DEVELOPING DATABASE APPLICATIONS (INTERMEDIATE MICROSOFT ACCESS, X405.5)

Transcription

1 Technology & Information Management Instructor: Michael Kremer, Ph.D. Database Program: Microsoft Access Series DEVELOPING DATABASE APPLICATIONS (INTERMEDIATE MICROSOFT ACCESS, X405.5) Section 8

2 AGENDA 23. Report Basics 24. Building Reports 25. Advanced Reports

3 Report Basics 23.

4 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 357 Reporting in database systems is a tool for formatted data output. Reports have much greater flexibility is presenting summary information as well as grouping data in intervals. Designing and creating reports is very similar to building forms, therefore many features are familiar and we will point out the main differences between forms and reports. MS Access report writer is a banded report software. Groups of data are separated by horizontal bands, and data is shown in a vertical format. Each band represents a group, and a group can consist of one or multiple fields or an expression. Each distinct value in the domain is printed in the group header, then in the detail section the associated data is printed without repeating the group header information.

5 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 358 Report Header: This section only appears at the very beginning of a report. It is used for titles, logos, the current date, etc. Page Header: The page header appears at the top of each printed page. Generally it is used for column headings to increase the readability of the report.

6 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 359 Group Header: This section is printed at the beginning of each new group. It contains the unique value for a group Detail Section: The detail section contains the actual records after all the grouping is performed. The controls placed in this section repeat for each record. Detail section may span multiple pages. Group Footer: The group footer is printed at the end of a group, for example a report showing customers by state. It is used to show summary information for the group, for example the number of customers residing in a state. Page Footer: The page footer prints at the bottom of each page. It is commonly used to show the page number, the version number of the database or front-end application, and date and time when the report was run. Report Footer: The report footer appears at the end of the report. It is used to display report grand totals or any information relating to the entire report.

7 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 360 The different report generation options in MS Access are: Report: Tabular report based on selected data source in Navigation Pane. Report Design: Manually create a report in design view (from scratch). Blank Report: Manually create a report in Layout view. Report Wizard: Step by step wizard to generate a variety of reports. Label Report: Step by step wizard to generate label reports. A tabular report is a report that shows multiple records per page. A columnar report normally displays one record per page. A label report is primarily used for printing information on label sheets. A chart report displays data using a chart control to visualize information.

8 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 361

9 23.1 OVERVIEW OF REPORTS 362

10 23.2 REPORT PROPERTIES 363 Format Tab, Picture Pages: When to display a picture using the Picture property.: All Pages: To display a picture on all pages. First Page: To display a picture on the first page only. No Pages: Not to display a picture at all. Format Tab, Page Header,Page Footer: All Pages: Prints page header and footers on all pages (default) Not with Rpt Hdr: Does not include page header or footer on the same page with the report header. Not with Rpt Ftr: Does not include page header or footer on the same page with the report footer. Not with Rpt Hdr/Ftr: Does not include page header or footer on the same page with the report header and footer. Format Tab, Grp Keep Together Per Column and Per Page

11 23.2 REPORT PROPERTIES 364 Data Tab: No additional specific report properties. The most important property is the RecordSource property. Other properties Filter, FilterOn, Order, OrderOn. Event Tab: Two report specific events, OnNoData and OnPage. Other Tab, Record Locks: This is not a new property, but it is in a different place. Since editing of data does not occur in reports, this property is moved from the Data Tab (forms) to the Other Tab (reports). Options are NoLocks and AllRecords. Records may be locked when a report is previewed or printed. Other Tab, Date Grouping Options are Use System Settings or US Defaults. System settings uses the regional settings based on locale, US Settings uses Sunday as the first day of the week and January 1 as the starting day for the first week of the year.

12 23.3 SECTION PROPERTIES 365 Format Tab, Force New Page: Applies to all sections except Page Header and Footer. None: No page breaks Before Section: The current section is printed at the top of a new page. After Section: The section following the current section is printed at the top of a new page. Before & After Section: The current section is printed at the top of a new page and the next section is printed at the top of another new page. Format Tab, New Row Or Col Format Tab, Keep Together Format Tab, CanGrow, Can Shrink Format Tab, Repeat Section Format Tab, Alternating Back Color

13 23.3 SECTION PROPERTIES 366

14 23.3 SECTION PROPERTIES 367

15 23.3 SECTION PROPERTIES 368

16 Building Reports 24.

17 24.1 REPORT DESIGN 369 Since report data is not updatable (unlike forms), reports tend to be more complex in terms of the report layout (many different sections). Very likely, queries are used as a base for reports (unlike forms where individual tables used). These queries tend to be very complex, too, adding an additional layer of complexity to reports. For each report, collect the following information: Which data fields Report Selection Criteria (using parameter queries or custom form) Data grouping Data analysis Data summary After collecting information about the individual reports sketch the report layout on paper and discuss it with the user/client.

18 24.1 REPORT DESIGN 370 Data grouping basically determines the different report sections. Besides report and page header and footer, data grouping creates group headers and footers. The group header is used to introduce and label the group, the footer is used for summary information. Sketch of report used as a sample report for this class section.

19 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 371 Most importantly, create a query first.

20 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 372

21 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 373

22 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 374 First version of the report: Comment field: Based on LongText field, contains more information than it can fit into the sized text box control. Also note that not all pets actually have an entry in the comment field. One solution: Size the text box for the largest entry, but that creates lots of white, unnecessary space.

23 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 375 To dynamically adjust the size of the text box, use the CanGrow and CanShrink property for the control and the section. Now set the CanShrink property of the text box and the section to yes. You notice that the space is used efficiently now. Please note the following: The CanGrow and CanShrink properties only affect the vertical spacing, they do not change any horizontal spacing. Any overlapping controls cannot grow or shrink. A control spanning several lines can prevent any controls beside it from shrinking.

