Rap or not using Report Server/Thin Client

rbuser

I am a reasonable seasoned Report Builder developer but am new to Rap and
Report Server. I am trying to adapt a rather simple report presently stored
in a blob (Paradox) . Of course, I have the RTM.

My intention is to serve this report to be read by a simple client that is
using rsReportClient and a rsClientReportExplorer.

Here is my problem. The core data that is used for this report is stored in
a new table daily as ProductionData_{dateStamp}.db

With a local form stored report, this is not even an issue since I can give
my use a datapicker or the like and construct the file name and pass it into
a Query constant (Using Format d% or any other way to build a query outside
from within Delphi ). But now I have the query in on the data page of the
Report designer and have no idea of how to pass in a date and construct the
table name for the queary. Also, I need to broadcast the available dates to
the client so they can select one for the report. I have been through all
the demo and tutorials but am not having any luck. I toyed with rap
pass-thru but am not getting far.

I guess to sum up, I want to know a method to query an unknown table name
until it is returned by the user and how to project to possible names to the
user.

Initially, we were going to go WebTier but decided to make the first run as
thin client to reducce complexities.

Can you start me down the right road.

Right now I have to projects functioning.
The first is a local report that does all the above.
The second is a served report that arbitrarily pick the date (i.e.
ProductData_date) at design thime. I need to get past this hurdle.

Larry

nardmoseley

Check out the RBServer Custom Parameters demos. There are Server,
ClientReport, and WebTier custom parameter demos. The demos work together.
Each demo contains a ReadMe.doc and commented code. I think will give some
ideas of how to implement this. I do not think you need to use RAP to do
this.

You can use the Report.Parameters[] feature to define parameters for the
report. The examples mentioned above show how to display a custom form with
a picklist of values for both client report and web tier apps.

One approach would be to use Delphi event-handler code to implement
ReportVolume event-handlers that apply the report.Parameters[] to the
SQL/dataset associated with the report. If you are using the Data workspace
to build your SQL, you will need to write code to extract the SQL object and
edit the SQL text. (You could alternatively still use external datapipelines
that you create and attached to the report). Here is an example of
extracting the sql object and editing it as text.

www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/ExtractEditAsTextSQLObject.zip




--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors Corporation
www.digital-metaphors.com