Configure Report Templates
Report templates define the structure and content of reports generated in NEXUS IC. They control both the presentation (headings, text, tables, drawings and other visual elements) and the data used to populate those elements.
You manage report templates under .
Report content is driven by two building blocks:
Simple Sources, which retrieve data from the database
Functions, which support calculated or custom columns in the sources
You can create these components in any order. In practice, it is usually easiest to start with the visible report structure (layout and elements), then add the required sources beneath them, and finally create any functions needed by those sources. This top-down approach makes it easier to shape the report as users will see it.
See below for more information:
Create/Edit Report Templates
The following steps describe the typical workflow for creating or maintaining a report template.
Choose from the menu.
In the Configuration - Templates dialog, you can:
Add, edit or delete report templates, or customise the grid view (see Using the Grid)
Load a previously saved report template
If the template already exists in the database, loading it will overwrite the existing template rather than creating a copy. The same applies to any related items saved in the file, such as functions or asset information fields.
Save the report template and related details to a .report file
NEXUS IC scans for all items related to the template (for example functions, asset information forms, event definitions, chart templates and lookup tables) and displays them as dependencies. You can select which of these are included in the saved file.
Set up schedules for report templates (SaaS-only feature). See Set Up Schedules for Report Templates.
Generate the report in RTF, HTML or Excel format
Mark a report template as a dashboard. See Set a Report Template as a Dashboard.
Define common styles applied across all report templates. See Set Up Styles for Report Templates.
Create or open a template:
To create a new template, choose Add
To edit an existing template, double‑click it or select it and choose Edit
In the Add/Edit Report Template dialog, define the main template properties. For details, see Add/Edit Report Template Dialog.
Under the Template Definition section of the dialog, maintain the report layout as required:
To define the actual size and layout of the report output, double-click the top Report Layout node on the right-hand side of the dialog and select whether the required size is A3 or A4 and if the layout should be portrait or landscape. This setting is used until you change the layout in a sub-element, for example, in a page break.
To add a new element, select it from the Available Elements screen area and either drag and drop it to the required location under the Report Layout node, or choose Add, which will insert the element above the node that was selected in the Report Layout structure. For detailed information about the available elements, see Elements and Sources.
To edit the parameters of an element, either double-click it, or select it and choose Edit.
To move an element in the Report Layout structure, either drag and drop it, or select it and use the Move Up/Move Down options from the toolbar.
You can retrieve elements from other reports and add them to your report layout by choosing the Retrieve Element toolbar button and selecting the element from the required report template.
Note
Most visual elements require a source element to retrieve data. The source must be included in the Report Layout structure and placed in the same element group as the visual element that uses it.
To configure report selection parameters, click Parameters.
These parameters appear in the selection dialog when generating the report. They are defined in simple sources by using filters with user parameters. From the Parameters dialog, you can control how these parameters appear to users, including:
Order
Field labels
Field widths
Generate a test report using Generate.
When generating a report from the Add/Edit Report Template dialog, selection parameters are not displayed. To generate the report with selection parameters, use Generate from the Configuration - Templates dialog instead.
Click OK to save the report template and close the dialog.
Set Up Styles for Report Templates
Styles control the visual appearance of reports, including fonts, colours, spacing and borders. Styles are shared across all report templates in the Configuration - Templates dialog.
To edit styles:
In the Configuration - Templates dialog, click Styles.
The Styles dialog opens listing all default and user‑defined styles. Some styles are tied to specific report elements (for example headings, table rows, footers or the table of contents), while others define general formatting such as background colours. You can restore the delivered default styles anytime using the Defaults toolbar button.
Select the style you want to edit and either double-click it or choose Edit. To edit multiple styles at once, select more than one style and choose Edit.
Modify the default values as required. You can update various properties, such as font, colours, spaces, padding, alignment or borders.
Click OK to save your changes.
Many styles are applied automatically to specific report elements where appropriate. For example:
Table Heading is applied to table headings, including category bands
Table Event Rows is applied to even-numbered data rows
For pivot tables, the following styles are applied automatically if they exist:
Table Heading for headings
Table Row Odd and Table Row Even for odd and even rows
Number for cells that contain numbers
Total for total cells
Total Number for total cells that contain numbers
Styles are applied to report elements additively, meaning default styles are applied first, then overwritten where element styles are embedded in the content field.
Note
Excel reports ignore many style settings and rely on Excel’s own formatting. Excel does not respect the Default Style, but does respect the embedded Style selection in the content.
In an RTF report, if a NEXUS style name matches the name of a style used by default in Word or defined in a .dotx Word template file, the generated text will appear using that Word style. You can then use Word’s styling tools to modify it once the report has been generated.
