Crystal Reports and Reports.ini

[Eileen]

Has anyone got a "cheat sheet" for creating new reports and linking them into Actinic?

I think my main question just now is: How do I reference the Reports.ini fields 'FromDate' and 'ToDate' from my Crystal Report?


I've created a basic report, which works with the date range specified in the FromDate and ToDate and ExtraConditions entered in Reports.ini, but when I attempt to create a summary sub report, it is summarising all data... not the subset used in the main report.

I have also tried to copy the @ReportDates field from the standard Actinic reports, but don't seem to be getting any data in @FromDate or @ToDate ... it seems to correspond to the fact that my summary subreport is summarising everything. The output of @ReportDates is: "For All Orders".

in confusion....

[Jan]

You have to link a field from the main report to the subreport (right click on the subreport and choose change subreport links) and then only those fields will be included in the subreport.

Regards,

[Eileen]

Hi Jan,
thanks for the info on using the links.
I've now got the subreport showing the proper info....

which just leaves the date weirdness.
How do I refer to the FromDate and ToDate from Reports.ini?

the formula @FromDate in the reports shipped with Actinic is defined as:

// This date is set by the application
""

It is very nice of you to be logged on today!

[Jan]

In V6 you have to set ReportToDate to the to date and ReportFromDate to the from date and then it will all work as if by magic.

In V5 you have to RToDate to the to date and FromDate to the from date.

Sorry about the confusion caused there, I get a bit confused with these dates sometime.

Regards,

[Eileen]

Thanks very much, Jan..

To summarise:
the dates are defined in Reports.ini as

FromDate="Select &From:"
ToDate="Select &To:"

In your Crystal Report, do NOT try to use the Actinic reports as a model for the date handling in your custom report.

Instead, you will should set up two null fields:
@ReportFromDate
@ReportToDate

You may then use these date fields in your report.

The dates are provided in the format 'dd mmmm yyyy' ie 31/12/2003 is passed to your report as '31 December 2003'.

cheers,