Multi column report - group on column

[david terek]

In MS Access reporting, one of the abilities it has is to keep a report group together based on a column instead of a whole page.

Now, I have read over the documentation on multi column reports and the relevant forum posts as well.  As I understand it so far what I am about to ask is not currently supported, but perhaps it could be in the future.

We have a popular report that is multicolumn that looks as follows:

TOTALS                Store #1            Store #2
Total Units                  5                       10
Product1 Income      $500                  $1000
Product2 Income      $600                  $2000
Product1 Avg           $132                  $325
....

Essentially the first column is a header column going down the page, and then each of the next columns is a different part of the grouping called "stores". 

As I have seen so far telerik reports for multicolum cannot handle this kind of grouping behavior.  Is this correct or have I missed something?  If it does not support this ability, are there plans to add this in the future?

Although in some ways the point is moot since according to the documentation the HTML viewer will only render one column anyway.  I would definitely need it to render all the columns in the HTML viewer since our application is web based.

Thanks for your help.

[david terek]

Really I suppose the solution here would be to use crosstab instead of multicolumn solution.  Cross tab is good, but it isn't as flexible as the multicolumn could potentially be because of the table having certain rigid properties.

[Svetoslav]

Hello david terek,

Looking at the sample it seems that you want to create a crosstable. Starting with 2009 Q1 release of Telerik Reporting we already have built-in support for crosstables. If you still haven't got the chance to take a look at the online demos, I would suggest starting with the Sales Per Period sample report that demonstrates a crosstable matching your needs. For more information please see the Understanding the CrossTab/Table/List report items topic.

All the best,
Svetoslav
the Telerik team

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[david terek]

I would like to follow up on this question.
it doesn't directly relate to my original question but the example that I have laid out is useful.
I would like for the first column, the one beginning with totals to print on every page, even if its in the middle or a group.
I have tried laying the report out with a "Label" group containing the left column's labels in its header, and its other components hidden.  I have created another group for "Stores", and put the calculated fields in its footer with the other sections hidden.  Leaving all settings alone, I get the first column on the first page, but no others.  If I turn on the option, "PrintOnEveryPage", it prints in every column, so like 7 times a page.  How can I get this to work?  Thanks, John
Also I am talking about PDF rendering, I'm aware of the HTML rendering shortcomings.

[Steve]

Hi David,

Thank you for the explanation, but unfortunately we cannot grasp whether you talk about the multi-column functionality of the report or you are utilizing the CrossTab item that my colleague has suggested in previous post. The behavior you describe at the end with the seven repeating fields per page should not happen in either case and that is why we would like to review your report definition (the report in question).
If you can prepare a sample/dummy data so we can run it as well, that would highly speed up the process of identifying what you need to achieve and advising you how to do it.

Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team