Report Designer User Guide (Developer Express) PDF

Dell™ Enterprise Reporter 2.6.
0
Report Designer User Guide
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Enterprise Reporter Report Designer User Guide

Updated - June 2015
Software Version - 2.6.0
Table of Contents
Report Designer ......................................................................................................................................................................4
Report Layout Basics ..............................................................................................................................................................5
Manually Update Report Output ...............................................................................................................................6

Change Element Layout in Your Report ...................................................................................................................7
Add or Modify Static Information in Your Report ......................................................................................................8
Delete Report Elements ............................................................................................................................................10
Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data) ...........................................................................11
Change Value Formatting of Report Elements .........................................................................................................14
Change Fonts and Colors of Report Elements .........................................................................................................15
Change or Apply Data Sorting to a Report ...............................................................................................................16
Change or Apply Data Filtering to a Report ..............................................................................................................18
Change or Apply Data Grouping to a Report ............................................................................................................19
Add Totals to a Report ..............................................................................................................................................21
Create or Modify Watermarks of a Report ................................................................................................................24
Add Page Numbers and System Information to a Report.........................................................................................27
Add Calculated Fields to a Report ............................................................................................................................31
Add Parameters to a Report .....................................................................................................................................34
Create Report Layouts ..............................................................................................................................................................37
Basic Operations ......................................................................................................................................................38

Create a New Layout ..........................................................................................................................................39
Change Measurement Units for a Report...........................................................................................................40
Change Page Settings for a Report ...................................................................................................................41
Bind a Report to Data .........................................................................................................................................44
Report Types ............................................................................................................................................................47

Static Report .......................................................................................................................................................48
Table Report .......................................................................................................................................................50
Label Report .......................................................................................................................................................52
Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands).......................................................................................................54
Multi-Column Report ..........................................................................................................................................58
Cross-Tab Report ...............................................................................................................................................61
Parameterized Report ........................................................................................................................................65
Chart with Static Series ......................................................................................................................................68
Chart with Dynamic Series .................................................................................................................................73
Styles and Conditional Formatting ............................................................................................................................78

Understand Styles Concepts ..............................................................................................................................79
Use Odd and Even Styles ..................................................................................................................................82
Store and Restore Style Sheets .........................................................................................................................87
Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance .................................................................................................90
Conditionally Hide Bands ...................................................................................................................................94
Conditionally Change a Label's Text ..................................................................................................................99
Navigation .................................................................................................................................................................102
Add Bookmarks ..................................................................................................................................................103
Create Hyperlinks ...............................................................................................................................................107
Add a Cross-Reference ....................................................................................................................................108
© 2010 Developer Express Inc.
Table of Contents modified by Dell Inc.

Miscellaneous .........................................................................................................................................................111
Handle Events via Scripts ..................................................................................................................................112
Show the Current Row Index .............................................................................................................................117
Count the Number of Records in a Report or a Group .....................................................................................120
Cancel Printing If a Report Does Not Contain Any Records .............................................................................123
Limit the Number of Records per Page ............................................................................................................124
Report Designer Reference ......................................................................................................................................128
Report Designer UI.............................................................................................................................................129

Component Tray .......................................................................................................................................130
Context Menu ...........................................................................................................................................131
Control Toolbox ........................................................................................................................................132
Design Panel ............................................................................................................................................134
Designer Tab ............................................................................................................................................135
Field List ...................................................................................................................................................136
Formatting Toolbar ...................................................................................................................................137
Group and Sort Panel ...............................................................................................................................138
HTML View Tab ........................................................................................................................................139
Layout Toolbar ..........................................................................................................................................140
Main Toolbar .............................................................................................................................................141
Preview Tab ..............................................................................................................................................142
Property Grid ............................................................................................................................................143
Report Explorer ........................................................................................................................................144
Smart Tag .................................................................................................................................................145
Zoom Toolbar ...........................................................................................................................................146
Report Settings ...................................................................................................................................................148
Report Bands .....................................................................................................................................................156

Detail Band ...............................................................................................................................................159
Grouping Bands ........................................................................................................................................162
Report Header and Footer........................................................................................................................166
Page Header and Footer ..........................................................................................................................169
Page Margin Bands ..................................................................................................................................172
Detail Report Band for Master-Detail Reports ..........................................................................................174
Report Controls ..................................................................................................................................................177

Label .........................................................................................................................................................180
Check Box ................................................................................................................................................183
Rich Text ..................................................................................................................................................186
Picture Box ...............................................................................................................................................189
Panel ........................................................................................................................................................192
Table .........................................................................................................................................................194
Table Row ................................................................................................................................................197
Table Cell ................................................................................................................................................199
Line ...........................................................................................................................................................202
Shape .......................................................................................................................................................204
Chart .........................................................................................................................................................207
Pivot Grid ................................................................................................................................................211
Page Info ..................................................................................................................................................214
Page Break ...............................................................................................................................................217
Cross-band Line .......................................................................................................................................218
Cross-band Box ........................................................................................................................................220

Report Wizard ...........................................................................................................................................................224
Standard Report Wizard .....................................................................................................................................225

Step 1 -Choose Columns to Display in Your Report ................................................................................227
Step 2 -Add Grouping Levels ...................................................................................................................229
Step 3 -Summary Options ........................................................................................................................232
Step 4 -Choose Report Layout .................................................................................................................234
Step 5 -Choose Report Style ....................................................................................................................235
Step 6 -Enter a Report Title ......................................................................................................................236
Label Report Wizard .........................................................................................................................................237

Step 1 -Select a Label Type .....................................................................................................................238
Step2-Customize Label Options ...............................................................................................................239

Report Designer 4
Report Designer
This guide contains information about the basic principles of creating reports with Report Designer.
The Report Designer allows you to create new reports from scratch, bind them to data, and even pass them to
another workstation and load them into another instance of the report designer. In addition to report editing
capabilities, it allows you to display its Print Preview and send its output to a printer or export it to a file on disk.
Note
Some features described in this guide may differ from what you see in your application. This depends on your
application vendor.
The following sections are available in this guide.

Report Layout Basics
Create Report Layouts
Report Designer Reference
Report Wizard
Preview, Print and Export Reports

Report Designer 5
Report Editing Basics
This section describes the most basic tasks you may encounter when initiating editing a report in the Report
Designer.
Manually Update Report Output

Change Element Layout in Your Report
Add or Modify Static Information in Your Report
Delete Report Elements
Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data)
Use Mail Merge in Report Elements
Change Value Formatting of Report Elements
Change Fonts and Colors of Report Elements
Change or Apply Data Sorting to a Report
Change or Apply Data Filtering to a Report
Change or Apply Data Grouping to a Report
Add Totals to a Report
Create or Modify Watermarks of a Report
Add Page Numbers and System Information to a Report
Add Calculated Fields to a Report
Add Parameters to a Report

Report Designer 6
Manually Update Report Output
Sometimes you may need to simply update a couple of values in your report before printing it. In these cases, the
simplest way to correct your report is to export it to an editable file (e.g. RTF), then use an appropriate editor tool
to edit values and print your report.
To export a report, switch to the Preview Tab and use the Export button as shown below.
To learn more about report exporting, see Exporting from Print Preview.

Report Designer 7
You can freely move report elements, e.g. labels, by dragging them. Another way to change the element position
is to select an element, and then press the arrow keys.
To resize an element, select it and then drag one of the small boxes shown on its edges and corners. To resize an
element using keyboard shortcuts, press SHIFT+ARROW or CTRL+SHIFT+ARROW.
You can also easily align controls to each other or make them the same size, by selecting multiple controls and
using the Layout Toolbar.
To select multiple controls, you can do one of the following.

Click controls while holding CTRL or SHIFT.
Click on a blank space and drag the mouse to create a selection frame. When the mouse button is
released, all controls within the selection frame's boundaries will be selected. In this case, the previous
selection is cleared.
Note
For information on how to work with tables, see the Table topic.
See Also

Report Designer 8
Add or Modify Static Information in Your Report
Reports display static and dynamic information. Dynamic information is something that changes through a report -
values from a database (actual report data) or service information (such as current user name or page numbers).
Static information is text or images that doesn't change through the report, and doesn't depend on the current
computer. Such information can be printed only once (e.g. in a report header), can repeat on each page (e.g. in a
page header) or can repeat with every entry in your report (a label describing your data).
Change Static Information

If you need to change static information displayed by your report, simply locate the desired report element in the
designer and invoke this element's smart tag. The smart tag will contain a link or a button allowing you to edit this
element's content.
Text elements, such as labels and rich text boxes, also allow in-place editing of their content. Simply double-click
an element and activate the editor. If you're working with rich text, you can use Formatting Toolbar.
Add Information to Your Report

To add information to your report, you need to use an appropriate element from the Control Toolbox, such as a
Label, Rich Text Box or Picture Box. Once an element has been placed at the appropriate position, specify its
content using the smart tag. For instance, the following instructions describe how to add a rich text box into your
report.
Drop the Rich Text control from the Toolbox onto the Detail band.

Report Designer 9
Select the created control and click its Smart Tag. In the invoked actions list, click the Load File... context
link.
In the invoked dialog, define the path to an RTF or TXT file containing the text of the announcement, and
click Open.
Note
Note that you can perform additional text formatting using the Formatting Toolbar.
See Also

Report Designer 10
To delete a report element (band or control), do one of the following:

Select the required element in the Design Panel or Report Explorer, and press DELETE. To select multiple
elements, hold down the SHIFT key.
Right-click the required report element, and in the invoked Context Menu, choose Delete.
In the Main Menu, select Edit | Delete.
Note
You can cancel the operation by pressing CTRL+Z.
See Also

Report Designer 11
Report elements can either display static information or dynamic data fetched from the bound database. Data-
bound elements are indicated in the Report Designer using a little database icon in the top-right corner.
Sometimes you may work with a report that is missing some information. For instance, you may have an employee
list that doesn't display birth dates. If the database contains this information, you can easily add it to your report
using one of the methods described below.
Using the Field List

To bind an existing report element, click the desired field item in the Field List window, and then drag and
drop it onto the element. The yellow database icon inside the control will then appear.
To add a new data-bound report element, simply drag the desired field item from the Field List window
onto a report band. This will create a Label bound to the selected data field.

Report Designer 12
A more flexible way to create data-bound elements is to right-click a Field List item, and then drag and
drop it onto a report. This will invoke the context menu shown in the image below. Simply choose the
element type that will represent your data, and it will be automatically created and bound to the selected
data field.
Using the Smart Tag

Click an element's Smart Tag, and in the invoked menu, expand the Data Binding drop-down list and select the
required data field.

Report Designer 13
Using the Property Grid

Click an element to show it's properties in the Property Grid . Expand the (Data Bindings) branch that holds the
bindable attributes. Specify a data field for the required attribute (e.g. Text).
See Also
2010 Developer Express Inc.

Report Designer 14
To change value formatting, locate the required element, click its smart tag, and then click the ellipsis button next
to Format String.
This will invoke the format string editor dialog, allowing you to choose one of the predefined formatting styles.
Select the required style and click OK, to close the dialog and save the changes.
See Also

Report Designer 15
To change fonts and colors (as well as paddings, text alignment and other appearance properties) of a report
controlor band, select this element and do one of the following:
Use the Formatting Toolbar.
Use the Property Grid. Note that all appearance-related properties are located under the Apperance
category.
Note
For more informaton on customizing the apperance of report elements, see Styles and Conditional Formatting in
Reports.

Report Designer 16
This document demonstrates how to sort a report's data. In this example, we'll use the report created in the
following tutorial: Change or Apply Data Grouping to a Report. Note that as with data grouping, sorting can be
performed only if a report is bound to a data source.
To sort records in a report, follow the instructions below.
1.Switch to the Group and Sort Panel, and click Add a Sort. In the invoked list, choose a data member
across which the report is to be sorted.
Note that sorting across calculated fields is supported, as well.

2.To manage the sorting order (ascending or descending), use the Sort Order drop-down list.
And, if multiple sorting criteria are specified, you can define the priority for each one, by selecting it in
the Group and Sort Panel, and using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
The sorting is now applied. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

Report Designer 17
See Also

Report Designer 18
To filter a report's data, select the report, and in the Property Grid, locate the Filter String property and click its
ellipsis button. The FilterString Editor will appear, allowing you to easily define a required expression.
The report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.
It is also possible to request a filtering parameter each time a report is previewed. See Add Parameters to a
Report for details.
See Also

Report Designer 19
This document demonstrates how to group a report's data. Note that data grouping can be performed only if a
report is bound to a data source.
To group records in a report, follow the instructions below.
1.Create a new, or open an existing data-aware report. For example, in this tutorial, we'll use a report
with the following layout.
2.Switch to the Group and Sort Panel, and click Add a Group. In the invoked list, choose a data member
across which the report is to be grouped.
Note that grouping across calculated fields is supported, as well.

3.After this, a Group Header band is added to the report, with the specified data member being set as its
grouping criterion.
Now, it's only left to drop the corresponding item from the Field List onto this band, so that it's displayed
as a header for each group. If required, you also can apply Mail Merge to this label.
4.In addition, you can enable the corresponding Group Footer band, by checking the Show Footer option
in the Group and Sort Panel.
Then, you can calculate a total across the group, by placing a Label onto this band, and specifying its
Summary properties in the following way.

Report Designer 20
Note that format strings for summary functions are specified via the special Format String property.
5.To manage the sorting order of the group's items (ascending or descending), use the Sort Order drop-
down list.
And, if multiple groups are created, you can specify the priority for each group, by selecting it in the
Group and Sort Panel, and using the Move Up and Move Down buttons.
See Also

Report Designer 21
To calculate summaries (totals) within a report, follow the instructions below.

1.If the Report Footer band is not present in your report, add it. To do this, right-click anywhere over the
report's area and in the invoked Context Menu, select Insert Band | ReportFooter.
2.Click the field for which a summary will be calculated, to select it. Then, hold down CTRL and drag the
field onto the Report Footer area, to create an exact copy of the Label that will display the summary.
Note
You can also create a new label for your total by simply dragging it from the Control Toolbox.
3.Now, select the newly created Label, and in the Property Grid, locate the Summary property and click its
ellipsis button. The Summary Editor will appear.
The following image shows an example of how you can set up your total. Note that the Summary
Running option is set to Report, to ensure that all values from the specified data field are taken into
account.

Report Designer 22
Note
The Ignore NULL values option won't affect the result in this example, since NULL values are treated like zeros, by
default. So, Sum won't change whether these values are taken into account or not. This option makes sense for
functions like Count or Average, because the number of elements counted will depend on it.
To save the settings and close the dialog, click OK.
Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

Report Designer 23
See Also

Report Designer 24
This document describes how to add a text watermark to a report, or turn a picture into a report's background.
Note that watermarks are visible only in Preview and HTML View modes.
Follow the instructions below to create a new watermark in a report (or to modify the existing watermark, if it is
already present in a report).
To select the report, click anywhere over the blank surface surrounding its bands area.
Then, in the Property Grid, locate the report's Watermark property, and click its ellipsis button. The
Watermark dialog will appear.
In this dialog's Text Watermark tab, define the required properties, such as Text, Direction, Color, Font,
Transparency, Page Range, etc.
Then, switch to the Picture Watermark tab, to load an image to be used as a watermark, and define its
properties, such as Size mode, Alignment (vertical and horizontal), Tiling, Transparency, Page Range, etc.

Report Designer 25
As you can see, it is possible to use both textual and image watermarks simultaneously.
Note that you can define all the watermark options without invoking the dialog. For this, in the Property
Grid, expand the Watermark property and set the required properties directly.
The report with watermark is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

Report Designer 26
See Also

Report Designer 27
This document describes how to insert page numbers or other system information (e.g. current date and time,
user name, etc.) into a report.
Generally, this information is displayed within the Page Header and Footer or Page Margin bands. To add page
numbers or system information to a report, locate the Control Toolbox and drag and drop the Page Info control.
Follow the instructions below for your specific task:

Add Page Numbers
Add System Date and Time
Add the User Name
Add Page Numbers

Select the Page Info control, then in the Property Grid locate the Page Information property, and invoke
its drop-down list.
You can see that there are several options available. You can select whether to display only the page
number (Latin or Roman - uppercase or lowercase) or the current page number of total pages.
Now, you can define a formatting to the control's text. In the Property Grid, set the Format property to
Page {0} of {1}.

