Download - Designing & Building Structured Business Reports with ColdFusion MX 7

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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

• 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


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!

Report Builder CFR File Report Engine

Design Define Deliver

.cfr.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


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


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
