Apparatus and method for defining report parts

1. A computer readable storage medium, comprising executable instructions to:

identify a report with a plurality of report parts, the report comprising a report identifier and at least one report part element, the at least one report part element comprising at least one report part element identifier;

form a report part comprising the at least one report part element defined from an associated report element and at least one report part element identifier, the report part being indicated by a report part identifier, the report part forming an object derived from the report and is independent from the remainder of the report;

identify a report part computation context for the report part comprising the report identifier, the at least one report part element identifier, at least one context data path value, and a context data path, the context data path defining a data path between the report identifier and report part element;

associate the report part with the report part computation context;

evaluate the report part according to the report part computation context; and

return a report part value.

2. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 wherein the context data path comprises an index specifying a dimension value along an axis defining a data path between the report identifier and the report part element.

3. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 2 wherein the dimension value relates to a parent of the report part element.

4. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 2 , further comprising executable instructions to:

remove duplicate dimension values along axes in the data path.

5. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 wherein the executable instructions comprise executable instructions to evaluate the report part according to the report part computation context and at least one report element cell data value.

6. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 wherein the report part value is returned from existing data results.

7. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to:

access the report part and the report part computation context using the report part identifier;

access a report with data results using the report identifier in the report part computation context;

retrieve the data results from the report; and

execute a computation plan against the data results to evaluate the report part element and to generate report part values for the report part element.

8. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 7 wherein the report part computation context references a formula, and wherein the executable instructions to execute include executable instructions to calculate the formula to generate a calculated report part value.

9. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 further comprising executable instructions to:

access the report part and the report part computation context using the report part identifier;

generate a data source query using the report part computation context;

execute the data source query against a data source to retrieve data results; and

execute a computation plan against the data results to evaluate the report part elements to generate report part values for the report part elements.

10. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the computation context is an association of a set of formulas, an index comprising an ordered list of dimensions with sort information for each, and a filtering expression.

11. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the plurality of report parts are stored separate from the report.

12. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein multiple report parts of the plurality of report parts correspond to multiple sections of a report and are linked together by referencing the report part identifiers of the associated report parts in a predetermined sequence according to a desired sequence of the report sections.

13. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein multiple report parts of the plurality of report parts correspond to multiple levels of hierarchical detail in the report are linked together by reference in a corresponding hierarchical order.

14. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 11 , wherein the report part computation context is stored as part of the associated report part.

15. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 , further comprising executable instructions to:

hash at least a portion of the values in the report part computation context using a hashing algorithm.

16. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the report part computation context is stored separately from the report part to which it is associated.

17. The computer readable storage medium according to claim 1 , wherein the report part includes one or more security values relating to permission or access to certain report values, wherein only those report values for which the requesting entity has permission or access to are returned.

18. A computer implemented method, comprising:

forming a report with a plurality of report parts, the report comprising a report identifier, and at least one report part element, the at least one report part element comprising at least one report element identifier;

deriving from the report a report part comprising the at least one report part element defined from an associated report element and at least one report part element identifier, the report part being indicated by a report part identifier, the report part forming an object derived from the report and being independent from the remainder of the report;

identifying a report part computation context for the report part comprising the report identifier, the at least one report part element identifier, at least one context data path value, and a context data path, the context data path defining a data path between the report identifier and report part element;

associating the report part with the report part computation context;

evaluating the report part according to the report part computation context; and

returning a report part value.

19. The computer implemented method according to claim 18 wherein the report part value is returned from existing data results.

20. The computer implemented method according to claim 18 wherein evaluating the report part according to the report part computation context additionally comprises:

accessing the report part and the report part computation context using the report part identifier;

accessing a report comprising data results using the report identifier in the report part computation context;

retrieving the data results from the report; and

executing a computation plan against the data results to evaluate the report part elements to generate report part values for the report part elements.

21. The computer implemented method according to claim 18 wherein evaluating the report part according to the report part computation context additionally comprises:

accessing the report part and the report part computation context using the report part identifier;

generating a data source query using the report part computation context;

executing the data source query against a data source to retrieve data results;

and to generate report part values for the report part elements.