Subreport as a header in main report (with page numbering) - reporting-services

I'm facing an odd issue: I'm going to create lots of reports using reporting services (SSRS) and one request was to create a subreport that will be shown as a header in main report. I've come across two main problems:
It is not possible to insert subreports into report headers. I thought of a possible workaround and just create a subreport without header and then insert subreport on top of body in main report. But then I faced another problem:
My header contains a logo, title and page number. However, function for page numbering cannot be used in report body, only in header.
Is there any alternative? Or should i just add a header to each report instead of trying to create a subreport for the header?

You can start by using a report with the header as a template. You would start with this whenever you make a new report. That at least eliminates the need to recreate it each time.
If you do want to be able to manage the headers dynamically, you can use a data-driven approach. Almost all of the properties for images and text boxes can be defined with expressions. And the expressions can refer to a dataset. In other words, you can store all of your preferences in a table. Your header template would include a dataset that brings in all the settings. Then you can use expressions to define how the header will look.
By doing this, you would be able to adjust the image, font size, etc. in all the headers at once just by changing a value in your table. Obviously there is some overhead with setting up the template this way, but it has a negligible performance impact and gives you more power to manage the header dynamically.

Related

Combine two SSRS reports and present as one

I have two reports A.rdl and B.rdl. When I run A.rdl, I also want to stitch B.rdl to the output, so it's like a single report. One way to achieve this is to use B as subreport in A (adjust page break and all), however, the subreport doesn't preserve its header and footer. I'm trying to combine both report into one with their own header and footer. Is there a way to do this either using subreport or any C# code to do it through reportviewer?
One solution for this (If I understand it correctly) is to develop a new report C, containing only the common header and the other subrebports A and B without headers. Like this example:
Report_C

SSRS report - show tablix only once

I am using SSRS report (VS 2010) and 'tablix' object.
I need showing the tablix only once in the report (it is used only once for the first page, or for the last page, or whenever I like to).
(I have thought to add a variable, and set it while doing the report (like a flag), and check that flag, but I don't know how doing that, and whether there is better way).
How can I show the tablix only once?
Thanks :)
As the link: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd220592.aspx, table is a preffered way to create some 'fixed' elements in SSRS.
You can use header for fixed elements and body for the variables length.
Nevertheless in the body you can declare a subquery and do any design desired.

