We like to report from a branch that contains frozen figures from a particular period.

Is this possible and if so, how do you configure the report so the report is using the figures from that particular branch?

Easy question, easy answer?

Thanks in advance for your help!

You should be able to click on New--> Report and create a new report in the branch that you would like to use.

We have been testing like this before we move stuff to Trunk/ main branch so that we can validate and tweak as needed.

Thanks

Dhivya Shyam

Hello Menno,

If the aim of the request is to build a report in Trunk based off data within your Branch, then unfortunately the answer is 'no'.  We do not currently have the ability to report across branches or other projects.

-Greg

Hi Greg,

That's not necessarily accurate -- you can use the Lookupfrom Path() function to lookup data within a branch (or anywhere, so long as you have the url). It's ugly and can be frustrating to get the correct path but, once you do, you should be able to display that data accurately. However, I would have someone who does coding and cofig at Apptio help with the LookupfromPath function creation.

Hope this helps and good luck.

Thank you,

Christy Harrod

Hey Christy,

Thank you for the suggestion of the LookupFromPath() function.  You are correct that you can use this function to pull in data from a Branch.  However, this is still just a variant of the Lookup() function, meaning you are specifying a table in which you must provide a matching key to return another specified value.  This may very well be the answer for the initial question.  However, there are many complications that would cause this to be a tedious affair if undertaken and, in general, is not a recommended methodology.

I read this as reporting off of a table from a branch, not looking up data from a table in the branch into a report table within Trunk.  And, in that case, my answer still holds.

Today there is no persistent link or reference between a Trunk Project and a Branch from a reporting perspective.

As mentioned you can use lookupfrompath() to report on any table path in Apptio, however I would strongly suggest against this.  The main issues that exist with doing this is...

1.)Technically your lookupfrompath() should always point to a calculated build (ABC project_Build_123)  When you configure this in your report in trunk it will be a static link, so if someone checks in/causes a new build to spin in your branch, this number will chance and your lookup will fail.  If you're build in the branch is never going to change, this is less of an issue, but we still don't guarantee the build number is going to be static.

2.)All !NEWCOLUMNS are evaluated in realtime, we do not cache/persist this part of the path, so the report in Trunk even though pre-calculated may not perform well when using it.  How this performs depends on what's being returned, table size, report complexity ect.  We do not allow you to use lookupfrompath() in a table transform.  I would never use this to back a model object driver.

3.)If you instead point to the Branches base project (Omit the build number) this is something that doesn't actually have a persisted cache, so you'll have all the issues of item 2 above, plus the issue that the source table will also have to calculate on the fly, which will incur additional load on the web nodes.

Almost anything is possible with lookupfrompath() what you build may work and may perform, but if it doesn't we currently don't support that type of reporting/workflow for the reasons I mentioned above, so if there are issues, there really isn't much at this time we can do to remedy those.

If the values in the branch really are static, and not changing often, copying the data from the branch to Trunk is probably a better option depending on your data refresh cadence.

@Gregory Nutt and @Mark Nealey what are your thoughts on using Datalink to copy the table from the branch into the trunk?

Although @Menno Wittebol if it is a static table could you not just copy the table, as a one off, back into the branch?

It is not only a table @Paul Melican, but a whole project from a particular state/day where we would like to use the full set of reports and run through the information/modelling to trace down if required.

Thank you very much for your replies @Dhivya Shyam, @Gregory Nutt, @Christy Harrod, @Mark Nealey and @Paul Melican. Much appreciated.

We saw actually that the reports in the Trunk are also available in the Branch and the figures differs in the Branch vs. Trunk reports so we conclude that Branch reports are using the fixed Branch figures. So far so good

The URLs are not the same as well (see below two examples) so you could point to the preferred report but then we have the next challenges.

1. Our Customers with Apptio READ ONLY access are using production. Is it possible to give them access to the Branch even when it is not production but development?
2. Is it possible to copy a new production report to an existing Branch?

https://company.apptio.com/#report:prd:company.com:ProjectName/ReportName

https://company.apptio.com/#report:dev:company.com:-ProjectName_(BranchName)/ReportName

@Menno Wittebol, For #2, follow these steps

• Check out the report in Trunk which you would like to copy.
• Once checked out, use the 'Copy All Report Components' function to copy the entire report (see screenshot).
• Switch to the respective branch.
• Click New, Report and label whatever you want to name the report.
• The Paste window at the bottom right should still be visible to your workspace.
• Click Paste All. Save the report and check in your report.

Hope this helps.

Hi @Tony Wong, thank you. That's is more or less the same proces we use in a standard situation where we copy report items via clipboard from one report to another. Nice!

For #1 - I don't get to play around as a user without access to Studio, so my memory here may be wrong.  But I do not believe VIEW ONLY users have access to branches.  This access comes with access to TBM Studio itself.  There may be a more advanced custom role that can be added, but I do not know about it.  Branches are typically used within a development or testing scenario, not end user reporting.

For #2 - We are unable to merge from Trunk to Branch, and so we would be unable to just merge the latest version of the report across, which would be the ideal scenario.  With that in mind, I second @Tony Wong's suggestion above with copying and pasting the report from Trunk into Branch.  This brings the new report over without the tedium of manually rebuilding and positioning every component.

If your end users need to see this data, then I would hearken back to @Paul Melican's suggestion of potentially using DL to transfer a static table from your frozen time period into your Trunk and building a comparison/what if report there to compare the two.  This way, you have all standard Trunk reports and can compare against your frozen data.  In addition, if you needed to take a new 'frozen' state of your data it would just be another DL copy of the data, no rebuilding or balancing between Branches required.  If you can get this to fit your use case, I think it would be the easiest to maintain.

Hi @Gregory Nutt, thanks for the reply. I will look into the options to see if it is possible to create a profile with the correct permission to be able to view reports in a Branch. If it is possible I will publish the outcome/settings here.

I understand the disadvantage balancing between branches but at this moment I only see the issue around reporting. That is solved by the answer of @Tony Wong because the model and figures within a branch should not change as it is a frozen state.