Re: Alternate reporting tool for Oracle ?

I am presently working on a project that utilizes both Oracle Forms 4.0 and Oracle Report 2.0 and perhaps can contribute some experience that is relevant to your discussion topic.

In one of this project's applications, an end-user would be expected to be able to produce a certain kind of standard report. This end user would enter the data for the standard report via an Oracle Forms GUI, and the Forms program would pass this information along to Oracle Reports, which would generate the formatted hardcopy version of the output. The point here that is relevant to your question is that the user who was entering information in Oracle Forms would also be entering formatting specifications. These formatting specifications would be of a very simple type, such as how much space to allow between different sections, what "boilerplate" text selections (selected from a number of fixed choices) should be included in the standard report, etc. This input would be used to generate a report "template" which was stored in the database and which Oracle Reports would then use to generate a particular variant of the standard report. The point that I am trying to make is that you, as application designers, can provide the end-user which a much easier to utilize GUI interface to Oracle Reports by making the end user's selections for a report layout to be simply variants on a preset design that would be specific to that application. In this manner, their job is make easier and you remain gainfully employed!

• Bill Angel