Modify
the Foodmart Sales Report Layout to Meet Business Requirements
As we
have mentioned, the FoodMart Sales report that we have cloned as AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales.rdl contains a prompt to allow users to filter by Product Family.
We will make general layout changes in the report, while also eliminating the
existing prompt, before adding the parameters that form the core of our
focus in this lesson.
1.
Right-click AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart Sales.rdl in the Reports folder.
2.
Select Open,
as depicted in Illustration 26, from the context menu that appears.
AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales.rdl opens
and appears on the Layout tab of the Report Designer, as shown in
Illustration 27.
Illustration 27: AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales.rdl Appears in Report Designer - Layout Tab
3.
Click the Preview
tab to execute the report.
AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales.rdl executes briefly, and then returns
data. We see, atop the Preview tab, the Product Family parameter
selector, as depicted (expanded) in Illustration 28.
Illustration 28: AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales.rdl Appears in Preview (Partial View) - with Parameter Selector Expanded
4.
Select Non-Consumable
in the Product Family selector.
5.
Click the View
Report button to execute the report.
The
report appears, with different row items and values, as shown in Illustration
13. The differing results are due to its being filtered, via the parameter
selection, on the Non-Consumable Product Family.
Illustration 29: AdHoc_TopBottomFoodmart
Sales. Appears with Results Filtered for Non-Consumable Products
Each
of the three Product Family selections gives us a results set filtered
for its members. The Marketing team has asked for a "consolidated view,"
where all products appear on a single report. Elimination of the parameter in
place will be a simple way to get started toward this first objective, and to
pave the way for the new parameters that we will construct next.
6.
Click the Layout
tab to return to the Layout view.
7.
Select Report
-> Report Parameters from the main menu atop the Report Designer,
as depicted in Illustration 30.
Illustration 30: Select
Report -> Report Parameters
from the Main Menu
The Report
Parameters dialog, where we define parameters for the report, appears, as
shown in Illustration 31.
Illustration 31: The
Report Parameters Dialog
We
will get plenty of exposure to this dialog later in our session, and throughout
the MSSQL
Server 2000 Reporting Services series in general. Our objective
at this point is to remove the existing parameter, and to consolidate the Product
Families thereby.
8.
In the Parameters
list, on the left side of the dialog, click the single entry, ProductFamily,
to select it.
9.
Click the Remove
button underneath the Parameters list.
The ProductFamily
parameter is removed from the list.
10.
Click OK to
accept our removal of the parameter.
The
now empty Report Parameters dialog closes, and we are returned to the Layout
view of the report. We now have only to delete a reference to the parameter
we have removed, which we can access via the Properties dialog for the
matrix.
11.
Click at some
point within the label textbox of the report (containing the label Foodmart
Sales), to make the row and column headers of the matrix data region
visible.
12.
Right-click the
upper left corner of the matrix. (If the headers disappear as you touch them
with the cursor, you should still see a faint outline of the matrix.)
13.
Select Properties
from the context menu that appears, as depicted in Illustration 32.
Illustration 32:
Accessing the Matrix Properties
The Matrix
Properties dialog opens, defaulted to the General tab.
14.
Click the Filters
tab.
15.
Click the Value
field of the single occupied row to select it.
16.
Click the Delete
button to delete the reference to the parameter, as indicated in Illustration
33.
Illustration 33: Select
and Delete the Parameter Reference
» 
Comment and Contribute
