Reportizer reports are stored in report repositories. A repository is a database, which stores reports in the table field (usually BLOB), or a folder with report files.
Opening / Registering a Repository
To open / register a repository, which is not registered in the application yet, click Open/Register Report Repository button or choose Report | Open/Register Report Repository... menu of main window. A new window will appear.
Select the repository type: Folder or Database.
For the Folder type, specify an existing folder from your file system. Note: To have the possibility to edit the repository content (i.e. add, edit, or delete reports in it), the user must have write permissions for the folder.
For the Database type, specify an existing database and a dataset (table or SQL query). Notes: 1. The dataset must have a field for storing reports and another field (or a group of fields) to uniquely indentify each record. It is recommended to use the primary key fields of the corresponding database table for this. 2. In the case of SQL query, to have the possibility to edit the repository content (i.e. add, edit, or delete reports in it), specify a simple one-table query; if the repository is not empty and you do not plan to add, edit, or delete reports in it, you can specify the query of any complexity which is supported by the selected database.
Click Next and specify the following:
- Field containing reports. From the list of available fields, select the field, which stores reports (or in which you plan to store reports). It is recommended to use a BLOB field for this. In some special cases, a large text field can be used.
- Key fields. Specify a field or a group of fields which will uniquely identify each record (and, thus, each report) in the dataset. The key fields will be shown in the list of reports after opening the repository.
Click Next.
Specify the unique friendly name for the repository and click Finish. This will register and open the new repository.
Navigating between Registered Repositories
To select another registered repository, use Back or Forward buttons or the corresponding items from Report menu.
Removing / Unregistering a Repository
To remove / unregister a repository, use Repository | Registered Repositories... menu. Removing a repository from the application repository list does not delete the data associated with it (including reports), it just unregisters it in the application.
Working with Reports inside a Repository
After opening a repository, Reportizer lists all reports from it in the left part of the main window.
In Report menu, there are several items to work with reports inside the repository:
| New... | Create a new report in the current repository |
| Create New Report Using Database Tour Pro... | Advanced users can create reports outside Reportizer using Database Tour Pro software. The created reports will be compatible with Reportizer reports. |
| Save | Save modified report |
| Save as... | Save report as a new report file (including file outside the current repository). |
| Rename... | Rename current report file to new name. Only for folder based repositories. This will give a new name to the report file in the current repository. |
| Duplicate... | Duplicate current report. Only for database based repositories. This will create a new record in the current repository and store the report to the corresponding field in this record. It is possible to specify values of other fields of the database table. |
| Delete... | Delete current report from the repository. For folder based repositories, this will delete the corresponding report file. For database based repositories, this will delete a whole record in the corresponding database table. |