Kexi/Tutorials/Reports/Kexi Reports for Beginners

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Revision as of 18:13, 11 July 2010 by Jstaniek (talk | contribs)

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This is a basic beginner's guide to making a report using Kexi 2.2 or newer.

Note: You may click on the screen shots below to see more detail, and click the "back" button to return to this display.

We begin with a table named "masterlb" shown in data format. In this example, the fields are named "author", "title", "keywords", and so on. Before making a report, we create a query.

Select "Query" command from the "Create" tab of the main toolbar.

In the Query Design view, select desired table from the combo box and click the "Insert" button. A box representing the selected table appears with list of field names. Double-click on each field you want in your query.

The query columns will automatically fill with your field selections and with the table name, as shown next.

Let's suppose that, for your report, you want all the records matching "NEUROLOGY" in the field "keywords". Type in 'NEUROLOGY' under Criteria on the "keywords" line, enclosed with single quotes.

Now, select the "Save" button to save your query. You will be asked for name of the saved query; enter "neurology". In the screen shot below, name this new query is displayed under Queries category in the far left pane.

Next, to create new report that will display data defined by the query, select "Report" command from the "Create" tab of the main toolbar.

Click on the tab with database icon, to the right of "Properties". You will then be able to select an internal source for your report. The new query will be among the choices. Select it, and press the "Set Data" button.

At this point, before entering your data, you may wish to "Edit Sections" to create a header and other format options:

You may wish to put a label in your header. To do so, click on "Label" command from the "Report Design" tab of the main toolbar and then click in the Report Header area.

Notice that in the Property Editor you can enter your own Caption to replace the word "Label". You have many options for formatting the size, position, font, etc.

To enter fields into the body of your report, click on "Field" and then click in the "Detail" section. In the Property Editor, pressing on the "Data Source" property combo box causes a list of the fields provided by your query to drop down. For each field you create in the "Detail" section, select desired field from the "Data Source" list. This binds the fields on your report to your data.

Again, there are many formatting options. Save your report using the "Save" button. Before you switch to data mode, if you have set the data for the first time, you may have to close and re-open the report [this may be a bug that will be fixed in later versions].

When you switch to data mode, you have several options, including "Print" command. Your printed report should look great!


Author undisclosed. Text adopted and edited by jstaniek.