A report is generated by hierarchical selection of a set of data items that are passed through a hierarchy of report templates. You select a root template, and a collection of filters, that then selects the items in the database and displays them in the report. The database is queried and the list of items is passed to the root template. That template may perform additional filtering, data processing or generate specific layout constructs before passing the items on to its child templates. If a template has no children, it displays the items using the properties, context, and layout provided by the parent templates.