Create Advanced Reports

This section describes how to create an Advanced Report, including the procedures you have to complete outside of PACE.

Before and After Report Profiles

The following is an an example of the Before Report Profile.

Open

The following is an example of the After Advanced Report Profile.

Open

Use Visual Studio 2008 to Develop Advanced Reports

You can use Visual Studio 2008 to develop Advanced Reports in Crystal 2008. You must first install the add-in component on your machine by running VS2008Addin.exe from the PACE installation disk or network location under the PACE directory. From the PACE directory, map to the ADVANCED_REPORTING_ADDIN folder. The Setup program is in that directory.

Before running this installation, Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and Active Reports .NET must be installed locally. The ActiveReports.NET versions supported are 5.2.1331.2, 5.2.1013.2, 6.0.2250.0 and 6.2.3164.0. Developing reports in Active Reports .Net version 2 is not currently supported.

Set Up Active Reports.Net 5.2.1331.2

Complete the following procedure to use Active Reports.Net 5.2.1331.2 with the Eagle PACE Advanced Reporting and Client Reporting modules.

1. Open Visual Studio and select Open Project.

2. Select the project, PACEREPORTSFACTORY.VB.

3. Change the following line: rpt.Document.Save(reportInfo.ImagePath, RdfFormat.AR20) to rpt.Document.Save(reportInfo.ImagePath, RdfFormat.ARNet).

4. Compile the DLLs, and upload the DLLs to the server.

5. When you are creating an Advanced Report, select the Using AR.Net DLL checkbox on the Advanced Report Profile tab.

   Open

   

When you run a report with this checkbox selected, and then open the report, it opens in the Active Reports V6 viewer. If you do not select this check box, the report opens in the Active Reports V2 viewer.

Create Reports Using Visual Studio 2008

To create reports using Visual Studio 2008:

1. Open Visual Studio and select New Project.
   You see the New Project dialog box.

2. Select Eagle Projects from the Project Types list.

3. In the Templates section, select PACE Advanced Reports.

4. Enter the Location and Name for the project and click OK.
   You see the Welcome to Eagle PACE Reporting Wizard dialog box.

5. Select the type of designer for your report. You can select either Active Reports.NET 3.0, Active Reports Net 6.0 or Crystal Reports.NET.

6. In the Display Name field, enter an optional display name for the report.

7. In the Comments field, enter optional comments about the report.

8. Click Finish.
   You see the report development environment where you develop your report.

9. Once you are done developing your report, register the DLL and use it in an Advanced Report Profile.

Install the Advanced Reports.NET Add-in

The Visual Studio 2005 Add in supports Active Reports.NET version 5.2.1013.2 (version3), version 6.2.3164.0 and previous versions.

To use ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 with Advanced Reports, you must install:

• Data Dynamics software for Active Reports for .NET 3.0, file version 5.2.835.2.

• Visual Studio 2005 addin, available on the Eagle installation DVD.

• If you have version 3 or both version 2 and version 3 of Active Reports installed, only the Active Report .NET 3.0 option appears when you create reports

• If you only have version 2 of Active Reports installed, then only the option for version 2 appears when you create reports.

ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 Troubleshooting

When using ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 with PACE Advanced Reports, the following issues may occur:

Conversion Utility. Data Dynamics confirms that a known issue exists with build 835.2 when you convert reports from version 2 to version 3 using the conversion utility. Data Dynamics recommends upgrading to their most recent ActiveReports build to avoid this issue. Eagle recommends an alternate workaround for you to open the VB project and remove references to ActiveReports version2 DLLs and then read the references to version3.

Non-Alphanumeric Characters. ActiveReports allows you to drag and drop data fields on to the designer. However, if the field contains any non-alphanumeric characters, version 3 does not let you drag and drop the data field onto the designer.

Pie Charts. If you created reports that use Pie Charts in version 2, you cannot run those reports in version 3.0 until you recompile them with version 3. This is because ActiveReports changed the data type for DisplayInLegend of Chart control class from Boolean to DataDynamics.ActiveReports.chart.NullableBoolean in version 3. You can recompile the DLL with the version 3.0 chart control library. Data Dynamics does not support loading reports across versions using reflection. If you want to use your reports in version 3, you may be able to convert the report using the conversion utility in Visual Studio.

Previews. Eagle’s Advanced Reporting does not support ActiveReports’ new Preview functionality. You can use the Advanced Reporting tester to get the same results.

Universal DLL. A Universal DLL for ActiveReports for .NET 3.0 is not currently available. You can continue to use the Universal DLL available for version 2.0 to help troubleshoot report issues that involve ActiveReports.

Use Visual Studio 2010 to Develop Advanced Reports

The Visual Studio 2010 add in is included in Eagle PACE. Before you create reports with Visual Studio 2010, make sure you have installed Visual Studio 2010, Active Reports.NET 6 (Version 6.2.3681.0) and the Visual Studio 2010 add in. Other versions of Active Reports, and Crystal Reports are not supported with this add in.

To install the Visual Studio 2010 add in:

1. Start Visual Studio 2010, and select New Project.
   You see the New Project window.

2. Select the location and Project Name. Click OK.

3. The Eagle PACE Reporting Wizard dialog box appears.

4. Enter the name of your report, and any comments. In the Report Type section, select Active Report. Net 6.0. In the Language section, select either Visual Basic or CSharp.

5. Click Finish.

6. From Compile Options, select Dot Net Frame Work 2.0.
   You see the Advanced Compiler Settings dialog box.

   Open

   

7. From the Target framework (all configuration) dropdown, select .NET Framework 2.0.

You can now build your reports and upload to register and run them on PACE.

