Reports are generated by applying presentation information to query result data.

Queries are built using the Windchill Query Builder tool and stored as a report template business object in Windchill. When a report template query is executed, it operates against the current database and produces output in the form of Java objects or XML.

Reports are generated from XML output by applying presentation transformations defined by XSLT (Extensible Stylesheet Transformation) stylesheets. The combination of XML and XSLT allows for a separation between data collection and formatting, thus facilitating separate customization of each. When defining report template objects, you can select from out-of-the-box XSLT formats or specify custom XSLT stylesheets to meet your formatting needs.