Actuate

e.Reporting
An Overview
Syed Amzad Ali

What is e.Reporting?
e.Reporting : The process of
summarizing and clearly
communicating the data collected
through various means through
the use of we rowsers.
Actuate is an enterprise reporting
solution introduced y Actuate
!orporation in "##$.

Actuate e.Reporting
Suite
e.Report %esigner.
%evelopers use e.Report %esigner to
create asic Actuate Reports.
e.Reporting System
Administrators use the e.Reporting
System to manage& generate& and
control access to Actuate reports and
other files in a Report 'ncyclopedia
volume. e.Reporting System includes:

Actuate e.Reporting Suite
( e.Reporting Server&
The underlying server software that
manages 'ncyclopedia volumes.
( )anagement !onsole&
A we application that administrators use
to maintain 'ncyclopedia volume user
profiles& reports& and report generation
schedules.
( Actuate Active *ortal&
The interface etween a we server and
'ncyclopedia volumes that gives users we
rowser access to e.reports.

Actuate e.Reporting Suite
e.Report %esigner *rofessional.
%evelopers use this o+ect oriented
application to create advanced reports.
e.Report %esigner ,ava 'dition.
A ,ava enaled Report %esigner.
e.Spreadsheet %esigner.
A report designer to ma-e spreadsheet li-e
reports.

Actuate architecture

Actuate Report .eneration
*rocess
Data sources
XML
ODBC
EJBs
Java Objects
COM objects
CORBA/DCOM
Ascii flat files
Excel files
Word documets
Etc !
Databases
Oracle
"#base
$BM DB%
$formix Olie
M" "&L"erver
'ro(ress
Etc !
EJB EJB
COM COM
e)RD 'ro
ROD
ROX
Re*ort "erver
D+,ML
e)"*reads-eets
.,/
Ec#clo*edia
Maa(emet
Cosole
Create Maa(e Deliver

e.Report %esigner
*rofessional
/ast report design
development and
maintenance
0 Report development wizard
0 Wizard cues
0 !ontent templates
0 1isual design
0 Simple dataase
connections
0 Sorting and grouping tools 0
0 !omponent(ased report
development
0 1isual layout
0 Referencing and
suclassing components
Replaces complex
htp and htf packages
which were used to
generate report
earlier.
Decrease the turnout
time of the report.
Provide more control
over report and
makes report more
user friendly.
KEY FEATURES USE

%evelopment power and
precision
(Actuate 2asic
(3niversal page layout
(%ata access fle4iility
(Output format fle4iility
*ersonalized& interactive&
actionale reports
0/le4ile report distriution
02rowser scripting control
0*age(level security
05ntelligent Report navigaility
KEY FEATURES
e.Report %esigner *rofessional

e.Report %esigner *rofessional

Report development wizard
e.Report Designer Pro offers a step-y-step
wizard to guide developers through creating new
e.Report designs. !oth data access and layout
are handled y the wizard" which generates a
finished e.Report that#s ready to run.
Advantage $ Rapid Application Development
e.R% *ro /eatures

%izard cues - &isual cues in the design wizard
enale developers to preview what the content
will look like as they make changes to design
options.
e.R% *ro /eatures

'ontent templates - e.Report Designer Pro
supports fast deployment with preconfigured
e.Report templates. (hese user-defined
templates can specify everything from corporate
standard formatting to data access operations"
giving %e developers a convenient starting
point for fulfilling common report needs while
ensuring consistency from design to design.
e.R% *ro /eatures

&isual design - e.Report Designer Pro supports
codeless report design. After creating content
with the wizard" users can ad)ust layout and add
new o)ects using simple drag-and-drop
operations.
e.R% *ro /eatures

*imple dataase connections %ith
e.Report Designer Pro" dataase connections can
e preconfigured so that users are spared from
having to know and enter complex dataase
connection information.
e.R% *ro /eatures

*orting and grouping tools - Re-entrant
tools allow users to visually add and change
sorting and grouping of the e.Report design.
e.R% *ro /eatures

e.R% *ro /eatures
'omponent-ased report development
e.Report Designer Pro allows you to pulish
customized components in liraries. (hese
componentswhich specify report elements
and methods that control the components#
ehaviorcan e reused across multiple
designs" which enales you to create new
designs faster" while you ensure consistency
from design to design. +n addition" you can
offer components to your end-users to enale
them to develop and customize their own
reports to extend the reports you provide.

