Report Templates

Report templates allow you to define a standard format users can follow when they create reports in ThreatConnect^®, ensuring consistency across your team’s reports and eliminating time spent creating reports from scratch.

When building a report template, you can add content blocks with preconfigured text or visual elements, such as charts, images, tables, and saved graphs from Threat Graph, or placeholder sections that users can fill in after they create a report from the template. Once you customize and save a report template, users in your Organization can use it when creating a report for a Group from the Group’s Details screen.

Creating a Report Template

Follow these steps to create a report template in ThreatConnect:

1. On the top navigation bar, click Reporting to display the Reporting screen.
2. Click the + Create Group Template button at the top right of the Reporting screen. The Template Editor will be displayed with a blank report template for Groups (Figure 1). By default, newly created report templates contain placeholder Report Header and Report Footer sections.
   

    

3. Click the + Add Section button to add sections to the report template. As you build out the template, you can also organize the template’s contents and layout.
4. After you have created and configured the report template, click the Save Template button at the top right of the Template Editor to save the template.

Adding Content to a Report Template

When creating or editing a report template, you can add content to it from the Add Section drawer in the Template Editor. To access this drawer, click the + Add Section button in the Template Editor header.

The available sections you can add to a report template belong to one of three categories: Group Data Placeholder, Basic Elements, and Layout Elements.

Group Data Placeholder

In a report template, Group Data Placeholder sections are placeholder sections that correspond to the following Group Data sections for reports:

• Details
• Attributes
• Group Associations
• Indicator Associations
• Victim Assets Associations

You cannot customize Group Data Placeholder sections within a report template. When a user creates a report for a Group from a report template with Group Data Placeholder sections, each of the corresponding Group Data sections in the report will be populated with their respective data from the Group, with the exception of the Attributes section, which the user will need to edit to select a specific Attribute to add to the report.

Basic Elements

You can add any of the following Basic Elements sections to a report template:

• Chart
• Graph
• Image
• Table
• Text Block

After you select a Basic Elements section from the Add Section drawer, you will be prompted to select the format in which you want to add the section to the report template. There are two formats available for each of the Basic Elements sections:

• Placeholder Block: Placeholder blocks act as prompts that indicate where users should add specific information and elements to reports created from a report template. If a Basic Elements section is added to a report template as a placeholder block, users must configure the section manually after they create a report from the template. (See Adding Basic Elements to a Report for more information on configuring each of the Basic Elements sections.)
• Content Block: Content blocks contain predefined visual and text-based elements that are populated automatically in reports created from a report template. If a Basic Elements section is added to a report template as a content block, users do not need to configure the section after they create a report from the template, as it will have already been configured in the template.

Layout Elements

You can add any of the following Layout Elements sections to a report template:

• Report Header
• Report Footer
• Divider
• Page Break

By default, new report templates include placeholder Report Header and Report Footer sections.

Organizing a Report Template’s Contents and Layout

As you add sections to a report template, you may want to reorder sections, add a section between two sections, edit a section, or remove a section. To perform these actions, hover over a section in the Template Editor and click one of the following buttons:

• Move Content Up: Click this button to move the selected section further up in the report template.
• Move Content Down: Click this button to move the selected section further down in the report template.
• + Add Above: Click this button to add a section above the selected section.
• + Add Below: Click this button to add a section below the selected section.
• Edit Content: Click this button to edit the selected section.
• Remove Content: Click this button to delete the selected section. The section will be removed from the report immediately without prompting you for confirmation.
  
  Note

  You cannot undo the deletion of a section in a report template. If you are working with a saved report template and removed a section by mistake, refresh the browser tab to restore the most recently saved version of the report template.

Saving a Report Template

Saving a report template allows you and other users in your Organization to access it from the Templates tab of the Reporting screen and use it when creating reports for Groups.

If an unsaved report template is open in the Template Editor, click the Save Template button at the top right of the editor to save it. You will then be prompted to enter a unique name and optional description for the template.

If a saved report template is open in the Template Editor, click the Save Template button at the top right of the editor and select one of the following options:

• Save Changes: Select this option to save any changes made to the report template since it was last saved.
• Save a Copy…: Select this option to save a copy of the report template. By default, the name of the copy will have the text “ - COPY” appended to it.

Managing a Report Template

In addition to customizing and saving a report template, you can perform the following actions while the template is open in the Template Editor:

• Edit the report template’s name
• Delete the report template (if it has been saved)

Editing a Report Template’s Name

Click Editat the top left of the Template Editor to edit the report template’s name. After you enter a new, unique name for the report template, click Confirm.

Deleting a Report Template

If working with a saved report template, click Optionsat the top right of the Template Editor and select Delete… to delete the report template.

Creating a Report From a Saved Report Template

When creating a report for a Group from the Group’s Details screen, you can select a saved report template from which to create the report.

1. Navigate to the Details screen for a Group.
2. In the Details screen header, click the + Create Custom Report button and select Create From Group Template…. The Create From Group Report Template window will be displayed (Figure 2).
   

    

   • Select a saved report template.
   • Click the Create Custom Report button. A new report based on the selected report template will open in the Report Editor.
3. Review the report to identify placeholder sections that need to be configured manually. To edit those sections, hover over each one and click Edit Content. For further instruction on configuring and customizing sections in a report, see Adding Group Data to a Report, Adding Basic Elements to a Report, and Adding Layout Elements to a Report.
   
   Note

   If one or more of the sections are not populated with data in the newly created report, a message stating “One or more sections in this report are empty.” will be displayed at the top of the Report Editor as a reminder that the report is incomplete.
4. After you have created and configured the report, save, publish, or export it.

ThreatConnect^® is a registered trademark of ThreatConnect, Inc.

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