Change field type from native integer to date

rbuser

Hi,

I am examining the following scenario. A customer has an existing database
(firebird). Dates in the database are stored as integers using some custom
conversion.
Is it possible for ReportBuilder to automatically convert these field values
to dates based on the type given to the item in the data dictionary, so for
the user it looks like a normal date. Formatting and auto search should
behave as if it would be a native date field type.

Using D7, IBX and RB Ent 10.07

Regards,
Jeroen R?ttink

nardmoseley

The DataDictionary is useful for defining which tables and fields are
visible to the user and for defining user friendly field aliases. But there
is no functionality for converting datatypes.

Is there any way you can handle this on the database server? Perhaps via a
View or UDF or something.



--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nard,

It's an option to create a View using an UDF for conversion for reporting
purposes but I would like to prevent it. To me it looks like more work and
even more important, harder to maintain. When there's no other option I'll
take that route.

I was thinking about a way to say to the dataview 'this is a date field' and
then use my own OnGet... OnSet... eventhandlers to convert the integer data
from the database to a valid date format in ReportBuilder. I mentioned the
DataDictionary because it's used in that project and it has a 'datatype'
column for RB_FIELD. This instead of introducing a new meta table to the
database.

Do you think this is possible (with some programming) or would you
nonetheless go for the view / udf solution?

Regards,
Jeroen.