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ReportDesign

The ReportDesign element contains the information about a report design. ReportDesign contains a set of slots that contain the various components of the report design. ReportDesign also contains methods that execute at various stages in a report's development life cycle.

Extends

DesignElement->Module

Property summary

None.

Method summary

Slot summary

Inherited properties

author, comments, configVars, createdBy,, helpGuide, images, includeLibraries, includeScripts, theme, titleID, units

Style properties

None

ReportDesign methods

The following sections describe the methods of the ReportDesign element.

afterFactory

The afterFactory method executes upon terminating the generation phase. This method is an appropriate place to do generation phase cleanup.

afterRender

The afterRender method executes at the end of the presentation phase.This method is an appropriate place to do presentation phase cleanup.

beforeFactory

The beforeFactory method executes prior to beginning the generation phase. This method is an appropriate place to do any initialization steps in preparation for generating the report document.

beforeRender

The beforeRender method executes just prior to beginning the presentation phase. This method is an appropriate place to do any initialization steps in preparation for rendering the document.

initialize

A script that executes before the report begins to execute in both the generation or presentation phase. BIRT calls this method before calling any other method in the design, at the start of the generation and presentation phases, before opening the report document. Use this method to define global functions, objects, Java imports and other resources you might need.

The initialize method of a report design or library can reference resources defined in the initialize script of an included library, but an included library cannot reference resources in a report design.

ReportDesign slots

The following sections describe the slots of the ReportDesign element.

body

The visual layout sections within the report. The body portion of a design contains a list of the visual report content. Content is made up of one or more sections. The simplest design contains a single section. However, sophisticated designs can contain any number of sections. The body contains any number of sections, in any order.

dataSources

The dataSources slot contains a list of connections used by the report. Each data source must have a unique name. The order of items within this slot is unimportant.

dataSets

The dataSets slot defines the data sets in the design. Each data set must have a unique name. The order of items within this slot is unimportant.

pageSetup

The pageSetup slot defines the way that the report appears when printed. The pageSetup slot consists of a master page that defines the page size, page decoration, margins, and so forth. Some reports use more than one master page. For example, a report that will be bound requires a separate page layout for the left and right side pages.

If the page setup information is missing, and the report developer does not supply one from a library, the setup comes from BIRT preferences or from locale-specific defaults.

If the user lists multiple master pages but no page sequences, BIRT uses the first master page by default. If the report developer defines one or more page sequences, BIRT uses the first page sequence by default. Other than these two cases, the order of elements within the page setup slot is unimportant.

parameters

The parameters slot consists of a list of Parameter elements that describe the data that the user can enter when running the report.

templateParameterDefinitions

List of template parameter definitions. This slot contains the reusable template definitions for report items, data sets, and data sources.

styles

The styles slot consists of a list of user-defined styles for formatting elements in the report. Each style must have a unique name within the set of styles for this report.


(c) Copyright Actuate Corporation 2006

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