4. Format Setup

The Format Setup step is not required but it is the step where you can really make a report take shape.  For each field there is a row of configuration that can be setup. 

Report Formatting - Detail

The Display Name text field allows you to enter an "easy to recognize" name for a column.  The name POSITIONTITLE might not be all that appealing in a generated report so we can change it to Position.  Any time the column name POSITIONTITLE appears in the report it is  replaced with Position. In the example shown below, all of the fields have been given a display name.  The Null String field is a text replacement which is used when there is no data available.  The default is to use the string null.

Expressions are used to create a row of summary data for a group in its footer.  If no expressions are selected, the group footer will be blank and not take up any report real estate.  The expression types are filtered based on the metadata pulled for the column.  We're not exactly sure what an "average" of a set of strings would look like!  For the report we are building in this example give ACTUAL, BUDGET and VARIANCE an expression of "sum." For each group, we will see a row at the bottom (footer) of the group containing these expressions.

Since we know the data uses US dollars we will add a Data Formatting string of "$#,###".  This format will attach a dollar sign in front of the data and force digit groups by comma separator.  The number 235832 in the database will appear in our report as $235,832.  For a detailed explanation of legal format strings please see http://java.sun.com/j2se/1.5.0/docs/guide/intl/overview.html for an explanation of each type of formatting.

The columns widths section might be a bit confusing at first, especially when trying to see the effect changing them has on the generated report output.  Column widths are only valid for details, not for groups.  The widths are percent based out of a maximum of 100%, you do not have to worry about the page type or margins.  The default values are created by dividing 100% of the space evenly by the number of details.  In this report we have 4 details, so each item gets 25% of the report width.  The POSITIONTITLE column contains significantly longer data than our numeric fields such as ACTUAL and BUDGET.  Because of this, we're going to give POSITIONTITLE 40% of the useable page width and divide the rest of the space evenly.  ACTUAL, BUDGET AND VARIANCE will each have 20% of the width.  All told, we make sure the total space accounted for is 100%, although it is not necessary, as we could intentionally use less space.

For fields that will be used as groups it may be desirable to page break after each set of data for the group.  This behavior can be turned on/off using the Group Page Break checkbox.  You might also repeat group headers on each page that the group spans.  This can be turned on/off using the Repeat Group Header on Page Break checkbox.

Each field has left horizontal alignment by default.  Numeric fields will be easier to read and compare if they are right aligned, so adjust ACTUAL, BUDGET and VARIANCE to right.  Alignment on groups sets the location of the group in the group header.  REGION is out outermost group and it may look more appealing if it is centered.  In this example we gave POSITION title right alignment as well.  Vertical alignment may also be specified and the default is to be aligned to the middle of the space.

Report Formatting - Group

If the default size of your window opens a bit small it chops off data in right column

The Master Detail option creates a special Group Header for the innermost group (the last group in the Groups list) with the group information appearing below the column headers and above the items.  Since the value is present for all rows in the group we get away with not producing redundancy and creating a cleaner looking report.  Since the master detail is part of a group header the background color for the group will be used unless specifically turned off.  The master detail will get its own column header as well, so we have to shift the columns accordingly.  This is handled by the Report Design Wizard automatically based on the widths given in the field setup.  Bear in mind that the width of the master detail must be defined as well or else it will have a width of zero and will not appear in the report, although I can assure you it present. Last part of this sentence lost me

These settings work well with this set of data, feel free to change any of the settings once we have finished with the report.  After hitting finish you can go back to this step, make changes and hit finish again to see what effect the settings might have on the report. See the screenshot above showing the Format Setup wizard step filled out as required for this guide.