How do I create my own custom reports?

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It is possible to create/modify the reports in Merlin, but this requires some knowledge of XML, XSLT, Webblitz and Python.

These are the techniques our developers have used in creating the current reports. If you already have a good knowledge of this you can modify these in the Merlin Bundle in the folder “Plugins” where you will find these reports. Furthermore, those you create yourself can be saved in the path ~/Library/Application Support/Merlin/Reports (you might have to create the “Reports” folder). This hinders the reports being overwritten when you load the next update to Merlin 2. You will now be able to view this in the application in the report selection menu.

Currently we are in the process of documenting how to modify the reports for our users. Once we have completed this we will offer it to our users to make it easy for them to make certain changes/creating their reports.

In the mean time, one of our clients has written one excellent howto on how to create you own custom reports. You can find it here.

If you would like to share your report template with other Merlin 2 users, we encourage you to send them to us per email. We will be providing further report templates available to download at a later date.

Please note that we are not able to take any guarantees for any extreme modifications you make in the reports that might cause Merlin to act irregularly and cannot offer support to issues that result from these modifications.

16 thoughts on “How do I create my own custom reports?”

  2. No… not really… we have an over-allocation issue to solve 😉
    And we really recommend to read the ‘howto’ mentioned, as it is really good.

    If you need to add the display of a value & don’t know the exact name of its column, simply check the XML file Merlin sends to the report (right click onto the report’s area > ‘open XML file in external editor’)

    We will see there which project data can get visualized in the report, and the structures in which this data resides.

    We work on a complete new concept of report technology though, providing a whole lot of new options in a much easier to configure way… Thanks for your comment.

  3. Hello,

    We currently own two Merlin licenses and are evaluating your product for our Project Management needs. Our primary goal is to use Merlin to help us plan our staff resource utilization and revenue projections. However the current reporting capability is sorely lacking in this area. Is it possible to point us to some resources for generating the custom (XSLT?) reports we require?

    Alternatively can you tell me when we might see custom reporting queries built into the Merlin product? I understand a new release may be forthcoming shortly. Can you provide any details on this new release and it’s features?

    Thanks,
    -Cliff

  5. Where may I find documentation of Webblitz?

    It looks to me like yet another web templating system for python (like Genshi, Mako, etc), but I cannot find documentation on Webblitz.

    Any pointers to Webblitz docs would be greatly appreciated.

    Thanks,

    Jef.

  6. Hi Jeff.

    Webblitz is implemented by ProjectWizards for creation of web applications. It uses similar concepts as in WebObjects. There is not explicit documentation on it, but it helps to know how WebObjects work.

    Thank you for your comment.

  7. I’ve read the howto posted on KJ Koster’s blog and learned how to modify simple table-based reports, but I’m looking to modify one of Merlin’s graphic-based reports (Cost Distribution in particular). Instead of reporting total cost distribution I want to report productivity distribution. Basically, instead of multiplying activity/resource time by their costs ($/hr), I want to multiply by their productivity rates (widgets/hr). If I had access to a custom field I could enter each resource’s productivity rate there and use it.

    I know there is a painful way of doing this: delete the Standard Cost and enter the Processing Rate for each resource, but it is very inefficient.

    How can I modify the Cost Distribution report and access a custom field?

  8. When will more documentation be made available to customize reports? The kjkoster Merlin Reports tutorial is a great start, yet isn’t providing all the guidance I need. For example, I want to modify the Classic Report, yet it doesn’t have and XML report when right clicking on it. Searching in the plugins folder doesn’t show a report.xml that I can copy and edit.
    What is the process for editing the Classic Report? There are parts of it that I don’t want and other I want to tweak.
    Thank you.
    Mike

  9. Hi Mitch & Mike, and thanks for your comments 🙂
    Merlin deals with 2 kinds of report templates:
    Those written in Python: Budget/Cost Balance, Checklist Report, Classic Report, Cost Distribution, Milestone Trend Report,
    and those in XSLT: Information report, Next due Activities, Review Dates.

    The How To on KJ Koster’s blog explains the XSLT reports.
    Classic Report is written in Python so it does not contain an XML

    To edit the classic report templates you need to edit the .wbl and .py files contained.
    The wbl is for the output, while the py file is for the data queries definition.

    Best regards, Vicky

  10. Vicky,
    Thanks. Your reply helped be make some edits to the Classic report by editing the .wbl file.
    One question I have about editing reports is how do I show more than just one level up in the outline structure? Reports show the “Group” which is the direct parent of an activity (I see it’s called as “parentActivity.title” in the wbl file, and “../title” in the .xslt file). How do I show the grandparent of the parent?
    It could look like this in the report:
    “Activities” “Grandparent/Parent”…

    Thank you.
    Mike

  12. That did it. Thank you.
    Just put this and other report customization information into a document, and Merlin will be awesome.

    Mike

  13. Is there any where I can get a list of user submitted reports? I am looking for remaining budget by phase distribute by month

  14. Hello Will,

    we have no reports submitted by users, but this is a good idea, we should consider organizing a pool for user submitted reports. Thanks.

    Remaining Budget by phase can be seen in “activities” view. Just enable the column set “Cost variance (comparison)” in the ‘activity’ view, push the Gantt to right to see all outline columns and close all deeper levels (Edit > Show Outline > Level 1).
    Another way would be to call the ‘Budget/Cost balance’ report.

    A distribution by month can be done in the ‘Cost distribution’ report. This report won’t list phases, sorry.

    Best regards, Vicky

  15. This is good stuff, but I’m not a developer at all, and frankly the idea of chasing down xml & python scripts & updating via trial-and-error seems prone to much trial and even more error.

    Is there any forum for just asking for a report mod? Even if it’s just one-off bespoke work?

    Specifically, I’m looking to mod the Classic report to make it into an automated status report. I just need to add:
    1. Title – “Status Report”
    2. Project-level flag status
    3. Section for brief narrative (or just move Information section up)
    4. Section for “This Period” showing prior (x) week completed work

    This seems easy, but just beyond my reach.

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