Orientation settings other than Normal are poorly supported by some web browsers. Chrome and Safari are known to render them correctly For RTF reports, Word draws vertical text correctly, but may calculate incorrect text dimensions, which can result in awkward text wrapping.
For an example of changing styles, see 3. Change the style of the headings.
Style Prefix
You can use style prefixes to apply different table styles to specific tables. This applies to data tables, vertical tables and pivot tables.
A set of predefined table styles is supplied and can be reused or modified. If you want to use a different style for specific tables, you can:
Create a new style with a prefix.
In the table’s properties, enter that prefix in the Style Prefix field.
During report generation, the prefixed styles are used for that specific table instead of the default table styles.
For an example of how to create and apply a style prefix, see 4. Create a new style for even rows.
Set Up Schedules for Report Templates
If your database is hosted on a Wood Cloud server, you will see the Schedules toolbar button. Here you can configure scheduled reports to automatically run periodically, sending the output to users by email.
Add A New Scheduled Report
To create a new scheduled report, proceed as follows:
In the Configuration - Templates dialog, click Schedules to bring up the Scheduled Reports dialog.
In this dialog, click Add to add a new scheduled report.
In the dialog that appears, enter data as follows:
Field
Description
Name
You must specify a name for the scheduled report.
Report
Select the report template based on which you want to generate the scheduled reports.
Enabled
Tick this checkbox to ensure enabling the scheduled report generation. If you untick this checkbox, no scheduled reports will be generated until you enable it again.
Recipients
Add one or more recipients as a comma-separated list.
Run As
Select the name of the person that the report will be generated under.
Include Date/Time in Filename
To include the date and time of generation in the report filename, select the Include Date/Time in Filename checkbox. To leave it out from the filename, leave it deselected.
Example:
Without Date/Time: test.rtf
With Date/Time: 2025-10-02 1012 test.rtf
Format
Select the output format for the generated report. All formats are sent to recipients as email attachments, except HTML (embedded), which is inserted directly into the body of the email.
RTF - Generates the report as a Rich Text Format (.rtf) file attached to the email.
HTML (embedded) - Generates the report as HTML and embeds the content directly within the email body (not as an attachment).
HTML (attached) - Generates the report as an HTML file attached to the email.
Excel - Generates the report as an Excel (.xlsx) spreadsheet attached to the email.
Start
Specify the date and time when the scheduled report should be generated first.
Repeat
Select the frequency for generating the scheduled report.
Note: The system calculates future report dates based on the Start date and the selected frequency. For example:
If the Start date is 1 January and the frequency is monthly, the next report will be generated on 1 February.
If the Start date is 31 January and the frequency is monthly, the report will be generated on the last day of each relevant month, such as 28 February, 31 March, 30 April, and so on.
If the frequency is quarterly and the Start date is 31 March, the report will run on the last day of each quarter, with the next report generated on 30 June.
Function
The Function dialog allows you to select a function to determine the report generation’s behaviour upon being called at the scheduled time. The function will return either a Yes or No as its result. If Yes, the report is generated and the job is marked as completed. If No, the report is not generated, and the job is also marked as completed. The function must not have any parameters.
Click OK.
Regenerate Last Report Run
If you want to regenerate the report on an ad hoc basis before the next scheduled run-time, choose the Clear Last Run toolbar button in the Scheduled Reports dialog. This will generate the report again without affecting the original schedule. The Last Run Time value will be updated with the current date and time but the Next Run Time value remains unchanged.
Set a Report Template as a Dashboard
You can mark a particular report template as a dashboard report in the following ways:
If you want the report template to be available as a dashboard on the DASHBOARD screen, edit the template from the Configuration - Templates dialog and tick the Dashboard Report checkbox. In this case, Section Heading, Multimedia Thumbnails and Table of Contents types will be marked with a
sign to indicate that these elements will not be displayed in a dashboard template.If you want the report template to be available as an asset dashboard on the Dashboard tab of the ASSETS screen, edit the template from the Configuration - Templates dialog and tick the Asset Dashboard checkbox. In this case, each time you view an asset on the ASSETS screen, with the Dashboard tab visible, your selected dashboard template will be available for selection and the dashboard that you selected last will be executed. Ensure that the template you use does not take long to execute, else, every time you change assets with the Dashboard tab visible, you need to wait for the dashboard to be generated. Also, in order for a dashboard report to reflect the selected asset in the asset hierarchy, it needs to have a simple source (see Sources) in it, which retrieves VN_ID from a user input parameter.
See also