In SSRS is there a way to change the default properties - reporting-services

It's pretty annoying having to go through all my text boxes and change can grow to False. Is there a setting in report builder to change the default property from True to False?

This is quite easy to do.
Select all the text boxes you want to change the property on; use Ctrl and click to select more than one.
Find the CanGrow property in the Properties Pane, change it to False.
This should work in both Report Builder, and VS.

Related

Changing the text in an SSRS report textbox based on the toggle state of a row group

Apparently this should have been simple. After lots of digging, I'm yet to find anything that works. I have a row group in my SSRS report whose visibility is toggled by a textbox. What I want is to have the text Show in the textbox when it's collapsed, and Hide when it's expanded.
But I can't find any property of the group that can give me its toggle state. I have found in a few forums that it's not possible. As a workaround, I've tried the InScope() function ( as suggested in http://forums.asp.net/t/1601570.aspx/1). But to no avail. Can anyone suggest anything?
I believe you are correct in stating that SSRS does not expose the ToggleState property for use in the report.
In these types of situations, I use report parameters to control the state of the report. For example, you could add a parameter named isGroupVisible to the report with a default value of 1 to represent visible. Set your group's visibility to that parameter, and set your text box value conditioned on the state of isGroupVisible. Then in the text box you set your actions to be go to a report, and set the report url to be the same report with the isGroupVisible = to the opposite of what it currently is.
You can decorate your text box all you want to give the users the indication that it can be pressed to toggle the state of the report.
Draw backs to this approach is that it isn't as snappy as the ajax calls SSRS does to expand visibility--it will post back to the server on each toggle press.
Advantages to this approach include much more flexibility in controlling the state of the report.

Bug re-enables a TextBox if it has Cond. Formatting?

I think I'm looking directly at an Access 2003 bug. Here's what I did (I think):
I'm developing a Continuous Form (i.e. multiple records per page).
I have an unbound textbox in the background of the Details section. Under Data Properties, I have Enabled=No and Locked=Yes. (In other words, I don't want the user to select it. I only want it for the background color)
This textbox also has some conditional formatting to change the background color for that row. (e.g. If we haven't spoken to that customer in awhile, the background for that record is red)
If I choose a record where the conditional formatting is active (i.e. the background is red), I can actually click on this textbox. There's not much that I can do, of course, but this shouldn't happen and surely would be confusing to the end-users.
Has anyone else seen this? What's your workaround?
Enabled is a property that can be controlled via conditional formatting. By default when you add a new condition, the Enabled property is set to True. If you don't want your control to be enabled you must explicitly set Enabled = False within the conditional formatting rule.
The property is toggled via a button in the lower right corner of the conditional formatting dialog. It's easy to miss (I forget about it all the time).
Personally, I think the property should be three-way: True, False, or Inherit (with Inherit as the default). Unfortunately, Access forces you to be explicit when adding conditional formatting rules and state whether the rule should make the control Enabled or Disabled.
Here's my workaround (I was waiting to see if anyone else would suggest something better. Apparently not.)
In my conditionally formatted textbox, add an Event Procedure for GotFocus. Enter this code: Me.Txt_FocusHere.SetFocus.
Make a 2nd unbound text box somewhere on the form. Shrink it until it's just 1 line thick. Call it Txt_FocusHere.
So whenever the user clicks on the colored background, the focus is immediately taken to this dummy textbox which can't store any data and is so small that the user doesn't see the blinking cursor.
I successfully used the method on the following page: http://www.mvps.org/access/forms/frm0047.htm - "Changing the Background Color of the Current Record in a Continuous Form"

How to reference a control's properties in Access

For instance, I have a query which takes as a parameter the text property of a drop-down box [DDB1] of Form1.
How do I reference the property?
My stumbling around google has suggested that it should be something along the lines of
Forms![Form1]![DDB1].text
But I have been unable to find a definitive syntax for such references.
Any ideas?
Semi- OT - the Access2003 help, which contains links to a lot of Microsoft web pages, returns a lot of 404s when trying to load them. Is this just coincidence? Or end-of-lifing by stealth?'
To have a query reference a combo box on a form, use this syntax:
Forms!MyForm!MyComboBox
This will retrieve the selected value property of the combo box (the value of the first column, if it is a multi-column combo box).
If you want the selected value of a different column in the combo box, it is:
Forms!MyForm!MyComboBox.column(n)
Unlike most numeric indexes in VBA, n is zero based (the second column is 1).
To reference the text property, the combo box must have the focus.
The help file is apparently suffering from link rot. Here are some links in MSDN to use:
Access 2003 Programming Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa167788(office.11).aspx
Access 2003 Language Reference
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa663079(office.11).aspx
You have in fact multiple ways to refer to a control with MS-Access. In addition to #Robert Harvey proposal, you can also write:
forms(myFormName).controls(myControlName)
Despite what #Robert says, you can access most properties of a control without setting the focus on it. One important exception is the ".text" property, which refer to the text appearing in the control, and where the focus must be set to the corresponding control.
Most of the time, the .text property is equal to the .value property, that can be accessed without setting focus on the control.
Thus, this property is useful only for controls of the combobox or listbox type, where the bound column (that gives the .value property) differs from the displayed column (giving the .text property).

