drop down lists

rbuser

Hi there

When creating autosearch fields with the Query Designer, is there a way to
produce drop down lists populated by a database table so that when the
autosearch field dialog is shown, the user has a list of values to select
from? I would like to be able to do this within Report Builder and not
programmatically (because for every report, we would have to customize each
autosearch dialog). Is there such a possible method within Report Builder
(we are using the Professional version)? I have heard about RAP and that it
only comes with the Entreprise version of RB. Do we need that in order to
be able to create drop down lists and such within RB?

Thanks

Aaron

digitalmetaphors

We don't have this feature. You'll have to create your own autosearch panel
to do this. Check out the Autosearch demos. There is one that replaces the
autosearch dialog in order to add TDataTimePickers for the date, which is
similar to what you want to do. You do not need RAP to do this.

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Hi Jim

Thanks for the response. Since you said "You do not need RAP to do this",
does that mean RAP cannot provide this feature? We are under specific
guidelines not to customize the search dialog for each form. I take it
there is no way around this without programming for each one?

Thanks

Aaron

digitalmetaphors

RAP is going to make things more complicated than they need to be, I think.
Each panel in the autosearch dialog is connected to a field of the dataset.
You could create descendent panel for the fields that are going to be
displayed in the dialog. Then as each report is printed, you can use the
same autosearch dialog, and if the field name is one that you want to
provide a custom drop down box for, then you'll use your descendent panel,
as shown in the custom autosearch dialog demo. You'll have to code the
TmyAutosearchDialog.GetPanelForField() to return the custom panel that is
specific for each field.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Hi Jim

What you described below is what I have been working on today. I am going
to attempt to make generic code that obtains the necessary information (such
as field type, name, SQL statements, etc) from an .ini. So every report
will have a .ini file.

Thanks again for the response, very much appreciated.

Aaron