« Going Green with BI--Save the Environment, Save Cash | Main | The Most Useful Reporting Tools in BI »
February 27, 2009
The Benefits of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) in Web-based Reporting
Web-based reporting and analysis solutions can rely on different ways to control the style of a report.
The traditional model is to code the style directly into the markup language--e.g. HTML or XML. This means that all the attributes concerning the presentation of a report have to be specified time after time, and that the style of that report cannot be automatically replicated in an efficient manner.
With a separate CSS, however, this problem no longer exists. Report developers can create styles in CSS, save them and store them in the development environment's support files, and when a report is created they can simply assign it a style from the library.
This makes the creation of visually-compelling reports much more efficient. Also, this makes it easier and quicker to adapt reporting to a company's style guide, and will save the developer considerable time in that regard.
When creating reports for your company, make CSS your friends--create the style once, adapt it to reports as many times as you need, and make your day more efficient.
Posted by Hound of the BI-skervilles at February 27, 2009 9:15 AM
Twitter 
LinkedIn 
YouTube