eRe: Design Structure

Design Structure

ere report templates are HTML/XML files that you create. These files consist of report header information, the html layout for your report and additional structure tags detailing repeating areas.

ere enables you to group your data in natural hierarchies. The hierarchy is not restricted to the header and footer banners like most report writers. Nested areas represent the data groups in ere. Information within an area may be before, beside or after more detailed information.

Below is a sketch or diagram of the table attribute report as from the Examples page. From the examples page you can see the exact layout of the report template.

The report has two sections, the report definition section and the report itself. Within the report itself, there are three repeating data areas one for each break level. The breaks have been defined on schema name, table name and attribute number.

A break occurs on a column when the value changes between rows. You will have sorted on the break columns in order to achieve the affect you want.

The red box represents the schema break area. The blue box represents the table name break area. The green box represents the column name break area.

The data from the data stream will look something like this:

	ere          report_report   1 r_name     ....
	ere          report_report   2 r_title    ....
	...          ....            . ....       ....
	ere          rr_appgroup     1 ag_name    ....
	...          ....            . ....       ....
	ere          rr_reports      1 r_name     ....
	ere          rr_reports      2 rt_type    ....
	...          ....            . ....       ....
	pg_catalog   pg_aggregate    1 aggfnoid   ....
	pg_catalog   pg_aggregate    2 aggtransfn ....
	...          ....            . ....       ....

Each time the first column, the schema name, changes (including the first row) all of the HTML within the red area will print with the changed data. Then, when the second column, the table name, changes, all of the HTML within the blue area will print with the changed data. Finally, when the each row changes, the green area will print with the changed data.

At the end of each area the next row is examined. Depending on what column changed, control will return the the start of the appropriate area.