Requirements for Creating a Report

To create a report, only two things are required:

• Data. You need data from which to report. If the data is protected by an underlying security system, you may need permission to report from the data source. In addition, the server must be able to locate the data source. For more information on data source locations, see the TIBCO WebFOCUS® Developing Reporting Applications manual.

  You can report from many different types of data sources (with variations for different operating environments), including the following:

  • Relational data sources, such as DB2, Teradata, Oracle, and Sybase.
  • Hierarchical data sources, such as IMS and FOCUS.
  • Indexed data sources, such as ISAM and VSAM.
  • Network data sources, such as CA-IDMS.
  • Sequential data sources, both fixed-format and delimited format.
  • Multi-dimensional data sources, such as SAP BW and Essbase.
  • XML data sources.

  For a complete list, see the Describing Data With TIBCO WebFOCUS® Language manual.

• A data description. You need a Master File, which describes the data source from which you are reporting. The Master File is a map of the segments in the data source and all of the fields in each segment. For some types of data sources, the Master File is supplemented by an Access File. For more information on Master Files and Access Files, see the Describing Data With TIBCO WebFOCUS® Language manual.

  By looking at the Master File, you can determine what fields are in the data source, what they are named, and how they are formatted. You can also determine how the segments in the data source relate to each other. Although you can create a very simple report without this information, knowing the structure of the data source enables you to generate creative and sophisticated reports.

  You can supplement the information in the Master File by generating a picture of the data source structure (that is, of how the data source segments relate to each other). Use the following command:

  CHECK FILE filename PICTURE RETRIEVE

  In the picture, segments are shown in the order in which they are retrieved. Four fields of each segment appear. For details see Displaying Report Data.