Selecting from a long list of values in a parameter 1

[dianemarie]

Hello, I'm working with SSRS 2005. I have many reports with multi-value parameters, where the user can select one or more clients (for example) from the drop-down. I allow the user to select in one of two ways. 1. The user enters the Client ID numbers separated by commas. I do this in the Query: ClientID IN (SELECT ClientID FROM fn_Split(@ClientNumber, ',')) This is fine for those people who don't mind keeping track of their client numbers, or running a report to get them. Which brings me to method 2: I do a separate dataset listing the client numbers and client names, use it in a multivalue parameter which they can check off. The problem with this method is our client list is massive, and they don't like scrolling through the very long list. The question is this. Is there a way to select client names by typing them until it shows up in the list? I apologize if this isn't clear. Thanks!

 

[jymm]

check out this post - it got me most of the way to what you are wanting to do - if you need more help - holler

http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/...meter-with-a-long-list-of-values-in-ssrs.aspx

 

[dianemarie]

Looks promising. I will check it out and let you know. Thanks much.

 

[RiverGuy]

Excellent link, jymm. The only issue I see with that would be a scenario allowing disparate selections. The example showed the user filtering by tires and then selecting a couple of types of tires. If a user wanted to select a certain tire and a set of handlebars, that solution would not work.

To create a truly dynamic type solution, one might have to go the worst case scenario route--creating an ASP.Net application with a ReportViewer control, wrapping the report into the control, and creating a custom name filtering solution.

 

[dianemarie]

Hm. Good point. In my case, there is just a list of all our clients, and which clients get selected depends on the salesperson's client list (no umbrella category to narrow down the list). This would work if they are selecting only one client, but the point of the multi-value is to allow them to be able to run several like reports in one pass. This would be a good solution for another problem I have however. Good info. I think at this time I will continue to have the user enter specific client IDs.

Thanks to both of you.

 

[jymm]

Yup - I had a similar customer list problem - the application there I was able to cascade a multi select by the first letter (not the best thing, but it was one of my first tries with SSRS)... it was great till they wanted selected customers that started with L AND others that started with M... Eventually with that app I needed to store the selections and switch to an ASP front end - not pretty...