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Penforms PPOD Reporting 
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Penforms PPOD Reporting (also known as Penforms Reporting) makes it possible to create statistics and reports based on the data written on digital forms.
The Reporting Engine works on all types of forms, and integrates almost all data captured by the digital pen.
Penforms Reporting is an advanced tool, and although a simple report can be created within minutes, it does take a few trial and errors before a user learns how to fully exploit the possibilities of the system.
Penforms Reporting requires a license, so if you do not see the links mentioned in this manual, it is recommended that you contact your dealer for licensing options.
The main menu of Penforms Reporting is accessed through the Reporting link at the top of the Web Page in the PPOD Portal. This page is known as the Reporting Overview.
Definitions
Some terms are used throughout this document, as well as on the portal.
Understanding these terms are crucial to understanding how to use the system.
Graphs
A Graph is a displayed set of data, for instance as a pie or as bars.
Charts
A Chart is basically the definition of a set of data.
This could for instance be “The Age of all registrations of the Conference, grouped by the day of week the form was filled out”.
Based on this set of data, a lot of different Graphs can be created.
Reports
Reports are a collection of one or more Charts, as well as optional Search Parameters.
A Report is usually the end result from the Penforms Reporting, as it gives the final overview of the data from a set of forms.
Reports can be exported to PDF Documents, as well as sent to selected users at given intervals.
Search Parameters
A Search Parameter makes it possible to narrow down the set of data used by the Charts being displayed in the Reports.
A Search Parameter could for instance be the date the form was filled out, the name of the person filling out the form, or whether or not a specific checkbox on the form was filled out.
Charts
Creating a Chart is always the first step when using Penforms Reporting. The Charts is the foundation for any Report.
Creating a chart
To begin the creation of a Chart, click the “Create New Chart” link from the Reporting Overview.
This brings up a list of all the forms that have been printed and filled out for the current Website.
The data on the Chart must be common to all the selected forms. In most cases, only a single form is selected. Common data is for instance a Checkbox with the same name on all forms, or the same name for a Prefilled Label.
After selecting one or more forms on which to base the data, the type of chart must be selected.
Checkbox Distribution Charts
A Checkbox Distribution Chart is used to show the distribution of selections on a form. This could for instance be the gender of participants on a conference, the severity of an accident, the type of a service call, or any other checkboxes where multiple choices exist.
After selecting the Checkbox Distribution Chart as the type of Chart to create, a list of Checkboxes common to all forms will be shown.
Select the Checkboxes to use in the Chart, and click Continue.
After selecting two or more checkboxes to use, it will have to be determined what to do if more than one checkbox was checked on any given form or if no checkboxes were checked.
If the Checkboxes were for gender (Male/Female), the data should only be considered valid only if exactly one of the boxes were ticked. On the other hand, if the checkboxes were for a type of service call, it might be acceptable to have two checkboxes checked.
In the case of Gender, two options on this page are relevant; “Remove data from data set” or “Treat as error”. If set to “Treat as error”, the data will be placed under a specific label, which will be displayed in the Charts. This makes it possible to see how much invalid data was received, compared to the valid data.
After clicking Continue, the first draft of the Charts is shown. Enter a name for the Chart, and click Continue. The Chart is now saved, and can be seen from the Reporting Overview.
HWR Field Value Distribution Charts
This type of Chart is used to show the distribution of values entered into an Input Field on the form. This could for instance be the entered Age, the Country or any other value, where it is expected that more users will enter the same value in a field on the form.
After selecting a field, and clicking Continue, a draft of the Chart is shown. If a field with too many unique values was selected (for instance a Comments-field, where more or less all forms will have unique texts), the Charts will instead of the data show a friendly error message or a blank chart.
In this case, click the Back button in your browser, and select a different field.
To save the Chart, enter a name for the Chart and click continue. The Chart is now saved, and can be seen from the Reporting Overview.
Advanced Charts: Group Parameters
The creation of a Chart gives a relatively simple view of the selected data.
To get more advanced statistics, it is often preferable to group it on a set of data.
At the bottom of the Chart screen, a drop down with a list of preset Group Parameters can be found. Select either of the values (or None, to clear the Group Parameters), and the page will refresh, displaying the data based on the new Group Parameters.
If the preset Group Parameters does not give the required level of details, clicking the Advanced button will open a window with advanced settings.
