Rave Reports Visual Designer

Band Style - Editor

Select the BandStyle property on a DataBand. Click on the ellipse symbol it will open the Band Style Editor like the one shown below. This provides a simple method to select the features you want for that band by using the check boxes to activate or deactivate them. Note that a band can have several different features active at a time. This means that it is even possible for a band to be both a header and footer at the same time.

The display area in the Band Style editor has been designed to give you a representation of the flow of your report in pseudo layout style. The DataBand(s) are duplicated 3 times on purpose to show that this is a repeating data area (usually detail area). The active band for the editor will be displayed with both Bold and Underline formatting.

Both symbols and letters are used on the Band Style editor display area and one the bands in the page layout area and are designed to inform you about each bands behavior. The major difference between these two representations is that the band style editor display will arrange the bands in a pseudo flow according to the definitions of each band. The region display of the bands will be arranged in the order that you placed them during design. The order of operation is controlled in some cases by this order. Headers (capital letters) will print first, then the DataBand, then the footers (lower case letters) for each level. However, if you have more than one header defined for a particular level then each header band will process in the order that you have them in the region. So it technically possible to put all the headers at the top, all the DataBand's in middle and all the footers at the bottom of a region for all levels of a master-detail. Or you could "group" each level, with the appropriate headers, footers and DataBands all together for each level. RAVE allows you to use the region style that makes the most sense to you. Just remember the order of precedence of like bands at the same level is controlled by their order within the region.

There are several symbols that are designed to show the parent - child / master - detail relations of the various bands. The triangle symbol (up / down arrows) indicates that band is controlled by a master band with the same color (level) and can be found in the direction of the arrow. The Diamond symbol represents a Master or controlling band. These symbols are both color coded and indented to represent the level of Master - Detail flow. Remember that we could have Master - Detail - Detail where both details are both controlled by the same master or one of the details could be controlled by the other detail.

The title bar of each band contains information about that band. On the left side of the band is a name that indicates the region it is in - "RegionName:BandName". The right side of Band uses several letters to remind you of the band style settings for that band. The order of these letters on a master band is "MASTER 1PC". The order of these letters on a controlled band is "BGRDrgb1PC". If the letter is subdued (gray) then that setting is inactive (off). If the letter is bold then the setting is active (ON). The following table shows the various letters and what they mean.

Editors:         Anchor, DataText, Fonts, Line