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Reports

The Reporting API allows you to programmatically retrieve data from Brainshark's extensive reporting catalog. You can emulate any standard Brainshark presentation or learning report by specifying the report path, columns, and custom filters.

What you'll learn:

• Query presentation and learning reports
• Filter by date ranges and custom criteria
• Select specific columns for export

TL;DR

Use report.ashx with a path parameter to retrieve any standard Brainshark report. Add selColumnList to filter columns and begin_date/end_date for date ranges.

Prerequisites

• An authenticated session (sid, sky, uid) — see Authentication
• Admin privileges for most reports

Retrieving Report Data

Use this endpoint to fetch report data in a structured format.

info

Brainshark reporting information is returned in a modified CSV/JSON style. Each row of data is a separate JSON element, and the column headers are provided in the first row as a comma-separated list.

Request

Method	Endpoint	Description
GET	/brainshark/webservices_mobile/report.ashx	Retrieves data from a specific Brainshark report.

Parameters

Parameter	Type	Description
sid, sky, uid	-	Standard session identifiers.
path	string	Required. The navigational path to the report. Example: /Brainshark Reports/Presentation Reports/Viewing Details by Presentation
output	string	Specifies the format of the returned data. Values: csv, namevalue. Default: csv
begin_date	string (date-time)	Filters records created or viewed on or after this date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD
end_date	string (date-time)	Filters records created or viewed on or before this date. Format: YYYY-MM-DD
selColumnList	string	A comma-separated list of specific columns to return. If omitted, all default columns for the report are returned.
category_id	integer	Optional. Filters results to content in a specific folder.
customfilter	string	Optional. XML filter string to apply custom criteria. See Custom Filters.
recurse_categories	integer	Set to 1 to include content from subfolders of the specified category_id.
presentation_list	string	A comma-separated list of Presentation IDs to include.
author_group_id	integer	Filters to presentations authored by members of a specific group.
viewer_group_id	integer	Filters viewings to members of a specific group.
viewer_user_id	integer	Filters viewings to a specific user ID.
include_previews	boolean	When true, includes preview viewings in results.
Show_q_and_a	boolean	When true, includes Q&A response data in results.
Show_Poll_Details	boolean	When true, includes poll response details in results.
Show_Survey_Details	boolean	When true, includes survey response details in results.
perpage	integer	Maximum number of results to return per page.

Example request

The following example retrieves the Learning Activity report with these filters:

• Folder: Content in folder ID 4146923
• Date range: Enrollments starting on or after May 12, 2021
• Status: Only completed courses

cURL

curl -G "https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/report.ashx" \
  --data-urlencode "sid=23161106" \
  --data-urlencode "sky=2022e6a14cd04ff2594ad83af0f13e8" \
  --data-urlencode "uid=2752230" \
  --data-urlencode "path=/Brainshark Reports/Enhanced Learning Reports/Learning Activity" \
  --data-urlencode "category_id=4146923" \
  --data-urlencode "begin_date=2021-05-12" \
  --data-urlencode "customfilter=<filter><op n=\"AND\"><op n=\"EQ\"><field n=\"enrollment_status\" dt=\"SelectList\" dn=\"Course Completion Status\"/><val>Completed</val></op></op></filter>"

JavaScript

const params = new URLSearchParams({
  sid: '23161106',
  sky: '2022e6a14cd04ff2594ad83af0f13e8',
  uid: '2752230',
  path: '/Brainshark Reports/Enhanced Learning Reports/Learning Activity',
  category_id: '4146923',
  begin_date: '2021-05-12',
  customfilter:
    '<filter><op n="AND"><op n="EQ"><field n="enrollment_status" dt="SelectList" dn="Course Completion Status"/><val>Completed</val></op></op></filter>',
});

const response = await fetch(`https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/report.ashx?${params}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

Python

import requests

url = "https://www.brainshark.com/brainshark/webservices_mobile/report.ashx"
params = {
    "sid": "23161106",
    "sky": "2022e6a14cd04ff2594ad83af0f13e8",
    "uid": "2752230",
    "path": "/Brainshark Reports/Enhanced Learning Reports/Learning Activity",
    "category_id": "4146923",
    "begin_date": "2021-05-12",
    "customfilter": '<filter><op n="AND"><op n="EQ"><field n="enrollment_status" dt="SelectList" dn="Course Completion Status"/><val>Completed</val></op></op></filter>'
}

response = requests.get(url, params=params)
print(response.json())

