ActiveReports 14 .NET Edition
ActiveReports 14 User Guide / Samples and Walkthroughs / Walkthroughs / Section Report Walkthroughs / Layout / Group On Unbound Fields
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    ActiveReports allows you to set up grouping in unbound reports. When setting up grouping, the group header's DataField property is used to retrieve the grouping data from the database in the same manner as a textbox's DataField property. This walkthrough illustrates how to set up grouping in an unbound report.

    This walkthrough is split into the following activities:

    Note: This walkthrough uses the Northwind database. The NWIND.mdb file can be downloaded from GitHub: ..\Samples14\Data\NWIND.mdb.

    When you complete this walkthrough you get a layout that looks similar to the following at design time and at run time.

    Design-Time Layout

    Grouping in unbound report at design-time

    Grouping in unbound report at design-time

    Run-Time Layout

    Grouping in unbound report at run-time

    Grouping in unbound report at run-time

    To add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project

    1. Create a new Visual Studio project.
    2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
    3. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 14 Section Report (code-based) and in the Name field, rename the file as rptGroupUnbound.
    4. Click the Add button to open a new section report in the designer.  

    See Quick Start for information on adding different report layouts.

    To add code to connect the report to a data source

    1. Double-click the gray area below the report. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportStart event.
    2. Add code to the handler to:
      • Set the data source connection string
      • Set the data source SQL query
      • Open the connection and retrieve the data with the data reader

    The following examples show what the code for the method looks like in Visual Basic.NET and C#.

    To write the code in Visual Basic.NET

    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code 
    Dim connection As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection
Dim reader As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader
    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code 
    'Create the data connection and change the data source path as necessary 
Dim connectionString As String 
connectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=[User Folder]\Samples14\Data\NWIND.mdb" 
connection = New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString) 
connection.Open() 
    
Dim sqlString As String 
sqlString = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid= products.categoryid ORDER BY categories.CategoryID" 
Dim command As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection) 
'Retrieve data 
reader = command.ExecuteReader()

    To write the code in C#

    C# code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code 
    private System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection connection;
private System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader reader;
    C# code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code 
    //Create the data connection and change the data source path as necessary
string connectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=[User Folder]\Samples14\Data\NWIND.mdb";
connection=new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString);
connection.Open();

string sqlString = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY categories.CategoryID";
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand command = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection);   

//Retrieve data
reader = command.ExecuteReader();

    To create a layout for the report

    1. On the design surface of the report, right-click and select Insert, then Group Header/Footer to add group header and footer sections.
    2. Select the group header and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.
      Property Name Property Value
      Name ghCategories
      BackColor Silver
      CanShrink True
      DataField CategoryID
      GroupKeepTogether All
      KeepTogether True
    3. Select the group footer, and in the Properties Window, change the Name property to gfCategories.
    4. Select the Detail section, and in the Properties Window, change the CanShrink property to True.
    5. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to the Group Header section (drag the bottom edge of the section down to display all of the controls) and in the Properties window, set the properties of each control as follows.

      TextBox1

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField CategoryName
      Name txtCategoryName
      Text Category Name
      Location 0, 0 in
      Size 2, 0.2 in
      ForeColor Blue
      BackColor Silver
      Font > Size 12
      Font > Bold True

      TextBox2

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField Description
      Name txtDescription
      Text Description
      Location 0, 0.3 in
      Size 6, 0.2 in

      Label1

      Property Name Property Value
      Name lblProductName
      Text Product Name
      Location 0, 0.6 in
      Font > Bold True

      Label2

      Property Name Property Value
      Name lblUnitsInStock
      Text Units In Stock
      Location 4.4, 0.6 in
      Font > Bold True
      Alignment Right
    6. From the toolbox, drag two Textbox controls to the Detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties of each control as follows.

      TextBox1

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField ProductName
      Name txtProductName
      Text Product Name
      Location 0, 0 in
      Size 4, 0.2 in

      TextBox2

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField UnitsInStock
      Name txtUnitsInStock
      Text Units In Stock
      Location 4.4, 0 in
      Alignment Right

    7. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to the Group Footer section and in the Properties window, set the properties of each control as follows.