Create Visual Basic 6 DLL

To create the Visual Basic DLL:

1. Start Visual Basic.
   You see the New Project window with the New tab displayed by default.

   Open

   

2. Select ActiveX DLL and click Open.
   You see the PACE Advanced Reporting Add-in dialog box.

   Open

   

3. Select the appropriate version and DB Library, and then click Enable.
   You see the main Project1-Microsoft Visual Basic window.

   Open

   

4. On the Project window, located in the top‑right corner of window, right-click Class1 and select Remove Class1.

5. A window appears asking if you want to Save Changes to the following files? Click No.

6. Select Project1 on the Project window. Then, on the Properties window located in the bottom‑right corner of the window, select Project1 and rename it.

7. Click Add Data Dynamics ActiveReports on the Project menu to add a blank designer. Use the blank designer to define the layout of the report.
   You see the Active Report1 window. Drag the corner of this window so that it fits most of the window, and then maximize the design window.

   Open

   

8. Rename ActiveReport1. On the Project window, highlight ActiveReport1. Then, on the Properties‑ActiveReport1 window, located in the bottom‑right corner of the window, next to (Name), highlight ActiveReport1 and rename it. The Project and Active Report names should be different.

9. To pass the data from PACE to the designer, on the left menu click DAO
   The DAO (Data Access Object) connects to the datasource through the Visual Basic DAO libraries. It maps to the temporary MDB file (sample data collection) created in the Advanced Report Profile.
   The button stays pressed. When the pointer is moved back to the Detail area of the design window, it appears as a cross-hair. Click and drag, drawing a box about the size of the button within the Detail area. The button itself will appear highlighted in the Detail section.

10. With the DAO button highlighted, click in the cell next to RecordSetType in the Properties window, at the bottom‑right corner of the window. The RecordSet Type is currently set to 1=Dynaset. Click inside the value cell. Click the drop‑down menu and change it to 2=Snapshot. The Dynaset setting requires going to the database to retrieve the records as they are accessed. The Snapshot setting retrieves the complete record and does not require accessing the database for each record. This means that the Snapshot process is much faster, especially in bulk reports.

11. Right-click the highlighted button and select Properties.
    You see the DAOData Control Properties window.

12. Browse the DatabaseName.
    You see the Select Database window. This refers to the database name you used when you created the Advanced Report Profile. The select statement can be used to filter incoming data, to set the ordering of data, and to change specific values.

13. Access the folder where the PACE Report is located and click Open. The DatabaseName is populated.

14. In the RecordSource section, define how to obtain data from the table. Type: select * from TableName where [security description] <>’total’

    Open

    

15. Click Apply and then click OK.

16. Decrease the size of the Detail section so that the DAO button is hidden. To do this, move your pointer so that it is just touching the PageFooter section. A double arrow appears Click and drag the section upward. Leave about a half inch of space within the section.

17. Click Fields to display all of the possible fields, as defined by the RecordSource.
    If the Fields button is not available, click View Report Explorer in the top left corner of the designer window. Make sure that any fields that you want included in the report design were included in the underlying Report Rule of the Underlying Report Profile as part of either the Field Rule or Grouping Rule.

18. Add fields to the Detail section by clicking and dragging each field into the section.

19. Format each field by right-clicking the field and selecting Properties, or by accessing the Properties window for that field and clicking in the Output Format cell.
    The CanGrow property is used to determine if the displayed text/value for a given field should be wrapped or truncated. A True value wraps the text; a False value truncates the text.

20. Add a report title to the PageHeader section.
    Text added to the Page Header section appears on each page of the report. Text added to the Report Header section appears only on the first page of the report.

21. Click Label to add a label. When you move the pointer back to the PageHeader area of the design window, it appears as a cross-hair. Click and drag to draw a box about two inches in width.

22. On the Properties-Label1 window, at the bottom‑right corner of window, highlight Label1 located in the cell next to Caption. Type a report name. Press Enter or click the cursor somewhere else on the window. The text of the label that you just added changes to your report name.

23. Change the font size and style. You can center the label on the window by clicking and dragging it to the correct location.

24. Add report column headers to the PageHeader section. Increase the size of the PageHeader section to create room for the column headers.

25. For each new column header, click Label to add a label.

26. Format all of the column headers at once. Click the first column header and press and hold Shift as you highlight the rest. Use the commands in the toolbar to change alignment and format.

27. Click Save Project on the File menu. You see the Save File As window. This first window is used to save the designer file. Access a folder and click Save.

28. You see the second Save File As window. Click Save.

29. You see the Save Project As window. This window is used to save the project. Click Save.

Preview a Report

To preview a report:

1. Click Make ProjectName.dll on the File Menu.
   You see the Make Project window. The file name defaults to the Project Name.

2. Click OK.

3. Run the Advanced Report Tester, AdvTest.exe, located in the Add-in install directory, c:\Program Files\Eagle Systems. The tester for Active Reports 6.0, AdvReportTestUtility, is located in the Visual Basic 6 Add-in folder. Use this tester for troubleshooting reports developed in 6.0.
   You see the Advanced Report Tester window.
   Use the Advanced Report Tester utility to test and debug Advanced Report Visual Basic DLLs. It creates a testing environment for the Visual Basic developer that mimics the PACE Advanced Reporting engine. You can also use it to view previously imaged Advanced Reports (*.adv) and test .NET RPT based reports.

4. Browse in the Report File (MDB or ADV) section by clicking the Ellipsis (...). Select the Access database created by running the Advanced Report.

