Mongoose Reports without SQL

Rees Howel

I've picked up development of a report from a colleague.  He got stuck when trying to add a subreport (which I've fixed).

However he took an unconventional approach to rendering the report, in that he connected the Report Viewer form as a linked form rather than creating a dedicated Report Definition form.  This approach does work if you're happy to accept the limitation of one record per report.  In this case it's a Concession Note report, so users would likely only print one at a time anyway.

The downside is that the Subreport section doesn't render until you press the Run button on the navigation pane.  Nor does it produce a PDF until you press Export and then saves it with a VERY odd paper size.

To evade the paper size issue (this 9.01.01, so Size options cannot be easily controlled as in v10) I rigged the button which previously opened the viewer form to run a Background Task instead.

This renders the report nicely but won't obey the BGTaskParms that I send.  The only parameter needed is the Concession Number.  If I send parms of SETVARVALUES(<CA_Num>) Syteline generates an empty file.  If I just send the Concession Note Number (without the SETVARVALUES statement as per SSRS) it prints the entire collection.

I could just go and create a Custom Load Method in SQL (or VB) but the possibility of generating a report without really any coding seems very attractive.  The SubReport controls what it shows via a Permanent Filter Expression.  Can I use the same method for the main report?

The property I need to filter by is CA_Num but how do I 'unbundle' the Parameter string? 

I'm guessing I need to set a variable via Formscript (tied to StdFormPreDisplay perhaps)

All ideas welcome.

Thanks

Ryan Pukanski

Not sure about the first part of your post (running form as linked child, etc) but you should be able to pass through the variable without form script.

Doing the filtering part works for me here, however I am on v10, so hopefully the same steps work.

Lets say your property value name is CA_NUM. Create a variable on the report definition form called CA_NUM as well. Set a permanent filter on the collection object where CA_NUM = V(CA_NUM). The important part here is that the CA_NUM property must be bound on the report somewhere, which I assume it is.

When running your bgtask, do "SETVARVALUES(CA_NUM = 123)" without the quotes, where CA_NUM is the name of the variable on the report form and 123 is a string value of the CA_NUM property you wish to filter on. This should populate the report, and filter out the values. 

Good luck!
Ryan