Get Started with the Report Builder

This page shows how the Report Builder is turned on, where to find it, and how to work with the list of reports: run, edit, clone and delete them.

Watch the short video, then follow the steps below.

Menu	Reports > Report Builder (or Reports > Shared Reports)
Permission	Build reports and manage own custom reports and views, to design reports. None to run a report shared with you.
Feature	Report Builder

Can't find it?

What you see depends on your role. If the menu, a button or a setting on this page is missing, ask your administrator to give you the permission listed above or to turn on the feature. Only administrators can turn features on and change site settings.

Turn on the Report Builder

Turning features on is work for an administrator.

1. Open Tools > Features.
2. Find Report Builder in the Reporting group and click Enable. It turns on Reports too, and Orchard Core's Data Pipelines Core, which provides the data sources, the formulas and the share links the builder uses. You never turn Data Pipelines Core on yourself: the features that need it turn it on.
3. To report on your content types (such as customers or orders), make sure Contents is on. To report on your saved queries, turn on Queries. To email share links to people, turn on Email and set up how the site sends email.
4. Give the people who build reports the Build reports and manage own custom reports and views permission in their role. See Roles and permissions and the permission list on the Report Builder overview.

Features you already use, such as the Contact Center, Omnichannel, AI chat or the messaging workspace, add their own data to the Report Builder as soon as it is on. See Data sources.

Find the Report Builder

Everything is under Reports in the admin menu:

Menu	Who sees it	What it opens
Report Builder	People who may build reports.	The list of every report you can open, and New Report.
Shared Reports	People who may not build reports but can run at least one report.	The list of the reports shared with you.
Report Views	People who may build reports.	The list of reusable views.
A category, such as Custom Reports	Everyone who can run a report pinned to the menu.	The reports put in the admin menu, grouped by their category.

Work with the list of reports

The Report Builder page lists the reports you can open.

• Type in Search reports to find a report by its title or category, and press Enter or click the search button.
• New Report opens the builder on a new report. It is shown to people who build reports.
• The header of the list says how many reports it shows. If you build reports, the Status menu on the right of it shows All reports, only the Published ones, or only the ones Not published.

Reports you started but never published are listed first, with a Not published badge. Only you, and the people who manage every report, can see them. Click Edit to keep working on one, or choose Delete from its actions to throw it away.

Each published report shows its category, a Menu badge when it is in the admin menu, a Shared badge when it is shared with other people, and Yours or the name of its owner. The buttons depend on what you may do:

Button	What it does
Run	Opens the report. Set the filters and click Show. See Share and run reports.
Edit	Opens the report in the builder. Shown when you may change the report.
Clone (in the actions)	Makes your own copy of the report. The copy is not shared with anybody. Shown when you may build reports.
Delete (in the actions)	Removes the report, its versions and all its share links. Shown when you may change the report.

Find your way around the builder

The builder fills the window. At the top are the report's title, a few words that say whether your changes are saved, and the buttons Versions, Run report and Publish. Below them are four tabs:

Tab	What you do there
Settings	Give the report a title, description and category, put it in the admin menu, and choose whether people may export it.
Design	Build the report. The builder opens on this tab.
Data model	See your data sets as cards and join them by dragging one column onto another. See Join data sets.
Sharing	Choose the people and roles who may run the report, and send people links to it. See Share and run reports.

The Design tab has three areas:

• the Data pane on the left, with the fields of your data sets and your calculated fields;
• the middle, with the Joins, Columns and Filters rows, Sort and Top rows, and the live Preview under them;
• the Properties and visuals pane on the right, where you change the column, filter or join you clicked, and add charts and other visuals.

Each pane scrolls on its own. Collapse the Data pane, the Properties and visuals pane, or the Columns and filters section to give the preview more room; the builder remembers your choice.

Next: Build a report.