The models define the content in a report and
contain the data structures necessary to determine the presentation of the
objects at the viewer level. The data definition model provides a definition
for the report's database and data; the report definition model determines the
appearance and layout of the report objects that appear in a report document.
Note: To modify these data structures, and to
ensure that changes you make are committed to the server, use an appropriate
controller.
Model
| Objects
| Description
|
|---|
DataDefinition
| Fields,
Parameters, Groups, Sorts, Filters, CustomFunction
| Defines the
data structures in the report.
|
ReportDefinition
| Areas,
Sections, ReportObjects
| Defines the
layout and content of the report.
|
Database
| Tables,
TableLinks
| Defines the
database representation in the report.
|
Rowset
| RecordBatches
| Defines the
unformatted data in the report.
|
DataDefinition
The DataDefinition model contains the data
structures necessary to define the data that the report contains. It is
concerned with the following:
Where and how data is stored.
The structures used to store the data while
processing it.
The structures used to store the data once it
is processed.
The report's data definition is not concerned
with the layout of the report; it stores no information about graphics, charts,
borders, text objects, and so on.
The primary class used to contain the entire
data definition is the
DataDefinition class. It is the
class from which most other data structures in report can be retrieved.
ReportDefiniton
The ReportDefinition model manipulates the
appearance of the report objects that you see on the report. Report objects are
the visible entities that define a report. That is, they store information such
as size, position, and color, all of which form a blueprint that is used by the
SAP Crystal Reports Print Engine (CRPE) to construct a formatted report. The
functionality to apply formatting options to report objects is implemented in
this object model.
The ReportDefinition model uses the
DataDefinition model as its data source to define the structure and format of
the report. For example, a report can consist of a
TextObject
object, which displays either static text or text (information) that is taken
from a data source (for example, from the
DBField
object).
Rowset
The Rowset model is the data in the processed
report. It stores a set of rows from a table of data it has retrieved and
filtered in a flat format.
The RAS SDK retrieves rows from the RAS server
in batches of generally equal size. A batch is only retrieved when it is needed
or explicitly requested. The batches are stored in the
RecordBatches class.
You can use the
CreateCursor
method of the
RowsetController class to
create, navigate, and retrieve the rowset object for a report. However, it is
designed to retrieve records in batches, rather than to return all records on
the system. For example, it could be used to display a certain number of
records per web page.