Index

Report Inspector

Introduction

Report Inspector is a helpful menus provided by JReport. It is a tool to view the properties of selected objects and sections. Some properties include color, width, location, and style. Report Inspector also allows you to edit and format those objects directly from this window for accurate and precise adjustments.

Reference Notes: Different types of objects will have properties of their own, please refer to User Reference book for the in-depth specifications for each property associated with different objects and sections.

Launching Report Inspector

To bring up Report Inspector, you can use one of the following ways:

• Menu
  Select Report Inspector on the View menu.
• Standard Toolbar
  Click the Inspector button on the Standard Toolbar.
• Right Click
  Right click the selected objects or sections, select Properties.
• Double Click
  Double click an object, Report Inspector will pop up.

Report Inspector

Structure

Data Source
Shows what Working Set you are currently using in the report.

Report Header Panel
Shows what objects are located in the Report Header section.

Page Panel
This section has three areas:

• Page Header Panel
  Lists the objects that are located in the Page Header section.
• Page Footer Panel
  Lists the objects that are located in the Page Footer section.
• Group Panel
  This section has three sub-sections:
  
  Group Header Panel
  Shows the objects that are located in the Group Header section.
  Group Footer Panel
  Lists the objects that are located in the Group Footer section.
  Details
  Shows all the objects in the Details section.
• Report Footer Panel
  Shows what objects are located in the Report Footer section.

Properties

Here we are just giving you a brief introduction to the general properties.

• Type
  Displays what type of object or section you have.
• Field Type
  Displays what type of field you have.
• DB Field Name
  Shows the name of the DB Field.
• Query
  Displays what query the field comes from.
• Table
  Indicates which table the field comes from.
• Column
  Name of the column from which the field comes.
• Data Type
  Tells you what format the field you selected is in.
• Formula Name
  If you select a formula field, this will show its name.
• Expression
  If you select a formula field, this will show the expression that makes up this function.
• Formula Editor
  If you select a formula field, click here to bring you to the Formula Editor.
• Summary Name
  If a summary field is chosen, this will display its name.
• Summary Function
  If a summary field is selected, this will show which summary function is used.
• Summary On
  If a summary field is picked, this will show which field is summed.
• Break Field
  If a summary field is selected, this will show how the summary field is grouped.

Reference Notes: Not all of these properties are available all the time. It depends completely on what fields, objects, or sections you choose. Go to Reference | Reporting Features for the detailed properties of each type of object.

Editing Objects in Report Inspector

Report Inspector can be used to examine and edit objects in a report. Whenever you click on an object, its properties will be displayed in Report Inspector.

Here are some examples for editing an object in Report Inspector.

Example 1: Changing Geometry

From Report Inspector, you can change the geometrical properties of shapes. Typically when we deal with coordinates, each section is a separate quadrant. The x coordinate goes from left (0) to right (720) and the y coordinate goes from top (0) to bottom (unlimited).

• X
  This property shows the horizontal coordinate for a field or object in a specific section. Modify the number, the object will move horizontally across the section.
• Y
  This property shows the vertical coordinate for a field or object in a specific section. If you adjust the number, the object will move vertically across the section.
• Width
  Adjust the width of a field, an object or a section.
• Height
  Adjust the height of a field, an object or a section.
• Top Attach Pos X
  Changing this number will drag the upper handle horizontally across the section, thus increasing or decreasing its width.
  

  This object's value in Top Attach Pos X was 125

  When we changed it to 0, the object's upper handle moved to the coordinate 0 thus expanding the object's area.

• Top Attach Pos Y
  Changing this number will drag the upper handle vertically across the section.
  

  This object's value in Top Attach Pos Y was 50

  When we changed it to 100, the object's upper handle moved to the coordinate100 thus decreasing the object's area.

• Bottom Attach Pos X
  Changing this value will drag the bottom handle horizontally across the section.
• Bottom Attach Pos Y
  Changing this value will drag the bottom handle vertically across the section.

Example 2: Changing Color

JReport has the option of changing the background and foreground color of any object.

Select one label field, go to Report Inspector and under the Color item, select Background and choose dark blue. Next, under the Color item, select Foreground and choose yellow.
The result of your color selection will be shown instantly on the screen like this:

Example 3: Changing Format

JReport lets you define the result format for various field types including currency, date, percent etc.

In this example, we select a field of currency data type. In Report Inspector, find the property TextFormat and expand it, then click Format. In the drop-down menu, select $#,##0.00 for the display format.

Index