Help with reports, not sure where to begin

[zackw (Zack)]

Firstly, I’ve got the Child Reports plugin installed on all my sites, and data is being collected.
The sites are connected to MainWP Dashboard.
I’ve got both the Client Reports plugin as well as Pro Reports installed to MainWP, but I think I need to use only Pro Reports because it will compile and attach a PDF and has PHP templates available, while the other one only does an HTML report, unless I’m mistaken.

I also believe I don’t need both installed correct? I should just be able to have Pro Reports alone?

Next, setting up the reports, I’m not sure if I’m setting up one report that covers all my sites, or if I create separate reports FOR each site? I know there are tokens to insert dynamic content like the site name, so it would seem I can do one report that gets filled in for every site, but the problem is, I need to do manual content for each site.

These reports are for maintenance, and I need a way to enter a lot of WYSIWYG content for each site regarding any issues I find, past issues not dealt with, ongoing project work, additional notes and findings etc. I don’t know how to add my own images into the report, or create an HTML table. The WYSIWYG editor they give me has basic formatting but not everything I need.

So the question is, how can I customize these reports every month in order to add per-site custom content that may change each month? The “intro message” and “closing message” boxes are not adequate.
I don’t think editing the PHP templates will help much because I certainly don’t want to have to update the PHP code with custom content each month!

I’m guessing there must be some way I can interject more complex custom content into each report on a per-site basis somehow?

Also I don’t know where there is a reference for all the available tokens. When I click the “Insert tokens” link it only shows a handful of them that start with “client.xxx”. However right in the default message is a token “[report.daterange]”. Where does that come from, where do I see what else is available? Can I make my own and edit them somewhere convenient? Does every MainWP extension have their own set of available tokens? If there is a reference somewhere, that would certainly help!

I just want a good professional report that automatically includes the basic stuff like updates and analytics and pagespeed, but I can also enter all my manual monthly stuff.

Thanks!

[bogdan (Bogdan Rapaić)]

@zackw

I’ve got both the Client Reports plugin as well as Pro Reports installed to MainWP, but I think I need to use only Pro Reports because it will compile and attach a PDF and has PHP templates available, while the other one only does an HTML report, unless I’m mistaken.

• Yes, this is correct. Pro Reports is a better solution if you want to generate PDF reports

@zackw

I also believe I don’t need both installed correct? I should just be able to have Pro Reports alone?

• Yes, you don’t need both extensions installed. Just the one that you are planning to use.

@zackw

Next, setting up the reports, I’m not sure if I’m setting up one report that covers all my sites, or if I create separate reports FOR each site? I know there are tokens to insert dynamic content like the site name, so it would seem I can do one report that gets filled in for every site, but the problem is, I need to do manual content for each site.

• In most cases, one report for multiple sites is fine. But if there is a need for writing a custom report content that is different for each child site, it’s better to run multiple reports for a single site. Regarding the custom tokens, it’s required to enter values for each child site manually.

@zackw

These reports are for maintenance, and I need a way to enter a lot of WYSIWYG content for each site regarding any issues I find, past issues not dealt with, ongoing project work, additional notes and findings etc. I don’t know how to add my own images into the report, or create an HTML table. The WYSIWYG editor they give me has basic formatting but not everything I need.

• In the report settings, you can use the Report closing message section:
  
  
  
  to write custom content. But if you don’t like the position of where this message shows, it’s easy to move it to some other place in the report template. If this still is not a good solution, I can send some guides about creating custom report tokens and inserting dynamic values.

@zackw

Also I don’t know where there is a reference for all the available tokens. When I click the “Insert tokens” link it only shows a handful of them that start with “client.xxx”. However right in the default message is a token “[report.daterange]”. Where does that come from, where do I see what else is available? Can I make my own and edit them somewhere convenient? Does every MainWP extension have their own set of available tokens? If there is a reference somewhere, that would certainly help!

• Available tokens in the menus include default client tokens and all custom tokens that you create. This means that you can create tokens here:
  
  
  
  Once the new token is created, you can enter values for each child site in Site Edit page:
  
  

Let me know if you have additional questions.

[zackw (Zack)]

Excellent, thanks a bunch!

I could use the existing WYSIWYG and move it if needed in the template, but I still need to have more formatting and options available, including adding images because I often need to show clients something in a screenshot.
The question is, can the TinyMCE editor they use be expanded with more options?

Regarding custom tokens, they all seem to be just a simple plain text field, is that all that can be done? If so, it may be too limited. I need a way to add monthly report data in the form of full WYSIWYG content, images, custom tokens, and potential other tokens but in alternate format, like yes/no toggles.

As an example of all this, my current reports are done manually in a Zoho doc. It has a common header like clients name and site, the report period and report generation date. It has intro text regarding how they can respond and create tickets to get tasks done, etc. Most of this is static content except for updating the dates.

Next I have a 2 column table for ongoing issues. Broken links, expired plugins, missing content, missing favicon, broken google maps, email problems, etc etc. Really anything that I wouldn’t fix directly within retainer and need further approval before doing.
This is only static content until the client tells me to fix it, or I need to adjust the issues if something changes, the client fixes it themselves, etc. An issue might continue to be listed for months in some cases.
I thought these “issues” could each be their own custom token, a token for each issue, but a plain text field wouldn’t work. I would need a wysiwyg for each issue in this case. I like to separate the issues into two sections; the “Issue” definition, and then the “Recommend” options for what we can do about it.

After the issue list comes a freeform text of anything that has happened over the month. For example the client may have emailed me with a task apart from maintenance. I’ll type up comments regarding such tasks, any new things going on, any previous things that were worked on, etc. The existing wysiwyg field would work here because it’s just text paragraphs, sometimes links.

Next comes the monthly update stats. Uptime, backups, plugins updated, theme, WP, malware scans, firewall, and other such reports. All this section is going to be the auto-generated stuff from Pro Reports hopefully, but there are other items I would want to add manually, which again would require tokens or additional fields. Or using the MainWP API??
Examples: list maintenance-related plugins I run, PHP and MySQL version, host PHP error log check, site hardening tasks, Sucuri firewall blocks, etc.
I could add these sections in the PHP template, but still need a way to change data per report if needed.

Next I have additional freeform content regarding site auditing and performance, and any notes regarding long-term projects and items I recommend for the future. For example if they had a lot of abandoned plugins and a far outdated theme, I would recommend they think about a theme upgrade. But this is not as critical an issue as the issues listed at the top of the report.
This is where I’ll also put screenshots if needed to show various issues.

Ok, so as you can see, I do have freeform content at the top and middle and bottom of this thing. I don’t mind re-arranging a little. Static content that needs updated sometimes. And then some content which could easily be tokens if I had more formatting for them.

I suppose some of this should go into feature requests cause I know it can’t be done.
It’s also important to be able to see previous reports for things like seeing when an issue first appeared.

It would be really cool if instead of generating the PDF, it generated something like a Google Doc and then I can freely update before emailing.

Anyway if there are any options I can look into that would be handy!