TABLE OF CONTENTS

Derived elements are a way to group multiple elements into a single element. 


What is an element? 

For example, for the attribute "Trans Stat Itype”, the elements would be the item type policies, such as BOOK, DVD, CDBOOK, and GRAPHICNVL. 


Why would you need to do this?

For example, in a circulation report that is broken down by item type, you may want to group item types by more general format categories, such as print, video, and audio. In the example below, I illustrate how you can do this with derived elements.

 

For this example, I used the CircuIation by item type and home location report (Shared Reports > Circulation Statistics > FY JUL-JUN). I made the following selections for the prompts:

 

Next, I removed everything from the grid except the metric "Number of Transactions" and "Trans Stat Itype" (Item Type):

 

 

Creating Derived Elements

  1. To create derived elements for Item Type, right-click on the "Trans State Itype" column header, and select "Derived Elements" from the drop-down menu:

  2. To create the first group, select "List" from the "New" drop-down menu. For this example, I  will first create the "Print" category:

  3.  Enter "Print" in the text box, then click the green arrow icon:

  4. Select the item types you would like to include for the "Print" category. You can select items by either double-clicking on the item that you wish to select or using the arrow icons:

  5. When you have finished making your selections, click "Apply".
  6. To create the "Video" category, select "List" from the "New" drop-down menu:

  7. Enter "Video" in the text box, then click the green arrow icon:

  8. Select the item types you would like to include for the "Video" category. You can select items by either double-clicking on the item that you wish to select or using the arrow icons:

  9. When you have finished making your selections, click "Apply".
  10. To create the "Audio" category, select "List" from the "New" drop-down menu:

  11. Enter "Audio" in the text box, then click the green arrow icon:

  12. Select the item types you would like to include for the "Audio" category:

  13. When you have finished making your selections, click "Apply".
  14.  As shown below, there are four item types that were not selected for one of the categories. If an element is not selected, it automatically belongs to the "All Others" category:

  15. You can rename this category by double-clicking on it:

  16. You have two options for how this final category is displayed in the grid. Click on "All Others", then the "Properties" tab to see your options.
  17.  The first option is "Consolidate items into one derived element". This option will result in individual item types not being displayed in the grid. Instead, just the new derived element, which I named "Misc", will display in the grid:

     


  18. The second option is "Keep individual items separate". This option will result in individual item types being displayed in the grid, not the derived element "Misc". For this example, I will choose this option:

  19. Click "Apply" to save the changes to the "Properties" tab.
  20. When you have completed creating your derived elements, be sure to click "OK".

Here is my final grid:

To modify this previously-created derived element, right-click on the "Trans Stat Itype" column header, and select "Derived Elements". 

 

If you wish to no longer see the new elements and want to go back to see the original ones, you have two options. You can change the properties for each new element created from "Consolidate items into one derived element" to "Keep individual items separate". 

 

The other option is to clear the derived elements. If you choose this option, you have deleted the derived elements, so if you want the elements back, you will have to recreate them:

If you save your report, the derived elements will be saved also. 

 

Note: If you have created your derived elements, and your grid looks something like this. Please contact support@wyldnetwork.org:

The metric for this report may need to be edited.