Re: report engine

[rodrigo linuxave net]

Todd Boyle wrote:

> > > Comments? Suggestions?
>
> All reports should be transmitted as well-formed XML files.
> This doesn't break your custom app. but it sure helps
> users make alternative use of the server.
>

yes, that's why I think the best thing would be to return the XML report
file filled in with data, without inventing a new XML format for the
output. In fact, if you see at the IDL, the ReportOutput interface is
derived from ReportFormat.

>
> For example, if reports come in rows/columns in predictable,
> well-formed XML they can be transformed into other layouts
> including applying different filters and sorting orders, at
> the client without another trip across the LAN.  Even
> Quickbooks can't do that.
>
> GNUE users would share XSL stylesheets for display and XSLT
> transformations.  This lays a groundwork for your delivery of
> tagged data compliant with www.xbrl.org taxonomies.
>
> You don't have to adopt XML anyplace in your application.  Just
> send the data formatted with a few tags, and then, strip the
> tags out at the other end with string parser, if you don't want
> to adopt XML.   Live and let live,
>

I think we all agree in using XML as the base file format. Then, anyone
can use their own parsers, XSL, etc to convert this output to their
willings.

Also, as Carlos suggested, having an IDL interface to deal with the
report format structure will allow apps to modify reports without even
knowing it's XML-based.

cheers