Configuring reports

Report source

The first thing to configure is the source i.e. where the report content will come from.

From a channel filter
Any channels that pass the specified filter will be included in the report.
From channel folders
All channels in the specified folder(s) will be included in the report.
From a workpad
The report will be generated from the items in a workpad.

Reports can also be configured to:

Automatically mark feed items as read.
Automatically remove feed items from workpads.
This feature is useful when you are using a workpad as a holding place for feed items that will be sent somewhere else. Items get added to the workpad as you browse your channels and when the report is run, it gets emailed or FTP'ed somewhere and the workpad is cleared, ready for the next batch of items.
Automatically re-run when the underlying workpad is changed.
This feature could be used if you want to keep a web page synchronized with the contents of your workpad. Every time you add or remove something from the workpad, the report is re-generated and uploaded to your web server.

Report template

A template file controls the the format of the report's output. Many templates are supplied as standard, in a variety of different styles, and there are also several special-purpose templates provided:

CompactChannelReport.template
Generates a minimal (links only) HTML page.
MyBlogroll.template
Generates an HTML code fragment suitable for inclusion in your blog as a blogroll.
This report uses the predefined My Blogroll channel filter so all you have to do is put the channels you want to be included into the My Blogroll folder and they will automatically be included in the report.
MetaChannel.template
Combines one or more channels together into a single meta-channel.

These templates can be customized to suit your needs [1] and you can also write your own.

Once the report has been generated, a post-processing command can optionally be run to do some extra work e.g. convert it to a PDF or audio file.

The post-processing command can be parameterized.

Report output

Generated reports can be:

shown in Awasu
stored in a file (perhaps so that they can be read by another program)
FTP'ed up to a web server
emailed out

A post-processing command could also be used to send the report somewhere e.g. using scp or sftp.

The configuration for each of these output destinations can be parameterized.

Report schedule

Reports can be configured to automatically run, either at regular intervals (e.g. every 3 hours) or at specific times (see right).

This is particularly useful when used in conjunction with the FTP upload feature since it lets you keep content on a web site up-to-date. For example, you could generate a blogroll report once a day and automatically upload it to your blog to ensure that your blogroll is always up-to-date.

Or you could send out a regular email based on the contents of a workpad or some of your channels.