ActiveReports allows Bookmarks to be easily set up and used in subreports by adding code to the Detail Format event of the parent and child reports.

This walkthrough illustrates how to set up and use Bookmarks in a subreport.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

• Adding two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project
• Connecting rptMain to a data source
• Adding controls to rptMain to contain data
• Adding controls to rptSub to contain data
• Adding the code needed to save the current record's CategoryID to use in the rptSub's SQL query
• Adding the code to create a data source for rpt Main and pass it to rptSub
• Adding code to the Detail Format event of both reports to set up bookmarks
• Viewing the report 
• Viewing the Bookmarks collection with the report
• Adding special bookmarks at run time

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the Northwind database.
A copy is located at C:\Program Files\Data Dynamics\ActiveReports for .NET 3.0\Data\NWIND.MDB.

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have a report that looks similar to the following.

Adding two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project

To add two ActiveReports to a Visual Studio project

1. Open a new project in Visual Studio.
2. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
3. Select ActiveReports 3.0 File and rename the file rptMain.
4. Click Open.
5. From the Project menu, select Add New Item.
6. Select ActiveReports 3.0 File and rename the file rptSub.
7. Click Open.

Connecting rptMain to a data source

To connect the parent report to a data source

1. Click on the gray report DataSource icon in the Detail section of rptMain to open the report DataSource dialog.
2. Select the "OLE DB" tab.
3. Click Build.
4. Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider and click Next.
5. Click the ellipsis button to browse for the access path to the Northwind database. Click Open once you have selected the appropriate access path.
6. Click OK to continue.
7. In the Query field, type "Select * from categories."
8. Click OK to return to the report design surface.

Adding controls to rptMain to contain data

To add controls to the report

1. Add the following controls to the Detail section of rptMain:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Location	Miscellaneous
   Label		lblProductName	Product Name:	0, 0.31
   Label		lblCategoryName	Category Name:	0, 0
   TextBox	CategoryName	txtCategoryName1	CategoryName	1.25, 0	Font = Bold; ForeColor = DarkGreen
   Subreport		ctlSubreport		1.25, 0.31

2. Set the CanShrink property of the Detail section to True.

Adding a control to rptSub to contain data

To add a control to the report

1. Set the CanShrink property of the Detail section to True.
2. Set the BackColor property of the Detail section to DarkSeaGreen.

3. Add the following control to the Detail section of rptSub:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Location	Miscellaneous
   TextBox	ProductName	txtProductName	ProductName	0, 0	Size = 3, 0.19

Adding the code needed to save the current record's categoryID

To write the code in Visual Basic

• Right-click in any section of the design window of rptMain, and click on View Code to display the code view for the report. At the top left of the code view for rptMain, click the drop-down arrow and select rptMain events. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for rptMain's FetchData event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Save the current record's categoryID to use in the subreport's SQL query

To write the code in C#

• Click in the gray area below rptMain to select the report. Click on the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for the report. Double-click FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for rptMain's FetchData event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Save the current record's categoryID to use in the subreport's SQL query

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

  ' Visual Basic
  Dim m_categoryID As String
  Private Sub rptMain_FetchData(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal eArgs As DataDynamics _
  	.ActiveReports.ActiveReport.FetchEventArgs) Handles MyBase.FetchData
  	m_categoryID = Me.Fields("CategoryID").Value
   End Sub

  //C#
  string m_categoryID;
  private void rptMain_FetchData(object sender, DataDynamics.ActiveReports.ActiveReport3
  	.FetchEventArgs eArgs)
  {
  	m_categoryID = Fields["CategoryID"].Value.ToString();
  }

Adding the code to create a data source for rptMain and pass it to rptSub

To write the code in Visual Basic or C#

• Double-click in the Detail section of rptMain. This creates an event-handling method for rptMain's Detail_Format event. Add code to the handler to:
  • Create a new DataDynamics OleDBDataSource
  • Set the connection string
  • Set the SQL query
  • Pass the new data source to the subreport

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

' Visual Basic
Private Sub Detail1_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
	Detail1.Format
	Dim rpt As New rptSub()
	Dim subDS As New DataDynamics.ActiveReports.DataSources.OleDBDataSource()
	subDS.ConnectionString = Me.DataSource.ConnectionString
	subDS.SQL = "Select * from products where categoryID = " + m_categoryID
	rpt.DataSource = subDS
	Me.ctlSubreport.Report = rpt
End Sub

//C#
private void detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
{
	rptSub rpt = new rptSub();
	DataDynamics.ActiveReports.DataSources.OleDBDataSource subDS = new DataDynamics.
			ActiveReports.DataSources.OleDBDataSource();
	subDS.ConnectionString = this.DataSource.ConnectionString;
	subDS.SQL = "Select * from products where categoryID = " + m_categoryID;
	rpt.DataSource = subDS;
	ctlSubReport.Report = rpt;
}

Adding code to the Detail Format event for both reports

To write the code in Visual Basic or C#

• Double-click in the Detail section of rptMain to return to the report's Detail Format event.
• Double-click in the Detail section of rptSub. This creates an event-handling method for the report's Detail Format event.  

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

  ' Visual Basic
  Private Sub Detail1_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
  	Detail1.Format
  	Me.Detail1.AddBookmark(txtCategoryName1.text)
  End Sub

  //C#
  private void detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
  {
  	detail.AddBookmark(txtCategoryName1.Text);
  }

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

  ' Visual Basic
  Private Sub Detail1_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
  	Detail1.Format
  	Me.Detail.AddBookmark(CType(Me.ParentReport.Sections("Detail1").Controls _
  		("txtCategoryName1"), TextBox).Text + "\" + Me.txtProductName1.Text)
  End Sub

  //C#
  private void detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
  {
  	this.detail.AddBookmark(((TextBox)(this.ParentReport.Sections["Detail1"].Controls
  		["txtCategoryName1"])).Text + "\\" + this.txtProductName1.Text);
  }

Previewing the report and Bookmarks Collection in the designer

To preview the report and Bookmarks Collection in the designer

1. Click the "Preview" tab at the bottom of the designer.
2. Click on the "Table of Contents" icon to view the Bookmarks collection.

Viewing the report and Bookmarks Collection at run time

To view the report at run time

1. Add the ActiveReports viewer control to your Windows form.
2. Add the code needed to set the viewer document equal to the report document (rptMain). See Using the ActiveReports Windows Form Viewer for help.
3. Press F5 to run the report.
4. Click the "Table of Contents" icon to view the Bookmarks collection.

Adding Special Bookmarks at Run Time

To create and add special bookmarks to the bookmarks collection at run time, you will need to add the bookmarks to the report document's pages collection since the bookmarks are generated from the pages collection.

' Visual Basic
Private Sub Detail1_Format(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles _
	Detail1.Format
    Dim i As Integer
    Try
        For i = 0 To Me.Document.Pages.Count - 1
            Me.Document.Pages(1).AddBookmark("New Bookmark", 8)
        Next
    Catch ex As Exception
    End Try
End Sub

//C#

private void detail_Format(object sender, System.EventArgs eArgs)
{
	for(int i = 0; i<Document.Pages.Count;i++)
	{
		this.Document.Pages[i].AddBookmark("New Bookmark", 25);
	}
}

See Also

 

 

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