Table of Contents
The common elements in the Elixir Workspace are discussed in the Elixir Repertoire User Manual, which shows how to add filesystems and files. This chapter discusses the Elixir Report Designer features that build on the Elixir workspace.
Each FileSystem has a pop up menu. On selecting Add ->
Report Template, the "Report Wizard" appears as shown in Figure 2.1, “Add Report”.
Enter the name and description of the Report Template in the text box and click
Next.
Choose a DataSource from the repository as shown in
Figure 2.2, “Choose DataSource”. If the selected data source contains
parameters that need to be propagated to the report, then select the
Propagate datasource parameters to report option.
Otherwise, you should provide values for any dynamic parameters here.
For more information on the parameters and their propagation refer to
Chapter 3, Report Structure and Invocation.
From the next screen, select the Report Type from the list of report types, as shown in Figure 2.3, “Choose Report Type”.
There are wizard pages to guide you in creating the three types of reports: Blank, Standard and Mobile.
Select the Blank Report and click Finish to add a
blank report to the window. All report components must be added manually.
The three types of Standard Reports are Tabular Report, Columnar Report and Mailing Labels as shown in Figure 2.4, “Standard Reports”.
Tabular Report
To add a report in the form of a table, select
Tabular Report from the standard report types that are listed.
Click Next.
The fields in the data source are listed. You can choose the ones that you want to add to the report. Here is an example of a tabular report generated with four columns:Figure 2.5, “Generated Tabular Report”.
You can now improve the report by adding colours, logos and additional information to meet your requirements.
Columnar Report
A Columnar Report allows elements to be grouped. The creation steps are similar to the creation of a Tabular Report, except in addition you need to specify the fields to be grouped, and optionally sorted. You are provided with some choices for the report layout as shown in Figure 2.6, “Columnar Report Options”:
Stepped: Stepped layout is the default and the most commonly required layout for the majority of reports. In stepped layout the grouped fields are arranged in indented steps and the rest of the fields are arranged in a sequence.
Block: A block report displays data that has been grouped or sorted in vertical columns.
Align Left: In this type of layout, all the data are aligned to the left of the table. The grouped columns are displayed one below the other and the sorted columns are arranged vertically as in a table.
Outline: It is similar to the stepped report except that there is outlining and highlighting of the group sections.
A sample stepped columnar report is shown in Figure 2.7, “Generated Columnar Report”.
You can now improve the report by adding colours, logos and additional information to meet your requirements.
Mailing Labels
If you want to add a report in the form of a Mailing Label,
select Mailing Labels from the list of Report types. Click
Next. The fields in the data source are listed as shown
in Figure 2.8, “Select Fields”. Select the field that has to be included in the report
and click the '>' button. If all the fields have to appear in
the report then click the '>>' button. After selecting the
fields to be added in the report, click Next.
The screen appears with three tabbed panes. They are
Label, Page and Preview.
Check the Custom Label option to customize the
Mailing Label based on your needs. If not, the fields in the respective tabs
will not be editable.
The label settings are displayed in the Label tab
shown in Figure 2.9, “Label Settings”. The available options under the Label
tab are as follows:
- Label Width: Width of label
- Label Height: Height of label
- Horizontal Gap: Amount of space between each label horizontally
- Vertical Gap: Amount of space between each label vertically
- Left Padding: Amount of space on the left of the Mailing Label from the page margin
- Top Padding: Amount of space at the top of the Mailing Label from the page margin
Setting the size of the page and page margin are done in the Page tab. If
the sizes in the Paper Size option does not contain the size that you need, you can specify your
own dimensions to customize the template.
You can make use of the Preview tab to preview the template before
creating the template. To complete the template creation process, click
Finish.