Create Advanced Ticket Report Templates

Overview

Advanced ticket report templates provide maximum flexibility, allowing you to create reports with any  content, layout and design. Define which ticket data and attributes to include, add your own content and create reports that follow your corporate design.

Alternatively, you can Create Basic Ticket Report Templates if you are happy with a predefined layout.

Before you get started, read about Ticket Reports.

How to access Ticket Report Templates

1. Hover over Templates
2. Click Ticket Reports
   

Create an Advanced Ticket Report Template

To create an advanced template for PDF ticket reports:

1. Click Create template
   
2. Click Start new template
   
   

Template Settings

When creating an advanced template there are several fields and settings that allow you to customise the template to your needs. These are described in the following sections until you Save a Template:

Name

The template name is used to identify it when creating PDF ticket reports.

1. Enter a Name
   

Sort by

By default, tickets are sorted by Ticket ID in an ascending order. To change that:

1. Select a ticket form field in the Sort by drop-down
2. Select Ascending or Descending in the second drop-down
   

Visibility

Visibility defines which users can use the template to create ticket reports.

By default, Visibility for all users is selected. To change that:

1. Select Visible for In-House users to hide it from subcontractors and watchers
   OR select Visible for the author to hide if from everyone else.
   

Settings

By default, all settings are disabled. To change the settings:

1. Select/clear the following checkboxes
   

Available settings:

• Show Sub-Tickets under ticket:
  Display sub-tickets under their corresponding parent ticket. Note that when using filters to create a report for a selection of tickets, sub-tickets not matching the report's filter criteria will be excluded from the report.
• Include table of contents:
  Generate a table of contents listing the ticket titles, IDs, and page numbers, positioned directly after the title page.
• Export high quality photos (bigger file size):
  Enhance the quality of photos in the PDF ticket report. Be aware that this option increases the file size. This is recommended if you want to choose a smaller image size in the report to keep it compact, but maintain sharpness when zooming into a soft copy.
• Include ticket documents after tickets:
  Append all pages of PDF documents attached to tickets directly after the respective ticket in the report.
• Allow page breaks inside tables:
  If disabled, tables are automatically moved to a new page if they cannot fit on the current one. Enabling this setting allows tables to break across pages, optimizing space in your report.
• Avoid page breaks within a ticket:
  If enabled, the content of each ticket will begin on a new page if it cannot fully fit on the current one. Depending on the ticket’s content, this may result in each ticket occupying a separate page.

To activate custom page numbers:

1. Select the Activate custom page numbers checkbox
2. Select the Location of numbers on the page from the drop-down menu e.g. Top
3. Optional: Enter Height offset and/or Side offset in millimetre to adjust the position of the numbers.

To activate custom page margins:

1. Select the Activate custom page margins checkbox
2. Enter Top, Bottom, Right and Left in millimetre.

Plan Settings

You can include ticket pins on plans, define the pin size and show ticket ID or title. Plans appear on the last page of the report as an overall summary of pins.

To include ticket pins:

1. Select the Include ticket pins checkbox
2. Choose between Small, Medium or Large pins.
3. Choose between Ticket ID or Ticket title.

You can include QR codes on plans so that users can Check the Latest Plan Version with a QR Code when scanning the code.

To include QR codes:

1. Select the Include QR code checkbox
2. Select the corner in which you want to print the QR code.

You can include the plan version number and date & time when it was uploaded to PlanRadar at the top of the plan.

To include metadata:

1. Select the Include metadata checkbox

Page Numbers

You can choose on which pages you want to show page numbers.

By default only the Ticket pages show numbers. To change that:

1. Select All pages or All pages except the first page in the Page numbers drop-down.

Customise Header and Footer

You can add headers and footers by adding custom text and dynamic data.

1. Click Header to add or edit content for the header
2. Click Footer to add or edit content for the footer
3. Use the editor for the content of the header or footer

You can format your text, change the alignment and add images, tables or links as described in Formatting Text in Ticket Reports (Advanced).

