9. The system of claim 8 , wherein the placeholder tag specifies a location for report data.
8. A system comprising: a database configured to store a first template document expressed in Rich Text Format (RTF); and a server computer in communication with the database, the server computer being configured to: read a first portion of the first template document, wherein the first portion defines within content of the first portion of the first template document a type and one or more attributes; instantiate a root data object based on the type and one or more attributes associated with the first portion, wherein the root data object includes an executable method for outputting source code in Extensible Stylesheet Language (XSL) format that corresponds to the first portion; read a second portion of the first template document, wherein the second portion defines within content of the second portion of the first template document a type and one or more; instantiate a child data object based on the type and one or more attributes associated with the second portion, wherein the child data object is instantiated as a child of the root data object in an object hierarchy, and wherein the child data object includes an executable method for outputting source code in XSL format that corresponds to the second portion; generate a second template document expressed in XSL format and based on a hierarchy of the first template document represented by the root data object and the child data object by executing the method included in the root data object and the method included in the child data object; and combine the second template document with report data to generate a report.