Statit Software: Behind the Scenes

Statit piMD is an extremely robust and flexible tool, so much so that there are many customizations that a system administrator may do that the normal user does not immediately see. Most of these customizations are available through the System Properties or piMD Properties, but a few are changes that get made directly on the server. One such change is the ability for the System Administrator to modify the presentation of the Indicator output through an HTML template.

These templates control the presentation of many of the different output screens that get generated in Statit piMD. Among these screens are the Dashboard, Indicator trend output, comparison trend output, process phase analysis, and thumbnail output screens. The Indicator trend and comparison trend outputs have separate templates for viewable and printable output which allows System Administrators to further customize their output.

The templates themselves reside in the Statit piMD install folder under the output/templates subfolders. Each file in that folder controls a different piece of output. The naming of the files explains the piece of output that the file controls. The template itself is pure HTML, so an expert that is familiar with how to code HTML can easily add their own style to our output. The key to these files however is that we have special key words or tags that when used properly in the HTML Template create sections of output. For example, in order to output the trend chart for the Indicator Trend we would use @v[%HC_TrendChart] as a tag. The tags are always are of the format @v[%keywordname]. In the piMD help are many different examples of these tags and further instructions on how to use them in the HTML template.

A good example of how one would want to modify the output template would be to turn the data table for the Indicator output on the printed output to be vertical instead of horizontal. The image below is an example of the standard printed output. Notice that the data table has the periods going horizontally.

We can change the template on the printed indicator trend to instead show this data table as a vertical output like in the image below. To do so, we simply change one tag in the HTML Template from @v[%HC_TrendDataTableHoriz] to @v[%HC_TrendDataTable]. This has been valuable for some of our customers who have over 36 months of monthly trended data that needed to be printed as with that much information, the horizontal table runs out of paper space.

This is just one example of the many changes that could easily be made by customizing the HTML output templates. It is also just one of the many examples of how customizable Statit piMD truly is.

Appendix: Available HTML Template Tags
Below are listed some of the tags you may use. They are grouped as follows:

Specific Indicator Information
These tags can be used whenever information about a specific indicator is being displayed. These tags contain values that are mostly from the Indicator Administration form.

%HC_IndicatorID	Contents of the Indicator field on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Title	Contents of the Title field on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Owner	Indicator Admin on the Indicator Administration form. Returns the full name, if defined, otherwise returns login name. If an email address is defined, then this will be a link to the email (when not printing).
%HC_OwnerEmail	Email address for Indicator Admin.
%HC_OwnerLogin	Login name for Indicator Admin.
%HC_Expert	Indicator Expert on the Indicator Administration form. Returns the full name, if defined, otherwise returns login name. If an email address is defined, then this will be a link to the email (when not printing).
%HC_ExpertEmail	Email address for Indicator Expert.
%HC_ExpertLogin	Login name for Indicator Expert.
%HC_TitleLong	Contents of the Detailed Description field in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Owners	Indicator Owners, specified in the Ownersfield in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Cautions	Contents of the Cautions field in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Disclaimer	Contents of the Disclaimerfield in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Note1	Contents of the Notes 1 field in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_Note2	Contents of the Notes 2 field in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_LastPhaseInfo	When phases are implemented, contains summary of information for the last phase. Contains similar information as in the Tip for the last phase.
%HC_InfoLink	The URL to the additional information for the indicator, specified in the More Info Link field in the Additional Information Section on the Indicator Administration form.

Trend Analysis Information

%HC_TrendChart	The actual trend or SPC chart for the indicator.
%HC_TrendDataTable	The Indicator Data table for the plotted points. Vertical layout: Periods are the first column on left.
%HC_TrendDataTableHoriz	The Indicator Data table for the plotted points. Horizontal layout: Periods are displayed across the top.
%HC_TrendType	Type of chart as specified in the Analysis field in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form. (e.g. P Chart, X-Bar, Chart, etc.)
%HC_PeriodLabel	X axis label as specified in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_YTitle	Y axis label as specified in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_NumLabel	Numerator Label as specified in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_DenLabel	Denominator Label as specified in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.
%HC_FirstPeriod	First X axis label; label of the first period on the analysis chart.
%HC_LastPeriod	Last X axis label; label of the last period on the analysis chart.
%HC_CurrValue	Last data value plotted on the analysis chart.
$HC_NumPeriods	Number of periods plottedon the analysis chart.
%HC_Status	Character that represents the current SPC status of the indicator. G = Green; Y = Yellow; R = Red; N = None
%HC_LastUpdated	Last date and time that the data was updated.

