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Group On Unbound Fields
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ActiveReports 6 > ActiveReports User Guide > Samples and Walkthroughs > Walkthroughs > Group On Unbound Fields

Glossary Item Box

ActiveReports allows you to set up grouping in unbound reports. When setting up grouping, the group header's DataField property is used to retrieve the grouping data from the database in the same manner as a textbox's DataField property. This walkthrough illustrates how to set up grouping in an unbound report.

This walkthrough is split into the following activities:

Tip: For basic steps like adding a report to a Visual Studio project and viewing a report, please see the Basic Data Bound Reports walkthrough.

To complete the walkthrough, you must have access to the Northwind database.
A copy is located at C:\Program Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 6\Data\NWIND.MDB (On a 64-bit operating system, a copy is located in C:\Program Files (x86)\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 6\Data\NWIND.MDB).

When you have completed this walkthrough, you will have a report that looks similar to the following.


Click to EnlargeClick to Enlarge

To add code to connect the report to a data source

  1. Double-click the gray area below the report. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportStart event.
  2. Add code to the handler to:
    • Set the data source connection string
    • Set the data source SQL query
    • Open the connection and retrieve the data with the data reader

The following examples show what the code for the method looks like in Visual Basic.NET and C#.

ShowTo write the code in Visual Basic.NET

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event. Copy Code
Dim connection As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection
Dim reader As System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader
Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event. Copy Code
'Create the data connection and change the data source path as necessary 
Dim connectionString As String 
connectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Program Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 6\Data\NWIND.MDB" 
connection = New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString) 
connection.Open() 
    
Dim sqlString As String 
sqlString = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid= products.categoryid ORDER BY categories.CategoryID" 
Dim command As New System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection) 
'Retrieve data 
reader = command.ExecuteReader()

ShowTo write the code in C#

C# code. Paste JUST ABOVE the ReportStart event. Copy Code
private System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection connection;
private System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataReader reader;
C# code. Paste INSIDE the ReportStart event. Copy Code
//Create the data connection and change the data source path as necessary
string connectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\Program Files\GrapeCity\ActiveReports 6\Data\NWIND.MDB";
connection=new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString);
connection.Open();

string sqlString = "SELECT * FROM categories INNER JOIN products ON categories.categoryid = products.categoryid ORDER BY categories.CategoryID";
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand command = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbCommand(sqlString, connection);   

//Retrieve data
reader = command.ExecuteReader();

To add controls to the report to contain data

  1. Back on the design surface of the report, right-click and select Insert, then Group Header/Footer to add group header and footer sections.
  2. Select the group header and make the following changes in the Properties Window.
    • Name: ghCategories
    • BackColor: Silver
    • CanShrink: True
    • DataField: CategoryID
    • GroupKeepTogether: All
    • KeepTogether: True
  3. Select the group footer, and in the Properties Window, change the Name property to gfCategories.
  4. Select the detail section, and in the Properties Window, change the CanShrink property to True.
  5. Add the following controls to the GroupHeader section (drag the bottom edge of the section down to display all of the controls):

    ShowGroupHeader controls

    Control DataField Name Text Miscellaneous Location
    TextBox CategoryName txtCategoryName Category Name

    ForeColor = Blue
    BackColor = Silver
    Font size = 12
    Size = 2, 0.2 in

    		 0, 0 in
    TextBox Description txtDescription Description Size = 6, 0.198 in 0, 0.3 in
    Label lblProductName Product Name Bold 0, 0.6 in
    Label lblUnitsInStock Units In Stock Bold
    Alignment = Right    		 4.4, 0.6 in
  6. Add the following controls to the Detail section:

    ShowDetail controls

    Control DataField Name Text Miscellaneous Location
    TextBox ProductName txtProductName Product Name Size = 4, 0.198 in 0, 0 in
    TextBox UnitsInStock txtUnitsInStock Units In Stock Alignment = Right 4.4, 0 in
  7. Add the following controls to the GroupFooter section:

    ShowGroupFooter controls

    Control DataField Name Text Miscellaneous Location
    Label TotalLabel lblTotalLabel Size = 2.4, 0.198 in 2, 0 in
    TextBox ProductName
    		 txtTotalItems Total Items

    SummaryType = SubTotal
    SummaryFunc = Count
    SummaryRunning = Group
    SummaryGroup = ghCategories
    Alignment = Right

    		 4.4, 0 in
    Line Line1 LineWeight = 3 X1 = 1.88 in
    X2 = 6.44 in
    Y1 = 0 in
    Y2 = 0 in
  8. Right-click the PageHeader section and select Delete.

