Building Reports

This page covers creating and configuring reports from scratch — selecting data sources, defining columns, applying filters, and building content templates. It applies to both List Reports and custom Report types.

Report Types

Every report in DonorPoint has a Report Type that determines its purpose and rendering:

Creating a Report

1. Navigate to Insights → Reports and click Create
2. Enter a Name and optional Description
3. Select the Report Type
4. Choose the Report Class — this determines where the report appears. For example, setting the class to “Contact” makes the report available on every Contact’s Reports tab.
5. Add one or more Data Sets (the queries that supply data)
6. Define Columns to display
7. Optionally add Filters, Aggregates, and Computed Columns
8. Save

Data Sets

A Data Set is a named query that returns rows and columns. Reports can reference one or more Data Sets to combine data from different sources.

Each Data Set contains:

Data Sets are reusable: the same Data Set can be shared across multiple reports and dashboard widgets.

Columns

Columns control what data appears in the report output.

• Query Columns — fields directly from the Data Set output
• Computed Columns — calculated values defined as SQL expressions (e.g., amount * 0.1 for a 10% fee column)
• Display Name — the column header shown to users; defaults to the database column name if not set

To reorder columns, drag them in the column list. To hide a column from the default view while keeping it available for filtering, remove it from the display columns but leave it in the Data Set.

Filters

Filters restrict which rows appear in the report. DonorPoint provides typed filters that match the data type of the column being filtered:

Prompted Filters

Any filter can be set to Prompt mode. When the report loads, the user is asked to supply a value for that filter before results appear. This is useful for reports like “Transactions for Date Range” where the date range should be chosen each time.

Compound Filters

For complex conditions, use Conjunction (AND) or Disjunction (OR) filters to group multiple conditions:

• Conjunction — all conditions must be true
• Disjunction — any condition can be true

Compound filters can be nested to build arbitrarily complex logic.

Aggregates

Aggregation functions summarize data across rows:

Aggregates appear at the bottom of List Reports and can be used in dashboard widgets for metric cards.

Group By

Add columns to the Group By list to aggregate results by category. For example, grouping by Fund and aggregating by Sum on Amount produces a fund-level giving summary.

Parameters

Reports support Parameters — key-value pairs that can be referenced in Data Set queries and report content using EL expressions. Parameters allow a single report definition to be reused in different contexts.

For example, a report placed on the Contact edit page can use a parameter contactId that is automatically populated with the current contact’s ID.

Report Content

The Content field holds XHTML that controls how the report renders. For List Reports, content is optional — the tabular view is generated automatically. For custom report types, content defines the full layout using JSF components and EL expressions.

Content can reference:

• Report parameters
• Column values from the current row
• Aggregated values
• Account and user context

Visibility Rules

The Rendered field accepts an EL expression that controls whether the report appears. For example:

• #{subject.isPermitted('Report:R')} — only users with report read permission
• #{homeView.instance.class.simpleName == 'Contact'} — only on Contact records

Report Options