Overflow Data in a Single Page

In a fixed page layout, ActiveReports allows you to arrange the OverflowPlaceHolder controls at any location on the same page along with the host data region to build a rich report layout. The following walkthrough demonstrates this by using a Table data region and three OverflowPlaceHolder controls on a single page to create a columnar display.

This walkthrough is split into the following activities:

Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project
Connecting to a the data source
Adding a dataset
Creating a columnar layout
Viewing the report

Note: This topic uses the Movie table in the Reels database. By default, in ActiveReports, the Reels.mdb file is located at [User Documents folder]\ComponentOne Samples\ActiveReports 8\Data\Reels.mdb.

When you complete this walkthrough, you get a report that looks similar to the following:

To add an ActiveReport to the Visual Studio project

To connect the report to a data source

To add a dataset

SQL Query	Copy Code
SELECT * FROM Movie

To create a layout for the report

In the Visual Studio toolbox, go to ActiveReports 8 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. This TextBox functions as the title in the report layout.

Property Name	Property Value
Location	0in, 0in
BackgroundColor	DarkCyan
Font	Normal, Arial, 20pt, Bold
Size	6.5in, 0.5in
TextAlign	Center
Value	Movie Database
VerticalAlign	Middle

From the Visual Studio toolbox, drag and drop a Table data region onto the design surface and set its following properties in the properties window.

Property Name

Property Value

Location

0.125in, 1in

BackgroundColor

Azure

RepeatHeaderOnNewPage

True

Size

3in, 0.66in

FixedSize

3in, 3.5in

OverflowName

OverflowPlaceHolder1

Note: Set this property after you add the OverflowPlaceHolder1 to the design surface in the next step, to handle the data that exceeds the fixed size of the Table data region.

In the table details row, add the following fields using the field selection adorner:

Cell	Field Name
Left	Title
Center	YearReleased
Right	UserRating

In the table details row, select the left cell containing the Title field and go to the Properties window to set the ShrinkToFit property to True. This will avoid clipping of longer movie titles and fit the string in the same cell in a smaller font size.

In the design view, select the following rows of the Table data region by clicking the table handle to the left of the row and go to the Properties window to set the following properties:

Row	Property Name
TableHeader	BackgroundColor: PaleTurquoise BorderStyle: Solid FontSize: 10pt FontWeight: Bold TextAlign: Left
TableDetail	BorderStyle: Solid TextAlign: Left FontSize: 9pt

From the Visual Studio toolbox, drag and drop three OverflowPlaceHolder controls onto the design surface and the set the following properties in the Properties window for each of them so that the data appears in a columnar format.

Control Name

Property

OverflowPlaceHolder1

Location: 3.375in, 1in
OverflowName: OverflowPalceHolder2

Note: Set this property after you add the OverflowPlaceHolder2 to the design surface.

OverflowPlaceHolder2

Location: 0.125in, 5in
OverflowName: OverflowPlaceHolder3

Note: Set this property after you add the OverflowPlaceHolder3 to the design surface.

OverflowPlaceHolder3

Location: 3.375in, 5in

Note: Notice that the OverflowName property is set to link each OverflowPlaceHolder control to the next one.

Once you have completed the steps above, you get a layout that looks similar to the following at design time. This is the same layout that you see on preview or at runtime.

To view the Report

Concepts

OverflowPlaceHolder