Understanding the report generation URL is important for customizing applications to seamlessly integrate report generation functionality. The URLs that invoke reports can be created dynamically or set up statically (for example, bookmarked) with known URL parameters. There are two types of report generation URLs: Generate Form and Execute Report. The Generate Form URL requests additional input from the user (only if necessary) and generates a form action button that leads to the Execute Report page. The Execute Report page executes the query and returns output to the HTTP request output stream.

Both of these URLs can be edited directly to add URL parameters. Either the original or the edited URL can be bookmarked or used in a hyperlink for future reuse. The URLs can also be generated programatically. The ReportTempateHelper class provides APIs for each type of URL. Several versions, each taking different parameters, are also available. See the getGenerateFormURL( ) and getExecuteReportURL( ) classes entry in your installed Windchill Javadoc for more information.

The Generate Form URL can have parameter values specified directly. For any parameter names that are specified on the URL, the input field is bypassed. In addition, all URL parameters are passed to the Execute Report URL through the form’s action button. The Execute Report URL also derives all report parameter values from the URL parameters (through ReportTemplateHelper methods). If a URL parameter does not exist for a report parameter, then the report parameter’s default value is used. In addition, several other URL parameters, described in the following table, can be used.