Report Designer 28
The result is shown below.
Add System Date and Time

Select the Page Info control, then in the Property Grid locate the Page Information property, and set it
to Current Date and Time.
Also, you can define a formatting to the control's text, using its Format property.

Report Designer 29
Add the User Name

Select the Page Info control, then in the Property Grid locate the Page Information property, and set it
to User Name.
Also, you can define a formatting to the control's text. In the Property Grid, set the Format property to
Current User: {0}.

Report Designer 30
See Also

Report Designer 31
This document demonstrates how to add a calculated field to a report. The main purpose of calculated fields is to
perform calculations over different data fields. To learn how to easily perform calculations within a single data field,
refer to Add Totals to a Report.
To add a calculated field to your report, follow the instructions below.
To create a calculated field, in the Field List, right-click any item, and on the invoked menu, choose Add
Calculated Field.
In the Field List, select the created field to show its properties in the Property Grid. Change the Field
Type property to an appropriate value.
Now, let's create an expression for the calculated field.

Click the ellipsis button in the Expression section. The Expression Editor will appear. You can also invoke
this dialog by right-clicking your calculated field within the Field List and selecting Edit Expression...

Report Designer 32
Click Fields to see the field list. Double-click field names to add them to the expression string. Use the
toolbar to add operators between field names.
To close the dialog and save the expression, click OK.
Drag the calculated field from the Field List onto a control or a table cell.

Report Designer 33
The report with a calculated field is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.
See Also

Report Designer 34
Sometimes it's useful have parameters in your report. Parameters can help you filter your data or specify a value
that will be used to calculate other values (in the latter case, use calculated fields).
To add parameters and filter your report based on their values, follow the steps below.
In the Field List window, right-click over the Parameters section, and in the invoked menu, click Add
Parameter.
Repeat this action to create the second parameter.

In the Field List, select the first parameter, and in the Property Grid, set its (Name) to FromDate,
Description to From: and Parameter Type to Date Time.
For the second parameter, set these properties as shown in the following image.
Note
That's it - you have created two report parameters. Every time you preview your report, you will be asked to enter
their values. The following instructions explain how to use these values to filter your report's data.

Report Designer 35
Select the report (by clicking anywhere over the blank space in the report designer), and in the Property
Grid, locate the Filter String property and click its ellipsis button. The FilterString Editor will appear.
In this dialog, define the required expressions involving the created parameters.
Note
Make sure that the report's Request Parameters property is set to Yes, as it is by default. Otherwise, the
parameters won't be requested during the preview, and as a result, you'll get a blank report.
The parameterized report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and in the Parameters section, define the
required values and click Submit.

Report Designer 36
See Also

Report Designer 37
Create Reports
With the help of the Report Designer, you have the capability to edit existing reports, as well as create your own
reports from scratch. The following sections contain tutorials providing step-by-step instructions on advanced
report customization.
Basic Operations
Report Types
Styles and Conditional Formatting in Reports
Report Navigation
Miscellaneous Report Management Capabilities

Report Designer 38
Basic Operations
The topics in this section cover the basics of working with reports in the Report Designer.
This section consists of the following topics:
Create a New Layout
Change Measurement Units for a Report
Change Page Settings for a Report
Bind a Report to Data

Report Designer 40
Create a New Layout
To create a new layout in the Report Designer, do one of the following.
Create a new blank layout

On the Layout tab of the Report Definition, click Design a new layout using the layout designer.
The created report contains several bands by default - including Page Header, Detail Band and Page Footer.
Create a new report layout using the Report Wizard

On the Layout tab of the Report Definition, click Auto-generate a layout.
For more information about this option, refer to the following topic: Report Wizard.
See Also
This page has been modified by Quest Software, Inc.

Report Designer 40
Units of measurement are determined by the report's Measure Units property. It defines the basic measurement
unit for all the unit-related properties of the report and its elements (such as location, size, border width, etc.).
It is equal to one hundredth of an inch by default.
If required, you can change the units to a tenth of a millimeter, by setting the Measure Units property, either
using the Property Grid...
... or via the report's Smart Tag.
See Also

Report Designer 41
In the Report Designer, page settings of a report can be specified in one of two ways. The first approach forces
the default printer settings to be used when the report is printed, while the other one enables you to alter page
settings independently.
Using settings of the default printer
For the orientation, margins and paper size, you can specify a requirement that applies the corresponding
printer settings instead of the report's. In this instance, the page properties in the Property Grid are
disabled and displayed as grayed out. This may be useful when the report is printed in several places
with different printers and printer settings.
Specify the report's page settings

While designing the report, you can specify the page settings via the Property Grid:
You can set the page orientation and modify the margins. The margin values are expressed in the
report's measurement units. You can select from the predefined paper sizes (Paper Kind property),

Report Designer 42
choose Custom and create your own paper size, or select one which is already defined for this printer
(Paper Name property).
These settings affect the layout of the report's design surface. After their modification, you may notice red
warning marks, indicating that the controls go beyond the page width. These warnings can be switched
off by setting the Show Printing Warnings property of the report to No.
Modify the settings in Preview Tab

The report's Preview Tab toolbar has a corresponding button that enables you to modify the page
settings. Clicking this button invokes the Page Setup dialog, which allows you to adjust the page layout
before printing or exporting, and select the printer.
The margins can also be set visually by dragging the dashed lines in the Preview Tab as needed.
To change the measurement units shown in the margins tooltips, customize the report's Measure Units
property.
Measure Units = Hundredths of an Inch

Report Designer 43
Measure Units = Tenths of a Millimeter
See Also

Report Designer 44
The main purpose of the Report Designer is to create and customize data-aware reports. This means that a report
gets data from an external data source (many types of which are supported), to which the report is bound, and
the report's controls represent the corresponding data fields from that data source.
To bind a report to data, execute the following steps.
1.Create a new report.
2.To bind the report to data, click its Smart Tag. In the invoked actions list, expand the Data Source drop-
down list and click Add New DataSource.
3.A dialog appears allowing you to define a name for the dataset being created.
4.On the next page, specify the database to be used. If it is absent in the drop-down selector containing
existing connections, click New Connection..., to invoke the Data Link Properties dialog.
2010 Developer Express Inc.

Report Designer 45
In this dialog's Provider tab, choose your data provider. Then, switch to the Connection tab, to specify
the path to your data source.
Click Ok, then Next.

5.The next page allows you to select tables to be obtained from the database. Select the required table
and click Finish.

Report Designer 46
Note
If you choose several tables, the Report Designer creates a data relationship between them (if possible), used to
create the master-detail reports.
6.After performing the steps above, the report's Data Source, Data Member and Data Adapter properties
are defined. This means that the report is bound to the data.
After binding a report to a dataset, you also need to bind each data-aware report control to a data field. Please
refer to the Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data) topic for details.

Report Designer 47
Report Types
The tutorials in this section provide you detailed instructions on how to create reports of different types with the
Report Designer.
This section consists of the following tutorials:
Static Report
Table Report
Label Report
Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands)
Multi-Column Report
Cross-Tab Report
Parameterized Report
Chart with Static Series
Chart with Dynamic Series

Report Designer 48
Static Report
This tutorial describes the steps to create a static report, which means that the report will not be bound to a data
source. In this example, we will create a simple one-page announcement to be repeated 20 times in a report.
To create a static report, follow the steps below.
2.Drop the Rich Text control from the Toolbox onto the Detail band.
3.Select the created control and click its Smart Tag. In the invoked actions list, click the Load File...
context link.
In the invoked dialog, define the path to an RTF or TXT file containing a text of the announcement, and
click Open.
Note
Note that you can perform additional text formatting using the Formatting Toolbar.
4.To repeat the created report 20 times, select the Detail band and in the Property Grid set its Repeat
Count when Data Source is Empty property to 20.
Also, to make the announcement print on separate pages, set the band's Page Break property to After
the Band.
The static report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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« Back to Report Types

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Table Report
To create a table report, follow the steps below.

2.Bind the report to a data source.
3.Add two Table controls to the Page Header and Detail bands of the report.
To do this, in the Toolbox, click the Table item. Then, in the Page Header band's content area, click and
hold down the left mouse button while dragging the mouse cursor across the Detail band.
As a result, two tables are created. The one placed in the Page Header band will be used as a header,
while the other one - for the report's detail information.
4.Type the headers into the upper table's cells, and bind the corresponding cells in the detail section to
the appropriate data fields. This can be done by simply dropping these fields from the Field List onto the
cells.
5.Now, you can customize various properties of the tables, to improve its appearance. For example, using
the Property Grid you can define their Borders property as well as Background Color. You can
customize text appearance, using the Formatting Toolbar. Also, you can apply an odd-even styles
feature to the table.
The table report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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Label Report
In this tutorial we will create a report containing employee badges, using the Report Wizard.
To create a label report, follow the steps below.
1.To create a new layout, on the Layout tab click Auto-generate a layout.
2.Next, the wizard will guide you through the process of creating a label report. For detailed instructions
on the wizard's steps, refer to Label Report Wizard.
3.Finally, bind the report to a data source containing information about employees, drop the required
fields from the Field List onto the available Detail band's area and customize their layout.
The label report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands)
In this tutorial, we will create a master-detail report (report with hierarchically linked data) using the Detail Report
Band.
To create a master-detail report using the Detail Report Band, follow the steps below.
2.Bind the report to a data source containing a data relationship.
To do this, on the Reports Wizard's last page, simply select those data tables, and click Finish.

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If it is possible to link these tables (e.g. by the common key field), you'll see the relation's section in the
Field List.
3.To add a Detail Report Band, right-click the Report Designer, and in the invoked Context Menu, point to
Insert Detail Report. If the bound data source contains a data relationship, the submenu will contain
an item with the name of that relationship. Select this item to create a Detail Report Band, already
bound to a detail table.

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4.Now, drop the required data fields from the Field List onto the report's Detail and Detail Report bands.
As for the Detail Report Band, note that you should drop items from the relation section (in this example
it is the Categories Products section), or there will be incorrect output in the report.
The master-detail report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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Multi-Column Report
To create a multi-column report, follow the steps below.

3.Add a Group Header band to a report.
To do this, right-click anywhere over the report's surface, and in the invoked Context Menu, point to
Insert Band and click GroupHeader.
4.Drop a field, which will be used as a grouping criteria, from the Field List onto the created
GroupHeader1 band.
5.To define the report's grouping, select the GroupHeader1 band and click its Smart Tag. In the invoked
actions list, locate the Group Fields option and click its ellipsis button.
The GroupField Collection Editor will appear. In this dialog, click Add, to create a grouping field and set
its Field Name to the same field as above.

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6.Now, drop the required fields onto the report's Detail band.
7.Then, select the Detail band, and in the Property Grid, expand the Multi-Column Options section. Set
the Column Count property to 3, Column Spacing to 20 and Direction to First Across, then Down.
Now, on the Detail band's surface a grey area appears, delimiting the available column's width, and a
blue area representing a space between columns.
The multi-column report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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Cross-Tab Report
This document provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to create a cross-tab report using a Pivot Grid
control.
This topic consists of the following sections:
Steps 1-4. Create a pivot grid and bind it to data
Steps 5-8. Manage the grid's fields
Result
Steps 1-4. Create a pivot grid and bind it to data

2.Drop the Pivot Grid control from the Toolbox onto the report's Detail band.
3.To bind the grid to a data source, click its Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, expand the Data
Source drop-down selector and click Add New DataSource. The Report Wizard dialog will appear.
The wizard will guide you through the process of assigning a data source to the grid. For detailed
instructions on the wizard's steps, refer to Bind a Report to Data, as this process is similar.
4.Now, the created dataset is assigned to the grid's Data Source property. Also, set its Data Member
property, to define from which table or view of your dataset the grid should obtain data. Then, the Data
Adapter property will be automatically defined. This means that the grid is bound to the data.

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Note
Note that after these steps, the report's Data Source property must be set to None. Otherwise, the grid will be
blank at the preview and repeated as many times as there are records in the data source.
Steps 5-8. Manage the grid's fields

5.Click the grid's Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, click the Run Designer... link. The Property
Editor will appear.
6.In this editor, click the Retrieve Fields button, and switch to the Layout section in the navigation bar on
the left.
7.Drag & drop the required fields to the Row Fields, Column Fields and Data Items areas.
8.Click Apply and close the editor.

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Result
The cross-tab report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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Parameterized Report
This tutorial describes the steps required to create a report with parameters. In this example, we will create two
parameters of Date Time type, delimiting the time period for the report.
To create the parameterized report, follow the steps below.
2.Bind the report to a data source and drop the required fields from the Field List onto the report's Detail
band.
3.In the Field List window, right-click over the Parameters section, and in the invoked menu, click Add
Parameter.
Repeat this action to create the second parameter.

4.In the Field List, select the first parameter, and in the Property Grid, set its (Name) to FromDate,
Description to From: and Parameter Type to Date Time.
For the second parameter, set these properties as shown in the following image.

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5.Select the report (by clicking anywhere over the blank space surrounding the bands' area), and in the
Property Grid, locate the Filter String property and click its ellipsis button. The FilterString Editor will
appear.
In this dialog, define the required expressions involving the created parameters.
Note
Make sure that the report's Request Parameters property is set to Yes, as it is by default. Otherwise, the
parameters won't be requested during the preview, and as a result, you'll get a blank report.
6.Finally, drop the required data fields from the Field List onto the report bands, to create the report's
layout.
The parameterized report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and in the Parameters section, define the
required values and click Submit.

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This document provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to create a report with a Chart control bound
to data, so that a particular series has its own data source, and other settings.
This example describes how to construct a chart of products and their prices for a chosen category using the data
from the Northwind database (the sample nwind.mdb database). Note that in this example, the series' data have
a single data source to simplify the project. But since the series can be bound to data independently, different
data sources can be used for different series, if necessary.
To create a chart, follow the steps below.

2.Drop the Chart control from the Toolbox onto the report's Detail band.
Note
Note that in this instance, the Chart Wizard may be invoked (if its "Show wizard every time a new chart is added"
option is enabled). In this example, we don't need to use the wizard, so click Cancel to close the wizard's window
and manually customize the chart.

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3.To bind the chart to a data source, click its Smart Tag , and in the invoked actions list, expand the Data
The wizard will guide you through the process of assigning a data source to the chart. For detailed
4.Now, the created dataset is assigned to the chart's Data Source property. Also, set its Data Member
property, to define from which table or view of your dataset the chart should obtain data. Then, the
chart's Data Adapter property will be automatically defined. This means that the chart is bound to the
data.
Note
Note that after these steps, the report's Data Source property must be set to None. Otherwise, the chart will be
blank at the preview, and repeated as many times as there are records in the data source.
5.To add a series to the chart and specify its data binding properties, use the Series Collection Editor. It
can be invoked either via the Property Grid, or via the Series... link in the chart's Smart Tag.
In the editor, create a series by clicking the Add... button and selecting the Bar view.
Switch to the Properties tab at the right of the editor's window.

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Set the series' Data Source property to the created dataset, define the Argument Data Member and
Value Data Members properties.
Click Copy, to create another series with the same properties, and set its View property to Point.
To save the changes and quit the editor, click Close.
6.Note that after this step, there are too many data points, and the chart looks messy. The chart's Data
Filters property is intended to limit the number of data points shown by applying a filtering criterion.
Select Series1 in the chart by mouse click, then in the Property Grid locate the Data Filters item and
click its ellipsis button, to invoke the Data Filter Collection Editor.
Click Add to add a criterion, and define its properties as shown in the following image.

