Custom Report Layout with mutliple child tables

Question

I am trying to create a custom report layout (using Bi Publisher) where I have parent data (multiple jobs on a page) and several child tables for each job (JobDays and JobStops) and several child tables for JobDays (JobDayProviders, JobDayCrew). On the apex screen, I have a join on Jobs and JobDays and I am using functions to string each child row value for JobDayProviders and JobDayCrew together and putting a <br> in between so that they will format on separate lines within a cell. It works fine on the screen but when trying to print to pdf, it ignores these line breaks. I have also tried using <br></br> (saw an article that said just use HTML in bi pulisher) which puts two lines in between each value on the screen and is still ignored on the pdf.
for example:
Table hierarchy:
Jobs table
Job Stops
Job Days
Job Day Service Providers
Job Day Crew
Report Layout per job (will have mutlipe jobs to print, just printing 1 day per job):
Jobs.col1 JobStops.row1 JobDay.col1 JobDayProviders.row1 JobDayCrew.r1
JobStops.row2 JobDayProviders.row2 JobDayCrew.r2
JobDayProviders.row3
Thanks,
Linda
First, is there a way to get bi publisher to recognize the line breaks? If not, what is the best way to create a custom report for this scenario? I tried to create a report query with mutliple queries, but cannot determine how to link the child queries to the paren query. I have seen an example where a button is pressed to print one parent row and the id of that row is saved and referenced as a parameter in each of the queries, but if printing mutliple parents on a report, how would I link the child queries to the parent query?

Answer 1

Helen,
The best way for your case is to use a content folder and customize it whichever way you like.
however, your question is about reports. the problem in reports is this that you have to use just one single query and the layout of the results of this query are displayed in a peculiar way.
anyway. something similar but not exactly the same as what you wanted do is the following.
use a query like the following: (with a union in between)
SELECT COLUMN1,NULL , NULL ,NULL ,NULL
FROM my_source_table
WHERE myCriteria LIKE 'SoAndSo%'
UNION
SELECT NULL,COLUMN2 , COLUMN3, COLUMN4, COLUMN5
FROM my_source_table
WHERE myCriteria LIKE 'SoAndSo%'
---------- Now, have the following codes in the layout segments:
<!--- header --->
<table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="1" width="20%" align="center">
<!--- body --->
<tr align="center">
<td><table border="0" cellpadding="1" cellspacing="0" width="30%" align="center">
<tr align="center">
<TH><#COLUMN1.FIELD#></TH>
</tr>
</table>
</td>
<TD class="report_cell" ALIGN="LEFT"><#COLUMN2.FIELD#></TD>
<TD class="report_cell" ALIGN="LEFT"><#COLUMN3.FIELD#></TD>
<TD class="report_cell" ALIGN="LEFT"><#COLUMN4.FIELD#></TD>
<TD class="report_cell" ALIGN="LEFT"><#COLUMN5.FIELD#></TD>
</tr>
<!--- footer --->
<TR><TD></TD></TR>
this should produce a report with a table structure (you may see the whole if you give BORDER="1" in the main table tag). Within this table, the first column of the first row should be showing top-leftmost column value once (COLUMN1 value) and then the next rows would show last four column values as a table block on the right-bottom part.
with kind regards,
naqvi