Work with Design in Dynamic Reports 2

From the main window in Dynamic Reports 2, select a report and then click the Design button (or click the File menu and select Design).
On the Retrievals for Report window, after selecting one or more retrievals for the report, click Save & Design.
On the report viewer window, click the File menu and select Design Report.

All of these methods will launch the Design Report window:

Introduction to the Design Report window

See below for basic information about the Design Report window and the features most commonly used for GainSeeker reports. For in-depth documentation of the features in this window, see the Active Reports 13 User Guide at https://www.hertzler.com/activereports13help.

RDL Reports (report controls)

You can drag one of these report controls and drop it on the layout area of the report. You can also click one of these controls and then click the layout area of the report.

Some of these report controls—Table, List, Banded List, Tablix, and Chart—are specially categorized as Data Regions. This means that they can contain other report controls (including other data regions) to repeat for all rows of information in a single dataset.

For more details on these report controls, see https://www.hertzler.com/activereports13help/controls.

Report Explorer

Document Outline

As you add controls to the report, they will appear in the Document Outline.

You can use this area to click on a control and edit its properties, or right-click on a control and edit layout properties.

Data Sources and Datasets

GainSeeker automatically creates the GainSeeker data source for you. Depending on the retrievals you specified for this dynamic report, GainSeeker will also provide one or more datasets for the values that GainSeeker will provide to the report:

If you selected one or more Columns for the report, these will be available in a DataDetail dataset. For an Advanced retrieval, the contents of the DataDetail dataset will depend on SQL statement you provided for the report.
If you selected one or more Statistics for the report, these will be available in the DataDetail dataset, the Statistics dataset, or both, depending on the Statistics Location you selected for providing statistics to the report.
If you selected Charts, multiple-part number or multiple-process charts are provided in another dataset. Single-retrieval charts will be available in the DataDetail dataset, the Statistics dataset, or both, depending on the Statistics Location you selected for providing statistics to the report.

Tip: To add one of these GainSeeker Charts to the report, best practice is to:

Add an Image control to the report
Set the Properties for the Image control as follows:

for the MIMEType property, choose image/jpeg
for the Sizing property, choose FitProportional
for the Source property, choose Database
for the Value property, choose the chart field from the appropriate GainSeeker dataset

If you selected Pareto detail, DPU detail, and/or OEE detail, another dataset will be added for each option you selected.

Please note: Most of the values in these GainSeeker datasets are strings. The exceptions to this are:

Data type:	Integer	Double
Statistic:	Row Number DMS Opportunities DMS Real-time failures SPC Real-time failures SPC Subgroup Size	DMS p DMS u DMS Trace Cost DMS OEE Available DMS OEE Scheduled DMS OEE Good DMS OEE Total DMS OEE Ideal DMS Sample Size DMS Sum Defects DMS NCU DMS NCU Cost DMS Defects SPC Data SPC X-bar SPC Range SPC Moving range SPC Sigma

Most strings that contain only numbers will accept formatting for decimals simply by setting the Format property. If that does not function as desired, you can use functions like ToDouble() or ToInt32() in the Value property to return a numeric value that will accept numeric formatting.

Strings that contain date/time values will only accept other Format property if you first set their value using ToDateTime().

For example: The Date_Time value listed in the DataDetail dataset is recognized by this module as a string value instead of a true date/time value. If you need to change the format of these date/time stamps, you should: first change the Value property from =Fields!Date_Time.Value to =ToDateTime(Fields!Date_Time.Value) . Then you can change the Format property to one of the predefined format codes for dates and times or enter a custom format string (e.g., yy/MM/dd HH:mm:ss).

To retrieve information from sources outside of the GainSeeker database, you can define another Data Source and dataset. For more information, see https://www.hertzler.com/activereports13help/datasources_and_datasets.

Note: If you create or edit a dataset in order to add or change a field in that dataset, avoid using the following characters in the Name of any field:

space	(	)
.	[	]
-	{	}
*	/	\
#	!	$
%	@	&

Parameters

You can use parameters to filter the information displayed in reports.

Embedded Images

You can import an image file into your report as an embedded image which can be displayed by the "image" control.

Common Values

These are values that are commonly displayed on reports.

The Layout area and Property grid

The Layout area is displayed in the center of the Design Report window and allows you to work with the report layout, add custom script to the report, and preview the report.

You can use the property grid on the right-hand side to modify some of the contents and formatting of the control that you have selected on the Document Outline or on the layout area. You can also use it to modify properties of the report and the body of the report.

Working with the layout area and property grid

When the button is selected, you can:

drag and drop controls onto the body of the report
move and re-size controls on the body of the report
change the contents of a control on the report
click a control on the Document Outline or on the layout area and then use the property grid to change the properties of that control
click Report on the Document Outline and then use the property grid (or the Property dialog link below the grid) to change report properties including Portrait/Landscape, print margins, etc.

Tip: If object spacing looks correct on the layout area when designing the report but gets cut off when viewing the report, you may need to change the Report property for ConsumeWhiteSpace to False.

use the designer buttons for the layout area

Adding custom Script to the report

To add custom script to your report, click the button. and the Custom code sample: count unique values.

Note: Your custom code may not work correctly if it is used in conjunction with a field whose name contains one of the following characters:

space	(	)
.	[	]
-	{	}
*	/	\
#	!	$
%	@	&

If you create or edit a dataset in order to add or change a field in that dataset, avoid using the these characters in the Name of any field.

Previewing the report

To quickly preview your report as you work, click the button.

Another option is to simply view the report.

Other tasks

Saving changes to the report

At any time, you can save your changes to the report by clicking the button, clicking the File menu and then clicking Save, or pressing CTRL+S.

Viewing the report

To view the report, click the File menu and then click Save & View Report.

Changing the retrievals

To change the retrievals for the report, click the File menu and then click Save & Edit Retrievals.

More information

For in-depth documentation of the features in this window, see the Active Reports 13 User Guide at https://www.hertzler.com/activereports13help.