Group Header and Footer Bands

The Group Header and Group Footer bands are shown above and below each group. Refer to Change or Apply Data Sorting to a Report for further information.

Group Header bands may be used for grouping by multiple data fields in one of the following ways:

1. Add several Group Header bands. Specify one group field for each of these bands. This results in nested grouping of the report's data.

2. Specify several group fields for the Group Fields property of the Group Header band. The data will be grouped by certain combinations of field values.

The Group Footer band is unnecessary without the corresponding Group Header band. When present, it allows customisation by providing a set of properties similar to those of the Group Header.

In the Property Grid, the properties of these bands are divided into the following groups.

Appearance

Background Color

Specifies the background colour for the controls contained within the band. This option is also available on the Formatting Toolbar ().

Border Color, Border Dash Style, Border Width and Borders

Specifies border settings for the controls contained within the band.

Font

Specifies the font settings for the controls contained within the band. Some of these settings are available on the Formatting Toolbar.

Foreground Color

Specifies the text colour for the controls contained within the band. This option is also available on the Formatting Toolbar ().

Formatting Rules

Displays the Formatting Rules Editor which enables users to choose which rules should be applied to the band during report generation, and define the precedence of the applied rules. For further information, refer to Conditionally Change a Control's Appearance.

Padding

Specifies indent values used to render the contents of the controls.

Style Priority

Defines the priority of various styles (for example, background colour or border colour). For further information on style inheritance, refer to Styles Concepts.

Styles

Defines odd and even styles for the controls, as well as assigning an existing style to the them (or a newly created one). For further information on style inheritance, refer to Styles Concepts.

Text Alignment

Used to change the text alignment of the controls contained within the bands. This option is also available on the Formatting Toolbar.

Behaviour

Group Fields

The property is available for the Group Header band only. It displays the Group Field Collection Editor window, used to add and remove grouping fields, define a data field to be used as a grouping criteria and the grouping order (ascending or descending).

The property is also accessible via the band's Smart tag.

Group Union

Determines if group rows can be printed on different pages (for both Group Header and Group Footer band the default is None), or the entire group is printed on a single page (if Reporting 324).

If a group can be split across pages, but Group Headers are not to be printed on a page if there is no data row below it (in case a group starts at the bottom of the page and there is enough room for only a Group Header), set the Group Union to With First Detail. In this case, if a Group Header is alone on a page, it is moved to the beginning of the next page.

The option can be applied to Group Footers. To prevent them from being printed alone on a page, set the Group Union to With Last Detail. The last group row from the previous page is moved to the next page and printed together with the Group Footer.

The property is also accessible via the band's Smart tag.

Keep Together

Specifies whether the contents of the band can be horizontally split across pages. Reporting attempts to keep band entries on a single page. In general, if the contents are too large to fit on a single page, then the band is started on a new page, and continues on the following page.

Level

Specifies the nesting level of a group band. The lower the level number, the closer the group band is to the reportDetail band. The lowest setting is zero. This is the parameter that identifies the Group Header / Group Footer band pairs.

This property is also accessible via the band's Smart Tag.

Page Break

Use this property if the current report design requires that the detail section must be separated from previous sections or follow-ups. Specify the Before the Band or After the Band values to insert a page break before or after the current band. In many cases, this property can be used instead of the Page Break control.

Print at Bottom

The property is available for the Report Footer band only, and determines if the band is printed at the bottom of a page, or immediately after the last report’s details.

The Report Footer has priority over the Group Footer Print at Bottom property, the Group Footer can never be placed after the Report Footer.

This feature is helpful when the Page Break property of the Group Header band is set to After the Band. In this instance each group starts a new page, and the Group Footer has two distinct places to reside - after the last row, or at the bottom of the page.

Repeat Every Page

This property improves the readability of reports with group contents that are several pages long. Without a repeated group header at the top of the page, the report may be difficult to read.

This property is also accessible via the band's Smart Tag.

Scripts

Contains events which can be handled with scripts. For further information on scripting, refer to Handle Events via Scripts.

Visible

Specifies whether the band is visible when using the print preview.

Data

Tag

Adds additional information to a report, for example, the id, by which the report can then be accessible via scripts.

Design

(Name)

Determines a band's name, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Property Grid or via scripts

Layout

Height

Specifies the height in report measurement units.

Snap Line Padding

Specifies indent values used to render the contents of the band, which are maintained when the control is aligned using snap lines.