Understanding Level Break Header and Footer Sections

In a report, a set of records that share the same value for a specific field are said to be in the same level. For example, in a report that is sorted by search type, all of the records with the search type of E are in the same level. When the value in the search type field changes, it is referred to in Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Report Design Aid (RDA) as a level break.

Level break sections are useful for adding special processing. Two section types, level break headers and level break footers, make adding processing to level breaks easy.

Level break sections organize records into smaller, more manageable units. You can define any field from the attached business view as a level break field. When the system processes the report, the level break triggers an event, such as the printing of a heading or the calculation of totals. You can also define the level break to perform a page break. For example, you can define the company field as a level break field and a page break field. Every time that the value in the company field changes, a page break occurs and the records for the new company begin on a new page. A field must be defined as a level break before it can be defined as a page break.

Level break headers and footers are always associated with a detail section. Level break sections do not have business views attached directly, but rather share a business view with the detail section with which they are associated. Therefore, all fields from the business view that is attached to the detail section are available in the level break sections.

When you create a level break section, you are presented with these options for selecting the level break field:

  • All columns

    Displays a list of all available fields from the business view that is attached to the detail section that you selected.

  • Only existing sort columns

    Displays the fields that you selected as data sequencing fields when you created the detail section.

If you have not defined a level break field in the data sequence, the field that you select when creating the level break section is defined by the system as a level break field. When you return to the data sequence after creating the level break section, the field is defined as a level break field.

After you create a level break section, you can modify its properties.

You can define level break header and level break footer sections as conditional. Through the use of processing options, you can prompt the user to indicate whether to print the level break section in the report. For example, enter Event Rules Design on the level break section. In the Initialize Section event, call the Hide Section system function to hide the level break section. Then add event rules to show or hide the section, depending on the value that is entered into the processing option. You must have an appropriate processing option attached to the report template.

In RDA, you can:

  • Add level break headers.

  • Associate descriptions in level break headers.

  • Add level break footers.

  • Insert descriptions for aggregates in level break footers.