Creating Reports with Report Designer

BEx Report Designer provides various functions for designing reports. You can use these functions to easily and intuitively create reports that are optimized for presentation and printing. You can use standard formatting functions (such as color selection) and make layout changes as required or according to your corporate design. You can do this by adding images, logos, or texts to the report, or by rearranging the fields for the query on which the report is based.

To create a report, you require a query or a query view as a data provider. The query or query view must contain a structure in the columns.

Select Data Provider

1. In the Report Designer menu bar, choose Report →   Insert Data Provider.
2. In the lower area of the open dialog, specify whether you want to use a Query or a Query View as the data provider. Then choose a data provider from your favorites or history view, or by using the search function.

   The selected data provider is automatically embedded in a report section and is displayed in the design area in Report Designer.

   Note

   To define a new data provider, choose Tools →BEx Query Designer (to define a new query) or BEx Web Analyzer (to define a new query view) in the Report Designer menu bar.

3. If you are using a data provider with an active hierarchy, a dialog box appears where you can choose how to format the hierarchy:
   • According to hierarchy levels
   • According to hierarchy node type

   More information: Formatting Hierarchies

Designing the Report

There are various options that you can use to design your reports. Since the design process varies from case to case, only the basics of the procedure and options are described here.

Using Standard Formatting Functions

Standard formatting functions include selecting the color, font, and border for individual report elements (cells or fields), for example.

If you want to add color to a cell, select the cell and choose Format →  Background Color in the menu bar. The color selection dialog appears. You can now select a color of your choice.

Making Layout Changes

The options available for changing the layout of a report include:

• Changing the Height and Width of Rows and Columns

  To increase the width of a column, select the outer right border of the column header and drag it along the length of the ruler displayed in the design area until you reach the required width. The column width is adjusted accordingly.

• Inserting Custom Texts into the Report

  When you insert a custom text into the report, you can select if the text should be language-dependent or language-independent. More information: Inserting User-Specific Texts .

• Inserting Images into the Report

  More information: Inserting Images into Reports

• Inserting Charts into the Report

  More information: Inserting Charts into Reports .

• Arranging Fields (Query Fields, Text Elements, or Custom Texts) Differently or Deleting Them
  • To move a field displayed in the design area within the report, select it and drag it to the required cell.
  • To delete a field displayed in the design area, select the field and choose Delete Field in the context menu.
  • If you have deleted a query field from the design area and want to insert it again later, or if you want to reuse a query field in the page header or page footer for the report, select the query field from the field catalog and drag it to the required cell in the design area.
• Inserting Additional Report Sections

  You can insert additional report sections (to insert comments or footnotes, for example), as well as a page header or footer into your report. To do this, choose Insert → Page Header or Page Footer or Report Section in the Report Designer menu bar.

  To insert a report section that is directly connected with data, choose Report →  Insert Data Provider in the Report Designer menu bar. The selected data provider is inserted directly into a report section and is displayed in the design area.

• Changing Formats for Rows

  To change the format for a row, you can use the standard formatting functions available in the menu bar and toolbars, or the format catalog.

  In the format catalog, choose the format from the standard formats or the specific formats (that you created) and drag it using drag and drop to the row whose format you wish to change.

• Creating Conditional Formatting

  To format certain characteristic values (such as customer XY) differently, you can use conditional formatting.  More information: Creating Conditional Formatting .

Saving the Report

In the Report Designer menu bar, choose Report →  Save. The BEx save dialog appears.

Enter a meaningful description and a technical name for the report and save it in your favorites or roles.

Executing the Report

Executing in the Portal

In the Report Designer menu bar, choose Report →  Execute. The report is displayed in the standard Web template for reports in the portal (Web). More information: Standard Web Template for Reports .

Printing the Report

In the Report Designer menu bar, choose Report → Print Version. The report is automatically converted to a PDF document, which is then displayed. You can print this document as required.

You have created and saved a report to suit your requirements. You can display and print this report as a PDF document or execute it in the portal.