Alternative Data Formats

This page will provide a description and examples for each available data format available in Report Builder

Overview

Reports can be produced in different formats depending on how and where you use the reports. In Report Builder, you can find the following format options for your perusal: Print Format HTML, Bulk Student Select, CSV, Report Summary, Custom CSV, XLS, Uploaded HTML template, and JSON. All of these will be explained in detail on this page.

Refer to the Format Report workflow for the instructions when building a report in Report Builder.

Print Format HTML

On-Screen data export.

In using Report Builder and when testing out a small amount of data or information, this is the fastest way to check if your filter clauses are working. If selected to be your output format, Paradigm will open a new window to display your report.

Bulk Student Select

Used for bulk reports and actions within the system

This output format option will be explained more in detail in this knowledge article: Bulk Student Select

CSV

Comma-separated value is a text file that has a specific format that allows data to be saved in a table structure. This output format is very useful in exporting a large amount of data from Paradigm. Another advantage of using this format is its flexibility to work with many other applications.

Custom CSV

A CSV output format for your report can be customised more by using a delimiter and enclosure.

Adding the value "NA" as a delimiter will disable the default rendering of column names in sentence cases. This change supports integrations with external systems that are especially case-sensitive to field column naming.

Delimiter

This will tell the program or application you used to open the CSV file where is the starting point of the field and where it ends. The most commonly used delimiter is the comma (,).

Enclosure

This will tell the program or application to enclose fields that contain a delimiter character that you’ve set to be read as one field. (e.g. using (,) as a delimiter and in one of the fields to be outputted contains the text “Unit1, Unit2, Unit3” which is intended to be read as one field). The most commonly used enclosure is the double quotes (“).

Transpose (Yes/No)

If you want to retain or not a case-specific output of the column fields.

Example

Delimiter is set as comma (,) and Enclosure is set as double quotes (“) sample data output: "Mr.","Marcus","Fernandez","7 Birch St.,","Bayswater","VIC","3153"

In the sample output, since an enclosure is set, the field “7 Birch St.,” which contains the Delimiter value set as comma (,) is considered as one field rather than two.

Report Summary

Some data or fields in your report can be summarised (as set under the SUMMARISE DATA section). This output format will give you options to display your report with data and summary, summary only, or data and summary in separate files.

Sample Data with Summary

Data and Summary

This output type will give you the data and their summary, e.g. Invoice Amount field and its Sum

Summary Only

This output type will give you only the summary of the data or field selected, e.g. just the Sum of the Invoice Amount, without giving you all the data that has been summed up.

Data and Summary in Separate Files

This output type will give you two separate files. One for the data, in the example above all the data or information under the Invoice Amount Field, and the other file contains the summary of the data.

XLS

The original file extension type for Microsoft spreadsheets.

Uploaded HTML Template

Used for mail merge documents (legacy Paradigm Report Builder version).

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) is used if you want the data generated in Paradigm to be transmitted to your other web applications used in your business or institution.