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reporting-servicesssrs-2008bidsrdl

How can I add TextBoxes to an existing Matrix in an SSRS project?

Why is it that a control that appears in the property list in a BIDS project is not represented in the corresponding .rdl file?

Let me step back a bit; I'm having a heck of a time trying to figure out how to add items to an existing report, either via the XML (.rdl viewed as code) or on the design surface. I can click on a rectangle on the design surface and see a column row above it:

enter image description here

And if I click on the "pipe"-separated segements on that column heading row, I see "MatrixColumn4", "MatrixColumn3", "MatrixColumn2", and "MatrixColumn1" in the designer; for example, here's MatrixColumn3:

enter image description here

However, only one of these columns appears at a time in the Property list - if I select MatrixColumn3 on the design surface, MatrixColumn1, MatrixColumn2, and MatrixColumn4 are not there. The same holds true for selecting any of the others - it turns up temporarily in the Properties list but "hides" all the others:

enter image description here

Stranger yet, when I search the .rdl file (viewed as XML) for "MatrixColumn1" (or "2" or "3" or "4") they do not exist there. In fact, the only reference to "MatrixColumn" in the entire file is this:

<Matrix Name="matrix1">
      <MatrixColumns>
        <MatrixColumn>
          <Width>1.67609in</Width>
        </MatrixColumn>
      </MatrixColumns>
  . . .

This seems exceedingly bizarre - shouldn't there be four sets of <MatrixColumn></MatrixColumn> there?

I want to add another column heading, with a Textbox-as-label and a Textbox below that to display dynamic content, but how can I do it without adding another column heading?, or at least making room for this new column?

I can increase the width of the matrix ("matrix1") by dragging it or by increasing its Size.Width value, but its existing contents expand with it, giving me no room to add TextBoxes inside of it.

Maybe I'm approaching SSRS from a completely wrong mental angle, as I don't see much of a connection between what the report generates and what I see on the design surface and in the XML.

Solution

  • To add another column to a matrix right click the column header and Select Insert column. Then choose either inside group (left or right), or outside group (left or right).

    • A column created inside the group will repeat for every item in the column group
    • A column created outside the group will only appear the once to the left or right of the grouped columns.

    Are you sure you are referring to a matrix (dynamic columns and rows) and not a tablix (dynamic number of rows only)?

    The process for tablixes is the same as for matrixes as described above, just without the inside/outside group option.

    Either method described above will include a new column with a single text box to label the column with, and another text box underneath to put the detail in.

    You can also do this process by dragging a field from your dataset in the Report Data panel to the appropriate location in your existing table.

    Please let me know if this helps, or if I've misunderstood your question and you require a different solution.