Get started with the Report Designer

How you start Report Designer depends on which platform you are using Windows, Linux, or OS X.

• On Windows

  If you used the Pentaho Business Analytics installer available to you through your subscription, you will have a Start menu category for all of your Pentaho applications. To run Report Designer, click the Report Designer item in the Pentaho Business Analytics subdirectory in the Pentaho application folder. Alternatively, you can run the pentaho\design-tools\report-designer\report-designer.exe from Windows Explorer or the command prompt.

• On Linux

  The Business Analytics installer does not create program entries in the K menu or Applications menu in Linux desktop environments, so you will have to start Report Designer by navigating to the pentaho/design-tools/report-designer/ directory and running the report-designer.sh script. You can do this from your file manager, or from a terminal window.

• On OS X

  The Mac installation procedure does not create program entries in the dock, so you will have to start Report Designer by opening your Applications folder, then the report-designer sub-folder, then running report-designer.app.

Configuration files

Upon first launch, Report Designer creates a .pentaho directory in the current user's home directory, and populates it with the configuration subdirectories and files. For more information about configuration files, see the topic, Report Designer configuration files.

Tour the interface​

To learn how to navigate the user interface before moving on to more complex tasks, see the topic, Tour the Report Designer interface.

Create a report

To create a report in Report Designer, follow this process.

1. Connect to a data source (usually a database, yet you can also pull data from a flat file).

2. Create queries to get your data.

3. Add report elements and arrange data elements in the Report Designer workspace.

4. Apply formatting to report elements.

5. Add a chart.

6. Perform calculations by creating formulas or calculating fields using data retrieved from your query.

7. Publish a report, either to the Pentaho Server, or locally as a PDF or other supported file format.

Your report will consist mostly of data retrieved from a database query that you will create through Report Design Wizard, SQL Query Designer, MQL Query Builder, or by hand. Once you have a dataset, you are able to further constrain it to show specific details, and then move on to report layout and design.

Advanced topics

The following topics help to extend your knowledge of Report Designer beyond basic setup and use:

• Output parameterization

  Maintain one report with output parameters so the person viewing the report can change its data structure or values.

• Localize a report

  Pull text content from message bundles that contain localized strings.

• Create Report Design Wizard templates

  Creating templates for the Report Design Wizard and Interactive Reports.

Troubleshooting

See our list of common problems and resolutions in the topic, Report Designer and Reporting engine issues.