Preface

The information and example reports in this manual are intended to help you learn about Oracle9i Reports and its features.

Intended audience

This manual is intended for anyone who uses Oracle9i Reports to build reports. The needs of both novice and advanced users are addressed. Following the step-by-step instructions, you can build the example reports from start to finish. Each report that you build will demonstrate how to use many of the powerful features in Reports Builder.

Structure

This manual contains the following chapters.

Chapter	Description
Chapter 1, "Basic Concepts"	Describes basic Oracle9i Reports concepts.
Chapter 2, "Advanced Concepts"	Describes advanced Oracle9i Reports concepts.
Chapter 3, "How To..."	Provides procedures for using Oracle9i Reports to create objects and design your reports.
Chapter 4, "Visual Index"	Contains a visual index of all the example reports described in this manual.
Building Reports Chapters	The remainder of the chapters describe, step-by-step, how to build the example reports described in each chapter. Refer to the Visual Index for images of the individual report output.
Appendix A, "Tool Palette and Toolbar Reference"	Describes the tools in the Reports Builder interface.
"Glossary"	Provides definitions for terminology used in this manual.

Accessing the example reports

The reports you will build are also available for viewing on the Oracle Technology Network (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/) in Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports. Once you access the Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports Web site, click Index, then browse the Examples list. All of the latest example files available for Oracle9i Reports are accessible from this list. These example reports are documented in this manual.

From the same Web site, you can download all the example files for this manual, including text files that contain the code you will enter for each report. These files are located in a single zip file, called buildingreports_examples.zip. This zip file contains sub-folders whose names correspond to the name of the chapter. Each of the sub-folders contains all the supporting files (images, code, and so on) necessary for building the individual reports.

Accessing the data sources

The data sources used in this manual are:

SCOTT schema
sample Human Resources and Order Entry schemas
SUMMIT schema

The first two schemas are available with the Oracle9i database. You can contact your database administrator for more information on where to find those schemas. You can download the SQL scripts to install the SUMMIT schema from the Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports Web site (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/, then click Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports). Click Index, then navigate to Tools and Utilities.

Other resources

You can find more information about using Oracle9i Reports on the Oracle Technology Network, the Reports Builder online help, and Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle9iAS Reports Services. The latest information is available on the Oracle Technology Network (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/), under Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports.

The Oracle Technology Network

The Oracle Technology Network is located at http://otn.oracle.com. You can access general information about the product, as well as delve into more detail by navigating to Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports. The Getting Started Web site provides you with up-to-date example reports, as well as the latest white papers and demonstrations. Here, you can access the latest version of the Building Reports with Oracle9i Reports and Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle9iAS Reports Services manuals.

Oracle9i Reports Tutorial

The tutorial describes how to build a simple JSP-based Web report with a graph, and how to generate a paper report from the same data model. You can access this manual via the Getting Started with Oracle9i Reports Web site. Simply go to the Web site, click Index, and navigate to the Oracle9i Reports Tutorial.

Reports Builder online help

You can access the Reports Builder online help by clicking the Help button on any dialog box, as well as choosing Help > Help Contents.

Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle9iAS Reports Services

You can access this manual on the Oracle9iAS product CD, as well as on the Oracle Technology Network. Simply go to the Web site, click Index, and navigate to the Publishing Reports to the Web with Oracle9iAS Reports Services. This manual describes how to set up Oracle9iAS Reports Services to perform the tasks you require. If you are setting up your Reports server for distribution, for example, you should refer to this manual for further information.