Introduction to Rave Reports - Part IV: More Data Aware Reports
In Part III we have explored the data aware capabilities of Rave Reports,
using the Driver Data View. On Part IV we are going to learn how to use Direct
Data Views, the creation of Master/Detail reports, and the use of CalcOP and
CalcTotal components to display calculated values and totals.
The Direct Data View
The Direct Data View allows you share the database connection
established by your application, fetching data directly from the DataSets in
your application. You can link them to any TDataSet descendant, and, with some
code, you can even fetch data from custom DataStructures, like arrays of records
or TStringLists. Apart from that, it behaves in the way as the Driver Data View
we explored on Part III.
Using DataSet Connections
Let's create a master detail report using Direct Data Views.
Create a new application, and set up a connection with your database using your
favorite Db Framework. I'll still be using BDE, for demonstration purposes.
Add two tables (or queries, as you prefer), selecting data from the orders and
items tables. For each DataSet, add a corresponding TRvDataSetConnection, available
in the Rave tab, in the pallete. Set the property DataSet of
each DataSetConnection to the corresponding component, and give them meaningful
names (I called them dscItems and dscOrders).
The name is important: it is the your application
link to the report. You won't be able to have two DataSet connections, even
in different reports, with the same name, or you might run into trouble if someone
tries to run both reports concurrently.
After the DataSets are set up, return to the Rave Reports designer. Choose
New Data Connection, and you should see the DataSet Connections
you added to your form in the Delphi designer:

Select dscItems to create the first DataView, then repeat
the process to create the DataView for dscOrders. You should now see the fields
in the Project Treeview, under the newly created DataViews:

Don't forget to rename the DataViews to better names than DataView1 and DataView2.
Creating the Bands
After the DataViews have been created, we should set up the
bands. Create a Region consisting of the whole page area, and add one band (Header),
two DataBands (Master and Detail), and another Band (Footer). Set the ControllerBand
property of Header, Detail and Footer to Master. Using the BandStyle
property editor, set the style of the Header band to Body Header (B),
the style of the Detail band to Detail (D), and the Footer
band to Body Footer (b). Notice how the Band Display
gives a nice preview of how the bands are going to printed:

You also need to link the DataView property of the Master
band to dvOrders, and the Detail band to dvItems. To create the Master/Detail
relashionship, set the MasterDataView property of the Detail
band to dvOrders, and both the MasterKey and DetailKey
properties to the field OrderNo.
The FontMaster Component
You proably want similar items (all the items in the Detail
Band, for example), to print with the same font. Instead of setting each Font
property individually, you can you a FontMaster. Add a FontMaster component
to the page and set its Font propert to Times New Roman, 10.
In the next step, when adding the Text and DataText components, set their FontMirror
property to the FontMaster. Now, if you ever change your mind about
the font that is going to be used in this report, you don't need to change it
in every component, just change it in the FontMaster and it will be reflect
in every other component that is linked to it. You can have as much FontMasters
in one report as you need.
The FontMaster is a Non-Visual component,
meaning it won't show in the Design Area. If you need to reselect it, you will
have to do it through the Project TreeView.
Adding the DataTexts
Now its just a matter of adding Text and DataText components
to the bands. Don't forget you can drag-and-drop (while pressing the ctrl and
alt keys) from the Project Treeview to create them. I added OrderNo, SaleDate,
Terms, PaymentMethod, AmountPaid and Freight to the Master band, and ItemNo,
PartNo, Qty and Discount to the Detail band. Don't forget that the DisplayFormat
of float fields is set in the fields themselves, in the Project Treeview,
and not in the DataText components.
Adding Totals and Calculated Fields
You can make calculations and aggregated values using the CalcOP
and CalcTotal components, available on the Report tab. The result of these calculations
can be outputted to parameters, PI Vars, or used as intermediate result for
other calculations. We are going to output them to parameters, so select your
report in the Project Treeview and add two parameters, called AmountPaidTotal
and FreightTotal:

Now add two CalcTotal components to your the Footer band, and
set their Controller property to the Master band, their DataView
property to dvOrders, the DataField to AmountPaid and Freight,
and the DestParam to the params you created earlier, AmountPaidTotal
and FreightTotal. It's also in the CalcTotal component where you define the
DisplayFormat of the value printed.
Note that the Calc components are evaluated
in the order they appear in the Project Treeview. If a CalcOp result is going
to printed by a DataText component, make sure it appears in the Treeview before
it. You can use the buttons Move Forward and Move Behind from the Alignment
Toolbar to change their order.
You can now add in the Footer Band two DataText components
to print those variables. Notice that is has summed the values, and you can
define through the CalcType property of the the CalcTotal components
the operation you would like to perform.
The sample data included in the DbDemos does
not have a value for Freight in any of the records. Feel free to edit a few
records to see them added up.
Now let's suppose we need to sum both totals, and display them in the footer
band. Add a new parameter called Total to the report and a CalcOp component
below the CalcTotal components, in the Footer band, and set the Src1DataField
to Param.AmountPaidTotal, and Scr2DataField to Param.FreightTotal.
Set the DestParam property to Total, and the DisplayFormat
of the value. Add a DataText to print this value.
Finishing Up
To add the report to your project, just do the same as was done in the previous
reports: just link it in a RvProject and call the execute method. You might
want to filter the DataSet based on user input, but that's the same way as
you always done before.
Conclusions
We have seen how to create DataAware reports using Direct Data
Views, how to set up master/detail relationships, and how to use Calc components.
You can find a project containing the report developed here on CodeCentral.
Part V will demonstrate the use of Custom Connections and some other tricks.
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