When you use -properties, other command actions are no longer necessary; the properties file contains the configuration information. The information in the properties file is the same as the information used in the command line.
Four parameters are needed to specify data for a report: project, output, template, and package. There are five more parameters called options, which are additional configuration information such as report, autoImage, imageFormat, recursive, and outputOnBlankField. All nine parameters are described inGenerate - the Command to Generate Reports.
A properties file is a simple text file. You can create and maintain a properties file with any text editors (see the following example).
In the figure above, the command lines begin with a pound sign (#). The other lines contain key-value pairs. The key is on the left side of the equal sign, and the value is on the right. For instance, template is the key that corresponds to the value of the Class Specification Report.
The string representing the key and value in the properties file has a special character. The special character is an escape character. It must be used to prevent interpretation errors. Each escape character starts with a backslash.
Escape Sequence
Character
\n
new line
\t
tab
\b
backspace
\f
form feed
\r
return
\”
“ (double quote)
\’
‘ (single quote)
\\
\ (backslash)
\uDDDD
character from the Unicode character set (DDDD is four hex digits)
XML Properties File
J2SE version 1.5 and Report Wizard version 15.5 allow you to use XML files to load and save key-value pairs.