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DEVELOPING COLDFUSION 9 APPLICATIONS
Working with Documents, Charts, and Reports
Report definition guidelines
To ensure a successful report, plan the following before defining it in the ColdFusion Report Builder:
• Report design issues:
Why are you creating this report? Who is the audience?
Audience
What data must be in the report? Where does it come from? Whether you use the Query Builder or pass a
Data
query to the report, plan the data in advance.
Are groups required? If so, ensure that the result set is returned in the correct order, and you define a
Grouping
group based on the sort column.
Are there fields that must be totaled or calculated? For column totals, use calculated fields. For
Calculated fields
calculated totals on individual rows, use SQL. For more information, see
techniques" on page 1019.
Does the report require variable input? If so, define an input parameter and pass values to the
Input parameters
report at run time by using the
techniques" on page 1019.
• Data retrieval strategy:
Query Builder and basic SQL
clause with sorting and a fixed set of selection criteria) and when you have to develop a report quickly. This method
also lets you specify
cfquery
Query Builder and advanced query mode
report definition. This option is also useful if the query comes from the
of queries; or is dynamically constructed with the
The cfreport tag and a passed query
report. For example, use this option if your application has a form that your clients use to construct dynamic
selection criteria.
• Related visual information:
For more information, see
Charts
For more information, see
Subreports
Managing fonts with printable reports
Ideally, reports achieve a consistent look across all client platforms and all browsers. ColdFusion handles this
consistency automatically for graphics and images, using the size specifications in the report definition. However,
potential differences in font availability across browsers, browser versions, languages, and platforms can affect the font
display for your report. A variety of factors ensure a consistent report display.
Embedded fonts
You can ensure consistent report display by embedding fonts. However, reports with embedded fonts have a larger file size.
Output format
The FlashPaper and PDF output formats handle embedded fonts differently.
FlashPaper always embeds fonts, which ensures that reports always display appropriately.
FlashPaper
PDF reports can optionally embed fonts, however, if your report doesn't use embedded fonts, ensure that the
PDF
fonts are available on the client computers.
tag. For more information, see
cfreportparam
Use this option when your report has standard selection criteria (such as a WHERE
options, such as caching.
Use this option when you use a ColdFusion query encapsulated in the
QueryNew
Use this option when you require more control over the result set used in the
"Using
charts" on page 1033.
"Using
subreports" on page 1033.
Last updated 8/5/2010
"Common reporting tasks and
"Common reporting tasks and
,
cfdirectory
cfldap
function.
1018
, or
tags; query
cfpop
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