Report Properties

To open the report property sheet, select Report > Report Properties from the Report Editor window.

The report property sheet General tab contains the following properties:

Property

Description

Name/Code/Comment

Identify the object. The name should clearly convey the object's purpose to non-technical users, while the code, which is used for generating code or scripts, may be abbreviated, and should not normally include spaces. You can optionally add a comment to provide more detailed information about the object. By default the code is generated from the name by applying the naming conventions specified in the model options. To decouple name-code synchronization, click to release the = button to the right of the Code field.

Language

Specifies the language of the report. Click the tools to the right of this field to edit the selected report language resource file or to change the path that populates the list. For more information see Customizing and Extending PowerDesigner > Translating Reports with Report Language Resource Files.

No paragraph numbering

Suppresses section numbers in RTF and printed reports. Paragraph numbering is not used in HTML reports.

Generate empty paragraphs

Generates titles for all book items, even if they have no content.

Title Page Tab

The report property sheet Title Page tab allows you to specify the contents of a title page for your report:

Property

Description

No title page/ Include title page

Select whether to include a title page. Selecting Include title page enables the other fields on this tab.

Title

Specifies the title of the report. Defaults to the name of the report.

Author

Specifies the report author. Defaults to user shown on the Version Info tab.

Date

Specifies the date of the report. Defaults to the current date.

Version

Specifies the version number of the report. Defaults to the version in the model property sheet.

Summary

Specifies any additional text to be printed on the title page.

Click the Format button to customize the formatting of these fields.

Note: For HTML reports, a home page is generated instead of a title page (see below). Title pages are never generated for RTF reports generated with a report template.

RTF Format Tab

PowerDesigner provides a set of predefined RTF presentation templates, style sheets, and header and footer files for generating RTF reports, which are located in the Resource Files\RTF Report Templates directory. You can use these files as a basis to create your own templates.

The report property sheet RTF Format tab allows you to specify an RTF presentation template for your report, and contains the following properties:

Property

Description

Template

Specifies the RTF presentation template to be used to style the report. Click the tools to the right of this field to edit the selected template (see RTF and HTML Report Presentation Templates) or browse to an alternate template directory.

Use sections header and footer

Specifies to use the header and footer defined in each report section instead of those defined in the RTF presentation template (see Modifying Report Section Headers and Footers. If you want to preserve the header and footer of the title page and of the table of contents page, you should add a section break after the table of contents.

This option is recommended when formatting a multi-model report, as otherwise all the pages of the report will have the same header and footer.

Note: Click the Set As Default button to specify your current settings as the default for RTF reports. To revert to the previously saved values, click the Default button.

HTML Format Tab

PowerDesigner provides a set of predefined HTML presentation templates, style sheets and header and footer files for generating HTML reports, which are located in the Resource Files\HTML Report Style Sheets directory. You can use these files as a basis to create your own templates.

The report property sheet HTML Format tab allows you to specify HTML presentation options for your report, and contains the following properties:

Property

Description

Template

Specifies the HTML presentation template to be used to style the report. Click the tools to the right of this field to preview, save, or delete the selected template, or to browse to an alternate template directory.

Style sheet

Specifies the style sheet to be used to style the report as an absolute or relative path or a URL. Click the tools to the right of this field to edit the selected stylesheet (see RTF and HTML Report Presentation Templates) or browse to an alternate style sheet.

Header / Footer

Specifies the HTML file to be used as the report header or footer as an absolute or relative path or a URL. Click the tools to the right of the field to edit the selected file (see RTF and HTML Report Presentation Templates) or browse to an alternate file.

You can also specify the height, in pixels, of the header and footer.

Home page

Specifies the HTML file to be used as the report homepage as an absolute or relative path or a URL. Click the tools to the right of this field to edit the selected file (see RTF and HTML Report Presentation Templates) or browse to an alternate file.

Table of contents

These options control the format of the table of contents. You can specify:
  • Level - the maximum number of levels to display in the HTML table of contents. The default is 4.
  • Width - the width of the frame as a percentage of the total width of the report window. The default is 25%.
  • TOC at right - whether the TOC will be generated on the left (default) or right side of the screen.

You can reduce the size of the HTML TOC using the following commands from the contextual menu of book items in the Report Items pane:

  • Show contents in HTML TOC - deselect this option to display only the title of the item without its contents in the TOC.

  • Show book title in HTML TOC - deselect this option to remove the title of the book item from the table of contents. Automatically deselects the Show contents in HTML TOC option.

Image Format

Specifies the file format for graphic files to be generated and embedded in the report. You can choose from the following:

  • SVG - XML-based language for Web graphics, which allows you to interact with the graphics. Note that SVG is not supported for graphics embedded in RTF in PowerDesigner property fields, and such graphics will be generated as PNG.

  • PNG – higher quality than JPEG.

  • JPEG – smaller file size than PNG.

List format

Specifies the format for lists. You can specify the number of rows you want to display per page in the list results and the number of links to additional results displayed below the list. Additional results are numbers with hyperlinks to other pages containing the next rows of the list.

Web browser

Specifies the primary type of browser that will be used to view the HTML report in order to correctly generate SVG graphics. You can specify HTML5-compliant browsers or Internet Explorer 6,7, or 8 (which support SVG via the Adobe SVG plug-in).

Add page break for top level list and cards

Inserts a page break before each top level list and card to avoid long HTML pages.

Note: Click the Set As Default button to specify your current settings as the default for HTML reports. To revert to the previously saved values, click the Default button.

Depending on the type of location (local or UNC paths, or URL), style sheet files, header and footer files and home page files are used as follows:

Location

Use

Local path or UNC path

The file is copied into the report generation folder.

URL

The file is referenced in its location.

We recommend that you gather your style sheets and header and footer files in a subfolder with the same name as the presentation template file with which they are associated to ensure that the structure of links between them is simplified.

For example, the Header_Blue.html header uses files that are gathered in the Header_Blue_files folder:



Sections Tab

You can use sections to structure your report. Reports must contain at least one section, and sections are displayed as tabs at the bottom of the Report Items pane of the Report Editor. Each section can only report on one type of model so, in a multi-model report, each different type of model (PDM, OOM, BPM, etc) must have its own section.

The report property sheet Sections tab allows you to create, configure, and delete report sections, and contains the following properties:

Property

Description

Name

Specifies the name of the section, which will be displayed on the sub-tab at the bottom of the Report Editor window. You can also change the name of a section by right-clicking the section node in the Report Editor and selecting Rename.

Model

[multi-model reports only] Specifies the model on which the section will report.

Template

Specifies the template upon which the section is based. You can choose between:

  • None [default] – creates an empty section.

  • Full Model Type Report – provides lists of all the types of objects in the model, together with detailed information on each object.

  • List Model Type Report – provides lists of all the types of objects in the model.

  • Standard Model Type Report – provides lists of all the types of objects in the model, together with detailed information on each of the main objects.

Apply Template

Re-applies the specified template to the section, deleting any modifications you may have made.

Note: You cannot undo this action.
Note: You can launch the Report Wizard (see Creating a Report with the Report Wizard) from the Report Editor to configure the present section. The wizard configures only one section at a time, and will delete the current contents of the section. To configure a second section, select it using the section tabs at the bottom of the window, and relaunch the wizard.