Question

We have this XML schema:

<xs:schema attributeFormDefault="unqualified" elementFormDefault="qualified" xmlns:xs="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
  <xs:element name="Log">
    <xs:complexType>
      <xs:sequence minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
        <xs:element name="LogEntry" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1">
          <xs:complexType>
            <xs:sequence>
              <xs:element name="Time" type="xs:dateTime" />
              <xs:element name="StringRef" type="xs:string" />
              <xs:element name="Parameters" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1">
                <xs:complexType>
                  <xs:sequence>
                    <xs:element name="Parameter" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded">
                      <xs:complexType>
                        <xs:sequence>
                          <xs:element name="Name" type="xs:string" />
                          <xs:element name="Value" type="xs:string" />
                        </xs:sequence>
                      </xs:complexType>
                    </xs:element>
                  </xs:sequence>
                </xs:complexType>
              </xs:element>
            </xs:sequence>
          </xs:complexType>
        </xs:element>
      </xs:sequence>
    </xs:complexType>
  </xs:element>
</xs:schema>

and we want to create a Crysal Report that looks like this:

<Time> <Parameter:Name == Text> <Parameter:Name == Param1> <Parameter:Name == Param2>

where each line of the report is one LogEntry. The LogEntry’s that are displayed are filitered on the StringRef parameter. So, given the following XML:

<Log>
  <LogEntry>
    <Time>2009-06-15T11:55:04</Time>
    <StringRef>Type1</StringRef>
    <Parameters>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Text</Name>
        <Value>Message1</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param1</Name>
        <Value>1</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param2</Name>
        <Value>2</Value>
      </Parameter>
    </Parameters>
  </LogEntry>
  <LogEntry>
    <Time>2009-06-15T11:55:05</Time>
    <StringRef>Type2</StringRef>
    <Parameters>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Text</Name>
        <Value>Message2</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param1</Name>
        <Value>1</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param2</Name>
        <Value>2</Value>
      </Parameter>
    </Parameters>
  </LogEntry>
  <LogEntry>
    <Time>2009-06-15T11:55:06</Time>
    <StringRef>Type3</StringRef>
    <Parameters>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Text</Name>
        <Value>Message3</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param1</Name>
        <Value>1</Value>
      </Parameter>
      <Parameter>
        <Name>Param2</Name>
        <Value>2</Value>
      </Parameter>
    </Parameters>
  </LogEntry>
</Log>

and filtering on:

StringRef == Type1 or StringRef == Type3

would give a report like this:

2009-06-15T11:55:04 Message1 1 2
2009-06-15T11:55:06 Message3 1 2

My question is this: can this be done using Crystal Reports? If it can, some information on how to do it would be helpful.

Notes – the above has been anonymised somewhat so I’m looking for how to do it rather than a specific answer, although that will be useful as an example. We’ve been told by the person responsible for implementing this report that the above is not possible, however, I feel that this should be possible. It’s OK to say it’s impossible, it’s just means more work for me 🙁

Cheers,

Skizz

Answer 1

Yes, Crystal can easily handle an xml datasource. However, you have to realize that the data will be represented as a table. Just set the datasource to the xml doc and put all the fields in the details section to see what I mean. I’d guess there’d be a LogEntry, Parameter, and Parameters tables.

To concat the parameters into one line you can use a shared stringvar like so…

Group By the LogEntry_Id field then create these 3 formula objects…

reset_var

shared stringvar params;

whileprintingrecords;

params := '';

concat_var

shared stringvar params;

whileprintingrecords;

params := params + iif(length(params) = 0, "", " ") + {Parameter.Value};

show_var

shared stringvar params;

whileprintingrecords;

params;

Drag reset_var to the group header (suppress the group header). This will reset the var on each LogEntry. Drag concat_var to the details section(suppress the details section). This will build the param string. Then drag show_var to the group footer to display the params.