Report Concepts: The Big Picture

What does it mean to design a report in the AcuBench Report Composer? At its core, a report generated by AcuBench functions like any other report written in COBOL:

1. A sequential read is performed on one or more data sources.
2. The program evaluates what to do next: print a footer, print a header, print a line of output, and so on.
3. The data is extracted. User-defined conditions determine whether data is moved to the print line and written to the print file.
4. The process repeats.

You can add layers of complexity, with headers and footers, nested breakpoints, multiple detail sections, and graphical report elements like grids and images. The basic report process, however, doesn't change.