Sun Report Builder Extension

Anyone who's worked with the OpenOffice.org Base report writer knows that it's....a first generation product. It works but it doesn't have huge features. So I’m particularly glad to see some work being done with reports, in the new Report Builder extension from Sun.

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/    for all extensions

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/reportdesign   for the Sun Report Builder

The Report Builder extension looks like it has a lot of powerful features, though not exactly easy to see how to use. I’ve spent a few hours with it and one thing that bugs me a bit is that the tab for selecting the data source for the report disappears if you click on something else first. Ease of use aside, though, it does have quite a feature set, including grouped records, sorting of records, different alignment of text fields, and calculations.

I'm going to have to spend a lot more time with this to really figure it out and give some procedures, but here's a short tour of the basics.

To use the Sun Report Writer extension, download and install it first. (Tools > Extension Manager). Then open the .odb database file for the database you want to create a report for. Choose Insert > Report, and you’ll see the report writer interface.

 

This is the tab that disappears too quickly. Select Table or another type of data, then select the actual source. Once you make that selection, the Add Field palette appears; use it to drag fields onto the appropriate section of the report.
   

Click the Sorting and Grouping icon on the toolbar to get this window where you have a lot of control over how the fields and the report behave.

 

When you’ve dragged fields onto the report, set options, inserted page numbers, and done other formatting, save the report. The report will show up in the Reports area of the main editing windows of the .odb database file.

 

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Comments

[Klaas]

Certainly, this looks like a great extension, but for the life of me, I cannot get the Add Field palette to come up.

No matter what I select for the source (table or query), the Add Field icon, and the Add Field menu item in the View menu are greyed out.

[Solveig]

Hi Klaas,

That's what happened to me first several times. I'm not sure if it's the same issue -- you have to pretty much not do anything before selecting tables and fields, or else the options go away.

Maybe try setting up a different type of table....a native one instead of a spreadsheet-based one, or vice versa? Or that old favorite, restart.

Solveig

[Klaas]

Thanks Solveig,

I've tried a number of permutations with a small native table, including both registered and unregistered, and trying the Insert report first thing after opening the database file, and making sure I had the table selected first, etc, etc.

No luck so far. I'll keep messing with it, but it doesn't look promising.

[Klaas]

After ignoring this for a couple of weeks, finally figured out what the story is.

When you start the Report Builder, there is a panel on the right hand side, with a tab called Data. You have to explicitly state which data source (table or querie) that you want to use - after that, the palette is always accessible.

So it was just operator error, in that I couldn't see the forest for the trees

[Tom]

If you go to the report navigator and click on the top level ("Report"), you can reselect your data source.

[Tom]

What I'd like is an explanation of how to do a simple conditional printing function.

[Tom]

I figured out some things about conditional print expressions. They do work, but...

The main problem I see with these is that they don't seem to be saved with the report.

[Solveig]

Hi Tom,

I would, too! ;> I haven't had time to work on the report builder more intensely and it's not something I find obvious.

Solveig

[Dave]

If you simply click on the grey background to the side/bottom of the report sections, it "selects" the report and you then have a "Data" tab in the properties pane which you can set the data source from. This should open up the ability to add fields.

[Solveig]

Excellent! Thank you.

Solveig

[Krzysztof]

I tryied extension - and i have two problems:
1. Why report header is after page header and page footer after report footer?
2. One of my fields contains long text - 5 to 6 lines on report - field is split between pages. Is possible do not split row of report between pages?

[Fisher]

After creating a small database, I used "Report Builder to make a report. The Time Field in the database shows the correct time but only shows time as being AM, never PM. Using the Wizard to make a report the time field reports properly. Any ideas?

[Fisher]

I just entered a new record into the database and the AM/PM is now working properly. Only the original 4 records are reporting AM instead of PM like is shown in the Table I am reporting from. I don't know what happened.

[Fisher]

I hate to beat a dead horse but this thing is driving me nuts. It appears that the report is okay from 12:00PM until 12:59PM Starting at 1:00PM and after it reports out as AM so it only reports properly from 12 noon until 12:59PM. After that the report always give me AM.

[Solveig]

Hi,

Sorry, but I haven't gotten the hang of it yet. there might be a site where you downloaded the extension, where you can report bugs.

[Kayapo!]

THANKS!!!
IT'S Save My LIFE!

[John]

What is the syntax for the function REPT in ReportBuilder.
see http://wiki.services.openoffice.org/wiki/Base/Reports/Functions

I want to count the number of occurances of a word in a column of data.
In this case the field is type and the word being researched is PL.

F_REPT_type="PL"

This does not work...any ideas...

[Solveig]

Hi John,

Sorry, I still haven't gotten into the Sun report builder tool. Try oooforum.org or maybe a Sun site?

Solveig