In the simplest case a template consists of two files. A template
file, which has a .tpl
extension, and a
special file info.xml
. The
info.xml
file has important metadata about
the template. A third file is optional, that is the preview image
file. This preview file provides a thumbnail image illustrating
the appearance of the generated report.
One of the easiest ways to create a custom template is to make a copy of any existing template.
For example, you make a custom template based on the Text
Basic
. The following procedure demonstrates this.
First you need to make a copy of the template on which you are
going to base your custom template. To do this navigate to the
folder where the templates are stored. Assuming MySQL Workbench
has been installed into the default location on Windows, this
would be C:\Program Files\MySQL\MySQL Workbench 5.0
SE\modules\data\wb_model_reporting
.
Then make a copy of the template folder you wish to base your
new template on. In this case a copy of the
Text_Basic.tpl
folder is made. The copy
can be given any suitable name, for example,
Custom_Basic.tpl
.
Now the info.xml
file needs to be edited,
to reflect your custom template. The unedited file in this
case is shown here:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <data> <value type="object" struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateInfo" id="{BD6879ED-814C-4CA3-A869-9864F83B88DF}" struct-checksum="0xb46b524d"> <value type="string" key="description">A basic TEXT report listing schemata and objects.</value> <value type="string" key="name">HTML Basic Frame Report</value> <value type="list" content-type="object" content-struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateStyleInfo" key="styles"> <value type="object" struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateStyleInfo" id="{7550655C-CD4B-4EB1-8FAB-AAEE49B2261E}" struct-checksum="0xab08451b"> <value type="string" key="description">Designed to be viewed with a fixed sized font.</value> <value type="string" key="name">Fixed Size Font</value> <value type="string" key="previewImageFileName">preview_basic.png</value> <value type="string" key="styleTagValue">fixed</value> </value> </value> <value type="string" key="mainFileName">report.txt</value> </value> </data>
Two objects are defined in the file. The
TemplateInfo
object and the
TemplateStyleInfo
object. These objects
contain information about the template that will be displayed
in the DBDoc Model Reporting wizard main screen.
The first thing you need to change are the object GUIDs that are used in the file. In this example there are two that need replacing:
id="{BD6879ED-814C-4CA3-A869-9864F83B88DF}" ... id="{7550655C-CD4B-4EB1-8FAB-AAEE49B2261E}"
Generate two new GUIDS. This can be done using any suitable
command-line tool. There are also free online tools that can
be used to generate GUIDs. The info.xml
file should then be edited accordingly.
Edit the textual information for the
TemplateInfo
and
TemplateStyleInfo
objects to reflect the
purpose of the custom template.
The modified file will now look something like the following:
<?xml version="1.0"?> <data> <value type="object" struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateInfo" id="{cac9ba3f-ee2a-49f0-b5f6-32580fab1640}" struct-checksum="0xb46b524d"> <value type="string" key="description">Custom basic TEXT report listing schemata and objects.</value> <value type="string" key="name">Custom Basic text report</value> <value type="list" content-type="object" content-struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateStyleInfo" key="styles"> <value type="object" struct-name="workbench.model.reporting.TemplateStyleInfo" id="{39e3b767-a832-4016-8753-b4cb93aa2dd6}" struct-checksum="0xab08451b"> <value type="string" key="description">Designed to be viewed with a fixed sized font.</value> <value type="string" key="name">Fixed Size Font</value> <value type="string" key="previewImageFileName">preview_basic.png</value> <value type="string" key="styleTagValue">fixed</value> </value> </value> <value type="string" key="mainFileName">custom_report.txt</value> </value> </data>
The next step is to create the new template file. Again this
may best be achieved, depending on your requirements, by
editing an existing template. In this example the template
file report.txt.tpl
is shown here:
+--------------------------------------------+ | MySQL Workbench Report | +--------------------------------------------+ Total number of Schemata: {{SCHEMA_COUNT}} ============================================= {{#SCHEMATA}} {{SCHEMA_NR}}. Schema: {{SCHEMA_NAME}} ---------------------------------------------- ## Tables ({{TABLE_COUNT}}) ## {{#TABLES}}{{TABLE_NR_FMT}}. Table: {{TABLE_NAME}} {{#COLUMNS_LISTING}}## Columns ## Key Column Name Datatype Not Null Default Comment {{#COLUMNS}}{{COLUMN_KEY}}{{COLUMN_NAME}}{{COLUMN_DATATYPE}} » {{COLUMN_NOTNULL}}{{COLUMN_DEFAULTVALUE}}{{COLUMN_COMMENT}} {{/COLUMNS}}{{/COLUMNS_LISTING}} {{#INDICES_LISTING}}## Indices ## Index Name Columns Primary Unique Type Kind Comment {{#INDICES}}{{INDEX_NAME}}{{#INDICES_COLUMNS}}{{INDEX_COLUMN_NAME}} » {{INDEX_COLUMN_ORDER}}{{INDEX_COLUMN_COMMENT}}{{/INDICES_COLUMNS}} » {{INDEX_PRIMARY}}{{INDEX_UNIQUE}}{{INDEX_TYPE}}{{INDEX_KIND}}{{INDEX_COMMENT}} {{/INDICES}}{{/INDICES_LISTING}} {{#REL_LISTING}}## Relationships ## Relationship Name Relationship Type Parent Table Child Table Cardinality {{#REL}}{{REL_NAME}}{{REL_TYPE}}{{REL_PARENTTABLE}}{{REL_CHILDTABLE}}{{REL_CARD}} {{/REL}}{{/REL_LISTING}} --------------------------------------------- {{/TABLES}} {{/SCHEMATA}} ============================================= End of MySQL Workbench Report
This template shows details for all schemata in the model.
The above template file can be edited in any way you like, with new markers being added, and existing markers being removed as required. For the custom template example you might want to create a much simpler template. Such as the one following:
+--------------------------------------------+ | MySQL Workbench Custom Report | +--------------------------------------------+ Total number of Schemata: {{SCHEMA_COUNT}} ============================================= {{#SCHEMATA}} Schema Name: {{SCHEMA_NAME}} ---------------------------------------------- ## Tables ({{TABLE_COUNT}}) ## {{#TABLES}} Table Name: {{TABLE_NAME}} {{/TABLES}} {{/SCHEMATA}} Report Generated On: {{GENERATED}} ============================================= End of MySQL Workbench Custom Report
This simplified report just lists the schemata and the tables
in a model. The date and time the report was generated will
also be displayed as a result of the use of the
{{GENERATED}}
variable.
The custom template can then be tested. Start MySQL Workbench, load the model to generate the report for, select the Model, DBDOC - Model Reporting menu item. Then select the new custom template from the list of available templates, select an output directory and then click Finish to generate the report. Finally, navigate to the output directory to view the finished report.