Re: [libreoffice-users] Workarounds for multiple problems with the legacy Report Designer-Wizard under LO 3.5

Fred,
I also want to thank you for an adequate discussion - more of that kind 
on this mailing list is needed!
Let us only hope it will lead to something in practice -- but I am 
afraid not.

May I take part from a slightly another point of view.
My system is Windows7/LibO3.4.6 and I do not know anything about 
LibO3.5.x versions  (too much bugs and other problems!)

If someone has managed to get LibO-Base work well enough to get a 
database created and is now ready for creating reports, then he/she is 
better not to use any (report) wizard, but use a Report Builder (RB) in 
stead;
if RB is not available for LibO yet (if not - why not? & sufficient 
documentation?) then there is an add-on for OpenO-Base -- somebody 
mentioned that LibO and OpenO are identical.
The RB is as easy (if not easier) and straight forward to use and you 
are free to decide about the report's layout as you want - with the 
wizard you are (almost) bound to the it's limitations.  With the RB you 
can do everything - and more - as with the wizard, why the wizard is 
more or less a burden.
In my experience the RB worked well but, despite promises in 
introduction, with the exception of "Page/Report Header" and 
"Page/Report Footer".

These are not only cosmetic matters but very much needed e.g. when a 
long report covers several pages.
>>> you may want the Report Header (report name, date, etc.) plus the 
Page Header (e.g. column headings) on the first page, but only the Page 
Header with the column headings repeated on every next pages - no Report 
Headers are wanted there
>>> at the end of every page, in the Page Footer, you may want to count 
or/and sum some fields per page and finally summarize them at the end of 
the report, in the Report Footer.
(Nor did the 'horisontal-line' button draw any visible lines)
As far as I know are these not possible now -- when will these be fixed?

In my opinion also the Form Wizard is of no use - it should be skipped. 
Much better is to create the form manually using Form Design View, 
provided that both the program/development and the documentation are 
recreated to a sufficient level of functionality and quality. At least 
that helps the user to understand what he/she is doing.
>>    in LibO there are no easy to reach and sufficient documentation 
on how to create a form (and a subform) manually using Form Design View
>>    in LibO (with embedded HSQL) you are bound to create a form based 
on a table only (=> each form on one table!) - you can not create a form 
on a query!
These errors must be immediately corrected to increase the usability and 
flexibility of LibO.
Best regards
Pertti Rönnberg



On 6.5.2012 23:01, Tom Davies wrote:
> Hi :)
> Nice work Fred!  Have you considered joining either the docs team (to help Dan write the guide for Base or 
> develop the Faq further) or the devs team to do some "Easy Hacks" and then come back to Base?  The 
> docs team could really use the help!
> Regards from
> Tom :) 
>
>
> --- On Sat, 5/5/12, frofa<frof07@yahoo.com.au>  wrote:
>
> From: frofa<frof07@yahoo.com.au>
> Subject: [libreoffice-users] Workarounds for multiple problems with the legacy Report 
> Designer-Wizard under LO 3.5
> To: users@global.libreoffice.org
> Date: Saturday, 5 May, 2012, 8:07
>
> After doing a bit more investigation recently, this is a summary of what I've
> found (so far) regarding the multiple problems with the legacy Report
> Designer-Wizard (RDW) under LO 3.5. For convenience and succinctness, I
> thought it might be worth SUMMARIZING the situation in this new message. It
> seems there are (at least) 3 different problems/bugs with the RDW under LO
> 3.5.
>
>
> SUMMARY OF PROBLEMS WITH THE REPORT-DESIGNER-WIZARD (UNDER LO 3.5)
>
> 1. All reports of course need to be based on an SQL query (whether
> pre-existing, or generated 'on-the-fly' by the RDW)
>
> 2. When building a Report using the LRD, there are 2 situations (specified
> in the first step of the RDW):
>    a.  Select a TABLE from your database
>    b.  Select a (pre-existing) QUERY from your database (referencing the
> TABLE above)
>
> 3. In the first case (2a above), using LO 3.5, the wizard DOES generate the
> appropriate query (with the fields and sorting the user has selected), and
> stores it in the hidden COMMAND control field. But NOTE, there is still a
> PROBLEM in the case where the Report needs to have GROUP HEADERS (i.e.
> GROUPED on one of the database fields). In this case, the auto-generated
> QUERY is incomplete, and the GROUP BY term is omitted. This can be fixed by
> simply editing the QUERY in the COMMAND control field and adding the GROUP
> BY term. This is effectively another BUG, in my opinion (the 'Repeated
> Headings Bug'). e.g. see here:
> http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Base-and-new-Report-Builder-in-3-5-td3817159.html#a3835807
>
> 4. In the second case (2b above), the wizard either does NOT generate the
> query (or does NOT copy it into the COMMAND control field) - leaving it
> BLANK. So it has to be entered 'manually'. This is the 'Blank COMMAND field'
> bug mentioned elsewhere.
> https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=47473
>
> 5. When I use the LRD in OpenOffice v.3.3 to generate the SAME report from
> the SAME database, the wizard correctly generates the SQL command, as shown
> in the hidden COMMAND control field, with the correct GROUPING term, and so
> the report runs properly in OO. (It also also runs properly in LO 3.5 once
> the hidden 'SORTING' control is added - that's the OTHER 'Sorting control'
> bug!). See here...
> http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Legacy-Base-reports-won-t-open-in-LibreOffice-3-5-td3916293.html#a3917443
> http://en.libreofficeforum.org/node/2589
> http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Report-Builder-td2762261.html#a2762591
>
> 6. OO also correctly copies the query code into the COMMAND control field in
> the SECOND case (2b) above, so there is no 'blank Command field' BUG in OO -
> see point 4 above.
>
> 7. There seems to be mounting evidence that these problems affect LO 3.5
> user on all platforms. See the links above for more info.
>
> I'm not a programmer, and don't have any deep technical understanding of LO
> and BASE, but it looks to me that how the RDW works has been changed
> somewhere down the line in LO development, leading to these 'bugs' (which,
> from what other users have reported, don't seem to affect LO 3.3 - not sure
> about LO 3.4).
>
> I hope this summary helps people using the RDW create properly functioning
> reports until the problems are sorted down the track. Despite it's flaws, I
> find the Report Designer Wizard a very flexible and useful tool, and hope
> that it will continue to be supported by the LO development team.
>
> - Fred
>
> --
> View this message in context: 
> http://nabble.documentfoundation.org/Workarounds-for-multiple-problems-with-the-legacy-Report-Designer-Wizard-under-LO-3-5-tp3964175.html
> Sent from the Users mailing list archive at Nabble.com.


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