Oracle Report Builder Tools

How to open Report Builder:

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Start Menu From the Destop -> All Program -> Oracle Developer Suit  10g -> Reports Developer -> Reports Builder

Oracle Reports Builder Tools

Oracle Reports Builder comes with the following components 

Object Navigator
Property Palette
 Data Model Editor
 Layout Model Editor
 Parameter Form Editor

Object Navigator 

The Object Navigator shows a hierarchical view of objects in the report. Each item listed is called a node and represents an object or type of object the report can contain or reference.

Property Palette 

A Property Palette is a window that displays the settings for defining an Oracle reports object.

Data Model Editor 

To specify data for a report, a data model should be defined. A data model is composed of some or all of the following data definition objects. The Data Model contains the logical grouping of data for the report. This is the place where you define the source data, add additional queries, and link them.

Queries 

Queries are SQL Select statements that fetch data from the oracle database. These statements are fired each time the report is run.

Groups 

Groups determine the hierarchy of data appearing in the report and are primarily used to group columns selected in the query. Oracle report automatically creates a group for each query.

Data Columns 

Data columns contain the data values for a report. Default data columns, corresponding to the table columns included in each query’s SELECT list are automatically created by oracle reports. Each column is placed in the group associated with the query that selected the column.

Formula Columns 

Formulas can be entered in formula columns to create computed columns. Formulas can be written using PL/SQL syntax. Formula columns are generally preceded by CF_ to distinguish from other columns.

Summary Columns 

Summary columns are used for calculating summary information like sum, average etc. This column uses a set of predefined oracle aggregate functions. Summary columns are generally preceded by CS_ to distinguish them from other columns.

Data Links 

Data links are used to establish parent-child relationships between queries and groups via column matching.

Layout Model Editor 

A report layout editor contains the following layout objects. The Layout Model (shown in Figure 5) displays the physical layout of the data. You can have multiple frames based on the same logical groups as defined in the Data Model.

Frames 

Frames surround other layout objects, enabling control of multiple objects simultaneously

Repeating Frames 

Repeating frames acts as placeholders for groups (I.e repeating values) and present rows of data retrieved from the database. Repeating frames repeat as often as the number of rows retrieved.

Fields 

Fields acts as placeholders for columns values. They define the formatting attributes for all columns displayed in the report.

Boilerplate 

Boilerplate consists of text (label of the column) and graphics that appear in a report each time it is run.

Parameter Form Editor 

Parameter form is a runtime form used to accept inputs from the user. 

Parameters 

Parameters are variables for a report that accept input from the user at runtime. These parameter values can then be used in the SQL select statements to retrieve data conditionally. Oracle reports creates a set of system parameters at runtime namely report destination type, number of copies etc.