Lambi000 said:
I have been asked twice in the last week if there is some way to create a
Report Writer with Access so users can query their data and create their
own
reports. Has anyone else had this request and, if so, did you come up
with
any solutions?
I kind of thought that the above is a description of the report writer and
query builder in ms-access? (did I miss something here?).
If you can design something for your users that allows you to build quires
and relational data joins without any training, then I would suggest you get
right on it, as millions, and perhaps billions will be your reward. (you
will become the next bill gates if you can accomplish this task).
On the other hand, if you talking about how does one handle the need for
prompting the user for critea etc. for a report?
The normal approach is to build a un-bound form (a un-bound form is a form
that is NOT attached to a table - these forms are typicaly desiged for user
interface face stuff like promtps, print buttions etc).
The following screen shots are all un-bound forms, and they simply prompt
the user for informaton.
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal/ridesrpt/ridesrpt.html
The above shold give you some ideas
So, the solution use now is simply to take the values from the form, and
build your own where clause in code. That way, you simply design the reports
(or forms), and attached them to the query. And, NO FORMS conditions are
placed in the query.
To "send" the conditions to the report (or form), you simply use the "where"
clause. This is exactly why ms-access has this feature...and it solves a
zillion problems...and will reduce your development costs by a substantial
amount.
The code to make those above screens work and launch the report with the
selected restrictions when you hit the "print" button is easy:
dim strWhere as string
' select sales rep combo
if isnull(cboSalesRep) = false then
strWhere = "SalesRep = '" & cboSalesRep & "'"
end if
' select what City for the report
if isnull(cboCity) = false then
if strWhere <> "" then
strWhere = strWhere " and "
endif
strWhere = strWhere & "City = '" & cobCity & "'"
end if
Note how the 2nd combo test is setup. You can add as "many" more conditions
you want. Lets say we have a check box to only include Special Customers. We
can add to our very nice prompt screen a check box to
[x] Show Only Special customers
The code we add would be:
if chkSpeicalOnly = True then
if strWhere <> "" then
strWhere = strWhere " and "
endif
strWhere = strWhere & "SpecialCust = true"
endif
For sure, each combo and control we add to the nice report screen takes a
bit of code, but no more messy then the query builder..and this way, each
query is nice and clean, and free of a bunch of HIGHLY un-maintainable
forms! expressions.
Further, it means you can re-use the same query for different reports, and
have no worries about some form that is supposed to be open. So, a tiny bit
more code eliminates the messy query problem.. For me, this is very worth
while trade.
For a date range, we could put two calendar contorls on the screen. The code
could be:
dim strWhere as string
dim strStartDate as string
dim strEndDate as string
strStartDtae = "#" & format(me.StartDateContorl,"mm/dd/yyyy") & "#"
strEndDate = "#" & format(me.EndDateContorl,"mm/dd/yyyy") & "#"
strWhere = "InvoiceDate is between " & strStartDate & " and " & strEndDate
docmd.openReport "InvoiceReport",acViewPreview,,strWhere
So, really, a product sales report can really only be grouped by perhaps
sales report, location, and filtered by perhaps location and sales rep.
Hence, your choice is build a nice screen with some prompts for the report,
or simply assume that users can deal with building queries and reports
themselves.
--
Albert D. Kallal (Access MVP)
Edmonton, Alberta Canada
(e-mail address removed)
http://www.members.shaw.ca/AlbertKallal
