Report Template Inheritance for Modular Design Reuse
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Solution Overview
Problem
Report developers face time-consuming processes in creating and maintaining various report designs to accommodate the diverse needs of users, as users typically cannot modify existing reports, leading to frequent updates and a lack of flexibility in data presentation formats.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a system that allows for the generation and modification of reports using templates and a report library, where templates can inherit properties and instructions, enabling users to save, copy, and modify report designs, and incorporate them into new reports, facilitating customization and reuse of report components.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If report developers create different report designs to accommodate varying user needs, then user-specific report requirements are met, but the time and effort required for creating and maintaining report designs increases
Solution Approach 1:
The report design is divided into reusable components that can be independently created, stored, and assembled. This segmentation allows developers to create modular report elements once and reuse them across multiple reports, reducing the time required to accommodate varying user needs while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables copying of report designs and their components between different reports. Once a report design is created, it can be copied and reused with minimal modifications to serve different user needs, significantly reducing the time and effort required for creating new reports while maintaining versatility.
2Adaptability or versatility
If report developers continually update report designs to meet changing user needs over time, then reports remain relevant and useful, but the maintenance effort and time consumption increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting report designs into reusable components, the system allows selective updates of individual components without requiring updates to entire reports. This reduces maintenance time while maintaining the ability to adapt reports to changing user needs over time.
Solution Approach 2:
Reusable components are designed to be universal and multi-functional, capable of serving multiple report types and purposes. This universality reduces maintenance effort as single component updates can benefit multiple reports simultaneously, while maintaining adaptability to evolving user requirements.
3Stability of the object's composition
If users are unable to modify existing reports, then report design consistency is maintained, but user flexibility and customization capability are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows users to copy existing report designs and their components, creating new instances that can be customized without modifying the original templates. This copying mechanism maintains design consistency in the template library while providing users with flexibility to create customized reports based on proven templates.
Data Source
AI summary
The disclosed embodiments enable a report to be generated using a template. The template may include one or more properties for which for which corresponding values are to be inherited by each copy of the template. A value of a property that is inherited may be overridden by modifying the inherited value. A copy of a template may be incorporated into a report design. Conversely, at least a portion of a report design may be saved as a template.