Populating a Data Band Directly from the Data Dictionary in Report Designer

Populating a Data Band Directly from the Data Dictionary in Report Designer

The articles in this section of the Knowledge Base involve working with Lists for display in your reports. To learn more about Lists and how to access the Report Designer, see Creating Lists in Report Designer. This article provides information for dragging and dropping from the Data Dictionary.

Accessing the Data Dictionary

There are multiple ways to access the Data Dictionary:

  1. Select the Page Tab > select Panels > select Dictionary
  2. Keyboard shortcut, “ctrl + shift + d”
  3. Select the Dictionary tab at the bottom of the Properties panel (Figure 02)

Fig. 01 – Dictionary Tab

Creating Data Bands from the Data Dictionary

Within Report Designer, you can drag and drop data sources, columns, variables, functions, and more. You can create a list by merely dragging the Data Source from the Data Dictionary into the report template.   Figure 02 demonstrates an example of dragging the Data Source “Products” from the Data Dictionary on to the report page.

 
Fig. 02 – Dragging and Dropping from the Data Dictionary

Once you’ve dragged the Data Source, the Data window will automatically open.


Fig. 03 – Data Window – Data Tab

  1. This panel displays the table (Data Source) and the columns within it. The columns selected determine which data is displayed from the original table.  
  2. This panel displays the Data Columns that were selected for display on the Data Band.
  3. Change the order the Data Columns will appear on the Data Band.
  4. Mark All – Select all of the Data Columns in Panel 1.
  5. Reset – Unselects all of the Data Columns in Panel 1.
  6. Choose between containers for the Data Columns of the Data Source to be displayed. The options are a Data Band (List) or a Table.
  7. Checking both of these boxes will insert a Header and Footer Band around your Data Band or Table. You can display one or the other if you prefer.

For this example, I included Header and Footer Bands, I selected a Data Band, and chose four Data Columns to be included. The Report Template auto-populated, as seen in Figure 04.


Figure 04 – Report Template after Automatic Population

As can be seen, the Report Designer automatically added the appropriate labels to the Header Band. Text Components were added to the Footer, but they are empty by default. I inserted a Count variable into the Footer for purposes of display. When rendered, with no additional alterations, the report should look something like Figure 05.


Fig. 05 – Rendered Report

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