[rt-users] question on reporting

[Aubrey King]

I also need the ticket history in the report for SOX compliance.  Maybe 
Mr. Vincent can get that done somehow?  Or maybe someone knows how to pull 
that from the custom fields of the Ticket Query screen?

Aubrey King
Systems Engineer
IP Systems Engineering
Global Crossing, Ltd.

On Thu, 15 Dec 2005, Hersker, Steve wrote:

> I am in a similar situation in that I need to generate reports out of RT
> (for SOX compliance). We're using a commercial helpdesk ticketing app now,
> but it's missing some key features that RT has (and RT is *much* easier to
> use and infinitely more flexible). Before I could begin to convert to RT, I
> had to make sure I could get the reports out of it that I needed.
>
> My SQL skills are minimal, so I opted to quickly "prototype" the reports
> using MS Access and the mySQL ODBC connector. Stephen is right in that the
> db schema takes some getting used to. (But definitely doable) I found the
> easiest method in Access was to create several (read: many) layered queries
> to assemble the ticket. Then, I just base the reports off queries with the
> appropriate criteria (e.g. All new/open/stalled tickets; All tickets closed
> in the last 7 days; All tickets for an Organization & date range, etc).
>
> Stephen also brings up a good point about the export list feature in to
> Excel. But, in my situation, I need the ticket history included in the
> report, not just the header info/stats.
>
> (Now I'm using the API to import my users and, hopefully, the ticket history
> from the existing app - about 21,000 tickets).
>
> If you think you're going to use Access, let me know. I'd be happy to share
> what I've learned, tripped over and worked-around.
>
> Good Luck
> Steve
>
>
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Stephen Turner [mailto:sturner at MIT.EDU]
>> Sent: Thursday, December 15, 2005 11:20 AM
>> To: Jonathan Jesse; rt-users at lists.bestpractical.com
>> Subject: Re: [rt-users] question on reporting
>>
>> At Thursday 12/15/2005 10:49 AM, Jonathan Jesse wrote:
>>
>>> What do you use for reports out of RT? For reports out of our banking
>>> system, I can write queries and other reports with a product we have
>>> (Cognos Impromptu) and assume thru an ODBC connection or something I
>> could
>>> connect to the database and generate the information I need and make the
>>> reports a little prettier and easier to read then doing just printing a
>>> query result from the RT web page.
>>>
>>> So how do you all generate reports for the boss? Or people interested?
>>>
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>>
>>> Jonathan
>>
>> Hello Jonathan
>>
>> You can certainly point a reporting tool at the database, but the schema
>> is
>> a little hard to understand (as it is with many transactional DBs) and so
>> you'd need to do quite a bit of studying before you could be certain your
>> reports were showing what you wanted.
>>
>> You could move some RT data to a data warehouse but that would probably be
>> a sizeable project and would again require you to learn the RT schema
>> fairly well.
>>
>> A quick alternative is to use the spreadsheet download link that appears
>> on
>> the bottom of the search results page - you can get data into Excel and
>> perhaps use Impromptu or whatever to make reports from that.
>>
>> I'd be interested to hear what you decide.
>>
>> Steve
>>
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> _______________________________________________
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>
> Be sure to check out the RT Wiki at http://wiki.bestpractical.com
>
> Download a free sample chapter of RT Essentials from O'Reilly Media at http://rtbook.bestpractical.com
>
> WE'RE COMING TO YOUR TOWN SOON - RT Training in Amsterdam, Boston and
> San Francisco - Find out more at http://bestpractical.com/services/training.html
>
>