Alpha Software Mobile Development Tools:   Alpha Anywhere    |   Alpha TransForm subscribe to our YouTube Channel  Follow Us on LinkedIn  Follow Us on Twitter  Follow Us on Facebook

Announcement

Collapse

The Alpha Software Forum Participation Guidelines

The Alpha Software Forum is a free forum created for Alpha Software Developer Community to ask for help, exchange ideas, and share solutions. Alpha Software strives to create an environment where all members of the community can feel safe to participate. In order to ensure the Alpha Software Forum is a place where all feel welcome, forum participants are expected to behave as follows:
  • Be professional in your conduct
  • Be kind to others
  • Be constructive when giving feedback
  • Be open to new ideas and suggestions
  • Stay on topic


Be sure all comments and threads you post are respectful. Posts that contain any of the following content will be considered a violation of your agreement as a member of the Alpha Software Forum Community and will be moderated:
  • Spam.
  • Vulgar language.
  • Quotes from private conversations without permission, including pricing and other sales related discussions.
  • Personal attacks, insults, or subtle put-downs.
  • Harassment, bullying, threatening, mocking, shaming, or deriding anyone.
  • Sexist, racist, homophobic, transphobic, ableist, or otherwise discriminatory jokes and language.
  • Sexually explicit or violent material, links, or language.
  • Pirated, hacked, or copyright-infringing material.
  • Encouraging of others to engage in the above behaviors.


If a thread or post is found to contain any of the content outlined above, a moderator may choose to take one of the following actions:
  • Remove the Post or Thread - the content is removed from the forum.
  • Place the User in Moderation - all posts and new threads must be approved by a moderator before they are posted.
  • Temporarily Ban the User - user is banned from forum for a period of time.
  • Permanently Ban the User - user is permanently banned from the forum.


Moderators may also rename posts and threads if they are too generic or do not property reflect the content.

Moderators may move threads if they have been posted in the incorrect forum.

Threads/Posts questioning specific moderator decisions or actions (such as "why was a user banned?") are not allowed and will be removed.

The owners of Alpha Software Corporation (Forum Owner) reserve the right to remove, edit, move, or close any thread for any reason; or ban any forum member without notice, reason, or explanation.

Community members are encouraged to click the "Report Post" icon in the lower left of a given post if they feel the post is in violation of the rules. This will alert the Moderators to take a look.

Alpha Software Corporation may amend the guidelines from time to time and may also vary the procedures it sets out where appropriate in a particular case. Your agreement to comply with the guidelines will be deemed agreement to any changes to it.



Bonus TIPS for Successful Posting

Try a Search First
It is highly recommended that a Search be done on your topic before posting, as many questions have been answered in prior posts. As with any search engine, the shorter the search term, the more "hits" will be returned, but the more specific the search term is, the greater the relevance of those "hits". Searching for "table" might well return every message on the board while "tablesum" would greatly restrict the number of messages returned.

When you do post
First, make sure you are posting your question in the correct forum. For example, if you post an issue regarding Desktop applications on the Mobile & Browser Applications board , not only will your question not be seen by the appropriate audience, it may also be removed or relocated.

The more detail you provide about your problem or question, the more likely someone is to understand your request and be able to help. A sample database with a minimum of records (and its support files, zipped together) will make it much easier to diagnose issues with your application. Screen shots of error messages are especially helpful.

When explaining how to reproduce your problem, please be as detailed as possible. Describe every step, click-by-click and keypress-by-keypress. Otherwise when others try to duplicate your problem, they may do something slightly different and end up with different results.

A note about attachments
You may only attach one file to each message. Attachment file size is limited to 2MB. If you need to include several files, you may do so by zipping them into a single archive.

If you forgot to attach your files to your post, please do NOT create a new thread. Instead, reply to your original message and attach the file there.

When attaching screen shots, it is best to attach an image file (.BMP, .JPG, .GIF, .PNG, etc.) or a zip file of several images, as opposed to a Word document containing the screen shots. Because Word documents are prone to viruses, many message board users will not open your Word file, therefore limiting their ability to help you.

Similarly, if you are uploading a zipped archive, you should simply create a .ZIP file and not a self-extracting .EXE as many users will not run your EXE file.
See more
See less

Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

    Frankly, they seem unworkable to me.

    e.g.
    After using the genie to build the report basic, switch to layout report, the field headings are automatically placed in the report header. Not good. So I added a page header and attempted to copy the label controls from the report header to the page header. No can do. Tried copy/pasting cells. No can do. Tried copy/pasting row. No can do. Tried editing page header cells. No can do. (I notice there are no videos on creating layout reports which suggests something is amiss?)

    Anyone?
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com



    #2
    Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

    Funny. I tried adding a detail header and it allowed me to copy the row (labels) there. So far so good. Previewing report there's nothing. No records, no headings, just 100% blank pages. Close preview and the report definition is also blank. Close report w/o saving/reopen/still all blank. Exit alpha/reopen/ still blank. BTW, it does preview 5 blank pages (compared to originally 3 pages w. data). Unless someone has a Rosetta stone I'm going to abandon HTML reports. Too bad.
    Peter
    AlphaBase Solutions, LLC

    [email protected]
    https://www.alphabasesolutions.com


    Comment


      #3
      Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

      I used the Report Genie briefly and was so frustrated with it that I reverted to using the free-form layout method so I had complete control over the design. I don't know if the genie gets easier to use with practice, but on the day that I needed to create multiple reports I lost all patience with it and nearly tossed my monitor across the office... so I haven't tried it since.
      Melissa Smith
      Triskelion Consulting, LLC

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

        Melissa,
        I agree, I have tried a couple of times, but it is just too frustrating. Although I will admit, I did not look to see of there is a video on how to properly use it. I just use free form.
        Mike Reed
        Phoenix, AZ

