Task 5: Lay out the report
In this procedure, you insert elements in the report page to display the data from the data set that you created previously. You start by inserting a table element, then you insert data elements in the table. It is important to understand the functionality that the table provides. The table:
6 Drag CUSTOMERNAME from Data Explorer, and drop it in the first cell in the table’s detail row, as shown in Figure 1-14. The detail row displays the main data in the report. In the generated report, the detail row repeats to display all the data rows from the data set.In the layout editor, the table cell in which you dropped the CUSTOMERNAME field contains a data element that displays [CUSTOMERNAME]. Above this data element is a label element that the layout editor automatically added to the header row. This label displays the field name as static text. It serves as the column heading. Figure 1-15 shows the data and label elements.Figure 1-15 Data and label elements in a table
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10 Choose Preview, the tab at the bottom of the layout editor. BIRT Report Designer generates and displays the report in HTML format, as shown in Figure 1-17. Scroll down to see the entire report.As Figure 1-17 shows, the data is correct, but it appears in random order. It makes more sense to sort the data alphabetically by customer name. The report’s appearance also needs improvement.Figure 1-17 Preview of report data
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