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Designing & Building Structured Business Reports with ColdFusion MX 7. Adam Lehman ColdFusion Specialist. 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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Designing & Building Structured Business Reports with ColdFusion MX 7 Adam Lehman ColdFusion Specialist
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
Structured Data on the Web – Today’s challenge The 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 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
3 Parts of Reporting • Reporting is a core part of ColdFusion • No need for additional server software! .cfr ColdFusion Server
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
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
Report Engine • Built into the core of ColdFusion MX 7 • Binds data, parameters with CFR • Generates PDF, FlashPaper & Excel
Demo • 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! • Follow along with your instructor as we explore the ColdFusion Report Builder tool
Benefits over HTML Reports • Improved user experience • Pixel perfect layout control • Printable and portable • Automatic formatting of groups and totals • Multi-columns, paper sizes
Benefits over external reporting solution • Share variable scopes • Familiar CFML language • No added cost or installation and management • No additional client software
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