1. A method of generating data for display by a user system, comprising: receiving a request for a report from a data source; generating data for display assembled from the data source responsive to the received request, wherein the data for display in the report includes a plurality of fixed-data columns retrieved from the data source, at least one flexible-data column, and a control for the flexible-data column retrieved from the data source, the fixed data columns are part of the report and data fields of the fixed data columns are not user customizable, and the flexible-data column is user customizable by using the control to select one from a set of enumerated data fields that can alternatively be displayed in the flexible-data column, including at least two data fields having distinct data formats, including a textual format and a graphical format; wherein each of the data fields in the set of enumerated data fields corresponds to a different characteristic of an object represented by a row of the report; responsive to selection of one of the enumerated data fields of a distinct data format, causing retrieval of data corresponding to a characteristic of the distinct data format specific to each row of the report and display of the retrieved characteristic in the flexible-data column for each row; and sending the generated data for display to the user system.