How to Create Report Script w/o programming knowledge

Vikas Vyas on September 3, 2009

Hi - We just implemented ARIS Business Architect so everyone in our organization is new to ARIS. Before ARIS, we used to create flows in visio (BPF - Business process flows) and maintain a narrative document (BPN - Business process narrative) separately for each flow (BPF). I have been looking around to find a way to maintain our BPNs in ARIS (not through hyperlink) and after some research came up with the following options:

Option 1: For each process step in the EPC flow, we can use Description/Definition attribute to enter the text for that step/symbol in EPC and then run a report that would give all the functions/events names with the value in description/definition attribute but seems like there is no good report available that gives only this information. I did try to create a draft report script but didnt work as this was the first time I was doing it. Can you please provide some guidance (or perhaps send me a link/document) on how to create a report script to meet this requirement. We don't want to display other attributes just the name of the EPC, name of the function/event, description/definition, and transaction code (for SAP functions).
Option 2: Another option could be to use Document Management System (DMS) but not sure if it can be used to upload the word documents (narrative/BPN) in ARIS. If it can be used as document repository then I would like to know the pre-requisites to get DMS.

Thanks in advance,

Vikas Vyas

Tags: #arisscript; #arisreport

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8 Replies

Rick Bosworth on September 3, 2009 - 20:20

You can use option 1 to create the report by using an Evaluation Filter. Evaluation filters are used to limit the output when creating reports (as well as some other places like Business Publisher). Create an Evaluation Filter and include only the attributes that you wish to output to the report. Select this filter when running a standard report like the Model Information report. Note that only maintained attributes are reported.

Obviously it is also possible to write a custom report using the WYSIWYG reporting tool. It takes some effort to get used to the language used to create reports.

Rick

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Markus Werner on September 4, 2009 - 10:04

Hi Vikas,

here you see some screen shots of the report you want to create.

At first you have to specify that your report is running on models.

Then you can create a query on the Object Definitions, which can be filtered by type(like in your case Functions and Events).

If you have created that query, you could create 3 Datafields.

The first with the name of the object, the second with the description and the last with the transaction code.

You can add datafields using the main menu, the toolbar or the contextmenu: Insert - Data field ...

For the name you just select the "Name" node in the created tree view.

To insert a attribute value, you have to select "Attribute (filterable by type)" like in the screenshot below.

And as a last step you have to select the attribute you want to print.

I hope I have helped you. If you have further questions, don't hesitate to ask.

Kind regards,

Markus

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Markus Werner on September 4, 2009 - 10:10

Hi,

sorry that I forgot to answer to your option 2.

Yes it is possible to integrate a DMS to ARIS Business Architect.

You can specify the settings in the administration module.

Kind regards,

Markus

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Jürgen Gierend on September 4, 2009 - 10:38

Hi,

option 2 is realized by a DMS addon, that you can find on DVD. There, you can also find detailed information about it.

DMS is a separate product, therefore you have to buy licenses for it. Usually, Field Support will install and configure the required infrastructure. Then you will be able to use those DMS you have licenses for, both in ABA and BP.

The scripting interface will be revised by the end of this year. Then, you will also be able to use all features in your scripts.

Kind regards

Jürgen

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Vikas Vyas Author on September 4, 2009 - 23:16

Thank you Rick, Markus, and Jurgen for your help.

Markus - I imported your report into our ARIS database and it works as we had expected!! There is only one problem with this report that it doesn't show the attribute values for name, description/definition, and transaction code in the same sequence as in EPC. I was thinking to number all the objects(functions and events) in my EPC flow so that they would appear in the same sequence as in EPC when I run this report.

Please provide your input on how should we number these different objects (events and functions) in EPC flows:

- Use one of the attribute fields for object (function, event) numbering

- Enter the number in description/definition attribute before text

- Use free flow and enter the number for each object.

Thanks again for all your help.

Vikas

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Markus Werner on September 7, 2009 - 10:08

Hi Vikas,

it is also possible to sort the objects in a way like you expect.

Change the query from object definitions to obect occurences, and then you can selet "Sort by geomerty".

To have a automatical numbering you can assigne style sheets from the style sheet list, for example Heading 1.

Cheers,

Markus

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Vikas Vyas Author on September 9, 2009 - 19:07

Thank you Markus. I tried "sort by geometry" and it worked out fine.

Regards,

Vikas

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Jeeva Selvan on November 6, 2009 - 13:23

Regarding DMS setup in Business Architect.