      Label

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField TotalLabel
      Name lblTotalLabel
      Location 2, 0 in
      Size 2.4, 0.2 in

      TextBox

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField ProductName
      Name txtTotalItems
      Text Total Items
      Location 4.4, 0 in
      SummaryType SubTotal
      SummaryFunc Count
      SummaryRunning Group
      SummaryGroup ghCategories
      Alignment Right

      Line

      Property Name Property Value
      Name Line1
      LineWeight 3
      X1 1.2
      X2 6.45
      Y1 0
      Y2 0

    8. Right-click the Page Header section and select Delete.

    To add fields using the DataInitialize event

    Warning: Do not access the Fields collection outside the DataInitialize and FetchData events. Accessing the Fields collection outside of these events is not supported, and has unpredictable results.

    To write the code in Visual Basic

    1. Right-click in any section of the design surface of the report, and select View Code to display the code view for the report.
    2. At the top left of the code view of the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
    3. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select DataInitialize. This creates an event-handling method for the report's DataInitialize event.
    4. Add code to the handler to add fields to the report's Fields collection.

    The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the DataInitialize event.
    Copy Code 
    Fields.Add("CategoryID") 
Fields.Add("CategoryName") 
Fields.Add("ProductName") 
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock") 
Fields.Add("Description") 
Fields.Add("TotalLabel")

    To write the code in C#

    1. Click in the gray area below the report to select it.
    2. Click the events icon in the Properties Window to display available events for the report.
    3. Double-click DataInitialize. This creates an event-handling method for the report's DataInitialize event.
    4. Add code to the handler to add fields to the report's Fields collection.

    The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

    C# code. Paste INSIDE the DataInitialize event.
    Copy Code 
    Fields.Add("CategoryID");
Fields.Add("CategoryName");
Fields.Add("ProductName");
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock");
Fields.Add("Description");
Fields.Add("TotalLabel");

    To populate the fields using the FetchData event

    To write the code in Visual Basic

    1. At the top left of the code view for the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
    2. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for the report's FetchData event.
    3. Add code to the handler to retrieve information to populate the report fields.

    The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the FetchData event.
    Copy Code 
    Try
   reader.Read()
   Me.Fields("CategoryID").Value = reader("categories.CategoryID")
   Me.Fields("CategoryName").Value = reader("CategoryName")
   Me.Fields("ProductName").Value = reader("ProductName")
   Me.Fields("UnitsInStock").Value = reader("UnitsInStock")
   Me.Fields("Description").Value = reader("Description")
   Me.Fields("TotalLabel").Value = "Total Number of " + reader("CategoryName") + ":"
   eArgs.EOF = False
Catch
   eArgs.EOF = True
End Try

    To write the code in C#

    1. Back in design view, click in the gray area below the report to select it.
    2. Click the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for the report.
    3. Double-click FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for the report's FetchData event.
    4. Add code to the handler to retrieve information to populate the report fields.

    The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

    C# code. Paste INSIDE the FetchData event.
    Copy Code 
    try
   {
      reader.Read();
      Fields["CategoryID"].Value = reader["categories.CategoryID"].ToString();
      Fields["CategoryName"].Value = reader["CategoryName"].ToString();
      Fields["ProductName"].Value = reader["ProductName"].ToString();
      Fields["UnitsInStock"].Value = reader["UnitsInStock"].ToString();
      Fields["Description"].Value = reader["Description"].ToString();
      Fields["TotalLabel"].Value = "Total Number of " + reader["CategoryName"].ToString() + ":";
      eArgs.EOF = false;
   }
catch
   {
      eArgs.EOF = true;
   }

    To add code to close the connection to the data source

    To write the code in Visual Basic

    1. At the top left of the code view for the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
    2. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select ReportEnd. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportEnd event.
    3. Add code to the handler to close the connection.
    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the ReportEnd event.
    Copy Code 
    reader.Close() 
connection.Close()

    To write the code in C#

    1. Back in design view, click in the gray area below the report to select it.
    2. Click the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for the report.
    3. Double-click ReportEnd. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportEnd event.
    4. Add code to the handler to close the connection.

    The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

    C# code. Paste INSIDE the ReportEnd event.
    Copy Code 
    reader.Close();
connection.Close();

    To view the report

    • Click the preview tab to view the report at design time.

    OR

     

     

     

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