Working with the Designer at Run time

This sample demonstrates the fundamentals of using the designer at run time. The simple report created in this sample will be used to demonstrate more advanced features later on in the manual. At runtime the designer functions similarly to the ActiveX designer but does not allow access to the report events or code.

1. Start by running the sample project created above.
2. Place an ADO data control in the designer's detail section.
3. Connect to Nwind.mdb (see chapter 3 in the standard edition user's guide).

   Note: The samples in this manual use the NorthWind database included with Microsoft Visual Basic.

4. Set the DataControl's source property to the following SQL statement:

   SELECT * FROM customers order by country

5. Right-click on the designer and select insert to add a new GroupHeader/Footer.
6. Click on the new section “GroupHeader1” to select it.
7. Modify the section's properties as follows:

   Name	ghOrderGroup
   DataField	Country
   Height	750

8. Click on the new section “GroupFooter1” to select it.
9. Modify the section's properties as follows:

   Name	gfOrderGroup
   Height	270

10. Add a Field control to the ghOrderGroup section and set its properties as follows:

    Name	txtGroupCountry
    DataField	Country
    Height	360
    Left	0
    Top	0
    Width	4230
    Font .Size	12
    Font .Bold	True

11. Place 4 labels in the ghOrderGroup section and set their properties as follows:

    Name	lblCustomer	lblCity	lblCountry	lblPostalCode
    Caption	Customer	City	Country	PostalCode
    Height	270	270	270	270
    Left	0	2970	5490	7380
    Top	450	450	450	450
    Width	2880	2430	1800	1800

12. Click and drag the following fields from the fields list into the detail section: CompanyName, City, Country and PostalCode.
13. Set the field's properties as follows:

    Name	txtCustomer	txtCity	txtCountry	txtPostalCode
    DataField	CompanyName	City	Country	PostalCode
    Height	270	270	270	270
    Left	0	2970	5490	7380
    Top	0	0	0	0
    Width	2880	2430	1800	1800
    Alignment	0-Left	0-Left	0-Left	1-Right

14. Set the detail sections height to 285.
15. The designer should look like this:

    

16. Click on the Report Preview tab to run and show the report.

    

17. Switch back to the Runtime Designer tab and follow the next sample to see how the designer's layout can be saved.