Siebel Reports Administration Guide > Creating a Simple List Report >

How a Simple List Report Works

Figure 6 illustrates the structure of a simple list report.

Figure 6.  Simple List Report Structure

This list report includes the following major components:

• Report Design. This is the top-level component in a report; it corresponds to the ROD file in which it resides. In a simple report, you do not need to modify the top-level component; you only add child components to it. In a more complex design, you may add global variables to the report design component.
• Report Section. A report section groups together components that define the source of data, physical layout, and behavior of a master report or subreport.
• DataStream. A datastream component defines the source of data for a report section. In simple Siebel reports, the datastream always consists of the contents of the data supply library (ROL) file, which defines the transfer of data from a Siebel view to the Actuate report. In more complex reports, additional datastreams may manipulate the data obtained from the library datastream.
• Page Header Frame. A frame is a rectangular layout area for data controls, labels, and other visual components. The contents of the page header frame are displayed at the beginning of each new page. In a simple list report, the page header shows only the column headings for the report columns. In a more complex report with group breaks, the page header shows group break information, such as the account name and location for each group of opportunities by account.
• Content Frame. The content frame defines the layout of one report row. Each data record that is obtained through the datastream is formatted according to the layout of data controls in the content frame.
• Pagelist Section. The pagelist section defines the page layout of the report, including information to be presented at the top and bottom of the page, such as the report name, page number, and company logo. It also defines the area of the page that can be used for presenting data generated in report sections. You incorporate a standard Siebel report pagelist component and make modifications to a few properties, such as the report title.

Examining an Existing List Report

To learn more about the configuration of a simple list report, it is helpful to open a standard Siebel report of this type in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional and study it. A good report to study for this purpose is the Activity List report, which is invoked from a view in the Activities screen (typically the My Activities view). You should examine the report output in Siebel Sales, and the report design in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional, leaving both open to compare them.

To generate the Activity List report in Siebel Sales

1. Open Siebel Sales.
2. Click the Site Map and navigate to Activities > Activities Home > My Activities.
3. Select Activity List from the link bar.
4. Click the Reports button and from the drop-down list, select Activity List.

The Activity List report appears in the browser window.

To open the report design for the Activity List report

1. Open Actuate e.Report Designer Professional.
2. Choose File > Open from the menu bar.
3. In the Open dialog box, navigate to the \RPTSRC\STANDARD directory in your Siebel Tools installation directory; for example, \Siebdev\RPTSRC\STANDARD and choose Actlist.rod.

   NOTE:  Actlist.rod is not to be confused with Aclist.rod, which is the Account List report. The correct one to open here is the Activity List report—Actlist.rod.

Figure 7 shows the Actlist.rod report design file in Actuate e.Report Designer Professional.

Figure 7.  Activity List Report Design

Explore the report design, by expanding and closing folders in the tree diagram on the left, comparing design elements to the corresponding features in the report output, and right-clicking components to view their property lists.

Notice some features of this report design:

• Component names that are light gray are being referenced in a library. Component names in black have been subclassed, making them available for local modification in the report without affecting the original. The same color scheme is used for methods. The name of a method (in the Methods tab in the Properties window for a component) that has been locally modified is black. The names of unmodified methods obtained from the superclass of the component are light gray.
• The name of the datastream component, ActionsSort, is gray, indicating that it is referenced, and not local. If you open the Properties window for this component and click the Class tab, you can see that the original is in the Actlist.rol library file. Actlist.rol is the data supply library file generated from Siebel Tools.
• If you expand the datastream component, you can see that it has a child data row component, ssActionDataRow. This, too, is referenced rather than local, and comes with ssActionQuery from the data supply library file. If you open the Properties window for ssActionDataRow and click the Variables tab, you can see that the data row component consists of variables (such as ssAccount_Location, ssAccount_Name, and ssContact_First_Name) that are derived from the list of fields in the business component record supplying the data.

  NOTE:  Specifically, these fields are generated from the list of report field children of the report object definition from which the data supply ROL file is generated.

  All the data definition work for the report design is handled for you after you create your report and report field object definitions and generate the ROL file in Siebel Tools. In simple reports, the generated datastream is incorporated into your report design without modification, and you do not need to do anything else to set up data transfer between your Siebel application and Actuate.

• If you expand the page header component (ssFrmACTLISTHeader) and its child content frame (ssFrmBlueBack1), you can see how all the column heading labels and the blue line above them are defined. When you click a visual element in the layout pane or the structure pane, it is selected in both places. View the property list for one of the labels to see how its text, font, and other physical attributes are set up. Gray property text is the default from the parent object (ssLblHead in the sscustom.rol library); black text has been changed from the default.
• Click the Library Browser button. In the Choose Included Module window, double-click sscustom.rol. The listed components are library components; they serve as building blocks for your report. Browse through the list of library components in the sscustom library and compare them to similarly derived components in the report design.

  Generally, any items that you need to incorporate into a simple report are derived from generic components in the sscustom.rol library (except the datastream, which comes from the data supply library). These library components generally require only minor modification after they are introduced into the report design. In Actlist.rod, the labels, text controls, content frames, horizontal lines, and pagelist are derived from library components in sscustom.rol.

  You can now close or minimize the sscustom.rol Library Browser window.

• Expand the main content frame (ssFrmACTLISTContent). The child objects of this frame are all data controls. A data control displays the value in a field (or fields) obtained through the datastream. Open the Properties window for one of the data controls and note the setting in the ValueExp property. The ValueExp property holds the expression that determines what is displayed in the text control.

In the next section, you will create a similar report design yourself.