Features

Defining data elements in Windward Reports: Simple, yet powerful...

• Uses Word or Excel for report layout.
• Supports most Word & Excel features.
• Intelligently handles number formatting and many Excel functions such as SUM.
• Accepts data from any XML, SQL, or custom datasource.
• For xml, uses xpath for all data substitution commands. Xpath is very powerful, yet easy to understand.
• For sql, uses sql select commands.
• Examples include using it from a servlet, from a JSP, from C#, from an ASP, etc.
• Users can write beans that can perform final processing on the output of a tag.
• A tag <wr:function ... /> that performs functions including Sum, Average, Max, Min and Count.
• Can be called directly from Java or .NET.
• Data tags in the template use an xpath syntax, as in this example:
  "< wr:out select="/order/customer/first_name"/>"
  This gives you complete control over what data to display, to enumerate through, and the order of enumeration.
• Include forEach-end, if-end, and if-else-end statements as needed. You can even nest these functions to create highly sophisticated report formats.
• Pass your report template to Windward Reports, along with your data, and it will output your final report, complete with all of the formatting and positioning you specified.

What could be simpler? Windward Reports is the logical choice for busy professionals with better things to do with their time and money.

Technical Details

Windward Reports is currently available as a Java library (.jar) requiring java 1.3 or later, or a .NET library (.dll) requiring .NET 2.0.

It can be used standalone or as part of an application. Using it as a reporting engine in a server environment is most common, including calls to Windward Reports from both servlets and JSPs/ASPs.

Windward Reports can accept data from an XML datasource or a SQL database. It also provides the ability to easily write a small amount of code to accept data from any other source.

Windward Reports comes with numerous example files, including report templates and how-to sample files.

AutoTag

The AutoTag add-in for Microsoft Word and Excel greatly simplifies data layout and data-source mapping, allowing even non-programmers to automatically insert and validate tags in the template.

AutoTag integrates as a pull-down menu item in Word or Excel, and automates data-source mapping, database connection and tag editing. Non-programmers—finance executives, business users, even marketers—and programmers alike will benefit from its easy, instant tag creation and validation.

Sample Commands

• <wr:chart .../> - Creates charts & graphs from the passed in data.
• <wr:escape select="/xpath"/> - writes the raw data as is to the report. This allows specific commands for each report type of any kind.
• <wr:forEach select="/xpath">... </wr:forEach> - will repeat the contents of the template between the forEach-end once for each items element matching the xpath in the xml file. Inside the forEach-end there can be commands like <wr:out select="./price"> to substitute in data.
• <wr:function select="./" function="SUM"/> - Performs a function on a set of data and outputs the result.
• <wr:html select="/xpath"/> - understands a subset of the html formatting commands and places them at this location in the report.
• <wr:if select="/xpath">... </wr:if> - will include the contents of the template between the if-end only if the specified element matching the xpath exists in the xml file. There is also a <wr:if test="${item}"/> to evaluate the if based on data elements.
• <wr:if select="/xpath">... <wr:else/>... </wr:if> - includes the contents of either the if or else part of the template, depending on if the specified element matching the xpath exists in the template.
• <wr:import url="/xpath"/> - replaces this with the contents of the file whose file name matches the xpath. Will handle .txt, .jpg, .jpeg, & .png files.
• <wr:link url="/xpath">... </wr:link> - The link pointed to by the xpath is associated with a hotspot of the text surrounded by the link/end.
• <wr:out select=":/xpath"/> - replaces this with the element matching the xpath from the xml file. Optional attributes are default, type, and pattern giving full control over the final text. There is also a <wr:out value="${item}"/> to display data elements.
• <wr:query select="./" var="base"/> - saves a dataset for later reference using ${base}
• <wr:set name="invoice" value="1358"/> - saves a value for later reference using ${invoice}

Windward Arrow

Windward Arrow, a powerful reporting portal engine, allows any business user to easily design reports and get access to their data without taxing IT resources. This product can be installed and operated completely independent of programmers. Arrow reduces total cost of generating and managing reports by allowing business users to create their own reports as expertly as a programmer would do it. Like the Windward Reports Standard Server Engine, this portal product works with AutoTag, an add-in to Microsoft Word and Excel, to allow easy report design.

The portal interface encompasses the entire reporting process, leading users through a step-by-step data connection and set up process, to report creation and management. Documents can be generated by merging data from your data sources into a template for a wide array of outputs — DOCX, XLSX, PDF, RTF, HTML, WordML, XLS, SpreadsheetML, TXT and multi-part MIME email. Documents like these, or charts and graphs as well are now at your finger-tips. Reports can also be scheduled for days, months or weeks in advance to run automatically.