WORKING WITH THE DATAREPORT DESIGNER

9
Working with the DataReport Designer

Visual Basic 6 is the first version that includes a report writer completely integrated in the IDE.
Before using the DataReport designer, you must make it accessible from the IDE, which you
do by issuing the Components command from the Project menu, switching to the Designer tab,
and ticking the Data Report check box. Alternatively, you can create a new Data Project and let
Visual Basic create an instance of the DataReport designer for you.

The DataReport designer works in bound mode only, in the sense that it's able to
automatically retrieve the data to be sent to the printer or simply displayed in the preview window.
It can export a report to a text file or an HTML file and also supports custom format layouts. The
DataReport designer comes with a set of custom controls that you can drop on its surface in
the same way as you do with forms and other designers. These controls include lines, shapes,
images, and also function fields, which you can use to create summary fields in your reports.
Another intriguing feature of this designer is its ability to print in asynchronous mode, which lets
the user perform other tasks while the printing proceeds.

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 WORKING WITH THE DATAREPORT DESIGNER
9
DataReport Designer Toolbox Controls

These six controls aren't interchangeable with their counterparts you've always used for form
design. Likewise, you can't use form design controls in DataReport Designer.

Control Type Description

RptTextBox Any data that will be supplied at runtime--through code or through a
command--needs to be put in a RptTextBox. RptTextBox controls can be
configured to look like plain text without any borders.
RptLine Use this control to draw lines on the report.

RptFunction This control performs functions on data groups in the report and can be
used only in a group footer section of the report. It supplies functions such
as row and value counting, sums, and so on.
RptLabel The RptLabel control is used to add static text to the report.

RptImage Use the RptImage control to add a picture to your report. This control, like
the standard Image control, can hold bitmaps (BMP), icons, metafiles, or
GIF or JPEG files.
RptShape You can use the RptShape control to add a variety of graphical shapes to
your report, including rectangles, circles, and variations of them.

Special Characters Accepted in a RptLabel’s Property

Symbol Description
%d Current date (Short format)
%D Current date (Long format)
%t Current time (Short format)
%T Current time (Long format)
%p Current page number
%P Total number of pages
%i The title of the report
%% Percentage symbol

If, for instance, you wanted to include a page number, the Caption for the RptLabel control would
be as follows:

Page %p of %P

VB will automatically substitute the page number and number of pages on each page of the
report.

Setting Control Properties

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 WORKING WITH THE DATAREPORT DESIGNER
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The controls you have dropped on the DataReport’s surface are similar to the standard controls
you place on a form, but they belong to a different control library. In fact, you can’t drop a
standard intrinsic control on a DataReport designer, nor can you place a control from a
DataReport control library on a form or another designer. But you can move DataReport controls
and align them as you would do with any regular control. You can’t use the commands in the
standard Format menu, though, and you have to right-click on the control and use the commands
in the pop-up menu.

DataReport controls react to the F4 key in the same way regular controls do, by displaying the
Properties window. Because the RptLabel and RptTextBox controls are so similar to their
standard counterparts, you should already be familiar with most of the properties you find in this
window. For example, you can change the DataFormat properties of the txtOrderDate and
txtShippedDate controls so that they display their values in long date format. Or you can change
the txtOrderID control's BackStyle property to 1-rptBkOpaque and its BackColor
property to gray (&HE0E0E0) so that order identifiers are highlighted in the report.

Printing the Report

The easiest way to print the report is to let the user start the operation interactively by clicking on
the leftmost button in the DataReport preview window. Users can pick a printer from the list of
installed ones and select a page range and the number of copies they want. They can even print
to a file so that they can do the actual printing later. You can use several properties to modify the
default appearance of the preview window:

‘Display the DataReport in a modal maximized window.

DataReport1.WindowState = vbMaximized
DataReport1.Show vbModal

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