Field placement on report going haywire

  • I am new to .NET and Reporting Services. I have picked up the work of a SQL 2005 one page report (written by someone else) which is rendered to PDF and attempted to re-arrange the data and page dimensions (since the latter was non-standard). Although the changing of the page dimensions was slight (all of the fields are still within the page boundaries), it has caused the report to now go over two pages, with there seeming to be no logic as to which fields appear on which page.

    Are there any things I should be watching out for whenever I manipulate a layout in this way?

  • The biggest thing I find that helps me is that when viewing a report in Visual Studio, I always work in Print Preview mode as opposed to page preview as that gives a better representation of what the report will actually look like.

    Additionally, what may be causing your problem could be that certain fields may be set to autogrow based on the data within them... If you have a column that typically holds 15 characters of description information and all of a sudden someone decides they need to store 300 characters for a particular description, and the field is set to autogrow it could cause issues...

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • I'm assuming that you need a server connection to do that? Unfortunately, I haven't managed to get the report to connect, although the connection itself tests okay.

  • You need a datasource that is configured properly to connect to your source database, but other than that you can do pretty much everything inside of Visual Studio or BIDS.

    What do you mean you can't get it to connect? What errors are you getting?

    -Luke.

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • When I click on "Connect to Database" in Server Explorer within BIDS, though, and Test Connection, it connects, however, I get this when I attempt to go into Preview view with my report.

    "Cannot create a connection to data source 'DataSource1'.

    You have specified integrates security or credentials in the connection string for the data source, but the data source is configured to use a different credential type. To use the values in the connection string, you must configure the unattended report processing account for the report server."

  • In BIDS, in your solution explorer, you should have a folder for shared datasources...

    In your report (data tab) you should have your data sets... check which datasource your dataset is using and then check that datasource in your shared datasources folder. You should be able to open it and test the connection, or at the very least be able to identify what type of credentials it's configured for. Then perhaps your error message will make a bit more sense to you.

    -Luke.

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • Thank you so much for your help, Luke.

    I have managed to make the connection.

    Now, however, it's somehow pulling in what looks like a default pdf (slightly different to what I have).

    I can understand the data being different, since I haven't passed any parameters, but I have a two coloured borders around my report and the spacing is different.

    All that is another issue though 🙂

  • Perhaps to clarify, the borders do already exist in my "workspace" report, but when I go into preview mode the spacing of the borders is different.

  • depending on how the borders were placed at design time will modify their behavior at run time.

    If there are dynamic portions to the report then they'll be dynamic, if not they should be fairly static, although that depends on a number a things and is somewhat of an over-generalization...

    -Luke.

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • That's what's confusing me, Luke. This produces the borders perfectly when deployed, just not in preview mode.

    Anyways, you've done more than enough for me as my original question has now been answered.

    thanks heaps.:)

  • When you view it in the preview view, are you using the page view or the other? Or are you exporting it to a pdf like you do via your report server?

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • Luke L (1/15/2009)


    When you view it in the preview view, are you using the page view or the other? Or are you exporting it to a pdf like you do via your report server?

    3 Tabs - Data, Layout, Preview...................it's the Preview from there.

  • Right, and on the preview tab in the center of the tool bar there's a button to the right of the printer icon that is the "Print Layout" button. It will help you format your report for the printed page. The alternative to that layout is the Page layout (the default one). The Page layout is more for formatting your report for the web.

    -Luke.

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

  • Luke L (1/15/2009)


    Right, and on the preview tab in the center of the tool bar there's a button to the right of the printer icon that is the "Print Layout" button. It will help you format your report for the printed page. The alternative to that layout is the Page layout (the default one). The Page layout is more for formatting your report for the web.

    -Luke.

    Mmm, can't see any of that 🙁

  • perhaps toolbar is the wrong word... Also, it could be because I'm using Visual Studio and you're using BIDS, but they really should be darn near the same...

    I'm talking about the report's tool bar/menu bar for changing the viewable size (25% to 500%) or exporting to a PDF from your preview tab...

    To help us help you read this[/url]For better help with performance problems please read this[/url]

Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply