The following procedures illustrate how to create a drill-through link to another report containing details about the linked item.

The walkthrough is split into the following activities:

Creating a main report
Connecting the main report to a data source and adding a dataset
Adding controls to the main report to contain data
Creating a detail report
Connecting the detail report to a data source
Adding a dataset with a parameter
Creating a dataset to populate the parameter values
Adding a report parameter
Adding controls to the detail report to contain data
Adding a drill-through link in the main report
Viewing the report

Note:

This walkthrough uses tables from the Reels database. By default, in ActiveReports, the Reels.mdb file is located in the [User Documents folder]\GrapeCity Samples\ActiveReports 9\Data folder.
Although this walkthrough uses Page reports, but this can be implemented using RDL reports also.

When you complete this walkthrough you get a layout that looks similar to the following at runtime.

Runtime Layout (main report)

Runtime Layout (detail report)

To create the main report

Create a new Visual Studio project.
From the Visual Studio Project menu, select Add New Item.
In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 9 Page Report and in the Name field, rename the file as MainReport.rdlx.
Click the Add button to open a new page report in the designer.

To connect the main report to a data source and add a dataset

In the Report Explorer, right-click the Data Sources node and select the Add Data Source option or select Data Source from the Add button.
In the Report Data Source Dialog that appears, select the General page and in the Name field, enter a name like MainReportData.
On this page, create a connection to the Reels database. See Connect to a Data Source for information on connecting to a data source.
In the Report Explorer, right-click the data source node and select the Add Data Set option.
In the DataSet Dialog that appears, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset as Movie. This name appears as a child node to the data source icon in the Report Explorer.

On the Query page of this dialog, in the Query field enter the following SQL query.

SQL Query	Copy Code
SELECT * FROM Movie ORDER BY MovieID ASC

Click the Validate DataSet icon at the top right hand corner above the Query box to validate the query.
Click OK to close the dialog. Your data set and queried fields appear as nodes in the Report Explorer.

To create a layout for the main report

In the Visual Studio toolbox, go to the ActiveReports 9 Page Report tab and drag a TextBox control onto the design surface.

Select the TextBox control and go to the Properties window to set the following properties.

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0.75in, 0.125in
Font	Normal, Arial, 18pt, Bold
Size	5in, 0.5in
TextAlign	Center
Value	MOVIES INFORMATION

From the Visual Studio toolbox, drag a Table data region and place it on the design surface.

Select the Table and go to the Properties window to set the following properties.

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0in, 1.125in
FixedSize	6.5in, 7in
BorderStyle	Solid
RepeatHeaderOnNewPage	True
Size	6.5in, 0.75in

In the Table data region, place your mouse over the cells of the table details row to display the field selection adorner.

Click the adorner to show a list of available fields from the DataSet and add the following fields to the cells of the table details row.

Cell	Field
Left Cell	MovieID
Middle Cell	Title
Right Cell	YearReleased

This automatically places an expression in the details row and simultaneously places a static label in the header row of the same column.

Tip: You can also directly drag fields from the Report Explorer onto the textbox cells of the Table data region.

Select the following table rows and go to the Properties window to set their properties.

Table Header

Property Name	Property Value
BorderStyle	Solid
Font	Normal, Arial, 12pt, Bold
TextAlign	Center

Table Details

Property Name	Property Value
BorderStyle	Solid
Font	Normal, Arial, 10pt, Bold
TextAlign	Center

To create the detail report

From the Visual Studio Project menu, select Add New Item.
In the Add New Item dialog that appears, select ActiveReports 9 Page Report and in the Name field, rename the file as MovieDetails.rdlx.
Click the Add button to open a new page report in the designer.

To connect the detail report to a data source

In the Report Explorer, right-click the Data Sources node and select the Add Data Source option or select Data Source from the Add button.
In the Report Data Source Dialog that appears, select the General page and in the Name field, enter a name like ReportData.
On this page, create a connection to the Reels database. See Connect to a Data Source for information on connecting to a data source.

To add a dataset with a parameter

In the Report Explorer, right-click the data source node and select the Add Data Set option.
In the DataSet Dialog that appears, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset as MovieInfo. This name appears as a child node to the data source icon in the Report Explorer.
On the Parameters page under Parameter Name enter MovieID.
Under Value enter =Parameters!MovieID.Value

On the Query page of this dialog, in the Query field enter the following SQL query.