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To save the changes and quit the editor, click Close.

Repeat the same actions for Series2, i.e. choose its Data Filters property, add a filter and define its
Column Name and Value.
7.To improve the chart's appearance, make the following corrections.
· Remove the chart's legend, as it shows the same data for the series. To do this, select the legend
item in the chart, and in the Property Grid, set its Visible property to No.
· The point labels for Series1 are unnecessary, so select the label and set its Visible property to No.
· Customize the Series2 marker's appearance. Replace the default circle with the upside-down triangle
by the View.Point Marker Options.Kind property and set its Size to 12.
· Rotate the X-axis labels for better readability. Select the AxisX item in the chart by mouse click, and
adjust properties for its labels (via the Label property). For instance, if the Angle property is 20 and
the Antialiasing property is set to Yes, the labels look neat.
If required, it is possible to customize many other properties for the chart, which are not described here.
The chart is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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See Also

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This document provides you with step-by-step instructions on how to create a report with a Chart control bound
to data. In this example, all series will be auto-created by a chart using the series template, which specifies
common data binding properties for all series.
This is possible because the data for all series (the series names along with series points' arguments and values)
are stored in the same data table. Also, in this example, the series view type and certain other settings should be
the same for all the series created.
In this example we'll use the "GSP" table of the sample gsp.mdb database. This table contains the Gross State
Product (GSP) statistics for some US regions.
This topic consists of the following sections:
Steps 1-4. Create a chart and bind it to data

Steps 5-7. Specify a series data member and adjust a series template
Steps 8-10. Customize the chart
Result
Steps 1-4. Create a chart and bind it to data

2.Drop the Chart control from the Toolbox onto the report's Detail band.

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Note
Note that in this instance, the Chart Wizard may be invoked (if its "Show wizard every time a new chart is added"
option is enabled). In this example, we don't need to use the wizard, so click Cancel to close the wizard's window
and manually customize the chart.
3.To bind the chart to a data source, click its Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, expand the Data
The wizard will guide you through the process of assigning a data source to the chart. For detailed
4.Now, the created dataset is assigned to the chart's Data Source property. Also, set its Data Member
property, to define from which table or view of your dataset the chart should obtain data. Then, the
chart's Data Adapter property will be automatically set, as well. This means that the chart is bound to
the data.

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Note
Note that after these steps, the report's Data Source property must be set to None. Otherwise, the chart will be
blank at the preview, and be repeated as many times as there are records in the data source.
Steps 5-7. Specify a series data member and adjust a series template
Since, in this example, the chart will represent the data as different series, series points and their values, all
series will be created using a series template which is common to all series. The following steps demonstrate how
this is done.
5.To specify the data field which should provide data for the series names, you need to set the Series
Data Member property value.
6.Then, adjust the series template which is accessed via the chart's Series Template property. Set the
Argument Data Member property.

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7.Then, define the value of the Value Data Members property, indicating the data fields from which the
series obtains the data values of its points.
Steps 8-10. Customize the chart

8.Adjust the Series Name Template
By default, the name for every series which is automatically generated by the chart using its Series
Data Member property's value, is obtained directly from an appropriate data field in the bound data
source. However, it may also be necessary to add some prefixes or postfixes to these names. So, you
may customize the Series Name Template object returned by the Series Name Template property, to
add some text to the beginning or to the end of every series name. For instance, here we set the
Series Name Template.Begin Text property to "GSP in ".
9.Customize Series Labels

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Set the Series Template.Label.Visible property to No, to hide labels for all series points, and prevent a
chart from being crowded with numerous overlapping labels.
10.Customize Axis Labels
Initially, all axis labels (which in this example show the names of the US regions) are lined up and
overlap, so the chart looks unprofessional. To avoid this, select the X-Axis (which is also accessed via
the Chart Control.Diagram.Axis X property) and set its Label.Staggered property to Yes.
If required, it is possible to customize many other properties for the chart, which are not described here.
Result
The chart is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.
See Also

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Styles and Conditional Formatting
The topics of this section cover appearance-related information about the Report Designer.
Understand Styles Concepts
Use Odd and Even Styles
Store and Restore Style Sheets
Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance
Conditionally Hide Bands

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Understand Styles Concepts
Each report element (band and control) and the report itself has a group of properties, specifying the element's
appearance, such as Background Color, Borders, Border Color, Border Width, Font, Foreground Color, Padding
and Text Alignment. By default, these properties are set to empty values, which means that their real values are
obtained from a control's (or band's) parent. In turn, this means that these appearance-related properties,
defined by a parent, are spread to their child elements.
You can also define a control's appearance properties independently from its parent.
When it is required to reset a value assigned to a control's appearance property, you can right-click this property
in the Property Grid, and in the invoked menu, click Reset. So, the control will be restored to the appearance of its
parent.

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Note
Some of these properties are only applicable to certain controls. For example, the Line control ignores the Text
Alignment property, assigned to the Line's container band.
Additionally, there can be styles created in a report. A report's styles live in the report's Style Sheet collection. A
style stored within this collection has a set of the same appearance properties, as a control or a band has. There
are two ways to store a report's style sheets. The first approach is to save them to external files (with REPSS
extension), and then load them to a report using its Style Sheet Path property in the read-only mode (this is
described at Store and Restore Style Sheets). The second is to store the style sheets within the report (using the
Style Sheet property), so that they can be modified, if required, and saved with the report itself.
Finally, the styles can be assigned to a report's bands and controls. So, there is an option for the band or control
to obtain its appearance either from a style assigned to it, or from the control's own appearance properties. In
this case, the control's Style Priority property allows you to define the required behavior of the control's final
appearance.
By default, all the Style Priority's options (Style Priority.Use Background Color, Style Priority.Use Border Color,
etc.), which follow the structure of the style and appearance properties, are set to Yes (except the Use Text
Alignment). This means that if any style is assigned to a control via its Styles property, all its properties will have
a higher priority than the properties stored in the control or in its parent. If you want some of the properties to be
determined by a control, rather than its style, set the corresponding Use* property to No.
Note
If styles contained in a style sheet loaded in the Style Sheet Path property have the same names as styles already
contained in a report, the latter ones are overriden.
The following image demonstrates how the Style Priority property works.

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Note
When a conditional formatting is involved, the appearance defined by the conditional formatting has a higher priority
than the properties described above.
Another commonly used feature is odd-even styles. It allows you to visually delimit alternating data fields in a
report, for better readability. More information about this can be found at Use Odd and Even Styles.

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Use Odd and Even Styles
This tutorial describes the steps to create a report using odd and even styles. For more information on using
styles in the Report Designer, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
To utilize odd and even styles, follow the steps below.
3.Drop the required fields from the Field List onto the report's Detail band.
4.Select the Detail band, and in the Property Grid, expand the Styles property.
Invoke the drop-down list for the Even Style property, and click (New).
The xrControlStyle1 will be assigned to the Even Style property.

5.Now, expand the Even Style property, and set the Background Color property to Beige (or any other
of the properties available in this section as required).

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6.Repeat steps 4-5 for the Odd Style property: i.e. create a new style and set its Background Color
property to Ivory.
7.If you switch to the Preview Tab at this stage, you'll see the following result.

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As you can see, the created styles are applied to all the controls contained in the Detail band.
8.Suppose a different style is required for one of the fields. To accomplish this, do the following.
Select the required field, and in the Property Grid, expand its Styles property and open the drop-down
list for the Style property. Click (New).
Then, expand the Style property, and for the created xrControlStyle3, set the Background Color
property to White.

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9.The style of this control has priority over the Detail band's styles. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view
the result.

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See Also

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With the Report Designer, it is possible to store a report's style sheet (containing all the report's styles) in an
external REPSS file. This makes it possible to easily restore a report's appearance from this file. For more
information on using styles in the Report Designer, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
To store and restore report style sheets, follow the steps below.
3.Click the report's Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, locate the Style Sheet property and click its
ellipsis button.
4.In the invoked Styles Editor, use the button, to create new styles. Define their required properties
and click the Save button.
In the invoked Save File dialog, define a name for the style sheet file (.REPSS) to be created and click
Save.
5.Now, in the Styles Editor dialog, use the button to delete the created styles, and close the dialog.

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6.Select the report, by clicking anywhere over the blank area around its bands. In the Property Grid ,
locate the Style Sheet Path property and click its ellipsis button. In the invoked Open File dialog, load
the created REPSS file.
If you then click the Style Sheet properties ellipsis button, in the invoked Styles Editor, you'll see that
the properties of the styles are read-only. This is because we used the Style Sheet Path property to
load the style sheet.
If the Style Sheet Path property is then set to None, and a style sheet is loaded into a report using
the Style Sheet property, all the styles loaded from the style sheet file will still be kept in the report, but
become editable.
7.Now, assign these styles to the required report controls, by using their Styles property. In this example,
we assign the created styles to the control's Odd Style and Even Style properties. To learn more on
this, refer to Use Odd and Even Styles.

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Note
Note that the styles loaded from a style sheet file have a higher priority than the styles which exist in a report's
style sheet, returned by the Style Sheet property. This means that if the styles stored in the report have the same
names as the styles loaded from a style sheet file, then the styles in the file will substitute for their namesakes. And,
the styles loaded from a file can't be edited in a report. For more information, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
The result is shown in the following image.

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This tutorial describes the steps to conditionally change a control's appearance. For more information on using
styles in the Report Designer, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
4.Select the report by clicking anywhere over the blank area around its bands, and in the Property Grid,
locate the Formatting Rules Sheet property and click its ellipsis button. The invoked Formatting Rule
Sheet Editor is intended to manage and customize formatting rules, which then can be defined for the
report's bands and controls.
In this dialog, create a new formatting rule (by using the button), locate its Condition property and,
again, click its ellipsis button.

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5.In the invoked Condition Editor, define the required Boolean condition. In this tutorial, we will format
fields if the UnitPrice value is greater than 30.
To save the condition and close the dialog, click OK.

6.Now, define the formatting to be applied.

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7.Select the band or control to which the formatting rule must be applied (in this example it is the Detail
band), and in the Property Grid, locate its Formatting Rules property and click its ellipsis button. In the
now visible Formatting Rules Editor, move the formatting rule from left to right (using the > button),
which means that the rule is to be applied.
Also, it is possible to customize the precedence of formatting rules, by using the up and down arrow
buttons at the right of the dialog. So, the rules are applied in the same order that they appear in the
list, and the last rule in the list has the highest priority.

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See Also
Conditionally Change a Label's Text

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This tutorial describes the steps to conditionally hide bands. In this example, we will hide the Group Header and
Detail bands, if a grouping field meets a certain condition. Note that no scripts are required to accomplish this
task.
2.Bind the report to a data source .
3.Add a Group Header band to the report.
For this, right-click anywhere over the report's surface, and in the invoked Context Menu , point to Insert
Band and click GroupHeader.
4.Drop a field which will be used as a grouping criteria, from the Field List onto the created GroupHeader1
band.
5.Click the Smart Tag of the GroupHeader1 band, and in the invoked actions list, click the ellipsis button in
the Group Fields section. The GroupField Collection Editor dialog will appear.

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In this dialog, click Add, to add a new grouping field, and set its Field Name property to the required
field.
To apply the settings and close the dialog, click OK.
6.Drop fields, representing the general report's data onto the report's Detail band.
7.Now, select the Group Header band's strip, and in the Property Grid, locate the Formatting Rules
property, and click its ellipsis button.
In the invoked Formatting Rules Editor, click the Edit Rule Sheet... button.

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8.In the invoked Formatting Rule Sheet Editor, click the button, to create a new rule. Then, set its
Visible property to No, and for the Condition property, click the ellipsis button.
9.Now, construct the required boolean expression to be met (e.g. [ShipCountry] == 'Argentina'), and
click OK.

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Then, click Close, to quit the Formatting Rule Sheet Editor.

10.Finally, in the Formatting Rules Editor, move the created rule to the dialog's right section (Applied
Rules) for the rule to become active.
And, repeat this step for the report's Detail band (e.g. click its Formatting Rules property's ellipsis
button, and in the invoked dialog, make the same rule applied to this band, as well). Otherwise, only
the Group Header band will not be displayed when the rule's condition is met, while the detailed section
of this group will still be visible.
Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result. In our example, you can see that there is no Argentina section in
the report, while it's the first record in our database. So, the conditional formatting was applied properly.

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See Also

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This tutorial demonstrates how to change a label's text if a certain condition is met.
To conditionally format a label's text at design time, follow the instructions below.
3.To create a calculated field, in the Field List, right-click any item inside the created dataset, and on the
invoked menu, choose Add Calculated Field.
4.Now, in the Property Grid, set the field's Field Type property to String. Then, locate its Expression
property and click its ellipsis button. The Expression Editor will appear.

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In this dialog, define the required condition for the calculated field (e.g. Iif([UnitsOnOrder] == 0,
'None', [UnitsOnOrder]), which means that if the UnitsOnOrder data field's value is equal to 0, the
appropriate control's text will be replaced with None).
To close the dialog, click OK.
5.Finally, drop the required data fields (and the created calculated field as well) from the Field List onto
the report's Detail band.

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See Also

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Navigation
The tutorials of this section cover the navigation-related features of the Report Designer.
This section consists of the following tutorials:
Add Bookmarks
Create Hyperlinks
Add a Cross-Reference

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Add Bookmarks
This tutorial describes the steps to create a report with bookmarks (or a so-called Document Map). This feature
allows you to easily navigate through the report during its print preview.
To create a report with bookmarks, follow the steps below.
Steps 1-8. Create a report
Steps 9-11. Define bookmarks
Result
Steps 1-8. Create a report

3.Add a Group Header band to the report.
To do this, right-click anywhere over the report's surface, and in the invoked Context Menu, point to
Insert Band and click GroupHeader.
4.From the Field List, drop data-fields onto the created GroupHeader1 band.
the Group Fields property. The GroupField Collection Editor dialog will appear.

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In this dialog, click Add to add a new grouping field, and set its FieldName property to the required
field.
6.To add a Report Header band to the report, right-click anywhere over its surface, and in the invoked
Popup Menu, point to Insert Band and click ReportHeader.
7.From the Toolbox panel, drop a Label onto the created Report Header band, and set its text to Products
by Categories.
8.Then, drop a field representing the general report's data onto the created Detail band.
Steps 9-11. Define bookmarks

9.Click the label in the Report Header band, to select it, and in the Property Grid, set its Bookmark
property to the same value as its text (i.e. Products by Categories).

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10.Now, select the label in the report's Group Header band. As this control is bound to data, we will bind
its Bookmark property to the same data field, using the (Data Bindings) property.
11.Then, for this field, set the Parent Bookmark property to the Report Header's label, to define the
document map's hierarchy.
Result
The report with bookmarks is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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See Also
Create Hyperlinks

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Create Hyperlinks
The following example demonstrates how to create a hyperlink in a report.

Note
Note that a label will behave as a hyperlink both in a report's Print preview, HTML preview and when the report is
exported to PDF, HTML, MHT, RTF and XLS formats.

2.Drop a Label onto the report and change its Text to the one which is required for the link.
3.In the Property Grid, set its Navigation Target property to the required value (_blank, _parent, _search,
_self, or _top), and for the Navigation URL property, define the URL.
The hyperlink is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.
See Also
Add Bookmarks

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A cross-reference is a link whose target is located within the current document. This allows you to establish easy
navigation through a report. In this example, we create a grouped report with a link at the bottom of each group,
leading to the beginning of the report.
To create a report with a cross-reference, follow the steps below.
1.Create a report with grouping.
2.To add a Report Header band to the report, right-click anywhere over the report's surface, and on the
invoked Context Menu, point to Insert Band and click ReportHeader.
3.Drop a label onto the created ReportHeader band, which will serve as the report's headline. Click the
label, to type the desired contents into it. Then, in the Property Grid, set its Name property to
reportTop.
4.Now, add a Group Footer band to the report.

