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Getting Started with the App

This document provides a step-by-step tutorial on how to get the App going and how to use it.

Install the App

To install the App, please follow the instructions detailed in the Installation Guide.

First steps with the App

Once the app is installed, everything is driven from the Insights > Reports menu, which has two entries: Templates (report definitions you author) and Reports (published snapshots you have generated).

The simplest end-to-end workflow is:

  1. Create a Report Template. Go to Insights > Reports > Templates and click Add. Give the template a name (and optionally a description and tenant). Leave Is Shared enabled if you want other users to see it; disable it to keep it private to you.

  2. Open the report builder. From the template's detail page, open the builder. This is a drag-and-drop editor with a live preview pane on the right that re-renders as you make changes.

  3. Add blocks. Every new template starts with a Title Page block (cover page with a heading, subheading, author, and date) and a Table of Contents block. Build up the report body from there — a good first addition is:

    • A Saved View block pointing at an existing Nautobot Saved View (for example, a filtered device list). This renders that view as a table.

    Reorder blocks by dragging them; the preview follows the new order. Optionally set a heading on each block so it appears in the table of contents.

  4. Preview. The preview pane shows the report exactly as it will render, using your permissions and a small row cap so it stays fast.

  5. Publish. Run the Publish Report Job (via Jobs, or the action exposed on the template) to generate a Published Report, an immutable snapshot of the rendered HTML. Each run creates a new snapshot.

  6. Download. From the Published Report, download the report as HTML, DOCX, or PDF.

PDF requires system libraries

DOCX and HTML downloads work out of the box. PDF export requires WeasyPrint's system libraries; see System Dependencies for PDF Export.

What are the next steps?

After the basics, explore the richer block types and delivery options:

  • Pre-built reports: the app bundles ready-made inventory, capacity, compliance, and lifecycle report templates you can publish as-is or clone as starting points to make them your own. See Pre-built Reports.
  • Export Template blocks: render a Nautobot Export Template, optionally narrowed by a Saved View.
  • Jinja Template blocks: write free-form Jinja with Nautobot's full filter library, binding Saved Views and GraphQL Saved Queries as variables for custom summaries and aggregates. See Building Reports with Jinja Templates for the available building blocks and common patterns.
  • Publish and email: use the Publish And Email Report Job to deliver reports to recipients, inline or as attachments. See Using the App.
  • Scheduling: publish and email a report once in the future or on a recurring schedule, directly from the template's page. See Scheduling a report.
  • Per-block attachments: mark individual blocks to be emailed as their own CSV/DOCX/PDF files.

You can check out the Use Cases section for more examples.