Each report and report section has configurable properties that you can modify through a Property window. By default, the Property window is displayed any time you open the Report Composer interface. If you have closed the Property window, you can open it again by clicking View > Property Window, or by clicking the Property Window button on the Standard toolbar.
To configure properties of a report, expand the drop-down list at the top of the Property window, then scroll to the first entry (Report: reportname) and click it. The Property window lists the properties associated with the entire report.
Properties that apply to the report as a whole include the following:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| (Name) | The name used by AcuBench to refer to the report (by default, Report1). This name appears in a number of paragraph names in the generated report code. |
| Num Columns
(N-Top) |
If you are using an N-Top style report, this determines the number of columns used. The AcuBench default is 1. This property is disabled for a Standard-style report. |
| Output File Name | The name of the file written to disk. By default, this is the name specified with the (Name) property with an .html extension. |
| Output File Variable | A variable used to hold the name of the file written to disk. |
| Paper Size | Click the browse (...) button to open a dialog box that allows you to select a paper size, set margins, and specify header and footer information. The default paper size is Letter. |
| Report Style | There are two options: Standard or N-Top. If you plan to print your report to a device, select Standard. When you select N-Top, the report is configured to be viewed in a browser with a horizontal scroll bar. Because N-Top is a display orientation only, reports with this property are not meant to be printed. |
| Target Browser | Select from Specify Internet Explorer or Standard HTML options. |
| Title | The title entered here appears in the title bar when the report is viewed with a Web browser. It also appears in the first line of the print preview. Note that this title does not appear if you display the report with a Web browser control inside an ACUCOBOL-GT screen. |
| Watermark | Use this property to select a graphic as a background image for the report. Bitmap (.bmp or .dib), JPG, and GIF formats are supported. |
| Watermark Style | Select from three options: None, Center, or Tile. If you select None, the default, the Watermark property is ignored and no image is printed. |
When you work in the Report Composer interface, each report section is indicated by a gray bar, which appears above the section. This bar indicates the section type and name and may include additional information about the section. To change the properties for a section, click this section bar. The name of the section appears in the drop-down box at the top of the Property window.
Section properties include the following:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
| (Name) | The default section name is derived from the report name. You can change this name if desired. |
| Color | The default value for this property is 131329, foreground black on background white. Setting this property at the section level colors the background of the report and sets default colors for all report controls in the section. |
| Color Variable | Instead of setting a color value, you can specify a variable that will hold the color settings for the section. |
| Font | Setting the Font property at the section level sets the default font for all controls in the section. |
| Lines | This property represents the amount of space in a standard page that is reserved for printing a report section. This space is measured in either inches or centimeters, according to the Tools > Options settings that you have specified. For more information, see Customizing the Report Composer Interface. |
| Print After Page Footer | This property is available only for the report footer section. It determines whether the report footer prints before or after the page footer. The default value is FALSE. |
| Print Before Page Header | This property is available only for the report header section. It determines whether the report header prints before or after the page header. The default value is FALSE. |
| Print Condition |
A print condition can be use to determine when a particular section is printed. AcuBench uses the condition that you enter
here to construct an IF statement in the generated code. This means that your entry is something like: user-name NOT = "chris" You can type the print condition directly into the drop-down list in this property's Value cell (use Ctrl+Enter to move the cursor to a new line), or click the browse (...) button to open the Expression Builder interface. The Expression Builder is discussed in the section Setting Print Conditions. |
| Size | Specify the width of the page in which this section is printing. As with the Lines property, the width is measured in either inches or centimeters, according to the Tools > Options settings that you have specified. For more information, see Customizing the Report Composer Interface. |
| Skip Page after Print | Select TRUE or FALSE to determine whether a page break is printed after the selected report section. |
| Skip Page before Print | Select TRUE or FALSE to determine whether a page break is printed before the selected report section. |
| Visible | Select TRUE or FALSE to determine whether the specified control or section is printed. Selecting FALSE for a group section prevents the controls in the group from printing, but does not inhibit detection of the breakpoint. |
| Visible Variable | Specify the name of the variable that will hold the Visible setting for the selected report section. |
| Zebra | This property applies only to the detail section. Enter a value between 1 and 16 to alternate different background colors for each physical row of the detail section. The specified background color alternates with white. The default value is 0. |