Windward Reports.
Windward Reports is a fast, easy, and powerful system that allows you to quickly layout
reports using Microsoft Word or Excel and then create reports in numerous output formats format using
a SQL databse or an xml file for the data and the Word or Excel document you created as the report template.
How it Works
Very simply, with Windward Reports you lay out your report in Microsoft Word or Excel. In Word/Excel you use all
of it's powerful layout and formatting properties to set exactly how you want the report to look.
Where you want data in the report, you type the following directly into the Word/Excel document
"<wr:out select='/order/customer/first_name'/>". You can also put in a forEach/end, an if/end, and an
if/else/end. In the case of a forEach/end, as it iterates through each element, inside the
while you can have additional <wr:out .../> replacements.
Once you have created the report, it is saved. You then feed Windward Reports
this template file and a datasource, and it then merges the data into the template
and creates a final report, with all of the formatting and positioning as set in your original
template. This final report can be written in numerous standard formats.
Elements are indentified within the <wr:out.../> commands using xpath or sql. So it is a very powerful
and complete system available to specify what data to display, what data to enumerate
through, and what order to enumerate in.
Using Windward Reports
The Windward Reports website is
www.windwardreports.com