How can I pass a parameter value to a report using its URL?

Products

• IT Management Suite

Issue/Introduction

 

Resolution

Question
How can I pass a parameter value to a report using the report's URL (link)?

Answer
Sometimes it is useful to have a link to a Notification Server report that includes a key parameter value, rather than having to set the parameter manually each
time the report is used.

Two basic components are needed to do this:

• The base URL to run the report:
  • http://<ServerNameHere>/Altiris/Reporting/Report.aspx?ItemGuid=<ReportGuidHere>
• A Parameter list appended to the end of the report URL
  • &Parameters=name1:[value1],name2:[value2]...

In this example, we'll set the Event Status parameter to 'Failed' for the Daily Event report.

To do this, use the following steps:

1. Find the report's GUID:
   1. Browse to the Daily Event report in the Symantec Management Console
   2. Click the drop-down arrow on the icon left of the report name in the right-hand pane, and click Properties as shown below
      
      
      
   3. When the Properties page loads, copy the GUID value from the General tab
2. Begin building your report URL starting with the first URL component from the list above
   1. Replace the <ReportGuidHere> variable shown above with the GUID you copied in step 1c
   2. Notice that on the report's interface, the 'Event Status' parameter has a space in its description; In step 4, this parameter will be referred to as 'EventStatus' in the URL, which is the parameter's actual name. Some parameter's names may include spaces. To find the parameter's name, click the report icon dropdown and select View as XML. Scroll down to the Parameters element within the XML document and find the parameter you want to use. There you will find the parameter's name value displayed between the <Name>...</Name> element tags.
   3. Append the following to the report link created in step 2b:
   4. &Parameters=EventStatus:[Failed]
3. If done on the server, the completed URL syntax will be:
   1. http://localhost/Altiris/Reporting/Report.aspx?ItemGuid=4c65d135-9624-4ab7-87b6-5455e3ce66bf&Parameters=EventStatus:[Failed]
4. Paste the full URL into the address bar in Internet Explorer and navigate to the URL
5. You should now see in the Parameters section of the report that the Event Status has been passed as 'Failed' as shown below, and matching events will be displayed in the report: