SQL Server Reporting Services Custom Page Layouts - sql-server

Would it be possible to define layouts depending on the report type? ie. The layout size for PDFs would be different from the web layout.
Let's say we publish the report to the web. The user has the option of exporting this custom report to PDF. We want to be able to specify how the report should look like when exported to PDF.

The layout has to be defined before the report is even rendered. The report has no advance knowledge of what form it is going to take when exported.
My advice is to either:
Create two separate reports with separate layouts depending on whether it is to become a PDF or a Webpage.
Tweak your layout so it will export nicely to both formats.

Related

Repeating Static Tablix On Each Page

I am trying to setup a "bookmark" menu table as a side bar on my SSRS report with text that links to bookmarks as different sections on the report. The bookmark menu will be looking as such:
I want to repeat this tablix one each page of my report. Is there an easy and better way to do it than just by pasting it separately at each section of the report?
I am also thinking of adding the breadcrumbs as part of the header, but there is a project requirement to have it as a sidebar on the report. Please let me know if you have ideas on how i can do that easily without having to copy paste it on every page as that seems like bad design. Moreover, if i have to make updates , i would have to do it in several places.
The only possibility to repeat the tablix automatically on each page is in the header or footer.
The other option is to copy the tablix on each page. This is not very resonable, because of changes that can happen in the future (maintainability).
The best option is like #Alan Schofield mentioned a document map. Maybe this tutorial will help you Document Map Tutorial

Custom Content Regions for a Drupal 7 Home Page

I am developing a Drupal 7 site with a home page that consists of 5 regions. Each region will need to be editable within the Drupal admin system. Each region at a minimum will need to have an image upload and a text/body field. There may be other additional fields for certain regions. In other words not all of these regions will need the exact same fields.
I am not sure what the best way to set this up in Drupal is. I looked at Blocks but they don't have the ability to customize the fields. And I need my image field to be separate because it will be used as a background image for the region, not displayed inline.
I considered creating a custom content type but I wouldn't want the content editors to be able to create multiple nodes for a given region which would likely cause confusion.
I did see a module Node Limit that seems to limit the number of nodes that can exist for a user or content type but it is still listed as an alpha module.
What have you done to deal with a similar situation?
It sounds like creating a custom block would serve you well. It's very easy to do, you can add your own form/fields with hook_block_configure() and hook_block_save(). Here's one of my module files that includes custom block with a config form.
You could also possible use the Display Suite module to add fields into a region, as explained here.
Display Suite is good for configuring a node's fields in a presentation layer.
But your problem could be on the top of that... Maybe your problem is content building, and one of your most powerfull & flexible options is the paragraphs module.
With paragraphs you must create a content type, with the paragraphs bundles inside of it as a field, then create a page and set it to be your front page. Then customize these node types presentation with Display Suite as you need.
I know a content type for a page sounds too much, but depending on your situation this could be your best choice.
Paragraphs module and the Display Suite Module are very powerful together when you need powerful content creation and advanced theming.
If you have any doubt just ask.
Hope that helps.

Any alternative report designers other than the traditional "banded" styles?