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5.Again, drop a label onto it. As it will be the link, change its text to Top of Report, and apply the common
formatting to it (the blue color and underlined text) .
Finally, set its Navigation Target property to _self. Now, if you click the drop-down list of the
Navigation URL property, you can see the controls available in your report. Choose the one named
reportTop.
The cross-reference is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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See Also
Add Bookmarks
Create Hyperlinks

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Miscellaneous
The topics of this section cover the Report Designer features which don't fall into other categories.
Handle Events via Scripts
Show the Current Row Index
Count the Number of Records in a Report or a Group
Cancel Printing If a Report Does Not Contain Any Records
Limit the Number of Records per Page

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Handle Events via Scripts
The Report Designer offers you a scripting feature to handle the events of report controls, report bands, or a
report itself. This document describes the basic principles of scripting.
Overview
Scripting allows you to insert scripts into a report, and execute them when the report is previewed, printed or
exported. Script commands should be placed within the event handlers of the report objects. When the
corresponding event occurs (e.g. a mouse click), the script code runs.
Generally scripts are used for data-aware report formatting. Though Report Designer allows you to perform such
tasks without any scripting (Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance, Conditionally Change a Label's Text
and Conditionally Hide Bands), sometimes it may be required to involve scripts, e.g. to achieve more specific
results. The report's layout can be fully customized with advanced use of scripting.
Also, scripting is the only way to calculate custom summaries.
Every report object has a set of events that can be handled by modifying the corresponding scripts. This set
depends on a particular elements type. For example, the Label control's events are shown in the following image.
When you click the ellipsis button for any event (the Before Print is the most popular), the Script Editor appears.

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If there is no script defined for this event, the window contains a script template in the language specified via the
Script Language property of the report (C#, Visual Basic or J#).
Insert the script code with the help of this simple editor. Since there are no syntax checks or a debugger, you
have to be accurate. Use already tested examples to simplify the task. When the code has mistakes, you'll get an
error message on previewing the report (for more information, refer to Warnings and Error Messages in Print
Preview).
To restore the default script, in the Script Editor dialog, click the Default Script button. This will eliminate all the
changes you made to scripts.
The scripts are saved along with the report layout to a file (for details on this, refer to Back Up the Current Layout
Before Modifying It).
Specifics
1.Scripting language
The report scripts may be written in one of the following languages that the .NET framework supports -
C#, Visual Basic and J#. Since J# is not installed with the framework installation by default, make sure it
is present before writing code in it. The scripting language is specified via the Script Language property
of the Report object. It is set to the C# language by default.
2.Scripting scope
Script execution is performed in the following way:
The report engine generates a temporary class in memory. The names of the variables are defined by
the Name properties of the controls and objects they represent. When the script is preprocessed, its
namespace directives are cut from the script code and added to the namespace where the temporary
class is defined.
After preprocessing, all scripts are placed in the code of the temporary class. Then, the resulting class is
compiled in memory, and its methods are called when events occur.
Scripting offers many advantages: you can declare classes (they will become inner classes), variables,
methods, etc. A variable declared in one script is accessible in another script, because it is, in fact, a
variable of the temporary class.
3.Reference External Assemblies
The Script References property of the Report object specifies the full paths (including the file names) to
the assemblies that are referenced in the scripts used in a report. These paths should be specified for
all the assemblies that are included in scripts via using (C#), Imports (Visual Basic) or import (J#)
directives.

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Note
Usually, you don't need include any assembles, because most standard assemblies that you may require in scripts
are already referenced by the Report Designer.
Example: Custom Summary

In this example, we will display the total number of product unit packs in a group.
To perform this, execute steps similar to the ones described in Add Totals to a Report, except that for the
summary field, you should set the Function property to Custom.
Then, the additional events are added to the label's Scripts property.
Handle these events in the following way:

C#
C opy C ode
// Declare a summary and a pack.
double totalUnits = 0;
double pack = 15;
private void OnSummaryReset(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {
// Reset the result each time a group is printed.
totalUnits = 0;
}
private void OnSummaryRowChanged(object sender, System.EventArgs e) {

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// Calculate a summary.
totalUnits += Convert.ToDouble(GetCurrentColumnValue("UnitsOnOrder"));
}
private void OnSummaryGetResult(object sender,
DevExpress.XtraReports.UI.SummaryGetResultEventArgs e) {
// Round the result, so that a pack will be taken into account
// even if it contains only one unit.
e.Result = Math.Ceiling(totalUnits / pack);
e.Handled = true;
}
Visual Basic
C opy C ode
' Declare a summary and a pack.
Private totalUnits As Double = 0
Private pack As Double = 15
Private Sub OnSummaryReset(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
' Reset the result each time a group is printed.
totalUnits = 0
End Sub
Private Sub OnSummaryRowChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
' Calculate a summary.
totalUnits += Convert.ToDouble(GetCurrentColumnValue("UnitsOnOrder"))
End Sub
Private Sub OnSummaryGetResult(ByVal sender As Object, _
ByVal e As DevExpress.XtraReports.UI.SummaryGetResultEventArgs)
' Round the result, so that a pack will be taken into account
' even if it contains only one unit.
e.Result = Math.Ceiling(totalUnits / pack)
e.Handled = True
End Sub
Finally, switch to the Preview Tab, and view the result.

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To show the current row index in a report, follow the instructions below.
1.Create a new report or open an existing one.
4.Click the field for which the current row index will be displayed, to select it. Then, hold down CTRL and
drag the field, to create an exact copy of the Label, which will display the index.
5.Select the created Label, and in the Property Grid, locate the Summary property and click its ellipsis
button. The Summary Editor will appear.
In this dialog, the Bound field is already set to the required data field. So, for the Summary function
select RecordNumber and check Ignore NULL values to avoid these data fields from affecting the
calculation. Last, set the Summary Running option to Report (Group or Page if required) and click OK.

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See Also

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To count the number of records in a report or a group, follow the instructions below.
1.Create a new report or open an existing one.
3.Add a Report Footer band to a report. To do this, right-click anywhere over the report's area and in the
invoked Context Menu, point to Insert Band and select ReportFooter.
4.In the same manner, add GroupHeader and GroupFooter bands to the report.
5.Drop the required data fields from the Field List onto the report bands.
6.Click the field for which the number of records will be calculated, to select it. Then, hold down CTRL and
drag the field onto the Group Footer area, to create an exact copy of the Label, which will display the
number of records for a group.
7.In the same way, create a copy of this field in the Report Footer area, to display the number of records
for the report.
the Group Fields section. The GroupField Collection Editor dialog will appear.

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In this dialog, click Add, to add a new grouping field, and set its FieldName property to the required
field.
9.Select the Label in the Group Footer area, and in the Property Grid, expand the Summary property.
Set the Running property to Group, Function to Count and (if required) Ignore Null Values to Yes.
Also, set the Format String property to Products in the Group: {0}.
10.Similarly, select the Label in the Report Footer area, and in the Property Grid, expand the Summary
property.
Set the Running property to Report, Function to Count, Ignore Null Values to Yes and Format String
to Products in the Report: {0}.

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See Also

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To cancel printing when a report does not contain any records, simply set the Detail band's Print when Data
Source is Empty property to No.
You can quickly perform this via the band's Smart Tag.
See Also

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This tutorial demonstrates how the number of records shown in a report can be limited by means of conditional
formatting. In particular, a formatting rule is applied to the Visible property of the Page Break control. In this
example, the number of data rows is passed to the report as a parameter.
To limit the number of records per page, follow the instructions below.
1.Create a new report or open an existing one. In this example, a data-aware table report is used as a
starting point.
2.To add a parameter to the report, in the Field List, right-click the Parameters section, and in the invoked
menu, choose Add Parameter.
3.For the created parameter, set the (Name) property to rowsNumber, Parameter Type to Int32 and
Description to Rows per Page: .

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4.From the Toolbox, drop the Page Break control onto the report's Detail band and place it at the top of
the detail table.
5.For the created control, set the Visible property to No, and for its Formatting Rules property, click the
ellipsis button, to invoke the Formatting Rules Editor.

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In this dialog, click the Edit Rule Sheet... button. The Formatting Rule Sheet Editor will appear.
6.Now, click , to create a new formatting rule. Then, set its Visible property to Yes, and for the
Condition property, click the ellipsis button, to invoke the Condition Editor.
7.In this editor, define the following expression for the rule: ([DataSource.CurrentRowIndex] %
[Parameters.rowsNumber] == 0) And ([DataSource.CurrentRowIndex] != 0).
Click OK, to save the changes and close the dialog. Then, click Close to quit the Formatting Rule Sheet
Editor.
8.Now, in the Formatting Rules Editor, you can see the created rule, which should be moved to the list of
applied rules on the right, using the arrow buttons in the middle of the dialog.

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To close the editor, click OK.
The report is now ready. Switch to the Preview Tab, and in the Parameters section, define the required value and
click Submit.
See Also

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Report Designer Reference
A report is built from controls (text labels, images, zip codes, charts, etc) spread across report sections called
bands (various headers, footers and content sections). The main interface elements helping you manage these
building blocks are control toolbox, data field list and property grid. These elements allow you add controls to
your report, bind them to data and change their appearance and behavior settings, respectively. To learn more
about these and other elements used in the Report Designer, use the following links.
Report Designer UI
How to use a control toolbox, data field list, property grid and other UI elements.
Report Controls
Details which controls are available, and how you can change their appearance and behavior.
Report Bands
Details different kinds of bands and their settings.
Report Settings
Details settings that affect the entire report.

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Report Designer UI
The Report Designer consists of the following important elements.

Component Tray
Context Menu
Control Toolbox
Design Panel
Designer Tab
Field List
Formatting Toolbar
Group and Sort Panel
HTML View Tab
Layout Toolbar
Main Toolbar
Preview Tab
Property Grid
Report Explorer
Smart Tag
Zoom Toolbar

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Component Tray
The Component Tray shows components (non-visual report helpers) whose primary purpose is to bind a report to
data. You can click them to display and edit their settings using the Property grid.
Note
Component management and data binding configuration are usually performed by system administrators or your
application vendor, since these areas require advanced knowledge of database connectivity. You will rarely, if ever,
need to access component settings when modifying existing reports.

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Context Menu
The Context Menu can be invoked by the right-clicking a report or its elements. This menu provides quick access
to frequently used commands such as zooming, clipboard operations, inserting bands and invoking the Property
Grid, etc. The available action set varies, depending on the element where you invoked the context menu.
See Also
Smart Tag

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Control Toolbox
The Control Toolbox lists all avilable controls and allows you to add them to your report.
To add a control from the Toolbox, do one of the following:

Double-click an item in the Toolbox for the appropriate control, which will be created at the Detail band's
top left corner.
Drag and drop an item from the Toolbox onto the required location within a report.

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Select an item in the Toolbox, and then click the required location within a report.
Select an item in the Toolbox, and then indicate the bounding rectangle by holding the left mouse button.
Select the Pointer item when you need to perform selection, re-positioning or resizing operations. It is
automatically selected after you drop a control onto a report.
Note
If the Toolbox panel is hidden, you can show it by selecting View | Windows | Tool Box in the main menu.

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Design Panel
The Design Panel provides the following three tabs (switched at the bottom).
Designer Tab
Allows you to modify your report.
Preview Tab
Shows a print preview, and enables you to print out your report or export it to a file on disk.
HTML View Tab
Shows the report output in HTML format.

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Designer Tab
The Designer Tab allows you to customize a report, manage its bands and controls and define their properties.
See Also
Preview Tab
HTML View Tab

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Field List
The Field List window serves the following purposes.

Displays the list of all available data fields (attributes you can show in your report) and allows you to
create report elements that will show information from these fields.
Allows you to create calculated fields by building expressions based on the values of data fields, report
parameter values, etc.
Shows existing report parameters, and allows you to add parameters to your report.
Note
If the toolbox window is hidden, you can show it by selecting View | Windows | Field List in the main menu.

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Formatting Toolbar
The Formatting Toolbar allows you to easily customize an element's font, color and alignment settings.
This page has been modified by Quest Software.

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Group and Sort Panel
The Group and Sort Panel allows you to quickly apply grouping and sorting to your report data.
To create a new grouping or sorting criterion, simply click Add a Group or Add a Sort.
Then, to control whether the corresponding Group Header or Footer band should be seen, use the Show Header
and Show Footer check boxes.
An ascending or descending grouping (sorting) mode is specified via the Sort Order drop-down list.
You can change the order in which multiple grouping and sorting criteria are to be performed, via the Move Up
and Move Down buttons.
To remove a grouping or sorting criterion, select it, and click Delete.
Note
If the Group and Sort Panel is hidden, you can enable it by selecting View | Windows | Group and Sort in the main
menu.
See Also

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HTML View Tab
There are three tabs at the bottom of the Report Designer (Designer, Preview and HTML View) allowing you to
quickly switch between different views.
The HTML View tab allow you to preview the HTML output of a report.
See Also
Designer Tab
Preview Tab

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Layout Toolbar
The Layout Toolbar allows you to easily align report elements to one another, change their size to match one
another and customize spacing and z-order.

Report Designer 141
Main Toolbar
The Main Toolbar contains buttons which provide the capability to create new reports, save and load report
layouts, cut, copy and paste report elements, and undo-redo actions in the Report Designer. In the Report Manager
the Main Toolbar is integrated with the Layout toolbar, and some buttons have been removed.

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Preview Tab
There are three tabs at the bottom of the Report Designer (Designer, Preview and HTML View), allowing you to
quickly switch between different views.
The Preview tab is intended to check the print output of a report and customize additional options.
See Also
Designer Tab
HTML View Tab

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Property Grid
The Property Grid allows you to change the settings of the currently selected report element.
To select an element and show its properties within the Property Grid, do one of the following.
Click the required element on the Report Designer surface.
Select an element using the Report Explorer window.
Select an element from the Property Grid's combo box.
Note
If the Property Grid is hidden, you can enable it by selecting View | Windows | Property Grid in the main menu.

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Report Explorer
The Report Explorer shows a report's structure in a tree form, providing easy access to report elements. Once an
element has been selected in the Report Explorer, it's settings can be changed using the Property Grid window.
Note
If the Report Explorer is hidden you can make it visible it by selecting View | Windows | Report Explorer in the main
menu.

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Smart Tag
Most report elements have smart tags that provide easy access to the most frequently used settings. Clicking an
element's smart tag invokes a popup window with action links and editors, allowing you to customize this
element.
Report Smart Tag
A report's smart tag icon is located at the top left corner of the Design Panel. Note that you need to click
that corner twice. The first click selects the report object, allowing you to change its settings in the
Property Grid. The second click invokes the smart tag's popup window.
Band Smart Tag

A band's smart tag icon is located on the band strip right next to its caption. For instance, the smart tag
for the Detail band is shown in the following image.
Control Smart Tag

A control's smart tag icon is located at the top right corner of the control. For instance, the smart tag for
the Label control is shown in the following image.

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This is the smart tag for the Picture Box control.
See Also
Context Menu

Report Designer 147
Zoom Toolbar
The Zoom Toolbar allows you to zoom a report in and out, providing easier control over report's layout.
In the Report Manager, the Zoom toolbar is appended to the Main toolbar.

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Report Settings
A Report is the main object in the Report Designer, as it's the document being edited. A typical report is shown in
the following image (as it looks in Designer Tab and Preview Tab).
While the main report's properties can be accessed via the report's Smart Tag, the complete settings list is
available in the Property Grid, where all the report's properties are divided into the following groups.

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Appearance
Background Color
Specifies the background color of report elements. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar (
).
Borders, Border Color and Border Width
Specify border settings for report elements.
Font
Specifies the font settings for report elements. Some of these settings are available in the Formatting
Toolbar.
Foreground Color
Specifies the text color for report elements. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Formatting Rule Sheet
Invokes the Formatting Rule Sheet Editor, allowing you to manage and customize formatting rules, which
can then be defined for a report's bands and controls. To learn more on this, refer to Conditionally
Change a Control's Appearance.
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor, allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the report
during report generation, and define the precedence of the applied rules. To learn more on this, refer to
Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance.