24 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 376 Another issue is the duplication of data in reports. Since we based the reports on the table customer and pets, there is obviously repetition of customer data if one customer has more than one pet. In reports, you have two options: Group by the repeating data Hide duplicate data

25 24.2 CREATING REPORTS FROM SCRATCH 377

26 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 378 Reports take sorting and grouping of data one step further, in that data can be sorted in specified intervals, not only the whole value in a field. When using the wizards, grouping is suggested by virtue of the relationship hierarchy. Furthermore, the user can introduce additional grouping levels based on any field. For each grouping level, a group header and/or group footer can be used. Group headers are used to introduce a group showing the unique value and a group footer is used to display group totals. There are two sections in this dialog box: Add a group: This option enables you to add a grouping level. There are a few different options you can set. Add a sort: The option enables you to add a sort level

27 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 379 Sorting data in a report can be performed by using only the sort option of the Group, Sort & Total pane. If no sorting is specified in a report, the sort order is determined by the underlying data source. Once a sort order is set in a report, the underlying sort order becomes inactive.

28 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 380

29 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 381 For each sort order entry in the Group, Sort & Total pane, additional properties become available. Sort By: Fields, Expression Enables a sort order for the current report. You can either select an existing field or create an expression. Sort Order: Ascending, Descending Enables ascending or descending sort order. By Entire Value: Depends on data type Specifies how you want to group your data, either by the entire value or by a partial value or different group value.

30 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 382 Totals: Specifies how to calculate totals and where to place the total values. A dialog box is displayed that is shown on the right. Title: Allows you to specify a special title in the group header in addition to your data that is placed in that section. Header/Footer: Specify a group header and/or group footer. Headers are useful to introduce the group using the unique data element of that group, footers are useful to place summary information. Once you set group headers and/or footers an additional horizontal band is inserted into the report design Keep Together: No, Whole Group, With First Detail Specifies whether a group and its detail records are kept together on a page.

31 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 383 Grouping can not only occur on the entire value of a field, MS Access reports add the flexibility of grouping on ranges of data of part of the field. The group on property setting depends on the data type of the field. Text field can be grouped on the entire field or on any number of prefix characters. Numbers can be grouped in intervals, meaning if 100s were selected, ranges of 0-100, , , etc. For a Date/Time field you can group by the common date/time components, such as day, week, month.

32 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 384

33 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 385

34 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 386

35 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 387

36 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 388 Custom property further groups the data. If you select month in the Custom property, setting the value to 6 would group records for every six months. Another example, if week is chosen as a group by property setting, the value 1 means every week, the value of 2 means biweekly. For number fields, setting the custom intervals specifies how number fields are grouped. To construct appropriate group headers for number intervals showing the interval we have to create an expression.

37 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 389

38 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 390

39 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 391 The last property in the Sorting and Grouping dialog box is the KeepTogether property, it has the following three settings: Do not keep Group together on one page: This option formats the report and inserts page breaks when the current page has reached the bottom. Sometimes it prints only a group header with no detail records, or it breaks the detail section anywhere in the middle, or the group footer carries over to the next page.

40 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 392 Keep Whole Group together on one page: This option attempts to keep the entire group together on one page including group header and group footer. If an entire group does not fit on one page, obviously a page break will occur.

41 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 393 Keep Header and first record together on one page: This option breaks the detail section anywhere, however, it will not print only the group header and then continue on the next page. If a group header and the first detail record fit on one page, it will print it on that page. But if only the group header fits without a detail record, the group header and the detail record is moved to the next page.

42 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 394

43 24.3 SORTING AND GROUPING OF DATA 395

44 24.4 RUNNING SUM, REPORT SUMS 396 The running sum property of a text box control is another new feature in reports. When set, it calculates a running sum, increasing the value of a text box control by the value in the previous record. It has three options. No: Over Group: Over All: No running sum calculation is performed. The running sum is calculated within a group. When a new group is started, the running sum is reset to 0. The running sum is calculated over the entire report. No resetting occurs, only when the report is run again.

45 24.4 RUNNING SUM, REPORT SUMS 397

46 24.4 RUNNING SUM, REPORT SUMS 398

47 Advanced Reports 25.

48 25.1 REPORT EXPRESSIONS 399 Page header and footer do not hold any database data (although theoretically possible), but they display other important information. A page header in general shows all labels for the database fields in the various sections, such as group headers and detail section. The page footer in general should display the current date and time when the report was run and the page numbering. There are some built-in functions that allow you to retrieve the current page number and also the total page number for the report. The following functions/properties are available and applicable to reports: To display the current page of a report: [Page] (Report property) To display the total number of pages of a report: [Pages] (Report property) To display the current date: Date() (Database function) To display the current time: Time() (Database function) To display the current date and time: Now() (Database function)

49 25.1 REPORT EXPRESSIONS 400

50 25.2 SUB REPORTS 401 Either use the report wizard to create a main/sub report configuration or use the sub form/sub report control from the toolbox to create a sub report control manually. Sub reports are not used as much as sub forms since you can create complex queries to retrieve the data necessary (updateability issue). Data is displayed in a horizontal fashion since the report writer is a banded report writer. If you need to display the sub report data in a different place (other than the horizontal flow) inside the main report, then the use of a sub report is appropriate. Place sub reports inside the report header, the group headers or footers, or you can even build an unbound report with two embedded, unrelated sub reports.

51 25.2 SUB REPORTS 402

52 25.2 SUB REPORTS 403

53 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 404

54 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 405

55 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 406

56 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 407

57 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 408

58 25.3 ADVANCED SAMPLE REPORTS 409