If this is the first time you start i-net Designer, you should first configure your Data Source Configurations that you will use in your report. To do this, select "Options | Data Source Manager...". This opens the Data Source Manager dialog with which you can create and/or modify the data sources.

If you would like to add a JDBC driver that you have not selected during setup, just copy the .jar file of the driver into the "lib/driver" directory and restart the i-net Designer.

To create a new report in the i-net Designer you can click on the New button toolbar , on the menu item "File | New..." or you use the links in the welcome page.

Using the Database Wizard dialog you can define which database and which tables, views or stored procedures will be used in the report. This is what you should see on entering the Database Wizard for the first time:

• Click on the button "New Connection" on the top of the database browser on the left side of the dialog.
• After you have selected the datasource to use (e.g. Sample Database), expand the nodes until you see a list of tables.
• Select a table (e.g. [Employees]) and drag it onto the area on the right side of the wizard, or double click on the table name to add it
• Similarly, add a second table (e.g. [Orders]).
• To create a link between field(s) of the two tables you can drag with the mouse from the field [EmployeeID] in one table to the field in the other table.

• Between the two tables you can see a line connecting both fields [EmployeeID]. This line has arrows and a symbol to represent the link type. If you move the tables then you can see it better. With the context menu you can change the link type. In most cases the EQ (equals) type is the best solution.

• After you have added a table, stored procedure or you have created a command in the Database Wizard you can expand the node "Database Fields" in the Fields Browser. Let's say you choose the tables [Customers] and [Orders], then it would look like this:

• Drag some database fields from the Field Browser into the Detail area of your report. For example, you could use the fields [CustomerID], [CompanyName] and [ContactName].
• Click on the result tab and you can see the final report. You will notice that the width of [CompanyName] is too small.
• Click on the Design tab and change the width of [CompanyName]. You can verify the result in the result tab.

• Now we will add some sorting to the report.
• Open the dialog "Sort Records" with a click on the button "Sorting Records" in the toolbar or on the menu item "Report | Sort Records".
• Add a field (e.g. [ContactName]) to the sorting list and set the sorting direction for this field. The default value is ascending.
• Click "Ok" on the result tab.

• Select the node "Formula Fields" in the Field Browser.
• Click the New button of the Field Browser (not the New button in the toolbar of i-net Designer).
• Enter a formula like the following in the text area of the formula editor:

if {Customers.ContactName} like "Alex*" then
    "Alex"
else
    "Other"

• Enter a name for the formula in the field "Formula Name" and save the formula with a click on the "OK" button.

• Drag this formula field from the Field Browser into the report Detail area. In addition to the formula field you can add the database field [Customers.ContactName] into the Detail area to see the original name.

• On the result tab you can see the report preview in the Java viewer. All names starting with "Alex" will be displayed as "Alex" and all the others as "Other".

• To open the dialog "Font Properties" right click on the element [Customers.ContactName] in the report (not in the Field Browser) and select the menu item "Font Properties" in the popup menu.
• Click on the formula button of the property "Color"

• and enter a formula, e.g.:

if CurrentFieldValue like "Alex*" then
    red
else
    green

• On the result tab you can see the report preview in the Java viewer. All names in the element [Customers.ContactName] starting with "Alex" will be displayed in red and all the others in green.