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Padding
Specifies indent values used to render the contents of a report's controls.
Style Sheet
Allows you to invoke the Styles Editor, which is intended to manage and customize a report's style
sheets. To learn more on this, refer to Store and Restore Style Sheets.
Style Sheet's Path

Allows you to define a path to the style sheet contained in a report style sheet file (.REPSS). To learn
more on this, refer to Store and Restore Style Sheets.
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the alignment of a report controls' text. This option is also available in the
Formatting Toolbar.
Watermark
Allows you to customize a report's watermark options. For more information about this, refer to Create or
Modify Watermarks of a Report.
Behavior
Export Options
Allows you to set the export options for each file type (PDF, XLS, TXT, etc.). These options vary with the

Report Designer 151
file type.
Measure Units
Allows you to choose units of measurement for a report (one hundredth of an inch or a tenth of a
millimeter).
Script Language
Allows you to choose the programming language to be used in scripting (C#, Visual Basic or J#).
Script References
Allows you to manage the collection of strings that represent the paths to the assemblies used by the
scripts in a report.
Scripts
This property contains events which you can handle with the required scripts. For more information on
scripting, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.
Show Margin Lines in Preview
The page margin lines are dotted lines shown on the currently selected page in the report's preview. Use
this property to change the visibility of these lines.
Vertical Content Splitting
Allows you to choose whether report controls outside the right page margin should be split across pages,
or moved in their entirety to the next page.
Visible
Specifies whether a report should be created in print preview.
Data
Calculated Fields
Allows you to access a report's calculated fields collection.
Data Adapter
Determines a report's data adapter used to populate the report's data source. It is created automatically
when the Data Member property is defined. To learn more about this, refer to Bind a Report to Data.
Data Member
Determines a specific list in a report's Data Source, for which the Report Designer objects display data. To
learn more about this, refer to Bind a Report to Data.
Note
Usually, it is not necessary to specify the Data Member property when binding a report to data. This property should
only be set directly if the dataset contains more than one table.
Data Source
Determines a report's data source. To learn more about this, refer to Bind a Report to Data.

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Filter String
Allows you to invoke the Filter String Editor, which is intended to easily define a filtering condition for a
report's data. For more information about this, refer to Change or Apply Data Filtering to a Report.
Tag
This property allows you to add some additional information to a report; for example its id, by which it can
then be accessible via scripts.
XML Data Path
Allows you to define a path to data contained in an external XML file. The data contained in the file will
then be used as a report's data source.
Design
(Name)
Determines a report's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or via
scripts.
Data Source's Schema
Allows you to load an XML/XSD file, containing the schema of a report's data source.
Draw the Grid
Determines whether to draw the grid when a report is being designed.
Grid Size
Determines the size of a grid defined by a report's Draw the Grid property.
Row Count for Preview
This property is intended to reduce the time for report preview loading when working with large data
sources. For example, if this property is set to 10, only 10 data rows will be loaded into a data source. If
you want to see all data rows, set this property to 0 (as it is by default).
Show Designer's Hints
The designer hints are intended to provide tooltips, both describing the purpose of certain report
elements for inexperienced users, and describing the reasons and solutions for possible export or printing
warnings. By using this property, these hints can be turned on or off.

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Show Export Warnings

The export warnings appear when report controls are overlapped, indicating that a report layout may be
incorrect when exporting to certain table-based formats (such as XLS, HTML or RTF).
Show Printing Warnings

The printing warnings are intended to notify you that some of a report's controls are placed outside the
right page margin, so that the report contains unnecessary pages.
Snap to Grid
This property is intended to place controls on a report precisely when they are located or resized.
Misc
Bands
Allows you to invoke the Report Editor, intended to manage and customize a report's bands.

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Navigation
Bookmark
Allows you to define how a report is named in the document map when the report bookmarks are
implemented. By default, it is synchronized with the report's Name property.
Page Settings
Landscape
Determines whether the page orientation is Landscape (when set to Yes) or Portrait (when set to No).
Margins
Determines the width of a report's margins (measured in report units).
Note
Note that the report's Margins.Top and Margins.Bottom properties are tied to the Height property of the Page Margin
Bands. So, changing these properties' values will cause changing the appropriate bands' Height value as well, and
vice versa.
Page Height
Specifies page height, in report units. This property can only be set if the Paper Kind property is set to
Custom.
Page Width
Specifies page width, in report units. This property can only be set if the Paper Kind property is set to
Custom.
Paper Kind
Determines the type of paper for a report. Setting this property to any value different from Custom will
prevent the Page Height, Page Width and Paper Name properties from being customized.
Note
If the Paper Kind property is set to Custom, then the printer paper will be selected according to the Paper Name
property's value. In this case, it's also necessary to set the Page Width and Page Height properties to the
corresponding values of the paper selected.
Paper Name

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Determines the name of the custom paper used in the printer that will print the document.
The Paper Name property's value is in effect only when the Paper Kind property is set to Custom. If the
printer on which a document is printed doesn't support the paper type specified by the Paper Name
property's value, then it will default to the Letter paper size. In this case, it's also necessary to set the
Page Width and Page Height properties to the corresponding values of the selected paper.
Printer Name
Determines the name of the printer to use when printing a report. Note that the specified printer should
be installed on the machine.
Using Settings of the Default Printer
Specifies which of the default printer's settings should be used when printing a report.
Parameters
Parameters
Allows you to access a report's parameters collection.
Request Parameters
Allows you to define whether it's required to request the values of a report's parameters when
generating the report.

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Report Bands
The Report Designer creates banded reports, where bands are report sections that can be printed once in a report
(report header and footer), on each report page (page header and footer), for each data entry (detail band), for
each data group (group header and footer), etc.
Band types
The Report Designer support the following band types.
Detail Band
Group Header and Footer
Report Header and Footer
Page Header and Footer
Page Margin Bands
Detail Report Band (for Master-Detail Reports)
Manage bands
You can manage a report's bands using the Report Editor, which may be invoked either via the Edit and Reorder
Bands... context link of a report's Smart Tag actions list...
... or via any band's Smart Tag.

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The Report Editor allows you to easily add, remove and reorder a report's bands, and to define their properties.
Another way to add a band of a certain type to a report is to invoke the Context Menu by right-clicking anywhere
on a report's surface.

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Detail Band
The Detail Band is the central part of a report. Unlike other report bands, you cannot delete this band - the
present report structure includes the Detail band in its core. The contents of the Detail band are repeated for
every data entry. If you're building a report listing, say, employees, it will be rendered for each employee in the
database.
In the Property Grid, the Detail Band's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Specifies the background color for the controls contained within the band. This option is also available in
the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Specify border settings for the controls contained within the band.
Font
Specifies the font settings for the controls contained within the band. Some of these settings are
available in the Formatting Toolbar.
Foreground Color
Specifies the text color for the controls contained within the band. This option is also available in the
Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the band

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Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the controls contained within the band.
Style Priority
Allows you to define the priority of various style elements (such as background color, border color, etc.).
For more information on style inheritance, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
Styles
This property allows you to define odd and even styles for the controls contained within the band, as well
as to assign an existing style to them (or a newly created one). For more information on style inheritance,
refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the text alignment of the controls contained within the band. This option is also
Behavior
Keep Together
As stated above, the detail band is printed repeatedly for every data entry. When the Keep Together
option is on, the report engine tries to keep sequential detail band entries together. This option makes
sense only when data is grouped or you're working with a master-detail report. In this case, the report
engine tries to keep group contents on one page. If a group doesn't fit and it starts somewhere in the
middle of a page, the report moves this group to a new page, thus trying to reduce the number of page
breaks in continuous data.
Multi-Column Options
This property allows you to arrange the printout of the band's content in several columns. For more
information, refer to Multi-Column Report.
Page Break
Use this property if the current report design requires that the detail section should be separated from
previous sections or follow-ups. Specify the Before the Band or After the Band values to insert a page
break before or after the current band. In many cases, this property may be used instead of the Page
Break control.
Print when Data Source is Empty and Repeat Count when Data Source is Empty
The first property specifies whether a Detail Band should be printed if the report's primary data source is
empty. When it is set to Yes and the report is not bound to data, you may set the second property value
to the number of times that the Detail Band contents should be repeated when the report is printed or
exported.
Scripts
This property contains events, which you can handle by the required scripts. For more information on
Visible

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Specifies whether the band should be visible in print preview.
Data
Sort Fields
Invokes the Group Field Collection Editor, which enables you to specify the fields for sorting the records
within the band, the sorting order (Ascending/Descending) for each field and the order sequence. For
more information, refer to Change or Apply Data Sorting to a Report.
Tag
This property allows you to add some additional information to the band; for example its id, by which it
can then be accessible via scripts.
Design
(Name)
Determines a band's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or via scripts
.
Layout
Height
Specifies the band's height, in report units. The default for a newly created Detail Band is 100.
Misc
Keep Together with Detail Reports
When this option is on, the Detail Band will be always printed on the same page together with its child
Detail Report Band, or multiple bands.

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Grouping Bands
The Group Header and Group Footer bands are shown above and below each group. See Change or Apply Data
Grouping to a Report for additional information.
You may use the Group Header bands for grouping by multiple data fields in one of the following ways:
1.Add several Group Header bands. Specify one group field for each of these bands. This results in nested
grouping of the report's data.
2.Specify several group fields for the Group Fields property of the Group Header band. The data will be
grouped by certain combinations of field values.

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The Group Footer band is unnecessary without the corresponding Group Header band. When present, it allows
customization by providing a set of properties similar to those of the Group Header.
In the Property Grid, the properties of these bands are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules

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Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the controls contained within the bands.
Style Priority
Styles
This property allows you to define odd and even styles for the controls contained within the bands, as
well as to assign an existing style to them (or a newly created one). For more information on style
inheritance, refer to Understand Styles Concepts.
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the text alignment of the controls contained within the bands. This option is also
Behavior
Group Fields
This property is available for the Group Header band only. It invokes the Group Field Collection Editor,
allowing you to add and remove grouping fields, define a data field to be used as a grouping criteria and
the grouping order (ascending or descending).
This property is also accessible via the band's Smart Tag.

Group Union
Determines whether group rows can be printed on different pages (in this case both Group Union and
Group Footer Band.Group Union are set to None), or the entire group will be printed on a single page (if

Report Designer 165
the Group Union is set to Whole Page).
Also, if a group can be split across pages, but you don't want a Group Header to be printed on a page if
there is no data row below it (in case a group starts at the bottom of the page and there is enough room
for only a Group Header), you may set the Group Union to With First Detail. In this case, if a Group Header
is alone on a page, it will be moved to the beginning of the next page.
It is the same for the Group Footer. If you don't want it to be printed alone on a page, you may set its
Group Union to With Last Detail, and the last group row from the previous page will be moved to the next
page to be printed together with a Group Footer.
Keep Together
When this option is on, the report tries to fit the band contents entirely on one page, not allowing it to
split across several pages. In general, if the contents are too large to fit on a single page, then the band
is started on a new page, and continues on the following page.
Level
Specifies the nesting level of a group band. The lower the level number, the closer the group band is to
the Detail band. The numeration starts at zero. It is the parameter that identifies the Group Header /
Group Footer band pairs.
Page Break
Use this property if the current report design requires that the band's section should be separated from
Break control.
Print at Bottom
This property is available for the Group Footer band only. It determines whether the band should be
printed at the bottom of a page, or immediately after the last group's details.
If a report contains several Group Footers with their Print at Bottom properties set to different values,
then the outer Group Footer has the highest priority.
This feature is helpful when the Page Break property of the Group Header band is set to After the Band.
In this instance each group starts a new page, and the Group Footer has two distinct places to reside -
after the last row, or at the bottom of the page.
Repeat Every Page
This property improves the readability of reports with group contents that are several pages long.
Without a repeated group header at the top of the page, the report may be difficult to read.
Scripts
This property contains events, which you can handle with the required scripts. For more information on
Visible
Specifies whether the bands should be visible in print preview.
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
Determines a band's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or via scripts.
Layout
Height
Specifies the band's height, in report units.

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Report Header and Footer
The Report Header and Report Footer are the only types of report bands rendered once per report.
The Report Header is the first band of a report on the first page, not counting margins as they are "out-
of-page" zones. The Report Header precedes even the Page Header band. It is the best place for the
report's name, company logo, date of creation, author's name and miscellaneous information. If you plan
to add a chart that visualizes the report's data, then drop the Chart control onto this band.
The Report Footer finalizes the informative part of the report. It is placed before the Page Footer and
Bottom Margin bands on the report's last page. Use the Report Footer for report grand totals or
conclusions.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules

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Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Behavior
Keep Together
When this option is on, the report tries to fit the band contents entirely on one page, not allowing it to
split across several pages. In general, if the contents are too large to fit on a single page, then the band
is started on a new page, and continues on the following page.
Page Break
Break control.
Print at Bottom
This property is available for the Report Footer band only, and determines whether this band should be
printed at the bottom of the last page, or immediately after the last report's details. The Report Footer
has priority over the Group Footer's Print at Bottom property, so the Group Footer can never be placed
after the Report Footer.
Scripts
Visible
Data
Tag

Report Designer 168
Design
(Name)
.
Layout
Height

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Page Header and Footer
The Page Header and Page Footer bands are located at the top and bottom of every page in a report.
The Page Header/Footer bands are the best place for information that should be printed on every page. For
example, use them to display the header of a table which is continued from the previous page (an example can be
found at the Table Report tutorial).
Note
If you insert page break right after the Report Header (by setting its Page Break property value to After the Band),
the Page Footer and Page Header bands will not be printed on the first page.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor, allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the band

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Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Behavior
Scripts
Visible
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
.
Layout
Height
Misc
Print On

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This property specifies whether the band should be printed on the same page with Report Header and
Report Footer bands.

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Page Margin Bands
The Top Margin and Bottom Margin bands represent the top and bottom page margins. They are intended for
displaying page numbers, or some sort of supplementary information (e.g. current system time or the user name).
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules

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Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the the controls contained within the
bands.
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Behavior
Scripts
Visible
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
.
Layout
Height
Note
Note that this property is tied to the report's Margins.Top (or Margins.Bottom) property, so that changing this
property's value will cause the appropriate Margin value to be changed, and vice versa.

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Detail Report Band for Master-Detail Reports
The Detail Report Band is a type of band used to incorporate one report into another in master-detail reports.
The Detail Report Band is quite different from the Detail Band since it holds the whole detail report in a master-
detail report layout.
There can be an unlimited number of Detail Report Bands nested inside one another, and every new group of
bands is colored differently in the Report Designer, as illustrated below:
The Detail Report Band cannot be added to a report via the Report Editor like other band types. To add a Detail
Report Band, right-click the Report Designer and in the invoked Context Menu, point to Insert Detail Report. If the
bound data source contains a data relationship, the submenu will contain an item with the name of that
relationship. Select this item to create a Detail Report Band already bound to a detail table. Otherwise, add an
unbound detail report and specify its properties later.
In the Property Grid, the properties of this band are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font

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Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor, allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the band
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the controls contained within the band.
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the text alignment of the controls contained within the band. This option is also
Behavior
Page Break
Break control.
Scripts
This property contains events which you can handle with the required scripts. For more information on
Visible
Data
Data Adapter
Determines a Detail Report Band's data adapter that provides the detail data for the report. To learn
more about this, refer to Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands).
Data Member
Determines a name of the data relationship established within the bound data source. To learn more
about this, refer to Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands).
Data Source
Determines the data source that provides the detail data for the report. If this property isn't defined, the
detail report gets data from the master report's data source. To learn more about this, refer to Master-
Detail Report (Detail Report Bands).