5. In the Select Report DLL Name section, select the Project Name. This is the name of the project that you just created in Visual Basic. After you populate this field, the Select Report Name section automatically populates with the name of your designer. The Select Report Name section lists all of the designers within the project.

6. Click View. The report appears in a new window. Viewing the report to see if you want to make changes to the report, such as positioning of certain fields or field formats.

7. To finish the cycle, copy the DLL to the Auto Registry engine common file location directory on the PACE Server. This makes it available for the Report Profile within PACE by registering it on the server and adding a record to the ADV_REPORT_LIST table.

8. Go back to PACE and edit your Advanced Report Rule. In the Available Reports section, select the project and designer to use for imaging.

9. Click Finish.
   Archive information for completed Advanced Reports is stored in the ADV_RPT_RESULTS table in the PACE_MASTER database. A record is written to the ADV_RPT_RESULTS table each time an Advanced Report is run, regardless of the Archive option setting within the Advanced Report Profile. The location of the text file which contains the flattened results of the underlying PACE reports is stored in the table, along with the Schedule_queue instance, the schedule_def instance, advanced rule instance, and the status of the Advanced Report.
   The completed report appears in the Advanced Reporting folder on the Results tab of the Report Studio when it is complete. An example appears below.

   Open

   

View Visual Basic Code

To view the Visual Basic Code for an Advanced Report:

1. Right-click the Designer on the Project window to view the code to define report options. Select the Object and Procedure from the drop-down list.

2. To change the page orientation, select the ActiveReports object and the ReportStart procedure and enter either of the following lines of code:
   Printer.Orientation = ddOLandscape
Printer.Orientation = ddoPortrait

   Open

   

Add Dynamic Page Numbering When More Than One Designer

To add dynamic page numbering:

1. Select the ActiveReports object and the ReportStart procedure and enter the following code:
   Dim rs As Recordset
Set rs = m_db.OpenRecordset("select * from pcre_toc where id = " & m_id, dbOpenSnapshot)
If Not rs.EOF Then
m_start_page = rs("start_page")
Else
m_start_page = -1
End If

2. Select the Declarations Procedure and enter the following code:
   Private m_start_page as long

3. Create a label in the report section and add the following code in the corresponding object and procedure:
   Label# = "Page " & Me. page number + m_start_page –1

   Open

   

4. To add a subreport, select Project > Add DataDynamics ActiveReports.

5. Click Subreport and add the Subreport to the object of the main report.

6. Select the ActiveReports object and the ReportStart procedure of the main report and enter the following code:
   Dim h1 as New "subreportname"
Set h1.m_db = m_db
h1.m_id = m_id
set subreport1.object = h1
   Replace subreportname with the name of the Designer that is to act as the subreport.

7. Select the ActiveReports object and the ReportStart procedure of the Subreport and enter the following code:
   Set DAODataControl1.Recordset =
m_db.OpenRecordset(DAODataControl1.Recordsource)
   where DAODataControl1 is the name of the DataSource.

8. To compile the project and create the DLL, click Make projectname.dll on the File menu. This also registers the DLL on the local machine.

Move the DLL to the PACE Server

Once the project is complete, move the DLL to the Auto Registry engine common file location directory. The file becomes registered and moves to the destination directory automatically. The names of the project and each of the designers in the project are added to the PACE_MASTER.DBO.ADV_REPORT_LIST table.

If a cluster environment is being run, the Auto Registry engine copies and registers the DLL to the destination directory of each machine with the Advanced Reporting engine enabled. You can also use the Auto Registry functionality from the PACE UI.

Run Advanced Reports Through the Server in PACE

To complete the Advanced Report, and view the imaged report in PACE:

1. From any Eagle window, click the Eagle Navigator button to access the Eagle Navigator.

2. Enter General Reporting in the Start Search text box.

3. Click the General Reporting (Reporting Center) link to access the Reporting Center.
   You see the General Reporting module.

4. Click the Components tab.

5. Select Advanced Reporting, and then select the Advanced Report Rule previously created. Right click and select Edit.

6. Select the name of the project and designer created in Visual Basic in the Available Reports drop‑down menu.

7. Click Explore to return to Build Report Components, then click the Report tab. Select Advanced Reporting, and then select the Advanced Report profile previously created and click Submit.
   The completed report is returned to the Advanced Reporting folder on the Results tab.

8. You can add Advanced Report Profiles to a PACE Report Package. Upon completion of the PACE Package, the Advanced Report Profile is sent to the Packages folder within the Results tab. Archive information for completed Advanced Reports is stored in the ADV_RPT_RESULTS table in the PACE_MASTER database.

9. Double-click the returned Advanced Report to start the Advanced Report Viewer. You can print the Advanced Report from the viewer, but complete any page setup or formatting in Visual Basic. Use the viewer to open multiple reports at once, zoom in and out of the image, view using the Tile option, and scroll through the pages of the report. Use the Table of Contents button to display a list of the reports in the package.

10. To print the finished report from this window, click Print. Or, select Print from the ribbon.

11. Click Export to save the completed report in either an Adobe Acrobat (*. pdf), MS Access (*. mdb), MS Excel (*. xls), HTML, Rich Text format (* .rtf), Active Report (*. rdf), Text (*. txt), Fax (*.tif) or Power Point (*.ppt).

Add Annotations to a Report

You can add annotations on the Report Viewer by selecting the Annotate icon. You can add images to your annotations on reports in the viewer. Use annotations to provide comments and instructions for the user viewing your report. You can only save annotations when the image is saved as an .RTF file.

