System and method of report layout

• US 20060005112A1
• Filed: 07/02/2004
• Published: 01/05/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 07/02/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Chang, Roger, McCully, Eric, Lilly, David
• Application Number:
  US10/884,012
• Publication Number:
  US 20060005112A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 715/250
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/103 Formatting, i.e. changing of presentation of documents automatic justification G06F40/189; automatic line break hyphenation G06F40/191
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 40/186 Templates

Abstract

A conditional layout system for rendering and formatting content in a report is provided. The conditional layout system comprises an element receiving unit for receiving a variable element referenced in a report element, a condition processing unit for calculating a condition value based upon an expression in the variable element, and an element rendering unit for conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the condition value.

Claims

1. A conditional layout system for rendering and formatting content in a report, the conditional layout system comprising:

an element receiving unit for receiving a variable element referenced in a report element, the variable element having an expression;

a condition processing unit for calculating an expression value based upon the expression; and

an element rendering unit for conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the expression value.

2. The conditional layout system as claimed in claim 1, wherein:

the variable element is referenced in a first report element; and

the element rendering unit conditionally renders a second report element in a report, the second report element associated with the expression value.

3. The conditional layout system as claimed in claim 1, wherein the element rendering unit conditionally renders the report element in a format style associated with the expression value.

4. The conditional layout system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a user interface module, the user interface module comprising:

a conditional style dialog unit for managing a variable element referenced in a conditional block element of a report element;

an expression editing unit for managing an expression of the variable element; and

a conditional explorer unit for associating a condition value of a variable element with a report element.

5. The conditional layout system as claimed in claim 1, further comprising a user interface module, the user interface module comprising:

a conditional style dialog unit for managing a variable element referenced in a conditional style element;

an expression editing unit for managing an expression of the variable element; and

a conditional explorer unit for associating condition values of variable elements with format styles.

6. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the conditional style dialog unit includes:

a style format receiving unit for receiving the condition value; and

a style editing unit for associating a format style with a condition value.

7. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the conditional style dialog unit further includes a variable dialog unit for creating and managing variable elements, the variable dialog unit having:

a variable receiving unit for receiving variable element management instructions; and

a variable editing unit for creating and managing variable elements in response to the variable management instructions.

8. The system as claimed in claim 6, wherein the conditional style dialog unit further includes a display unit for displaying the variable element namespace, expression and condition values.

9. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the expression editing unit includes:

an expression receiving unit for receiving a condition for which a format style should be applied to the report element; and

an expression application unit for calculating an expression value.

10. The system as claimed in claim 9, wherein the expression editing unit further includes a property selection unit for selecting available properties of the report element for use in the expression.

11. The system as claimed in claim 5, wherein the conditional explorer unit includes:

a style format receiving unit for receiving a format style associated with the condition value; and

a style format application unit for applying the format style selection to the report element when the condition value matches an expression value calculated using the expression.

12. The system as claimed in claim 11, wherein the conditional explorer unit further includes display units to display selectable variable elements and their condition values, selectable report elements, and selectable format styles.

13. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a report element selection unit for receiving a report element on which to set a conditional style format.

14. The system as claimed in claim 5, further comprising a repository for storing report elements and variable elements.

15. A method of laying out a report, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a variable element referenced in an element of a report, the variable element having an expression;

calculating an expression value based upon the expression; and

conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the expression value.

16. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the step of conditionally rendering includes the step of comparing the expression value to a condition value of the variable element.

17. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein:

the step of obtaining includes the step of receiving the variable element in a first report element; and

the step of conditionally rendering includes the step of conditionally rendering a second report element in a report, the second report element associated with the expression value.

18. The method as claimed in claim 15, wherein the step of conditionally rendering includes the step of conditionally rendering the report element in a format style associated with the expression value.

19. The method as claimed in claim 15, further comprising the step of receiving a request to render a report element.

20. A computer data signal embodied in a carrier wave and representing sequences of instructions which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform a method of laying out a report, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a variable element referenced in an element of a report, the variable element having an expression;

calculating an expression value based upon the expression; and

conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the expression value.

21. A computer-readable medium having computer readable code embodied therein for use in the execution in a computer of a method of laying out a report, the method comprising the steps of:

obtaining a variable element referenced in an element of a report, the variable element having an expression;

calculating an expression value based upon the expression; and

conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the expression value.

22. A computer program product for use in the execution in a computer of a conditional layout system for rendering and formatting content in a report, the computer program product comprising:

an element receiving unit for receiving a variable element referenced in a report element, the variable element having an expression;

a condition processing unit for calculating an expression value based upon the expression; and

an element rendering unit for conditionally rendering and formatting report elements based upon the expression value.