Example response

The response is returned in a modified CSV/JSON format. The first element contains the column headers as a comma-separated string, followed by data rows:

[
  "Student_Name,Student_Email,Course_Title,Enrollment_Date,Completion_Date,Score,Status",
  {
    "Student_Name": "John Smith",
    "Student_Email": "jsmith@example.com",
    "Course_Title": "Product Training 101",
    "Enrollment_Date": "27009360",
    "Completion_Date": "27012960",
    "Score": "85",
    "Status": "Completed"
  },
  {
    "Student_Name": "Jane Doe",
    "Student_Email": "jdoe@example.com",
    "Course_Title": "Product Training 101",
    "Enrollment_Date": "27010800",
    "Completion_Date": "27015120",
    "Score": "92",
    "Status": "Completed"
  }
]

Date format

Date values like Enrollment_Date and Completion_Date are returned as minutes since January 1, 1970 (Unix epoch in minutes, not seconds).

To convert to a readable date:

• JavaScript: new Date(27012960 * 60 * 1000) → 2021-05-12T00:00:00.000Z
• Python: datetime.fromtimestamp(27012960 * 60, tz=timezone.utc) → 2021-05-12 00:00:00+00:00

Finding Report Paths

To determine the path for any Brainshark report, follow these steps in the Brainshark user interface:

1. Navigate to the desired report in the Report Catalog.
2. Observe the breadcrumb navigation (e.g., Brainshark Reports > Administration Reports > Activity Summary).
3. Construct the path by replacing the > with a / and removing leading/trailing spaces.

Common Paths

Report Title	Path
Viewing Details by Presentation	/Brainshark Reports/Presentation Reports/Viewing Details by Presentation
Viewing Summary by Viewer	/Brainshark Reports/Presentation Reports/Viewing Summary by Viewer
Course Enrollment	/Brainshark Reports/Learning Reports/Learning Administration Reports/Course Enrollment
Learning Activity	/Brainshark Reports/Enhanced Learning Reports/Learning Activity
Activity Summary	/Brainshark Reports/Administration Reports/Activity Summary
User Data	/Brainshark Reports/Administration Reports/Data Download/User Data

Response Fields & Columns

When requesting a report, you can specify which columns to return using the selColumnList parameter. Below are some of the most commonly available columns for presentation and viewing reports.

Common Viewing Columns

Column Name	Description
View_DateTime	The date and time the viewing occurred.
View_Viewing_Time	Total time spent viewing the presentation (in seconds).
View_Total_Slides_Viewed	The number of unique slides viewed.
Viewer	The name or identifier of the viewer.
View_Completed	Indicates if the viewer reached the completion criteria.
View_Score_dyn	The score achieved if the presentation contains questions.

Custom Filters

You can narrow your results by passing a customfilter parameter containing a structured XML-like filter string.

Filter Operators

Operator	Description
EQ	Equals (=)
BW	Begins with
CT	Contains
GE / LE	Greater than or equal to / Less than or equal to
NE	Does not equal (<>)

Example filter strings

Filter by completion status:

<filter>
  <op n="EQ">
    <field n="enrollment_status" dt="SelectList" dn="Course Completion Status"/>
    <val>Completed</val>
  </op>
</filter>

Filter by completion date:

note

When filtering by Completion_Date, use CompletionDate (no underscore) in the filter field name.

<filter>
  <op n="EQ">
    <field n="CompletionDate" dt="Date" dn="CompletionDate"/>
    <val>2023-06-12 10:00:00</val>
  </op>
</filter>

Combine multiple filters with AND:

<filter>
  <op n="AND">
    <op n="EQ">
      <field n="enrollment_status" dt="SelectList" dn="Course Completion Status"/>
      <val>Completed</val>
    </op>
    <op n="GE">
      <field n="CompletionDate" dt="Date" dn="CompletionDate"/>
      <val>2023-01-01 00:00:00</val>
    </op>
  </op>
</filter>

Best Practices for Reporting

• Minimal Data: Only request the specific columns you need using selColumnList to improve performance and reduce payload size.
• Date Handling: Always provide a begin_date and end_date to scope your queries and ensure faster processing.
• Page Size: Use perpage to limit the size of each result set and prevent timeout errors.

tip

If an optional parameter is not used, Brainshark defaults to ALL for that specific filter.