Datasets in report header/footer - A Summary of the issue

I know there are already a few threads on this topic but I wanted to create another one - and directly ask - how could this limitation possibly exists - and even more important - why is it still a problem in 2005?

I want to summarize a few of the solutions that have been listed here and elseware online. We've tried them all and they all have some kind of problem:

1) Create hidden field(s) and then reference that field from the header: Doesn't work on any pages where the field isn't printed. Header value will be blank in this case.

2) Create hidden column(s) in the data table and reference that from the header: Works, but again, if the table is showing on every page, the value will be blank. i.e. - if you have two or more tables stacked, you would have to add the columns to every one. A very sloppy and not practical solution.

3) Do it with custom code: I've seen this approach recomended but have never actually seen someone provide a working example. From what I understand, custom code can't access the datasets (I'm using 2000 - maybe 2005 is different here?)

4) Use a queried parameter to hold the value- then reference that in the header: This seems to be the best contender so far. It seems to work sometimes, but on several machines here, the report designer goes into some kind of infinite loop and crashes once the queried parameter is added.

If anyone has any other approaches that I'm not aware of, or has another idea, please post it here. Microsoft - this is a huge problem for many people. Is there any chance of a fix for this any time soon?

Thank you.

~H

did you find a solution ?

|||I am very interested in a solution, too.

Although I have found a 5th option, which works quite well for my scenario - nevertheless I don't consider it being very elegant (at least with "allow null values" enabled).

5) Use "Available values: From query"

All

report parameters are hidden and passed via the URL. The parameter

value is an ID, but in the page header my customer would like to see

the corresponding description.

I have have defined the available values to come from a query and specified the value and label fields. Now I can access the parameter value in the page header like e.g.

Parameters!ProcessId.Label

There's one drawback: if you're using parameters having "allow null value" enabled this version gives you an error when openen the report having passed NULL for the parameter (I have to translate the message from german to english):

The process ID parameter value is missing.

This problem can be solved, but I consider it being a quirk. Just use the following SQL for your data set:

select ProcessId, Desc from Processes
union
select ProcessId=NULL, Desc=NULL from Processes

I'm also interested in sharing other (more elegant) approaches.

Thanx for listening and kind regards,
Gerald

|||I am very interested in a solution, too.

Although I have found a 5th option, which works quite well for my scenario - nevertheless I don't consider it being very elegant (at least with "allow null values" enabled).

5) Use "Available values: From query"

All

report parameters are hidden and passed via the URL. The parameter

value is an ID, but in the page header my customer would like to see

the corresponding description.

I have have defined the available values to come from a query and specified the value and label fields. Now I can access the parameter value in the page header like e.g.

Parameters!ProcessId.Label

There's one drawback: if you're using parameters having "allow null value" enabled this version gives you an error when openen the report having passed NULL for the parameter (I have to translate the message from german to english):

The process ID parameter value is missing.

This problem can be solved, but I consider it being a quirk. Just use the following SQL for your data set:

select ProcessId, Desc from Processes
union
select ProcessId=NULL, Desc=NULL from Processes

I'm also interested in sharing other (more elegant) approaches.

Thanx for listening and kind regards,
Gerald

sql

Datasets in report header/footer - A Summary of the issue

I know there are already a few threads on this topic but I wanted to create another one - and directly ask - how could this limitation possibly exists - and even more important - why is it still a problem in 2005?

I want to summarize a few of the solutions that have been listed here and elseware online. We've tried them all and they all have some kind of problem:

1) Create hidden field(s) and then reference that field from the header: Doesn't work on any pages where the field isn't printed. Header value will be blank in this case.

2) Create hidden column(s) in the data table and reference that from the header: Works, but again, if the table is showing on every page, the value will be blank. i.e. - if you have two or more tables stacked, you would have to add the columns to every one. A very sloppy and not practical solution.

3) Do it with custom code: I've seen this approach recomended but have never actually seen someone provide a working example. From what I understand, custom code can't access the datasets (I'm using 2000 - maybe 2005 is different here?)

4) Use a queried parameter to hold the value- then reference that in the header: This seems to be the best contender so far. It seems to work sometimes, but on several machines here, the report designer goes into some kind of infinite loop and crashes once the queried parameter is added.

If anyone has any other approaches that I'm not aware of, or has another idea, please post it here. Microsoft - this is a huge problem for many people. Is there any chance of a fix for this any time soon?

Thank you.

~H

did you find a solution ?

|||I am very interested in a solution, too.

Although I have found a 5th option, which works quite well for my scenario - nevertheless I don't consider it being very elegant (at least with "allow null values" enabled).

5) Use "Available values: From query"

All

report parameters are hidden and passed via the URL. The parameter

value is an ID, but in the page header my customer would like to see

the corresponding description.

I have have defined the available values to come from a query and specified the value and label fields. Now I can access the parameter value in the page header like e.g.

Parameters!ProcessId.Label

There's one drawback: if you're using parameters having "allow null value" enabled this version gives you an error when openen the report having passed NULL for the parameter (I have to translate the message from german to english):

The process ID parameter value is missing.

This problem can be solved, but I consider it being a quirk. Just use the following SQL for your data set:

select ProcessId, Desc from Processes
union
select ProcessId=NULL, Desc=NULL from Processes

I'm also interested in sharing other (more elegant) approaches.

