Adding Data-Driven Components

What are data-driven components?

Data driven report components extract report data from the application database.

• Use paragraphs with useful built-in queries for displaying commonly used data. These include Network Tables, Object Attribute tables and Object Attribute Party tables.
• Use a SQL Table paragraph for more precise control over exactly what data is extracted.

Data-driven components have two layers;

• A data layer that contains a data table extracted from the application database

• A report layer where columns from the data table are bound to report table columns and formatted.

Building data-driven components

This is the process for building data-driven report components in the Paragraph Properties screen:

Define the data layer

Define the data to extract to the data table. Do this in the Data or the Query tab. Remember to click Apply when you have finished defining your data columns.

See these topics for specific paragraph types:

• Creating a Network Table Paragraph
• Creating a SQL Table Paragraph
• Creating an Object Attribute Table Paragraph
• Creating an Object Attribute Party Table Paragraph

Bind the data layer to the report layer

Click Bind Data to bind the data columns to report table columns. When you click the Bind Data button, the Report Editor does the following:

• Checks the validity of your data table definition
• Creates a report table column for each data table column and binds the report table column to the corresponding data table column.

Define the report layer

Define the content and format of the report table. Do this in the Table tab.

You can also add more report table columns that are not directly bound to data table columns. For example, add a calculated column that sums the data other columns.

See Working with Report Tables and Columns for more details