XpressDox now provides a formal reporting module in the Cloud, however if you would like to build your own reporting system it can be done as follows:
XpressDox can be configured to record every usage of a template, giving the date and time it was run, along with the user who ran it. This requires a database (a formal one like SQL Server or MySQL, not Excel or Access) with a table in it which has the following columns:
- Id: the primary key. 36 characters long. XpressDox will set this using a GUID.
- LogEndTimeStamp: a date/time value
- LogStartTimeStamp: ditto
- LogTemplate: will be populated by XpressDox with the full file path of the template, so should be at least 256 characters long.
- LogUsername: will be populated by XpressDox with the user name with which the user logged on to Windows.
An XpressDox data source must be defined for this table, typically in the global “Office settings” configuration, or at least at a folder whose position in the folder hierarchy includes those folders with templates whose usage needs to be recorded. The data source should have the name XDUsageLog (it is a choice in the drop-down for the data source name in the configuration form). It is this name that XpressDox uses to trigger the usage logging feature. The features “Use for All Templates” and “Allow Insert” (at the bottom right of the Data Source Configuration screen) must be chosen. XpressDox will choose these automatically when the data source name is XDUsageLog and when you tab out of the Name field in the configuration form.
That is all that is required – after the data source is configured, and probably after reloading Word, XpressDox will proceed to record the template usage.
Reporting on XpressDox template usage as logged in this database can be done using the database’s reporting features. Otherwise a reporting data source can be configured in XpressDox and various report templates defined in XpressDox to report on the template usage log data.
