Introduction › Concepts and Facilities › Report Maintenance

Report Maintenance

Report Writer is an application that is used to define user reports.

Report Writer has the following features:

• A full screen report design and maintenance facility
• A report generation facility
• A scheduler for automating the production of reports
• A maintenance function for defining applications to Report Writer

A report definition is created using a text editor that lets you define the layout of a report on the screen. Report definitions are stored on a database and can be recalled at any time to produce the report or modify its format and contents.

Report Writer is designed to operate independently of the database in which the report data is contained and can create reports from data stored in any database that is defined to it.

A report definition consists of the following components:

Description

Defines control information about the report such as its name, description, and the application that it belongs to.

Sort fields

Define the order in which records are sorted on the report.

Format items

Are lines of text that are printed on the report—each format can consist of any number of lines, made up of both constant and variable data.

The following report items are defined for each report:

Report Header

Defines material printed at the top of the report.

Page Header

Defines material printed at the top of every page.

Data Formats

Define material printed for each record that is passed to Report Writer—there can be multiple data formats.

An NCL exit procedure can be used to determine which data format or group of data formats to use for each individual record. If there is no exit procedure, all data formats are printed.

Control Break Headers

Prints headings above groups of data. Control break headers can be printed each time a field on which the data is sorted changes value.

Control break Trailers

Prints trailers below groups of data. Control break trailers can be printed each time a field on which the data is sorted changes value and are commonly used for printing subtotals and totals.

Page Trailer

Defines material printed at the bottom of every page.

Report Trailer

Defines material printed at the end of the report.

Data is secured against illegal access by using the User Access Maintenance Subsystem (UAMS) facility. Report Writer interfaces to Print Services Manager (PSM) for the management of report output.