How can I modify the UI for the crystalreportviewer prompt screen ?

Question

<p>Hi,</p><p> I am using Crystal Report XI with JRC.</p><p>I have come across a couple of issues. My report accepts 2 parameters from the user. One is a date field and the other is the &#39;Period&#39;. I have provided a drop-down having values as Daily, Weekly, Monthly, Quarterly, Yearly.</p><p> The following are the issues that I have come across:</p><p>1. Selecting a value from the drop-down and submitting the form gives the following error.</p><p>     [java] 17:46:20,265 INFO  [STDOUT] 17:46:20,265 ERROR [com.businessobjects.reports.sdk.JRCCommunicationAdapter] JRCAgent11 detected an exception: The value for parameter `Period` must match one of the specified default values.<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.dataengine.d.case(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.dataengine.d.at(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.dataengine.d.new(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.common.as.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.common.ae.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.businessobjects.reports.sdk.b.k.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.businessobjects.reports.sdk.b.s.do(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.businessobjects.reports.sdk.JRCCommunicationAdapter.request(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.businessobjects.reports.sdk.JRCCommunicationAdapter.request(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.x.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.q.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.q.else(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.q.for(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.q.do(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.q.if(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.u.performDo(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.proxy.remoteagent.u.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.DataDefController.a(Unknown Sour<br />ce)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ParameterFieldController.modify(<br />Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ParameterFieldController.modify(<br />Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ParameterFieldController.setCurr<br />entValues(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ReportSource.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ReportSource.a(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.ReportSource.getPromptParameterF<br />ields(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.AdvancedReportSource.getPromptPa<br />rameterFields(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.sdk.occa.report.application.NonDCPAdvancedReportSource.getPr<br />omptParameterFields(Unknown Source)<br />     [java]     at com.crystaldecisions.reports.reportengineinterface.JPEReportSource.getPromptParam<br />eterFields(Unknown Source)</p><p> When in the report I set allowcustomvalues to true then it accepts the value selected from the dropdown. But in this case the prompt screen shows a textbox next to the drop-down that gets populated on selecting any option from the dropdown. This textbox is editable and can accept any value. Is there a way I can get rid of this textbox. Also i would like to know why the drop-dwon by itself is incapable of passing the value.</p><p> 2. Secondly, Is there anyway I can change the UI for the crystalreportviewer prompt screen being displayed for accepting the parameters from the user. As per my clients requirement the messages displayed in the prompt screen should be customised.</p><p>3. The third issue is with the date parameter. When a date is selected using the calender control the textbox gets populated in the following format Date(yyyy,mm,dd). My requirement is that this should be a userfriendly format like mm-dd-yyyy. I have succesfully modified the crystalreportviewer javascript so that the calender returns the date in the required format i.e. mm-dd-yyyy. But in this case the date parameter is not accepted though no error is displayed on the console. I have tried rechanging the format into Date(yyyy,mm,dd) before the prompt form is submitted but even this didnot help. What can I do to overcome this problem? </p><p>Any help with respect to the above problems will be highly appreciated.</p><p>Thanks & Regards</p>

Answer 1

<p>From the looks of it, the default parameter prompt screen isn&#39;t really fitting your requirements.  You have a number of requests for modification.</p><p>In your case I think the best thing to do would be to create your own parameter prompt screen.  You can use the SDK to create a page that works for all reports by inspecting the reports parameters before you set the values.</p><p>This would allow you the flexibility of easily meeting your customers requirements.</p><p>Point 1 - I&#39;m not sure.</p><p>Point 2 - There isn&#39;t much access to change the prompt screen.</p><p>Point 3 - I&#39;m not sure why you would want to change the formatting of the Date when you are already using a calendar object to get it.  It sounds like you might have a small mistake in the way you edited the javascript.</p><p>I really think you are probably better off creating your own prompt screen. <br /></p><p>Rob Horne<br /><a href="/blog/10">Rob&#39;s blog - http://diamond.businessobjects.com/blog/10</a></p>