Detail Report Bands (for Parent-Detail Reports)

The Detail Report Band is a type of band used to incorporate one report into another in parent-detail reports.

The Detail Report Band is different from the Detail Band because it holds the whole detail report in a parent-detail report layout.

Multiple Detail Report Bands can be nested inside one another, each new group is indented in the report hierarchy:

The Detail Report Band cannot be added to a report via the Report Editor like other band types. To add a Detail Report Band, right-click the report and select Insert Detail Report from the drop down menu. If the bound data source contains a data relationship, the submenu contains an item with the name of that relationship. Select the item to create a Detail Report Band already bound to a detail table. Otherwise, add an unbound detail report and specify its properties later.

On the Properties window, the Detail Report 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.

Padding

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

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.

Level

Specifies the order of several Detail Report Band objects in a report. It enables the reordering of different Detail Report Bands at the same level of parent-detail relationships.

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.

Scripts

Contains events which can be handled with scripts.

Visible

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

Data

Data Adapter

Specifies the report data adapter settings, used to populate the report data source. A data adaptor is created automatically when the Data Member property is defined.

Data Member

Determines the name of the data relationship established within the bound data source.

Data Source

Determines the data source that provides the detail data for the report. If this property is not defined, the detail report gets data from the primary report data source.

Filter String

Displays the Filter String Editor window, which is used to define a filtering condition for report data.

Tag

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

XML Data Path

Used to define a path to data contained in an external XML file. The data contained in the file is used as the report data source.

In this case, the Data Member property specifies the bound list in the XML data source.

Note:
Note that a detail report uses the XML Data Path property value only when the Data Source property is set to None. The XML Data Path property has a lower priority than the Data Source property.

Miscellaneous

(Name)

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

Bands

Displays the Report Editor window, which is used to manage and customise the report bands.

Report Print Options

Provides access to options that define the printed report.

Blank Detail Count

Specifies the number of times the empty detail band is repeated before printing the regular data.

Detail Count

Specifies the maximum number of times the detail band is printed when a data source is defined for the report, and it is not empty.

Detail Count at Design Time

Specifies the number of times the detail band is printed when a report is being previewed.

Detail Count when Data Source is Empty

Specifies the number of times the detail band is printed when no data source is defined for the report.

Print When Data Source is Empty

Specifies whether or not a report is printed if the data source is empty.

Refer to Conditionally Modify Control Display, Handle Events via Scripts, Master-Detail Report (Detail Report Bands) and Filter Report Data for further information.