It is from this window possible to use more than one Group Parameter (for instance to group the data on both the month the data was written in, as well as the writer filling out the form). If multiple Group Parameters are used, the Delimiter is used to separate the values.
To add a Group Parameter to the list, select from the options at the bottom. To change the settings for the field, select it at the list on the left. When hovering the mouse over an option, a short help text will be displayed.
For inspiration, use a Preset Group Parameter, and see how it is set up from the Advanced screen.
Changing Display Texts
Each Chart has a set of Display Texts, which can be changed. This is useful if the name of the fields set when designing the form is not easily readable, or if the data should be translated into a different language.
Reports
A Report is the main output from Penforms Reporting. It consists of the data from multiple Charts, as well as various other parameters.
Creating a Report
To create a new Report, click the “Create new Report” link from the Reporting Overview.
A new Report will now be created, and the Manage Graphs window will be opened.
Managing Graphs
The Manage Graphs window is automatically opened when selecting to create a new Report, and can be opened for existing Reports, by clicking the Manage Graphs button at the bottom of the Reports page.
The Manage Graphs window is used to define which Charts to display in the Report.
At the bottom of the window a list of all available Charts is shown. Click either of the Charts, and it will be added to the list on the left.
Select a Chart from this list on the left, and two options will be available; The Size of the Graph to show, and which of the types of Graphs to render.
After making the selections, click Done to close the window.
The settings are automatically saved, and the updated Report is shown.
Managing Search Parameters
It is often desirable to limit the set of data to show in a Report. Sometimes it is only relevant what happened last month, or what was written by a specific person.
The Manage Search Parameters screen is opened by clicking the button from the Reports page.
To add a Search Parameter, select either of the types of Search Parameters from the bottom of the window. The new Search Parameter is automatically selected. The Text parameter is shown next to the Search Parameter, and should be the name of the parameter – for instance “From” or “Written By”.
When the mouse is over any of the settings for a Search Parameter, a short help text is displayed.
After making the relevant changes, click Done to close the window.
The settings are automatically saved, and the updated Report is shown.
Managing View Permissions
View Permissions makes it possible to select which users should be allowed to view a specific Report.
To access the list of allowed users, click the Manage View Permissions button from the Reports screen. The logins from the regular PPOD Portal will be used. This means, if the user already exists, entering the email address will add that user to the list. The users can use their existing username and password. If the email address does not exist, a new user can be created.
Only the users listed in the Manage View Permissions screen will be allowed access to the Report.
Managing Scheduled Forwards
A Scheduled Forward makes it possible to have the Report sent out to specific email addresses, at set times.
A Schedule consists of a Trigger and a list of Recipients.
Selecting a Schedule
Schedules are selected from the drop down at the top of the window. Click an existing schedule to select it, or click the New button to create a new schedule.
Setting the Trigger
The Trigger for a schedule can be one of three groups; Daily, Weekly or Monthly.
Only the setting of the selected group (or tab in the window) will be used for the Trigger.
All times are based on the time zone of the default Web Page in the Website.
Daily Trigger
A Daily Trigger will send out the Report on set times every day.
Weekly Trigger
A Weekly trigger will be sent out at a specific time, at the selected days of the week.
Monthly Trigger
A Monthly Trigger will be sent out at a specific time of the day, matching the settings of the days or months, and months of year.
Setting Recipients
Recipients are written comma separated into the fields. When the mail is sent out, the Recipients are written in the To field of the mail, meaning that the recipients can see who else received the Report at that time.
If the recipients should not be able to see each other, one schedule should be created for each recipient.
Resulting PDF Document
The most commonly distributed result from a Report, is the generated PDF Document.
If a logo is specified for the Website, it will be placed in the upper left corner of the header of the PDF Document.
The title of the Report will also be written in the header of the document.
If there are Search Parameters on the form, their values will be written in the beginning of the body of the form, followed by the Graphs of the Report.
The footer of the document will contain the date the Report was generated, the page number, and the text Powered By Penforms.
The footer and header cannot be changed.
Additional Notes
A few things have not been covered elsewhere in this manual, but may be of importance for some users.
Prefilled Labels
Prefilled Labels are in all parts of Penforms Reporting treated as regular HWR Fields. Therefore, if a Search Parameter should be based on a Prefilled Label, select a HWR Field Search Parameter.