Group Header and Footer Bands

The Group Header and Group Footer bands display above and below each group.

Group Header bands can be used to group multiple data fields in one of the following ways:

Add several Group Header bands. Specify one group field per band. This results in nested grouping of the report data.

Alternatively, specify several group fields for the Group Fields property of the Group Header band. The data is grouped by field value combinations.

The Group Footer band is unnecessary without the corresponding Group Header band. When present, it can be customized using a set of properties similar to those of the Group Header.

On the Properties window, the Group Header/Footer Band properties are divided into the following tabs:

Appearance

Background Color

Specifies the background colour of controls. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab ().

Border Color, Border Dash Style, Border Width and Borders

Specifies border settings for controls.

Font

Specifies the font settings for controls. Some of the functionality is available on the Report Designer tab.

Foreground Color

Specifies the text colour for controls. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab ().

Formatting Rules

Displays the Formatting Rules Editor window, used to choose which rules are applied to a report during report generation, and to define the priority of the applied rules.

Height

Specifies the height in report measurement units.The default height for a created group header or group footer band is 100.

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).

Styles

Defines odd and even styles for the controls, as well as assigning an existing style to the them (or a newly created one).

Text Alignment

Changes the alignment of report control text. The functionality is also available on the Report Designer tab.

Behavior

Drill Down Control

Specifies a control used to expand/collapse the band.

Drill Down Expanded

Specifies if the band is expanded or collapsed when using the drill down functionality.

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 value, the closer the group band is to the Detail band. The lowest setting is zero. This parameter identifies the Group Header / Group Footer band pairs.

The 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 Group Footer band only. It determines if the band is printed at the bottom of a page, or immediately after the last group's details.

If a report contains several Group Footers with their Print at Bottom properties set to different values, then the outer Group Footer has the highest priority.

The 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

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 can be difficult to read.

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

Scripts

Contains events which can be handled with scripts.

Sorting Summary

Displays the Group Sorting Summary Editor window, used to specify the sorting options for report groups.

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.

Miscellaneous

(Name)

Determines the name of the report, by which it can be accessed in the Report Explorer, Properties window or via scripts.

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.

Sub-Bands

Displays the Sub-Band Collection Editor window, which is used to manage the report sub-bands.

Favorites

Right-click on the Favorites tab and select Edit Favorite Property List to display the Favorite Properties Editor, which is used to customise the available properties on the Favorites tab.

Refer to Sort Report Data, Conditionally Modify Control Display, Styles Concepts and Handle Events via Scripts for further information.