in this page.
How to Add Report Types
To create a new report type:
- From the Report Types page, click Create.
- Optional: Enter a Label. Users see this label when creating new reports. If you leave this blank, Vault will automatically generate a label based on the selected reporting objects.
- Optional: Enter a Name. This is the value that developers can use to access the report type through the API. If you leave this blank, Vault automatically generates it based on the selected reporting objects.
- Set the Status. To keep the report type hidden from users, set it to Disabled. To make the report type available to users, set it to Active.
- Optional: Enter a Description. This value is only visible in the Report Types page in Admin > Configuration.
- In the Report Configuration area, select a Primary Reporting Object.
- Optional: To add additional reporting objects, click Add Related Object and select a related reporting object.
- Optional: Click the Add Related Object button again to add more objects to your report type. The Up and Down arrows in the picklist indicate whether an object is an up or down object to the primary reporting object.
- Click Save. If the status is Active, the report type is available immediately to users.
How to Edit Report Types
Only custom report types are editable. Standard report types are system-managed and not editable. Custom report types that are in use by at least one report are not editable.
To edit an existing report type:
- From the Report Types page, click on the type.
- Click Edit.
- Make any necessary changes.
- Click Save.
How to Disable & Activate Report Types
To prevent users from creating new reports using the report type, you can set the Status field to Disabled. Setting the disabled report type back to Active makes it available again.
How to Delete Report Types
Deleting a report type permanently removes it from the Vault. This option is only available for custom report types that are not selected for a report. If a report type is in use, you cannot delete it.
Many-to-Many Relationship Reporting
Complex and simple relationships appear differently to users in reports. If the relationship is complex, the relational object and its fields appear. If the relationship is simple, the relational object does not appear in reports.
Reports with Multiple Up or Down Objects
You can configure report types that include multiple up or down objects, such as a Product with Product Country and Documents type report. In that report type, Product is the primary reporting object, with Product Country and Documents as down objects. The report type could also have an up reporting object, like Application.
An “up” object is an object related through a reference or parent relationship to the primary reporting object. A “down” object is a child object, simple join object, an object related through a reference relationship, or related documents. Learn more about object relationships.
By default, you can select up to ten (10) objects in a standard report type.
Document Reports with Up and Down Objects
On reports with Document as the primary reporting object, Vault shows the object relationship as an up object if the field is single-value and as a down object if the field is multi-value.
Example Custom Report Types
The following example shows the GroupMembership, UserListing of all groups and the users who are members of those groups.
| Primary Object | Related Objects | Example Usage |
|---|---|---|
| Submission | Application (Parent), Submission (Document) | Listing of all submissions with details for the related application and a list of binders for each submission. |
| Product | Product (Document) | Listing of all products and associated documents that you can group by product details like Therapeutic Area or Product Family. |
| Study Country | Study Sites (Child) | Listing of all sites under each study country. |
| Department | Owning Dept (Document) | Listing of documents organized by Owning Department field and showing the Department Code value for each department. |
| Product (Parent) | Local Product (Child), Country (Co-Parent of Local Product) | Listing of all products, any associated local products, and those local products’ parent countries (this is a many-to-many relationship). |
| Workflow | Campaign (Object) | Listing of workflow details organized by workflow fields such as Task Owner, Workflow Status, and Workflow Name associated with a Campaign. |
| Document | Study (Object) | Listing of documents and details associated with a Study. |
| Milestone | Document (Milestones) | Listing of all documents associated with milestones to evaluate the completeness of a project. |
| Product | Product (Document), Product Countries (Simple Join Object) | Listing of all products with their product countries and related documents. |
| EDL Item | Matched Document (Child), Document | Listing of all EDL Items with their matched documents. |
| Group | Membership, User | Listing of all groups and the users who are members of those groups. |
| Document Change Request | Document (Document Reference Field) | Listing of all document change requests and any documents referenced through a document reference field on the object. |
| Rendition | Document | Listing of all documents with attached renditions. |
| Document Role | Document, User | Listing of all document roles with their documents and the users assigned to those roles. |
| Product | Attachments | Listing of products with their associated attachments. |
| Document | Attachments | Listing of documents with their associated attachments. |