Reporting for K2 Applications

The Reporting for K2 Applications tutorials explain how to access and configure reports using the tools found in K2 Workspace. Topics include the statistical and analysis reports that are standard with K2 blackpearl installations, and custom reports that you can build using the Report Designer. K2 smartforms reporting controls are not covered in the Reporting for K2 Applications tutorials.

This tutorial can be completed in any environment that has K2 version 4.6.9 or later installed. K2-delivered training events normally include access to a Virtual Server environment provided by K2 which you will use for the exercises. The screenshots and users used in the tutorial reflect this K2-provided Virtual Environment. You can, however, complete this tutorial in any other environment as long as the necessary K2 components are installed and operational. You must have the necessary rights and permissions to create the K2 artifacts in the target environment.

Tutorials Overview

There are two tutorials included in this guide. The first tutorial covers Standard Reports and the second tutorial covers Custom Reports.

In Standard Reports in K2, we will learn about the five Standard Reports available in K2 Workspace and how you might use them to help ensure your workflows run as efficiently as possible. We will take a closer look at the Activity Statistics, Process Overview and User Performance reports and see examples of how you might use these reports in your own environment. We will also take a look at the View Flow Report and how it paints a similar picture as the Process Overview Report, except in flowchart format. We will start a workflow and observe how the View Flow Report is updated in almost real time.

In Custom Reports in K2, we will use the SmartObject Service Tester tool to observe how K2 reports are actually exposed as SmartObjects. Because they are SmartObjects, K2 reports can be leveraged in a number of locations and artifacts. We will build a custom report using the Report Designer found in K2 Workspace. Last, we will import a data feed based on the Process Instance Workflow Reporting SmartObject into Excel as a PowerPivot table and chart.

Terminology

K2 has a number of terms which are important to understand, especially when working with reports. In K2, the term "workflow" is often generically used to describe the forms, workflow and all the bits and pieces contained that make up a process automation of some kind. A workflow is actually a Process (or the main container for forms, views and workflow elements). A Process Instance is a single occurrence of a Process. For example, you might have a Process called Leave Requests. If Neil submits a Leave Request, K2 will create a Process Instance of the Leave Request Process for Neil. If Jason submits another Leave Request, K2 will create a Process Instance for Jason, so forth and so on.

Breaking this down further, we know that workflows consist of Activities containing Events, connected by outcome lines. (A workflow created in K2 Designer has slightly different terms, the Activities are referred to as Steps and each step contains an Event.) For example, we might have an Activity called Manager Approval and it contains an Event (in this case, a User Task to action the request). In looking at reports, we will see the details and audit trails for these Activities referred to as Activity Instances. The Activity Instance will show us the details on the Events within the Process.

Getting Started

When you are ready to begin the reporting tutorials, continue on to the first section Standard Reports in K2 to get started.