6 Working with Reports

About the Design Studio Reporting Architecture

The Design Studio reporting architecture includes a Report Designer and a Reporting Engine.

• You use the Report Designer to create new reports, customize existing reports, and test reports (using static sample data from an XML file). The Report Designer provides a complete environment for designing and testing reports, and includes a report design perspective and a set of views and editors. The Report Designer is installed with Design Studio but is also available as a stand-alone application. You access the tools included in the Report Designer by switching to the Report Design perspective in Design Studio.

• You use the Report Engine when generating reports. You use a Design Studio wizard that enables you to communicate to the Report Engine which design and layout to use, the data to include in the report, and the format in which to generate the report output.

Figure 6-1 illustrates the Design Studio reporting architecture:

Figure 6-1 Design Studio Reporting Architecture

About the Design Studio Reporting Life Cycle

A Design Studio reporting life cycle includes the following phases: design, generation, and distribution. The tasks in the design phase (defining the content and styling the presentation of the reports) are typically completed by a solution designer or by a developer. The tasks in the report generation phase (producing the report and selecting a report format) and in the distribution phase (viewing, saving, and sharing reports) can be completed by any Design Studio user.

A solution designer or a developer performs the following reporting tasks:

1. Adds the Design Studio Report Design examples to the workspace.

   These examples are included in the Design Studio installation and include content useful for designing reports.

2. Creates a plug-in project to contain the reports.

3. Customizes existing Design Studio reports or creates new reports to meet reporting requirements.

   Design Studio includes reference reports that provide a base set of capabilities. You can use these reports as delivered or as a starting point for customizing your own reports. For example, you can customize the delivered report designs for content, layout, or branding. You can also create new reports using the Report Designer. When creating new reports, you define the content of the report and you design the presentation and layout of the report.

4. Tests reports in Design Studio.

   During testing, developers can identify a file that contains static sample data that the reporting engine can use to generate test reports.

5. Packages the plug-in project into a feature and installs the feature to an update site.

   Installing the feature to an update site ensures that other team members can install the feature and gain access to the report.

A Design Studio user performs the following tasks:

1. Installs the features that include reports from an update site into Design Studio.

2. Contributes content to reports.

   You can contribute content to Design Studio reports by writing documentation about entities and data elements in Design Studio editors and views. You can format the documentation using plain text or simple HTML markup.

3. Generates the reports using a Design Studio wizard.

   Most reports can be generated in a number of different output formats, which appear as options in the wizard. Report content may be better suited to one format over another.

4. Shares reports among team members.

   You can share generated reports with team members using email, servers, or other methods of file sharing.

   System administrators can integrate report generation into an automated build system to automatically generate reports that all team members can reference when developing solutions. See Design Studio System Administrator's Guide for more information.

About Report Designs

Each report that you can generate in Design Studio is backed by a report design XML file. A report design file is a template that describes the layout and style of the report. It also includes information about how to obtain the required reporting data and how to filter the available reporting data.

The report design includes information that the Report Engine can use to connect to the source of the report data. The report design also includes information that specifies which subsets of data to include in the report. Queries obtain the data from the data source and the Report Engine maps the data to a table.

When developing report designs, consider that report layouts and styles may not be suitable for some output formats. Also, users generating reports may select an output format that is not best-suited for a particular report design. In these cases, aspects of the report design may be ignored or adapted to fit the output format presentation capabilities. Test the presentation properties of your output formats to ensure that you understand the report design layout nuances.

During report development and testing, you can save report designs to a local directory, and generate reports from a locally saved report design file. Report design files use the file extension .rptdesign.

If you require a report design to display in a free-flowing output, such as HTML, and to paginated output, such as PDF, considering creating two distinct report designs. When designing for free-flow output, use percentage-based proportions in the design (for example, for column width). Use specific sizes when designing for paginated output formats.

About the Report Designer

You create new report designs using the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools (BIRT) Report Designer. BIRT is an open source Eclipse project that provides a complete environment for designing and testing reports. You access the tools included in the BIRT Report Designer by switching to the Report Design perspective in Design Studio. See Design Studio Help for information about switching perspectives.

