[reportlab-users] Report Format

[Rich Shepard]

   I've been struggling with the issue of how to format one report, and I'd
like to gain from the collective wisdom and experience of folks here.

   The application is a mathematical model, with input values and outputs
stored in database tables (embedded SQLite-3 using pysqlite). The first
report I need to code is a list of all model input variables and their
values.

   I see this as a banded report, with the model description as a header.
That's because there's a hierarchy of variable types, and my prior experience
used banded reports for this type of situation. But, ReportLab doesn't do
banded reports. This means I need to use either paragraphs or tables as
components for the story. I've wasted weeks trying to decide which.

   I've retrieved records from tables, and stored them in lists. Should I use
each variable/value pair as a separate paragraph? Should I create a header
from the model table's variables/values pairs, and then create a table where
the hierarchy is represented by the column in which the flowable value is
placed (the variable names would be the column headers).

   Is there a better way of doing this?

   This is what I've written so far:

   def PrintInputs():
     # Our container for 'Flowable' objects
     elements = []

     # A large collection of style sheets pre-made for us
     # styles = getSampleStyleSheet()

     # The name of the output file.
     docName = self.appData.projname
     doc = SimpleDocTemplate(docName + '.pdf')

     elements.append(Paragraph("FuzzyEI-Assessor Input Values Report", styles['Title']))

     # General Model Information
     self.cur.execute("select * from model")
     self.data = []
     self.data = self.cur.fetchall()

     elements.append(Paragraph("Model name:  ", self.data(model_name)))
     elements.append(Paragraph("Model description:  ", self.data(model_desc)))
     elements.append(Paragraph("Model type:  ", self.data(model_type)))
     elements.append(Paragraph("Knowledge engineers:  ", self.data(kename)))

     # Components/Policies
     self.cur.execute("select * from policy")
     self.data = []
     self.data = self.cur.fetchall()

     ...

Rich

-- 
Richard B. Shepard, Ph.D.               |    The Environmental Permitting
Applied Ecosystem Services, Inc.        |          Accelerator(TM)
<http://www.appl-ecosys.com>     Voice: 503-667-4517      Fax: 503-667-8863