Weird paging behavior with master/detail report

rbuser

Hi,

I have an Invoice type report with master/detail setup. The report is
layout as follows:

Header
--Group Header[0]: InvoiceNo
----Detail - Section based Subreport
--Group Footer[0]:InvoiceNo

The Subreport layout is as follows:

Header
--Group Header[0]:ItemNo
----Detail - detail record info
--Group Footer[0]:ItemNo
Summary

This report is to display a cover invoice page follow by details of the
invoice. (i.e. Coverpage->detail pages->Coverpage->detail
pages->Coverpage->detail pages...)

Unfortunately, I am running into some issues to get this report to work
properly. The following are 3 scenarios I bumped into:

1)If I have only one record for the master pipeline, I am getting a blank
page at the end. However, if I have multiple master records, I am getting
the following:

Coverpage of invoice#1 -> Detail pages of the invoice#1->Cover page of
invoice#1->Coverpage of invoice#2->detail pages of invoice#2-> Cover page of
invoice#2-> Coverpage of invoice#3->Detail pages of Invoice#3->blank page

2) Interestingly enough, if I delete the Group from the master page, I get
the proper sequence but the very last page does not get generated and shows
up blank.
Coverpage of invoice#1 -> Detail pages of the invoice#1->Coverpage of
invoice#2->detail pages of invoice#2->Coverpage of invoice#3->Detail pages
of Invoice#3 (missing last page of detail pages).

3) Additionally, if I changed the SubReport from a Section Report to a Child
Report, the report goes into an infinite loop and does not generate.

So basically, I am at a loss as to what can I do to fix this issue?

Any ideas?

thanks in advance!
--Wayne

nicocizik

Hi Wayne,

Which version of ReportBuilder and Delphi are you using?

Section subreports are primarily used to combine multiple full reports into
one. By definition they will take their own page to start and end which is
why you are getting an extra page. For the type of report you want, I would
recommend using Child reports.

Take a look at the subreport demos located in the \RBuilder\Demos\1.
Reports\... directory. There are numerous examples in there that show how
to create a master detail report similar to the one your are creating using
child subreports that will help you see what is going on.

Take a look at the following article on troubleshooting endless pages.

------------------------------------------------------
Article: TroubleShooting: Report Prints Endless Pages
------------------------------------------------------

Occasionally, we have customers state that their reports are in some
infinite state where page after empty page prints forever.

There are a few items to check when this occurs.

The TppReport.AutoStop property is the first thing to check. If this is
false when the DataPipeline property is unassigned, the endless report will
be the result. AutoStop is automatically set to True when DataPipeline is
set to nil, but it is possible to set it back to False. Check for instances
in your code where you might have created this condition.

Another thing to check is that all subreports in your report have their
DataPipeline set. When a subreport does not have its pipeline set, you will
sometimes see a condition where the first detail record prints and then you
get blank pages.

Another, non-data related cause can sometimes be your margin settings. If
you have stretching bands that need to overflow to the next page, if your
margins are too tight, sometimes the report engine will endlessly overflow
to the next page trying to fit the overflow material.

Still another cause might be having a statically positioned control, set to
ReprintOnOverFlow, in the same band with a stretching control. For instance,
if you have a memo set to stretch and in that same band, a label control set
to ReprintOnOverFlow, then on every page after the first, the memo will
begin to print after the label control. If the label is placed low enough
that the memo has no room to print, the report will forever be trying to
print the overflowing memo on the next page.


--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Hi Nico,

Thanks for the reply. I am using reportbuilder 10.08 with Delphi 2007. The
reason I used a section subreport is that detail pages are like a report in
itself. The first page is like more or less a title page following by a
detail report. The reason behind the layout is that I am doing batch
invoice printing. I am attaching a sample output of this report so you can
see what I am talking about here. I did looked into the various various
hints of the article you had provided, but was unable to get it to work
(getting endless page generation) setting the section report to a subreport
as you had suggested.

Any other suggestions?

thanks!
--Wayne

nicocizik

Hi Wayne,

If you are getting blank pages, the section subreports are causing them so
using them is not an option. If you need to break a page before and after a
subreport prints, you can set the group in the main report to start a new
page (Group.NewPage property).

If possible, please construct a simple example that demonstrates the issue
and send it to support@digital-metaphors.com in .zip format and I'll take a
look at it for you.

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com