Form-based Reporting

Form-based reporting delivers highly-formatted reports generated using Logi Info, via a web browser.

The following topics discuss form-based reporting:

• Adobe PDF Templates
• Microsoft Excel Templates
• Microsoft Word Templates
• The Template Definition
• Debugging Templates

About Form-based Reporting

Form-based reporting is a special technique in which developers create forms, or templates, with specific regions designated in them for data. At runtime, the Logi Server Engine retrieves data and fills-in the specified data regions, leaving all the other report layout and formatting information unaffected. Examples of popular implementations of this technique include the generation of employment applications, tax forms, health care forms, and invoices. The final content generated must accurately render the form and the data without distortion or other formatting changes.

Form-based reporting differs from web-based reporting in the way developers use Logi Info. For web-based reports, developers use Logi Studio as the design front-end and the data and report layout are built using report definitions.

However, for form-based reporting, other vendors' tools are used to create the actual output document layout, or template file. Logi Studio is then used to develop the data retrieval and data population scheme. To facilitate this, Logi Info provides templatedefinitions which are "blueprints" that indicate how data is mapped into the appropriate regions in a document.

Template files create with other vendor's tools are typically stored in the _SupportFiles folder but may be stored in any custom folder that you might want to create within your application root folder. Logi Template definitions are stored in the application's _Definitions/_Templates folder. In Logi Studio, these definitions appear in a separate Templates folder in the Application Panel.