ReportsAnywhere Concepts

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ReportsAnywhere has some unique concepts to make it more productive and to enable reporting from object oriented data.

Automatic Page Layout

ReportsAnywhere uses an advanced algorithm to layout the element on the page. This enables ReportsAnywhere to optimize the layout when the contents of the page change. ReportsAnywhere is capable of dynamically adjusting the column sizes, so that the page space is used optimally. Altrnatively you can set fixed sizes for your columns and fields.

ReportsAnywhere also makes it easier to change a page. Whenever an element is dragged to a different location, ReportsAnywhere automatically moves the other elements out of the way. This is described in detail in the chapter on refGrid Based Layout.

Using the Property Sheet to control Style and Behaviour

ReportsAnywhere uses a property sheet in its user interface where all settings of the edited elements are shown. Select the element to be modified and all its properties are shown. Most properties are immediately editable. Details on the property sheet can be found in the refProperty Sheet Reference

Object Oriented Schema

The schema representation of ReportsAnywhere is fully object oriented. It can therefore directly understand the data model of any object oriented data source like EJB Servers, Corba Servers, Object Databases, Object Oriented API etc. There is no need to map object structures to flat table structures. You will find, that using objects for reporting is much easier than relational tables. Objects offer more functionality which makes report design faster and more reliable.

Relational tables are mapped into this object model, to simplify reporting and to create an additional optimasation and security layer.

Classes, References and Collections

ReportsAnywhere organizes data in a hierarchical structure. This allows easy browsing of the data model. Each relationship appears as a branch in a tree. The data fields themselves are the leaves. A class is equivalent to the row type of a table. A one to one relationship is shown as a reference. A one to many relationship is shown as a collection in

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