What Happens During Report and Document Generation

When you generate a report or document, SoDA searches through the information sources.

A report is a "snapshot in time," which presents a single view of the current state of the source information. A report is always generated from a template. Additional text can only be added outside of the SoDA commands in the template. See also: Report Generation

A document is a "living" representation of the source information. You can regenerate the whole document or sections of the document. You do not need to use the template. Additional text can be added in generated sections of the document. Document generation is slower than report generation due to validation and merging of information. See also: Document Generation

When generating a report, SoDA references your template and adds text and graphics to the report depending upon the type of command being executed.

The first time you generate a document, SoDA references the template to create the document. During subsequent generations, SoDA references the previously generated document. SoDA adds, deletes, or ignores objects based on changes within the source.

SoDA uses the following commands to generate:

§  SoDA uses the arguments of each OPEN command to create a pointer to a particular object within the referenced source domain.

§  For each object returned by a REPEAT command, a section is created. (The term section can mean a set of paragraphs, a list item, or even a set of names followed by commas.)

§  In report generation, the section that includes the original REPEAT command is not copied to the report.

In document generation, the link refers only to the one object that corresponds to the new section, and is used for Visit Source and document regeneration. The section that includes the original REPEAT command remains in the document, but is hidden.

§  When a DISPLAY command is encountered the value specified in the command is returned and inserted into the report.

A LIMIT command results in a new section or nothing. If the object exists and its specified characteristics are satisfied, the section will be created.

In report generation, the section is not copied to the report.

In document generation, the command remains in the document, but it is hidden. Whenever the document is regenerated, the LIMIT commands are checked again to see if the characteristics of the object have changed.