Report Display Formats

You can choose from among several display formats for your report:

  • Web format: HTML. For more information, see Using Web Display Format: HTML.
  • Print formats: PDF (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format) and PostScript (PS). For more information, see Using Print Display Formats: PDF, PS.
  • Worksheet formats:Excel 2000/2003 HTML-based format, with variations for Excel 2000 PivotTable and Excel 2000 FORMULA, Excel 97 HTML-based format, and Excel binary format. For more information, see Saving Report Output in Excel XLSX Format.

A note about DHTML and HTML: DHTML is the absolute positioning version of HTML. As architected, format HTML generates output in a table-based format that leaves the exact positioning to the browser that is presenting the report. Format DHTML on the other hand is designed to render with the user-defined positioning in the same way as PDF. This means things should be positioned on the page precisely as defined in the report procedure. PDF, DHTML, PPT, PPTX, and PS are position-based. HTML and EXL2K are table or cell based. Therefore, DHTML output looks more like PDF rather than HTML.

For information about which file formats are available for saving and reusing (as opposed to displaying) report data, see Saving and Reusing Your Report Output.

Note: For styled output formats, setting the LINES parameter to 999 or higher generates continuous forms. When continuous forms are specified, but the output format has a physical page size (as is the case with PDF output), the column titles repeat at the top of the physical page, without page numbers.

For information about creating a StyleSheet, identifying and styling report components, and choosing a styled output format, see Styling Reports.

For advanced StyleSheet techniques and features that apply to styled output formats, see Advanced StyleSheet Features.

Choose a Display Format Using PCHOLD

You can display a report on screen using the ON TABLE PCHOLD command in a report request. 

ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT formatname

where:

formatname
Can be one of the following:

DOC

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a plain-text word-processing document, with page breaks, in Microsoft Word within your web browser. See ○k

Using Word Processing Display Formats: DOC, WP.

EXCEL

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel spreadsheet. See Saving Report Output in Excel XLSX Format.

XLSX

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2007/2010 worksheet. See Saving Report Output in Excel XLSX Format.

EXL2K

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2000/2003 worksheet. See Assigning EXL2K Format to Your Report Output.

EXL2K FORMULA

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2000/2003 worksheet, with WebFOCUS totals and other calculated values translated to active Excel formulas. (If your report does not contain any formulas, consider using EXL2K format since EXL2K FORMULA requires additional processing time.)

See Assigning EXL2K Format to Your Report Output.

EXL2K PIVOT

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2000/2003 PivotTable. See Assigning EXL2K Format to Your Report Output.

EXL97

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 97 worksheet.

HTML

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an HTML page. See Using Web Display Format: HTML.

PDF

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a PDF document (Adobe Acrobat's Portable Document Format). See Using Print Display Formats: PDF, PS.

PostScript 

(PS)

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a PostScript document. You must have installed a third-party tool capable of displaying PS. See Using Print Display Formats: PDF, PS.

WP

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a plain-text word processing document in the web browser. See Using Word Processing Display Formats: DOC, WP.

Choose a Display Format Using SET ONLINE-FMT

For a limited set of formats, you can display a report on screen using the SET command ONLINE-FMT parameter.

Outside of a report request, use the following syntax to specify a format for all report requests within the procedure

SET ONLINE-FMT = formatname

Within a report request, use the following syntax to specify a format for that request only

ON TABLE SET ONLINE-FMT formatname

where:

formatname
Can be one of the following:

HTML (default)

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an HTML page. See Using Web Display Format: HTML.

PDF

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a PDF document (Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format). See Using Print Display Formats: PDF, PS.

XLSX

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2007/2010 worksheet. See Saving Report Output in Excel XLSX Format.

EXL2K

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 2000/2003 worksheet. See Assigning EXL2K Format to Your Report Output.

EXL97

Specifies that the report will be displayed as an Excel 97 worksheet.

PostScript (PS)

Specifies that the report will be displayed as a PostScript document. You must have installed a third-party tool capable of displaying PS. See Using Print Display Formats: PDF, PS.

STANDARD

Specifies that the report will be displayed using a legacy character-based and line-based layout and a monospaced font.

Tip: ONLINE-FMT syntax will be superseded by PCHOLD syntax in future releases of WebFOCUS (see Report Display Formats). At present, they can be used interchangeably.

Specifying MIME Types for WebFOCUS Reports

In addition to creating reports in HTML format for display in a web browser, you can generate reports that can be returned to the browser and opened in a desktop application or in a helper application. In order for the browser to recognize and call the correct desktop application, you must associate the MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension) type of the report with a specific application.

For details, see the ibi™ WebFOCUS® Developing Reporting Applications manual.