Conditionally Replicating Group Header

Hi,

I am new to Crystal Reports, but I have been coding with VBA in ArcGIS for a few years now.

I am populating parameters in a group header in an existing Crystal Report with variables from within my code (the variables are taken from features in a ArcMap project, but that is not important). I can pass the parameters in with no problem. My problem is that the existing crystal report has one instance of the group header that I am populating parameters in. Depending on the number of variables created in the code, I need to 'replicate' the group header (and all of the parameters inside it) one or more times and then populate these parameters.

So the final product that I am hoping for is a report with a conditonal number of group headers that are identical except for the values of the parameters inside them.

Is there a way to copy the empty group header (and the parameters inside it) and paste it directly below its initial instance?

Thanks in advance,
Scott

Here is a sample of my code. I removed irrelevant parts and put in some rough pseudoCode explaining what I hope to do.

Code:

---

    Dim Num_Crossings as Long
   
    Dim CrApp As CRAXDRT.Application
    Set CrApp = New CRAXDRT.Application

    'Initialize crystal report
    Dim crReport As CRAXDRT.Report
    Set crReport = CrApp.OpenReport(".\Pipeline Crossing Summary.rpt", 1)
    crReport.DiscardSavedData
   
    'Determine the number of pipeline crossings
    'This is done using ArcGIS tools and the code is not relevant to my question
       
    'Create arrays for passing into parameters
    Dim Comp_Name(Num_Crossings) as String
    Dim Area_Office(Num_Crossings) as String
       
    'Populate the arrays
    'This is done using ArcGIS tools and the code is not relevant to my question
   
    Dim crGroup as Crystal Report Group          '<-pseudo code
    Set crGroup = crReport.Group(index)          '<-pseudo code

    crGroup.copy()                                                '<-pseudo code

    For i = 0 to Num_Crossings                        '<-pseudo code
            crGroup.Paste()                                        '<-pseudo code
            crReport.ParameterFields.GetItemByName("Company").SetCurrentValue _
            Comp_Name(i)  '<-probably need a new parameter each time
            crReport.ParameterFields.GetItemByName("Office").SetCurrentValue _
            Area_Office(i)    '<-probably need a new parameter each time
    Next i

---

I'm not real sure I understand what you are trying to do, but to your question
"Is there a way to copy the empty group header (and the parameters inside it) and paste it directly below its initial instance?"

In crystal, if you access the section expert (under the report menu or point in the gray area to the left of the design tab and right click) you can insert additional group headers and footers. These additional sections can be suppressed conditionally through a formula (also available on the section expert)

Thanks for your speedy reply.

I'll try and explain a little better. I have an existing report and in that report I have a group for reporting on a pipeline crossing (Pipeline Company, Area Office, Location, etc.). However, this report needs to be capable of handling an unknown number of pipeline crossings. This means that the group needs to be 'copied' for as many pipeline crossings as the program encounters. Each of these groups will be have parameters (Company Name, etc.) that are populated by variables in my VB code.

Your suggestion could be a work around. However, at runtime I don't know how many groups I am going to need. It depends on the number of pipeline crossings that occur. The number could be anything from 1 to 20 or more. I would like to add the groups programmatically only when they are needed. And I would like them to all be formatted the same as the one already in the existing report.

With your method I could create say 50 group headers and suppress the ones that are not needed, but that seems a little inefficient. It still might work, though.

All I really need is the syntax for creating a group object or group header object in VB and creating this new group in the report. Once I have that I should be able to set a group object to the existing group and then create identical new groups by copying that group object.

pseudoCode:

Code:

---


Dim crReport As CRAXDRT.Report
Dim ExistingGroup As CRAXDRT.Group '<-not the correct variable type
Set ExistingGroup = crReport.Group(1) '<-not the correct way of accessing a group

Dim CopyGroup As CRAXDRT.Group '<-not the correct variable type
Set CopyGroup = ExistingGroup

crReport.AddGroup CopyGroup '<-not the correct way of adding group to report

---

I don't believe you can create group headers at run time. I'm afraid you will have to insert multiple copies of your group headers at design tim and suppress as needed at runtime. You can copy all objects at once from a group header and past into you new headers. The only limit is that graphic objects must be copies separately from all database and/or text objects.

Good luck

I suspected that this might be the case.

Thanks for your help