Report??

[mgreich]

I'm looking for a way to make a report for some data entered into a database. The data is entered from a simple form with 4 fields. What is sticking in my mind is an Access type report which allows you to fit several records to a single page. I haven't found a way to do this with Domino.

Is this even possible? I'm open to any ideas anyone may have.

Thanks in advance.

 

[pmonett]

What is this report to be used for ?

Why can't a view with the four fields be useful ?

Pascal.

 

[mgreich]

I would like to display the four fields for every record in the database. As far as I know Domino only displays one record per page. I'm looking for a way to have several instances of each field on one page. A standard view with four columns won't allow me to show enough information. I'd like the info for the fields for one record to show on a page followed by the next record's fields and so on. This would continue until the page is full, then the next records would spill to another page. I'm basically trying to make it quicker to view the data that has been entered.

I hope this makes sense...if not let me know and I'll try to explain further.

Thanks for the help.

 

[pmonett]

I would like to display the four fields for every record in the database

Okay, what you call a record is called a document in Notes/Domino. To display the fields of a document, you can create a view that displays the field values with one column per field (or a concatenation of several fields in one column).

As far as I know Domino only displays one record per page

Something confusing in that statement. In Domino data from documents is displayed in views, and a view displays all documents which correspond to its selection criteria. The notion of page in Domino is probably quite different from what you think it is. How did you reach that conclusion ?

I'm looking for a way to have several instances of each field on one page. A standard view with four columns won't allow me to show enough information

How did you design your view ? That must be the crux of your problem.

I'd like the info for the fields for one record to show on a page followed by the next record's fields and so on

That is exactly what a view does. If you look at your Inbox, for every mail you have recieved you have one line of information containing the sender, the time and the subject. You can do the same simply by designing four columns with the four corresponding field names.

This would continue until the page is full, then the next records would spill to another page

Unless you are designing the detabase for the web, Notes does not use the notion of page in a view. Notes will include all the documents in the view, all the user needs to do is to scroll down.

I think we can solve your troubles by helping you correctly design the view. What interface you are using is also important (browser or Notes client).

Could you clarify further how you designed the view and how the users access it ?

Pascal.

 

[mgreich]

First of all, thanks for your help.

I do understand what you are saying with the views. My database has three fields with simple data (ie. Name, Location, Date) and one "comment" type field (this one could be several lines long, it's a dynamic field). This is where I run into a problem. I don't want to just extend the column, because it will become too large in most cases. I'm not sure if you have used MS Access much, but that is where I'm getting the "report" idea. It looks like more of a word processed document. It would look like a form in Domino, but because there are so few fields I would like to try and condense more than one record to a page (I'm thinking of printing here). This would be tied to the database, so as more data is entered the "report" expands to accomodate.

This question was spurred when I was asked if it was possible to print multiple records per page (instead of the standard one per page). I immediately thought of an Access "report". The more I'm looking into it, the more I'm thinking this is just something that can't be done in Domino.

Thanks again.

 

[pmonett]

You can print a view, in which case you don't need to worry about pages.

Now, if you want to create a form with the data for printing, you could create an agent that would format the data into a rich text field.
The "report" could then be saved and printed, and even archived for reference.

As for Access, I have never worked with it and only touched it a few times for personal enlightment. That said, I know enough about RDBMSs to say this : equating anything SQL or relational with Domino/Notes is quite a dangerous venture and not to be undertaken lightly. Notes is not relational and, until the DB2 file format is widespread and widely used, it is best to leave the notion of relational to proper RDBM systems like Oracle. Notes can do a lot of things, but be relational it can't - yet.

Pascal.

 

[mgreich]

That could work. I'll give that a try.

Thanks a lot for your help and info.