When I think of reports I think of banded reporting. Tools like Microsoft Access, Crystal Reports, SSRS and even VisualFox use this. Dynamic behavior must be anticipated in advance and is controlled through conditional fields, subreports and parameters. These reports are perfect for financial reports or lists of things where anytime you run this (typically between some date range) the look and feel is predetermined and expected by the user.
However our company requires a solution where any user should be able to change any aspects of the report. Fields, formatting and layout are all changed anytime a report is run. It's not a traditional "report" if you will since it's not a somewhat static output.
Resorting to banded reporting in this case would banish some developers to the world of crystal reports since we generate 2-6 reports on any given day. I can't imagine a typical user being happy with having to learn how to use crystal report designer either.
What are some alternative reporting solutions that allow you to build reports without being at the whim of learning an entire reporting suite such as Crystal Reports? I've added an answer of my own to show a great alternative that we're currently using and hope to get some good input for future use. The point of this post however is to collect some alternative solutions to the one proposed.
DevExpress Snap
With some digging we discovered DevExpress Snap which allows you to build reports using a Word Processor much like Microsoft Word by dragging fields from a fields toolbox right into the document! It feels exactly like Microsoft Word with data field drag and drop capabilities. Fantastic!
We've already created a Template structure so users can save their predetermined layouts as "general" templates to start work off of but nearly every report generated contains different fields and formatting. Sometimes even images are dropped into the document to illustrate a point.
Now I don't have to be banished to the land of SSRS! This is an amazing solution though I still generate certain reports (P&L for example) through SSRS since it should be a pre-set reporting style, with it's fields and design locked away from the user.
The other solution I found that looks pretty powerful and easy to use is Windward Autotag. It's an actual plug-in for Word that just adds an extra tab at the top of the ribbon for all your report options. So you can literally design all your reports right in Word. You put your data wherever you want by going to the Autotag tab added to the ribbon and clicking a button to insert your data where you want it. I haven't tried it yet, but the website and demo video look pretty impressive.

Can we create reports using EXTJS?

I want to know if we can create reports using EXTJS.
Thnx a lot
If you simply mean that you want to format reporting data received from the server into visual charts or graphs (or tabular / grid format) the answer is yes. Look at the Ext.chart package in the documentation. Other than that, you'd have to provide some details on what you're trying to do.
EDIT: I'm still not 100% clear on what you're asking, but if you already have working grids and you want to display the same data in a different format for reporting, this is certainly possible. However, you would not use the grid directly, you would use the underlying Ext.data.Store and bind it to some other component that can output your report. The most obvious solution that comes to mind would be using a View (previously DataView) to bind your existing store to a custom XTemplate that would generate your report view.
No. You can't create reports with EXTJS. There are tools appropriate for reporting. All of them, server side.
Hope it helps.
You can use a CSS with "media='print'" like this:
< link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/print.css" media="print">
This CSS will be used by the browser only when the user are trying to print the page. Then, you can change the entire style of the page to look like a report.
This is a server side job. Here is what I use for generating tabular reports which are based on Grid data: http://xmlgraphics.apache.org/fop/
Also, you can generate a very nice, fully functional Excel spreadsheet from tabular data: http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/lib...ffice.10).aspx

ReportViewer - LocalReport - Merge reports?

I'm using ReportViewer WinForms, and since it is no easy way to create an coversheet, then I wonder, is it possible to render two reports and have them concatenated?, so they appear as one report?
If I was to print only, then I could execute two reports after each other, but since the user want to see the report before printing (you know, no environment waste here) then they have to appear in the same viewer.
OR, is there other ways of creating coversheets?
Today I use an subreport, but there are some issues with margins etc. which is not easy to fix.
To clarify, we are talking about
ReportViewer using RDLC files, no
Crystal Reports involved.
Do you need to display the 2 reports as 1 in the reportViewer control or would having them both exported to PDF and showing a single PDF containing both reports be satisfactory?
I was looking for that but using the Web ReportViewer and found examples exporting the reports to several PDFs, then concatenating the PDFs into 1 using PDFtk (free)
Blog post about using PDFtk and Reporting Services
Multiple RDLC reports displayed at the same time
PDFtk web site
I've created a report that sounds like what you are attempting to do...first to clarify, I'm going to guess your using Crystal Reports within VS2005/2008.
If that's the case, all you need to do in the main report is create an additional section after your section that contains the "Cover Sheet" layout/data. In the section expert for the "Cover Sheet" section (in layout view, right click on section header bar, pick section expert in pop up menu..), check off the "New Page After" option.
Edit: After your update, I see you are using RDLC reports, and from my limited exposure to those, I can't recall an easy way to get to where you want to be. Though I'm pretty sure you may be able to pass multiple reports to the same report viewer in code.

Resources