Printing and Presenting Reports

Reporting
1

(imported topic written by fergusop)

Hello! Would like to start off by saying that these forums are incredible for the information available and the talents displayed in helping people out. I’ve never seen anything like it before! I hope to one day be able to contribute information back here as I learn to use some of the powerful features of TEM.

On to my question now, several of the reports and dashboards available are perfect examples of the types of data that I am needing to present to my mangers and higher-ups but I am usually needing to pull this information in a PDF or printed document. When trying to print to actual paper or PDF outputs the formatting completely kills and I can barely get any usable information to pass along.

My first example would be a report I got from this forum: CMAV Overview (Client Manager for Anti-Virus Overview)

The issue seems to be fitting all the information onto one page without cutting off the right hand information. As if the frame the data sits in is too large. Using a shrink to fit option when printing, selecting larger paper sizes and numerous other options seem to have no effect. Is there anything I can do to make this report and others printer or PDF friendly without making the information un-readable or cutting off data?

Thank you very much for any information you have to offer!

Paul

Edit: After looking through other posts and threads on this forum, I stumbled across some additional information that I thought would be helpful to clarify.

The tasks " BES Web reports: Enable PDF Reports" Parts I and II have been completed and the output is the same. I have tested with IE7 and IE8 and IE7 will display the report on the screen much better than 8 does but there are no differences when printing or exporting to PDF. I have attached an example of the report I am getting.

2

(imported comment written by fergusop)

Updated original post and added attachment.

3

(imported comment written by Lee Wei)

Hi,

I don’t think I can help much, but I am interested to see the reports that you are trying to export to PDF.

The attachment is not coming through. Also, can you point me to the CMAV Overview report that you referenced?

Lee Wei

4

(imported comment written by fergusop)

Sure!

Found the report here: http://support.bigfix.com/labs/downloads/

Under

BigFix Custom Reports the following reports are available for Download

BigFix Deployment Overview

Patches for Windows Overview

Client Manager for Anti-Virus Overview <----- Downloaded this one

BigFix AntiPest (powered by PestPatrol) Overview

Thanks!!

5

(imported comment written by Lee Wei)

Looks like you have more success than I do.

I cannot get the CMAV Overview report to work on my 8.0 server.

Any other reports?

6

(imported comment written by fergusop)

Most of the other reports seem to function pretty well. My only other desire would be able to pull a report that displays like the Patches for Windows Overview dashboard. There is a print feature on that one but it prints out as badly as the CMAV report and most of the text is unreadable. I’ve not been able to locate a report that displays the information quite the same within the reports site.

7

(imported comment written by Lee Wei)

  • I loaded the Patches for Windows Overview report into my Web Reports.
  • I notice that because the report uses the Office Web ActiveX control, it will only work in Internet Explorer.
  • Then I use my print to PDF feature from my Adobe Acrobat installation and was able to get a print out exactly as shown on my screen.

Does this reconcile with what you see?

8

(imported comment written by fergusop)

Yes, if I print this specific report with a PDF print connector (not the Export to PDF feature in web reports) I am able to get the report to print the same way as yours. This helps greatly with one of the reports I need to present!

Now if only I could figure out what is wrong with the CMAV report.