Banded Report Writer (BRW) Changes for OI 10.2

The Banded Report Writer consists of a graphical design tool used to create a report definition, a .Net reporting engine which generates output from that report definition, and a .Net tool for displaying the output on screen. Internally, the BRW’s reporting engine consumes data from programmatic data sources (built in to OpenInsight) or from .Net data tables.

An OpenInsight 10.2 enhancement allows the entire report dataset to be sent to the BRW in one call. This provides an order of magnitude performance increase over the previously provided programmatic data source, which sends data row by row. BRW reports and RTI_XBAND will use this enhanced technique if possible.

RTI_XBAND emulates OLIST, except that it uses the Banded Report Writer engine to generate and display the output. RTI_XBAND converts an RLIST statement into a Banded Report definition and then executes the report. RTI_XBAND offers better performance and better support for color themes (for example, in green bar paper reports).

TCL, RUN_REPORT and OLIST will use RTI_XBAND to generate output if you specify the (X option with your RLIST statement. If you specify the (B option instead, they will generate a Banded Report, and then open it in the graphical designer to allow for additional customization.

Support for PDFFILE, CSVFILE, AUTOFIT, and COLORTHEME keywords have all been added (see COLORTHEME section below), as well as support for #RRGGBB html color specification (see COLORS section below).

The 10.2 reporting enhancements are also available to AREV64 applications. These new VOC entries access the OI reporting tools; because these are VOC entries, you can type them in to TCL, execute them using a catalyst code and command, or EXECUTE or PERFORM them from a Basic+ program. If there is an active select then the list will be passed to the BRW or OLIST processor.

From TCL, or a VOC script, or via PERFORM or EXECUTE statements, you can write list statements that will execute using RTI_XBAND, supporting the full OLIST syntax plus the COLORTHEME keyword:

RTI_XBAND from AREV64 with colortheme

From TCL, or a VOC script, or via PERFORM or EXECUTE statements, you can execute a pre-existing BRW report. Banded Reports can be created using the graphical BRW Designer, and can then be run via TCL or from ARev menus using a catalyst code and command.

Run a BRW report from ARev

Result of running a BRW report

As mentioned above, to execute the report and generate a PDF file, you can use the PDFFILE keyword, optionally specifying a filename. If you don’t specify a filename, OpenInsight will default to a guid. If you don’t specify a folder then OpenInsight will default to the user’s documents folder. OpenInsight will append the “PDF” extension to the filename if needed:

Use BRW to make a PDF from AREV64

The PDF file in the Documents folder

To launch the BRW designer, call AREV_BRWREPORT LAUNCHBRW. You can provide the name of a report to launch:

Edit a BRW report from AREV64

The RTI_XBAND_THEME_DEFAULTS record contains the list of themes that are included by default in the BRW Designer, and which are available to be used by the COLORTHEME keyword. Each field specifies the details of a different theme. This record is best edited in the BRW Designer GUI.

The RTI_XBAND_THEME_CUSTOM record contains theme information that has been customized in the BRW designer. These themes are also available to be used by the COLORTHEME keyword, and again is best edited in the BRW Designer GUI. Use the Add button to add custom styles.

The CFG_OIPI configuration record contains two values that are related to RTI_XBAND. If field 8 is set to “1”, then OList statements (for example, from the OI IDE TCL line) will use RTI_XBAND by default.

If field 8 is set to “1”, then field 9 contains the default theme to use in these RTI_XBAND reports.