Create an Advanced Report Designer in Visual Basic .NET

To create an Advanced Report designer in the Visual Basic .NET framework, first create the PACE components for the designer, and then create the .NET design project. This section describes how to create an Advanced Report by using Visual Basic .NET, including the steps required outside of PACE.

Create the PACE Components

To create an Advanced Report:

1. Create the underlying report profiles in PACE Reporting that are used to retrieve the data to be included in the Advanced Report.

2. Create an Advanced Report rule from the Components tab in the PACE Reporting Center:
   You can leave the Available Reports setting blank. This setting specifies the Visual Basic component to use to image the data from the Advanced Report. This setting is populated after the imaging template is created in Visual Basic.
   In the Profiles section, select the underlying report profiles and give each one its own target table name in the Table column. This value cannot contain spaces and should not be created as a SQL-reserved word. The table name can be used by more than one Advanced Report rule. The same table name cannot be used in the same Advanced Report rule. This allows you to select the same designer for more than one Advanced Report rule, since most designers search for data from a specific table name.

3. Create an Advanced Report profile that contains the advanced rule from the Reports tab of the Component mode.
   If you want to create a package of reports, associate a new Advanced Report profile with only one corresponding Advanced Report rule. After the design phase is complete, you can then include all of the Advanced Report rules in one Advanced Report profile.
   Right-click in the Selected Rules section of the Advanced Report profile edit session and select Add to select the Advanced Report rule to include in the Advanced Report profile.

4. Select the entities and effective date to include in the Advanced Report. See “Effective Date Behavior” for an explanation of how the date settings of the Advanced Report profile and the underlying report profile interact to determine the resulting date of the Advanced Report profile.

5. Submit the Advanced Report profile.

6. When the report completes, go to the Results tab double-click the completed Advanced Report.
   You see a blank viewer.

7. Click Export to generate a sample Access database file. This file is used during the designer component development process.

Create a .NET Design Project

To begin the design session:

1. Install Visual Studio 2003, Visual Studio 2005 Add-In or Visual Studio 2008.

2. Start Microsoft Visual Basic .NET.
   You see the Start Page window.

   Open

   

3. Create a new project by selecting File >New > Project or click New Project at the bottom of the Start Page window in Visual Basic .NET.
   You see the New Project dialog box.

   Open

   

4. Make sure the Eagle Projects folder is selected on the Project types section of the dialog box.

5. Set the name of the project in the Name setting. Specify the project location in the Location setting.

6. Click OK.

7. Use the display name of your report setting in the Eagle PACE Reporting Wizard window to select how to display the name of the report designer in the Advanced Report rule maintenance function.

8. Add any comments in the Comments section, and then click Finish.

Edit a .NET Design Project

To retrieve the project and change settings:

1. Click Eagle Wizard on the Tools menu in Visual Basic .NET session. If Eagle Wizard is not available, click Add-in Manager on the Tools menu and select the Eagle.PaceWizard check box in the Available Add-ins column.
   You see the primary Design window.

   Open

   

2. To map to a sample data set to be used during the design session, click either the Data Source icon in the Detail section of the Design session or the Edit Data Source link beneath the Properties window.
   You see the Report Data Source dialog box.

   Open

   

3. Make sure the Data source setting is set to OleDB.

4. Click Build to further define the Data Source properties.
   You see the Data Link Properties dialog box.

   Open

   

5. Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider from the list of available OLE DB Providers on the Provider tab. Then, click Next or click the Connection tab.

6. On the Connection tab, click the ellipses button next to the setting 1 to map to the Microsoft Access (.mdb) file that was generated earlier. Click Test Connection to make sure the Visual Basic session can connect to the selected Access file.

   Open

   

7. Click OK to return to the Report Data Source window. Click OK again to return to the report design session.

Work With Fields, Columns, and Labels

To add fields to the report:

1. Drag the fields to the Detail section of the designer from the Fields window.

2. If the Fields window is not visible, click the View Report Explorer icon in the top-left corner of the design session.

   Open

   

To format a field that was added to the designer:

1. Select the field and then locate the OutputFormat setting in the Properties window. Click the Ellipses button in that setting to open the OutputFormat Dialog box as shown in the following example.

   Open

   

2. Set formatting options. You can select more than one field at a time and format them from this window.

3. Click OK when the format settings are complete.

To add column headings to the designer:

1. Open the Toolbox toolbar by either clicking the Toolbox icon in the top-right corner of the design session, or by clicking Toolbox on the View menu.

2. Select Label from the toolbar and drag a label into a section of the report as shown below.

   Open

   

3. To change the text displayed by the label, locate the Text setting in the Properties window and enter text.

You can use Labels to add a Report Title. To add a PageHeader section to the report designer:

1. Right-click in the body of the report and select Insert > Report Header.

2. Modify the Text property setting to customize the text of the title label.

Work With Groups and Totals

To add a grouping level to the designer:

1. Right-click in the report body and select Insert > Group Header.

2. To define how the report designer is to be grouped, select the GroupHeader1 bar in the designer and locate the DataField property in the Properties window.

3. Use that drop‑down list to select the field by which to group the designer.
   You can add multiple grouping levels to a designer. Repeat the previous steps to add additional grouping levels.

To add totals to the report designer:

1. Drag a field from the Fields window into either the ReportFooter section or one of the GroupFooter sections.

2. Make formatting changes to the fields.

3. Set the Summary properties on the Properties window.

   Open

   

If grouping totals are added to the designer, set the SummaryFunc property to Sum, set the SummaryGroup property to the corresponding Group Header, and set the SummaryType property to SubTotal.

If report totals are added to the designer, set the SummaryFunc property to Sum, leave the SummaryGroup property empty, and set the SummaryType property to GrandTotal.

