About frames About repeating frames

1-26 Oracle Reports Users Guide to Building Reports

1.8 Layout Objects

The topics in this section discuss basic concepts of layout objects; for more advanced concepts, see Section 2.4, Layout Objects . ■ About frames ■ About repeating frames ■ About frame and repeating frame sizing ■ About fields ■ About boilerplate objects

1.8.1 About frames

Frames surround other objects and protect them from being overwritten or pushed by other objects. For example, a frame might be used to surround all objects owned by a group, to surround column headings, or to surround summaries. When you default the layout for a report, Oracle Reports Builder creates frames around report objects as needed; you can also create a frame manually in the Paper Layout view. See Section 1.6.3, About the Paper Layout view . Create frames when you want to: ■ group together objects to ensure they maintain their relative positions during printing. ■ delineate sections in your report. Example: You want the top of each page to have a tabular format, but the bottom of each page to have a matrix format. ■ protect other objects from being overwritten. Example: A summary is centered under two repeating frames. Defaulting rules state that the summary must remain at a fixed distance from only the first object that can overwrite it; therefore, the summary is in danger of being overwritten by the second repeating frame. Enclosing both repeating frames with a frame will force the summary to maintain a fixed distance from both of them, and it will not be overwritten. ■ prevent an object from printing until other objects finish printing. Example: A summary is centered under two repeating frames. According to defaulting rules, the summary will print as soon as the first repeating frame finishes printing. Create a frame around the two repeating frames to ensure the summary prints after both repeating frames have finished printing. See also Section 4.9.1.2, Creating a frame or repeating frame

1.8.2 About repeating frames

Repeating frames surround all of the fields that are created for a groups columns. The repeating frame prints is fired once for each record of the group. When you default the layout for a report, Oracle Reports Builder generates one repeating frame for each group in the data model, and places one field inside it for each of the groups columns. Repeating frames can enclose any layout object, including other repeating frames. Nested repeating frames are typically used to Basic Concepts 1-27 produce masterdetail and break reports. For each record of the outer repeating frame, Oracle Reports Builder will format all related records of the enclosed repeating frame. You can also create a repeating frame manually in the Paper Layout view. See Section 1.6.3, About the Paper Layout view . See also Section 4.9.1.2, Creating a frame or repeating frame

1.8.3 About frame and repeating frame sizing