Understanding the Report Director

The Director provides a quick start to designing reports by guiding you through a linear process for setting up the basic elements. As you proceed through the Director, you can select elements to include in the report template, such as:

• Header and footer sections.

• Type of detail section that best meets the business requirement.

  Using the Director, you can include only one detail section in the report template. You can add more detail sections to the report template after you complete the initial design and quit the Director. For example, you can add:

• The appropriate business view to fetch the required data.

• Business view fields that you want to include in the detail section layout.

Using the Director, you can define which records to include in the detail section and how to sort those records. Based on the elements that you select, the Director creates a report template and opens it in Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Report Design Aid (RDA). You can then use RDA to format the data, enhance the report, and add additional detail sections.

When you create an application report, the Director uses templates to guide you through the design. Director templates define default criteria to meet a specific business requirement, such as:

• Detail section type

• Business view

• Processing options

• Data selection

• Data sequencing

• Smart fields

• Drill down

When you select an application report template from the Director, the Director reads the template specifications, which are stored in Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne tables, and presents the default criteria. Several Director templates are shipped with the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne software. You can create custom templates from the Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Report Director Templates (P91400) application.

On the welcome form of the Report Design Director, you can select from these section options:

• Report header

  Creates an empty section that must be completed manually.

• Page header

  Creates a section that can be populated automatically by the system or entered manually.

• Columnar

  Creates a detail section that provides a columnar format that includes column headings with rows of data.

• Group

  Creates a detail section that provides a free-form layout that enables you to place fields exactly where you want them.

• Tabular

  Creates a detail section that provides a columnar format with additional features that are unique to the tabular section type.

• Application Reports

  Creates a detail section that uses Report Director templates. The system displays Financial Reports as the default template. Use the drop-down list box to select from available Report Director templates.

• Page footer

  Creates an empty section that must be completed manually.

• Report footer

  Creates an empty section that must be completed manually.

If you want to design a report without the assistance of the Director, you can click Finish or Cancel to quit the Director. When you click Finish, the system accepts all of the selections that you have already made using the Director. When you click Cancel, the system ignores any selections that you have made. You can then build the report manually using options on the Section menu in RDA.