TppParameterList and user prompts

rbuser

In Crystal Reports you can create parameters object that can have
multiple purposes. They can be used in conjunction with Search
Criterioin, just as with RB's AutoSearchFields; but they can also be
used simply to prompt users for data that can be then used to control
what happens in the report (other than data retrieval). An example would
be, "Show Line Prices? - Yes (True) / No (False)", and when the user
prompt form is dismissed there is (RAP) code to process the user
response to in order to show / hide various fields.

Our users are missing this functionality and I was going to start
writing my own solution when it occurred to me that if TppParameter
acquired a "Description" property (for user prompt text) then unlinked
parameters defined in the report could be used to generate an
appropriate user input form, all called by a RAP function. This would
add a big amount of functionality for RB, in my opinion for quite a
modest amount of effort. Or am I missing something and there is already
another way of doing this?

TIA, Paul

nicocizik

Hi Paul,

Thanks for the feedback. Currently the Report Parameters utilize the
AutoSearch dialog in order to allow users to update their values. It is
possible to use this feature without data to allow users to update
parameter values before the report prints, however you would need to
create a custom autosearch dialog in order to alter the dialog text to
meet your needs.

See the autosearch demos on how to create a custom autosearch dialog.
We will add it to our list of possible enhancements to give more
(programmatic) control over what the autosearch dialog displays.

rbuser

Thanks for the reply, Nico. I've created custom autosearch dialogs in
the past for different purposes, so I'm familiar with how to do that.
But wouldn't this be a "replacement" autosearch dialog (thus screwing up
the data search functionality in reports), rather than something that
could be invoked via RAP for specific purposes?

nicocizik

Yes, this would be a replacement. If you are using Autosearch and
Parameters, you would currently need to perhaps create your own
"Parameters" dialog and display it before printing the report.