ActiveReports 14 .NET Edition
ActiveReports 14 User Guide / Samples and Walkthroughs / Walkthroughs / Section Report Walkthroughs / Layout / Subreports with XML Data
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    Using XML data requires some setup that is different from other types of data. This walkthrough illustrates how to set up a subreport bound to the XML DataSource in the parent report.

    This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

    Note: This walkthrough uses Customer.xml. The Customer.xml 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

    Subreport with XML data at design time

    Subreport with XML data at design time

    Run-Time Layout

    Subreport with XML data at run time

    Subreport with XML data 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 rptMain.
    4. Click the Add button to open a new section report in the designer.
    5. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
    6. In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 14 Section Report (code-based) and in the Name field, rename the file as rptSub.
    7. Click the Add button to open a second new section report in the designer.

    See Quick Start for information on adding different report layouts.

    To connect the Parent Report (rptMain) to a data source

    1. On the detail section band, click the Data Source Icon.
      Data Source icon
    2. In the Report Data Source dialog, on the XML tab, click the ellipsis (...) button next to File URL field.
    3. In the Open File window that appears, navigate to Customer.xml and click the Open button.
    4. In the Recordset Pattern field, enter //CUSTOMER.
    5. Click OK to save the data source and return to the report design surface.

    To create a layout for the Parent Report (rptMain)

    1. On the design surface, select the pageHeader section and in the Properties window, set the Height property to 0.3.
    2. On the design surface, select the grey area outside the report and in the Properties window, set the PrintWidth property to 6.5.
    3. On the design surface, select the detail section and in the Properties window, set the CanShrink property to True to eliminate white space.
    4. From the toolbox, drag the Label control onto the pageHeader section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows. 
      Property Name Property Value
      Text Orders by Customer
      Location 0, 0 in
      Size 6.5, 0.25 in
      Font Arial, 14pt, style=Bold
      Alignment Center
    5. From the toolbox, drag the controls onto the detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties of each control as follows.

      TextBox1

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField NAME
      Location 1.2, 0 in
      Size 2, 0.2 in

      Label1

      Property Name Property Value
      Text Customer Name:
      Location 0, 0 in
      Size 1.2, 0.2 in
      Font Bold True

      Label2

      Property Name Property Value
      Text Orders:
      Location 1.2, 0.25 in
      Size 1, 0.2 in
      Font Bold True

      Subreport

      Property Name Property Value
      Location 2.3, 0.25 in
      Size 4, 1 in

    To create a layout for the Child Report (rptSub)

    1. On the design surface, select the detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows. 
      Property Name Property Value
      CanShrink True
      BackColor LightSteelBlue
      Tip: Even if you do not want colors in your finished reports, using background colors on subreports can help in troubleshooting layout issues.
    2. On the design surface, right-click the pageHeader or pageFooter section and select Delete. Subreports do not render these sections, so deleting them saves processing time.
    3. From the toolbox, drag the following controls to the detail section and in the Properties window, set the properties as follows.

      TextBox1

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField TITLE
      Name txtTitle
      Location 0, 0 in
      Size 2.9, 0.2 in

      TextBox2

      Property Name Property Value
      DataField PRICE
      Name txtPrice
      Location 3, 0 in
      Size 1, 0.2 in
      Alignment Right
      OutputFormat $#,##0.00 (or select Currency in the dialog)

    To add code to create a new instance of the Child Report (rptSub)

    Warning: Do not create a new instance of the subreport in the Format event. Doing so creates a new subreport each time the section Format code is run, which uses a lot of memory.

    To write the code in Visual Basic

    1. Right-click the design surface of rptMain and select View Code.
    2. At the top left of the code view of the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (rptMain Events).
    3. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select ReportStart. This creates an event-handling method for the ReportStart event.
    4. Add code to the handler to create an instance of rptSub.

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

    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code
    Dim rpt As rptSub
    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code
    rpt = New rptSub

    To write the code in C#

    1. Click in the gray area below rptMain to select it.
    2. Click the events icon in the Properties Window to display available events for the report.
    3. Double-click ReportStart. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportStart event.
    4. Add code to the handler to create a new instance of rptSub.

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

    C# code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code
    private rptSub rpt;
    C# code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event.
    Copy Code
    rpt = new rptSub();

    To add code to pass a subset of the Parent Report's data to the Child Report

    To add code to pass a subset of the parent report's data to the subreport

    1. Double-click in the detail section of the design surface of rptMain to create a detail_Format event.
    2. Add code to the handler to:
      • Create a new GrapeCity XMLDataSource
      • Type cast the new data source as rptMain's data source and set the NodeList to the "ORDER/ITEM" field
      • Display rptSub in the subreport control
      • Pass the new data source to the subreport

    To write the code in Visual Basic

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

    Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the Format event.
    Copy Code 
        Dim xmlDS As New GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.XMLDataSource
    xmlDS.NodeList = CType(CType(Me.DataSource, GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.XMLDataSource).Field("ORDER/ITEM", True), System.Xml.XmlNodeList)
    rpt.DataSource = xmlDS
    SubReport1.Report = rpt

    To write the code in C#

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

    C# code. Paste INSIDE the Format event.
    Copy Code 
       GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.XMLDataSource xmlDS = new GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.XMLDataSource();
   xmlDS.NodeList = (System.Xml.XmlNodeList)((GrapeCity.ActiveReports.Data.XMLDataSource) this.DataSource).Field("ORDER/ITEM", true);
   rpt.DataSource = xmlDS;
   subReport1.Report = rpt;

    To view the report

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

    OR

     

     

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