Define colors for a configured report

In configured report definitions, you can use styles for coloring when the color is derived from a query.

All parts of the custom theme configuration are not only configuration objects but also stored in the Alfabet database. In the query of a configured report, you can return the value of a style attribute read from the relevant database table.

Create styles for coloring of the report.

1. Go to the Reusable Elements tab.
2. Right-click the User Interface Groups node and select Create New Style Group.
3. Click the new style group node and set the attributes:
   • Name: Change the name to a meaningful name for display in the style selector in Alfabet Expand.
   • Caption: Change the caption to a meaningful caption for display in the Alfabet user interface in the views to edit the coloring for a new custom theme.
   • Type: Select Graphic.
4. You can define as many styles for the style group as required. Each style group can have one or multiple style attributes. For example, if you want to display elements in a report in four different colors, you should define four styles. If each element should have a background color, text color, and a border color you should define three style attributes for each style, one for each color type.
   1. Right-click the style group node and select Create Style.
   2. Click the new style node and change the Name and Caption attributes to help the person configuring the widget card templates to select the correct color. The name Nameis also used in queries to identify the style.
   3. Right-click the style node in the explorer and select Create Style Attribute.
   4. Click the style attribute node and set the attributes:
      • Name: Change the name to a meaningful name for display in the style selector in Alfabet Expand. The Name is also used in queries to identify the style attribute.
      • Caption: Change the caption to a meaningful caption for display in the Alfabet user interface in the views to edit the coloring for a new custom theme.
      • Default Value: Select a color from the color picker.

        color picker

        Click in the attribute value field. A button for opening the color picker appears on the right of the field. Click the button. The color picker has three tabs for different ways of color selection. Click a color field in one of the tabs to select it.

5. Go to the Reports tab.
6. Expand the Widgets node and expand the node of the widget card template you want to color.
7. Click the node of the color variable and set the following attributes:
   • Mapping Type: Color.
   • Type: Common.
   • User Interface Item: Select the user interace style which shall be used for the text. The drop-down list includes all available styles with a text color specification with the information: style name (user interface group name).
   • Value: Leave this field empty.
8. Assign the style group to any custom theme that shall show different coloring for the configured report.

Use the styles to color the report.

If a color for an element in a configured report is derived via a query, you can return the relevant style attribute value for the current theme as color.

Relevant database tables:

• ALFA_UI_STYLEGROUP: Stores style groups and their attributes.
• ALFA_UI_STYLE: Stores styles and their attributes. The database table column STYLEGROUP stores the reference to the style group the style belongs to.
• ALFA_UI_STYLEATTRIBUTE: Stores style attributes and their attributes, including thedefault value for the style. The database table column STYLE stores the reference to the style the style attribute belongs to.
• ALFA_UI_THEME: Stores custom themes and their attributes.
• ALFA_UI_STYLEATTRIBUTEVALUE: Stores the values assigned to style attributes in custom themes. The database table column THEME stores the reference to the custom theme for which the value was set. The database table column STYLEATTRIBUTE stores the reference to the style attribute for which the value was set. Style attribute values are only stored for custom themes to which the style group has been assigned. If the style group is not assigned to a custom theme, the ALFA_UI_STYLEATTRIBUTEVALUE table will not have any entries for the custom theme in combination with the style attributes of the styles in the style group.

Relevant Alfabet Query Language Parameter: CUSTOM_THEME , returning the name of the custom theme currently selected for display of the Alfabet user interface.