The Report Design perspective includes editors, views, and tools to build reports quickly. Some of these are listed below:

• The Layout editor, which enables drag and drop creation of your report presentation.

• The Data Explorer view, which you use to manage information about your report data, such as how to connect to the source and how to filter for only the data that is relevant to your report.

• The Palette view, which includes report elements such as Data, Image, and Table, which you can drag to the Layout editor to design the structure of reports.

• The Resource Explorer view, which you use to view all libraries and shared content, such as images and script files. The libraries store reporting objects and enable you to reuse existing report objects, such as tables and styles.

For more information about the Report Design perspective, see the BIRT Documentation page:

http://www.eclipse.org/birt/documentation/

About the Expression Builder

The BIRT Expression Builder is an editor that you can use to create complex expressions. These expressions can include functions, data, conditions, and operations.

Figure 6-2 Expression Builder

You can use the Expression Builder when:

• Creating the display value for a report item

• Creating a computed field in the Data Explorer view

• Specifying a data series for charts

• Specifying filter conditions

• Specifying mapping conditions

• Specifying highlight conditions

• Specifying group keys

• Specifying hyperlinks

• Specifying URIs for images

• Specifying dynamic data in text controls

About Report Generation

You can generate reports on-demand using a Design Studio wizard or you can automate report generation using an automated script in a continuous integration framework.

Report generation is a long-running task, and the time required to compose and render a report can vary from report to report. Processing time is dependent on a number of factors, including the amount of data supporting the report, the complexity of the report, and design of data sets and presentation.

Automated reports can be distributed to web servers, file shares, email, FTP sites, and by other methods by using Ant tasks to perform actions after report generation. These tasks are not explicitly provided by Design Studio but are a supported by Ant. For example, you can publish reports to a shared location or to website; you can email the report to a distribution list, and so forth. See Apache Ant Project website for more information.

See Design Studio System Administrator's Guide for more information about using Ant tasks in automated builds.

Creating Report Design Files

A report design is an XML file that defines all of the information required to generate a report.

To create a report design:

1. From the Report Design perspective, select File, then select New, and then select Other.

2. Expand the Business Intelligence and Reporting Tools folder, and then select Report.

3. Click Next.

4. Select the folder in which to save the report design file.

   You must save the report design file in the plug-in project that you created for your reports. For example:

   plug-inProject/reports

   Note:

   Do not save report designs in Java source folders.

5. In the File Name field, enter the name of the new report design.

   The file name extension must be .rptdesign.

6. Click Next.

7. Select a report template.

   You can review selected template layouts in the Preview field.

8. (Optional) To get help designing reports, select Show Report Creation Cheat Sheet.

   The Cheat Sheet view provides design guidance after the wizard completes. This option is available only for a subset of reports.

9. Click Finish.

   Design Studio opens the report in the Layout editor.

Creating Design Studio Report Parameters

Design Studio report designs require at least one report parameter to identify the location of the XML file to be used as an XML data source. You can add additional report parameters to support custom processors.

To create a Design Studio report parameter:

1. In the Report Design perspective, open a report design in the Layout editor.

2. Click the Data Explorer tab.

   The Data Explorer view appears.

3. Right click Report Parameters and select New Parameter.

   The New Parameter dialog box appears.

4. In the Name field, enter data_source_model_file.

   When using Design Studio as the data source, you must name the parameter data_source_model_file.

5. In the Data Type field, select String.

6. Ensure that the Is Required option is selected.

7. Click OK.

8. If you intend to create custom report processors, define additional report parameters.

   When defining additional report parameters, you must deselect Is Required and you must provide a default value for the custom report processor parameter.

Creating the Design Studio Data Source Entity

You create a Data Source entity to define how the reporting engine obtains reporting data from Design Studio. See "About Data Sources" for more information.