Textbox in Reporting Services - show text or hyperlink

I have a report in SQL Server Reporting Services which should show
a text box with a static text for "normal" users
a text box with a hyperlink to open up a new details windows for "super" users
The user level is determined by a parameter being passed into the report.
How can I achieve this? I tried to create a textbox with a text span inside that has a hyperlink, and then just leave it blank for "normal" users, but that doesn't seem to work reliably.
Is there a trick or method to get this to work? I'm thinking I need to add some code to the report to check the user level and then either insert a static text, or a text with a label, into that target textbox. But how do I do that (not having any VB/VBA/VB.NET experience....)
Thanks!
Marc
To make the hyperlink, you should be able to use an expression like
=iif(Parameters!IsSuperUser.Value = True, "http://some link","#")
in the Action property of the textbox, if you set the Action to "Jump to URL".
To control the content of the textbox, use a similar expression in the Value property.
(This is true on SSRS 2005 - I don't have access to 2008)
Edit
Unfortunately, hyperlinks in SSRS aren't formatted in a way to make it clear that they're hyperlinks. The only way to achieve this would be to add similar conditional formatting expression to the Color and TextDecoration attributes to make the field appear in a different colour and underlined when it is a hyperlink.
I haven't got SSRS installed on the machine that i'm writing this on so i can't give you an exact guaranteed bug free answer, but this answer should set you on the right track.
Have two textboxes, both located in the same absolute position (inside a container element if necessary). Fill them both with their correct values. Then just control their visibility by toggling their Hidden property with an expression:
=(Parameters!UserLevel.Value = 'Admin')
Obviously UserLevel is the name of the parameter being passed in to the report. The 'Admin' value is for illustrative purposes, personally i would use an int value to represent the user level, much like using an enum.
Remember that it is the Hidden property you are setting, so you have to reverse the logic you would have used if you were setting a Visible property :)

VBA Form update after values set in code instead of AfterUpdate()

I have multiple combo and option boxes whose visibility is set true or false depending on user selection of other parent option boxes.
I am using the AfterUpdate() function for the parent option boxes. This method has been working fine.
However when I set the values of the option boxes in VBA code (Me.MyOptionBox = 1), there is no "update" to make the child option and combo boxes appear. It works when I manually click on the option, but if I set it in the code nothing changes except for the option box selection. It doesn't make sense to see the option box set correctly but the code responsible for checking which option is selected not work.
Does anyone have any ideas on how to get around this? I just want the form to be updated once I set the values of the option boxes. What is the "update" that AfterUpdate() is referring to anyway?
I have tried MyForm.Repaint and MyForm.Requery but these do not work either.
Any ideas?
You can call the OptionBox_AfterUpdate() method directly - after you set the values.
I'm pretty sure this is intentional. The problem is avoiding circular recursive updates, when you consider that a control can be changed by a user and by two forms of code (explicit and bound data).
For bound controls, changes in the data change the controls.
For user input, changes in the control change the data, plus whatever dependendencies you explicitly specify in events.
For changes caused by your code, the assumption is that you need to manually apply all the consequences of the state change you are coding.
If you are using bound controls, you can change the datasource and have the consequences applied automatically.
In VBA, most control events do not fire when the control is updated programmatically, rather than manually. You must specify the code that is to run after the programmatic update.
By "I am using the AfterUpdate() function," you mean you added an event handler for the AfterUpdate event, right?
If that handler is not firing when you expect it to, you could always call your handler directly (instead of letting the event fire it) where necessary. But that probably wouldn't be the best way of doing it; more likely there is another event that should be calling your handler instead of or in addition to AfterUpdate. I don't remember the names of combo box events, but isn't there something like ItemChanged or SelectionChanged or something?