To add fields using the DataInitialize event

Warning: Do not access the Fields collection outside the DataInitialize and FetchData events. Accessing the Fields collection outside of these events is not supported, and has unpredictable results.

ShowTo write the code in Visual Basic

  1. Right-click in any section of the design surface of the report, and select View Code to display the code view for the report.
  2. At the top left of the code view of the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
  3. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select DataInitialize. This creates an event-handling method for the report's DataInitialize event.
  4. Add code to the handler to add fields to the report's Fields collection.

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the DataInitialize event. Copy Code
Fields.Add("CategoryID") 
Fields.Add("CategoryName") 
Fields.Add("ProductName") 
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock") 
Fields.Add("Description") 
Fields.Add("TotalLabel")

ShowTo write the code in C#

  1. Click in the gray area below the report to select it.
  2. Click the events icon in the Properties Window to display available events for the report.
  3. Double-click DataInitialize. This creates an event-handling method for the report's DataInitialize event.
  4. Add code to the handler to add fields to the report's Fields collection.

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

C# code. Paste INSIDE the DataInitialize event. Copy Code
Fields.Add("CategoryID");
Fields.Add("CategoryName");
Fields.Add("ProductName");
Fields.Add("UnitsInStock");
Fields.Add("Description");
Fields.Add("TotalLabel");

To populate the fields using the FetchData event

ShowTo write the code in Visual Basic

  1. At the top left of the code view for the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
  2. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for the report's FetchData event.
  3. Add code to the handler to retrieve information to populate the report fields.

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the FetchData event. Copy Code
Try
   reader.Read()
   Me.Fields("CategoryID").Value = reader("categories.CategoryID")
   Me.Fields("CategoryName").Value = reader("CategoryName")
   Me.Fields("ProductName").Value = reader("ProductName")
   Me.Fields("UnitsInStock").Value = reader("UnitsInStock")
   Me.Fields("Description").Value = reader("Description")
   Me.Fields("TotalLabel").Value = "Total Number of " + reader("CategoryName") + ":"
   eArgs.EOF = False
Catch
   eArgs.EOF = True
End Try

ShowTo write the code in C#

  1. Back in design view, click in the gray area below the report to select it.
  2. Click the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for the report.
  3. Double-click FetchData. This creates an event-handling method for the report's FetchData event.
  4. Add code to the handler to retrieve information to populate the report fields.

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

C# code. Paste INSIDE the FetchData event. Copy Code
try
   {
      reader.Read();
      Fields["CategoryID"].Value = reader["categories.CategoryID"].ToString();
      Fields["CategoryName"].Value = reader["CategoryName"].ToString();
      Fields["ProductName"].Value = reader["ProductName"].ToString();
      Fields["UnitsInStock"].Value = reader["UnitsInStock"].ToString();
      Fields["Description"].Value = reader["Description"].ToString();
      Fields["TotalLabel"].Value = "Total Number of " + reader["CategoryName"].ToString() + ":";
      eArgs.EOF = false;
   }
catch
   {
      eArgs.EOF = true;
   }

Adding code to close the connection to the data source

ShowTo write the code in Visual Basic

  1. At the top left of the code view for the report, click the drop-down arrow and select (YourReportName Events).
  2. At the top right of the code window, click the drop-down arrow and select ReportEnd. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportEnd event.
  3. Add code to the handler to close the connection.
Visual Basic.NET code. Paste INSIDE the ReportEnd event. Copy Code
reader.Close() 
connection.Close()

ShowTo write the code in C#

  1. Back in design view, click in the gray area below the report to select it.
  2. Click the events icon in the Properties window to display available events for the report.
  3. Double-click ReportEnd. This creates an event-handling method for the report's ReportEnd event.
  4. Add code to the handler to close the connection.

The following example shows what the code for the method looks like.

C# code. Paste INSIDE the ReportEnd event. Copy Code
reader.Close();
connection.Close();

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