actuate basic

ACTUATE OVERVIEW

What is e.reporting ?What is e.reporting ?

• What it is e.reporting ?

e.reporting is a technology that draws data from diverse data sources, such as databases, flat files, information objects, and presents the data as a structured content for viewing in a web browser.

What is Actuate ?What is Actuate ?

• Actuate is an enterprise reporting solution introduced by Actuate Corporation in 1996.Reports are designed by developers using flagship Actuate tools like the e-RDPro and deployed on the server, for end users to run/view

• Other than software solutions, Actuate also provides services like support and training

About major Actuate featuresAbout major Actuate features

• Supporting intelligent report navigation

Users can view Actuate DHTML reports using their web browsers, identify items of interest, and navigate to those items quickly.

~ Actuate generates a table of contents for each report. This table of contents displays the report structure elements.The table of contents can be customised.

~ Actuate provides field based search. Users can download search results for use in external applications such as word processors and spreadsheets.

~ Defining hyperlinks in a report enables the user to create a link from one part of report to another part, to another report, or to other related information.

• Developing a report using object-oriented technology

~ Actuate supports using flexible data connections, combinations, and filters. You can use multiple data sources for Actuate reports.Additionally you can combine, filter and transform data from these sources using Actuate data filters.

~ Actuate provides a rich framework for application development. The Actuate foundation classes implement a framework for building reports with components such as text, numeric data,charts, database connections, queries and pages.


Scaling deployment across the enterpriseScaling deployment across the enterprise

Actuate provides the following sophisticated deployment capabilities.

• Generating data from any data source

• Supporting multiple formats (DHTML, PDF, Excel )

• Providing page level security.

• Scheduling reports and notifying users

• Providing archiving service

• Supports third-party reports (Crystal, SCRIBE etc)

• Supporting Clustering and Fail over

• Supporting multiple Encyclopaedia volumes.


Application RequirementsApplication Requirements

• Support millions of users, often in different countries• 24x7 high availability• Personalized portal integration• End user analysis and development using spreadsheets


• Allow incremental system growth to meet business demands

• Remain on-line while system is expanded

• Progressive viewing

• Web-based Management Console

• System management and monitoring facilities


• Clone Feature - create many objects with similar characteristics, such as users with similar privileges, role memberships, and so on

• Internationalization


Transient Reports

• Generated on-demand (synchronous)

• The user requests the report

• The report is generated while the user waits

• Report output (ROI, etc) is not saved to the Report Encyclopedia

• The report is “thrown away” immediately a defined time after report is last viewed



Component reuseComponent reuse Visual DevelopmentVisual Development ScriptingScripting

• Actuate Report Server: A server application that generates Live Report Documents, manages them in the Report Encyclopedia, and makes them available to users.

• Actuate Management Console: An application for system and network administrators to manage and control the Actuate report servers.

• Actuate Active Portal: An end user product to access reports in an encyclopedia volume.

• Actuate eRDPro: An object oriented application to design reports.

ACTUATE COMPONENTSACTUATE COMPONENTS

e.reporting architecture

Data sources• XML

• ODBC

• EJBs

• Java Objects

• COM objects

• CORBA/DCOM

• Ascii flat files

• Excel files

• Word documents

• Etc …

Databases• Oracle

• Sybase

• IBM DB2

• Informix Online

• MS SQLServer

• Progress

• Etc …

EJBEJB

COMCOM

e.RD Pro

ROD

ROX

Report Server

DHTMLeSpreadsheets

VTF

Encyclopedia

Management Console

Create Manage Deliver

Deploying an e.ReportDeploying an e.Report

DESIGNING ACTUATE REPORT

Using the Actuate e Report Designer professional

Lets Start..• Open the

Actuate e.Report Designer Professional. Select the Create a New Report Tab.

Lets Start..II• Then Choose the

option as per your use.

• Normally we select the “Blank Report” option for our kind of reporting requirements.

• Having done this we are ready for designing.

Toolbars

• Main Toolbar

• Format Toolbar

• Query Editor Toolbar

• Data Toolbar

• Viewer Toolbar

Palette

Dragging Components From the palates

•Expand the palates.

Structure

Control

Graphics

Page

Data

Dragging Components From the palates II

•Drag the corresponding controls from the given palates into your report design.

Creating reports

• Accessing Data

• Structuring report

• Formatting report

• Running and Distributing reports

Data Access

Data Base Connectivity

Query Editor

• SQL Graphical Editor

• SQL Textual Editor

• Stored Procedure Editor

SQL Editor

• Graphical

Drag and drop the table and its contents for developing a SQL query in-order to get the required datasource.

• Textual

SQL query needs to be typed out to get the required datasource

The Connection Object..

•For database connection, please drag a connection object from the given palates and select the appropriate connection

•Please set the appropriate properties for these objects.

