Non-modal database system wth methods for incremental maintenance of live reports

In a computer system having a database storing a plurality of data records, a method for creating a "live" report of said database, the method comprising:

• (a) for each data record, storing in a B-tree information describing record geometry for presenting each said data record in the report, said b-tree comprising a plurality of nodes, each node storing an accumulated record count together with an accumulated record geometry for records of nodes beneath said each node
• (b) receiving a request for displaying a certain page of the report;
• (c) determining which particular data records fall on said certain page by traversing the B-tree for accumulating record geometries having a distance equal to or greater than a distance from said certain page from one end of the report;
• and
• (d) presenting the report to a user by rendering on a display device said particular data records determined in step (c) to fall on said certain page.

In a computer system having a database storing a plurality of data records, a method for creating a "live" report of said database, the method comprising:

• (a) for each data record, storing with the database information describing record geometry required for presenting each said data record in the report;
• (b) receiving a request for displaying a certain data record on the report;
• (c) determining from said stored record geometries on which particular page of the report said certain data record falls by traversing the B-tree for accumulating record counts until a record count is reached which is equal to said certain data record, storing a running total of accumulated record geometries, and, as each node is visited, adding the record geometries stored by the node to said running total so long as the running total does not exceed the distance from said certain page from one end of the report;
• and
• (d) presenting the report to a user by rendering on a display device said particular page determined in step (c) to be the particular page on which said certain data record falls.