Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
In case you haven’t noticed yet, Report Builder has a brand new look and feel. Let us know what you think.
Previously, Scoutbook released improved Report Builder output that allows reports to be saved to pdf or exported to csv. Now to continue the Report Builder improvements, a new Report Builder “Designer” replaces the former Report Builder where Scouts, ranks, and merit badges were selected to include in the report, with the option of saving the report to your Dashboard.
All those features are still there with the new Designer, with all your existing reports, but with the added ability to also include awards and select all Scouts, ranks, merit badges, all Eagle-required merit badges, or all awards with a single click of a checkbox.
Reports saved to your Dashboard can now be shared with the entire unit. Access to the data on the report depends on the usual permissions to view it. Shared reports appear in a new Shared Reports menu on the Dashboard, showing the name of the user who shared it. The reports you share cannot be changed by others, but you can copy shared reports to your own Dashboard and set options for your own purposes by clicking the ‘Save’ button of a shared report. You can also change options on a shared report and run it ad hoc without saving it.
Additionally, there is a new Report Builder Manager where you can share, unshare, or delete your reports at any time. You can also hide or show others’ shared reports on your Dashboard’s Shared Reports menu from Report Builder Manager. Unit admins can unshare or delete others’ shared reports.
Scoutbook will be using this new Report Builder platform to add more features. Please feel free to report issues in the Scoutbook Bugs forum or request improvements in the New Scoutbook Feature Requests forum.
Users who are used to an old Report Builder report showing immediately when you click on it will notice that it now takes you to the Designer where there are “Save” and “Run” buttons. This gives you a chance to change the report and either save the changes before running it, or simply run it ad hoc without saving the changes.
I’m not sure if this is where this should go, with this new report builder I like being able to share my reports with others in the troop and having the chance to edit before I run the report. However, is there a toggle so that I can have the display that we had before? Running the report now gets me multiple pages instead just a one page snapshot that shows what I want need from my report. Here is a screen shot of what it was before. Thanks (and sorry if this isn’t where I should be posting this),
Will
I am having the same issues printing reports as Will. I used to print the screen shot scaled to fit on one page. Now, it automatically creates page breaks. What I used to be able to fit on one page is now over 4 pages. The layout on screen is fine, but is a bit awkward when printed.
Reduce the column size so that we can have one page reports again.
As they are, I will no longer use reports at all, (and I used to use dozens of saved reports) because they no longer serve the purpose of providing a quick visual summary of patrol or troop wide advancement progress.
Please bring back the old format, or at least minimize column sizes and allow an option to NOT break the table up into sections.
I concur on the need to bring the single page reports back or at least a similar version of it. The new format is simply not usable in its current state. I hope this is being worked on because the previous report system and its simplicity permitted concise and timely assessments of award status.
The auto break of the columns stinks. Everything that falls off the page is stuck on the bottom of the next table, and doesn’t get the itemized rows, just the first column entry. Hate it and it makes using a wide report VERY useless.
Viewing report in macOS Safari is junk (I had to install Chrome to see the report in a non-bungled state).
All in all, it’s worse (for everything I use for) than it was before, and it wasn’t a joy before.
You’ve broken half of what I use Scoutbook for (reporting on activities, requirements, and advancement).
Voila les screenshots of the brokenness:
Development is continuing with Report Builder to bring you the things all of you request, and more, including reduced column size and an option for a single page view in the browser. These are coming very soon.
Report Builder will continue to receive attention according to your comments, and a few other things too.
While the changes made are a great improvement, and now make the reports mostly usable, I wish the choice to restrict the report to a scroll box that behaves like a spreadsheet with locked row/column headers could be changed.
Ideally, you should just render the table at full size, and let the user take advantage of browser/device capablities to scroll/zoom to the scale they want to view.
As it stands, there is no way to see a full report. On a small screen (or even a decently sized screen) the border + locked rows/columns can dominate the amount of visible space, so you are forced to examine a small subset of the report at a time using the provided scrollbars. There is no way to “zoom out” for a complete view, or take advantage of pinch/swipe gestures, etc.
For example, on my phone, in landscape, I can see exactly 1 row of the report. (and 12 columns)
In portrait, I can see 7 rows and 4 columns.
On my 17" laptop, I can see 9 rows and 23 columns. (This represents ony about 1/8 to 1/32 of the whole report being visible, depending on the report.)
Maybe provide a toggle above the table to view the full report, outside of a scroll pane?
If the entire page is rendered on say an iPhone it will be an eye chart that would require someone to zoom in to read anything. The old Report Builder did not display the entire report on a single single screen and required scrolling, however, the top row/first column were not locked so once you were in the middle of the report you had no way of knowing where you were. Locking the top row/first column was a common request. This is the first time anyone has requested smashing the entire report onto a single screen with possibly microprint.
It depends on the purpose of the report. Our troop uses some massive advancement reports for two primary purposes:
Adult admins auditing the advancement data for accuracy and completeness.
Youth leaders identifying advancement opportunities when planning activities.
These reports generally can include up to 90 or more scouts at once, and they can inlcude pages and pages of advancement requirements.
These reports are used by quickly visually scanning the entire report for trends or out of place data. Looking at a field of green/blue/yellow checkmarks, and identifying anomalies or gaps.
This is very hard to do when you have to pan and scan.
Scoutbook has never had a version of Report Builder reports that with 90 Scouts fit on one page on a mobile device or even a 1900x1200 screen. I suggest using Chrome’s, or another browser’s zoom out function to get the view you wish. Using Chrome on a 2560x1440 I was able to see 46 Scouts at 95% so at between 45% and 50% on a similar size screen you should be able to see your 90 Scouts.
On a mobile device, the text would be so small I doubt you could even see trends with 90 Scouts.
It sounds like we are headed toward downloading a report to a small image on a smart watch and using a projector to display the report on the wall of a meeting room. (My Alpha Phi Omega chapter does that with laptops and holds their unit meetings in a university lecture hall with an overhead projector.)
