CIS 338: VB.NET Printing Dr. Ralph D. Westfall May, 2011

Crystal Reports recognized as leading product for printing and formatting reports better reporting than the earlier versions that came with VB6, VB.NET 2003, 2005 Crystal Reports 10 version is packaged with Visual Studio.NET 2008 May need to download free version that works with VS 2010free version

Installing Crystal Reports if didn't do so originally, need to add Crystal Reports to your Visual Studio.NET installation  might also need to reinstall if you upgrade from VS 2005 to VS 2008? Start>Settings>Control Panel> Add/Remove Programs>Microsoft Visual Studio.NET>Visual Studio.NET>Add or Remove Features>etc.

Get Database and Project download and unzip Proj3Web.zip fileProj3Web.zip create a new folder on your desktop copy and paste the Nations.mdf and.ldf files from the unzipped folder into C:\cis338

Creating a Project start VB.NET should see Crystal Reports icon on startup screen create a new Web (or Windows) project Web>ASP.NET Web Application or File>New Project>Visual Windows Form Application

May Need to Attach Database open SQL Server Management Studio save Server Name from login window Connect>right-click Databases>Attach> Add>select.mdf file in new folder>OK>OK expand Databases and the database you will be using right-click table that you will be using> make sure that table has a primary key> close the deign window

Add a Report Designer Project>Add New Item>Reporting> Crystal Report, rename it>click Add (1 st use) accept the license terms>OK with Using the Report Wizard selected, Standard Report highlighted>OK expand Create New Connection>expand OLE DB (ADO)>select Microsoft OLE DB Provider for SQL Server>Next>

Add Your Database check Integrated Security:>Server: (local)\SQLEXPRESS>Database: C:\cis338\Nations.mdf>Next>Finish select Add Command (in Available Data Sources)>click on angle bracket pointing right>(moves to new window) type in the following SQL query: select ID, Country, Gold, Pop, Currency, Capital from nations2, currencies where nations2.CID=currencies.CID>OK>Next

Identify Outputs and Groups expand the command and use the double angle bracket to send all the fields to the right or select fields and use the single angle bracket to send individual fields>Next add a field to Group By: that isn't unique so it will have more than one item in its groups (such as Gold or Currency)> change sort order if want>Next

More Options could select Sum of command.Pop and then select a summarization in ListBox, such as Sum or Average return other groupings to left>Next could choose to group by Top 5 or Bottom 5 sum of command.Pop could choose a charting option>Next

Even More could filter by values in any field could select database values in ListBox or type in value e.g. Pop >=1.0 >Next review the Report Styles by selecting some and viewing Preview until find one that looks best>Finish

Add a Report Viewer Project>Add New Item>Web>Web Form>Add Find Crystal Reports Viewer on ToolBox in Reporting section and drag onto Form in a Windows project (not ASP), could set Anchor property to link to all four corners of form, so user can resize report

Add Report Viewer - 2 Specify the ReportSource as the report you just created>OK, or double-click form to create start of Form_Load code, and add code: Imports CrystalDecisions.Windows.Forms Dim [instance] As New [report object]() [report viewer].ReportSource = [instance] [report viewer].ShowFirstPage( ) 'Notes

Test Report Viewer run project with web form on screen can use navigation at top to scroll through Windows form report review output for possible design changes note buttons at top Print Report, Search Text, etc. Export Report (various file types/formats) Toggle Group Tree

Modifying Report in report designer, right click on some white space (not an object) in form> Insert>Text Object>move box to where you want it and type text in it select fields to widen them and/or move them to better locations right-click redundant fields>Delete Format Object on pop-up menu

Changing Report Options double click the report icon in Solution Explorer to view designer right click on white section of designer, then click Report various options allow you to modify previous choices Report Options allows you to set NULL values to defaults

Fixing NULL Fields in Database in SQL Server Management Studio, right-click database name>New Query query can be used to get data (slide 8) type 1st query below, click the Execute button, then use 2 nd query to verify: 1. update [table name] set [field] = [replace with] where [field] is null 2. select * from [table name] where [field] is [replace with]

Adding Special Fields Crystal Reports>Field Explorer can drag and drop fields such as Print Date, Print Time, Page Number, etc. onto various areas of screen

Open/Show Multiple Forms Project>Add New item>etc. follow the preceding steps to create a Crystal Report on the new form, or some other form put code in a form to select and show the other form (is or loads from Startup object) Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender etc. Response.Redirect("[report file].aspx") 'ASP Form2.Show() 'Windows End Sub