&isual layout Developers can design
enterprise reports simply y dragging and
dropping data and formatting components in a
visual development environment. ,ost designs
can e completed simply y setting properties
that control component ehavior and
appearance.
e.R% *ro /eatures

Referencing and suclassing
components %ith e.Report Designer Pro"
report components are reused across designs
through referencing or suclassing. Developers
can maintain lirary-ased designs y making
changes only in the source lirary - all designs
that reference that lirary component will
automatically e updated. Developers also have
the flexiility to override certain characteristics
of a component y suclassing the component
from the lirary" so that they can change
characteristics they want" while inheriting all
other characteristics.
e.R% *ro /eatures

Actuate !asic e.Report Designer Pro
features Actuate !asic" a programming language
with o)ect-oriented extensions. Actuate !asic
enales you to override methods associated with
components" so that you have maximum control
over your +nformation Delivery options. -sing
Actuate !asic" developers can precisely control
every aspect of enterprise reports" including
structure" content" data retrieval operations"
formatting" and delivery.
e.R% *ro /eatures

-niversal Page .ayout e.Report Designer
Pro#s -niversal Page .ayout capailities enale
you to create reports that meet nearly any
formatting re/uirements to create nearly any
look and feel.
e.R% *ro /eatures

Data access flexiility %ith e.Report
Designer Professional" you can develop report
designs that display information from practically
any data source" including
transaction dataases"
usiness logic layers"
data warehouses"
flat files" and many more.
e.R% *ro /eatures

0utput format flexiility e.Report Designer
Professional lets you create report designs that
can e output as
high-resolution D1(,. pages"
standard 1(,. pages"
Adoe PD2 documents"
or 3,. content.
(his means that your end-users can have reports
any way they want them" and can even print
reports that look precisely the same on paper as
they do on the %e site. 2or 3,." e.Report
Designer Professional enales developers to
assign properties to components to add 3,.
tags to specific fields so that the resulting
reports can conform to any D(D. As a result" you
can create a single report design that delivers
information for oth visual and electronic
consumption.
e.R% *ro /eatures

2lexile report distriution - Reports
created with e.Report Designer Pro can e
deployed to the %e as on-demand or as saved
content. Automatic versioning" archiving and
scheduled generation enale Actuate reports to
e distriuted to a large user ase with ease.
e.R% *ro /eatures

!rowser *cripting 'ontrol -sing e.Report
Designer Professional#s !rowser *cripting
'ontrol" you can easily create actionale reports
for your end-users. (he !rowser *cripting
'ontrol enales you to create forms-ased
reports through which users can specify
preferences for re/uesting new information.
e.R% *ro /eatures

Page-.evel *ecurity During the report
design phase" developers can assign properties
to report components that determine which
users can access information contained in the
report" through the Page-.evel *ecurity function.
(his enales end-users to automatically receive
personalized views of enterprise reports ased
on their identity.
e.R% *ro /eatures

Report navigaility Actuate#s uni/ue
*mart*earch and automatic 4av!ar generation
features are automatically availale with all
e.Reports developed with e.Report Designer
Professional" with no added coding or other
effort re/uired. (hese two interactive features
make it easy for users to find precisely the
information they need.
e.R% *ro /eatures

!ommon Acronyms
Acro#m Defiitio
DHTML Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language
GUI Graphical User Interface
ODBC Open Dataase C!nnecti"ity
#$L #tructure% $uery Language
&ML 'xtensile Markup Language
&#L 'xtensile #tylesheet Language
&#LT 'xtensile #tylesheet Language Transf!rmati!n
(OD (ep!rt O)ect Design * c!ntains the rep!rt %esign
(OI (ep!rt O)ect Instance * c!ntains the "ie+ale rep!rt
(O& (ep!rt O)ect 'xecutale file * c!ntains the instructi!ns f!r
generating an% "ie+ing a rep!rt !)ect