I am newbie to BIRT and unfortunately my first task is over complicated.
I want to create table like this
Birt Report Snap
the columns in this picture must be dynamic. the data for the column name is in database and I have to fetch it and create columns on the go. 2nd to put values against it.
kindly tell me if this thing is doable in birt. I am new to this so please don't give negative ratings
thanks.
I believe what you are looking for is called a Cross Tab Table.
Here is a tutorial video on it: BIRT - Cross Tab Table
In addition to SBurris answer, which is the way you should try first, I can assure you from my experience that what you want is in fact doable with BIRT, and even in two different ways.
However, some of the minor aspects might be a bit quite tricky for beginners, e.g. the merged cells in the column header, the different background colours and border widths for the columns. So, these style aspects shouldn't matter at first, you can tackle them later.
The first, by far easiest and standard way to achieve this kind of report layout is a cross tab, as SBurris said.
The second option is - depending on the database backend - to use a "normal" Table report item in they layout and to "create the cross tab" with SQL.
This is more powerful IMHO as the BIRT Cross Tab report item, but also more complicated.
For examples, see here:
Pivot / Crosstab Query in Oracle 10g (Dynamic column number)
Pivoting rows into columns dynamically in Oracle
How to do Pivoting in Oracle 10g
(you get the idea)
To use this with BIRT, you'll have to select the column title values in addition to the cell values.
You have to decide how many columns do/should fit on your page (if you're using PDF output).
You can use the maximum aggregate function in the visibility expression of the columns to hide empty columns.
If the number of logical columns exceeds the number of columns for a single page, you can extend the idea further by dividing the cross tab into several, each with at most N columns.
However, note that this approach will need an experienced BIRT developer...
When I use kettle , I was wandering how to get a table column's source column. Just for an example , after I have merged two tables into one table based on primary key already , Given any column in output table , I could judge whether table it belongs to and get the original column name in original table. Thank you for helping and sorry for my poor English...
http://i.stack.imgur.com/xoR0s.png
When I was given any field in table3 (suppose a field named A in table3) , I could know where it comes from without the graphical view (from java code or other ways) , like the original table name (here are input1 or input2) and the original column name(maybe B in input1 , but represents A in table3). Besides I use mysql.
There are a couple of ways to do this:
1) Manually. If you right-click on the output step and choose Show Output fields (or whatever it's called), you will see the "origin step" for each of the outgoing fields. You can do the same for input fields. Then you can trace them back to those origin steps, and repeat the process of viewing the input fields at those steps, and seeing those fields' origins, and so on. This is probably not what you're looking for.
2) With code. Prior to 6.0, you'd need to programmatically perform the same operations as are listed in option 1 above. In 6.0 there is the Data Lineage capability, which offers the LineageClient API that can find the origin fields for the specified output fields. For more information see my blog post describing the Data Lineage capability. Also I put a Gremlin Console in the PDI Marketplace, to make the use of LineageClient easier (and you can visually see the lineage graph too).
I am trying to create an application for work. The app will be used internally and should allow us to assign some barcode numbers to our product SKUs. I am using Visual Studio / Basic 2010 Express to build this as my very limited and beginners experience is with VS 2010 Express.
I'll give a bit of information about how I see this application working and then I'll get on with my actual question:
I see the app allowing us to create a new Product in the database by a user entering the SKU and description of the product and then the app will assign this product the next available base number for the barcode and from there the app will (if required) generate the correct EAN13 and GTIN14 barcodes and store them against that SKU.
As a company we have a large range of barcode numbers we can use and we have split this large range up so that the first 50,000 (for example) are for our EAN13 codes, the next 50K are for our GTIN14 codes for Inner Cartons and the remaining 50K are for Master Cartons.
So in order to achieve this I have my Product table which contains the fields 'SKU', 'Description' and 'BarcodeBase'. I have managed to set the BarcodeBase field as unique and I am attempting to use AutoIncrement(Seed & Step) to make sure that this assigns the product a base barcode (before I calculate the check digit) that falls within the EAN13 range as described above...
So finally my question is: Is there a way I can put an upper limit on AutoIncrement so that on the off chance, way way in the future, the base barcode number will not overflow into the next range?
I've been googling unsuccessfully for an answer and I am only coming across things which talk about the data type of the field having a limit. For example the upper limit of an Int32 type. Through my searches I have become vaguely aware of the 'Expression' property of the field and also the possibility of coding a partial class - but I don't know if that is the right direction to go in or if there is something much simpler that I am overlooking / have not found.
I would really appreciate any help!
Edit: As per GrandMasterFlush's comment - I have added a local database to my VS project. So I think I am using a SQL Server Compact 3.5 db.
Use a CHECK constraint, e.g.:
ALTER TABLE dbo.Product ADD CONSTRAINT ...
CHECK (BarcodeBase BETWEEN 1 AND 50000);
I suggest you do not make BarcodeBase an IDENTITY column in the Product table (IDENTITY is the feature that you are referring to as "autoincrement"). IDENTITY is really designed for surrogate key use only and isn't ideal for meaningful business data. You can't update an IDENTITY column, it isn't necessarily sequential, may have gaps in the number sequence and you also only get to use one IDENTITY column per table. Instead of using IDENTITY in the Product table you can generate the sequence elsewhere, for example by incrementing a single value stored in a single row table.
I am using SSRS through VS 2010 and have the following questions:
Can I define a drop down menu without defining a dataset?
I have a dataset defined, is there anyway to add "manual" values to this dataset? The background requirement of this is that the report query is based on this dataset. However I want to have an option in the dataset where it says "all" in order to allow the user to see everything instead of narrowing down results based on the dataset.