To create a Design Studio Data Source entity:

1. In the Design Studio perspective, click Package Explorer tab.

2. Expand the design.studio.example.report.designs folder.

3. Expand the sample-data folder.

4. Copy the reportData.xml file to your report plug-in project.

   For example, you might create a sample data folder in the plug-in project:

   plug-inProject/sampleData/

5. Expand the schemas folder.

6. Copy the schemas folder and all of schema .xsd files in the schemas folder to your report plug-in project.

   For example, copy the contents of the schemas folder to the following location:

   plug-inProject/schemas/

7. Switch to the Report Design perspective and open a report design in the Layout editor.

8. Click the Data Explorer tab.

   The Data Explorer view appears.

9. Right click Data Sources and select New Data Source.

   The New Data Source wizard appears.

10. Select Create from a data source type in the following list.

11. From the list, select XML Data Source.

12. In the Data Source Name, enter a name for the data source.

13. Click Next.

14. Enter a URL or browse to select a sample XML file.

    You specify a sample XML file that the reporting framework can use when you are testing report designs. The sample XML file should include data that is representative of the type of data that you intend to include in finished reports. You can:

    • Enter the path to the reportData.xml file that is included in the Design Studio Report Design Example. See "Adding the Report Design Example to the Workspace" for more information.

    • Run the Design Studio Model in XML report to create a new sample XML file. See "Working with the Design Studio Report Examples" for more information.

15. Enter a URL to or browse to select an XML schema file.

    This sample schema file, with the sample XML file, provide the reporting engine with the Design Studio model format details that the engine required during testing.

    If you haven't yet identified an XML schema, select the design-studio-model.xsd file that you copied to your plug-in project.

16. Click Test Connection.

    A dialog box appears that displays the results of the test.

17. Click OK and then click Finish.

18. In the Data Explorer view, right-click the new Data Source entity and select Edit.

    The Edit Data Source dialog box appears.

19. Select Property Binding.

20. In the XML Data Source File field, enter:

    params["data_source_model_file"].value

    This value binds the Design Studio data source to the file that is defined by the Design Studio report parameter. See "Creating Design Studio Report Parameters" for more information.

21. Click OK.

Creating Data Set Entities

Data sets specify the data to retrieve from the Design Studio Data Source entity. See "About Data Sets" for more information.

Before you create a Data Set entity, you must first create the Design Studio Data Source entity. See "Creating the Design Studio Data Source Entity" for more information.

To create a Data Set entity:

1. From the Report Design perspective, in the Data Explorer view, right-click Data Sets and select New Data Set.

   The New Data Set dialog box appears.

2. In the Data Source Selection area, expand XML Data Source and select the Design Studio Data Source entity to associate with the data set.

3. In the Data Set Type field, ensure that XML Data Set is selected.

4. In the Data Set Name field, enter a name for the data set.

5. Click Next.

   The Sample XML Settings page appears.

6. Select a sample XML source file that contains the type of content you expect from the data set.

   For example, select a file that includes the types of data that you can use to validate query logic for the data set. You can use the reportData.xml sample XML file defined in the Data Source entity (and included in the Design Studio report design example) or browse for a different file.

7. Click Next.

8. Create data set row mapping by selecting elements in the XML structure and by clicking the arrow button.

   Each instance of the selected XML element in the XML document is mapped to a data set row. Use the wizard instructions to define data set row mappings. For more information about the XPath syntax applicable to Design Studio, see "About XPath Expression Patterns for Row Mapping".

   The installed Design Studio examples include data set row mapping examples. See "Working with the Design Studio Report Examples" for more information.

   Note:

   In the Select or edit the XPath Expression dialog box, select the Custom XPath Expression option and define the path for the XML element.

9. Create data set column mappings by selecting elements and attributes in the XML structure and by clicking the arrow button.

   Use the wizard instructions to define data set column mappings. For more information about the XPath syntax applicable to Design Studio, see "About XPath Expression Patterns for Column Mapping".

   The installed Design Studio examples include data set column mapping examples. See "Working with the Design Studio Report Examples" for more information.

10. (Optional) To test new row and column mappings against the sample XML file, click Show Sample Data.

    You can test mappings to ensure that the XPath expressions include no typing or syntax errors.

11. Click Finish.

    The Edit Data Set dialog box appears. You can define additional information about the data set, edit row mapping and column mapping, preview the results, and so forth.