SQL Query	Copy Code
Select * from MovieCastInformation

Click the Validate DataSet icon at the top right hand corner above the Query box to validate the query.
Click OK to close the dialog. Your data set and queried fields appear as nodes in the Report Explorer.
In an Page report, set the Dataset name in the FixedPage dialog > General tab to MovieInfo. For more information, see FixedPage Dialog.

Caution: In an Page report, you may get an error if the Dataset name for the FixedPage is not be specified explicitly.

To add a dataset to populate the parameter values

In the Report Explorer, right-click the data source node and select the Add Data Set option.
In the DataSet Dialog that appears, select the General page and enter the name of the dataset as MovieTitles. This name appears as a child node to the data source icon in the Report Explorer.

On the Query page of this dialog, in the Query field enter the following SQL query.

SQL Query	Copy Code
SELECT MovieID, Title FROM Movie ORDER BY Title ASC

Click the Validate DataSet icon at the top right hand corner above the Query box to validate the query.
Click OK to close the dialog. Your data set and queried fields appear as nodes in the Report Explorer.

To add a parameter to the report

In the Report Explorer, select the Parameters node.
Right-click the node and select Add Parameter to open the Report - Parameters dialog.
Set properties in the following fields below the parameters list.

In the General tab:
- Name: MovieID
- DataType: Integer
In the Available Values tab select From query:
- DataSet: MovieTitles
- Value: MovieID
- Label: Title
Click OK to close the dialog and add the parameter to the collection. This parameter appears under the Parameters node in the Report Explorer.

To create a layout for the detail report

Click the gray area below the design surface to select the report.
Go to the Properties window, expand the PageSize property and set the Width to 8.5in and Height to 3in.

From the toolbox, drag a List control onto the design surface and in the Properties window, set the following properties:

Property Name	Property Value
DataSetName	MovieInfo
Location	0in, 0in
Name	MovieList
Size	6.5in, 1in
FixedSize (only for Page reports)	6.5in, 1in

With the List control selected, at the bottom of the Properties Window, select the Property dialog command.
In the List dialog that appears, on the Detail Grouping page, set the Group on: Expression to =Fields!MovieID.Value.
Click OK to close the dialog.

From the Report Explorer, go to the MovieInfo dataset and drag the following five fields onto the MovieList data region. In the properties window, set their properties as indicated.

Title

Property Name	Property Value
Name	MovieTitle
Location	0in, 0in
Size	6.5in, 0.375in
TextAlign	Center
FontSize	14pt

YearReleased

Property Name	Property Value
Name	YearReleased
Location	1in, 0.375in
Size	0.75in, 0.25in
TextAlign	Left

MPAA

Property Name	Property Value
Name	MPAA
Location	6in, 0.375in
Size	0.5in, 0.25in

UserRating

Property Name	Property Value
Name	UserRating
Location	1in, 0.625in
Size	0.25in, 0.25in
TextAlign	Left

Length

Property Name	Property Value
Name	Length
Location	4.75in, 0.625in
Size	1.75in, 0.25in
TextAlign	Left
Value	=Fields!Length.Value & " minutes"

Note: When you drag and drop fields from a dataset in the Report Explorer onto the design surface, these fields are automatically converted to Textbox controls that you can modify by setting the control properties in the Properties Window.

From the Report Explorer, drag four TextBox controls onto the MovieList data region and in the properties window, set their properties as indicated.

TextBox1

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0in, 0.375in
Size	1in, 0.25in
Name	ReleaseLabel
Value	Released in:
FontWeight	Bold

TextBox2

Property Name	Property Value
Location	3.625in, 0.375in
Size	1.875in, 0.25in
Name	MPAALabel
Value	The MPAA rated this film:
FontWeight	Bold

TextBox3

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0in, 0.625in
Size	1in, 0.25in
Name	UserRatingLabel
Value	User rating:
FontWeight	Bold

TextBox4

Property Name	Property Value
Location	4.125in, 0.625in
Size	0.625in, 0.25in
Name	LengthLabel
Value	Length:
FontWeight	Bold

To add a drill-through link to the main report

On the design surface, select the cell containing the Title field inside the table data region and at the bottom of the Properties Window, click the Property dialog command.
In the Textbox dialog that appears, go to the Navigation page.
Under Action, select Jump to report and set the report name MovieDetails.rdlx.

Under Jump to report set the Name of the parameter to MovieID.

Caution: The parameter name must exactly match the parameter in the target report.

Set the Value to =Fields!MovieID.Value.
Click OK to close the dialog.

To view the report

Open the report in the Viewer. See Using the Viewer for further information.