It’s easy to get started with Windward Reports, in many cases it is just 3 lines of code. Here’s how:
* Create an instance of a report object, passing it the report template (a Word, Excel or PowerPoint document) as a stream.
* Call the object once for each datasource. You can mix XML, SQL, and your own custom datasources. XML datasources are passed as a stream. SQL is passed as a set of connection parameters or a Connection object.
* Call the object to format the final report and return a stream that is the final report. This final report can be in PDF, DOCX, XLSX, RTF, HTML, WordML, SpreadsheetML, XLS, orTXT.
* Creating charts is a breeze (AutoTag Video).
* Accepts data from any xml, sql, or custom datasource.
* For xml, uses xpath for all data substitution commands. Xpath is very powerful, yet easy to understand.
* For sql, uses sql select statements.
# No mis-typing of tags in the template. You can't get the format wrong!
# Immediate checking of the results of a tag's select, just press the Evaluate Button button in the tag editor.
# Uncluttered templates, only the tag type is displayed (the rest is displayed in a tool tip when the cursor is over the tag).
# No mismatched for Each or if blocks. Validate command will list all template problems and their location.
