Forena looks like a very promising module, and the more tech savvy users are already going places with it.
I'm having trouble getting off the starting line, and needed to thoroughly review the help files.
So where are they?
Going back to the module README, I see:

Install in your sites/all/modules folder per the normal module installation
method.

Done.

Next visit the Site configuration->Forena page and configure the path where
reports wil be saved.

Hmm. For the literal minded, in Drupal 7, perhaps this should say:

"Next visit Configuration--Content authoring--Forena Reports..."

In my installation, I have set this to:
sites/default/sql_reports

The directory is writeable by the web user (www-data) and belongs to the user's group (0755). Should be good.

Next we get:

After saving your settings, visit your my reports page to see help reports,
sample reports

Hmmm. What is "your my reports page"?

At this point I have not set any other Forena UI/Admin parameters...and nothing jumps out as being "my reports" page.
- There is no Forena under Drupal's default admin [Reports] tab (note: this could be confusing UI design...maybe Forena needs stronger namespacing?)
- Under Structure--Forena Reports there is no "my reports" concept apparent...but hurray! There *are* a bunch of reports listed.
So all we need to do is click on them, yes?

The path to view is:
(siteurl)/reports/help.CreateReportSimple

which returns us to the Drupal Admin default since there is no object at that path....

Hmmm. Why are the Forena help Reports looking for objects with the path /reports/?
No idea. Maybe the settings were stuffed up at some point. So I try to manually set the path to my preferred configuration:
sites/default/sql_reports/help.CreateReportSimple

No go. still get a default Drupal page, nothing to do with Forena.
Wondering where these deafult reports actually ended up, I go prowling through the file system.
At /sites/default/files/ I discover some new directories...one of which is called /help/ ...and inside here are a bunch of *.frx files.

Now I move the /help/ directory into my Forena configuration path (sites/default/sql_reports) and again try a url:
siteurl)/sites/default/sql_reports/help/help.CreateReportSimple

But again...no report.
Sigh.
Not sure what to do next.
Might try completely uninstalling and starting over...

My basic goal is to get a chart *inserted* on a Drupal node. I have a chart displayed on the Forena Report page (which is a standalone HTML page), but can't see how to insert/embed a chart inside any of:

  • a normal textarea (using CKEditor, and have an unrestricted text input format set up)
  • a new, empty block
  • a new, empty panel pane

I'm sure if I could just get the documentation to display then the basics of my confusion would be answered!
Thanks to any kind souls who can help set me a bit straighter here...

Comments

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd CreditAttribution: metzlerd commented

The MY reports menu is normally found in the Navigation Menu by default, but many drupal sites these days to not have that menu exposed. You may need to visit the structure/forena_reports menus to make sure the distributed reports are "copied" to the file system. (Check the "revert" reports check box and then clear the forean cache. Once this is done, you should find the help menus at yoursite/forena.

I would encourage you to look at the Youtube video's linked from the main project page. They are a lot of help when getting forena set up ofr the first time.

The easiest way to embed a chart into a drupal node is to use the Insert Report input filter. If you enable this input filter, you can embed the report using a [report:mychartreport] markup syntax. There's a lot more to learn, but hopefully that helps get you started.

boabjohn’s picture

boabjohn CreditAttribution: boabjohn commented

Thank you again David for the fast and helpful response. I had already watched the YouTubes and they are very good. But I needed more.
By "reverting" all reports I got the links back again and have been able to go through that information now.
Fantastic effort with the documentation!
What is the best way to contribute extensions and typo/subedits back to you? IS it sufficient to simply send you a version of the *.frx file?
Cheers,
JB

metzlerd’s picture

metzlerd CreditAttribution: metzlerd commented

Feel free to post to issue queues with the revised .frx files posted as .txt files. Or submit patches per the normal drupal convention if that seems more appropriate. Thanks for being willing to contribute documentation to the effort.

Pierre.Vriens’s picture

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented
Title: Locating help reports » README docu about getting access to HELP reports shipped with forena
Assigned: Unassigned » Pierre.Vriens
Category: support » task
Status: Active » Needs work

@ boabjohn: I like your issue summary, and recognized some of it when I first started with forena. From your #2 addition it looks like you found "a" way to get it going anyway. Moreover, your contribution-question in it is similar to what I asked/suggested to David (e.g. the typos you also mentioned). FYI: in recently ran into a variation of your issue after I upgraded an old forena-version on one of our sites (the same "revert" did the trick for me, so probably something worth mentioning somewhere in upgrade-docu also).

In the meantime, I've started working on actually contributing, though I must say/admit that I'm still trying to find my way about how to do so most efficiently. From recent conversations with David, and based on (a) my current knowledge of forena and (b) the reporting areas / topics that I'm personally interested / comfortable with and (c) my background, I think the best way for me to get really started is to correct / enhance / extend the various help reports (frx files included in forena). Your readme-issue seems a logical extension of that, which is why (for now) I've assigned this issue to me now. If anybody else is interested in getting this readme topic addressed, feel free to change it to your id.

Curious to hear (read) about your feedback to David's #3 proposal/request. Most effective approach seems to be to post as David suggested, i.e. just as .txt files, or even better in patch format. Though I wonder if contributors who feel comfortable contributing to the help reports also feel comfortable (already?) with doing so in patch format. Whatever the answer is, what is most important (I think) is that there seem to be a number of forena-fans willing to start contributing to forena also, at least in the area of all sorts of variations of documentation. At least that's my perception, based on some other forena issues also related to producing more forena docu (just search for open documentation issues), e.g. as in https://drupal.org/node/1944418.

So anybody interested in joining the forena contributions party (like @nandwabee ?), please get in touch. E.g. to discuss how we can best organize the work. I'm thinking of organizational topics like:
a) where do we store which docu (in frx rpts, in the community handbook, somewhere else)?
b) who wants to digest all those forena issues (open or closed) again to list the various topics to be documented?
c) who is willing to work on which additional topics (My favorites: SVG graphs, dataTables, data blocks in XML format, xPath expressions)?
d) who is good in producing more forena videos?
e) who takes care of getting them in future forena releases (the patches / git stuff of it)?
f) how do we best take advantage of the available issue queue features like assigned to, category, status, etc ?

boabjohn’s picture

boabjohn CreditAttribution: boabjohn commented

G'Day Pierre,
Thank you for your comments and for taking time to contribute to Forena. I look forward to giving it a go again in the future.
For various reasons I had to leave the Forena effort and have moved over to HighCharts.
I'm not convinced that there is an "easy" solution pattern out there as charts are almost as complex to deal with as geospatial representation.
Much as we like to talk about a crisp boundary between data and presentation, maps and charts demonstrate just how interrelated data and presentation can be.
The APIs rapidly become beasts as we try to account for everything possible in expressing data through a visual lens, and make all of that "readable" by a web browser.
I'm not onto Forena now, but am happy to keep a watching brief and will contribute as best I can when back in this zone.
Go well!
JB

boabjohn’s picture

boabjohn CreditAttribution: boabjohn commented
Issue summary: View changes

cleaned up minor typs

Pierre.Vriens’s picture

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented
Assigned: Pierre.Vriens » Unassigned
Status: Needs work » Fixed

The HELP reports reorganization is available as of forena version 7.x-4.0-beta4.

The README.txt has been adapted also and includes a reference to reports/help.toc as the starting point to get access to the available Forena documentation.

With that I think the various documentation issues described in this issue here have been addressed now in the new HELP reports. So it appears to me that we can mark this issue here as fixed.

Pierre.Vriens’s picture

Pierre.Vriens CreditAttribution: Pierre.Vriens commented
Status: Fixed » Closed (fixed)