Dynamic columns

[GeertPoels]

Hello,

 

I'm kinda stuck with the design of a report.

This report has to show the content of several rows, where each row consists of multiple columns.

No big deal.

The tricky part is that the columns should be configurable.

This means that each rows consists of let's say 10 columns, but the user of the report can choose which columns will be shown.

The space occupied by each column should grow or reduce, depending on the number of columns.

If a column cannot be widened enough to show all info, this info should be wrapped.

 

I tried using custom datasources, but I'm not too sure on how to implement these customizable columns.

To this datasource, I send my columnnames and get the corresponding values from the row.

As the columns are/can not be in the template, I have to manipulate the layout using spaces.

The result should be like a table.

This solution is bad.

 

Any suggestions ?

There's a thread in this forum on writing the whole report yourself.

This seems cumbersome if you have a lot of header/footer/headingfields to define. Or can you deduce these from a template ?

 

Thanks,

 

Geert

[jlong]

I am looking at a solution for my problem that may help you too. The key is to use a template engine like Velocity.

 

http://www-128.ibm.com/developerworks/websphere/library/techarticles/0505_olivieri/0505_olivieri.html