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Filter String
Allows you to invoke the Filter String Editor, which is intended to easily define a filtering condition for a
detail report's data. For more information about this, refer to Change or Apply Data Filtering to a Report.
Tag
XML Data Path
Allows you to define a path to the data contained in an XML file. The data contained in the file will then be
used as the Detail Report Band's data source.
In this case, the Data Member property will specify the bound list in the XML data source.
Note
Note that a detail report uses the XML Data Path property value only when the Data Source property is set to None.
The XML Data Path property has a lower priority than the Data Source property.
Design
(Name)
.
Misc
Bands
Allows you to invoke the Report Editor intended to manage and customize a report's bands.
Level
Specifies the order of several Detail Report Band objects in a report. It allows the reordering of different
Detail Report Bands at the same level of master-detail relationships.
Print when Data Source is Empty
Specifies whether a Detail Report Band should be printed if its data source is empty.

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Report Controls
A Report Control is an element showing information in your report (e.g. static or bound text, line, picture, check
box, etc.).
Available Controls
The following controls are available in the designer's Toolbox panel.
Label
Check Box
Rich Text
Picture Box
Panel
Table (including Table Row and Table Cell)
Line
Shape
Chart
Pivot Grid
Page Info
Page Break
Cross-band Line
Cross-band Box
Add Controls to a Report

To create a control, drag it from the Toolbox panel onto the report's area.
To automatically create a control bound to data, drag a field from the Field List panel, and drop it onto a report's
surface. When dropping a field onto an existing control, this control will be bound to the data field.

Report Designer 178
If you drag the field with the right mouse button, when the button is released the context menu is invoked. Use
this menu to specify which control should be created.
To learn more on data binding for report controls, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements
to Data).
Note
When the controls overlap, the report may be shown incorrectly when exported to HTML, XLS or RTF formats. Red
signs and a report's tooltip indicate this situation. You may switch off the red warning marks via the report's Show
Export Warnings property.
Useful Key Combinations

To change a control's size and position you can use the following key combinations:
Key Combination Action
ARROW keys Snaps the control to the grid and moves it up, down,
left or right by one grid step, defined by a report's
Grid Size property.
CTRL + ARROW Moves the control up, down, left or right by one report
unit.
SHIFT + ARROW Increases or decreases the control's width or height

by one grid step, defined by a report's Grid Size
property.

Report Designer 179
CTRL + SHIFT + ARROW Increases or decreases the control's width or height

by one report unit.
TAB Selects the next control in tab order.
SHIFT + TAB Selects the previous control in tab order.

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Label
The Label control is intended to display textual information in a report. For example, the Label may be used to
show static text, as well as data from the bound data source. In addition, you can use it to calculate a summary
function for the specified data field, or to extend its usual functionality by writing scripts for the available events.
After a Label is added to a report, you can customize its text, appearance and other properties, which can be
accessed in the Property Grid panel. Frequently used properties are also available via a control's Smart Tag and
Formatting Toolbar, which makes it easy to perform common operations.
In the Property Grid, the Label control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Specifies the background color for the control. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Specify border settings for the control.
Font
Specifies the font settings for the control. Some of these settings are available in the Formatting Toolbar.
Foreground Color
Specifies the text color for the control. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor, allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the control
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Label.
Style Priority
Styles
This property allows you to define odd and even styles for the control, as well as to assign an existing
style to the control (or a newly created one). For more information on style inheritance, refer to
Understand Styles Concepts.
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the alignment of the control's text. This option is also available in the Formatting
Toolbar.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Specifies the vertical anchoring style of a Label, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the top
control, bottom control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound Labels located between
upper and lower controls, which are allowed to resize depending on their contents.
Note that if the Anchor Vertically property is set to Bottom or Both, the Can Grow and Can Shrink property
(see below) values are ignored, and don't participate in calculating a final height value of this control.
Angle
Specifies the rotation angle of the text. The measurement unit is a degree, and the orientation is counter-
clockwise. Since standard HTML does not support text orientation, this parameter is ignored when a
report is displayed within a web page.
Can Grow

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When this property is set to Yes, a Label's height can be automatically increased, if required, to display
the text. If there are other controls below the current Label, they will be pushed down to prevent them
from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the growing Label by even one pixel, it will not be pushed
down by the growing Label.
Can Shrink
When this property is set to Yes, and the text does not completely fill a Label, then the Label's height will
be decreased to the height of its text. If there are other controls below the current Label, they will be
moved up to fill the gap. Note that if a control overlaps the shrinking Label by even one pixel, it will not be
pushed up by the shrinking Label.
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of a Label can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a Label
occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Label should be split
between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next page. This
property is in effect only when a Label's content does not fit on the current page. If it does not fit on the
next page either, then the Label will be split, irrespective of this property's value.
Multiline
When this property is set to Yes, a Label processes newline characters found in the text to start a new
line. For example, when editing a Label's text, you can insert a new line by pressing ENTER, and in this
case, the Multiline property will be automatically set to Yes.
Process Duplicates
Determines the control's behavior when its data source contains consecutive repeating records. They can
be processed as is (when the property is set to Leave), suppressed except for the first entry(Suppress)
and suppressed with the blank space printed instead of the repeated records (Suppress and Shrink).
Process Null Values
Determines whether to process Null (blank) values if they appear in the control's data source. They can be
processed as is (when the property is set to Leave), suppressed (Suppress) and suppressed with the
blank space printed instead of the blank records (Suppress and Shrink).
Scripts
Visible
Specifies whether the control should be visible in print preview.
Word Wrap
When this property is set to Yes, text entered into the multiline Label is wrapped to the next line if it
doesn't fit the line or comes across a newline character. If the this property is set to No, text entered into
the multiline Label will be displayed on the same line until a newline character is entered.
Data
(Data Bindings)
If the current report is bound to data, this property allows you to bind some of the control's properties
(Bookmark, Navigation URL, Tag and Text) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to
apply a format string to it. For more information on this, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind
Report Elements to Data).
Lines
Provides access to the Text property of a Label in the Multiline mode.
Summary
Allows you to perform calculations (summary, max, min, average, etc.) over a data field. For more
information on calculating summaries, refer to Add Totals to a Report.
Note
Summarization is possible for a single data column only. To perform calculations with several data fields, use
calculated fields.
Tag
This property allows you to add some additional information to the control; for example its id, by which it
If the current report has a data source, the Tag property can be bound to a data field obtained from the

Report Designer 182
data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Tag.Binding drop-down selector,
select the required data field.
Text
Allows you to define a line of static text to be displayed. To type several lines of text, click the control's
Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, click Edit Text, or use the Lines property. Note that when a
Label is selected in the designer, you may simply start typing the text, and it will be automatically entered
into the in-place editor.
If the current report has a data source, the Text property can be bound to a data field obtained from the
data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Text.Binding drop-down selector,
select the required data field. For more information on this, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind
Design
(Name)
Determines a control's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or via
scripts.
Layout
Location
Specifies the control's location, in report measurement units.
Size
Specifies the control's size, in report measurement units.
Navigation
Bookmark and Parent Bookmark
These properties are intended for the creation of a hierarchical structure within a report called a
document map. For an explanation and help, refer to Add Bookmarks.
If the current report has a data source, the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field, obtained
from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property, and in the Bookmark.Binding drop-
down selector, select the required data field.
Navigation URL and Navigation Target
Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation, when a user clicks a Label.
The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target property.
Note that a URL should have an appropriate prefix (e.g. "http://"). You can create cross-references within
the report by assigning the name of the target control to the Navigation URL property, and setting the
Navigation Target property to "_self". For more information, refer to Create Hyperlinks.
If the current report has a data source, the Navigation URL property can be bound to a data field
obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property, and in the Navigation
URL.Binding drop-down selector, select the required data field.

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Check Box
The Check Box control is intended to display a True/False or Checked/Unchecked/Indeterminate states in a

report, by displaying a check mark and adjacent text.
In the Property Grid, the Check Box control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Invokes the Formatting Rules Editor allowing you to choose which rules should be applied to the control
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Check Box.
Style Priority
Styles
Understand Styles Concepts .
Text Alignment
Toolbar.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Specifies the vertical anchoring style of the control, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the
top control, bottom control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound Check Boxes located
between upper and lower controls, which are allowed to resize depending on their contents.
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of a Check Box can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a
Check Box occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Check Box
should be split between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next
page. This property is in effect only when a Check Box's content does not fit on the current page. If it
does not fit on the next page either, then the Check Box will be split despite this property's value.
Scripts
Visible

Report Designer 184
Word Wrap
When this property is set to Yes, text entered into a Check Box is wrapped to the next line if it doesn't fit
the line.
Data
(Data Bindings)
(Bookmark, Check State, Navigation URL, Tag and Text) to a data field obtained from the report's data
source, and to apply a format string to it. For more information on this, refer to Display Values from a
Database (Bind Report Elements to Data).
Check State
This property allows you to quickly specify the Checked/Unchecked/Indeterminate state of a Check Box
(the Indeterminate state is displayed as a grayed out checked box.) Note that if you only want to use
Checked and Unchecked states, you may use the Checked property, instead.
Checked
This property allows you to define whether a Check Box is checked or not.
Tag
Text
Allows you to define a line of static text to be displayed. Note that when a Check Box is selected in the
designer, you may simply start typing the text, and it will be automatically entered into the in-place editor.
If the current report has a data source, the Text property can be bound to a data field obtained from the
data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property, and in the Text.Binding drop-down selector,
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation
If the current report has a data source, the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field obtained from
the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Bookmark.Binding drop-down
selector, select the required data field.
Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when a user clicks a Check
Box. The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target
property. Note that a URL should have an appropriate prefix (e.g. "http://"). You can create cross-

Report Designer 185
references within the report by assigning the name of the target control to the Navigation URL property,
and setting the Navigation Target property to "_self". For more information, refer to Create Hyperlinks.
obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Navigation

Report Designer 186
Rich Text
The Rich Text control allows you to display, enter, and manipulate formatted text.
The control has a functionality similar to the Label control, but can also apply formatting to any part of the text.
The formatting options include font face, font styles and sizes, font color.
Rich text files (RTF) can be loaded to this control via its Smart Tag.
In the Property Grid, the Rich Text control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of the control.
Style Priority

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Styles
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
top control, bottom control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound controls located
Note that if the Anchor Vertically property is set to Bottom or Both, the Can Grow and Can Shrink
properties (see below) values are ignored, and don't participate in calculating a final height value of this
control.
Can Grow
When this property is set to Yes, the control's height can be automatically increased, if required, to
display the text. If there are other controls below the current control, they will be pushed down to
prevent them from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the growing Rich Text by even one pixel, it
will not be pushed down by the growing Rich Text.
Can Shrink
When this property is set to Yes, and the text does not completely fill a Rich Text, then the control's
height will be decreased to the height of its text. If there are other controls below the current one, they
will be moved up to fill the gap. Note that if a control overlaps the shrinking Rich Text by even one pixel, it
will not be pushed up by the shrinking Rich Text.
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of the control can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if the
control occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this control should
be split between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next page.
This property is in effect only when the control's content does not fit on the current page. If it does not fit
on the next page either, then the control will be split despite this property's value.
Process Duplicates
Process Null Values
Scripts
Visible
Data
(Data Bindings)
(Bookmark, Navigation URL, Rtf and Tag) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to
Lines
Provides access to the Text property of the control, allowing you to input multiple lines of static text.
Tag

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If the current report has a data source , the Tag property can be bound to a data field obtained from the
data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property, and in the Tag.Binding drop-down selector,
Text
Allows you to define a line of static text to be displayed. To type several lines of text, use the Lines
property. Note that when the control is selected in the designer, you may simply start typing the text, and
it will be automatically entered into the in-place editor.
If the current report has a data source, the Rtf property (instead of Text) can be bound to a data field
obtained from the data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property and in the Rtf.Binding
drop-down selector, select the required data field. For more information on this, refer to Display Values
from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data).
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation
These properties are intended for the creation of a hierarchical structure within a report, called a
If the current report has a data source , the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field obtained from
Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when a user clicks the
control. The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target
If the current report has a data source , the Navigation URL property can be bound to a data field

Report Designer 189
Picture Box
The Picture Box control is intended to display images in a report. Typically, an image is loaded from an image file,
or from the bound data source. In addition, an image can be loaded from a web location using the specified URL.
The following image formats are supported by the Picture Box control: BMP, GIF, JPEG, PNG, TIFF, EMF and WMF.
In the Property Grid, the Picture Box control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Specifies the background color for the control.
Formatting Rules
Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
top control, bottom control, or both. The property setting is useful for data-bound controls located
Scripts
Sizing
Defines the sizing mode of a contained image. The image sizing settings are briefly described in the
following table:
Mode Description
Normal The image is placed in the upper-left corner of the

control. The image is clipped if it is larger than the
Picture Box which contains it.

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Stretch Image The image within the control is stretched or shrunk to

fit the size of a Picture Box.
Auto-Size The Picture Box size is adjusted to that of the image it

contains.
Center Image The image is displayed in the center of the control. If

the image is larger than the Picture Box, the outer
edges are clipped.
Zoom Image The image is sized proportionally (without clipping) for

best fit into the control.
Visible
Data
(Data Bindings)
(Bookmark, Image, Image URL, Navigation URL and Tag) to a data field obtained from the report's data
source, and to apply a format string to it. For more information on this, refer to Display Values from a
Database (Bind Report Elements to Data).
Image
Specifies an image to display in the Picture Box control.
When you click the ellipsis button, you will see the Open File dialog that enables you to specify the file to
load. Then, this image is embedded into a report and saved within this report, so it is always available.
Note that this increases the size of a saved report definition. If you want to save only the image path,
and not the image itself, use the Image URL property instead.
Image URL
Specifies the URL of the image to display in the Picture Box control. It supports both absolute and relative
paths. A relative path may be related to the Web site or to the current Web page. In the second case, the
path to the image must start with the "~" symbol. Setting a relative path makes it easier to move the
entire application to another directory on the server without having to update the code.
Tag
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation

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Panel
The Panel control is intended to group individual report controls.
The Panel control is a container to keep together any number of report controls. When the controls are placed
onto a Panel, they can be moved, copied and printed as a whole. There are currently several limitations on Panel
usage. One of them is that the Panel control does not have the Can Shrink property, and so cannot suppress the
white space that appears when the controls inside are shrunk or collapsed. Also, the Panel cannot be used in
different bands, unlike a cross-band control.
The Panel can be used for page decoration - to create borders around the report elements or add a uniform color
background.
In the Property Grid, the Panel control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of controls contained in a Panel.
Style Priority
Styles
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
top control, bottom control, or both.
Note that if the Anchor Vertically property is set to Bottom or Both, the Can Grow property (see below)
values are ignored, and don't participate in calculating a final height value of this control.
Can Grow
When this property is set to Yes, the control's height can be automatically increased, if required, to
display the text. If there are other controls below the current control, they will be pushed down to

Report Designer 193
prevent them from overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the growing Panel by even one pixel, it will
not be pushed down by the growing Panel.
Keep Together
Scripts
Visible
Data
(Data Bindings)
(Bookmark, Navigation URL and Tag) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to apply
a format string to it. For more information on this, refer to Display Values from a Database (Bind Report
Elements to Data).
Tag
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation
If the current report has a data source , the Bookmark property can be bound to a data field obtained from
If the current report has a data source , the Navigation URL property can be bound to a data field

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Table
The Table control is designed to arrange the report information in a tabular layout.
When the Table control is dropped onto a report's band from the Toolbox, it becomes a table of one row and
three columns. If you click and drag over several bands, the resulting table will be split by the bands into several
tables. This creates a table header in the header band and the table's body, with one mouse move.
The Table control bound to data is created automatically when you drag and drop a data table from the Field List
window.
You can manage a table's elements by using its Context Menu.

