This functionality allows GRI 2 to provide "meta reports". Meta reports basically capture raw data from the hosts in question and format the content dynamically as part of the web-interface. This is best demonstrated with by a couple of examples.
Example 1 - Pie Chart
Consider the following data file on a server that is to be presented via GRI 2 to the user:
Object,Number Sold
pies,22
rolls,33
fish,44
This is saved as a report file name and has a type of "csv". Now if it was considered as a standard report then the content when presented to the user would just be as above (opened via a spreadsheet application).
However if this is defined as a meta-report (with a bit of XML) instead it can be presented to the user as:
Example 2 - Line Chart
In a similar manner consider the following report content - again stored as a CSV file:
Total,Used
Date,Total Space,Used Space
17/01/12,100,40
18/01/12,100,45
19/01/12,100,35
20/01/12,100,55
This content is a bit more complex but still GRI 2 allows a simple XML configuration to describe this data in a graphical manner for representation to the user - this time as a line graph:
Summary
Meta-Reports are a key feature of GRI 2. Although still very much in development the prospect of providing end-users with attractive graphical representations of data with out having to generate those images on the end servers is a considered a most useful feature.
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