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reporting-servicesdynamics-crm-2011rdl

Building a rdl report for CRM

I'm creating my first report for CRM 2011 using SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio and i've managed to do a decent amount but as I move into the more complex parts i'm becoming stuck, and I was wondering if someone would be able to help me with a few questions I have:

  1. I'm using fetchXml to get the data from CRM for some accounts that the report is for, I need to include some data from a child entity but can't include them in the same way that I can for a parent entity to accounts. So for this I'm assuming I need to use a separate fetch query, but how do I pass the ID of the account the report is looking at into the second fetch query as a parameter?

  2. Once I've got the names of all the child items with the fetchXml, whats the easiest way to display them all in a numbered list?

EDIT: For 1 and 2 I found that I can use a subreport with the child data in it. Using a list item I can show all in a bulleted list and I can pass the parameter through from the main report to the subreport

  1. I'm listing the account's address on the report but since they might or might not have the lines 2 and 3 fields completed i'm unsure of how to display it without either missing off some of the address or leaving big gaps. I've tried creating different text boxes with the different combinations of line 1, 2 and 3 and then make only one visible with the use of expressions but the iif statement always returns false. Is there an easier way to do this?

EDIT: I've found out how to do this using a number of different text boxes containing the different combinations and hiding them using the visibility rule. What was initially confusing though is that the rule is for if the box should be hidden, rather than if it should be shown

  1. When I add a field onto the report it always has a "First()" statement on it. Is this required or will it limit my report in any way?

EDIT: This doesn't seem to have an effect on the report as the record to run it against is always selected beforehand, so the First() statement doesn't restrict any data

If anyone could help me with any of these questions at all then that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Solution

  • I've found the answers to my questions, i've put them in the original post.