Patent Document ID: 7814093
Application ID: 10627180
Patent Flag: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for building a report, comprising the steps of: defining a relational abstraction of a data store, the defined relational abstraction including a plurality of views, fields associated with the plurality of views, and relations between the plurality of views; selecting one of the plurality of views as a base view of a report; and creating at least one report field using the views, fields and relations associated with the base view, wherein the at least one report field is created by: a) specifying a relation path from the base view to a predetermined destination view, the relation path including one or more relations; b) if the specified relation path contains any to-many relations, creating an aggregate field by: i) creating at least one nested field to be aggregated, where a relation path of the created at least one nested field begins at a destination view of the created aggregate field; and ii) specifying an expression for aggregating values associated with the created at least one nested field; and c) if the specified relation path does not contain any to-many relations, creating a scalar field, by: i) referencing a source field from the destination view; or ii) creating an expression field that includes at least one nested field, where a relation path of the at least one nested field begins at a destination view of the created expression field.