Installing in your account
How HiScale deploys the app, what the Bootstrap Suitelet does, and the rights to set before anyone else builds reports.
HiScale installs Advanced Reports in your account as a SuiteCloud (SDF) project. You do not upload files or run scripts yourself. This page covers what the install adds, what to do afterwards, and how the app handles an account without OneWorld or Departments.
What HiScale deploys
The deployment adds the app's Suitelet, its custom records, the refresh Map/Reduce, the portlet script and the HiScale Advanced Reports menu tab. It also adds two deployments of the refresh script:
- HSS - Advanced Report Refresh MR (Scheduled) runs every 15 minutes and refreshes every report that is due.
- HSS - Advanced Report Refresh MR (On Demand) serves the Refresh button.
HiScale records which version each account runs. After an install or an upgrade you can check the version yourself in the app, on the What's new item at the foot of the sidebar.
The first hour
A new install needs no setup before it is usable. A NetSuite Administrator can author and administer from the start, and every setting has a default.
- Open the HiScale Advanced Reports tab in the NetSuite menu bar.
- With no reports yet, the catalogue explains what to do next. Choose Create the first report, or New Report in the top bar.
- Write a query, preview it and save it. The wizard is described in The report wizard step by step.
- Open the report. A report that has never run starts its first refresh when you open it.
- Set the report's audience so that the right people can open it.
The Bootstrap Suitelet (optional)
The install includes a one-off setup page, HSS - Advanced Reports Bootstrap SL. It is deployed for Administrators only. When an Administrator opens its deployment URL, it:
- writes a configuration record for every setting that does not have one yet, with its default value;
- creates an Examples category and an example report, Active Customers, which lists every active customer with a link to the customer record;
- returns a plain-text summary of what it created, what was already there, and the current value of every setting.
You do not need it, because the app reads a default for any setting that has no record. Run it when you want every setting visible as a record in NetSuite, or a working example to copy. It is safe to run again, for example after an upgrade. It only adds what is missing and never overwrites a value you have changed. If you rename or delete the example report, the next run creates a fresh copy.
Rights: who may build reports
Two settings under Manage, Configuration control the app's rights:
- Author roles (
rights.author_roles) may create, edit and delete reports. The list starts empty. - Admin roles (
rights.admin_roles) may change configuration and categories and use Import / Export. It starts with Administrator.
The Administrator role holds both rights whatever the lists say. Add a role to Author roles only when someone who is not an Administrator needs to build reports.
Before you add one, note that the refresh runs every report's SuiteQL as Administrator, so an author can read any data in the account. Granting the author right is the same as granting Administrator-level read access. The Configuration page shows the same warning beside the field.
Accounts without OneWorld or Departments
The app works in accounts that are not OneWorld and in accounts without the Departments feature.
- Without OneWorld, the audience pickers offer no Subsidiaries list.
- Without Departments, they offer no Departments list.
- Roles and Employees are always offered.
If you turn on OneWorld or Departments later, the app keeps working straight away. The matching audience list appears once the next update of the app is installed, because NetSuite adds the underlying fields only at install time.
After an upgrade
Each release adds an entry to What's new in the app. The version badge on that item stays highlighted until you open the page on the new version, so everyone notices the upgrade. Existing reports, dashboards, audiences and results carry over unchanged.
Checking the install
- Open the app as an Administrator and check the version on What's new.
- Open a report and wait for Updated to show a recent time. That confirms the refresh script is running.
- If a report shows an error, open the execution log of the refresh script. Every run writes lines titled
AR refresh <id>: <step>, from loading the definition to storing the file.
Related: What Advanced Reports is · Finding your way around · Categories, audience and rights · Settings reference