BOXI Enterprise Null Parameter 1

[RenMike]

Hi,

For a number of years i've been using CE9 as a report server but have recently switched to BOXI 3.1 to do the same job. At first all seemed fine, but i started noticing that some of my long standing reports were now failing. It seems that the logic that has been built into the reports to accept null values isn't doing what it used to do. Typically I would design a report with a parameter, but I wanted the user to be able to not populate the parameter (pass a null) and the report decide the best value to use e.g. no start date entered so use the first of the month, etc.

Now that I'm using BOXI 3.1 it requires that I put a date value in the date parameter and won't allow the old 'null' value to be used.

Is there a way to say that a parameter has no value (null) in BOXI 3.1?
Am I going to have to go back theough all my reports changing the way that null values are interpreted?

Help please!!

Mike

 

[hilfy]

There are a couple of ways you can handle this. No matter what you do, you're going to have to edit your reports.

Here are two options:

Easiest - Open the report in Crystal 2008; edit the parameter and make it optional. Note: This option is not available in earlier versions of Crystal.

Harder - User this if you're in an earlier version of Crystal (I know it works in XI.) Set a default value for each of your parameters and update your "null" logic to look for the default value of the parameter.

Good Luck!

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.

 

[RenMike]

Thanks for the tips.

If I set the parameter as optional (I now have CR2008), what will that do to the prompts in Enterprise?
If the parameter is optional and the user dosn't enter a value in Enterprise, what will be passed to the report for processing?

I'm going to set up a test report to try these options out later today, but if you have experience that you'd be willing to share then i'd be happy to hear it.

Regards,

Mike

 

[RenMike]

Ok,

I've tested the 'optional prompt' and it looks like what I want to do. It allows me to not enter a value when the report is run and hence my internal report logic can do its job. I have to change any formulae that use the optional prompt to use HasValue() rather than the IsNull(), but other than that it's good.

It does mean that i've got to go through and amend a whole load of reports, but at least it's a way forward.

Thanks for the suggestion.

Mike

 

[hilfy]

I'm glad that worked for you.

When we upgraded from Seagate Info to BO XI we had to edit 160+ reports and upgrade them all to Crystal XI because we had modified the SQL in the Crystal 8.5 version of the reports which meant that they lost all of their links in XI. They had to be recreated from scratch. So, I can definitely relate to the hassle this is going to be for you.

-Dell

A computer only does what you actually told it to do - not what you thought you told it to do.