Create an Advanced Report Designer Using C#

Before you begin this procedure, make sure Visual Studio 2008, Active Reports .NET and the Visual Studio 2008 add in are installed.

To create an Advanced Report designer using C#:

1. Open Visual Studio.

2. Select New Project from the File menu.
   You see the New Project dialog box.

   Open

   

3. In the Project types section, select Eagle Projects.

4. In the Templates section, select Pace Advanced Reports.

5. Enter a name for the solution in the Name field. Enter a location in the Location field. Click OK.
   You see the Welcome to Eagle PACE Reporting Wizard dialog box.

6. In the Display name of your report, enter an optional name that will be used when the report is displayed.

7. In the Comments field, enter an optional comment about the report.

8. In the Language section, select CSharp.

9. In the Please select Report section, select a report type. For example, select Active Reports.Net 3.0.

10. Click OK.
    You see the Report Development window.

11. Double click the Report Data Source.
    You see the Report Data Source dialog box.

12. Click Build.
    You see the Provider tab on the Data Link Properties dialog box.

    Open

    

13. Select Microsoft Jet 4.0 OLE DB Provider, and click Next.
    You see the Connection tab on the Data Link Properties dialog box.

    Open

    

14. Select a database name and click Test Connection.

15. After the connection is tested, click OK.
    You see the Report Data Source dialog box.

16. Add the record selection query and click OK.
    The fields are now available for the report. From the View menu, select Other Windows > Report Explorer. The Report Explorer appears displaying the available fields. You can now drag and drop these fields in to the Designer, add text boxes and labels, and set the properties. Once you are done designing and building your report, you can build it to make the DLL. Use Auto-Registry to make the DLL available to PACE Advanced Reports.

Update the Advanced Report Test Utility

You can update the AdvReportTestUtilityexe for client installations using the Crystal Configuration Utiilty.exe. This utility is included in the Visual Studio 2008 add-in.

When you run this utility, it gets the current version of Crystal Reports from assembly and updates the new version and MAX version to that version in the configuration file. The MIN version is updated to the lowest version of Crystal XI.

Build the Project

When the formatting changes are complete, compile the project by selecting Build > Build Project. This compiles the Visual Basic .NET project and opens the Build window at the bottom of the Visual Basic session. Any compilation errors are displayed in the Build window as shown below.

Open

To execute and test the report in the Visual Basic .NET session, use the Advanced Report Test utility (AdvReportTestUtility.exe) to image the report against the sample Access file.

1. Select Project > (project) Properties to open the Property Pages dialog box.
   You see the Property Pages dialog box.

   Open

   

2. Select the Configuration Properties folder and change the Configuration setting to Debug.

3. Map to your local copy of the Advanced Report Test Utility in the Start external program setting.

Test the Project

To start the test utility:

1. Click the Start icon.

2. In the Advanced Reports Test Utility, use the Select database for test setting to map to the Access file to use to test this report.

3. Use the Select imaging DLL setting to select the compiled DLL from the current project. This is usually located in the bin folder where the project was saved initially. ity

4. The drop‑down list beneath the DLL setting displays the designers in the project. Select the appropriate designer.

5. Click Run to execute any code that was added to the report without imaging the report.

6. Click View to image the report locally. The viewer is launched with the image of the report. You can print or save the image locally from the viewer.

7. Close the viewer and click OK in the Advanced Reports Test Utility to save your settings.

Return to the Visual Basic .NET session and complete the following steps:

1. Make any necessary changes to the report.

2. Run the report again using the Advanced Reports Test utility to confirm any changes made.

3. When the report design is complete, make sure the latest version is saved and the project is compiled.

4. It is recommended you practice altering the Configuration setting of the project before compiling the final version of the project and moving the DLL to the PACE Server machines. To access this setting, select Configuration Manager under the Build menu in the Visual Basic .NET Studio.

   Open

   

5. Compile the project a final time. When the Configuration setting is set to Release, the release version of the DLL is written to the obj/Release folder in the project directory of the local machine. The debug version of the DLL is written to the bin directory. Use the copy of the DLL from the Release folder to copy to the PACE Server machines.

6. Copy the project DLL to the Auto Registry engine common files location directory on the PACE Server (identified by sys_item 39 within the PACE_SYSTEM table). The file is moved to the destination directory automatically, and the names of the project and designers are added to the PACE_MASTER.DBO.ADV_REPORT_LIST table. You can also use Auto Registry functionality from PACE.

7. Return to PACE and edit the Advanced Report rule that was used as part of this design session. Select the project and designer name from the Available Reports drop‑down list and click OK to save that setting. If you need to make more changes to the design at a later date, you can copy the DLL to the Auto Registry engine common files location directory to refresh the DLL on the imaging server.

Advanced Report Tester Utility

The Advanced Report Tester (AdvTest) is a utility for testing and debugging Advanced Report Visual Basic DLLs and .NET RPT reports. It creates a testing environment for the Visual Basic developer that mimics the PACE Advanced Reporting Engine. This allows the developer to perform initial testing and debugging without incurring the overhead of executing the PACE Client and the Advanced Reporting Engine.

Open

To use AdvTest:

1. Browse for a Report file (MDB, ARZ or ADV) to select the database (.mdb) or advanced reporting (.adv) file, as shown below. This is normally the .mdb file created in Step 3 of the Advanced Report Profile wizard.

   Open

   

2. If an Access Database (*.mdb) file is selected, the text box for Select Report Name is enabled. See the following section, Selecting the Report DLL Name, for more information.

