12. Reports

For any new report, you’ll first be prompted to give the report a name. The name you enter here will be used to identify the report in the list of all reports in your Hub, and will also appear in the name of the report PDF emailed to you. Enter your desired name and click the Save & continue button.

Before we get stuck into the configurations, just a note that the Preview button in the top right-hand corner allows you to see a preview of your report cover.

On the next screen, you can configure the following options:

• Language – Select the language you prefer for your report.
• Date format – Set the preferred format for all dates that appear in the report.
• Time format – Choose the preferred format for all timestamps that appear in the report.
• Report type – Select either the Client or the Developer report type. The difference between these two report types is the amount of detailed information provided. Choose Client for a summary or select Developer for a more in-depth report. A full list of exactly what is and isn’t included in each report type can be found here.
• Multisite – If you’re creating a report for a multisite, you can choose to have it created for the whole network, just the primary site, or a specific subsite. Note that the primary site option will always take ID=1 so be sure to make your primary site match ID 1 to avoid any issues.

Language

All reports will be generated in English (US) by default, but you can change that and generate your report in one of 20+ different languages straight out of the box.

To change the language for your report, click on the current language that shows there, then click the dropdown menu in the modal that pops open to select from among the available languages. Then click Save.

If your language is not available, you can contribute to translations here https://wpmudev.com/translate/projects/hub-reports/.

Date format

To customize the date format for your report, click on the current date that shows, then select the date format you prefer in the modal that pops open. You can also set any custom format you like; see below for details on formatting. Remember to click Save when you’re done.

By default, a report will be stamped with a date and time in MMMM DD, YYYY [at] h:mm – which translates to January 01, 2018 at 00:00 am as an example.

The most widely used formats are:

• day-month-year (DMY) – DD MMMM YYYY which translates to 01 January 2018
• year-month-day (YMD) – YYYY MMMM DD which translates to 2018 January 01
• month-day-year (MDY) – MMMM DD YYYY which translates to January 01 2018
• year-day-month (YDM) – YYYY DD MMMM which translates to 2018 01 January

The above can be modified using separators for the components:

• “/” – stroke (slash)
• “.” – dots or full stops/points (periods)
• “–” – hyphens or dashes
• ” ” – spaces
• “,” – commas

For example, writing MM/DD/YYYY will give you 01/01/2018.

Day, Month and Year can be additionally tweaked to your liking as:

• DD – a two-digit day of the month (09, 10, etc.)
• dd – a two-letter abbreviation of the day of the week (Su, Mo, etc.)
• ddd – a three-letter abbreviation of the day of the week (Sun, Mon, etc.)
• dddd – the day of the week spelled out (Sunday, Monday, etc.)
• MM – a two-digit month (09, 10, etc.)
• MMM – a three-letter abbreviation for a month (Mar, Apr, etc.)
• MMMM – month spelled out in full (April, May, etc.)
• YY – a two-digit year (20, 21, etc.)
• YYYY – a four-digit year (2020, 2021, etc.)

Time format

You can personalize your time format by clicking on the current time format and selecting your preferred layout. For even more freedom, select the Custom option to create your own unique timestamp format.

The current default options for you to choose from are:

• h:mm a – Which shows as 10:36 am.
• h:mm A – Displays as 10:36 AM.
• H:mm – This uses 24-hour display and shows as 10:36.

If you decide to opt for a custom time format, you can type in your desired format by using the following token values:

• h – A minimum one-digit hour with the 12-hour clock (e.g 2 for 2 o’clock in the afternoon).
• H – A minimum one-digit hour with the 24-hour clock (e.g 14 for 2 o’clock in the afternoon but 2 for 2 o’clock in the morning).
• m – A minimum one-digit minute (e.g 8 for 8 minutes and 14 for 14 minutes).
• s – A minimum one-digit second (e.g 8 for 8 seconds and 14 for 14 seconds).
• a – Displays the relevant am or pm in lowercase letters.
• A – Displays the relevant  AM or PM in uppercase letters.

Note: Doubling the abbreviation for h, H, m and s will display a minimum of two-digits for the corresponding value. For example, hh would show 02 for 2 o’clock in the afternoon instead of 2 when only one “h” is used.

The preview underneath the input field will give you an idea of how your time format will end up looking.

Remember to click Save to keep your settings.

Report type

The report type allows you to gauge the amount of detail included in the report, based on who will be reading it. Select Summary for a report that includes only the essential information, intended for clients. Or you can choose Detailed for a report that includes a bit more information, usually intended for developers, but really for anyone who would like a more detailed report.

The list below provides a guide to what is included in each report type:

Updates

• WordPress Core status
• Plugins & Themes Update Log (only Summary)
• Plugins & Themes (Detailed)
• Update Log (Detailed)

Security

• Security Tweaks (Detailed)
• File scanning
• Blacklist Monitor
• IP Lockouts

SEO

• SEO Score (only Summary)
• Detailed SEO Crawl Report (Detailed)

Performance

• Performance Test Score
• Score Metrics (Detailed)
• Audits (Detailed)
• Historic Field Data (Detailed)

Backups

• Backups overview
• Storage Used (Detailed)

Uptime

• Statistics
• Response Time

Analytics

• Traffic

This is where you can edit your email structure by customizing the following fields:

• Subject – Your usual email subject.
• Summary (optional) – A short introduction to the report.
• Report filename domain – The filename for your report.
• Main content – The body of your email.

You can use variables to simplify the customization of your reports. The currently available variables are:

• {{domain}} – Your site’s domain name.
• {{senderName}} – Inputs the name of the sender.
• {{reportTime}} – Adds the time of the report.
• {{reportDate}} – The date on which the report was compiled.

