Report Types

Reports are divided into two categories:

Absolute Reports

Absolute reports usually process data coming from just one fixed source (usually one context). For example, a AggreGate Server User Accounts report shows a system-wide list of user accounts. This report should be absolute.

Source Data Expression of absolute report can not have relative references.

Relative Reports

Relative reports are designed to process data from a certain context selected by the operator when launching the report. This is useful when creating a report for data coming from one Device or system resource. Relative reports are usually activated using the Launch Report action of the context whose data should be processed. For example, in a network management system you may have a Router Interface Usage Statistics relative report. To view this report, you would right-click on any Router Device in AggreGate Client and select Router Interface Usage Statistics from context menu.

Validity Expressions

Relative reports have a so-called validity expression. This expression is used to determine what contexts the report can process. It is written using the built-in Expression Language. When a new report is created, or the validity expression itself is updated, AggreGate Server evaluates this expression for every context in the system. If the expression evaluates to true, the server considers that the report will "understand" data of this context and installs a Launch Report action into said context.