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

          Same here...
          Win 10 64 Development, Win 7 64 WAS 11-1, 2, Win 10 64 AA-1,2, MySql, dbForge Studio The Best MySQL GUI Tool IMHO. http://www.devart.com/dbforge/mysql/studio/

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

            Maybe an advanced Feature Pack or Subscriber Benefits will be announced that expands the functionality to useful/working.
            Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
            Albert Einstein, (attributed)
            US (German-born) physicist (1879 - 1955)

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

              Me too... I tried the layout reports some, and then hurried away from them, and haven't touched them again.
              Carol King
              Developer of Custom Homebuilders' Solutions (CHS)
              http://www.CHSBuilderSoftware.com

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                Well I am glad its not just me .. I have also had issues trying to use the new style report. after a few hours of trial and error, I went back to the free form report. I would hope that there will be some changes/ fixes to it since I see great potential for the layout style, but for now its not something I will use again unless its a simple tabular report.

                Scott

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                  I have a report "Receipt" using a set "Receipt_set". I would like to copy the same format to "Payment" but using a different set "Payment Set". Is it possible to do in Alpha to save some time in redisging as all the fields are same.

                  Thanks

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                    Wow, I thought it was just me being dumb and everyone else was loving this thing...

                    After a ridiciclous amount of time methodically breaking down what to do (and not do) I've come up with a pattern where I create a very basic report using the genie, then save it, followed by re-opening it and switching it to the "report editor" so I can modify it to my liking. While modifying a report, I've learned a lot about what functions and settings to use, and what not to use. Also, there's a specific order to go in if you need to add more groups/sub groups. If you don't do it a specific way when you first start making your mods, it seems the report gets destroyed and there's no way to fix it that I have found. When this happens the result is blank pages like Peter described. There's 2 other ways to make a change that will result in blank pages that involves how you copy/paste a row or column. This is really a case of "if you sneeze the wrong way, it breaks"

                    I really like the style that gets brought in from the genie and didn't want to give up on it. Feedback from 2 of my customers has been fantastic so I'm pretty much committed to starting each report with the genie so I can get the fancy style. Over the last month I've created a ton of reports that all started with the genie and am getting pretty comfortable with it. This week I cranked out about 20 reports using the "genie" to "report editor" combination.

                    Overall, this has to be the most awkward and difficult report writer I've ever used when starting with the genie,but the results are great. I'll try to put together a "Do / Don't Do" list next week that might be helpful and save others time and aggravation

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                      Renny,

                      This is how I've learned to copy and re-use an exiting A5 report as a skeleton for a new report. There's probably other ways too ...

                      1) your new dataset/view needs to contain all of the fields the original report had, plus any new fields you want to have in the new report
                      2) right click the original report and duplicate
                      3) right click the new report and select SQL DataSource -> Edit DataSource definition and change it to your new view/table. Do not un-check and fields that were previously used... if you do, you are doomed. A5 will display an error message but it's too late to fix it and the only recourse I have found is to start over
                      4) open your new report and delete any fields you don't want on your new version. After that's done, it's safe to go back to the SQL DataSource definition and add/delete any fields changes that you need.

                      I have found copying/duplicating a report to be used as a starting point for new report to be un-reliable. Even if you get the data definition steps done without running into any errors, the new report still seems to be subject to getting messed up for reasons I couldn't even begin to guess. After wasting too much time trying to resolve those kinds of problems, I just make it a practice to start every new report from scratch

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                        Originally posted by jacobr View Post
                        I have a report "Receipt" using a set "Receipt_set". I would like to copy the same format to "Payment" but using a different set "Payment Set". Is it possible to do in Alpha to save some time in redisging as all the fields are same.

                        Thanks
                        Jacob,

                        You can accomplish this fairly easily. Right click the existing report ("Receipt"), choose Duplicate, and Rename ("Payment" or whatever you want). Then right click that new "Payment" report, choose SQL DataSource, then Edit Datasource definition. I'm using a SQL backend, so I don't know if the process applies to everyone; it sounds like you're using a dbf set, so your right-click choices might be entirely different.

                        Regards,
                        Melissa
                        Melissa Smith
                        Triskelion Consulting, LLC

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                          Melissa,
                          Unfortunately, I don't see any option to select the table/set (I'm using dbf)!
                          Any other option?

                          Thanx
                          Renny
                          Attached Files

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                            Originally posted by jacobr View Post
                            Melissa,
                            Unfortunately, I don't see any option to select the table/set (I'm using dbf)!
                            Any other option?

                            Thanx
                            Renny
                            Go one step farther in the process

                            Select Copy To

                            then see this...

                            copylayoutto.png
                            Al Buchholz
                            Bookwood Systems, LTD
                            Weekly QReportBuilder Webinars Thursday 1 pm CST

                            Occam's Razor - KISS
                            Normalize till it hurts - De-normalize till it works.
                            Advice offered and questions asked in the spirit of learning how to fish is better than someone giving you a fish.
                            When we triage a problem it is much easier to read sample systems than to read a mind.
                            "Make it as simple as possible, but not simpler."
                            Albert Einstein

                            http://www.iadn.com/images/media/iadn_member.png

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Has anyone had any success editing layout reports?

                              It doesn't look like it's possible to change the table structure from either the right-click menu or from within the report editor if you're using dbf's - at least I wasn't able to accomplish it with my brief test, but I'm not familiar with using dbf's to know for sure if there isn't another way to do it. A possible solution would be to create a new blank report with the correct table/set structure you want to use, and then copy and paste all the items from the existing report to the new report. It's not the quickest way, but at least you wouldn't be starting from scratch.
                              Melissa Smith
                              Triskelion Consulting, LLC

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X