The DataStream(data source) Object...•Drag and drop the appropriate data stream object in the structure pane.Then ViewData source to enter the query editor.Here you select the required columns from the required tables, give the order by,group by conditions as per the report requirement.

Page - Section Relationship

Types of Sections

• Report Section

• Group Section

• Sequential Section

• Conditional Section

• Parallel Section

• Report Section– Section / Before– Section / Header– Section / Content

– Frames

» Text boxes

» Labels

» ….

– Section / Page Footer– Section / After– Section / Sub-Page

Different Types of Sections •Main Report Section or Root Section (AcReport)

• Conditional Section (AcConditionalSection)

• Report Section (AcReportSection)

•Parallel Section (AcParallelSection)

•Sequential Section (AcSequentialSection)

Structuring Report

Static Controls

• Display static elements, that do not interact with a data row.

• Lines, images, text labels, drawing controls

• Can be placed in a frame or directly on a page.

Data Controls

• Display data from one or more variables in a data row

• Text, dynamic text, integer, floating point, currency, and date/time controls

• Data controls that display data from a data row must be placed in a frame. Otherwise, they can be placed in either a frame or directly on a page.

Formatting Report

Report Pagination

• Concept of flow

• Sub page

• Page

• Page lists

Actuate Charts

Chart Components

• data points• data categories• data series

Adding Frames…

•The Contents of the before frame are executed only once.

•The Contents of the page header frame are displayed on all pages except the first page

•The Contents of the content frame are displayed as many times as the data rows.

•Drag and drop the frames in the before, page header and content slot in the structure pane as per the requirement.

Frames

Adding Pages…

•After adding the page to the page list, include the flow component.

•You can then design the page as per the reporting requirement.

•Drag and drop the appropriate page list and page component on to the structure pane.

Page List and Page

We are Now ready to compile and run the report…

Rendering the Output…

•Click on Report Build and Run.

•To Render the output, you need to compile the design and then run it.

Actuate File Types…

.bas file:This has the source code of the design

.rod file: Report Object Design file.

.rox file: Report Executable.This is created after building the .rod file.

.roi file: Report Output Instance

.rov file: Report Parameter File

•Actuate Has the following file types:

Report Generation Process

Report Design

Generate .bas Code

Build Executable

Run Report

View Report

*.rod *.bas *.rox *.roi

*.html

Sample Reports• First Report Simple Report

• Group report Single Break Report

Double Break Report

• Conditional Frames IF Conditional Section

• Passing Parameters Parameters

Adhoc parameters

• Joining two Tables JOINING Tables

• Cross tab Cross Tab Report

• Report Bursting Bursting

• Parallel Display

• Page Security Page security

Sample Reports(Advance)

User Friendly Features

• Smart Search

• Balloon Help

• Context Sensitive Help : Windows Viewer Only

• Table of Contents

bursting

•AcReport::SuggestRoiName method

• Example • Specifies a name for the report object instance (.roi) file. • Syntax • Function SuggestRoiName( ) As String • or • Function SuggestRoiName( row As AcDataRow ) As String • Description • Override the SuggestRoiName( ) method to customize the name for the ROI. The ROI name can include the protocol and path for this report. The ROI name can include a value of a run time parameter or data row variable, or the date the

report runs. • The ROI name syntax is: • [<protocol>:]/<path>/<report name> • Parameters • <protocol> • The protocol to use to store the ROI. The following table lists the supported protocols. Protocol Description file • Store the ROI in the file system on the client or Actuate iServer. On the client, this is the default protocol. • rotp • Store the ROI in the Encyclopedia. On the Actuate iServer, this is the default protocol. You cannot specify rotp as the protocol for a report running on the client. • <path>/<report name> • The ROI path name. Paths can be absolute or relative. Assigning default ROI names • By default, if the report runs on the Actuate iServer, Actuate uses rotp as the protocol and stores the ROI in the same Encyclopedia folder that contains the report object executable (.rox) file. If the report runs on the client, Actuate uses file

as the protocol and stores the ROI in client's current working directory. Actuate assigns the ROI name to the value of the Output File Name parameter in the Requester. Override SuggestRoiName to customize the ROI name. • Customizing ROI names • If you change the location of the ROI and the report runs on a client, the new directory must exist in the file system when the report runs. If the report runs on the Actuate iServer, Actuate creates the directory if it does not exist. • If you specify the ROI name using an absolute path in SuggestROIName, Actuate uses this name for the ROI.• If you specify the ROI name using a relative path in SuggestROIName, the Factory concatenates path information from SuggestRoiName to any path information from the Output File Name parameter. For example, if the Output File

