Reports are fragile

[windyweather]

OO 2.4, Win XP SP2

A MySQL table with a few fields.

Use wizard to create a report with 4 fields.

(1) Editing columns widths has problems. Saving and reloading the data to check column widths can cause loss of the report. Somehow things got confused and the report ends up empty. Editing and going back and forth using the Design mode button may cause loss of a report.

(2) After report is generated, but with wrong sorting, it's very difficult to figure out how to change the sorting. Help is no help. Just says something about don't edit the fields unless you know what you are doing.

(3) Page width of second page is wider than first page of Cinema template.

(4) Editing a report and changing title in File >> Properties >> Description >> Title and then saving report does not stick.


Are these bugs?
Shall I report them in a bug database?

Thanks,
ww

[bryancole]

Report design is weak is Base. Did you try the Report Designer extension?

http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/reportdesign

This improves things (although it's still far from perfect). At least the designer is easy to use and Grouping/sorting works well.

If you still can't achieve what you want, you can try another tool (using the same mysql backend)

e.g. http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/

BIRT is more complex to the newcomer but is a lot more flexible than OOo's report builder.