Preface

Reports Builder is the report-building component of Oracle Reports (part of the Oracle Developer Suite). The information and example reports in this manual are intended to help you learn about the extensive capabilities of Reports Builder, how to build different types of reports, and how to customize your reports to meet a wide variety of requirements.

Intended Audience

This manual is intended for anyone who uses Oracle 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.

Documentation Accessibility

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Accessibility of Code Examples in Documentation

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Accessibility of Links to External Web Sites in Documentation

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Structure

This manual contains the following chapters and parts:

Chapter 1, "Basic Concepts"

This chapter describes basic Oracle Reports concepts.

Chapter 2, "Advanced Concepts"

This chapter describes advanced Oracle Reports concepts.

Chapter 3, "How To..."

This chapter provides procedures for using Reports Builder to create objects and design your reports.

Chapter 4, "Visual Index"

This chapter contains a visual index of all the example reports described in this manual.

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.

Part 1, "Building Basic Reports"

• Chapter 5, "Building a Tabular Report"

• Chapter 6, "Building a Mailing Label Report"

• Chapter 7, "Building a Form Letter Report"

• Chapter 8, "Building a Master/Master Report"

• Chapter 9, "Building a Summary Report"

Part 2, "Building Group Reports"

• Chapter 10, "Building a Single-Query Group Report"

• Chapter 11, "Building a Two-Query Group Report"

• Chapter 12, "Building an Across Group Report"

• Chapter 13, "Building a Group Left Summary Report"

• Chapter 14, "Building a Group Left Formula Report"

Part 3 "Building Reports with Special Formatting"

• Chapter 15, "Building a Wrapped Field Report"

• Chapter 16, "Building a Header and Footer Report"

• Chapter 17, "Building a Header with Database Values Report"

• Chapter 18, "Building a Report with Graphics, Text, and Color"

• Chapter 19, "Building a Report that Renumbers Pages by Repeating Frame"

• Chapter 20, "Building an Intermixed Fields Report"

• Chapter 21, "Building a Report that Suppresses Labels"

• Chapter 22, "Building a Conditional Form Letter Report"

• Chapter 23, "Building a Report with Conditional Highlighting"

• Chapter 24, "Building a Report with Dynamic Graphics"

Part 4, "Building Matrix Reports"

• Chapter 25, "Building a Matrix Report"

• Chapter 26, "Building a Nested Matrix Report"

• Chapter 27, "Building a Matrix with Group Above Report"

Part 5, "Building Reports for Business Cases"

• Chapter 28, "Building a Time Series Calculations Report"

• Chapter 29, "Building a Report with Aggregate Data"

• Chapter 30, "Building a Check Printing Report with Spelled-Out Cash Amounts"

• Chapter 31, "Building a Report Using a Pre-Printed Form"

• Chapter 32, "Building an Invoice Report"

• Chapter 33, "Building a Ranking Report"

• Chapter 34, "Building a Paper Report with a Simple Table of Contents and Index"

• Chapter 35, "Building a Paper Report with a Multilevel Table of Contents"

• Chapter 36, "Bursting and Distributing a Report"

Part 6, "Building Reports with PL/SQL and Java"

• Chapter 37, "Building a PL/SQL Report"

• Chapter 38, "Building a Paper Report with Ref Cursors"

• Chapter 39, "Building a Simple Parameter Form for a JSP-based Web Report"

• Chapter 40, "Building a Report with a Barcode"

Part 7, "Building Reports with Pluggable Data Sources"

• Chapter 41, "Building a Report with an XML Pluggable Data Source"

• Chapter 42, "Building a Report with a Text Pluggable Data Source"

• Chapter 43, "Building a Report Using Oracle Express Data"

Appendix A, "Tool Palette and Toolbar Reference"

This appendix 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 Oracle Reports. Once you access the Getting Started with Oracle Reports Web site, click Index, then browse the Examples list. All of the latest example files available for Oracle 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 Oracle Reports Web site (http://otn.oracle.com/products/reports/), then click Getting Started with Oracle Reports). Click Index, then navigate to Tools and Utilities.

Other resources

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

Oracle 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 Oracle Reports Web site. Simply go to the Web site, click Index, and navigate to the Oracle Reports Tutorial.

Reports Builder Online Help

You can access the Reports Builder Online Help by clicking Help in any dialog box, or by choosing Help > Help Contents.

Oracle Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web

You can access this manual on the Oracle Application Server product CD, as well as on the Oracle Technology Network. Simply go to the Web site, click Index, and navigate to the Oracle Application Server Reports Services Publishing Reports to the Web. This manual describes how to set up Oracle Application Server 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.