3. If an Advanced Report (*.adv) file is selected then click View, Export or Print. The View and Print commands display or print the selected advanced report. If you click Export, the File Save window appears, allowing you to define the destination of the advanced report image file. The image file can be saved as either a Portable Document Format (*.pdf) file or a Rich Text File (*.rtf).

Select the Report DLL Name

To define the Report DLL name:

1. Type the name of the Visual Basic DLL in the text box. For the DLL to be recognized as valid, it must be registered on the machine running AdvTest.exe. After you specify the DLL correctly, a drop‑down list appears with all of the designers available for testing.

   Open

   

2. Select a designer that matches with a table in the database you selected. Note that the database you define here does not have to have the same file name as the database used in constructing your DLL. However, the database you define must have the tables that matches the references in any SQL statements contained in your DLL.

3. There are two testing options for the Advanced Report DLL. First, you can run the DLL. The Run command executes the Advanced Report designer but does not render an image to the window. It simply verifies that the designer in the DLL executes without error. Or, you can view the Advanced Report designer. When you click View, the data is fed into the Advanced Report DLL and an image is rendered to the window. From the file menu of the viewer window, you can save the image as an MS Excel (*. xls), HTML, Portable Document Format (*.pdf), Text (*. txt), Rich Text File (*.rtf), Fax (*. tif), or Active Reports (*. rdf).

4. You can save the report image to a database. To save the image to the PCRE_TOC table in the defined database, click Save to DB. Currently, there is no built-in mechanism for image extraction. Therefore, this option is intended for advanced users who are familiar with Data Dynamics image loading procedures.

5. The Save to File option contains single-step boxes. When checked, each step of the process is confirmed through a message window. This provides a simple debugging mechanism.
   You see a confirmation message dialog box as each step in the reporting procedure is executed.

   Open

   

6. Click the Ellipsis option for reports that need all server connections. Click Ellipsis to set application server settings, such as App Server, User ID, Password, or SOAP Port.
   The report runs by passing these values to the report.

Generate an ActiveReport Image Document

The AdvTest application allows you to save a completed report as an ActiveReport Image Document (.rdf). You can also view this report file from AdvTest by mapping to it using the file selection window. These RDF files may be useful in troubleshooting any DataDynamics Reports issues; this is the preferred Data Dynamics format when troubleshooting an issue.

Auto Registry Function

The Auto Registry Engine can constantly check flagged DLLs via the report enumeration process, for new designer or RPX files. This function is designed to be used with the Dynamic Advanced Report Design Utility where RPX files are created for a static DLL. Since the update date and file size of the static DLL do not change, the Auto Registry engine does not recognize the file during the report enumeration process. An Auto Registry engine system setting determines which DLLs should be constantly enumerated.

Specific engine functions include the following:

• Sub-Directory Recognition. The Auto Registry engine recognizes sub-directories in the designated drop-off folder.
  This feature allows Advanced Reporting DLLs from different business areas within an organization to be maintained separately so that they can be found more quickly on the server. In addition, this also enables DLLs that are built for the Client Reporting module to be stored separately from DLLs that are built for Advanced Reporting.

• Engine Associations. The Auto Registry engine is dependent on more engines than just the Advanced Reporting engine. The Auto Registry engine is also enabled on a PACE Server if either the Client Reporting or Client Distribution engines are enabled. This is done because all of these engines can execute user-defined DLLs.

• Type Library Recognition. The Auto Registry engine can read the Type Library component of the project or DLL that is processed by the engine. This enables projects or DLLs with class files other than the exposer.cls file to process through the engine without error.

File Movement Between Platforms

The Advanced Reporting engine can move working files from a Windows machine to a UNIX location. This supports more flexible distribution and archive location configurations, and affects the movement of intermediate files, such as ADVI files.

Also, the Migration Wizard supports Advanced Reports and Advanced Report variations.

Login Credentials Passed to the EagleCom API

Advanced Reporting passes the EagleCom application programming interface (API) Application Server connection information to imaging DLLs. This eliminates the requirement for users to decrypt the Application Server’s connection information, including user identifier (ID) and password. This reduces complexity for users when designing reports, and ultimately supports faster Advanced Report processing.

Sample EagleComLib Object Reference Code

The following sample code references the EagleComLib object:

….

Public m_info As IPaceReportInfo ' Generated by PCRE_Addin

…

Private Sub foo()

Dim ses As Session

Dim cmd As New EagleComLib.Command

Dim myXml As String

‘Appserver property of IPaceReportInfo already contains active App Server ‘connection. There’s no need to login.

Set ses = m_info.AppServer ‘Assign appserver session object to local variable

cmd.BusObjType = eBAdvReportList

cmd.DbOperation = eSelect

myXml = ses.SubmitXML(cmd)

MsgBox myXml

End Sub

------------------------------------------------------------------------

.NET Advanced Reports Test Utility

The Advanced Reports Test utility (AdvReportTestUtility.exe) is a utility for testing and debugging Advanced Report Visual Basic .NET DLLs. It creates a testing environment for the Visual Basic .NET developer that mimics the PACE Advanced Reporting Engine. This enables the developer to perform initial testing and debugging of the Visual Basic .NET DLL without incurring the overhead of executing the PACE client and the Advanced Reporting engine. The utility is shown below.

Open

To use the Advanced Reports Test utility:

1. Use the option Select database for testing setting to browse for a database (.mdb) file or advanced reporting (.adv) file to use to test the Advanced Report DLL. This is normally the .mdb file saved in the Advanced Report Results window.

