PaperCut includes many built-in reports (over 60) for viewing printing history, data and trends. These reports require no setup at all, and can be scheduled for automatic emailing, and can be combined with the many filter parameters and sorting options available to produce something more specific.
However, you might want to create custom reports with information tailored to your organization. With custom reports, you can create your own reports using e.g. Jaspersoft Studio , and then schedule the report to run periodically.
For example, you might want to create a report similar to the Shared account print/copy/scan/fax - breakdown report, but also includes the current balance for each account. Since the account balance is not provided in the standard report, you can create a custom report to achieve this. You can also customize the visual style of the reports to match the style of your organization.
Alternatives to creating custom reports
If you require more specific reporting functionality there are several options available:
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The report you’re looking for may already be available under the Reports tab in the PaperCut NG/MF admin interface. Ad-hoc report filters make it possible to produce many different report styles, and report data can be exported directly from most tabular data in PaperCut.
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Many reports contain extra fields/columns when run in CSV/Excel format (due to screen real estate not being an issue in spreadsheets). After producing a report in CSV format additional manipulation can be performed from a spreadsheet application. This method works best by running a report with a lot of data (such as a print logs report - one row per print job) then summarizing or grouping as required.
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Reports can also be run from the
Logs → Job Logpage by clicking on Reports based on above data at the bottom of the page. You can use the filters available on this page to get the data you want. -
If you’re just after some cosmetic changes, check on the report header customization option .
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By deploying PaperCut on an external database the data can be accessed directly via SQL (see here for how to run PaperCut on an external database). This can be used in combination with reporting tools such as Crystal Reports or JasperReports to produce custom reports. There is an open and documented database schema diagram to assist with this. When PaperCut is deployed on Microsoft SQL Server some SQL views are set up and may be used to help build queries. Report design can be complex and you will need some prior experience with these tools to be effective.
Note: You can find a detailed run-through of building custom reports with Crystal Reports as an example. Additionally you can refer to the repository of the SQL queries used in the PaperCut reports as starting points for your customized queries.
Quick guide - adding a custom report using Jaspersoft Studio
To add a custom report to PaperCut MF:
- Create the report using Jaspersoft Studio . For more information about creating reports in Jaspersoft Studio, see Producing custom reports with PaperCut .
- Copy the following files to
<PaperCut NG/MF install path>/server/reports/custom/jasper:*.jrxml—report file*.jasper—subreport files- any image files, such as a logo.
- If you want an image of a sample report available on the Reports > Custom page:
- Create a .png file illustrating the sample report
- Save the .png file with the same name as the report template.
- Copy the .png file to
<PaperCut NG/MF install path>/server/reports/custom/jasper
- If you want to make the standard date range drop-down list available on the Custom Reports tab in the Admin web interface, you need to include specific parameters in your Jaspersoft Studio report. For more information, see Producing custom reports with PaperCut .
- In the PaperCut NG/MF Admin interface, select Reports > Custom.
The Custom Reports page is displayed with a list of your available custom reports.
On this page, you can:
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