BEx Report Designer 

Use

The Report Designer is a tool you use to format and adapt the layout of your business data as a report (static or dynamic) and according to your needs. You can display this report on the Web. You can also convert the report into a PDF document to print or distribute it. For example, you can design the layout of a corporate balance sheet according to your needs and print it as a PDF document.

The data binding for the report is provided by data providers (queries and query views). The Report Designer generates group levels according to the drilldown state of a query or query view. These group levels contain row patterns for the initial report view. The layout and formatting of the initial view can be adapted to suit customers' requirements.

Integration

The Report Designer is a standalone desktop application. You can open the Report Designer directly from the start menu or call it in the Web Application Designer using the context menu for the Report Web item.

For more information about reports in Web applications, see Report.

Prerequisites

To create a report, a structure must be used in the columns of the query or query view on which the report is based.

Features

The Report Designer provides the following functions:

●      You can use standard formatting functions such as font, bold and italics, background colors, frames, and so on.

●      You can include texts, images, and charts in your reports.

●      You can change the layout of a report. The following options are available:

○       Insert rows and columns

○       Change the height and width of rows and columns

○       Position individual fields (such as characteristic values, key figures, filters, variables, user-specific texts) using drag and drop

○       Merge cells

●      You can apply conditional formatting to overwrite the design for specific characteristic values, hierarchy nodes, and so on, specified by the row patterns.

●      You can format hierarchies in your report. In doing so, you can choose whether the report is to be formatted according to hierarchy levels or according to the type of the hierarchy node. See Formatting of Hierarchies.

●      You can freely design the header and footer sections of your report, as well as the individual pages.

●      You can create reports made up of multiple independent sections that are based on different data providers (queries or query views). These sections are arranged vertically in the report. See also Static and Dynamic Sections in Reports.

●      You can define page breaks between report sections or for group level changes.

You can call the Report Designer functions using the menu and toolbar, and you can implement them using the various screen areas. See Functions of the BEx Report Designer.