Reports will only be sent to users that have subscribed, with the exception of the account email which doesn’t require you to subscribe. This is explained further here.

Choose which services you want to include in your report by checking the checkbox next to each one, or check the box at the top to include them all.

Only the services that are currently active in your Hub for the site you’re preparing the report for will be available for selection. If any service is not yet active on the site, it will appear greyed out in the list with a tooltip reminder that you’d need to first activate it to include it in the report.

Below are the services that can be included in your report if active.

• Updates
• Security
• Performance
• SEO
• Backups
• Uptime
• Analytics

You can rearrange how the services should appear in your report by dragging & dropping them into the order you prefer. Note that this is not a global adjustment; it must be done for each report that you want to re-order.

Once you have sorted out the content of your report, you can edit the look of it to make it more cohesive with your brand. The cover page settings give you control over the following design aspects:

• Font
• Brand
• Logo

Font

Change the font color by clicking on the Font tag. You can adjust the picker to select the perfect color or even enter a hex color code if you have a very specific color in mind.

Brand

Adjust your background color by clicking on the Brand tag. In the same fashion as the font setting, you can do this by moving around the color picker or by entering a hex color code.

Logo

Upload your own logo to complete your report branding by clicking on Add a logo. Ensure that this logo is no larger than 1M and we suggest using a logo that either has a transparent or white background. Click Save to save your logo.

The generate section focuses on the email sender details. You have full control over the following report attributes:

• Sender name
• Reply-to
• Schedule
• Recipients

Sender name

Edit this by clicking on the current name and replacing it with your preferred sender name.

Reply-to

This is the email address that will be used if a recipient replies to the email. By default, it will be your admin email address but this can easily be changed at any point.

Schedule

You can create a report schedule which will trigger a report to be sent to all recipients based on the schedule you set. Click Add to get started with scheduling your reports.

Click on the Schedule toggle to make the settings available. From there you can choose how often you want your report to be sent. Currently, you can choose from:

• Weekly – Once a week.
• Fortnightly – Once every two weeks.
• Monthly – Once a month.
• Quarterly – Once every 3 months.

You can select which day of the week you want your schedule to run on, as well as the specific time. If you would like to use a different timezone, click on the Change timezone text which will take you to your WPMU DEV account settings. Remember to click Save when you are done.

Recipients

Add recipients to receive the regular email report. Your admin email address will be added by default but this can be changed. Each new recipient must confirm their subscription and can unsubscribe at any time.

Note: If the Schedule feature is disabled, you will not be able to add more recipients to your list. However, already subscribed recipients will still receive the reports. Enable the Schedule to add more recipients.

Check the Send report right away box to receive a copy of the report immediately. This will be grayed out and automatically enabled if your Schedule feature is disabled.

The dashboard module gives an overview of your reports with key information and quick-access management tools.

The Scheduled Reports area shows the number of reports that are currently active for scheduling. See the Generate section for a walkthrough of configuring your report schedule. The Next Report area displays the name of the report that is next in line to be generated, along with the date and time it will be sent based on your schedule settings.

You will also find a list of your reports with a breakdown of all the important information related to the report. These key bits of information cover:

• Report – The name that you have given the report. This can easily be changed at any point by accessing the report tools, as explained later in the document.
• Type – Shows the type of report layout chosen. This will display as Client if you have gone for the Summary option and it will display as Dev if you have opted for the Detailed report.
• Service – Blue icons represent the sections you have chosen to include in your report, whereas icons that are gray will represent sections that have either been excluded or are inactive. Hover over the icons to view the feature label.

• Schedule – You can expect a blank field with a dash here if your report isn’t scheduled. However, if you have scheduled your report, this field will show you how often your report will be generated.
• Next Report – This tells you the date and time of when you can expect the next report to be sent. If your report is unscheduled and was just a one-time necessity, it will be marked as Once Off.
• Generated – Shows the last time a report was generated.

To access your management tools, click on the three-dot icon in the same row as the report you want to edit. This will open a drop-down menu with the following features:

• Manage – This will take you to the same settings you configured when you first created the report.
• Duplicate – Create a copy of the report with the same schedule and the same services included.

By default, the duplicate report name will include the date and time of the new report, but you can change the name to whatever you like. A summary of the report details and the included services will also be displayed. Click Save when you are ready to proceed or click Cancel to exit the duplication process. You can edit the duplicate afterward by clicking the Manage option in the duplicate.

• Rename – Allows you to easily edit the report title. Remember to click Save to keep your changes.
• Download last report – Triggers a download of the latest report from that report schedule in a PDF format.
• Email last report – Allows you to quickly configure your Email Content and Recipients to immediately send the last report.
• Delete – Permanently remove that report schedule.

Note that for once-off reports, the available options are Duplicate, Rename & Delete only. When you duplicate a once-off report, it is immediately sent to the same email recipients as the original, with the most up-to-date information included.

All of your reports are tracked and logged in your History module. This allows you to revisit old versions of your scheduled reports and download them as a PDF. The Number of Reports shows you the total number of reports that you have generated and the Total Recipients shows you the total number of recipients of your past reports. Recipients are counted for each report as individual additions to the total, even if they are the same as previous reports.

Old reports will be listed with the following pieces of information:

• Report – The name of your report.
• Size – Shows the total size of the report.
• Created – Displays the date and time that the report was created.
• Scheduled – Provides the frequency, day and time of that report’s schedule.
• Recipients – The number of recipients that there were for that particular report.

Note: All reports are stored for up to 90 days and will automatically be removed after that.

This provides a quick link to the relevant WPMU DEV technical documentation (this document), for a guide to creating and managing your site reports.