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The Table control consists of the Table Row controls, each representing one table row. The Table Row, in turn,
consists of Table Cell controls, each representing one table cell. They can be selected and customized individually
(see the appropriate topics).
To select the Table control in the Report Designer, use the Report Explorer or the drop-down selector of the
Property Grid.
In the Property Grid, the Table control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Table's cells.
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Allows you to change the alignment of a Table's text. This option is also available in the Formatting
Toolbar.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Specifies the vertical anchoring style of a Table, so that after page rendering it stays attached to the top
control, bottom control, or both.
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of a Table can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a Table
occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether the Table should be split
property is in effect only when a Table's content does not fit on the current page. If it does not fit on the
next page either, then the Table will be split despite this property's value.
Scripts
Visible
Data
Tag

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Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size

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Table Row
The Table Row Control represents a single row within a Table.
This control is useful for changing the layout of the entire row. Although in this document, a Row is described as a
separate control, in fact most of its properties are actually applied to the Cells contained within the selected row.
In the Property Grid, the Table Row control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Row.
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Toolbar.
Behavior
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of a Row can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a Row
occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Row should be split
property is in effect only when a Row's content does not fit on the current page. If it does not fit on the
next page either, then the Row will be split despite this property's value.
Scripts
© 2010 Developer Express Inc.62

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Visible
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size

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Table Cell
The Table Cell control represents an individual cell within a Table.
In general, the Table Cell control's properties are similar to the properties of the Label control.
In the Property Grid, the Table Cell control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Specifies indent values which are used to render the contents of a Label.
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Toolbar.
Behavior
Angle
Specifies the rotation angle of a Cell's text. The measurement unit is a degree, and the orientation is
counter-clockwise. Since standard HTML does not support text orientation, this parameter is ignored
when a report is displayed within a web page.
Can Grow
When this property is set to Yes, a Cell's height can be automatically increased, if required, to display the
text. If there are other controls below the current Cell, they will be pushed down to prevent them from
overlapping. Note that if a control overlaps the growing Cell by even one pixel, it will not be pushed down
by the growing Cell.
Can Shrink

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When this property is set to Yes, and the text does not completely fill a Cell, then the Cell's height will be
decreased to the height of its text. If there are other controls below the current Cell, they will be moved
up to fill the gap. Note that if a control overlaps the shrinking Cell by even one pixel, it will not be pushed
up by the shrinking Cell.
Keep Together
Specifies whether the contents of a Cell can be horizontally split across pages. In other words, if a Cell
occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Cell should be split
property is in effect only when a Cell's content does not fit on the current page. If it does not fit on the
next page either, then the Cell will be split despite this property's value.
Multiline
When this property is set to Yes, a Cell processes newline characters found in the text to start a new line.
For example, when editing a Cell's text, you can insert a new line by pressing ENTER, and in this case the
Multiline property will be automatically set to Yes.
Process Duplicates
Process Null Values
Scripts
Visible
Word Wrap
When this property is set to Yes, text entered into the multiline Cell is wrapped to the next line if it
doesn't fit the line or comes across a newline character. If the this property is set to No, text entered into
the multiline Cell will be displayed on the same line until a newline character is entered.
Data
(Data Bindings)
If the current report is bound to data, this property allows you to bind some of a Cell's properties
(Bookmark, Navigation URL, Tag and Text) to a data field obtained from the report's data source, and to
Lines
Provides access to the Text property of a Cell in the Multiline mode.
Summary
Allows you to perform calculations (summary, max, min, average, etc.) over a data field. For more
information on calculating summaries, refer to Add Totals to a Report.
Note
Summarization is possible for a single data column only. To perform calculations with several data fields, use
calculated fields.
Tag
Text
Allows you to define a line of static text to be displayed. To type several lines of text, click the control's
Smart Tag and in the invoked actions list, click Edit Text, or use the Lines property. Note that when a Cell

Report Designer 201
is selected in the designer, you may simply start typing the text, and it will be automatically entered into
the in-place editor.
If the current report has a data source , the Text property can be bound to a data field obtained from the
data source. To do this, expand the (Data Bindings) property, and in the Text.Binding drop-down selector,
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation
Use the Navigation URL property to specify a URL for web browser navigation when a user clicks a Cell.
The web browser displays a page in a window or a frame as specified by the Navigation Target property.
Note that a URL should have an appropriate prefix (e.g. "http://"). You can create cross-references within
the report by assigning the name of the target control to the Navigation URL property, and setting the
Navigation Target property to "_self". For more information, refer to Create Hyperlinks.

Report Designer 202
Line
The Line control represents a line used for decoration and visual separation of a report's sections.
In the Property Grid, the Line control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Foreground Color
Specifies the Line's color.
Formatting Rules
Line Direction
The line can be drawn vertically, horizontally and from one corner of the rectangle, representing the Line
control, to another, across the rectangle. That is, Vertical, Horizontal, Slant and Back Slant types.
Line Style
You can select the solid (by default), dashed, dotted or mixed style for the line.
Line Width
Specifies the Line's width, in report measurement units.
Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Keep Together
Scripts

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Visible
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size

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Shape
The Shape control is typically used for embedding simple graphics into a report.
In the Property Grid, the Shape control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Fill Color
Specifies the color to fill the contour of a Shape, if applicable. It is transparent by default.
Foreground Color
Determines the color of a Shape's contour. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Formatting Rules
Line Width
Here you can set the width of a line used to draw the Shape, expressed in the measure units defined by
the report's Measure Units property. To learn more about this, refer to Change Measurement Units for a
Report.
Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Behavior
Anchor Vertically

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Angle
The value in degrees specifies the rotation angle of a Shape. It indicates counterclockwise rotation.
You can hold CTRL while pressing the left mouse button to rotate a Shape within the control's borders.
Scripts
Shape
Determines which of the various built-in shapes to use within the control.
A certain shape has its own unique set of properties. The following list is intended to give a brief overview
of these special properties specific to a certain shape.
Property Description Supported by Shapes
Fillet This property specifies how much a Arrows, Polygons, Stars and Cross
Shape's corners are rounded. It
enables display of rounded boxes
and triangles.
Number of Sides This property allows you to set the Polygons

number of sides.
Count of Star Points This property allows you to set the Stars
number of star points.
Concavity Defines the level of inward-curve Stars

for the lines connecting the
vertices of a Star. It may be an
integer in the range of 0 - 100.
Tip's Length This property specifies the length Bracket and Brace
of the Bracket's ends.
Tail's Length This property specifies the tail Brace

length of a Brace.
Stretch
If the Shape is rotated to some degree (that is, its Angle property is not zero), you may turn on the
Stretch property. The Shape image will be stretched to cover maximum space within the control's borders.
Visible
Specifies a value indicating whether the current control should be printed (when set to Yes) or hidden
(No) on report generation.
Data
(Data Bindings)
Elements to Data).
Tag

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Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation

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Chart
The Chart control is used for data visualization in reports. It graphically represents a series of points using 2D or
3D chart types.
There are many built-in Chart view types you can choose from, such as Bar, Point, Line, Pie and Doughnut, Area,
Radar and Polar, Range Bar, Gantt, Candle Stick and Stock.
A Chart control contains multiple elements (diagram, series, series points, axes, legend, titles, labels, strips,
constant lines, etc.). When any of these elements is selected, the Property Grid shows only the properties which
correspond to the selected item.
The Chart control is data-aware in a different manner than the other report controls. Consider three common
report scenarios:
1.Static data for a Chart's series is provided manually. It can be done using the Series Collection Editor
invoked by the Chart's Series property. It allows you to manually define values and arguments for each
series point.
2.Chart's series are created automatically, getting their data from the Chart's Data Source and dependent
on the rules defined by the Series Template property. This approach is described in Chart with Dynamic
Series .
3.Each series is created and customized manually and has a separate Data Source. This approach is
described in Chart with Static Series .
You can customize a created chart using both the Property Grid and the Chart Wizard. To invoke the Chart Wizard,
click a Chart's Smart Tag, and in the invoked actions list, click the Run Wizard... link.

Report Designer 208
Then, the Chart Wizard will guide you through the whole process of customizing the Chart, from defining its view
type to providing its data and customizing its appearance.
In the Property Grid, the Chart's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Appearance Name
Allows you to choose one of the available appearances, to be used to draw the Chart's elements
(Diagram, Axes, Legend, etc.).
Background Color
Specifies the background color for a Chart.
Background Image
Allows you to load a background image to a Chart (or define its URL), and also define whether it should
be stretched to fit the entire Chart's area, or not.
Fill Style
Determines the fill style of a Chart's background (Empty, Solid, Gradient or Hatch) and define other fill
options if required.
Formatting Rules
Image Type
Determines whether a Chart should be internally rendered as a metafile in a report (in this case the
quality of the rendered image is always good, but in particular cases some details of the control may be
lost), or as a bitmap (in this case the quality of the rendered image is sometimes poor, but it allows a
control to be drawn more precisely).
Palette Name
Allows you to choose one from the built-in palettes to be used to draw a Chart's series.
Palette's Base Color Number
Allows you to define an integer index determining the base color for the palette defined by the Chart's
Palette Name property.
Style Priority
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Scripts
Visible
Specifies whether a Chart should be visible in print preview.
Data
(Data Bindings)
If the current report is bound to data, this property allows you to bind some of a Chart's properties
Elements to Data).

Report Designer 209
Data Adapter
Determines a data adapter that will populate a Chart's data source which is assigned via the Data Source
property. It is automatically set to the appropriate value, when the Data Member property is defined. To
learn more on this, refer to Chart with Static Series.
Data Member
Determines the data source member which supplies data to a Chart. To learn more on this, refer to Chart
with Static Series.
Note
Usually, it is not necessary to specify the Data Member property when binding a Chart to data. This property should
only be set directly if the dataset contains more than one table.
Data Source
Determines a Chart's data source. To learn more on this, refer to Chart with Static Series.
Series Data Member Determines the name of the data field whose values are used to automatically
generate and populate a Chart's series. To learn more on this, refer to Chart with Dynamic Series.
When Chart binding is used to automatically generate series within a chart control based upon the data
obtained from the associated data source (defined by the Data Source property), a rule needs to be
defined that helps the Chart recognize the data records whose values are used to construct individual
series objects. To do this, the Series Data Member property, which specifies the data field whose values
are taken into account when series objects are automatically created and populated, can be used.
Each automatically generated series gets its name from the data field specified by the Series Data
Member property. For example, this name is used to identify a series within the chart control's legend. The
names of all automatically generated series can be supplemented with the same prefix and postfix
defined by the settings which are available via the Series Name Template property.
The template settings for the dynamically created series are defined by the specific properties which are
available via the SeriesTemplate property of a Chart. In particular, the Argument Data Member and Value
Data Members properties specify the data fields from which the arguments and data values of the series
data points are obtained.
Note
Note that if the Series Data Member property is not set for a Chart, the Chart control can't automatically generate
series even if the Argument Data Member and Value Data Members properties are defined.
Series Name Template
Determines the settings used to name data bound series defining the prefix and postfix texts for the
names of series which are dynamically created as a result of binding a Chart to data (using the Data
Source, Series Data Member, Argument Data Member and Value Data Members properties). The series
names, to which these prefixes and postfixes are added, are taken by each series from the data field
defined by the Series Data Member property. To learn more on this, refer to Chart with Dynamic Series.
Note
Note that the settings available via the Series Name Template property are not applied to the data bound series
which are contained within the Series collection of a Chart.
Series Sorting
Allows you to define the sort mode of a Chart's series (None by default, Descending or Ascending).
Series Template
Allows you to customize a template for series which are created dynamically as a result of binding a Chart
to data (via the Data Source and Series Data Member properties). The settings which are available via the
Series Template property are common to all such data bound series. These settings allow you to provide
centralized customization of all dynamically created data bound series. To learn more on using this
property, refer to Chart with Dynamic Series.
Note that the settings which are customized via the Series Template property don't apply to the series
contained within the Series collection of a Chart.
Tag
Design

Report Designer 210
(Name)
scripts.
Elements
Diagram
Allows you to customize a Chart's diagram elements: main and secondary axes and panes.
By default, a Chart is displayed in the Default Pane, but if necessary, you can display each Chart's series
in a separate pane. To do this, click the Pane's ellipsis button, to invoke the Pane Collection Editor,
allowing you to manage and customize panes. Then, select the required series within the Chart and set
its View.Pane property to the required pane.
Legend
Allows you to customize a Chart's legend, by defining such properties as text alignment and antialiasing,
font style, background color or image, border options, markers' size and visibility, shadow options, etc.
Series
Invokes the Series Collection Editor, which allows you to manage and customize a Chart's series.
Note that series which are bound to data at the level of a chart control (in particular, using the Data
Source, Series Data Member and both the Argument Data Member and Value Data Members properties)
are created dynamically, based upon the data obtained from the specified data source, and they are not
presented within the Series collection. To perform a centralized customization of such series, use the
settings which are available via the Series Template property.
Titles
Invokes the Chart Title Collection Editor, which allows you to manage and customize a Chart's titles.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation

Report Designer 211
Pivot Grid
The Pivot Grid control represents data from an underlying data source in a cross-tabulated form to create cross-
tab reports. It calculates summaries and summary totals against specific fields, and displays the summary values
within data cells.
There is a designer allowing you to easily customize the Pivot Grid. It can be invoked using the control's Smart Tag
.
The Pivot Grid displays data in a manner similar to Pivot Tables in Microsoft Excel. Column headers display unique
values from one data field, say, car models. Row headers display unique values from another field, say, dates.
Each cell displays a summary for the corresponding row and column values. By specifying different data fields, you
can see the total number of cars sold on a particular date, or the total number of deals, etc. This way, you get a
really compact layout for data analysis.
A tutorial on how to use the Pivot Grid control can be found at Cross-Tab Report.
In the Property Grid, the Pivot Grid control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Appearance
Allows you to define the appearance properties (such as Background Color, Foreground Color, Font, etc.)
for the Pivot Grid's elements (Cell, Field Value, Filter Separator, Header Group Line, etc.).
Formatting Rules
Styles
Allows you to invoke the Styles Editor, which is intended to manage and customize the control's styles,
which then can be assigned to the Pivot Grid's elements.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Specifies the vertical anchoring style of the Pivot Grid, so that after page rendering it stays attached to
the top control, bottom control, or both.
Keep Together
control occupies more space than remains on the page, this property specifies whether this Pivot Grid
should be split between the current page and the next, or whether it will be printed entirely on the next
page. This property is in effect only when a Pivot Grid's content does not fit on the current page. If it does
not fit on the next page either, then the Pivot Grid will be split despite this property's value.
Scripts
Visible

Report Designer 212
Data
Data Adapter
Determines a data adapter that will populate a Pivot Grid's data source which is assigned via the Data
Source property. It is automatically set to the appropriate value, when the Data Member property is
defined. To learn more on this, refer to Cross-Tab Report.
Data Member
Determines the data source member which supplies data to a Pivot Grid. To learn more on this, refer to
Cross-Tab Report.
Note
Usually, it is not necessary to specify the Data Member property when binding a Pivot Grid to data. This property
should only be set directly if the dataset contains more than one table.
Data Source
Determines a Pivot Grid's data source. To learn more on this, refer to Cross-Tab Report.
Fields
Invokes the Pivot Grid Field Collection Editor, allowing you to manage and fully customize a Pivot Grid's
fields.
OLAP Connection String
Specifies a connection string to a cube in an Microsoft Analysis Services database. A sample connection
string is shown below:
OLAPConnectionString="Provider=msolap;Data Source=localhost;Initial
Catalog=Adventure Works DW;Cube Name=Adventure Works;Query Timeout=100;"
A connection string can be built via the Connection String Editor. To invoke it, click the ellipsis button for
the OLAP Connection String property.
To represent information from the bound cube, create specific Pivot Grid fields, and bind them to the
required fields in the data source.
If the OLAP Connection String property is set to a valid string, the value of the Data Source property is
cleared. Setting the Data Source property to a valid object clears the OLAP Connection String property.
Prefilter
When this property is expanded in the Property Grid, you can set its Enabled property to Yes, and use the
Criteria property to invoke the Pivot Grid Prefilter dialog.
This dialog allows you to build complex filter criteria with an unlimited number of filter conditions, combined
by logical operators. It provides a set of logical operators that significantly simplify the process of creating
filters for text, numeric and date-time fields.
Note
The Prefilter is not supported in OLAP mode.
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location
Size
Navigation

Report Designer 213
Options
Data Field Options
Allows you to customize the options which control the presentation of the data fields.
Data Options
Allows you to define whether a Pivot Grid's fields must be case sensitive or not.
Print Options
Allows you to customize the print options of a Pivot Grid.
View Options
Allows you to customize the Pivot Grid's display options.
All trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

Report Designer 214
Page Info
The Page Info control is intended to insert page numbers, current date and time, and the name of the current
user into a report.
In the Property Grid, the Page Info control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Background Color
Font
Foreground Color
Formatting Rules
Padding
Style Priority
Styles
Text Alignment
Toolbar.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Format
This property allows you to specify the format string for the text displayed in the control. When you click
the ellipsis button, you will see the Format String Editor window that will select the predefined format or
customize it as needed. For more information about this, refer to Change Value Formatting of Report
Elements.
Page Information
You can select the type of information displayed in the control.
Type Description
None Displays an empty control.

