Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

[kingcarol]

I am using Build 1709-4201. I designed a layout report to use as a linked report on a parent report. When I put the linked report on the parent, it will display if I do NOT link it to a field on the parent. Once I link it to a field on the parent, it will not display. Here is a video demonstrating: http://screencast.com/t/9DyVGNLRqI

Does anyone have an idea of what I am doing wrong?

[kingcarol]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

What I am trying to do is get my detail data to repeat itself twice on checks with 2 stubs. I was going to try using 2 linked reports but am not having luck as described above. So now I decided to try using sub reports and making a duplicate field for every field I want to repeat. So I made 2 sub reports, the first one having the original fields and the 2nd having my duplicate fields. Concept sort of works but the 2 sub reports will not print together in same repeating detail. They cause a 2nd set of pages to happen. 1st set of pages has the first sub report and 2nd set of pages has the 2nd sub report. Is there any way to get 2 sub reports to print on the same page? Here's yet another video....
http://screencast.com/t/AByYhwTC9Kh

P.S. Please excuse the 'dog chewing food' sound effects in background of video. :)

[Lance Gurd]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Hi Carol,

I watched both of your videos and then had a play with linked reports to create your scenario. I have recently been doing something similar and eventually got most of it to work, but am having trouble with external fields not showing. Anyway I digress.

Your linked report should work if it is a layout table report. When you select the report the dialog that pops up says it must be a layout table report. When creating the example I will attach nothing showed when it was a free form report.

In the linked report create an argument and make your linking field equal to the argument in the where part of your select statement. Then when you put your linked report on the main report set the argument binding instead of the link expression.

Hope I have explained this well enough. If you are still stuck let me know and I will try and do a video.

The two attached reports can be imported into the northwinds database sample that ships with alpha.
order_detail.a5pkg
orders.a5pkg

[kingcarol]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Hi Lance, thanks so much for taking your time with this. The linked report that was failing was a layout report. I did a simple test of one with the Northwinds database yesterday and it worked fine so I decided there was something too complex about my query (same query used in parent free form and child layout). I had created the query in Alpha and there were several joins. So I decided to go create the query (View) in my Access database instead and tried using the View in the parent and child in Alpha.... and the link started working.

THAT being said, my next task was going to be using the Arguments instead of the link expression because my users will be able to Search for invoices they want to print on the checks before printing them. I am setting session variables for their Search criteria (in CanSearch server side event) that I hope to use as the arguments. (I don't think using the CurrentGridFilter() to open the report will go through to the child linked report.) I attempted trying the Arguments in the reports but keep getting a message about not being able to get the criteria at runtime (or something like that).

SO..... I am going to download your report examples and take a look at how you used arguments...

I have a feeling, though, that I'm going to need to create a field in my Access database that I update with a marker based on the user's search and change my view for the reports to include records with that marker. (Then clear it once they 'Post' the checks..) Which would mean I won't need to use the arguments. 2 reasons for using the marker are:

1 - I tried hiding the Detail part of the report because my linked reports have to go in the Group area... or they repeat themselves. And even though the Detail part is hidden, it adds space for the records anyway... which won't work on checks where stuff needs to stay in the same place. So, I need to use the marker to make another View that sums the marked data for the top part of the check and uses that one summed record in the Detail section. THEN I'm thinking my Linked reports with the detail will stay in the same place... not sure yet.

2 - I can use the marker to determine if the user completed the check posting process or not.

Probably too much information... but I am going to take a look at your reports to see if I can understand arguments anyway.

Thank you again!

[kingcarol]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Well, I'm too ignorant to figure out where to put your reports in order to see them...

[Lance Gurd]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Desk top control panel, reports tab, right click in white space and select import layout from the dropdown menu

You may need to edit the connection string to point to your copy of northwinds

[DoronF]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Hi Carol,

I developed a check printing for the No Interest Loans application plus an audit trail for that process. I used MS SQL database for that. You can see in my video how it was done and did not use Linked report for that at all. That report for the check has also 2 stubs as well and grabbed data from different sources with no problem.

This process is solid as rock and my client works with that for more than one year. I even generated checks numbers before they are printed. Also created a mechanism to confirm if it was printed successfully.

Your Check report problem was mentioned to me by Lance from a different thread.

Did you resolve already that report problem?

Regards,

Doron
The Farber Consulting Group, Inc.

Web site: http://www.dFarber.com
MS SQL Blog: http://www.dfarber.com/computer-consulting-blog.aspx
Convert Ms Access to Web
MS SQL Remote DBA
Alpha Five Development

[kingcarol]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Doron - I did resolve it using Linked reports. I ended up simplifying the query I was using for the linked reports and they started working.

[tayrola]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

Has anyone had any luck getting linked reports to show?
I am using V11
I have spent literally 12 hours today on a simple report.
The two reports work individually but the sub-report does not display when I link them.
Does it matter if I have MySQL as a back end and I don't use passive link tables?

Are there any other reporting packages that anyone would recommend for web hosting?

[GGandhi]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

hello
linked reports, I believe, will test your patience. but can be done, even with MySQL backend.
do not use free form report design.
use quick report or layout report to link.

here are the steps to do the linked reports:
1> create the target quickreport using sqldatsource as the source and make sure you have an argument set with 
where clause ( which will be used in the parent report), save the report.  preview if you want to make sure it is 
what you wanted and adjust as needed.
2> create the parent quickreport which will hold the child linked report using the sqldatasource as source and then
select the save and preview in the layout mode. accept the warning.
3> in the layout mode go to the second column, right click and select insert a row, then select the number of cells
and merge them to a single cell.
4> then right click on that merged cell and edit the content. in that add the linked report with the argument etc.,

then save it

.
this should work

[askoog66]

Re: Cannot get linked report to display when linked to a field on parent report

After a few days of testing this what I discovered in v11, realizing this is in the v12 forum though....

#1. Make sure your Field choices in the linked reports are the "short" field name and not the "SQLDATASOURCE->{field name}" choice
#2. With a PostgreSQL back end anyway, make sure all of your table names and fields are small caps and reflected correspondingly in your SQL statements.
#3. I was able to get everything working without GGhandi's stated requirement of using arguments. I was able to just use the Link Expressions. I did not need to create quick reports, I created all of my reports from scratch, although making sure they were not free form layouts.

Completely understand Carol's problem of reports working individually, but not linked as that was exactly what mine were doing. As usual, I am several months behind Carol's progress!

Andy