Multiple Reports

[LordSidious]

I am using Crystal Reports version 8.5 as the recommended method for designing & printing reports from ERP software called Vantage by Epicor. The ERP software is restricted in the number of forms available and consequently I am trying to have one report to print 3 forms: an Invoice, a Delivery Note & a CofC. The forms are all designed and basically display the same data in different layouts but each use different headers & multiple footers (report footers, page footers etc).

I am trying to ascertain whether Crystal can APPEND sub reports rather than INSERT them. Having tried a variety of methods of creating the three forms on one report with sub-reports I always come back to the problem that each form needs Page & Report footers individually.

If anyone knows how to link the three together without actually inserting as sub-reports that would be helpful.

 

[LordSidious]

Having spent another couple of days looking at solutions to this with no success I've had another thought.

Is there a "Now print Report X" function that can be added to the very end of the first report?

 

[Madawc]

If you want the equivalent of page headers and footers in your subreports, there is a dodge to do this. Create a group that includes everything in that subreport. Then select [Change Group] and check [Repeat Group Header On Each page].

I don't follow what you mean by

I am trying to ascertain whether Crystal can APPEND sub reports rather than INSERT them.

You insert them in a section, any section including report headers or footers. For your needs, one report-footer section each would seem a good idea, and set the [New Page Before] option.


Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK)

 

[LordSidious]

Thanks for the reply I will take a look at what you have said.

What I said by "I am trying to ascertain whether Crystal can APPEND sub reports rather than INSERT them." was that Can I not just use a function to append a report immediately after the first report ie: After printing Report X, Print Report Y and Report Z

 

[Madawc]

I think that Crystal Enterprise lets you do things like that. It's a separate bit of software which can be purchased but might not be cost-justified for your needs.

Madawc Williams (East Anglia, UK)

 

[jjames]

You could insert the 3 sub-reports into your main report then conditionally suppress the 2 that you don't want to see.

 

[chelseatech]

Seagate Info 7 had a feature called a "Report Package" where you could bundle a bunch of reports together and run them as one object.

The report pages showed all the reports as one set of pages with consecutive page numbers.

With the CRAXDDRT (CR7 and later) you can create a report viewer in Visual Basic or similar language to combine several reports together. It would be a custom viewer for those set of reports, but the coding isn't too complex.

Editor and Publisher of Crystal Clear

http://www.chelseatech.co.nz/pubs.htm

 

[lbass]

Getting back to your original approach, there is a way to use the main report page footer to act as the page footer for subreports in a report footer section, and subreports already have a report footer section. Can you clarify what problems you ran into when you attempted adding the subreports to the report footer?

To add page footers specific to the subreport, do the following:

Assuming you have page footers in your main report used for a specific purpose, insert two additional page footers_b and _c, one for each subreport in the report footer. Add the text/formulas/fields you want displayed in each page footer. Then create four formulas in the main report:

//{@true1} to be placed in report footer_a (where the first subreport
//appears):
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag1 := true;

//{@false1} to be placed in your outermost group footer section AND
//in the report footer_b section:
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag1 := false;

//{@true2} to be placed in report footer_b (where the second
//subreport appears):
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag2 := true;

//{@false2} to be placed in your outermost group footer section:
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag2 := false;

Then go to the section expert. For report footer_a AND _b check "new page before". For page footer_a (where your main report page footer resides), go to suppress->x+2 and enter:

whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag1;
booleanvar flag2;

flag1 = true or
flag2 = true;

For page footer_b, go to suppress->x+2 and enter:
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag1;
flag1 = false;

For page footer_c, enter:
whileprintingrecords;
booleanvar flag2;
flag2 = false;

-LB