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7 Editing a Report

This section briefly describes the most common actions performed when editing a report. For a complete description of the DataVision GUI, see The DataVision User Interface.

Fields have popup menus. Sections have popup menus. The section labels on the left side have popup menus.

7.1 Adding Fields

To add a database field, formula, parameter, subtotal, or special field to a report, select the corresponding menu item from the Insert menu. The Field Picker window will open, allowing you to select and drag a field from that window onto the report.

The Field Picker window also lets you create new formulas and parameter fields. Use the New Formula... or New Parameter... menu items from the Field menu.

To add a static text label, select Text from the Insert menu. The cursor will turn into a text cursor. When you click the mouse in any section, a new editable text label will appear.

See Subtotals for adding running subtotal fields.

To add an image, select Image... from the Insert menu. A file chooser dialog will open. When you open an image file, the image is inserted into the report in the top left corner of the Report Header. From there, you may move the image anywhere else in the report. See image fields for more information.

Currently, only image formats understood by the Java Swing interface may be created using the DataVision GUI. That's because I haven't yet written the code that will visually represent images that Swing can't understand.

7.2 Selecting Fields

To select a field, single-click it. To select more than one field, hold down the shift key while selecting the fields.

Not yet implemented: You may also select fields by clicking and dragging a selection box with the mouse.

7.3 Removing Fields

To remove a single field, select it and hit the delete or backspace key. You may also right-click on the field and select Delete from the popup menu.

To remove a formula or parameter from the report, open the Field Picker window, select the formula or parameter, and select Cut from the Edit menu. You can only remove formulas and parameters that are not used somewhere in the report. If the Cut menu item is not enabled when you select a formula or parameter, that means it is being used somewhere in the report.

7.4 Moving and Re-sizing Fields

Click and drag a field to move it. Drag the edges to re-size it. Moving and dragging operate on the current selection, so if multiple fields are selected they will all be moved or re-sized.

7.5 Subtotals

To create a new subtotal field, either right-click on a field and select Subtotal... from the popup menu or select Running Total Field... from the Insert menu. A dialog box appears that lets you select where you would like subtotals to appear for this field. The choices are Grand Total (appearing in the report footer), All (appearing in every group footer and the report footer), and Group (appearing in one group that you select from a menu of groups).

Only numeric database fields, formulas, and numeric parameters can be subtotalled.

7.6 Parameters

Double-clicking a parameter field, either in the Report Design window or the Field Picker window, opens the dialog box appropriate for the parameter type (string, number, or date). Alternately, you can right-click on the parameter field in the Report Design window and select Edit... from the popup menu or you can select Edit Parameter... from the Field menu in the Field Picker window.

To be written.

7.7 Formulas

Double-clicking a formula field, either in the Report Design window or the Field Picker window, opens the formula editor dialog box. Alternately, you can right-click on the formula in the Report Design window and select Edit... from the popup menu or you can select Edit Formula... from the Field menu in the Field Picker window.

The main text pane in the dialog box that is opened lets you edit the text of the formula. For more information about this dialog see The Formula Editor Dialog.

For a description of the simple formula language, see The RPN Mini-Language.

7.8 Groups

The sort order of a group determines the order in which a group's values are selected. For example, if the "office.name" group of a report has three possible values (New York, New Jersey, and Chicago) then the sort order determines which office's detail records are displayed first. When sorted ascending, Chicago's records will be first, then New Jersey and finally New York. When sorted descending, New York will be first. This is not the same as the sort order of the detail records within a group. (See Sorting Records for information about sorting detail records.)

To edit the sort order of a group's values or the nesting order of groups within a report, open the Group By... dialog from the Report menu. See The "Group By" Dialog for more information about this dialog.

7.9 Sorting Records

Detail records may be sorted using any combination of database columns. The order in which columns are sorted is significant. In the example database, job records have an id and a date. Sorting the records by date and then id will return the records in a different order than sorting them by id and then date.

A column may be sorted in ascending or descending order. Ascending order means lower values are first.

To edit the list of sorted columns and their order, open the Sort By... dialog from the Report menu. See The "Sort By" Dialog for more information about this dialog.

Columns used by groups do not appear in the "Sort By" dialog. To change the sort order of groups, use the "Group By" dialog. See Groups for more information about editing groups.

7.10 Selecting Records

To be written.


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