NeoDBpro Report Designer

The Text/Field Tool is used to add database fields and text to your reports. These can be added directly to the report page background for simple reports or placed on top of Partitions to create more complex reports. You can change the object's appearance using the Text Style and Object Style Palettes.

To add text or a database field to your report, use the mouse to draw a rectangle where you would like the text to appear. The Text/Field Properties screen will be displayed, allowing you to enter and format your text.

The contents of the Text/Field object can be any combination of plain text or database fields. Plain text is anything that's not drawn from the database, such as column headings or labels. Database fields must be typed using a special syntax similar to that used to display NeoDBpro field variables in VisualNEO for Windows. As you know, a database can contain one or more tables, which contain records which are composed of fields. When creating or opening a database table, NeoDBpro will automatically create VisualNEO for Windows variables for each field it finds. In Report Designer, each field variable is a combination of the table name, a period (.) and the field name surrounded by square brackets. For example:

[Clients.FirstName]

[Clients.LastName]

[Clients.Street]

[Clients.City]

[Clients.State]

[Clients.Zip]

[Clients.Telephone]

Unlike NeoDBpro, Report Designer does not use the database ID as part of the field variable. That's because reports can only work with one database at a time, and since reports exist outside the context of NeoDBpro, the database ID has no meaning.

If you have selected a Database Source from the Report Properties screen, you can use the button to select from a list of available field names.

Enable the Word wrap option if you want the contents of the Text/Field object to wrap to fit within the object bounds. Enabling the Auto-size option will allow the Text/Field object to expand or contract if the contents are larger than the object's bounds.

Use the conditional Formatting button to specify alternate font and fill colors to use for this object under certain conditions. The condition statement is similar to that used by VisualNEO for Windows's built-in IfEx action. If the condition evaluates to TRUE then the alternate formatting will be used. If FALSE, then the object's default formatting will be used. For example, the following condition triggers the alternate formatting when the value of the [Orders.UnitPrice] field is greater than or equal to 500:

[Orders.UnitPrice] >= 500

If you want to compare the calculated contents of this object (the results of the formula), you can use the special keyword "Value" in your conditional statement. For example:

Value >= 500

You can use AND and OR operators to construct complex conditional statements. Each element in a conditional statement should be surrounded by parentheses. For example:

(Value >= 500) OR (Value <= 100)

Literal text should be surrounded by single quotation marks. For example:

Value = 'Sunday'

You can also incorporate VisualNEO for Windows variables into the conditional statement. For example:

(Value <= 500) AND ([CheckBox1] = 'Checked')

Formatting Dates and Numbers

Numeric and date fields can be formatted by adding a pipe character and a special code to the end of the variable name. For example, the following will format a numeric field variable with a dollar sign, two digits to the right of the decimal and comma thousands separator:

[Products.Price|$#,#.00]

When printed, this will produce the following:

$1,250.50

See Formatting Fields for more information.

Special Codes

There are several special report-specific codes or variables that can be inserted into the Text/Field object using the button. These codes are:

VisualNEO for Windows Variables

In addition to field variables, you may also manually type most types of VisualNEO for Windows variables into Text/Field objects. Although VisualNEO for Windows variables have no meaning in Report Designer, they will print when reports are generated from a compiled publication using NeoDBpro.