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In this section of the User Guide

What is the Reporting Platform?

The SNOMED CT Reporting Platform (RP) is a gateway to reports which can run a range of queries against content created or updated in the active authoring cycle for SNOMED CT.

Queries are structured into categories for ease of definition, navigation and retrieval, such as Ad-Hoc Queries, Release Validation and Quality Improvement.

The results of these queries can support pre-release validation of issues not supported by the Authoring Platform (for instance MRCM rules such as attribute cardinality).

They can also be used to analyze the structural quality of SNOMED CT, to identify potential issues (for instance attribute usage for a given sub-hierarchy) which can then be addressed via content change projects in the Authoring Platform.

For the content team it enables iterative work to define complex QA rules that are eventually used for the Release Validation Framework (RVF) assertions (such as case significance).

As a content release planning and tracking tool it can show the number and types of changes made during a SNOMED CT release cycle, and from one release to the next.

Why should I use the Reporting Platform?

  • It can reveal trends and particular faceted searches of SNOMED CT content created through the SNOMED CT Authoring Platform that are not easily obtainable via other tools and services.
  • it can assist with quality assurance review of promoted content prior to publication in the next SNOMED CT release.
  • It can help to quickly modify and adapt rules which can enable more rapid SNOMED CT content updates via Authoring Platform authoring projects/tasks.
  • It helps focus on potential content issues that may or may not be a problem, so can assist impact assessment, prioritisation and planning.
  • For quality checks that are not currently supported in the Authoring Platform by Drools Rules (concept save validation) or Release Validation Framework assertions (task and project validation against an entire release), for instance string handling.

When should I use the Reporting Platform?

  • Anytime you need to query the content within the current authoring cycle for SNOMED CT.
  • In particular, many of the reports are designed to assist content quality assurance reviews prior to creating the alpha-release version for each SNOMED CT release cycle.
  • RP queries run against the content which has been promoted to the mainline branch of the Authoring Platform (ie promoted project content), so some coordination with project content team leaders may be advisable if your report is influenced by or needs to include specific project content for analysis.

Where do I find the Reporting Platform?

Login required

These links will redirect you to the login page if you’re not already logged in within your current browser session. Once your login completes, your browser will be redirected on to the AP Dashboard and RP main page respectively. If already logged in, these pages will load without the login redirect.


Who can benefit from using the Reporting Platform?

Anyone who has a use for the results of queries run against content updates for the current authoring cycle through the SNOMED CT Authoring Platform, such as (but by no means limited to): 

  • Content authors
  • Content project managers
  • Content team leaders
  • Consultant terminologists
  • Clinicians
  • SNOMED CT release teams
  • Technical specialists

How to…

(from the Reporting Platform entry page)

… find an existing report

StepsReference

Determine which report category is applicable to your query.

If there are many categories, and yours is not visible in the main content area, press a category heading in the left-hand sidebar Categories menu to only show that category’s reports.

Pressing the heading again restores the full Categories view.

Each press toggles between the only the selected category and showing all categories.

Press the header label for your category to show the reports listed under that heading. The screenshot shows the available Semantic Tag Hierarchy reports after pressing its heading.

Pressing the header label again will collapse the reports listing.

Each press of the report heading toggles the expansion/collapsing of the reports listing.

With your category expanded, find the report in the list of those available. If a particular report that you need cannot be seen, you can run a new query for that report.

… read an existing report

StepsReference
Find the report to read as described in … find an existing report.


Reports for queries that have been run and already available are listed with status Complete. This status links to the completed report which is stored as a Google Sheet in a Google Drive shared folder - press the label or the icon to open the Google Sheet report.


If you are not already signed in to your Google account in an existing browser session, you’ll be prompted for your Google credentials. Enter these to proceed and view the report sheet.

An example report is shown in the screenshot for
TermContainsXReport 71388002 |Procedure| 20181220_103142_prod_sulrich.

The sheet name contains the report title followed by the run date-time (in YYYYMMDD_HHMMSS format), a platform identifier (prod), and finally the account name of the originator (ie the account login under which the report query was run).