Tablix header not repeating on new page, when subreport causes page break

I've been fighting with SSRS for too long now on what should be a simple matter. I'm hoping someone can help me see a solution.
I have a report which has a number of profiles, and each profile has a large number of data sections. The data sections (various tables and charts) are not related to each other in any way other than that they "key" back to the parent profile id.
The goal (which seems simple) is to have a header on each page with the profile information, and then have the data sections (each formatted completely differently) laid out.
The first problem we encountered was that for some reason SSRS2008 does not allow a tablix cell to contain another tablix with a different dataset (why it can't just require a filter based on the parent grouping is beyond me). The recommended workaround for this shortcoming is to either combine all data into a giant dataset (not possible here, data sections are too numerous and varied) or to embed subreports and pass in the parameters. While option number two increases the "work" needed to print a large number of profiles, we proceeded to implement this and it does work.
The problem comes in on the main tablix (the one containing the subreports) that has a static row header group set with "RepeatOnNewPage = true". This setting allows the header to show on every page as desired... except for subreports the span multiple pages, where the header is incorrectly ommitted.
For some reason, when the subreport spans multiple pages, the header of the parent tablix is not repeated! This is driving me insane as it would seem that a couple bad design decisions in SSRS has put me in a situation where I can't create the report I want... headers works without subreports, but I need subreports in order to "join" the data sections to the profile.
This would seem to be a simple and common requirement... after all, it's a report that is being migrated from a decades old reporting system. I've scoured StackOverflow and Google without success... I've seem a number of questions/answers about page breaks, but nothing that suggests a solution to this problem with subreports.
I'm posting this in case I'm missing something. If anyone has any suggestions at all, it would be much appreciated.
A very clean and simple way to repeat the column header on each page
http://www.a2zmenu.com/Blogs/BI/Tablix-headers-not-repeating-in-SSRS-2008.aspx
We've solved our problem... although not in the most ideal way.
The Page Header (of the "master" report, not the subreports) seems to be the only way to consistently have a header section.
We implemented a solution based in large part on this blog posting:
Maintaining State in Reporting Services 2008
We modified slightly from the blog post, removing "id" from the methods and including a GUID to ensure the report values are not mixed up even if the user runs several copies of the report at the same time. (When using shared variables, remember that they are global to the report running across execution instances and across users on the report server, so a lot of care needs to be taken when they are used!)
In the report body we have a hidden text block that calls:
=Code.SetValue("xxx",Fields!Field1.Value) & Code.SetValue("yyy",Fields!Field2.Value)
and in the report page header we reference these as (for example):
=Code.GetValue("xxx")
This works because the body is calculated before the page header, even for Page 1.
Still, in the end it is a hack for something that should be in Microsoft's product, given that they have poured years of development into this product! Why we cannot have nested tablix's and easier to use headers is beyond me... again this is upgrading a report from a program from the early 90's which did all this without problem. At the very least, give us report variables that can be retrieved and set as the report is processed!
Regardless, things are as they are... we've tested the solution with shared variables and it seems to be working very well. We're going to run stress tests to make sure it's implemented correctly, I'll post something here if we find any further problems.
(And if anyone knows of some other way to get consistent header rows on pages, even when there are detail rows with large heights, please share...)
We have faced exactly the same problem during implementation of customer demands on SSRS Reports,
And did try a lot of things which all of them resulted with failure.
In our case,
Main Report has 4 subreport. Each SubReport should be started in new page. And also when new subreport begins, page header should be changed dynamically based on Subreport in body in current page.
Also one of SubReports which was SubReport3 has another case. Basically Main Report was running based on Dealer level. But Customer wants SubReport3 to run for each SubDealer related with #Dealer parameter. Also Customer wants to see each SubDealer data started in New page inside SubReport3.
As a result, we found different workaround as follows.
We created Page Header to Main Report. (Report Menu -> Add Page Header)(As #codinginthevoid said it is most consistent way)
We putted 4 subreports inside separate tablix. We added new column to each tablix. That column in each tablix visiblity = false, width of that column can be as small as possible, then created placeholder inside of that column, wroted down expression as follows:
If expression is in Tablix1, expression was ="Tablix1", if in Tablix2 then "Tablix2" and etc.
Then started design page header for Tablix1, each report item in pageheader that was putted for Tablix1 has visibility expression as follows:
=ReportItems!Tablix1_HiddenTextbox1.Value IS NOTHING
then applied same thing for Tablix2 and etc.
In the end, there were lots of textbox in PageHeader of report and some of them position was completely same, overlapped, But when reports is being rendered, each of those textboxes is being shown it is related page with related subreport.
I have encountered the same problem as well. What I found was that the way to solve the issue was to de-normalise the data, adding a 'Record Type' field to identify whether the row was a parent or a child.
There were two sub-tables in my tablix, both displaying detail data linked to the outer grouping. If I set the headers of the sub-tables to repeat on every page (using the Advanced arrow > Static Properties > KeepTogether = True, KeepWithGroup = After, RepeatOnNewPage = True) then one of the sub-tables would display correctly, however the parent table's repeating header would just disappear.
To keep a long story short, this was a massively annoying problem to solve. The solution is simple, it worked for me, but may not work for everyone.
Linked below is a SSRS2008 example RDL that connects to localhost and has an example of the problem I had and also the solution I implemented. Please feel free to use it if you find it useful!
(I would've posted it on here but Stack Overflow fails for code blocks it seems)
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic1111567-1633-1.aspx?Update=1

