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Designing & Building Structured Business Reports with ColdFusion MX 7

Adam Lehman

ColdFusion Specialist

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Today’s Discussion

What are the benefits over traditional reporting options?

How easy is it to create structured business reports in ColdFusion?

Demo

Q&A

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Structured Data on the Web – Today’s challenge

• Building reports with HTML is difficult and time consuming

• Poor quality results

• Not printable or portable

• Costly third party add-ons, poor integration

The Challenge

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The ColdFusion MX 7 Solution

• High-quality, structured business reports in the context of your applications

• ColdFusion Report Builder for fast & easy report design

• Seamless integration into your existing web applications

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3 Parts of Reporting

Reporting is a core part of ColdFusion

No need for additional server software!

Report Builder CFR File Report Engine

Design Define Deliver

.cfr.cfr

ColdFusion Server

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Report Builder

Free Windows-based report design tool Included with all ColdFusion installations

Download the latest version from Adobe.com

Features ‘Banded’ design metaphor

Wizards for common tasks

Property inspector

Live preview

Integrated help

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Report Template

New file type - .cfr

Call CFR pages directly from the browser No plug-ins to intall

Binary format Edit with the ColdFusion Report Builder tool

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Report Engine

Built into the core of ColdFusion MX 7

Binds data, parameters with CFR

Generates PDF, FlashPaper & Excel

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Follow along with your instructor as we use the ColdFusion Flex Application Wizard to build a complete ColdFusion powered Flex database front end (supporting data retrieval, insert, update, and delete) – all without writing a single line of code!

Demo

Follow along with your instructor as we explore the ColdFusion Report Builder tool

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Benefits over HTML Reports

Improved user experience

Pixel perfect layout control

Printable and portable

Automatic formatting of groups and totals

Multi-columns, paper sizes

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Benefits over external reporting solution

• Share variable scopes

• Familiar CFML language

• No added cost or installation and management

• No additional client software

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Next Steps

Download a free 30-day trial of ColdFusion MX http://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads.html

Download the free ColdFusion MX 7 Report Builderhttp://www.adobe.com/support/coldfusion/downloads.html

Getting Started with ColdFusion MX 7http://www.adobe.com/go/cfmx7_getstarted

2006 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All Rights Reserved.