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Make the Group Header different if it's continued on the next page

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Andrew
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Andrew asked on 25 Aug 2011, 07:27 AM
I have a report with groupings. There are some groups which go for several pages.
Obviously, if you're looking at a page you want to know which group the data items belong to.

The simple solution is to set the PrintOnEveryPage property to True.

The problem is, by looking at a page you cannot tell if this is the start of the group or the continuation from a previous page.

If I can just get it to look slightly different, or display an additional text box ("continued) that would be good.

Is there some Formatting Rule I can apply here?


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Peter
Telerik team
answered on 30 Aug 2011, 04:08 PM
Hello Andrew,

Data processing and paging are two separate processes and as explained in the Understanding Report Sections help article, the paging of a report strongly depends on the format it is rendered to, and that is why the paging is processed by the corresponding rendering extension after the report data has been processed. Thus the report item's content can't be altered based on the report's paging.

Greetings,
Peter
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Thomas Mittag
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answered on 31 Oct 2012, 01:13 AM
This appears to be a serious gap in functionality, it should be a fairly standard requirement to change the group title on subsequent pages of a group (e.g   Group Header (continued), or something like that).  We are currently porting an application from powerbuilder, which is supporting this feature. 
In order to reproduce the reports in the same fashion as the legacy application we need this to work. Is there some way to make this work? I would even go for a hack at this point.
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IvanY
Telerik team
answered on 02 Nov 2012, 03:45 PM
Hi Thomas,

You may want to check this blog post - in here it is explained how to reset the page numbering per report group. This means that you can set the current page or just display continue, depending on your needs.

I hope that helps.

All the best,
IvanY
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Aaron
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answered on 15 Jan 2013, 09:03 PM
I have the same issue but with subreports. My subreports have a header that when continued on subsequent pages needs to display "... Continued.." Not having this is a deal breaker for my clients. By using the approach mentioned and resetting the page number, it will then screw up the page number on each page thereafter. Is there any way to use conditional formatting against a property that is set to false/true once text has been printed? Like having a header that prints the first header text, but then a group that prints the 'continued' header text on subsequent pages based on this property. This seems like a very basic and needed capability that is completely missing from your product.
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Chris Gillies
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answered on 17 Jan 2013, 12:20 PM
Aaron, can you share where you've seen such functionality?
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Aaron
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answered on 17 Jan 2013, 05:52 PM
This is according to one of my colleagues:

"I hope <Product Owners> are aware of such limitations with Telerik where we may need to compromise? I have worked on Crystal Reports extensively several years ago, it has everything. But it seems Telerik is not that vast and competitive."


But thank you for not trying to help my situation but instead question the validity of my claims. Maybe use your 'Master' title to actually be helpful?
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Svetoslav
Telerik team
answered on 23 Jan 2013, 03:55 PM
Hello guys,

As already explained, the pagination in Telerik Reporting is determined long after the report has been processed. That's why there is no way to reference any page information from the report's body. Page sections are the only items that are processed during the paging of the report and where we can perform any page related calculations and access the page information.

The reason for the separation of the processing and the pagination of the reports is that we can apply different page layout strategies on the same report according to the specifics of the output media. For example we use an "interactive" layout for the displaying the reports in the viewers, a page oriented layout for printing and exporting to page oriented document formats (PDF, MS Word, PowerPoint, RTF); for rendering the reports in MS Excel we have a dedicated "grid" layout that arrange the items according to the rows and columns in the worksheet; and at the end for exporting the report to CSV we skip the layout phase as we need just the data.

Attached you may find a sample report that in accordance with the above information displays an indicator in the page header when a group continues from the previous page. In order to achieve this result we need an extra report parameter (invisible) to store the last group on the page and a conditional formatting rule that shows the "continued" indication if the first group on the current page is the same as the last from the previous page.

In order to determine the first/last groups on the current page we use the detail section as the scope for the PageExec function; in the case of the subreport with continuous groups you have to reference the detail section of the inner report.

I hope this information gives more insight into the way how the reports are processed and paginated in Telerik Reporting. If you have any further questions do not hesitate to let us know.