Thanks,
Bruce
I am a newbie to SQL Server reports and found my answers:
For the first one, can simply create a table and use a dataset on the created table with customzied values.
Same goes for the second one, the manual data can be added to the table itself.
I am trying to remove all references to a table from a Crystal XI report. Crystal is telling me that a column from that table is currently being used, because there is a little green check mark over the field in the field viewer. Also, if I try to remove the entire table, I get a warning. The warning is almost useless though because it doesn't tell me where the field is used. Now, back when programmers were real programmers, and mice were things cats chased, I could just grep a directory or file and find all references to a variable I was interested in. But how do I do this in Crystal? I have already tried exporting the report to a Report Definition, which helped find some instances of the troublesome field. Unfortunately, that format does not include all formulas, just some. Please tell me I don't have to buy a third party app (or write my own COM thingy) just to do this seemingly simple thing.
EDIT to add details about tangential point:
In case anyone is wondering, I am not crazy - I have duplicated the issue where a formula's definition does not show up in the exported Report Definition. I created a new blank report, created one formula named stealth that returns 1234. I then used that formula in the Section Expert for the details section, in the "suppress" formula, setting it to {#stealth} == 0. the use of the formula shows up, but not the definition. So when my unwanted column was used in the formula, I was not be able to find it! Here's what the rpt def looks like (after deleting some blank lines):
Crystal Report Professional v11.0 (32-bit) - Report Definition
1.0 File Information
Report File:
Version: 11.0
2.0 Record Sort Fields
3.0 Group Sort Fields
4.0 Formulas
4.1 Record Selection Formula
4.2 Group Selection Formula
4.3 Other Formulas
5.0 Sectional Information
5.1 Page Header Section
Visible, Keep Together
5.2 Page Footer Section
Visible, New Page After, Keep Together, Print At Bottom of Page
5.3 Report Header Section
Visible, New Page Before
5.4 Report Footer Section
Visible, New Page After
5.5 Details Section
Visible
Subsection.1
Visible, Keep Together
Format Formulas
Visible: {#stealth}= 0
If all else fails ...
File -> Export -> Export Report, then choose the Report Definition (TXT) option.
That will give you a plain-text representation of every element of the report. You can grep or CTRL-F or (insert search tool of your choice) through that. "Find in Formulas" usually works, but I've had to go the export route a couple of times, for no apparent reason.
Edit: Of course, if I'd bothered to completely read your post, I'd see that you've already done this.
Very curious.
If you right click on the field in Field Explorer and select Find in Formulas, it should bring up a dialog listing all of the places it is being used in formulas. On the left hand side of the dialog is a tree of all the possible places it could be, including oddball places like record selector and page formatting functions. Unfortunately, it does not seem to list running total fields.
EDIT: Oops, all the places it exists is listed at the bottom of the dialog; the tree view is the entire "DOM" of the report.
I know this is an old post, but...
Not knocking the Find in Formulas, it's been saving me today, but i was having trouble finding the last instance of the field. Even after all of the formulas and the droppings on the report were taken care of, I still had one lone use hiding somewhere.
I found it hiding as a Subreport Link. Right click on the Subreport -> "Change Subreport Links..." and there was the culprit. Dropping in this post because I figured someone else might have this problem too.
Fields can also sometimes be hiding within "Record Sort Expert"
Responding to an old post, but ran into a similar issue. I had a group based on the formula I wanted to delete that had a specified order. When I changed the grouping to a different field, the specified order remained. When I removed the specified order, my formula could be deleted.
This was tested on XIr2...
You change the tables datasource through the "set datasource location" dialog. Now, when it goes into the column mapping mode, uncheck match-type and pick a new column that would cause an error in a formula. (i.e if the column you're looking for is a string replace it with a datetime column). Go to the preview and you should get an error box like "A string is required here.", close that error and up pops the offending formula!
One more suggestion. After following a lot of the suggestions here, my report was still telling me the formula was in use. I had to close the report. When I opened it again, the check mark was gone and it let me delete it. This was on Crystal v 11.0.0.1282
In my case the Formula Field happened to be part of an old Running Total Field, which itself was not included in the report. Once I deleted this old Running Total Field I could delete the unused Formula Field.
Very late, but i use CR 2008 (12.3.0.601) and just today (6/16/2015) i am trying to document only the formulae of my report. I knew about exporting the Report Definition, and Finding a Formula in all Formulae. But there are about 50 Formulae. I discovered that the exported Report Definition didn't document all of my Formulae, but I didn't bother to uncover the logic behind that; instead, i plopped all Formulae into a section, then exported the Report Definition. Voila. Of course, i still need to cull all the unnecessary definition elements. But at least i have all Formulae.
So with all the great selections.. I still had one instance hiding from me. I found out where it was by creating a clone of the data table and renaming\deleting the field.
I then used the "Set Database Location" as suggested above to point to my new table. It did error out when it could not find that field but still didn't tell me where it really was (it just said report field).
I did NOT map it and clicked continue which deleted the field from the report. I then mapped it back to the real table and I was good.
In my case, there was a Chart, and the field was being used as one of the "on Change" fields.
Although an old post, this functional gap still exists within Crystal Reports itself. We have a fully functional 14 day trial of our third party software that uses the latest Crystal.net API to search for plain text within a library of Crystal RPT files in one fell swoop. Also searches the data saved within reports, and text within labels ... as well as datasource behind all your reports ( stored procedures, views, and table data ) with support for SQL Server, SQL Azure, MySQL, Oracle, Amazon RDS, DB2 and Access.
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Note, you will need to download and install the compatible SAP Crystal.net runtime connector for searching your RPT file library.