Kbase 16474: Differences Between Report Builder and Results
| Autor |
Progress Software Corporation - Progress |
| Acesso |
Público |
| Publicação |
10/05/1998 |
|
Differences Between Report Builder and Results
Differences Between Report Builder and Results
Report Builder
Report Builder is a graphical tool for the creation of
production and presentation quality reports. It
allows you to produce custom reports that select, analyze,
summarize, and present data from tables. It can be used
to create read-only reports from an existing database.
Report Builder is available for Progress 7.3A and above.
Report Builder is written in the C language, not in the
Progress 4GL, like many other Progress tools. Report
Builder allows a developer to create complex reports using
a graphical interface and menus, not by coding. It also
allows these already created reports to be run by end
users via the Report Engine. In V7, the Report Engine is
invoked with the _printrb command and 19 parameters that
allow input from the user for options such as filters,
print information, and report name. In V8, another
interface has been added to the Report Engine, called the
Table Interface. It allows the parameters which are input
to the Report Engine to be stored in a database. It also
includes several additional parameters to the Report
Engine. The Table Interface is invoked with the
_prore.exe command. The _printrb command has been
maintained in V8 for backward compatibility. Report
Builder is a Windows-only product. It is not available
on Unix platforms. Report Builder arranges information by
band line. The developer can create different line types,
such as Title, Page Header, Record, Summary, and Page
Footer. Lines and rectangles can also be added, as well
as joins, sorts, groupings, filters, calculated fields,
user defined functions, aggregates, totals, and
sub-totals. Printer configurations and fonts can also be
manipulated using Report Builder. V7 and V8 Report Builder
allows images to be embedded in reports. V8 Report
Builder can also integrate data from multiple databases
into a single report and perform outer joins.
Results
Results is an end-user query and reporting tool.
It can be used to create stored reports (queries) or
reports generated on the fly. Results is written in the
Progress 4GL language. There is both a Character Results
(Results I) and a Gui Results (Results II). Gui Results is
available for V7 or higher, Character Results is for V6 or
higher. Results supports a number of different views,
including browse, report, form, label, and export views.
You can use Results to update information stored in your
database, create reports, generate mailing labels, or
export information from your database into common software
applications, including spreadsheet and word processing
packages. Results allows you to create queries to search
for specific data in one or more databases. You can use
filters, calculated fields, aggregate fields, totals, and
sub-totals. You can also update, copy, create or delete
records in the database by using Results, if your Progress
license allows these capabilities.
Progress Software Technical Support Note # 16474