Chapter 4 Managing a Report

Generating a Model Report

You can generate a report from the Report Editor window using:

• The appropriate command in the Report menu.
• The Print Preview window.
• The Report toolbar.

You can also generate a report without opening the Report Editor window using:

• The List of Reports dialog box.
• The End page of the Report Creation Wizard (if the Open the report in the Report Editor check box is cleared).
• The Generate Report dialog box in the Report menu of the model diagram window.

Generate Report dialog box

The Generate Report dialog box allows you to quickly generate a report template or an existing model report without opening the Report Editor.

Beside, you must select a generation action that will influence the generation output:

The report is saved in the PowerDesigner installation folder by default. You can use the Path tool to select another folder.

When you generate a report template, a temporary report is created in order to apply the template to your model. The report is printed or generated in HTML or RTF according to your choice and then deleted.

You can customize your HTML or RTF report using a presentation template before generating it.

For more information about customizing an HTML or an RTF report, see respectively the "Managing HTML format" section and the "Managing RTF format" section.

HTML report generation folder

Each time you generate an HTML report and change the name of the HTML file, a report generation folder is created in your Windows Explorer. It contains all the files associated with the generated report. HTML files, images and style sheet files are stored in this folder for example.

The folder name is composed of the name of the HTML file followed by _files and displays as follows:

Packages in HTML report

HTML reports respect the package tree view defined in your model.

To generate a report from the Generate Report dialog box:

1. Select Report→Generate Report from the model diagram window to open the corresponding dialog box.
2. Click the radio button that corresponds to the type of report you want to generate.
   
   The available templates or reports are displayed in the box below. If you select Report template, you can click the Select a Path tool to browse for the folder that contains the report templates.
3. Select a template or a report in the box.
   
   The name of the selected template or the name of the selected report display in the File name box at the bottom of the dialog box. You can type another name.
4. Select a generation action.
5. Click the Select a Path tool to browse for the folder where you want to save the generated report template or report file in case of an HTML or RTF generation.
6. Click OK.

Copyright (C) 2005. Sybase Inc. All rights reserved.