Report Designer 215
Page Number The string, specified by the Format property, is

displayed. The {0} combination in the string is
replaced with the current page number.
"Current of Total" Page Numbers The string, specified by the Format property, is
displayed. The {0} combination in the string is
replaced with the current page number, the {1}
combination - with a total number of pages in the
report. To display the typical "Page 1 of 11" text, use
the format string "Page {0} of {1}".
Page Number (Roman, Lowercase) The current page number is displayed using Roman
numerals in lowercase.
Page Number (Roman, Uppercase) The current page number is displayed using Roman
numerals in uppercase.
Current Date and Time The string, specified by the Format property, is
displayed. The {0:[format]} combination is replaced
with the current system date and time formatted
according to the [format] string. Use the Format
String Editor of the Format property (see below) to
select or construct the proper string.
User Name The name of the current user, which was used to log
into the operating system, is displayed.
Scripts
Start Page Number
Here you can set the start number for page numbering.
Visible
Word Wrap
When this property is set to Yes, text contained in the control is wrapped to the next line if it doesn't fit
the line or comes across a newline character. If the this property is set to No, the text in this case will be
displayed on the same line until a newline character is entered.
Data
(Data Bindings)
Elements to Data).
Tag
can be then accessible via scripts.
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout

Report Designer 216
Location
Size
Navigation

Report Designer 217
Page Break
The Page Break control is intended to insert a page delimiter, which can be placed at any point within a report.
This control is visually represented by a short line, attached to the left side of the Design Panel, as shown in the
image below.
The Page Break control is useful when you need to insert a page break between controls within a band
A demonstration of the Page Break control can be found in the following tutorial: Limit the Number of Records per Page.
Note
Note that when you need a page break before or after printing a certain band, you may set its Page Break property
to Before the Band or After the Band, instead of using the Page Break control.
In the Property Grid, the Page Break control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Formatting Rules
Behavior
Scripts
Visible
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
Location

Report Designer 218
Cross-band Line
The specifics of the Cross-band Line control is that it allows you to draw a line through several bands.
This can be useful if it is required to visually emphasize a section transcending multiple band areas by a line. In
other aspects, this control is similar to the Line control.
The Report Designer supports one more cross-band control - Cross-band Box.
In the Property Grid, the Cross-band Line control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Foreground Color
Specifies the color of the control's line. This option is also available in the Formatting Toolbar ( ).
Formatting Rules
Line Style
You can select a solid (by default), dashed, dotted or mixed style for the line.
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Visible
Data
Tag
then can be accessible via scripts.
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
End Band
Determines a band, in which the control finishes drawing.

Report Designer 219
End Point
Determines the end point (from a band's upper left corner) where the control finishes drawing.
Start Band
Determines a band, in which the control starts drawing.
Start Point
Determines the starting point (from a band's upper left corner) where the control starts drawing.
Width
Specifies the line's width in report measurement units.

Report Designer 220
Cross-band Box
The Cross-band Box control allows you to draw a rectangle through several bands.
This can be useful if it is required to visually emphasize a section transcending multiple band areas with a
rectangle.
The Report Designer supports one more cross-band control - Cross-band Line.
In the Property Grid, the Cross-band Box control's properties are divided into the following groups.
Appearance
Formatting Rules
Behavior
Anchor Vertically
Visible
Data
Tag
Design
(Name)
scripts.
Layout
End Band
Determines a band, in which the control finishes drawing.
End Point
Determines the end point (from a band's upper left corner) where the control finishes drawing.

Report Designer 221
Start Band
Determines a band, in which the control starts drawing.
Start Point
Determines the starting point (from a band's upper left corner) where the control starts drawing.
Width
Specifies the line's width, in report measurement units.

Report Designer 222
Create a New Layout
To create a new report in the Report Designer, do one of the following.
Create a new blank layout

On the Layout tab of the Report Definition, click Design a new layout using the layout designer.
The created report contains three bands by default - Page Header, Detail Band and Page Footer. If there is
another report already loaded in the designer, then you may be prompted whether this report should be saved
before it is replaced with a newly created one.
The Main Toolbar contains a button ( ) with the same function.
Create a new report layout using the Report Wizard

On the Layout tab of the Report Definition, click Auto-generate a layout.
For more information about this option, refer to the following topic: Report Wizard.
See Also
This document has been modified by Quest Software.

Report Designer 223
Size
The Subreport isn't limited by the visible size of the control. The size of its actual content is taken into
account when rendering the subreport on the page. Note that depending on its contents, its width is
unlimited and its height is increased.

Report Designer 224
Report Wizard
The Report Wizard is a tool that allows you to easily create layouts based on built-in templates. Using this tool,
you can do the following.
Create a new layout from scratch.
On the Layout tab of the Report Definition dialog box, click $XWRJHQHUDWHDOD\RXW.
Edit an existing layout
Click the report's Smart Tag and in the invoked actions list, click the Design in Report Wizard... context
link.
Note
In this case, data binding steps are omitted, since a report already has a bound data source. Note that the initial
report layout will be lost after completing the wizard.
The Report Wizard provides two different ways to setup your report.
Standard Report Wizard
Using this wizard, you can easily create a banded report displaying data in a tabular format. While setting
up your report, you'll be able to group data, add totals to your report, apply one of the predefined report
styles, etc.
Label Report Wizard
This wizard is useful if you need to print out labels. In this case, you're likely to purchase label paper that
meets your particular requirements. Depending on paper supplier and label type, your report will need to
generate labels with a specific size and location within paper sheets. With the Label Report Wizard, you
won't have to adjust these settings manually, since we provide a wide choice of paper suppliers and their
products. Simply choose your paper type, and the report is adjusted automatically. After completing the
wizard, you get an empty report that clearly indicates label boundaries, and of course, properly positions
labels within paper sheets.

Report Designer 225
Standard Report Wizard
The Report Wizard allows you to create reports of two kinds - standard reports and label reports. To create a
standard report, invoke the Report Wizard dialog and choose the Standard Report option on the Welcome page.
After completing the Standard Report wizard, you will get a tabular banded report. Depending on how many
wizard steps you complete (you don't necessarily have to go through all the pages), you can apply data grouping,
display totals, select one of the predefined style sheets, etc.
The following image shows a sample report created using the Standard Report Wizard.

Report Designer 226
Use the links below to learn more about every step of the Standard Report wizard.
Step 1 - Choose Columns to Display in Your Report

Step 2 - Add Grouping Levels
Step 3 - Summary Options
Step 4 - Choose Report Layout
Step 5 - Choose Report Style
Step 6 - Enter a Report Title
This page has been modified by Quest Software.

Report Designer 227
Step 1 - Choose Columns to Display in Your Report
Purpose
Choose fields (attributes) whose data will be displayed in your report. The selected fields and corresponding
captions will be automatically added to your report, arranged one under another.
Page Interface
The list on the left-hand side shows all available fields (attributes). To select the required fields, double-click them
or drag them to the list box on the right-hand side. Another way to select fields is to use arrow buttons to move
them back and forth.
Note that you can move multiple fields at once. To do this, you first need to select them by clicking while holding
CTRL or SHIFT, or by using SHIFT+UP ARROW or SHIFT+DOWN ARROW shortcuts.
Note
To continue or finish report creation, you must select at least one field.
Result
You can stop the wizard at this step by clicking Finish. In this case, your report will look similar to the image
below.

Report Designer 228
If you want to customize your report further, click Next to proceed to Step 2 - Add Grouping Levels.

Report Designer 229
Step 2 - Add Grouping Levels
Purpose
This page allows you to group data in your report. For instance, if you are displaying car sales information, you
may want to keep records corresponding to the same model together. Each set of records with the same model
will become a "group" with its own header.
Nested grouping and grouping against multiple fields are fully supported. The following image illustrates all basic
grouping types.
Note
If you don't need to group your data, simply click Next on this page to skip this step.
Page Interface
The list on the left-hand side displays data fields that can be used to group data. To apply grouping, do one of the
following.
Select columns and click the right arrow (>) button.
Drag required columns to the box on the right-hand side.
Double-click columns.
Note that grouping fields on the right-hand side can be selected by clicking them. This is useful if you need to
remove them or change their order. To accomplish the latter, use the up arrow ( ) and down arrow ( ) buttons.

Report Designer 230
Result
You can stop the wizard on this step by clicking Finish. In this case, your report will look similar to the image
below.

Report Designer 231
If you want to customize your report further, click Next. If data grouping has been applied on this page, you'll
proceed to Step 3 - Summary Options. If you haven't grouped your data, you'll skip the Summaries step and go to
Step 4 - Choose Report Layout.

Report Designer 232
Step 3 - Summary Options

Note
This wizard step is only available if you've applied data grouping in the previous step (Step 5 - Add Grouping Levels).
If you haven't grouped data, this step is skipped.
Purpose
Use this page to specify totals to be displayed for each data group and grand totals for the entire report. For
instance, you may need to display the sum of values in a particular field, the average value, etc. Specified totals
will be displayed after corresponding groups, and in the report footer.
Page Interface
This page displays all available numerical and date-time fields that aren't used to group data. Using the check box
table, you can specify which functions should be calculated for these fields.
Sometimes, data fields can contain empty values (this is different from, say, zero in a numeric field). If you don't
want to take these values into account when calculating totals, check Ignore NULL values. Otherwise, these
values will be treated as zeros for numeric fields and the earliest system date for date-time fields.
Result
You can stop the wizard on this step by clicking Finish. In this case, your report will look similar to the image
below.

Report Designer 233
If you want to customize your report further, click Next to proceed to Step 5 - Choose Report Layout.

Report Designer 234
Step 4 - Choose Report Layout
Purpose
This page sets the layout of elements in your report. If you haven't applied data grouping, you can specify how
data field values are arranged - into a table, one under another, etc. If report data is grouped, you can choose
one of the available indentation styles for nested elements.
Additionally, this page allows you to specify the page orientation for your report.
Page Interface
The following options are available if data grouping has been applied.
If data hasn't been grouped, you will see the following report layout options.
If you want to customize your report further, click Next to proceed to Step 5 - Choose Report Style. Otherwise,
click Finish to complete report customization.

Report Designer 235
Step 5 - Choose Report Style
Purpose
Apply a predefined style sheet to your report.
Page Interface
Select one of the predefined styles from the list box.
If you want to customize your report further, click Next to proceed to Step 6 - Enter a Report Title. Otherwise,
click Finish to complete report customization.

Report Designer 236
Step 6 - Enter a Report Title
Purpose
Specifies the report title.
Page Interface
Enter a title string into the editor and click Finish to complete report creation.

Report Designer 237
Label Report Wizard
The Report Wizard allows you to create reports of two kinds - standard reports and label reports. To create a
label report, invoke the Report Wizard dialog and choose the Label Report option on the Welcome page.
After completing the Label Report wizard, you will get a blank report that generates labels of a particular size.
Since the report designer will clearly indicate the label area, you can then populate this area with the required
content and print out your labels.
Use the links below, to learn more about every step in the Label Report wizard.
Step 1 - Select a Label Type
Step 2 - Customize Label Options

Report Designer 238
Step 1 - Select a Label Type
Purpose
When you need to print out stickers or, say, water-proof labels, you need to purchase the appropriate paper.
Every supplier will provide it's own specific label size or label position within a paper sheet. To make it easier for
you to produce labels, this wizard step lists several label paper suppliers and their products. Once you've selected
a supplier and a product (paper and label type), the report will change its settings so that your labels will be
printed exactly where they're supposed to, without you having to adjust the label position and size manually.
Page Interface
On this page, choose the supplier from the Label Products combo box and a particular product from the Product
Number list. The box on the left-hand side will be updated to show you label dimensions for the currently selected
product.
If you don't need further customization, click Finish to complete the report adjustment. If manual correction of
label or paper size is required, click Next.

Report Designer 239
Step 2 - Customize Label Options
Purpose
On this page, you can manually adjust settings that were automatically specified in the previous step, based on
your supplier and product choice.
Page Interface
Editors on this page allow free customization of all parameters specified on the previous page. The pane on the
left-hand side provides a label dimensions preview based on current values.
Click Finish to complete report setup.

About Dell
Dell listens to customers and delivers worldwide innovative technology, business solutions and services they
trust and value. For more information, visit www.software.dell.com.
Contacting Dell
Technical Support:
Online Support
Product Questions and Sales:
(800) 306-9329
Email:
[email protected]
Technical Support Resources

Technical support is available to customers who have purchased Dell software with a valid maintenance
contract and to customers who have trial versions. To access the Support Portal, go to
http://software.dell.com/support/.
The Support Portal provides self-help tools you can use to solve problems quickly and independently, 24 hours a
day, 365 days a year. In addition, the portal provides direct access to product support engineers through an
online Service Request system.
The site enables you to:
• Create, update, and manage Service Requests (cases)
• View Knowledge Base articles
• Obtain product notifications
• Download software. For trial software, go to Trial Downloads.
• View how-to videos
• Engage in community discussions
• Chat with a support engineer
Dell Enterprise Reporter 2.6.0

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Dell™ Enterprise Reporter 2.6.

Enterprise Reporter Report Designer User Guide

Report Layout Basics ..............................................................................................................................................................5

Manually Update Report Output ...............................................................................................................................6

Create Report Layouts ..............................................................................................................................................................37

Basic Operations ......................................................................................................................................................38

Report Types ............................................................................................................................................................47

Styles and Conditional Formatting ............................................................................................................................78

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Table of Contents modified by Dell Inc.

Report Designer Reference ......................................................................................................................................128

Report Designer UI.............................................................................................................................................129

Report Settings ...................................................................................................................................................148

Report Bands .....................................................................................................................................................156

Report Controls ..................................................................................................................................................177

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Table of Contents modified by Dell Inc.

Standard Report Wizard .....................................................................................................................................225

Label Report Wizard .........................................................................................................................................237

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Table of Contents modified by Dell Inc.

The following sections are available in this guide.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Report Editing Basics

Manually Update Report Output

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Manually Update Report Output

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change Element Layout in Your Report

To select multiple controls, you can do one of the following.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Add or Modify Static Information in Your Report

Change Static Information

Add Information to Your Report

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Delete Report Elements

To delete a report element (band or control), do one of the following:

In the Main Menu, select Edit | Delete.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Display Values from a Database (Bind Report Elements to Data)

Using the Field List

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Using the Smart Tag

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Using the Property Grid

2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change Value Formatting of Report Elements

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change Fonts and Colors of Report Elements

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change or Apply Data Sorting to a Report

Note that sorting across calculated fields is supported, as well.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change or Apply Data Filtering to a Report

© 2010 Developer Express Inc.

Change or Apply Data Grouping to a Report

Note that grouping across calculated fields is supported, as well.