2315170 - Ad Hoc Reports (Report Builder) Implementation Tips & Tricks from Support

We, the Cloud Product Support team, are currently working on an initiative to provide you, our partners, with a comprehensive one stop shop for resources and information sources for the SAP SuccessFactors Analytics & Reporting that you can use for your learning, training, and implementation needs.

The aim is to centralize the available content for the SAP SuccessFactors Ad Hoc Reports that is already out there for you and also help you by creating Knowledge Articles that cover the most common support issues encountered during implementations and Go-live.

Please use the below links to access the section you need help with: 

Ad Hoc Reporting provides a flexible, intuitive platform for users to easily create custom reports and share them across the organization. Ad Hoc Reporting belongs to the basic features that SuccessFactors pre delivers and it doesn’t matter which module you subscribe to.

Ad Hoc Reporting is most commonly used for Operational and Transactional Data to generate Online, BIRT Template or to Export Data into another system/tool. E g Excel, CSV, PDF, PPT.

The following information is intended for administrators who work with the product regularly, SAP implementation partners and SAP consultants.

The implementation of Ad Hoc Reporting involves multiple steps to be performed by Partner or SAP.

You can refer to the Implementing Ad Hoc Reporting (Implementation guide) available on the SAP SuccessFactors Workforce Analytics Help Portal page.

Note: (All above & below URLs requires a login).

Considerations:

• Ad Hoc Reporting allow to report on most of the data for all Modules excluding Learnig Management System (LMS) & Metadata Framework (MDF).
• The instance with a proper user, including info such as time zone and Default Locale, and role based permission set up should be in place. (you can refer to the Role-Based Permissions (RBP) guide for further details)  
• Core Modules functions and specific features are Turned on in provisioning 
• Where necessary the Data models and Templates configuration completed
• Ad Hoc Reporting permission is granted to the desired User/s and Target Population properly defined as described in the Assigning Role-based Permissions for Ad Hoc Reports guide.
• Keep in mind the reporting requirements before you implement a module
• For Ad Hoc Reports using BIRT Templates keep in mind that changes to the report structure will need to be relflected to the BIRT template 
  

Possible Implications:

• If the above considerations are not followed properly it may compromise the efficiency of the Ad Hoc report framework & functionalities. for example, a User without Time zone and default locale could cause some errors with the Ad Hoc Reporting framework since these valeus are used to determin reports output.
• If permission is not set up correctly some users may be able to access data which are not supposed to see
• For Ad Hoc Report with BIRT Template changing the structure of the report without reflecting the changes to the respective BIRT Template will affect, in some cases break, the report output 

General Considerations and Tips for any Ad Hoc Reporting Implementation

With every implementation of Ad Hoc Reporting there are some high level considerations that you need to take into account and plan for during the implementation cycles. It is imperative that you consider at the very least, the common implementation issues mentioned below.

Below is a list of Frequently Asked Questions with the link to the KBA with the available answer.

1. Module Specific Switches (Describe how the Ad Hoc Report Domains/sub schemas are enabled via provisioning)
2. 2322495 - How to Grant Ad Hoc Report Permission to Users? (Describe how you can assign the Report Permission to a User or Group of Users)
3. 2229272 - User role Search - How to check if a User has a Permission (for example Report permission)? (Describe how to use the User Role Search functionality to check User report permission and access to reporting data for a specific report or employee)
4. 2160652 - Unable to display Userinfo fields with Ad Hoc reports  (Provides an example on how to configure an element field (Userinfo) in the data model to make it available for Reporting)
5. 2269849 - Assertion Failed error when accessing Ad Hoc Reports view or Create New Ad Hoc report (Provide a sample issue you may face caused by incorrect configuration of the custom Language Pack)
6. 2219570 - BIRT Error "org.eclipse.birt.report.service.api.ReportServiceException" when Running Ad Hoc report Online or with Export to Excel (Provide the steps to follow when such errors occur)
7. 2258435 - Error "HTTP Status 401 – The authentication of the user failed" while running Ad Hoc reports online (Provide a sample issue you may face when running an Ad Hoc report with a User with incorrect configuration via the General User Permission)
8. 2258560 - Received "Bad Gateway", "Error 502" when running Ad Hoc report online (Provide the cause and steps to follow when such errors occur)
9. 2280673 - How to Create a BIRT Template for an Ad Hoc report (Provide the steps to follow when creating BIRT Templates for Ad Hoc reports)
10. 2280300 - BIRT Eclipse Version Supported for Ad Hoc Reports  (Provide Details on the BIRT version supported with Ad Hoc Reports)
11. 2165725 - Ad Hoc scheduled Reports failed with an Exception: Excel Too Many Rows  (Provides a sample error you may face when running relevant big Ad Hoc report offline)
12. 2280588 - How to find out if an Ad hoc report is using a BIRT Template (Provides details to identify report using BIRT templates)
13. 2156093 - Specific Users unable to run or create Ad Hoc Reports due to an Application Error (provides sample errors you may face when running Ad Hoc report if user is not properly configure)
14. 2283071 - "Enable Distinct" Feature in Adhoc Reports (provides sample duplicate issue and how to solve it)
15. 2434120 - Ad Hoc Report Row/Field/Cell Permissions (explains how the Row/Field/Cell Permissions applies to Ad Hoc Reports.)

• SAP SuccessFactors HCM Core
• Ad Hoc Reports

Ad Hoc Reports, Implementation, Configuration, adhoc, ad-hoc , KBA , configuration , birt , ad hoc reports , implementation , report builder , LOD-SF-ANA-ADH , Adhoc Reports & Report Builder , How To