Creating a Report Definition

1 Type Report Resource Designer in the menu search field and press Enter.

2 Click the New icon on the Report Designer Toolbar. The Report Wizard window appears.

3 Select the report resource you previously created and click Next.

4 Select a report template or select None to use the default built-in report template. Click Next.

5 Select a table as the report data source and click Next.

• All the available tables you can select as data sources are listed in a tree.

• To view all the fields in a table, click the plus sign next to the table to expand the tree.

6 This screen offers you several options to define how the data will be organized on the page. Select the layout that best approximates what you want the final report to look like.

Choose whether to design and render the report in Portrait or Landscape mode.

Specify how you want the field names and fields organized in the report.

• Labels: For each field in the report, the corresponding field name is placed to the left as a label.

• Columns: Field data is organized in a column or multiple columns with field names as column headers.

Select this option to adjust fields to fit the page width; otherwise, clear this option.

7 Select Fields into the report.

This screen displays differently depending on whether you chose the label-style or column-style layout in the previous step.

• This screen displays when you chose the label-style layout in the previous step.

In this screen, choose the number of columns you want to place data in and specify the fields to display in each column.

Select a column number from the list. A report can have up to four columns. When you select a column number, the number of the Details boxes changes accordingly.

If you have selected fields into the Selected Fields boxes, they will be cleared when you select a new column number.

You can either drag the field into the Selected Fields box or select the field in the Available Fields box and then click the plus icon (+) above the Selected Fields box.

Hold down Shift and click to select a number of fields in a row or hold down Ctrl and click several discontinued fields and then perform the drag-and-drop action or use the plus icon.

Select the field in the Selected Fields box and click the minus icon (–) above the Selected Fields box.

Hold down Shift and click to select a number of fields in a row or hold down Ctrl and click several non-contiguous fields and then click the minus icon above the Selected Fields box.

• This screen displays when you chose the column-style layout in the previous step.

In this screen, select the fields you want to display in the report and optionally specify fields to group data by in the report.

To select fields from the source table into the report

Select them in the Available Fields box on the left and drag them into the Details box.

To select fields by which to group data in the report

Select them in the Available Fields list box on the left and drag them into the Groups box on the right.

You can remove fields from the Groups and Details boxes through drag-and-drop in the opposite direction.

To move all the fields from the Available Fields box to the Details box and vice versa, use the >> and << buttons.

Click Next. Another layout option screen displays. Select a layout for the report and click Next.

8 The Summary screen recaps the information you have specified for the report definition. If you want to modify the settings, click Back to return to previous steps to edit them; otherwise, click Finish to complete the basic report setup and exit Report Wizard.

9 When you return to the Report Designer main screen, the report displays in the visual design mode in the Design pane based on the newly created report definition. Save the report as a new report definition. You can further customize it in Report Designer.