Name parameter contains• file:C:\Forecast\East\Quarterly.roi and SuggestRoiName returnsQ1\Forecast.roi the generated ROI name is file:C:\Forecast\East\Q1\Forecast.roi The Factory uses the report name that SuggestRoiName provides to

name the ROI.• Returns • The suggested ROI name specified using an absolute or relative path. • Example • In the following example, the ROI name includes the value of the parameter, StateParam: • Function SuggestRoiName( ) As String SuggestRoiName = "State_" & CustomerQuery::StateParam & ".roi" End Function Custom ROI names generated by running this report application have names such as

State_ca.roi or State_ny.roi. • In the following example, the report application uses report bursting to generate multiple ROIs from a single ROX. Each ROI contains a census report for a different state. Each state's report should be stored in an Encyclopedia folder

named for the geographical region that contains the state. The Output File Parameter includes a folder name that shows the type of report, such as census reports: • Function SuggestRoiName( row As AcDataRow ) As String SuggestRoiName = row.GetValue ( "Region") & "\" & "State_" & row.GetValue ( "State") & ".roi" End Function Custom ROI names have

the form "file:\C:\Census\Region\State.roi", where region is derived from the value of the region data row variable and state is derived from the state data row variable.

• Description • BuildFromRow() is called automatically by the AFC framework so that report components can use data from data rows to build themselves. You can override this method to

change the way a report component processes data rows. • The AFC framework calls BuildFromRow() with dataRow set to Nothing to tell a report component to finish building itself in a report component's parent data section, and once

with dataRow set to Nothing. • Within BuildFromRow() you can: • Skip data rows by not calling Super::BuildFromRow() and returning ContinueBuilding.• Create dynamic content based on values in a data row.• Use calculated data in a component by creating your own data rows and calling Super::BuildFromRow() repeatedly.• You will usually find it easier to override a component's OnRow() method instead of BuildFromRow(), because OnRow() provides a simpler programming model. Only

override BuildFromRow() if you cannot use OnRow(). • When you override BuildFromRow(), you must: • Always handle the case where dataRow is Nothing.• Always call Super::BuildFromRow( Nothing ) to finish building the component.• Always return FinishedBuilding when the component is done processing data rows.• Always return FinishedBuilding if dataRow is Nothing.• Within BuildFromRow(), you can use GetRowCount() to check how many rows have been processed by the report component. The row count is incremented automatically

when you call Super::BuildFromRow(). • Returns • The build status of the report component: • ContinueBuilding if the report component wishes to process further data rows. For example, a data control that is calculating an aggregate will return ContinueBuilding to

indicate that it needs to see all the data rows in its parent section.• FinishedBuilding if the report component is done processing data rows. For example, a data control that is not calculating an aggregate will return FinishedBuilding to indicate

that it only needs to process a single data row.• RejectedRow if dataRow does not belong to the report component. For example, a group section uses RejectedRow to indicate that a data row does not match its group key

value.• RejectedRow if dataRow is Nothing.• Examples • By default, charts process multiple data rows. If a chart is placed in a Content frame, the result is a single chart that displays all the data rows for the Content frame's parent

section. • In the following example, BuildFromRow() is overridden to make a chart process just one row. If the chart is in a Content frame, the result will be that a separate chart is

displayed for each data row: • Function BuildFromRow( dataRow As AcDataRow ) As AcBuildStatus ' Process the first data row. BuildFromRow =

Super::BuildFromRow( dataRow ) If Not dataRow Is Nothing Then ' Force the chart to finish building itself. BuildFromRow = Super::BuildFromRow( Nothing ) End If End Function In the following example, a frame's BuildFromRow() method has been overridden to add a data control to the frame if a customer's account is overdue. OverdueAmountControl is a control defined in a library; this control's value expression gets the overdue amount from the data row. GetRowCount() is used to avoid adding the control multiple times if the frame processes multiple data rows. The call to SuperBuildFromRow() must come after the control has been added, in order to give the control a chance to process the data row:

• Function BuildFromRow( dataRow As AcDataRow ) As AcBuildStatus If Not dataRow Is Nothing Then If (GetValue( dataRow, "Customer_AccountStatus" ) = "Overdue") + And (GetRowCount( ) = 0) Then ' This is the first row - add the overdue amount control. Dim o As OverdueAmountControl Set o = New Persistent OverdueAmountControl ' Add the control to the frame. AddContent( o ) ' Initialize the control. o.Start( ) End If End If ' Pass the row to all the frame's contents (including the new control). BuildFromRow = Super::BuildFromRow( dataRow ) End Function In the following example, data rows for Massachusetts are filtered out by BuildFromRow():

• Function BuildFromRow( dataRow As AcDataRow ) As AcBuildStatus If Not dataRow Is Nothing Then If (GetValue( dataRow, "customers_state" ) = "MA") Then ' Do not process the row. BuildFromRow = ContinueBuilding Exit Function End If End If ' Process the row as usual. BuildFromRow = Super::BuildFromRow( dataRow ) End Function