4.5.2  Designing a Meta-Template

Before you begin designing a meta-template, think about which properties and elements are common to the reports which will be created from the meta-template. For example, the layout will be identical for each report, as well as the page orientation. The reports will also generally share some elements as well, particularly in the report headers and footers.

When you design your meta-template, try to factor out as many of these common report components as possible, and design them into the meta-template. By incorporating these common components in the meta-template definition, you will be able to make future modifications in a single location, greatly improving maintainability. The changes that you make to the meta-template (outside of editable regions) will be automatically propagated to all reports that are based on the meta-template.

To define a new meta-template, follow the steps below:

1. Click the 'New' button in the Style Studio toolbar. This opens the 'New Asset' dialog box.

2. In the left panel, select 'Component' node.

3. In the right 'Type' panel, select either the 'Flow Meta Template' or 'Tabular Meta Template'.

 

The distinction between flow and tabular is the same as for blank reports, and determines the way that elements are positioned on the page. See Tabular Report Layout and Flow Report Layout for fur­ther details.

4. Click 'OK' to open the new meta-template.

5. Click the 'Layout View' toolbar button. Create a layout for the template as described earlier (i.e., Setting up the Layout Grid for tabular layout).

6. Click the 'Layout View' toolbar button again to exit Layout Mode.

7. Add editable regions to all the areas of the meta-template that you want the report designer to be able to modify. Follow the steps below:

a. Click the report area where you want to add the editable region. This places the insertion point at that location.

b. Click the 'Editable Region' button in the Toolbox panel. This adds a new editable region at that location

 

3. Insert report elements into the meta-template (inside or outside of the editable regions), as desired. See Inserting Elements.

Report element that you insert within an editable region can be modified by the report designer when they create a new report based on this meta-template. Report elements that you insert out­side of an editable region cannot be modified by the report designer (i.e., these elements are always referenced from the central meta-template definition). If you add a data element (chart or table) into an editable region, the report designer will be prompted to specify the 'Data Binding' for that element when they create a new report based on the meta-template.

Note: Meta-templates are saved together with other reusable components in the stylereport.srl file.

4. Click the 'Save' button. This opens the 'Save As' dialog box.

5. In the 'Save As' dialog box, enter a name for the meta-template and optional description, and click 'OK'.

 

You should enter a meaningful name and useful description so that report designers can understand the proper utilization of the meta-template. The name and description will appear in the 'New Asset' dialog box.

See Also

Creating a Report Based on a Meta-Template, for details on using a meta-template.

<< 4.5.1 Creating a Report Based on a Meta-Template © 1996-2013 InetSoft Technology Corporation (v11.4) 4.6 Report Properties >>