Greetings,
Svetoslav
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Aaron
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answered on 24 Jan 2013, 02:36 AM
According to your literature, " As the name suggests, it can be used in page header or page footer of the report. ". As this is a subreport, so the pages are not able to be used anyways, and the header has been put into a Group so that they can be repeated on subsequent pages, I do not see how this can be done. The subreport needs to know when it spans multiple pages of the main report.

This is not a basic report, but has many subreports for each of the sub sections of the report, which was stated in my first post.

Should I open a ticket?
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Svetoslav
Telerik team
answered on 24 Jan 2013, 10:27 AM
That is correct, Aaron: the PageExec function works in the page sections only and only the master (the outer most) report has page section. However the PageExec function is not limited to the master report and can use any item from the processing hierarchy to define the scope for the calculations, which includes the nested reports and the items inside them. Actually during the processing of the reports, the child reports are attached to the parent report's item hierarchy; this way all items from all reports form a single processing item hierarchy. When evaluated, the PageExec function scans all items that fit on current page looking for the one that is set for its scope, ignoring the fact to which report definition they belong initially.

That is why: "In order to determine the first/last groups on the current page we use the detail section as the scope for the PageExec function; in the case of the subreport with continuous groups you have to reference the detail section of the inner report."

Attached you may find the sample from my previous post modified according to our understanding of your requirements: master-detail report, where the sub report contains groups that span on a couple of pages. Again the master report's page header uses the same approach to indicate the continuous groups; the only difference is that it refers the detail section of the sub report ("detail").

I would suggest to give it a try, modify it according to your needs and if you have any further questions do not hesitate to let us know.

All the best,
Svetoslav
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Sheeraz
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answered on 11 Mar 2014, 04:08 PM
Hi Svetoslav,

I am facing same issue while using this telerik reporting tool.
Scenario is, I have a main report that contains sub reports.
I have used group header to show title of that report so that It can be print on every page if records move to next page.
Now I want to append "[Continue]" this string with Title if records move to next page.
Title is present in Sub Report. I have a lot of reports that need this functionality. Could you please suggest a solution?
A working one will be helpful.

Regards
Sheeraz Raza







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Hinata
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answered on 14 Mar 2014, 12:01 PM
Hi Sheeraz,

There are a couple of sample projects attached to posts in this thread. Have you tried those?
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Sheeraz
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answered on 14 Mar 2014, 03:03 PM
Hi Hardik,

I have tried those but not fulfill my requirement. I want to append "Continued" text with Title in Group Header Section.
That Group Header Section is present in Sub Report. If records of Sub Report move to next page then Title should be printed on next page and Continued text should be appended with Title. I have attached sample of requirement. File 1st page header shows the 1st page should be like that and if next page exist than its header must be like that as shown in second attachment i.e. Next page header file. I have highlighted with red in both files. please have a look and suggest.

Thanks
Regards
Sheeraz Raza

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Sheeraz
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answered on 12 Jun 2014, 01:57 PM
Hi Svetoslav,

Any update on my post? I have attached sample snapshots for my requirement.
I have 4 to 5 sub-reports. To mention each report start and its continuity, I have used a group with no field attached to it to show header of sub-report. But I am not able to append continue word with this header text. I need to this for each sub-report. Please help me out in this regard.

Thanks
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Hinata
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answered on 17 Jun 2014, 10:44 AM
Hi Sheeraz,

As others explained above, there appear to be some limitations in the engine due to the way and the sequence of the processing and rendering. There are three different approaches with samples in this thread, which can guide you to create the desired scenario. Of course the samples will need some modifications, adjustments and fine tuning to apply to your project, which you will need to do on your end.
If you are unable to make those adjustments, then it might be better to change the overall structure of your report and not use sub-reports at all.
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Sheeraz
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answered on 20 Jun 2014, 12:54 PM
Hi Hardik,

Thanks for your reply, These samples are not working in my case. If I send you sample report, could you please check that either it is possible in telerik reporting or not?

Thanks
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Peter
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Thomas Mittag
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Aaron
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Svetoslav
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Sheeraz
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