Before you begin modifying a report, you may want to read over the following information so that you understand the different components of a report and how they work together.
While every report will look different, reports are typically arranged in bands: Header, Detail and Footer.
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Components in the Header band (above the ^ Header bar) will appear at the top of each page.
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Objects in the Detail band (above the ^ Detail bar) will repeat, generating one detail band for each record provided by the dataset. The action of moving from the first record of a dataset to the last is referred to as “Data Traversal”.
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Objects in the Footer band will appear at the bottom of each page.
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There may also be a Title and Summary. The Title only appears once at the top of the first page and the Summary only appears once at the end of the report.
Each band will contain “objects”, most commonly Labels and DB Text or PSI DB Text.
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A Label displays text.
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A DB Text field will display values from the database. PSI DB Text also displays values from database fields, but because it was designed specifically for EventPro Planner, it has even more options than the regular DB Text.
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Often, Labels and DB Text will be paired, with the label describing what is in the field and the DB Text pulling the values from your database.
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To toggle between viewing live data and the names of the components, select View | Show Data. When Show Data is checked, the fields will be filled with data. If Show Data is unchecked, you will see the names of the fields, e.g. EventName, BookNo, VenueName, etc.
Variables: There are two kinds of variables you can add.
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Report System Variable: This can be commonly used report information such as Date, PageNo, DateTime, etc.
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EventPro System Variable: These variables are specific to your EventPro Planner license information, such as User Name, User ID, User Address 1, etc.
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Region: Regions are used to group related components together into printable units. A region acts as a parent to the components inside, so that the components shift and stretch according to the movement of the region. For example, in many EventPro Planner report headers, the User Name, Address and Phone are grouped into a region called User Info. For more information about how the layers of a report fit together, see Report Tree below.
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Groups: Groups can be used to break your report into several sections, based on the value of a specified field. As the report moves through the data records, it tracks the value of the specified field upon which the group is based. Each time the value of that specified field changes, a group break occurs. You can choose to start a new page or new column each time a group break occurs, and you can have group headers and footers that print introductory and summary information before and after each group.
Sub-reports have the same capabilities as regular reports, but they are used to handle multiple master details, create side-by-side reporting effects and hook reports together as one. There are different types of sub-reports, depending on how you want the sub-report to print within the main report. If you need a report to print within the context of a band, use a “child” type sub-report. If you need to hook reports together, use a “section” type sub-report. To understand the various uses of sub-reports, review the following examples:
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Single Dataset: If you have a single dataset connected to a report, the report will generate one detail band for each record from the dataset.
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Master Dataset with Single Detail Dataset: If the master data is connected to detail data so that there will be multiple detail records for each individual master record, you can assign the master data to the main report and the detail data to a sub-report. When the report is generated, the main report will traverse the main data records and the sub report will traverse the detail data records for each master record.
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Master Dataset with Nested Detail Datasets: Here, each master record has multiple detail records, and each of those detail records also has multiple detail records. Each set of records is linked to the previous dataset. The master dataset is assigned to the main report, while the next detail dataset is assigned to a sub-report, and the next detail dataset is assigned to a sub-report within the sub-report, and so on.
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Master Dataset with Multiple Independent Datasets: In this situation, the master dataset is linked to multiple detail records, but the detail datasets are not linked together or nested like the previous example. The detail datasets will be linked to different sub-reports and the separate sub-reports will be placed in the detail band of the main report.
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Independent Datasets: In this case, there are multiple datasets, but they are not linked, nor are they linked to a master dataset. You can create a “section” type sub-report for each dataset so that each sub-report begins on a new page. The main report exists to launch the sub-reports, but is not connected to a dataset.
As you click on different components in the report, the Status Bar at the bottom of the page will tell you what they are. Click on a component and look at the bottom left corner of the Report Designer. It will say Object: and the type of component or the component’s abbreviation, such as:
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lbl: label
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DBText or PSIDBText: database text
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reg: region
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img: image
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rpt: sub-report
At the bottom of the page, just above the status bar, there will be a series of tabs. You will be on the Main tab, i.e. the main report. Click on the tab that corresponds with the name of the sub-report you want to view.
The report Header, as it appears in the Report Designer, will look the same for most reports: a large logo banner across the top, a second smaller logo to the left, the report title on the right and the User contact information in the middle.
However, the actual printed appearance of your reports will depend on your System Settings. Review Chapter 2: Setting Up EventPro Planner, Step 1: System Settings, Reports.
Before making any changes to the header’s appearance, check which options you have selected for Logo Print Options and Other Options. Although certain information may be visible in the Report Designer layout, the System Settings will determine the appearance of the printed report header.
Before you make any changes to the report, ensure that certain toolbars are visible.
Select View | Toolbars from the main menu and select Align or Space,Size and Nudge in addition to the toolbars already selected. These toolbars will help you size and align components so that they look consistent.
