Input Items

The PPJ Framework uses a .NET data set to pass data between the application and reports (for more information about the internal architecture, see Passing Data). The data set contains two tables, called InputItems and ReportVariables. All input items and report variables will appear as fields below these two tables in List & Label as shown in the following screenshot:

Field list with Input Items and Report Variables in List & Label

All Report Builder source data types are supported and will be transferred to the target report. Since List & Label has a similar architecture compared to Report Builder, the data set is not filled up front but passed record by record. Reports behave pretty much the same as in the source application and data access is very fast.

In order to extend the report with new fields, open the data set definition (xsd file) and add a field with one of the data types as shown in the following table:

Report data type	.NET data set type
String	String (xs:string)
Number	Decimal (xs:decimal)
Date/Time	DateTime (xs:datetime)
Object	Byte[] (xs:base64binary)

The field can then be added to calls such as Sal.ReportPrint() in the converted application.

List & Label doesn't store data type information about data fields, only the field name is saved in the report. Therefore it is necessary to deploy the data set always with the report. The PPJ Framework uses the xsd file to pass input items and variables properly with the correct data type.