12. Click OK.

Defining the Data to Add to Reports

The BIRT Report Designer includes tools for designing, debugging, and previewing report designs. This section includes a small subset of procedures that help you create and design reports for use in Design Studio. For additional documentation, tutorials, and examples, see the BIRT project website:

http://www.eclipse.org/birt/

Merging Data Sets

You can combine data from two data sources into a single data set. For example, you can combine data from an XML file and from a text file (you must first create the XML data set and the text file data set).

When you merge, or join, two data sets, you create a joint data set. You can add computed columns and filters to a joint data set and preview the results. You can also merge joint data sets together to combine more than two data sets into a single joint data set. Figure 6-5 shows two data sets, Customers and Orders, merged into a single data set.

Figure 6-5 Merging Data Sets

If you want to join an aggregated column, add a computed column to the source data set. See "Defining Computed Columns for Data Sets" for more information.

To merge data sets:

1. In the Report Design perspective, open a report design in the Layout editor.

2. Click the Data Explorer tab.

   The Data Explorer view appears.

3. Right-click Data Sets and select New Joint Data Set.

   The Join Data Set wizard appears.

4. In the Define Joint Data Set area, select the data sets to join.

   The columns of the data sets appear.

5. Select one column from each data set to join the columns.

6. For each join, select one of the following join types:

   • Inner Join: Returns rows from both data sets when the column values match.

   • Left Outer Join: Returns all rows from the left data set and all matched rows from the right data set.

   • Right Outer Join: Returns all rows from the right data set and matched rows from the left data set.

   • Full Outer Join: Returns all rows from both data sets even when the column values do not match.

7. In the Data Set Name field, enter a name for the merged data set.

8. Click Finish.

   The Edit Data Set dialog box appears.

9. (Optional) Review and edit the data set.

   For example, click Output Columns to review the full set of columns being joined and to customize the column names.

10. (Optional) To review the rows returned by the joint data set, click Preview Results.

11. Click OK.

Filtering Data Sets for Tables

You use data binding filters to filter a data set for a specific table. Filtering data sets for tables is useful when a data set is used in multiple contexts, each with different filtering criteria. The data binding filter is applied against each instance of the table, rather than once during data set creation. In Figure 6-6, the data set provider row is filtered for the value OSM Cartridge Provider:

Figure 6-6 Filtering Data Sets

To filter data sets for tables:

1. In the Report Design perspective, open a report design in the Layout editor and select a table in a report design file.

   The Property Editor view appears.

2. In Property Editor view, click the Filters tab.

   The Filter By page appears.

3. Click Add.

   The New Filter Condition dialog box appears.

4. Enter a filter condition.

   You can enter a condition directly into the first field or you can click the Fx button to open the Expression Builder and create a more complex expression. See "Working with XPath Expression Patterns" for more information.

5. Select an operator from the drop-down list.

6. Specify the value on which to search.

   Enter the value directly, select from the list of values, or use the Expression Builder to create a more complex value expression. For some operators, a value is not required.

7. Click OK.

8. Click Save.

Nesting Tables

You can nest one table inside of another table. For example, a nested table can represent a filtered data set that is based on the current row of the parent table. The filter is applied to the child table for each row of the parent table.

Figure 6-7 shows one table nested in another in the Layout editor:

Figure 6-7 Nested Tables

Note:

Nested tables can impact performance. Use nested tables for small data sets. If the data sets are large enough to adversely impact performance, join the data sets instead of nesting the tables.

To nest tables:

1. In the Report Design perspective, open a report design in the Layout editor.

2. Create a parent table and bind the table to a data set.

3. Create a child table in a row of the parent table and bind the table to a second data set.

   The child table is repeated for each row of the parent table. To ensure that the child table displays content appropriate for the current row of the parent table, you must apply a data filter to the child table.

   To apply a data filter to the child table:

   1. Select the child table.

      The Property Editor view appears.

   2. Click the Filters tab.

   3. Click Add.

      The New Filter Condition dialog box appears.

   4. Select the child table column that you want to compare to the key value in the parent table.

   5. Select Equal to as the operator.

   6. Click the menu and select Build expression.

      The Expression Builder appears.

