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Creating report of type Internal

General concept of Internal reports

Report of type Internal it build from blocks called Elements. These elements are distributed in hierarchy that sets execute order sections grouped into blocks.

When registering element, it's distribution is decided by value entered in field Weight. Elements can be nested, meaning that for every element user can point another element, so called Master element. When registering report processing section of elements goes in recursive manner, meaning that at first elements are processed based od hierarchy (ascending weight), next elements without set master elements (unless when processing element it turns out that thus element is parent to other elements. In that case algorithm shifts to child elements processing (here you can learn od details)). For child elements the hierarchy is set relative to master element.

Let's look at below example:

After processing elements A and B section C is processed.

On below image elements D,E and G are considered as child of C element and their hierarchy is set accordingly: D=1,E=2 and G=3 what means that first in order to process is element D (and all his child elements - in this case no such elements), then element E (and all his child elements - in this case element D) and then element G (and all his child elements - in this case no such elements).

Case is different for elements E and F. Both of them are blocks of multiple processing and element E is unconditionally master element to element F, meaning processing element F will always have place.

In this case after processing each element E (number or processings is equal to number of rows returned by SQL query in SQL section of this element) goes multiple processing element F what can be illustrated by following pseudo code:

FOREACH ELEMENT E
......... 
    FOREACH ELEMENT F 
    ........ 
    END FOREACH
END FOREACH  

In mentioned example while generating report there are 2 possible scenarios of element analysis:

a) when in element C variable $status will be set to 1 processing order will be following: A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,J

b) when in element C variable $status will be set to 0 processing order will be following: A,B,C,H,I,J

As you can see thanks to conditional element IFTHEN you can decide what elements and when will be processed. Thanks to that we gain high flexibility in terms of final report look.

Element types

In ProReports system are defined following types:

Element schema - sections

Each element is build from the same sections (fields):

• Symbol - shortened element name, e.g. letter in alphabet - A
• Type - type of element (read more on elements here)
• Weight - sets element hierarchy (here you can read more about it) in terms of other elements that belong to common group (having the same master element)
• Master element - points master element for registered element
• Description - any description of element's function
• SQL - SQL query linked with element

• Expression/Code before Template - section of PHP code executed after downloading record from database (after executing query from SQL section)
• Template - section that after processing variables is attached to result file of a report (all merged sections of a Template of processed elements are report result - if you are dealing with PDF report, this outcome it converted into PDF file
• Expression/Code after Template - section of PHP code executed after processing Template section

Processing element section while generating a report

Processing each element in report of type Internal goes according to below algorithm:

From algorithms described above emerges that only Template section is attached to result file and has direct influence on final result. However equally important is freedom of filling in sections Expression/Code before Template and Expression/Code after Template' with any PHP code, what creates infinite possibilities of building a report.

Associate tables on element sections

In sections:

• SQL
• Expression/Code before Template
• Template
• Expression/Code after Template

of every element while creating report you can use predefined association tables:

$P - table with parameters passed from form, e.g. when in form was field Date then, it's value will be passed as $P[Date]

$F - table with values of row's fields that was returned by SQL query defined in section SQL of element. Every iteration (look processing algorithm) sets date for another row. Following convention is used:

$F[<element_symbol>_<field_name_returned_by_SQL_query>]

e.g. $F[A_login] (A- section Symbol of element, login - field name).

For example, in section SQL of child element B you can use:

SELECT year FROM years 
   WHERE age="$F[A_age]"

where $F[A_age] - value set in master element of A.

$V - in this table you can create any variables which scope is global, meaning that variable created in certain element is available i every other element that is processed after element that defines this variable. Variables can be defined in following sections:

• Expression/Code before Template
• Expression/Code after Template

e.g. $V[data]=date("Y-m-d") defines current date.

$data=date("Y-m-d")

global $login    ;
$V[login]=$login ;

var_dump($P);
var_dump($V);
var_dump($F);