Column attributes enable developers to control the display, features, and column behavior. Developers edit Column attributes to alter nearly all aspects of column behavior, including altering the layout and appearance, defining column links, creating column filters, and adding support for export and printing.
See Also:
Parent topic: Managing Classic Reports
You can use the Column Attributes section of the Report Attributes page to precisely control the report layout. For example, you can use these attributes to alter column heading text, change column positioning, hide a column, create a sum of a column, or select a sort sequence.
To edit the Column Attributes:
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes
To enable column sorting:
Tip:
Column sorting must be enabled if you want columns with null values to display at the top or end of the report. To learn more about the Sort Nulls attribute, see "Editing Classic Report Pagination."
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes
Use the Column Link attributes to create a link from a report to another page in your application or to a URL.
To create a column link to another page:
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes
Developers can make a column updatable by editing column attributes. Note that the Application Express engine can only perform updates if:
A multirow update is defined.
A PL/SQL process is implemented to process updated data.
When using the built-in tabular form elements and display types, then the report has to be defined using the type SQL Query (updatable report).
To define updatable column attributes:
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes
A column can be rendered as Radio Group or a static, named, or query-based LOV. For example, a column can be rendered using a select list or a popup list of values. Or, a column can be rendered as read-only text based on a list of values.
This last approach is an effective strategy when creating display lookup values and is particularly useful in regular, nonupdatable reports. This approach enables you to display the value of a column without having to write a SQL JOIN statement.
To render a report column as a list of values:
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes
You can use the Authorization Scheme and Server-side Condition attributes to control when a column displays.
Use Authorization Scheme to control access to resources (such as a report column) based on predefined user privileges. For example, you could create an authorization scheme in which only managers can view a specific report column. Before you can select an authorization scheme, you must first create it. Use Server-side Condition
A condition is a small unit of logic that enables you to control the display of a column based on a predefined condition type. The condition evaluates to true or false based on the values you enter in the Expressions fields.
To specify Authorization Scheme and Server-side Condition attributes:
Developers can create a link within a report that enables users to export the report as a comma-delimited file (.csv) file. To add a CSV link to a report, you must enable Automatic CSV Encoding. When using Automatic CSV Encoding, the report template is not important. You can include a CSV link with any report template that has the CSV export substitution string defined.
See Also:
"Accessing the Globalization Attributes Page" and "Automatic CSV Encoding"
Parent topic: Managing Classic Report Column Attributes