ActiveReports allows you to create Master Detail reports with data from an XML database.

This walkthrough illustrates how to create a Master Detail report using XML data and grouping.

This walkthrough is split up into the following activities:

• Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project
• Connecting the report to a XML data source
• Adding controls to the report to contain data
• Viewing the report 

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the XML Customer database (customer.xml).

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

Adding an ActiveReport to a Visual Studio project

To add an ActiveReport to your 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 rptMD.
4. Click Open.

Connecting the report to a XML data source

To connect the report to a data source

1. Click the gray report DataSource icon in the Detail section to open the report DataSource dialog.
2. Select the "XML" tab.
3. Click the ellipsis button beside File URL to browse for the access path to customer.xml. (Typically C:\Program Files\Data Dynamics\ActiveReports for .NET 3.0\Samples\CSharp\XMLSample\customer.xml or C:\Program Files\Data Dynamics\ActiveReports for .NET 3.0\Samples\VB\XMLSample\customer.xml.)
4. Click Open.
5. In the Recordset Pattern field, type "//ITEM".
6. Click OK to return to the report design surface.

Adding controls to the report to contain data

To add controls to the report

1. Add two GroupHeader/Footer sections to your report by right-clicking on the report and selecting Insert > Group Header/Footer.
2. Make the following changes to the group header just below the page header:
   • Change the Name property to ghCustomer
   • Change the BackColor property to LightBlue
   • Change the DataField property to ../../@id
3. Add the following controls to ghCustomer:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Location	Font Style
   Label		lblID	ID	0, 0	Bold
   Label		lblEmailAddress	E-mail Address	2, 0	Bold
   Label		lblName	Name	4, 0	Bold
   TextBox	../../@id	txtID	ID	0, 0.25
   TextBox	../../@email	txtEmail	E-mail	2, 0.25
   TextBox	../../NAME	txtName	Name	4, 0.25

4. Make the following changes to the group header just above the detail section:
   • Change the Name property to ghOrders
   • Change the BackColor property to LightCyan
   • Change the DataField property to ../Number
   • Add the following controls to ghOrders:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Location
   Label		lblNumber	Order Number:	0.38, 0
   TextBox	../NUMBER	txtNumber	Number	1.5, 0
   TextBox	../DATE	txtDate	Date	4.5, 0
   Label		lblISBN	ISBN	0, 0.31
   Label		lblBookTitle	Book Title	1.13, 0.31
   Label		lblPrice	Price	5.69, 0.31
   Label		lblAuthor	Author	3.5, 0.31
   Label		lblPublisher	Publisher	4.56, 0.31
5. Make the following changes to the Detail section:
   • Change the BackColor property to WhiteSmoke
   • Change the CanShrink property to True
   • Add the controls to the Detail section:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Miscellaneous	Location
   TextBox	@isbn	txtISBN	ISBN		0, 0
   TextBox	TITLE	txtTitle	Title		1.13, 0
   TextBox	AUTHOR	txtAuthor	Author		3.5, 0
   TextBox	PUBLISHER	txtPublisher	Publisher		4.56, 0
   TextBox	PRICE	txtPrice	Price	OutputFormat = Currency	5.69, 0

6. Add the following controls to GroupFooter2:

   Control	DataField	Name	Text	Miscellaneous	Location
   Label		lblSubtotal	Subtotal	Font Style = Bold	4.5, 0
   TextBox	PRICE	txtSubtotal	Subtotal	OutputFormat = Currency SummaryType = SubTotal SummaryGroup = ghOrders	5.69, 0

Viewing the report

To view the report

1. Add the ActiveReports viewer control to a Windows Form.
2. Add the code needed to set the viewer document equal to the report document. See Using the ActiveReports Windows Form Viewer for help.

See Also

 

 

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