Archive, restore and housekeeping

A catalogue grows. Better versions replace old reports, and one-off analyses outlive the question they answered. Advanced Reports gives you three tools to keep it tidy: Archive, which is reversible; the Not opened in 90 days list, which tells you what to consider; and Delete, which is permanent.

#Archive

Archiving takes a report out of circulation without losing anything. An archived report:

• disappears from every list in the app, from the sidebar counts, from Import / Export, and from the drill-through and portlet pickers;
• stops refreshing;
• has its NetSuite dashboard portlet deployments taken down, so no home dashboard keeps showing it. The portlet definitions stay.

Its definition, its last result and its export key all stay on the record.

#To archive reports

1. In the catalogue, choose Select.
2. Select the reports with click, Ctrl+click or Shift+click.
3. Choose Archive in the bar above the list.

If a dashboard widget uses one of the reports, the catalogue names the dashboards first and asks you to confirm. Archive anyway goes ahead, and those widgets say the report is not available until you restore it or remove the widget. The app archives a report that nothing uses straight away. There is no other confirmation, because you can undo an archive.

You archive dashboards the same way, from Select on the Dashboards page.

#To restore

1. Set the Show filter beside Cards and Table to Archived. The list shows what was put away in the current category, newest first.
2. Choose Restore on the report.

The report returns exactly as it was, with its definition, result, export key and audience. The app recreates its portlet deployments with the report's current audience. It refreshes again on its schedule.

#Archive from NetSuite

An archived report is an inactive record. Ticking Inactive on the Advanced Report record in NetSuite has the same effect as Archive, and archived reports show as inactive there. To bring a report back, use Restore in the app rather than clearing the box by hand, so that the app recreates its portlet deployments.

#Archive by import

An import file can archive the reports it replaces through its archive list, by export key or exact name. Use it when a new report set replaces an old one, so the swap happens in one import. See Import and export.

#Which reports does anyone use?

Each time someone opens a report page, the report records the day in a rolling 90-day log. A NetSuite dashboard portlet over the report counts too. Dashboards count their own opens the same way.

The catalogue shows the result on every card and table row:

• Opened 12 times, last 3 days ago
• Not opened in 90 days
• Never opened

Set the Show filter to Not opened in 90 days to list only the reports nobody opened in that time. Select and Archive work on that list as on any other, and the table view sorts by opens.

The list states the day counting began. Reports that existed before that day may show no opens only because the app was not counting yet. Give the list a month or two before you treat it as a list of what to retire.

#Delete

Delete is permanent. It removes the report record, its result files in the File Cabinet, and its NetSuite dashboard portlets. It asks once, and Shift+click skips the question. You can also delete a report from the wizard with Delete Report.

Prefer Archive unless you are sure. An archived report costs nothing. It does not refresh, and it appears nowhere until someone restores it.

#A housekeeping routine

Once a quarter, an admin or author can:

1. Set Show to Not opened in 90 days and switch to the Table view.
2. Sort by Opens and read the descriptions.
3. Ask the owners of anything unclear whether it is still needed.
4. Archive what is no longer used.
5. Set Show to Archived and delete anything that has stayed archived for a long time and that nobody has asked about.
6. Check that every active report has a category and a sensible audience.

#Result files

Result files live in the private File Cabinet folder report-cache. The app manages them. Each refresh writes new files and removes the old ones once the new result is complete. Deleting a report removes its files. Do not edit or move these files by hand. To look at one, open the report's Details step, which lists every file with a link to its File Cabinet record.

Related: Finding your way around · Import and export · Refresh and scheduling · Settings reference