FAQ - Exports and Reports

Here are some common queries about Gemini's data export

Where do I go to export data?

Data exports, whether to raw Excel/CSV/HTML files, or to pre-built Excel reports, can only be run from the Items Grid View. This is because Gemini uses the SQL generated by the Workspace Filter to query the database for rows that should be sent to Excel.

Because of the above, DO NOT RUN REPORTS FROM THE DASHBOARD. The result is unpredictable because Gemini will use a default Workspace whose last filter is unknown to you the user.

The data I expect isn't in my Excel export/report

A common mistake is to assume that what you can see in the Grid View and what is exported come from the same data set. There are 2 'Display Options' in the Grid View that are more about data representation than they are about a database query.

Grouped Dependencies do not completely respect the filter. If either the parent or children match the filter criteria then the whole relationship set will be shown on screen. For example, if you filter for 'Bugs' and one bug is a child of a 'Change Request', both the Change Request and the bug will be displayed in their parent/child relationship. The reverse is also true - if you filtered on Change Requests only, the Bug would also appear because it is in the hierarchical relationship with the Change Request. In other words, once you ask to see Dependencies you will see all the hierarchy tree, even if some of the rows do not match the filter. However, the export to Excel does respect the filter, so in the example just given, if you only filter for Change Requests, regardless of what is displayed on the screen only the Change Request will be exported, and vice versa. If you don't see what you expect to see in the Excel export, make sure your filter selects that data in the first place by removing any Dependency option and filtering the required data into view in a flat list.
Sequenced Items in the Sequence Zone do not respect the filter at all. No change in the filter or the sort order on the Item Grid affects manually sequenced items. However, as stated before, the export does respect the filter, so you can expect to find the export does not contain any manually sequenced items that do not match the filter at the time the export/report is run.

My export does not contain the fields I expect. Why?

To see a field in the export it must a) be enabled in the Viewing column of the Screen that controls its Process Type (e.g. Ticket, Bug etc.) and b) the user executing the report must have access to that field in Viewing mode.

Please note that when exporting Time data, there are two Time type values under Viewing. Time Logged is the actual time value, Time in the Content area refers to the App that allows a user to enter time. You definitely need Time Logged to get Time entries, but you probably also neede Time (the App) to key them in.

How do I report on time/estimates in parent/child relationships

Read the documentation on Creating Your Own Reports and note the tokens for {ParentItemId}, {estimatedtimewithkids}, and {loggedtimewithkids}.

Do I need a permanent Workspace to run my report?

The answer to this is 'yes' and 'no'. If you need to report on closed items you should have a non-shared Workspace that filters the data you wish to report. The reason it shouldn't be shared is that even if there are very few closed items at present, it will eventually contain a lot of items. The more items a Workspace has, the harder the system has to work to track its data. Sharing 'heavy-duty' Workspaces is not something you should be doing in the interests of optimal performance. Most people only rarely want to see closed items and they can always do so on an ad-hoc basis.

When setting up your Workspaces, remember that Gemini's Filter can use meta dates that shift in time e.g. 'Today', 'Start-Month' etc. If you wish to schedule your reports you also need a dedicated Workspace. However, Gemini will export whatever your Workspace filter is at the time you run the export/report so you do not need a permanent Workspace just for dynamic or ad-hoc reporting. Just change the filter of the current Workspace to match the data you want, run the export/report, and refresh the Workspace to go back to its original filter settings.

How much data can I export?

Be wary of exporting large volumes of data; this is not what the Excel export/report is for. You cannot successfully export more data than Excel can handle, and even if Excel can handle thousands of records, while a large volume of data is being passed to Excel your system may suffer a performance hit. It is not that Gemini cannot retrieve large volumes of data quickly, which is a quality of SQL Server, it is that Excel cannot read and write the data to a workbook anywhere near as fast. If you wouldn't do it from a database using a Data Connection in Excel, don't do it in Gemini. For extracting large volumes of data, you should be using the REST API.

I'd like to change or build a report. How do reports work?

The best way to understand how reports work, and to see how easy they are to build, is to watch a video of a report being built. A good working knowledge of Excel and an understanding of Pivot Tables is a pre-requisite for building reports.