Since the report itself is a Google Sheet, all the options and services associated with a shared Google Sheet are available for further processing and analysis as needed, such as copying to a personal sheet for further analysis/manipulation, download as a file in various formats for offline review and processing, including exporting to other tools and services.

… run an existing report

StepsReference
Find the report to run as described in … find an existing report.

Press the Run New Query button in the right-hand top corner of the report description panel. This opens the Report Details form in a pop-up dialogue box.


Each report type has a relevant set of query parameters which may be specified.

Example Report Details form: Term Contains X

This query takes the following values:

  • Subhierarchy - a constraining sub-hierarchy of SNOMED CT to limit the query scope.
  • Starts With - if this is checked the Words value must occur at the start of a term.
  • Words (mandatory field) - words to find within concept terms.
  • Attribute Type - a constraining attribute type to limit the query scope.

Note the Words field which is labelled as a mandatory field. If this is not populated, the report run will fail when the details are submitted, with Failed showing in the Status column of the reports list entry.

Later versions of the Reporting Platform will introduce deeper form validation to prevent submission with invalid report details (form validation varies according to the complexity and dependencies of the different report details).

Enter your desired query details.

Subhierarchy and Attribute Type are examples of type-ahead select fields - start typing a word in the field box and the form will present a drop-down list of matching options (it may take a few seconds to query the server and present the selection list). Press a list option to set the field value.

Complete your desired query details and then press the Run Query button in the lower right-corner of the Report Details dialogue box. This will submit the report for running on the server. If you wish to cancel, press the x in the upper right corner of the dialogue box to close it without running the query.

On submitting the Report Details, the report Status changes to Scheduled. At this point the report request is queued on the server.

When the queue processing reaches your scheduled report, the report Status changes to Running. At this point the report query is run against the mainline content on the Authoring Platform. The report run time depends on the complexity of the query and its related hierarchy size, available server resources and queue length.

Report running time

The current query run time limit is 2 minutes on the server - sufficient for most reporting needs whilst preventing performance issues associated with "runaway" queries. Time to update the report list Status may be longer if there is significant concurrent server processing, and is also be influenced by network communications latency between the server and the requestor's web browser.

If the run time limit is exceeded, the report run will stop and be marked as Failed in the report list. This may happen with queries that would return excessively large result sets , for instance a query with unconstrained scope that returns everything below a high-level concept.


After successful completion of the report, its Status is updated to Complete, and the Google Sheet report is then available in Google Drive, linked from the report entry Status label/icon.

… create a new report and/or report category

In the current version this is achieved via service requests to the technical team. Please raise an INFRA project ticket in JIRA to request a new report (either in an existing category, or requesting a new one), as done for AP issues and improvement requests. This will be processed and prioritised along with other AP and RP feature/improvement requests for inclusion in a future release.

… remove a report (from the RP report listing)

StepsReference
Find the report to remove as described in … find an existing report.
Move your cursor over the report row entry (the row background will change shade when your cursor is in its context). A red “minus” icon will also appear to the right of the label link icon.

Press the red minus sign to remove the report from the list. This presents the Delete Report pop-up dialogue.

Press the Delete Report button in the lower right-corner of the Delete Report dialogue box to remove the report entry from the report listing. Press the x in the upper right corner of the dialogue box to close the box without changing the report listing.

Removes list entry - not the report itself

This action removes the report entry from the Reporting Platform listing but does not remove the Google sheet report saved in Google Drive, which can still be viewed directly from Google Drive if needed.

Any report removed from the listing can be added back simply by running that report again (although the date-time and account name will be those of the re-run rather than any previously run report).

… request a new feature

... request an improvement to an existing feature

... report an issue

To request a Reporting Platform new feature or improvement, or to report an issue, please use the existing Authoring Platform Raise an Issue process.

This can be done via the Raise an Issue button in the footer of the main Authoring Platform pages and completing the form dialogue presented in your web browser, or alternatively raise an INFRA project ticket directly in JIRA if preferred.

A picture is worth a thousand words

Screen capture images are a very effective way to share issues and ideas, and often save much typing to convey the same level of understanding. Annotated screenshots can be particularly helpful when suggesting improvements or making feature requests. Please use the file attachment options in either the Raise an Issue form, or directly via JIRA in an associated INFRA ticket to include supporting screen captures.