   Open

   

2. If you select an Advanced Report (*.adv) file, you can use the View stored image feature to open the image contained in the selected file. If an Access database (*.mdb) file is selected, then use the Select imaging DLL setting to map to the Visual Basic .NET DLL to test. It is located in the bin folder in which the project was saved initially.

3. Visual Basic .NET DLL files do not need to be registered locally to be selected within the Advanced Reports Test utility. After the DLL is selected correctly, a drop‑down list appears with all of the designers contained within the selected project that are available for testing. If designer is not configured as Available in the PACE ReportsView window, it does not appear in this drop‑down menu.

4. Select a designer that matches with the table in the database you selected. The selected database does not have to have the same file name as the database used in constructing your DLL. However, the database you define must have the tables that match the references in any SQL statements contained in your DLL.

5. There are two testing options for the Advanced Report DLL.
   Run the DLL. The Run command executes the Advanced Report designer but does not render an image to the window. This command verifies that the designer within the DLL execute without error.
   View the Advanced Report designer. Click View to feed the data into the Advanced Report .NET DLL and an image is rendered to the window. From the file menu of the viewer window, the image can be saved as a Portable Document Format file (*.pdf), a rich text file (*.rtf) file, an Excel Worksheet (*.xls), a PowerPoint presentation file (*.ppt), a Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) file (*.html), a TIFF image file (*.tif), or an Active Reports file (*.rdf).

6. Click OK to exit the application and save the settings in the Advanced Reports Test utility. The selected database file and imaging DLL are retained and the mappings are populated the next time you start the Advanced Reports Test utility.

7. Click Cancel to exit the Advanced Reports Test utility without saving any of the settings.

Move the DLL to the PACE Server

After the project is complete, move the DLL to the Auto Registry engine common file location directory, identified within the sys_item 39 record of the PACE_MASTER.DBO.PACE_SYSTEM table.

The file is moved to the destination directory automatically by the Auto Registry engine, and the names of the project and each of the designers within the project are added to the PACE_MASTER.DBO.ADV_REPORT_LIST table. This makes the designers available for selection within the Advanced Report rule edit session. The destination directory is specified by pace-system table entry for sys_item 86. This cannot be UNC path for NET reports. If this is not mentioned, then PACE uses working directory.

If you run a cluster environment, the Auto Registry engine copies the DLL to the destination directory of each machine that has the Advanced Reporting engine enabled.

Auto Registry Engine Function

The Auto Registry engine contains the ability to constantly check flagged DLLs, via the report enumeration process, for new designer or RPX files. This function is designed to be used with the Dynamic Advanced Report Design utility where RPX files are created for a static DLL. Since the update date and file size of the static DLL do not change, the Auto Registry engine does not recognize the file during the report enumeration process. The Auto Registry engine reads the sys_item 48 record within the pace_system table to determine which DLLs to constantly enumerate. The sys_value contains the DLL file name and extension that is constantly verified. If more than one DLL is to be continuously verified, the entries are pipe (|) delimited.

The Advanced Reporting engine uses double quotes around the parameters passed to the render executable. This prevents spaces within parameter values from causing an issue within the execution of the render, or imaging, process of the Advanced Reporting engine.

Run Advanced Reports Through the Server

To create the Advanced Report and view the imaged report in PACE:

1. In Reporting Center, navigate to General Reporting, and select the Components tab.

2. On the Components tab, click Advanced Reporting, select the Advanced Report rule previously created, and then click Compose > Edit.

3. Select the name of the project and designer created in Visual Basic in the Available Reports drop‑down list.

4. Click the Explore icon to return to the Components tab, and then click the Reports tab. Select Advanced Reporting, select the Advanced Report profile previously created, and then click Submit.
   The completed report is returned to the Advanced Reporting folder on the Results tab.
   You can add Advanced Report profiles to a PACE report package. Upon completion of the PACE package, the Advanced Report profile is sent to the Packages folder in the Results tab.
   Archive information for completed Advanced Reports is stored in the ADV_RPT_RESULTS table in the PACE_MASTER database.

5. Double-click the returned Advanced Report to start the Advanced Report viewer. You can print the Advanced Report from the viewer, but complete any page setup or formatting in Visual Basic. Use the viewer to zoom in and out of the image and scroll through the pages of the report. Use the Table of Contents button in the top-left corner of the viewer to display a list of the reports in the package.
   You cannot print version 6.0 reports from the Server side.

6. Print the finished report from this window by clicking Print, or by selecting Print on the File menu. Click Export to save the completed report in any of the following formats, Adobe Acrobat (*. pdf), Microsoft Access (*. mdb), Microsoft Excel (*. xls), HTML 4.0, Rich Text (*. rtf), Active Report (*. rdf), Text (*. txt), Fax (*. tif), or Power Point (*. ppt).

Execute Advanced Reports

This section describes how to run Advanced Reports, and how to work with report results.

Advanced Report Viewer

Use the Advanced Report viewer to open and view Advanced Reports. The viewer includes Top, Bottom, and Go To features, which you can use to easily scroll through multiple page reports. Click the Top button to go to the top of the first page of the Advanced Report. Click the Bottom button to go to the last page of the Advanced Report. You can go directly to a specific page by entering that page number in the page number display window. Use the Go To feature to quickly locate a page of the current report or package.

From the Advanced Report Viewer, you can save Advanced Report results in several formats:

• MS Access (.mdb). When viewing a completed Advanced Report, right-click and select Save as MDB to save the report data as an .mdb file for use in the Advanced Report development process. This feature is available whether or not the completed Advanced Report contains an image.

• MS Excel. This feature is not available if the completed Advanced Report does not contain an image.

