Documents and reports in a paperless (or treeless) world require a new approach.
The Internet and World Wide Web have had a huge influence on the way in which we view information, and are rapidly weaning us away from paper based documents.
Hyper-documents use hyperlinks to other documents, which enables intuitive navigational queries.
This concept can be used to link static document and report templates to dynamic object attributes and methods, which is easier to use than relational query techniques.
As with the user interface, default HTML documents can be automatically created from Java™ objects.
Default templates can also be generated to act as the basis from which to create custom documents and reports using standard HTML authoring tools.
Standard Web browsers are used for viewing and printing such documents, which are typically distributed electronically.
This removes the need for specialized reporting tools, and unifies document technology within and between organizations.
Java™ and HTML are open and evolving standards that will remove the need for any other document format or query language.