Report objects

Report Objects

All elements that are placed on the report are called objects. There are several types of objects, depending on the type of data they are displaying: text, image, barcode ... Band, page, and whole report are also objects. Objects may contain another objects, can be bound together or stand on the report not bound. Each object has its own properties, which we can change with the help of quick buttons, convenient menus or in the object controller.

The Designer represents reports as a collection of schematic pages. Objects are placed anywhere on the report pages and are used to define the report's appearance and to display various information, such as text and graphics. Objects which are included in the standard package are:

 - “Band” object : an area on a design page which behaves according to its type (e.g. Header band, Data band)

 - “Text” object :  displays one or more lines of text within a rectangular area

 - “Picture” object : displays a graphic file in “BMP,” “JPEG,” “ICO,” “WMF” or “EMF” format

 - “Line” object : displays a horizontal or vertical line

 - “System text” object : displays either system information (date, time, page number, etc) or aggregate values

 - “Subreport” object : allows insertion of another report design page within the host page

 - “Draw” category objects : displays various geometrical shapes (diagonal line, rectangle, rounded rectangle, ellipse, triangle and diamond)

 - “Chart” object : displays data in various chart formats (pie chart, histogram, etc.)

 - “RichText” object : displays text in Rich Text Format (RTF)

 - “CheckBox” object : displays a checkbox with either a tick or a cross

 - “Barcode” object : displays data as one of several barcode types

 - “OLE” object : displays any object using OLE technology.

The basic objects most commonly used are the “Band” and “Text” objects. You will learn about their capabilities in detail later in this chapter.