Setting Element Properties

You can set properties for individual elements.

Note that these properties are also editable from the Structure View. If you need to update multiple element properties, it may be more efficient to use the Structure View. See Using the Structure View to Edit Your Data Structure.

To set element-level properties using the element dialog:

  1. Click the element's action menu icon. From the menu, select Properties. The Properties dialog is shown below.
  2. Set the properties as needed.

    Property Description

    Alias

    BI Publisher assigns a default tag name to the element in the XML data file. You can update this tag name to assign a more user-friendly name within the data file.

    Display Name

    The Display Name appears in the report design tools and the column name in reports. Update this name to be meaningful to your business users.

    Data Type

    BI Publisher assigns a default data type. Valid values are String, Date, Integer, Double, Float.

    Sort Order

    You can sort XML data in a group by one or more elements. For example, if in a data set employees are grouped by department and manager, you can sort the XML data by department. Within each department you can group and sort data by manager, and within each manager subgroup, employees can be sorted by salary. If the element is not in a parent group, the Sort Order property is not available.

    Value if Null

    If the value of an occurrence of the element is null, you can supply a default value here to prevent having a null in your data.