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Actuate Report Data Definitions

The ROD file for a Siebel report must reference its datastream components from an ROL file, rather than through the data source and query definition processes used for non-Siebel reports in Actuate. This is because the Actuate viewer is obtaining data through the Siebel object interface rather than by directly accessing the database. This is consistent with Siebel standards for making sure that data access is always at the business object level, rather than data object level.

The structure of the exported data must be consistent between the Siebel application and the Actuate executable so that the data will be usable by the report. To accomplish this, the structure of the data for each report is defined in Siebel Tools using a report object definition and its children. It is then exported to a datastream file in ROL format using the Generate Actuate Report option in the Tools menu in Siebel Tools. The name of the ROL file to be generated is specified in the Template Name property in the report object definition in Siebel Tools.

The relationships between the names of the data supply ROL, report design, and executable files are explained in Table 3.

The generated ROL file, by convention, has the same name as the ROD file into which it is intended to be incorporated. For example, the Opportunities - Summary report object definition specifies the name OPSUM in both the Template Name and Access Base DB Name properties, and the corresponding report design file is Opsum.rod. When a data supply library file is exported from Siebel Tools for this report, it is given the name Opsum.rol because of the Template Name setting. When the ROD file is compiled, the resulting executable is given the name Opsum.rox by Actuate e.Report Designer Professional. When the Siebel application invokes the executable from the view, the file it invokes is Opsum.rox because of the Access Base DB Name setting.

NOTE:  It is not required that the data supply ROL filename match the filename of the ROD file into which it is incorporated. However, it is good design practice to have a separate data supply ROL file for each ROD file and to match the names where possible.