• MS Power Point. You can create presentations that include both charts and tables. When a completed Advanced Report is opened within PACE, you can use viewer options to convert the imaged report into Power Point (PPT) format by clicking Export. Click Export to specify where to save and how to name the file, and use the Save as type drop‑down list to select the PPT format.

Advanced Report Logs

You can retrieve Advanced Reporting logs directly from the Results tab after a report completes. These logs are available whether a report completes successfully or fails during processing. This speeds up the troubleshooting process and save you time when researching the reasons behind a report failure.

The right-click menu on the Results tab contains the menu item View Log. This item is also available when the selected report has failed. Selecting a log from this menu opens the log file in Notepad on your PC.

When you select an Advanced Report, the View Log feature provides a list of all related logs. Both the Advanced Reporting logs and the Concentration logs from the reports contained in the Advanced Report are available, provided the Advanced Report does not fail or stop processing due to a kill engine request before the underlying report begins processing.

Submitting an Advanced Report With Overrides

Use the Submit With Overrides option to temporarily change several attributes of a report before submitting it, including dates, entities, currency, and filters. You can change any of these attributes each time you submit the report, and the changes are applied for that run only.

To submit an Advanced Report with overrides:

1. Open the Advanced Report Profiles window.

2. Right-click a profile and select Submit with Overrides.
   You can also submit report with overrides from the Results Window. This allows for the Distribution options such as Send to Personal folder, public folder, and publish to business group/users, to be met when an Advanced Report is submitted with override. If you submit an advanced report with override, and then you re-submit the same advanced report from the Results tab, the report runs for the original profile settings, not for the overridden settings that the profile was submitted for. If you want to override any settings, you must submit with override.

Using Debug Mode

Use Debug mode to easily design and debug advanced reports. Debug mode allows you to retrieve Access database results without going through the imaging stages of Advanced Reporting.

To activate Debug mode:

1. Open the Advanced Report Profiles window.

2. Right-click a profile and select Submit with Overrides.
   You see the Advanced Report Override window.

3. Select the Debug mode check box to activate Debug mode.

4. Click OK.

Adding Log Level Information to the Imaging DLL

Log level information is passed to the imaging DLL in Advanced reporting. The record PCRE_OVR_REPORT_LOG_LEVEL is located in the .MDB file. Use this value when putting debug statements in the report code.

To add log level information to the imaging DLL:

1. Right click an Advanced Report Profile and select Submit with Override.
   You see the Advanced Report Override dialog box.

2. Select the Log level override checkbox. Select a log level override value:
   If you select 1, the .MDB file has a value of zero (0) for PCRE_OVR_REPORT_LOG_LEVEL.
   If you select a value between 2 and 6, the .MDB file has a value of 1.
   If you select a value between 7 and 10, the .MDB file has a value of 2.
   If the report is submitted without an override, PCRE_OVR_REPORT_LOG_LEVEL gets its value from the server log level.

3. Click OK to save your changes and close the dialog box.

Getting Data in the .MDB File using Submit with Overrides

Using the Submit with Overrides option, you can get data into the .MDB file, even if the report failed during imaging. This is helpful when the report is coded using API to get data directly from a data base and load a table in an .MDB file. Once the data is in the .MDB file, if the DLL fails during a later part of rendering, you can look at the data to troubleshoot it. To save the MDB, you need to enable SYS_ITEM 45 in PACE_SYSTEM table.

1. From the Advanced Report Override dialog box, select Skip DLL Execution if you do not want to include the DLL in the execution process. Select Include DLL execution if you want to include the DLL in the execution process.

2. Click OK.

If the report fails after it fetched data but later during rendering, the report appears on the PACE results tab as Failed. However, the .MDB file is saved on the server. You can locate the .MDB file on the server using the Advanced Reporting log.

Set Log Level Overrides

Use the Advanced Report Profile Submit with Override process to change the error log level at which the report is submitted. This allows you to generate a more detailed log for a report without changing the log level at the PACE Server level. The log level override value also applies to any Concentration engines submitted by the current instance of the Advanced Reporting engine.

Open

Image DLL Public Key Token

The Advanced Reporting log file includes a public key token for the imaging DLL. If you have signed your Visual Studio project, it has a unique public key token number for the assembly. To view the public key token, run the Microsoft file SN.exe for the given assembly. Then, open the Microsoft Visual Studio command prompt and type: >SN –Tp <assembly name>.

A public key token unique for the given assembly appears. The key is automatically logged to the log file for debugging purposes.

Advanced Report Process Kill Engine Request

The Kill Engine Request in the Event Queue communicates with the Advanced Reporting engine. When a Kill Engine request is submitted for an Advanced Report, the underlying concentration report is also terminated, as shown below. This feature saves server processing time and resources when Advanced Reports need to be stopped before they are completed.

Open

Performance Query Tool Profile Configuration

Use Submit with Override in the Advanced Report Profile when using an underlying Performance Query tool profile. This works for both entities and dates, with the following guidelines:

• To override a date from an Advanced Report, select Force Dates in the Advanced Report Rule that pertains to the Performance Query Tool Profile.

• To override both the begin and end dates from the Advanced Profile to the underlying Performance Query:

  • The Performance Query must have the Begin and the End Dates set as specific fixed dates in the main query profile.

  • The End Date should not be the default Current Date or a Date Rule. Use the option Between in the Advanced Report profile date section.

• To override the End Date from the Advanced Report profile to the underlying Performance Query:

  • The Performance Query must have the End Date set as a specific fixed date in the main query profile.

  • The End Date should not be the default Current Date or a Date Rule. Use the option Asof in the Advanced Report profile date section.