Comment / Action Plan Information

%HC_Comments

Tabular output of all comments and action plans entered for the periods displayed on the analysis chart.

Comment / Action Plan for Last Period Plotted
Each of these tags will be an empty string, UNLESS there is a comment or action plan for the last period on the chart.

%HC_CurrCommentAction	Action plan for the last period on the analysis chart.
%HC_CurrCommentPeriod	Last X axis label; label of the last period on the analysis chart.
%HC_CurrCommentOwner	User that created the last comment or action plan.
%HC_CurrCommentNote	Comment for the last period on the analysis chart.
%HC_CurrCommentModifyDate	Date and time the comment or action for the last period was updated.

Validation Information
Information about the validation status for the most recent period. If the indicator does not require validation, then all of these tags will be an empty string.

%HC_Validated	Contains “Validated” or “Not Yet Validated”. If the logged in user is Admin, the Indicator Admin or the Indicator Expert, then this will be a link to allow them to perform the validation.
%HC_ValidatedMsg	The validation message, that is either “Not Yet Validated” or “Validated by <validator> on <validation date/time>”.
%HC_LastValidatedBy	The user that performed the validation for the most recent period. If not yet validated, then an empty string.
%HC_LastValidatedOn	Date/time validation was performed on the most recent period. If not yet validated, then an empty string.

Comparison Analysis Information
These additional tags that are available when a class Comparison analysis has been selected in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.

%HC_CompareChart	The actual comparison chart for showing performance of each class of an indicator.
%HC_ClassLabel	Contents of the Class Label field under Comparison in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form. If not specified, this is an empty string.
%HC_CompareType	The type of chart used for comparison analysis, specified in the Analysis field under the Comparison section in the Appearance Section on the Indicator Administration form.
$HC_ComparePeriods	The number of periods included in the comparison analysis. This is -1 if there is no comparison analysis.
%HC_CompareFirstPeriod	Label of the first period used in the comparison analysis chart.
%HC_CompareLastPeriod	Label of the last period used in the comparison analysis chart.

Dashboard Information
These tags can be used within the dashboard template.

%HC_Dashboard	The actual dashboard graphical display.
%HC_DashBackUrl	The complete tag containing an image and link, used to display the back button. If at the top level of the dashboard, this is an empty string.
%HC_DashTopUrl	The completetag containing an image and link, used to display the top button. If at top level of dashboard, this is an empty string.
%HC_ViewName	The view name that the user selected to access the indicator.
%HC_GroupName	The group name that the user selected to access the indicator.

Labels
These tags are referenced within the default template. Each define the label for various text fields displayed with indicators charts and tables. They can be set within the user interface in the piMD Admin > Properties > Display > Labels Section (except where indicated).

%HC_ActionPlanLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever Action Plan field is displayed. Can be set in piMD Admin > Properties > Display > Comments section.
%HC_CommentLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever Comments field is displayed. Can be set in piMD Admin > Properties > Display > Comments section.
%HC_CautionsLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever Cautions field is displayed.
%HC_DisclaimerLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever Disclaimer field is displayed.
%HC_GoalLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever Target line is displayed in a trend chard.
%HC_MoreInfoLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever the More Info field is displayed, which is typically used as a hyperlink to a web page, pdf, or office document.
%HC_OwnersLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever the Owner field is displayed.
%HC_TitleLongLabel	The name of the label that appears whenever the Description field is displayed.
%HC_Note1Label	The name of the label that appears whenever the Notes 1 field is displayed.
%HC_Note2Label	The name of the label that appears whenever the Notes 2 field is displayed.