How HCL VersionVault Reports works

The report procedures are hooks into the applications; they implement all the operations necessary to generate and view a specific report. The applications collect user input, interpret it, and run the appropriate report procedure. At run time, HCL VersionVault Reports executes as two applications: Report Builder and Report Viewer. The Report Builder is used to select and define report parameters; the Report Viewer is used to view the report output.

All report procedures require an interface specification. This specification determines the user interface information presented to users in the Report Builder and Report Viewer. When users select a folder, the Report Builder scans the interface specification of each report in the associated subdirectory and places the contents in a temporary buffer. When users select a specific report, Report Builder extracts from this buffer the interface information associated with the report that is displayed in the Report Builder and Report Viewer. After users provide the required report parameters, the Report Builder generates the report and passes the data to the Report Viewer.

The commands that the Report Builder uses include an -i option, which extracts the interface specification from the report procedure. If the report procedure does not include an interface specification or if the structure and contents of that specification are not what the Report Builder expects, report processing stops.