3
Reviewing the Source Code of the Web Report

Estimated completion time: 5 minutes

In Chapter 2, "Adding Data to a Report", you added a data model to your Web page. Here, we show the relationship between the entries you made in the wizard and the data model you created, as well as the JSP and XML code.

Here, you will examine the custom JSP tags that Reports Builder inserted into your JSP. These custom JSP tags enable Reports to add the data you've chosen in the Data Wizard to the JSP-based Web report.

3.1 View the Web source in Reports Builder

To view the Web source of your report in Reports Builder:

1. Make sure the report emprev_<your initials>.jsp is open in Reports Builder.

2. In the Object Navigator, double-click the Data Model node to display the data model for this report. Your data model should look something like this:

Figure 3-1 Data Model for your HTML report

Text description of the illustration adddata_dm.gif

In the Data Model view, click the Web Source icon in the toolbar.

Note: You an also double-click the Web Source icon under the report name in the Object Navigator.

The source code displays in the Web Source view. In this code, scroll through and note the following items:

• The @ taglib line references the reports JSP library for all tags starting with rw. The <%...%> tags mark JSP-relevant tags, and point to the JSP Custom Tag Library.

• Notice the opening rw:report tag and the opening an dclosting rw:objects tags.

• The rw:report tag appears after the library call. In a report, all Reports Developer JSP tags must appear between an opening and closing rw:report tag. If the closing rw:report tag comes before the data is used, the report will be empty.

• The rw:objects tags appear in the Web Source. Note that you do not see any text between the opening and closing tags. When you save the report to your file system, Reports Builder encodes the data model and other elements in a language called XML, and places the data model between these tags. Reports Builder hides the XML code between these tags for the sake of maintaining your XML integrity.

  Warning: Unless you are comfortable using XML and JSPs, we recommend that you do not type anything between these tags (rw:objects) in this view.

3.2 Verify your JSP code

If you've gone through this chapter and still aren't sure whether your JSP is correct, open the file we've provided, called emprev.jsp. The file is located in the tutorial examples directory you created.

3.3 Summary

Congratulations! You have finished reviewing the data you added to your Web report in Chapter 2, "Adding Data to a Report". You now know how to view the source code in the Reports Builder Web Source view and have learned about these Reports custom JSP tags:

• rw:report

• rw:object

Continue to Chapter 4, "Creating a Report Block for the Web Report" to add a report block and finish your Web report.

For more information on Reports JSP tags, see the Reports Builder online help.