Brief Introduction of Oracle Report Builder

Published on 09-05-2008 12:48 AM

Oracle Report Builder is an enterprise-reporting tool that retrieves data dynamically from database, formats the report, display the final report and can also help with printing quality reports.

All the reports created using Report Builder in Oracle are stored in Report Builder Tables in ‘*.rdf’ and ‘*.rep’ format. Reports stored in ‘*.rdf’ format have full report definition of binary file. It also includes some comments and source code. You can modify these reports by use of Report Builder. If you transfer these reports on a secondary storage media in binary format then act as executable portable files. However, ‘*.rep’ format files are binary run-only files that do not contain any comments or source code. These files cannot be modified using Report Builder also.

Various tools used in Oracle Report Builder are

Object Navigator,
Data Model Editor,
Parameter Form Editor,
Property Palette and
Layout Model Editor.

With the help of Object Navigator, you can view the hierarchical view of all the objects that are displayed in the report. Data Model Editor is used to define data model of a report that contains various data definition objects. Parameter Form Editor is used to accept user inputs. Property Palette can be used to view or change settings of Oracle report object. Layout Model Editor contains various types of layout objects that help you to choose the type of layout you want for your report.

Best feature of Report Builder in Oracle is its wizard to create reports. Just follow these simple steps to create a report:

1. Start Report Builder.

2. Open Report Wizard in report builder. A new window would appear.

3. Choose the style of report from list of options, namely, Tabular, Mailing Label, Group Above, Group Left, Form Letter, Form and Matrix.

http://www.club-oracle.com/images/report.gif

4. Choose the type of query you want to execute, that is, ‘SQL Query’ or ‘Express Query’

5. Enter a SELECT statement for data retrieval from the database for report data.

6. A list of fields would appear from which you can select some or all of the fields to be displayed in the report.

7. Then a new page summarizing the selected fields would appear. If you want to add or remove the selected fields, then click on the Back button or else click on the Next button.

8. You can alter the name of the field labels that would appear in the final report and click on Next button.

9. If you have a template for your company or organization then you can insert it at this phase. Click on the Next button once you have selected the template.

10. Click on the Finish button and the report would be generated.

You may also include from list of available triggers such as formula, format, action, validation, report, before parameter form, after parameter form, before report, after report and between pages trigger. These triggers fire whenever their corresponding events occur and are very helpful in achieving dynamic effect for generating reports.

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1 Comment

tyro - 11-04-2008

An attempt has been made to ensure that the GUIs used for oracle reports operates in a similar fashion to oracle forms. The truth however, is that reports has a different strategy to forms. Of course, they both have different tasks in mind. The job of forms is to gather and process data, while the reporting tool allows information to be formatted and output to a suitable reporting format.

Therefore, there is a graphical interface provided with the reporting tool, which takes some skill to master. The fields are placed on a canvas in a similar fashion to form builder, where the fields are used for input/output. Behind the fields in both cases is a valid database field taken directly from the database, or is derived from calculations or can even be a dummy field used for the purpose of holding temporary information, which is then used elsewhere in the report or form.

Both types of tool hold information to specify the “look and feel” of the product to the end user. For instance, the way a form looks to the end user can be determined by the developer. Forms can also be made “web-enabled” so they can be used on web pages. Reports can be formatted according to user requirements, and can be output to a number of file types, including html, text, or pdf format.

Both form builder and Oracle reports offer a great deal of flexibility and power. Combined, they can provide a complete solution to a user requirement. These tools are all part of the Oracle Designer suite, which has been around for some years. Both tools use Oracle PL/SQL, and therefore information can easily be interchanged via the reporting module or the forms module. Recently these environments have been integrated into Oracle Developer Suite and Oracle Application Server.

In most respects the Oracle Forms GUI is similar to the GUI used for Oracle Reports.
Because the base set of functionality is not required in reports to be as comprehensive as in forms, it provides for a subset of the forms functionality. In fact, many new programmers to forms start out by working on Oracle Reports. Once competent in this skill they then commence working on forms.

Both forms and reports are eared towards two aspects. There is the traditional development tools, which are intended for a standard production environment, and the Java development tools, which are geared towards internet growth and J2EE technologies. Oracle continues to evolve these tools depending on the needs of the market place.

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Brief Introduction of Oracle Report Builder

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