The Best Reporting Tool – Step By Step

The pages here walk you through the implementation of two of our reporting tools, Windward Reports Standard Server Engine and Windward Arrow. This procedure is composed of two separate processes.

The first process is incorporating the Windward Reports engine into your software program. Your system can then generate reports as requested via Windward Reports.

The second process is using our report tool to design the report templates. These reporting templates are fed to Windward Reports for it to use in generating final reports. While this part is generally implemented second, it's easier to explain the system if this part is described first.

All files displayed in this process are displayed as screen shots, allowing us to display the files without worrying about how a browser will impact that format. However, if you wish to view the actual file, you can click on any of the images to get the actual file.

You can also run a report from our website. This will generate a report when you request it, using either our java or .NET engine.

For the ultimate step-by-step, turnkey reporting solution, check out our new Portal product.

The Windward Templates

The Sample
Start with a sample report. This should be created in a word processor and saved as a rtf file.

The Data
Your data must be in either xml or a sql database. This example uses xml data.

XPath
When using xml data, elements are identified using XPath, an open standard of identifying an element in an xml document.
When using sql data, the elements are identified using a select statement.

The Template
The original sample report can now be edited to include commands and create a template for the reports.

The Windward Reports

PDF reports
The sample printed out as a PDF report.

DOCX
The sample printed out as a Word report using Word's DOCX format.

XLSX
The sample printed out as a Excel report using Excel's XLSX format.

RTF reports
The sample printed out as a RTF report.

Excel XLS
The sample printed out as an Excel report.

HTML/CSS reports
The sample printed out as a HTML with CSS report.

WordML
The sample printed out as a Word report using Word's XML format.

SpreadML
The sample printed out as an Excel report using Excel's XML format.

HTML 2.0 reports
The sample printed out as a basic HTML with no CSS report.

TXT reports
The sample printed out as a TXT report.