In this article, we'll show how to create a report showing Course and Lesson descriptions. This is a really useful housekeeping exercise to ensure your content is correctly and consistently described.
The Course and Lesson description objects can now be found in the 'Edit query' window as shown below:
Steps to add the Course and Lesson description objects to a report
- Open a report
- Select on 'Design' at the top right of the report
- Select the 'Edit' button in the 'Data Access' tab to edit the report query
- Expand the 'Courses' and 'Lessons' folders to find the new objects. Alternatively,use the search box at the top of the list of objects:
- Click and drag the objects into the result objects pane
- Select 'Run queries' to run the report again
- Add the new objects from the 'Available Objects' panel into your report
What to do if you cannot see the Course and Lesson description objects
If you cannot find these new objects then you may need to convert your report to use the Learn.unx universe and not the LMS or LMS.unx universe. Instructions on how to do this can be found through this link to the 'Upgrade your reporting Universe' article.
How to remove HTML tags from report output
The course and lesson descriptions may contain HTML tags which format the description in Learn. For example you may see <a href> hyperlink tags, <p> for a new paragraph or <b>sample text</b> for bold text.
If you do see these and want the descriptions to be displayed without the tags then you can change the cell format so that it displays as HTML as follows:
- Right-click on the description object you have added to your report
- Select 'Format Cell'
- In the 'General' menu change 'Read content as' from 'Text' to 'HTML'
- Click 'OK'
- Your descriptions will now be shown in HTML without the tags.