Introduction
Traditionally, we can distinguish between two stages of work while interacting with the Web Intelligence reports:
- Building the query: This includes defining the query, dragging the result objects, and setting the query filters
- Formatting the report: After the data is retrieved by the query, we are no longer interacting with the database. We are formatting the results using the Web Intelligence toolbars, left-hand side panes, and the rest of the report functionality
Formatting report results is the main part of interacting with Web Intelligence reports.
The formatting layer holds many capabilities that enable the business user to perform basic tasks such as sorting, filtering, calculations, data aggregations, and more advanced tasks such as using complex formulas, performing drills, or even linking reports. Whatever we do in the report can't affect the query structure nor its performance.
There is no difference between performing a complex calculation to using a simple sort...
