All the data in the world is useless unless you have some way to understand it. That's where seafelt's powerful reporting framework comes in. The web-based reporting framework helps you to understand what's happening in your network, or with any other system you might have.

Modular

The reporting system is a modular framework of components that perform specific tasks:

DataSources

Datasources connect the frontend to a relational database, such as a seafelt Performance Manager backend instance. You can connect to more than one instance simultaneously, or even to completely different databases. Imagine being able to view information about network performance right next to something about backups!

Queries

Queries gather specific information usually from a DataSource. You can use the dialect of SQL supported by an associated DataSource, or get creative and call a custom data gathering mechanism of your own. Collect rainfall statistics off the web, and draw a chart right next to last month's outages. Do more routers crash when it rains? Now you can find out!

Reporters

Reporters do the work of drawing charts and tables to represent the data gathered by Queries. Along with web output, Reporters can generate PDF documents, ready for printing or emailing to colleagues anywhere in the world, or export to CSV to manipulate the data however you choose.
Reporters are also smart. They automatically create links between one report and another, based on the sorts of information the report provides. This dynamic linking makes it easier to find the information you're looking for, without wading through a navigation system designed by someone who doesn't know how you work.

Groups

Groups collect similar items together, such as all devices in a given location. You can manually define groups, or use Queries to group items from a database or a custom method. Groups can also be made up of other Groups. You can use groups to run a report on a group of similar items; you can run an element performance report on all elements connected to a specific device, for example. Create groups of whatever makes sense to you!

MultiReporters

MultiReporters collect other Reporters together so that you can present a single page report containing information from a variety of other reports. This allows you to create single page reports that take their source data from several databases, all at once. Compare rainfall with system outages, sunny days to employee sick days, whatever you like.

Amazing Power

The component architecture of the seafelt reporting framework provides an incredibly flexible and powerful reporting system. One of our customers used the framework to provide a reporting system for both seafelt performance data and information on their backup infrastructure. One of our beta testers used it to draw charts of his weather station data, and one of the developers drew charts of rainfall statistics from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology.

We don't know what else you might want to use the reporting framework for, but we've given you the tools to do it.