About layout objects About layout defaulting

Advanced Concepts 2-25 numbers, it could also contain the locations LOC of the departments. The matrix might then look something like this: Job Loc Dept Analyst Clerk Manager New York 10 1300 2450 Dallas 20 6000 1900 2975 Chicago 30 950 2850 See also Section 1.3.7, About matrix reports Section 2.1.7, About nested matrix reports Section 2.1.8, About matrix with group reports Section 4.9.1.3, Creating a matrix object Section 4.8.8, Creating a matrix cross-product group Section 4.5.3, Creating a nested matrix report

2.4 Layout Objects

The topics in this section build on the basic concepts discussed in Section 1.8, Layout Objects . ■ About layout objects ■ About layout defaulting ■ About images ■ About anchors ■ About changing colors and patterns ■ About resizing objects ■ About moving and layering objects in the Paper Layout view

2.4.1 About layout objects

Several important concepts and properties apply to layout objects: ■ the frequency with which you want the object to appear in the report, specified by the Print Object On property ■ how Oracle Reports Builder fetches and formats data for instances of repeating frames, specified by the Column Mode property ■ whether to keep an object and the object to which it is anchored on the same logical page, specified by the Keep With Anchoring Object property ■ whether to try to keep the entire object and its contents on the same logical page, specified by the Page Protect property ■ format triggers, which are PLSQL functions executed before an object is formatted that can dynamically change the formatting attributes of objects ■ report layout, generated by defaulting applied by Oracle Reports Builder, modified in the Paper Layout view, or created from scratch. 2-26 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports See also Section 4.5.4, Creating a default layout for a report Section 4.10.2, Creating a default layout for a section Section 2.6.13.2, About format triggers The Properties section of the Oracle Reports online Help

2.4.2 About layout defaulting

When you select one of the default layout styles in the Report Wizard, Oracle Reports Builder creates the necessary layout objects, based upon the reports data model. For example, if you want to build a mailing label report and have defined an appropriate data model, simply choose the mailing label default style. Oracle Reports Builder automatically creates the reports layout objects and displays them in the Layout Model view. You can completely customize any default layout you create. You can cut, copy, paste, move, resize, and edit each layout object that Oracle Reports Builder generates for you. Layout defaulting is governed by the following rules: ■ All previously-defined layout objects for the report will be overwritten including format triggers unless you define the area in which you wish to create the layout as one which does not already contain layout objects. ■ One report can have any number of different formats. For example, you can build a report that has a tabular format on the top of the first page, and a matrix format on the bottom of the same page by creating an additional report layout see Section 4.5.5, Creating an additional report layout . ■ Once you have created a report layout, any further changes you make to the data model will not automatically be included in the layout. For example, if you create a query after you have created a report layout and then run your report, the data from the new query will not appear in the report output. To incorporate your changes, you need to either redefault or modify the layout. Oracle Reports Builder defaults report layout according to the following rules: 1. Unless otherwise noted, a group with a Print Direction of Across defaults identically to a group with a Print Direction of Down, except that the default format is transposed. To quickly determine the defaulting of an Across group, do the following: ■ Draw the down layout for the group on translucent paper. ■ Turn the page over as if it was a page in a book. ■ Rotate the page counter-clockwise 90 degrees. 2. In form letter reports, all default fields are hidden, and have a Horizontal Elasticity property setting of Variable and a Vertical Elasticity property setting of Fixed. In all other reports, all default fields have a Horizontal and Vertical Elasticity property setting of Fixed. Exception : For tabular, form-like, group leftabove, and matrix reports, the default for CHAR if you reduce the default width and LONG fields have a Horizontal Elasticity property setting of Fixed and a Vertical Elasticity property setting of Variable. As a result, all of the fields value will be displayed, instead of truncated, by word-wrapping any data to the next lines. Advanced Concepts 2-27 3. Summaries that are owned by the report, not by a group, are allowed in all report layout styles. They are all formatted in the following way: ■ If the layout style is form-like, form letter, or mailing label, the summary is a report column. A report column is formatted like any other database column for that report style. ■ If the layout style is tabular, group leftabove, or matrix, and the column on which the summary performs its function is not selected, the summary is a report column. It is formatted as stated in the bullet above. Otherwise, the summary is a report summary. It is formatted left-justified at the end of the report, with the label to the left of the field if there is room. 4. If the layout style is tabular, group leftabove, or matrix, a summary is defaulted like a database column if the column it summarizes is not selected. Otherwise, a summary is defaulted like summaries that is, appearing inside the M_groupname_ FTR frames. 5. If the layout style is tabular, group leftabove, or matrix, Oracle Reports Builder places one summary type per line, in the following order: ■ SUM ■ AVERAGE ■ MINIMUM ■ MAXIMUM ■ COUNT ■ FIRST ■ LAST ■ OF TOTAL ■ STANDARD DEVIATION ■ VARIANCE 6. If the layout style is tabular, group leftabove, or matrix, the summary label will appear to the far-left of the group footer frame M_groupname_FTR. If there is not room for the full label, the label will be truncated. See also Section 4.5.4, Creating a default layout for a report Section 4.10.2, Creating a default layout for a section

2.4.3 About images