I had earlier posted about this ongoing series; not long back. To know what it is exactly, read it here: Report Writer Series.
The new post on this series discusses about how to create custom report writer reports.
VAIDY
Category Archives: Reporting
Report Writer Series – Kuntz Consulting
Report Writer has been considered by most of the clients as static and bland reporting tool, due to it’s look & feel and it’s rigidity in terms of modifying the reports.
But, Report Writer is an amazing reporting tool, if only people know how it’s structured technically and how to bend it for our requirements. I am not certainly talking about customers. It’s the consultants’ responsibility to convince customers by demonstrating the power of Report Writer.
Over at Kuntz Consulting blog, series of posts are to be read to understand Report Writer as a tool and how to use it for our betterment. Following are the posts that are already been posted:
- Report Writer Demystified – Part 1 – Dictionaries & Launch Files
- Report Writer Demystified – Part 2 – Other Considerations
- Report Writer Series – Formatting Text
- Report Writer Series – Don’t Settle for Ugly Reports – Part 1
- Report Writer Series – Don’t Settle for Ugly Reports – Part 2
- Report Writer Series – Toolbox Tips
- Report Writer Series – Drawing Options Tips
- Report Writer Series – Sections
And it’s only going to get more on this series.
Worth reading for all those who would want to know about this silent performer, that is Report Writer.
VAIDY
Limiting Number of Records Per Page on a Crystal Report
There are several methods to achieve limiting number of records per page on a crystal report.
But this method, from a blogger named Pankaj Lalwani, seems to be very simple and effective. Check his post here: Limiting Number of Records to be Displayed on Crystal Report.
Version won’t matter in this case, since the solution what he proposes uses most common functions/operators, unless the latest version of crystal reports have an in-built settings for DETAILS section in Section Expert (which I doubt it would be).
VAIDY
Extender Fields & Report Writer – Weekly Dynamic from Mark
Those who want to know how to add/use Extender Fields on a Report Writer report, Mark’s Weekly Dynamic post, Extender and Report Writer walks us thru’ simple steps with a real time scenario.
There are also links to relevant KB articles which will form the base for your task.
VAIDY
Fiscal Year Start Date & End Date – SQL Query
I am currently working on custom SSRS dashboards performance tuning and related exercises. One task among all is to automate the Fiscal Year Start Date and Fiscal Year End Date based on which Fiscal Year we are in.
If the fiscal year is the same as calendar year, we can hard code the values to 1-Jan-[current year] and 31-Dec-[current year]. Since it’s not in my case, I had to dynamically get the dates from somewhere.
The simplest way for me is to query this from GP Fiscal Periods Setup table, which is SY40101.
Following is the query, if anyone would like to know how the dates are retrieved:
SELECT FSTFSCDY Fiscal_Start_Date,
LSTFSCDY Fiscal_End_Date
FROM SY40101
WHERE YEAR1 = CASE WHEN MONTH(GETDATE()) >= [first month of your company fiscal year] THEN YEAR(GETDATE()) ELSE YEAR(GETDATE()) – 1 END
With above, I can now be rest assured that by the time a new fiscal year is started, my dashboards would automatically get refreshed with new start & end dates.
This query would also work if the fiscal year is as good as the calendar year.
VAIDY
Who uses BI? – Dwight Specht
This one’s an awesomely simple yet on-the-dot post, which I read today. I am not going to brief about this post and I leave it to you read it fully, understand what exactly it wants us to learn.
Here is the post, written by Dwight Specht: Who uses BI?
I myself am working on BI reports, a lot, nowadays and posts such as this only add to my constant improvement.
Special thanks to Dwight.
VAIDY
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 – Reporting (By David Duncan & Christopher Liley)
I just added one more treasure on my kit, in the form of a new book called Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 – Reporting, written by David Duncan (I.B.I.S.) and Christopher Liley (I.B.I.S.), published by Packt Publishing.
I have started reading this book from today and hopefully in a week, I will be able to grab hold of the vast set of chapters.
To give you an overview of what is there inside this book: The book covers everything “reporting” in GP. From Report Writer reports to Smartlist to Excel Reports to SSRS to Analysis Cubes to Management Reporter. Every single thing about GP Reporting.
However, the book does not talk about two things:
1. Crystal Reports and the way you can access crystal reports from GP quite understandably because Crystal Reports is NOT supported out of the box by Dynamics GP. It can be used with the help some 3rd Party solutions, such as GP Report Viewer (from Flexible Solutions) or even a simple code piece written by any Consultant who knows GP, Crystal Reporting and .NET coding.
2. FRx, as this is already been replaced by Management Reporter. There is of course a section in this book where the difference between FRx and Management Reporter is explained.
I shall be writing a review of this book in a week’s time (hopefully). Just could not wait to tell you all that this book really going to be a great treasure for those who wants to understand how effectively GP data can be visualized and analyzed.
Until next post.
VAIDY
Microsoft Dynamics GP2010 R2 – SSRS BI maxRequestLength Error
Another one, luckily Mohammad R. Daoud has got an answer to this issue.
Once GP2010 R2 installation is over and GP Utilities start configuring system, almost the last setup is SRS Reports Deployment wizard. It’s a welcome change from previous versions, as this one is more explanatory and clear.
Once it starts deploying reports, the following error message is thrown:
The message is self-explanatory on what needs to be done to get rid of this message. To understand how to find WEB.CONFIG file, read Mohammad R. Daoud’s post; Dynamics GP 2010 R2 Business Intelligence Installation Error maxRequestLength.
Thanks Daoud. It was really helpful.
VAIDY
Microsoft Dynamics GP 2010 R2 – SRS Reports Deployment Error
Everyone knows that GP2010 R2 got released well before it’s announced date (1st May 2011). And I was no exception in starting off with it.
I installed GP 2010 R2 on my laptop and it went thru’ merrily. And started off with deploying SSRS and Excel Reports. Below is the error message I am getting:
Reason: I am running SQL Server 2008 R2 Express. For some reason, SRS deployment do not recognize SQL Server Express editions and it requires either Standard or Enterprise.
So people, those who would wish to deploy SRS on SQL Server 2008 R2 Express, please do not.
VAIDY
Project Crescent – Beyond SSRS Reporting Tool
I must be following SQL Server Reporting Services Team Blog for loads of information and all that “What’s Coming Up?”.
Attending an evening session in Tech-Ed 2011 Middle East, and this is what I got to know which had been in fact announced some months back.
For those, who do not know about this (like me till this moment), this is the information. Project Crescent is a project currently on progress inside MSFT, which targets every kind of user, be it IT Developer or Corporate Power User or a No-Nonsense End-User) to visualize their Business Data; however they want it to be.
More information here: A Glimpse at Project Crescent.
VAIDY
