Persistent storage of report objects

A computer readable medium storing instructions for creating a report object that contains information for displaying and searching a report, the medium including instructions for performing the following steps:

• (a) identifying data to be put into the report object;
• (b) providing a report design specifying how the data identified in step (a) is (i) logically arranged into a hierarchy having section breaks between members of a first group of report entities, and (ii) visually arranged in frames on a display medium;
• (c) generating instances of object classes from a report object class library and the report design, which instances and classes define a visual organization and content of the report;
• (d) persistently storing the instances of the object classes in a form that preserves the hierarchy provided in step (b), wherein the instances stored define the report object.

A method of compressing and persistently storing a report object in long term memory associated with a computer system, the report object containing an object-oriented representation of a report having level breaks, the method comprising the following steps:

• in a process for generating the report object from instances of multiple report object classes, identifying a persistent instance and its corresponding report object class, which persistent instance is to be stored to long term memory;
• providing a template specifying a property value for each of one or more instance properties associated with instances of the corresponding report object class;
• providing a description of the persistent instance, the description having a description field for each of the one or more instance properties;
• for each property value of said template, determining whether a corresponding instance property of the persistent instance matches the property value specified in the template;
• when, for a given instance property of the persistence instance, the template property value matches the instance property, providing the description field corresponding to the given instance property with a first identifier chosen to indicate that the template property value matches the persistent instance;
• and
• storing the description of the persistent instance in long term memory.

A computer system for compressing and persistently storing a report object in long term memory associated with the computer system, the report object containing an object-oriented representation of a report having level breaks, the computer system comprising:

• a central processing unit in communication with a volatile memory;
• a class library at least partially stored on the long term memory or the volatile memory, the class library including a collection of report object classes for defining visual and logical features of a report;
• and
• a persistent object storage manager implemented on said central processing unit and said volatile memory, the persistent object storage manager compressing and persistently storing persistent instances of said report object classes, said persistent object storage manager including:
• means for comparing a first persistent instance of a first report object class with a template for said first report object class, which template specifies a property value for each of one or more instance properties associated with instances of the first report object class;
• means for generating a description of the first persistent instance based upon a comparison of the template with the first persistent instance, whereby the means for generating provides (i) a first identifier in said description for those instance properties in which the template property matches the instance property of the persistent instance, and (ii) a second identifier in said description for those instance properties in which the template property does not match the instance property of the persistent instance, and
• means for storing the description of the first persistent instance to long term memory in a persistent report object file.

A computer readable medium storing instructions for compressing and persistently storing a report object in long term memory, the report object containing an object-oriented representation of a report having level breaks, the medium including instructions for performing the following steps:

• in a process for generating the report object from instances of multiple report object classes, identifying a persistent instance and its corresponding report object class, which persistent instance is to be stored to long term memory;
• providing a template for instances of the corresponding report object class, the template specifying a property value for each of one or more instance properties associated with instances of the corresponding report object class;
• providing a description of the persistent instance, the description having a description field for each of the one or more instance properties;
• for each property value of said template, determining whether a corresponding instance property of the persistent instance matches the property value specified in the template;
• when, for a given instance property of the persistence instance, the template property value matches the instance property, providing the description field corresponding to the given instance property with a first identifier chosen to indicate that the template property value matches the persistent instance;
• and
• storing the description of the persistent instance in long term memory.