   7. From the Category list, select Available Column Bindings.

   8. From the Sub-Category list, select the child table.

      The set of columns available in the parent table appear.

   9. Double-click the parent table column to which you want to match the selected child table column.

   10. Click OK.

4. Click OK.

   The new filter is added to the child table.

Defining Data Presentation in Reports

The BIRT Report Designer includes tools for designing, debugging, and previewing report designs. This section includes a small subset of procedures that help you create and design reports for use in Design Studio. For additional documentation, tutorials, and example, see the BIRT project website:

http://www.eclipse.org/birt/

Defining Value Mapping Rules

You can define rules that map values from a database column to values in a report column. For example, you might define rules that map the database status codes S and F to the display values Success and Fail respectively. When defining value mapping rules, you define a conditional expression and a display value that appears in a report when the expression evaluates to true.

For example, in Figure 6-8, the conditional expression states that if the data set provider row contains the value OSM Cartridge Provider, the value OSM appears in the report:

Figure 6-8 Value Mapping Rules

To define value mapping rules:

1. Open a report design in the Layout editor and select a data field.

   The Property Editor view appears.

2. In Property Editor, click the Map tab.

   The Map List page appears.

3. Click the Add button.

4. Define the condition that must evaluate to true.

5. Define the display value that appears in the report.

6. Click OK.

Adding Additional Report Design Elements

The BIRT Report Designer includes a tools for designing, debugging, and previewing report designs. This section includes a small subset of procedures that help you create and design reports for use in Design Studio.

See the BIRT Report Developer Guide for more information about the procedures in this section, and for the full BIRT Report Designer documentation set.

Defining Text as HTML

Data sets can include simple text or text annotated with a markup language. You can use a markup language to embed simple formatting data definition. For example, you can format text with paragraph breaks, bullets, or emphasis.

To format text in a report, you must set up the text column to enable BIRT to interpret the string value in a data set as HTML. This set up enables you to embed HTML tags for report formatting.

Note:

Invalid markup can cause exceptions during report generation.

To define text as HTML:

1. From a report design file, right-click and select Insert, and then select Text.

   The Edit Text Item dialog box appears.

2. Select HTML as the formatting type.

3. Select Dynamic Text as the content type.

4. Enter the following text content:

   <VALUE-OF format="HTML">row["myColumn"]</VALUE-OF>

   where

   myColumn is the name of the column that contains the formatted text.

5. Click OK.

Example 6-1 includes text annotated with a markup language:

Example 6-1 HTML Markup Example

<p><b>BIRT HTML Markup</b></p>
<p>Allows textual markup which is <i>interpreted</i> and <u>rendered</u>.</p>
<p>Supports:
<ul>
  <li>Bullets</li>
  <li>Numbering</li>
  <li><a href=”http://www.oracle.com/”>Anchors</a></li>
  <li>Other simple markup</li>
</ul>
</p>
<p>Use the <b>HTML Dynamic Text</b> option within a Text Item.</p>

Figure 6-9 illustrates how the text in Example 6-1 appears in a report:

Figure 6-9 HTML Markup in a Report

About XPath Expression Patterns for Row Mapping

To improve processing performance, reduce the size of an initial data set by defining specific row mapping XPath expressions. For example, filter the row mapping to include only the information required for a report, and consider using multiple data sets instead of using a single data set when applying a filter in a data binding.

You can apply an attribute filter to only one XML element. You cannot, for example, apply an entity type filter and an element type filter in an XPath expression. You can apply multiple data set filters to any data set to include additional filtering.

If you map to a specific subtype of an abstract XML element, the Data Set wizard generates a warning message that states that the table mapping XPath does not exist. The XPath expression may be valid, but BIRT is not able to reconcile the use of a concrete subtype against an abstract (or otherwise extensible) XML element. If you cannot verify an XPath expression, use a test query on sample data and ensure that the query returns the expected data.

When using XPath predicates, you cannot use excludes operations. See the BIRT Project page for information about using data set filters to apply excludes logic.

