The Data Grid element is used to display data in tabular form. It is mainly used to handle CJK and other top to bottom languages.
Select a Data Grid element from the tool bar and place it in the report layout. Select the Properties from the pop up menu of the Data Grid element.
Writing mode
This property controls the intrinsic writing direction rendering for a block of content.
The Writing mode combo box consists of values lr-tb, tb-rl, rl-tb and tb-lr. A value is selected from the writing mode to set the direction and flow of text in the Grid element. The default value is lr-tb.
lr-tb: On selecting this the text flows horizontally-from left to right, top to bottom. The next horizontal line is positioned underneath the previous line. This mode is common in western languages.
tb-rl: When this value is selected the text flows vertically from top to bottom, right to left. The next vertical line is positioned to the left of the previous line. This mode is used in Asian writing systems.
rl-tb: When this value is selected from the combo box the text flows horizontally-from right to left, top to bottom. The next horizontal line is positioned underneath the previous line. This mode is used in Arabic and Hebrew writing systems.
tb-lr: When this option is selected the text flows vertically from top to bottom, left to right. The next vertical line is positioned to the right of the previous line. This mode is used in Mongolian writing system.
Glyph
The Glyph values that can be selected are Auto, Inline and Upright.
Auto: When this mode is selected the glyph orientation is determined automatically based on the Unicode character code of the rendered character.
Inline: In this type of mode all glyphs are laid out top to bottom regardless of inherent direction.
Upright: When this mode is selected the glyphs are oriented as if an <angle> of "0deg" had been specified. However all vertical alternates of the glyphs should be used.
Grid Modes
There are two types of grid mode available. They are All and Ideograph.
All
This type of grid can be used to achieve mono-spaced layout. As with 'ideograph', content is divided into strips and each strip is horizontally centered within the smallest number of grid spaces that can contain the grid. The rules for determining strips differs.
Each grapheme cluster with a non-joining base character is a strip. Each non-breakable object (e.g. an image) is a strip. Each run of grapheme clusters with joining base characters that join to each other is a strip.
Note
A grapheme cluster is what a language user considers to be a character or a basic unit of the language.
Ideograph
Content is divided into units called as strips. Each strip is horizontally centered within the smallest number of grid spaces that contain the strip.
Each grapheme cluster with a wide base character is a strip. Each grapheme cluster with a narrow kana character as its base is a strip. Each non-breakable object (e.g. an image) is a strip. Other grapheme clusters are treated as a single strip bounded by the strips described prior. That single strip may be decomposed in several strips if line breaking occurs within it.
The strips are arranged in the grid as follows:
Each strip corresponding to wide base character that can fit within a single grid space is rendered in the horizontal center of the grid space.
Each strip corresponding to other characters are placed in the center of the smallest number of grid spaces necessary for it to fit. If a line break occurs within such a strip, the strip is treated as two or more separate strips whose individual placement follows the same rules as those for a single strip.
Strips corresponding to non-breakable objects and strips corresponding to wide base character that are wider than a single grid space, are each centered within the smallest number or grid cells necessary for them to fit.
The 'ideograph' mode disables all special text justification and glyph width adjustment normally applied to the contents of the block element. If a line break opportunity cannot be found in a text run going over the line boundary, then that text run will be pushed down to the next line and the last part of the previous line will be left blank.
Text Height
The text height defines the block-progression value for inline boxes. Depending on the content size, one or a multiple of 'line-height' will be necessary to accommodate a given inline box.
Text height is font ascent+descent where font ascent indicates the average height of the font from the baseline to up and font descent indicates the average height of the font from baseline to down. So the total height of the font is font ascent+descent.
Line Height
The line height is the number of pixels taken up by a line of text, from the baseline of one line to the baseline of the next. The line height is automatically set equal to the font-height.
The Line height is font ascent+descent+leading. The font ascent and descent are as previously explained. The font leading is the distance between two lines of text. When this option is selected it will be seen that there will be an increase of one horizontal box in about fifteen with a default grid.
Box Count
This option indicates the number of boxes that fits in the Data Grid element. Select this option and enter the values in the Across and Down Fields. The value entered in the fields indicates the number of boxes to be placed across and the number of boxes to be placed downwards inside the Grid element.
Fixed Width
When a value is specified in the Fixed width text box each cell will have the specified width. The Unit of Measurement can be selected from the combo box.
The other tabs such as Field, Font, Format and Scripts are similar to that as explained in the previous sections.
The other properties that are specific to the Data Grid element are:
Progression: The Progression property in the property table of the Data Grid Wizard is to set the properties such as Text Height, Line Height, Box Count and Fixed width similar to those in the Property Wizard.
By default the progression value is a number which corresponds to the Fixed width. If for instance the number is entered as 20 then all the cells will have the specified width. The other values are Text-Height, Line-Height, Box-Count # # where # is any number. The first # corresponds to the number of cells that are to be displayed across and the second # corresponds to the number of cells that are to be displayed downwards.