A report is a collection of your data, as defined in the report resource, organized in your required format as defined in the report definition.

Report resources provide the data you want to display in the report while report definitions specify how to display the data in the report:

A report resource object (RRO) represents a unique, cross-domain report object that contains report metadata, report definitions, report data source definitions, filter definitions, report parameters, and report settings. A report definition contains all the information that defines that data binding, layout, and customized formatting of a report. It is saved as an XML file that can be edited in the Report Designer.

A report template is special kind of report definition that cannot be rendered directly by itself, but instead can be used to control certain aspects of the rendering of other reports. When designing a report, a template can be specified (optionally) in which case the report can inherit many kinds of attributes from the template, such as field colors and fonts. If at a later time these attributes are changed in the template, those changes will be seen in every report that is using that template. Any given report can inherit from at most one template, but a given template can be used to control any number of reports. Thus templates enable report developers to making changes in a single place (the template) which will have a mass effect on many reports. This is a powerful tool that can assist the report development process in many ways, such as reducing initial development time, enforcing common standards across reports, and quickly implementing future changes to these standards.