You can also Add Dynamic Attributes to Ticket Reports (Advanced).

Note that for each page you can choose to include or exclude the header and footer, as described in Manage Pages in Ticket Reports (Advanced) > Page Settings.

Edit Table of Contents

A headline 'Table of Contents' and page numbers are always included in the report. You can edit which ticket attributes are displayed for each ticket in the table of contents. 
You could also add project attributes which mostly makes sense if your report includes tickets from multiple projects.

To edit the table of contents:

1. Click the arrow next to Edit table of contents
2. Use the editor

You can format your text, change the alignment and add images, tables or links as described in Formatting Text in Ticket Reports (Advanced).

You can also Add Dynamic Attributes to Ticket Reports (Advanced).

Example of a custom table of contents that shows more ticket attributes for each ticket:

If you don't define a custom table of contents it will contain the ticket title with the ticket ID in brackets by default.

Save a Template

To save an advanced ticket report template only the name is mandatory:

1. Click Save

Show Preview

You can generate a preview of the ticket report PDF which is based on a randomly selected ticket:

1. Click Save
2. Scroll down to the bottom of the template.
3. Select the Show preview checkbox.
   
4. Wait for the preview to be generated.
5. Click on the preview thumbnails to view the PDF.
   

Note that a new preview is generated each time you click Save while the Show preview checkbox is selected.

Edit a Template

To view or edit an existing advanced ticket report template:

1. Click on the template in the list
2. OR click the edit button

When editing an advanced template, you have the same options as described in this article.

To identify advanced ticket report templates from basic templates an icon is shown in the list:

Manage Pages

All the content of your advanced ticket reports is organised in pages.

Read more in Manage Pages in Ticket Reports (Advanced).

Customise & Format your Pages

The Template Builder offers extensive customisation and formatting options.
They are described in detail in the following articles:

• Formatting Text in Ticket Reports (Advanced)
• Add Replacement Tokens to Ticket Reports
• Add Dynamic Attributes to Ticket Reports (Advanced)
• Add Ticket Tables to Ticket Reports (Advanced)

Create Ticket Page Layouts for each Ticket Form

If your reports only use predefined ticket form fields, there is no reason to create separate layouts for ticket pages. Also see Field Types > Predefined Fields.

However, if your tickets and reports include custom fields, it's recommended to create specific layouts for each ticket form you plan to include in the report. Also see Forms.

We advice you to first create a default layout which will be used for tickets of any form that does not have a specific layout defined. Read above in Customise & Format your Pages how to edit and add dynamic content. Next, add a special layout for other forms by copying the default layout. You can now adjust the copied layout as needed for the respective forms.

The default layout is used for printing tickets of all forms that don't have a specific layout in this template.

Add a Layout

To add layouts and copy content from existing layouts:

1. Click Tickets
2. Click Enable expert mode
   
3. Click Add Report Layout
   
4. Select the form for which you want to add a new layout from the drop-down.
5. Optional: Select the Copy the content of the new report layout from an existing layout checkbox, 
   
6. Optional: If you selected the checkbox, then select the Report Layout from which you want to copy the content in the drop-down.
7. Click Add
   

Repeat this for each form for that you want to create a specific layout.

Hint: You can create a specific layout also when you plan to use the template only for one form. This makes it easier to add dynamic ticket attributes, as only the ticket attributes of the selected form are listed.
Also see Add Dynamic Attributes to Ticket Reports (Advanced) > Add Ticket Attributes.

Edit a Layout

To edit a layout and define the content and format for the respective form's tickets page:

1. Select the form name in the Report Layouts drop-down.
2. Customise & Format your Page as described above.
   

Delete a Layout

To permanently delete a layout:

1. Select the form name in the Report Layouts drop-down.
2. Click the Delete icon
   
3. Click Delete to confirm
   

Deleted layouts cannot be restored.