Using the Report Builder

This section contains instructions for navigating around the Report Builder, creating reports, viewing the results, and drilling down to further details.

To access the Report Builder, go to Reporting > Report Builder. If you have both cloud web and email protection solutions, select Email Security from the popup that appears.

Navigating the Report Builder

Creating a report

Viewing report results

Viewing detailed reports

Navigating the Report Builder

The Report Builder has the following elements:

The Toolbar contains buttons for returning to the previous page, starting a new report, and updating the current report.

The Attributes list contains the data types that you can use to create reports. and are divided into the following sections:

Use the Search box at the top of the list to filter the Attribute list further. For more information, see Report attributes.

The Metrics list contains options that you can add as columns to the report. Drag metrics into and out of the report results area to add them to or remove them from the report. Further advanced metrics are available in the Message Details view.

The Grouping field can contain up to 2 attributes to define the data grouping that appears in the report. For example, if you drag the Policy attribute followed by the Recipient Address attribute into this field, this creates a summary report on messages by policy, and also displays the data broken down by recipient addresses within those policies. For more information on defining grouping data, see Creating a report.

The Filters field can contain attributes to filter the report results further. For example, you may wish to filter by specific senders, actions, or content types. For more information on defining filters, see Creating a report.

The Date range defines the time period covered by the report. This can be a standard period (between 1 hour and 8 months) or a specific date and time range.

The display options enable you to select how many rows appear in your report. Once a report has been generated, this section also includes options to page through longer reports, and to display the report results in different table and graph formats. For more information, see Viewing report results.

The report results appear when you click Update Report, and by default are in a table format. You can choose to display the results in different formats as described above, and to select report elements to drill down further. For more information, see Viewing detailed reports.

You can choose to export report results in PDF or CSV format.

Creating a report

To create a report:

Drag up to 2 attributes from the Attributes list to the Grouping field.

The Report Builder does not allow you to add more than 2 attributes, nor can you add the same attribute more than once.

By default, the report shows the top 10 matches by number of hits. Click an attribute box in the Grouping field to change the grouping data to show a specified number of top results, a specified number of bottom results, or all results.


	Note Choosing to view all results may mean the report takes a long time to generate.

To remove an attribute from the Grouping field, click the cross icon on the attribute box.

To add filters to the report, drag an attribute to the Filters field.

On the popup that appears, use the drop-down list to define how the filter handles the values that you specify. The options available depend on the attribute that you have selected. For example, you may be able to include or exclude values, or state that search terms equal or do not equal your text.

Enter or select the search term or value(s) that you wish to filter on. Depending on the filter, you can:

Select one or more check boxes

Start typing text that will autocomplete based on data in the system

Enter the exact text that you want to use

For filters where you are including or excluding values already stored in the system, start typing to see a list of potential matches:

Select the option you want from the list. You can add multiple values to the filter.

For filters where you enter free text, enter the terms you want on separate lines:

Click OK when done.

To edit a filter, click its attribute box. To remove an attribute from the Filters field, click the cross icon on the attribute box.

Click in the Date range field to define the report period.

To specify a set period in hours, days, or months, select an option from the Last drop-down list.

To specify a particular date range, select the From radio button and use the calendars to choose the required dates. Date ranges include the whole 24-hour period, unless you mark Specify start and end time to enable and edit the times for the report as well as the dates.

Click Done when you are finished.

Click the Update Report button to generate the report.


	Note The Update Report button turns yellow when you enter or change valid report content, signifying that you can generate a report with the selected criteria.

Viewing report results

Your report results are initially shown as a table, with a column for the grouping and filters you selected, and a column for each of the selected metrics. Use the arrows next to each first-level attribute to expand or collapse the second-level attribute content below it.

Use the options in the toolbar to define how you display and navigate through report results:

Select the number of rows to see on each page. The default is 100 rows; you can also select 50, 150, or 200 rows.

Use the arrow keys to page through longer reports, and quickly navigate to the first or last page.

View the report results as one of the following:

Hover the mouse over an item in a chart to see more information, for example a percentage or a number of hits.

All of these charts are available for a single-level grouping report. For grouping reports with 2 attributes, only column and bar charts are available.

Each item in the report has a check box. Select one or more check boxes to open a popup window that enables you to:

Drill down into more detailed information. See Drilling into report items.

Show only the report items you have selected

Filter out the report items you have selected

View message details for the items you have selected. See Message Details.

Cancel any selections you have made.

Viewing detailed reports

You can use grouping reports as a starting point for accessing more detailed information about web activity, either by drilling down into a particular aspect of a report, or using the Message Center to see further information about a report item.

Drilling into report items

To drill down into a report item:

Mark the check box next to each item you wish to drill down into.

You can select multiple items and change your selections, even after the popup window appears.

In the popup window, select an available attribute from the Drill Into By the drop-down list. For example, if you have selected one or more categories from the grouping report, you may wish to see the users who have been accessing sites in those categories.

The new report loads. Note that as you have moved down a level in the report, the item(s) you selected in step 1 are now in the Filters field, while the Grouping field contains the other report attributes, including the one you selected in step 2.

You can edit the content of the Grouping and Filters fields, and view the report in different formats, in exactly the same way as for the previous report.

To drill down a further level, repeat steps 1-3 above.

Message Details

The Message Details view is available for report items at all levels. To see the details for one or more report items:

Mark the check box next to each item you wish to view.

You can select multiple items and change your selections, even after the popup window appears.

In the popup window, select View Transactions.

The Message Center loads, listing details for each message within the report item(s) you selected.

In the Message Center, you can:

Edit the filters and date range for the messages you wish to see.

Select the columns to display from the Columns drop-down. Click Done when you have made your selections.

Click a column heading to make it the active column for sorting transactions. Click again to switch between ascending and descending order.

Delete columns by clicking the X icon in a column heading. Note that you cannot delete the current active column.

Drag metrics from the left-hand pane into the Filters field.

Enable Detail View to see more detail for the selected message. The Message Details pane opens at the bottom of the page, and displays the timestamp, sender address, recipient address, direction, action, and filtering reason of the message.

Export message details to PDF or CSV format. Either select one or more messages and then click Export to PDF or Export to CSV in the popup window that is displayed, or click the PDF or CSV icon in the top right to export all messages on the page.