The ZENworks Reporting Solution includes the following core components:
Jaspersoft Reporting Engine: ZENworks Reporting uses Jaspersoft as the underlying reporting engine. This is a Web-based application.
Domain: The Jaspersoft Reporting Engine uses domains to display objects or items that are used for reporting. A domain is a collection of objects mapped to a database schema. Domains are available for various ZENworks products such as ZENworks Configuration Management, Audit Management, and ZENworks Mobile Management. These domains are not shipped with ZENworks Reporting, but are provided with the individual ZENworks products. ZENworks 11 SP3 ships with two sets of domains, ZENworks Configuration Management and ZENworks Audit. During the ZENworks Reporting installation, based on the information specified one or more of these domains will be imported into ZENworks Reporting. They can also be updated or imported later using the ZENworks Reporting Configuration tool. A domain is packaged as part of a zipped resource file.
iReport: This is used to create complex reports and to format reports, that can be published in ZENworks Reporting. This is not a Web-based tool; it is installed on the server during the ZENworks Reporting installation. This tool allows you to create reports by using the available domain objects or by using user-specified SQL queries.
For more information, see Jaspersoft iReport Guide.
LDAP Access: ZENworks Reporting currently supports only LDAP- based authentication. Thus, users must log in to ZENworks Reporting by using their LDAP credentials. ZENworks Reporting supports both Microsoft Active Directory and NetIQ e-Directory. As part of the installation process, the customer specifies LDAP groups with users who should have administrator privileges in ZENworks Reporting. During installation, these groups are mapped as Administrator Role in ZENworks Reporting. Subsequently, a user belonging to these groups can log in to ZENworks Reporting as an administrator.
ZENworks Reporting Configuration Tool: This tool is installed on the server while installing ZENworks Reporting. It is used for configuring; or changing different settings such as SMTP Configuration, Domain and Datasource configuration, LDAP configuration, and SSL certificates.
For more information, see Section 5.0, ZENworks Reporting Configuration Tool.
ZENworks Reporting presents a view of ZENworks data according to the user requirements. You can use the following ways to view ZENworks data:
Ad Hoc View: These views are primarily data analysis tools provided by ZENworks Reporting. These views can be created by dragging and dropping various domain objects into the Ad Hoc Editor. Users can also select certain objects to be filters. Using these filters, a user can perform drill-downs on data to get further insight. In these views, a user still has access to all the data objects exposed by the domain and can swap objects. You can also achieve significant results by using the Ad Hoc View to generate reports using a combination of objects. After you get the required results, you can save this view for later use, or you can publish it as an Ad Hoc report. An Ad Hoc view can be a Tabular View, Chart View, or Crosstab View.
Ad Hoc Reports: These are custom reports that can be created either by saving an Ad Hoc view as a report, or by writing an SQL query and embedding it in a report.
Predefined Reports: These reports are created by Novell. They are well formatted and have been built by using the iReport Tool. These reports are specific to a domain and are available in a zipped resource file, which is imported into ZENworks Reporting during installation, or can be configured later by using the ZENworks Reporting Configuration Tool.
Dashboards: Dashboard is a collection of reports provided with relevant information. A dashboard can use the Predefined reports shipped with ZENworks Reporting, or it can be created using Ad hoc reports.