Subreports try and keep together leaving blank spots/pages

Reporting Services 2005
My layout is like this:
I have the mainreport which contains a table
This table has 3 groups it runs by, GrpLevel1, GrpLevel2, GrpLevel3
Sub-Reports are added to one of 3 groups and are executed passing that group key to the sub-report
So, a particular sub-report will run at GrpLevel1 and for every level2 it contains, the sub-reports under GrpLevel2 will run.
The problems I'm having are that the sub-reports want to jump to the next page leaving a gapping hole of white-space in the report.
If a sub-report contains a table with a bunch of data and it can not fit on 3/4s of a page (first page on report has report header on top 1/4), it will jump the whole thing to the next page leaving only a header, rather than printing what it can on the first page.
On the table I have "Keep Together" turned off.
I'm at a loss and about ready to set my cube on fire. Insight in to this would be greatly appreciated.
UPDATE ****************THIS HAS BEEN FIXED IN SSRS 2008 R2***********************
It has been fixed with (SQL Server) Reporting Services 2008 R2. You can now toggle the KeepTogether on Sub-Reports. Pagination looks a lot better.
Looks like there is no solution to this problem. The bug is aknowleged by microsoft, but its still not fixed in SSRS2008.
From the KB article (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938943)
This behavior occurs because the
Subreport control has an implicit
KeepTogether property. By design, the
KeepTogether property tries to keep
content of a subreport on one page.
Because of this behavior, the report
engine creates blank space on the main
report if the subreport does not fit
on the same page as the main report.
Then, the report engine creates the
subreport on a new page.
The work around that they list is essentially 'don't use subreports'
I am not sure about the earlier version of SSRS, but I faced this same issue in SSRS 2008.
The solution is to change the Subreport property in Code.
Go to the solution explorer, right click on your report and click on "View Code".
Search for your Subreport.
Inside subreport tag you'll find "<KeepTogether>", which would be set to "true", change it to "false"
This property is not avaiable from designer and has to be changed from the actual report xml code.
right click of subreport and chose format subreport, then uncheck keep object together
Another way I got around this was to place the subreport in the report header. Of course that is very dependent on the report content and elminates any of the usefulness of subsequent sections but it did solve my problem of having a huge chunk of whitespace on the first page.
It took me a week to solve this one! But I did find a solution and happy to share it with you.
I had the exact same problem. In my main report, there is a Table that has 3 groups and 2 different subreports in each group. And these subreports had matrices. I believe regardless of matrices, subreports being placed inside group/detail bands within a table caused alot of unnecessary blank pages to be printed before, in between and after the sections. It was a pain the neck and I was thinking of removing the subreports but then it defeats the whole purpose of the report.
So finally, what fixed it was instead of placing the subreport in DETAIL bands of the groups in the table, place them in the Footer of the groups. Now I know this may change/affect the format of the report and may not fit in with your report purposes. But this fixed the issue for me. Another way of getting around the blank page issue was leaving the subreports wherever they are (detail or group bands), and moving OTHER detail bands into one Footer band. Essentially what needs to be kept in mind, is to reduce the number of detail/group bands inside the table. Limit the groupings and have minimum number of subreports within a table if you can manage that.
Hope this helps someone out there.
For SSRS 2008
If your subreports are in any group, you should go to group properties and switch the keep together property for that group(s) to false. This worked for me.

How do I shows column headers of main report on each page when subreport renders on more than one pages

I have few subreports in a sql main report(.rdl file) using VS/SSRS 2008.
The subreports start approximately on the middle of the page in the main report detail section. I have one group in main report, shows header information and pass one parameter - ReportID to each subreport.
I also have checked both:
Row Headers – “Repeat header rows on each page” and
Column Headers – “Repeat header columns on each page”
on General tab of Tablix properties of the main report.
If I have few detail lines in the subreport, so that all can be rendered on page one, everything is ok.
If I have more detail lines in the subreport so that it's not possible to print all on one page, the subreport renders from the fist page and moves on to page two, three and so on.
When I have more than one page of data in the subreport, it is also started on page one, and continues renders on second page and so on...
However, it doesn't show the main report's column/row headers on subsequent pages of the subreports?
I've noticed that when next item/ReportID starts in my main report group, it prints column header only on the first page but not any subsequent page and so on...
I also tried to check only ONE, either
Row Headers – “Repeat header rows on each page” OR
Column Headers – “Repeat header columns on each page”
on general tab of Tablix properties of the main report BUT didn’t work?
Any ideas how to print header info on each page when subreport has more than one page data?
Pagination is always fun in SSRS.
Have you looked at the page size/interactive of the subreport? This may stop the subreport paging, but I don't know if it's what you want.
An older article on pagination
And a newer one
Presently I am encountering the same problem. In a previous SSRS report we got it to work by putting our tablix inside a single-cell list item so that the headers were repeated. Now I am working on a different report, and when I try the same thing I'm getting this error:
[rsInvalidDetailDataGrouping] The tablix ‘tablixOpportunitySummary’ has a detail member with inner members. Detail members can only contain static inner members.
I've searched extensively, but this is the only link which indicates an known problem in SSRS. At the time of this post it contained 4 workarounds:
https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/details/337720/katmai-reporting-services-2008-tablix-control-repeat-column-headers-does-not-work#
A little late, but I think this is what you are looking for:
You need to go to tablix properties > General and check the option Keep header visible while scrolling. Then go to column/row groups in the advanced mode, chose your static row and set the Fixed Data mode to True, Repeat on new page to True and Keep with group to After.
Here is probably the best reference: Here