Table 6-1 provides a list of common XPath expressions for row mapping:

About XPath Expression Patterns for Column Mapping

XPath expressions for column mapping identify the column value in a data set. The column mapping expressions are relative to the row mapping selection.

When creating column mappings, the target child or attribute value is not required for every subtype of the selected element. For example, you can create a query that applies to a mixed set of elements to which you want to map the aggregated set of columns available across all element types. Reducing the number of distinct queries required for a report improves performance.

Many of the domain-specific fields in the Design Studio model are contained in subtypes of the base entity and element model. Reference the XML schema (included in the Design Studio Report Design Example) when creating data set column mappings to fields of a subtype. See "About the Design Studio Report Design Example" for more information about Design Studio XML schema.

Row selection XPath expressions select abstract entities and elements. Therefore, the attributes that are available for column mapping should be concrete attributes and children of those elements (BIRT can recognize the children and attributes defined directly on the base model). The column mapper does not display the concrete subtypes of the entity and elements as options for mapping. If you define a row mapping to select an abstract entity or element, the column mapper recommends column maps that select the base attributes and that select the children in the column mapping. When mapping to a value in a subtype, BIRT returns a warning that states that the table mapping XPath does not exist. Ignore this warning if you have verified that the mapped path does reflect a valid selection from a subtype of the row mapping element.

To map concrete subtypes, you add column mappings directly by specifying the relative path, or you can set the row mapping to select the specific entity or element that your final row mapping generates. Setting the row mapping to select the specific entity or element enables column mapping from the XML structure on the Column Mapping page of the Edit Data Set dialog box.

Test data set mappings with sample XML to ensure that all mappings are correct. You can create sample XML files by using the Design Studio Generate Report wizard to generate the Design Studio Model in XML report.

Table 6-2 displays common column mapping XPath expression patterns:

Table 6-3 displays column mappings that are typical for data sets with row mappings that map to relations. These data sets are often used by a nested table with a filter to match global identifiers with the outer row's entity or element identifier.

About XPath Expression Parameters

You can add parameters to data set row mapping and to data set column mapping expressions. For example, you can add a report parameter to the predicate of a row-selection expression to filter based on the parameter's value.

To add a parameter to an XPath expression, use the following syntax:

{?parameterName?}

where parameterName is the name of the parameter whose value you want to use.

For example, you can write an XPath expression to retrieve all library books with a category defined as mystery:

library/book/[@category="{?mystery?}"]

Consider that you would now need to define an input parameter that stores the category value that a user enters during a search. The following XPath expression searches for books defined with a category value that is stored in the bookCategory parameter:

library/book/[@category="{?bookCategory?}"]

You can link data set parameters to a report parameter that is defined as a constant, or you can populate a parameter using an expression. Parameters created with expressions can include conditions and functions (such as date manipulation). However, parameters cannot use columns from the data set.

Testing Custom Report Designs Using the Report Designer

You use a sample XML document to test report designs using the Report Designer. You can create a sample XML document by generating the XML Model report, which produces the Design Studio XML format used by the Report Designer. To test custom report designs using the Report Designer:

1. From the Design Studio Window menu, select Open Perspective, then select Other, and then select Report Design.

2. Click OK.

   The Report Design perspective appears.

3. Click the Resource Explorer tab.

4. Double-click a .rptdesign file.

   The report design opens in the Report Designer editor.

5. From the Run menu, select View Report and then select the output format.

   The default Internet browser opens and displays the Parameters dialog box.

6. Enter the fully qualified path to a sample XML file.

   The sample XML file should include data that is representative of the type of data that you intend to include in finished reports. You can:

   • Enter the path to the reportData.xml file that is included in the Design Studio Report Design Example. See "Adding the Report Design Example to the Workspace" for more information.

   • Run the Design Studio Model in XML report to create a new sample XML file. See "Working with the Design Studio Report Examples" for more information.

Testing Custom Report Designs Using the Generate Report Wizard

To test custom report designs using the Generate Report wizard:

1. In Design Studio, from the Studio menu, select Generate Report.

   The Generate Report wizard appears.

