Report Layout Basics

I thought I would go over some of the basics of report layouts since I have seen a few forum posts about basic layouts. This is by no means a comprehensive overview, but a starting place.

The first thing to realize about the report layout is that the only sections you have to work with are the page header, page footer and the report body. There is no concept of a report header/footer, etc. But also, unlike Crystal Reports, the report sections are NOT tied to data.

Instead, the report body holds the controls that can act as report sections. Here are some ideas:

Report Header

If you need a report header, you can place any control, like a text box, on the body of the report, and populate it with data, static text, etc. If you place these controls inside a rectangle, you can set the PageBreakAtEnd property to true, and then those text boxes will appear on a page by themselves. If you dont use a rectangle in this manner, your report header will be on the same page as the start of your data area.

Report Footer

As with the report header, if you place controls at the bottom of the body section, in a rectangle, and set the PageBreakAtStart to true, you will have these on the last page of the report.

Multiple Body Sections

You can have multiple body sections just by adding multiple controls to the body section of the report. Say that you have 2 datasets in your report and you want to show them in separate sections of the report. Add a table for the first dataset. Set the PageBreakAtEnd property to true.
Then add another table below that for the second dataset. When you render the report, you will have the first table displayed, a page break, and then the second table. Add the report header and footer from above, and you now have a 4 section report!

Using the List Control

The list control is used to repeat a set of controls within it. You can place a list control on your report, set the dataset and the grouping on the list. Then place some text boxes in the list control and populate them with the fields from the dataset. The list will group the data as you set up, and populate the text boxes, repeating for every group.

You can also put multiple tables in the list control. I will do this often when there is a lot of detail data to display, and I do not want to have to worry about the column layouts.

Well, that was some basic layout ideas. I will add more soon

peace

BobP