Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Using Layout Component References

This is in continuation with my previous article about the advantages of using Layout Component References. Creating and using Layout Component References is very easy. You create a report, let us call this the source report, that has all the components like Header items, Footer items that you would be frequently using across various reports. Name all the components in the reports.



In the target report, drag and drop the Layout Component Reference object. Choose the source report and the components you wish to use.



If you wish to override some of the objects pulled in then select the object and click on the "Overrides" property and choose the named sub-component that you wish to over-ride. For example, for some reports you would like a different Logo to be displayed. You can override the report title but continue to use the styles, fonts set for that table cell.



A sample of the overridden layout component where the logo and the report title objects have been overridden:

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

sorry, this is a bit vague. you have mentioned creating layout component references. How did you save it? did you save it as a report and used the components?? or as a template?

I tried creating a report and also as a template, but when i tried to add the layout reference i couldn't find anything in the Available components to reference. Am I missing something?

Zephyr said...

All the required components need to be saved in a report. These components need to be named so that you can reference them in the target report.

When you drag the Layout Component Reference in the target report, choose the source report where you have all the components saved and pick and choose the named components you wish to add to your report.

Let me know if this helps.