2. Select the Select a report design from a file option.

3. Click Browse and locate and select the report design that you want to test.

4. Click Next and navigate through the wizard to ensure that the report design works as intended.

   For example, select to generate the report content by project or by entity, based on the data that you want to appear in the test report.

5. Review the generated report, the Eclipse Console view, and the error log.

   Use this information to debug reports that are not generated as expected.

About the Design Studio Report Design Example

The Design Studio Report Design Example is included in the Design Studio installation. The Design Studio Report Design Example includes projects that you can use as a reference or as a starting point for creating your own custom report designs.

This example includes the following projects:

• design.studio.example.report.design.update.site, which contains an example of a standard Eclipse update site project.

• design.studio.example.report.design.feature, which contains an example of a standard Eclipse feature project.

• design.studio.example.report.designs, which contains an Eclipse plug-in project with report designs and content useful for designing reports.

This example includes the following:

• Sample report designs

  • A sample that demonstrates a simple report design. This sample report design includes the Design Studio data source setup and the required data_source_model_file report parameter. The layout includes a basic report header and a sample heading.

  • A sample that demonstrates a complete report design. This sample report design includes a list of Design Studio entities and their relationships. The sample demonstrates how to define a data set to retrieve data from a data source, and demonstrates common design patterns such as nested tables, grouping, hyperlinks, bookmarks, and styling options.

• The .rptdesign files for all of the Design Studio reference reports

• XML schemas that describe the Design Studio Exchange Format

  See "Working with the Design Studio Exchange Format" for more information.

• A sample XML file

  You can use this file to test your report designs.

• A Design Studio report library

  This library stores reporting objects, and enables you to reuse existing report objects, such as tables, data sources, and styles. For example, you can copy into a report design the data source and the data source report parameter that is contained in the library. You can use the Resource Explorer view to review the library and objects that exist in your workspace.

• Extension point declarations for sample report designs

About the Design Studio Report Processor Example

The Design Studio Report Processor Example is an advanced example project that demonstrates how to extend the processing logic of the Design Studio report generation framework. You can extend the reporting functionality, for example, to dynamically produce graphs, charts, or images. You can use the example project as a reference or as a starting point for your own project.

The Design Studio Report Processor Example includes the basic components needed to produce a custom report processor. The example demonstrates how to define and register a custom report processor. The report processor is paired with a sample report that demonstrates how information provided by the custom report processor appears in a report.

The Design Studio Report Processor Example contains:

• Java code for implementing the sample report processor

• AbstractProcessor.java, which includes boilerplate code for implementing the required IReportProcessor interface

• SampleProcessor.java, which is the class that provides the logic for the sample report processor

• SampleProcessorLogger.java, which provides functions for logging to the Eclipse error log

• SampleProcessorPlugin.java, which is an implementation of a BundleActivator interface required for Eclipse plug-ins, and which includes useful utility methods

• Extension point declarations for the sample report processor

Extending Reporting Tasks by Adding Report Processors

You can extend reporting tasks by creating an implementation of the following IReportProcessor interface: oracle.communications.studio.report.core.generator.processor.IReportProcessor.

This processor extends the processing logic of the Design Studio report generation framework. For example, you can generate graphs, incorporate document signing, or add other features not directly supported by the report generation framework.

To extend reporting tasks by adding report processors:

1. Create a plug-in project.

   For example, you can use a report design plug-in project. See "Creating Plug-in Projects" for more information. The plug-in project plugin.xml file is added to the Package Explorer view.

2. Double-click the plug-in project plugin.xml file.

   The file opens in the Plug-in Manifest editor.

3. Click the Extensions tab.

4. Click Add.

   The New Extension dialog box appears.

5. Locate and select oracle.communications.studio.report.generator.

   If you don't see the oracle.communications.studio.report.generator value, deselect the Show only extension points from the required plug-ins option. If prompted to add dependencies, select Yes.

6. Click Finish.

   The extension appears in the Extension area.

7. Select the extension.

8. In the Extension Details area, click Show extension point description.

   The Oracle Communications Design Studio Report Generator documentation page appears. Use this documentation to finish creating an implementation of the IReportProcessor interface.