Persistent storage of report objects

Abstract

A method is disclosed for persistently storing in an object-oriented format various pieces of information required to display and search a report. The information is stored in a logical hierarchy including multiple 'level break' objects at a first level. Similar level break objects may be provided at a second level of the hierarchy, and at a third level, etc. Level breaks represent divisions between parallel report entities, and the level breaks at a 'first level' divide report entities which can not be further segregated into discrete groups. In general, the objects representing level breaks include general information about an entity such as the entity's name and location, or report totals associated with that entity. In the hierarchy, each level break object at the first level may reference one or more level break objects at the second level, and, in addition, may reference objects representing the visual regions (or 'frames') in which report information pertaining to the first level entity is displayed. The frame objects, in turn, each contain various 'control objects' which describe the formatting, size, and other associated information pertaining to the display of frames.