Abstract: A method and apparatus are provided for processing reports. Upon system startup, a report server automatically starts one or more report processes. As client report commands are received from one or more client applications, the client report commands are assigned to one or more of the executing report processes. After a report is completed, the report process is automatically reinitialized and kept active to process another report. The report server automatically adjusts the number of active report processes based on the current report processing load requirements. According to another aspect of the present invention, a report queue is provided to store client report commands as they are received from the client applications. A report queue manager is also provided for externally managing the report queue.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing reports is disclosed. After receiving a current report request, a duplicate job detection (DJD) key is generated based upon the current report request. The DJD key is then compared to DJD keys associated with previous report requests to determine whether the currently requested report has been previously requested. If the currently requested report has been previously requested, then a saved report generated in response to the previous report request is retrieved. Otherwise, a new report is generated based upon the current report request and then stored.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus for declarative report definition and generation using an enhanced, graphical data model and a graphical user interface (GUI) for graphically specifying data items and data computations to be performed on the data is described. It provides a set of data model objects, a data model painter for creating, defining, and visualizing the data model objects, and a data engine that retrieves the data according to the definition of the data objects. That is, the present invention provides a graphical data model allowing a user to graphically specify both the data and computations to be performed on the data and uses the layout metaphor (i.e., "painter") to specify the data. Data model objects include: queries, groups, columns, parameters, cross products, and links. Unlike the prior art, allows the use of multiple queries each containing one or more break groups and cross product groups where groups belonging to two different queries are connected by link objects.

Abstract: A method and apparatus for processing reports is disclosed. After receiving a current report request, a duplicate job detection (DJD) key is generated based upon the current report request. The DJD key is then compared to DJD keys associated with previous report requests to determine whether the currently requested report has been previously requested. If the currently requested report has been previously requested, then a saved report generated in response to the previous report request is retrieved. Otherwise, a new report is generated based upon the current report request and then stored.

Abstract: The present invention is a method and apparatus for declarative report definition and generation using an enhanced, graphical data model and a graphical user interface (GUI) for graphically specifying data items and data computations to be performed on the data is described. It provides a set of data model objects, a data model painter for creating, defining, and visualizing the data model objects, and a data engine that retrieves the data according to the definition of the data objects. That is, the present invention provides a graphical data model allowing a user to graphically specify both the data and computations to be performed on the data and uses the layout metaphor (i.e., "painter") to specify the data. Data model objects include: queries, groups, columns, parameters, cross products, and links. Unlike the prior art, allows the use of multiple queries each containing one or more break groups and cross product groups where groups belonging to two different queries are connected by link objects.