BRW and Symbolics (Banded Report Writer)
At 13 MAR 2020 01:34:04PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
This is the newer OIBanded Report Writer i am talking about. I have situations where symbolics are not displaying their data. For example: IF {RESDATE} = "" THEN @ANS = 1 ELSE @ANS = 0
When using Rlist i get yes/no in the BRW i get blanks .. even 1 and 0 would be better.
Anyone else see this .. or does anyone know what I am doing wrong
At 13 MAR 2020 04:24PM bshumsky wrote:
This is the newer OIBanded Report Writer i am talking about. I have situations where symbolics are not displaying their data. For example: IF {RESDATE} = "" THEN @ANS = 1 ELSE @ANS = 0
When using Rlist i get yes/no in the BRW i get blanks .. even 1 and 0 would be better.
Anyone else see this .. or does anyone know what I am doing wrong
Hi, Dave. What do you have specified for the conversion code (if any)? What's the data type of the field?
On the BRW side, what type of field does it think it has ("general"? "numeric"? etc.)
Thanks,
- Bryan Shumsky
At 13 MAR 2020 05:05PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
Just a general field. but Boolean in Dict. Probably confusing it?
At 13 MAR 2020 05:06PM bshumsky wrote:
Just a general field. but Boolean in Dict. Probably confusing it?
Possibly. Try changing it so that it's not a boolean, see if you see your 0/1?
- Bryan Shumsky
At 13 MAR 2020 06:27PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
First .. i was wrong .. datatype was boolean and conversion was B
I changed to varchar and it showed the 1/0.
So the BRW doesn't seem to respect the B conversion type for some reason
At 14 MAR 2020 10:24AM bshumsky wrote:
First .. i was wrong .. datatype was boolean and conversion was B
I changed to varchar and it showed the 1/0.
So the BRW doesn't seem to respect the B conversion type for some reason
Hi, Dave. I think it's because OI's boolean can be very different than the BRW's. In the BRW, a boolean value is only true or false. However, in OI, depending on your conversion code, your boolean can be "True" and "False", or "T" and "F", or "Y" and "N", or "Green" and "Blue" - literally anything, in fact. And it may be that you really want to show "Green" and "Blue", and not just have a binary true/false flag.
Perhaps the BRW should not automatically determine that an OI field of "boolean" type should be converted to a BRW boolean? But if we do that, that'll be a fix for a subsequent release, I think…
- Bryan Shumsky
At 14 MAR 2020 12:52PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
ok .. my only thought is that they are 1 or 0 which is traditional. let me know if there is anything I can do to help. If you don't think that 0 and 1 would work I will start changing all my symbolics
Thanks a lot for working on this ..
Dsig
At 14 MAR 2020 12:56PM Donald Bakke wrote:
If you don't think that 0 and 1 would work I will start changing all my symbolics
I highly recommend you look into Dynamic Dictionaries as an alternative to changing your symbolics (especially if your symbolics are already being used elsewhere).
At 14 MAR 2020 01:17PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
Not sure what you mean by dynamic dictionaries ..
At 14 MAR 2020 01:25PM Donald Bakke wrote:
Not sure what you mean by dynamic dictionaries ..
BRWDynamicDictionaries.png?dl=1
This is a tool that allows you to create symbolic fields within the BRW itself. When running a report, the BRW will dynamically create a symbolic field in the dictionary table but it will then remove itself when the report is finished. This way you don't have to clutter your dictionary with symbolic fields.
At 14 MAR 2020 02:05PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
Thanks for that .. .i haven't explored that yet. Will take a look.
At 14 MAR 2020 02:24PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
Not sure how to create a boolean ans that it will like. Tried the same way and got the same results. Will keep trying
At 14 MAR 2020 02:26PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
DUH!! don't use data types … use varchar and return Yes/No …
At 14 MAR 2020 02:34PM Dave Sigafoos wrote:
Although a *nice* feature .. .the problem with this is "documenting" the system. Now there are dictionary items in 2 places.
At 14 MAR 2020 04:28PM Donald Bakke wrote:
Not sure how to create a boolean ans that it will like. Tried the same way and got the same results. Will keep trying
I respect that view. My philosophy is that if the logic has no purpose other than serving the BRW, then leave it in the BRW. Consider it to be just another type of script that the BRW supports. Everything is self-contained in the BRW report itself so it is very portable.
If the symbolic field has value outside of the BRW, then it rightly needs to be a first-class citizen of the dictionary.