Thanx for listening and kind regards,
Gerald

|||I am very interested in a solution, too.

Although I have found a 5th option, which works quite well for my scenario - nevertheless I don't consider it being very elegant (at least with "allow null values" enabled).

5) Use "Available values: From query"

All

report parameters are hidden and passed via the URL. The parameter

value is an ID, but in the page header my customer would like to see

the corresponding description.

I have have defined the available values to come from a query and specified the value and label fields. Now I can access the parameter value in the page header like e.g.

Parameters!ProcessId.Label

There's one drawback: if you're using parameters having "allow null value" enabled this version gives you an error when openen the report having passed NULL for the parameter (I have to translate the message from german to english):

The process ID parameter value is missing.

This problem can be solved, but I consider it being a quirk. Just use the following SQL for your data set:

select ProcessId, Desc from Processes
union
select ProcessId=NULL, Desc=NULL from Processes

I'm also interested in sharing other (more elegant) approaches.

Thanx for listening and kind regards,
Gerald

Dataset Field in Page/Table Header

Hi,
I want to print a field in the page header. Since there is no option in RS
to include a database field in Page Header, I placed the Field in a Table
header and set the the Repeat Header on Each Page Property. But it prints
the first value of the record on all page. Is it anyway to print the
database fields dynamically on the page header or table header.
TIA,
SamuelThe ReportItems!<ReportItemName>.Value syntax will allow you to do this. See
the sample report at the end of this posting. Also see the "Using Global
Collections" topic in SQL Server 2000 Reporting Services BOL (Books Online).
--
Bruce Johnson [MSFT]
Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
"Samuel" <samuel@.photoninfotech.com> wrote in message
news:ehqgckWdEHA.592@.TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Hi,
> I want to print a field in the page header. Since there is no option in RS
> to include a database field in Page Header, I placed the Field in a Table
> header and set the the Repeat Header on Each Page Property. But it prints
> the first value of the record on all page. Is it anyway to print the
> database fields dynamically on the page header or table header.
> TIA,
> Samuel
>
ReportItemsSample.rdl
--
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Report
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2003/10/reportdefini
tion"
xmlns:rd="">http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner">
<PageHeader>
<ReportItems>
<Textbox Name="textbox2">
<Style>
<PaddingLeft>2pt</PaddingLeft>
<PaddingBottom>2pt</PaddingBottom>
<PaddingTop>2pt</PaddingTop>
<PaddingRight>2pt</PaddingRight>
</Style>
<Top>0.125in</Top>
<rd:DefaultName>textbox2</rd:DefaultName>
<Height>0.25in</Height>
<Width>1.75in</Width>
<CanGrow>true</CanGrow>
<Value>=ReportItems!textbox1.Value</Value>
<Left>0.25in</Left>
</Textbox>
</ReportItems>
<PrintOnLastPage>true</PrintOnLastPage>
<PrintOnFirstPage>true</PrintOnFirstPage>
<Style />
<Height>0.5in</Height>
</PageHeader>
<RightMargin>1in</RightMargin>
<Body>
<ReportItems>
<Textbox Name="textbox1">
<Style>
<PaddingLeft>2pt</PaddingLeft>
<PaddingBottom>2pt</PaddingBottom>
<PaddingTop>2pt</PaddingTop>
<PaddingRight>2pt</PaddingRight>
</Style>
<Top>0.25in</Top>
<rd:DefaultName>textbox1</rd:DefaultName>
<Height>0.25in</Height>
<Width>1.75in</Width>
<CanGrow>true</CanGrow>
<Value>Some Text in the Body. This could be a field reference (i.e.
=Fields!FieldName.Value)</Value>
<Left>0.25in</Left>
</Textbox>
</ReportItems>
<Style />
<Height>1.875in</Height>
</Body>
<TopMargin>1in</TopMargin>
<Width>6.50001in</Width>
<LeftMargin>1in</LeftMargin>
<rd:SnapToGrid>true</rd:SnapToGrid>
<rd:DrawGrid>true</rd:DrawGrid>
<rd:ReportID>d14a8b9b-cb8d-481b-8351-98a44abce6d7</rd:ReportID>
<BottomMargin>1in</BottomMargin>
<Language>en-US</Language>
</Report>

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Datafields in report header

Hi.

I want some information stored in the database to be shown on the top of each page in my report. But in the report designer I get an error message if I try to drop a table in the header, and if I try to assign the value of a textbox in the header to e.g. "First(Fields!sometable.Value)", I get a runtime-error in the preview that says "... Fields cannot be used in page headers or footers".

How can I do this?

Regards, Tomsi

Hi Tomsi,

you can not place a databound field in the page header directly. Instead, you can place it in the body of the report and make it hidden.

you can refer to this hidden field content using the similar syntax

=ReportItems!txt_1.Value

and display in a text box placed in the header.

Rgds,

Ramesh

|||

Nice workaround. Thanks.

But why doesn't Reporting Services support this feature / when will it come? Workarounds like this will in the long run make the reports complex and messy. I'm converting reports from Crystal Reports, and my customer will obviously dislike this "missing" feature in RS.

The ideal solution would be have a databound table in the header...

Tomsi

|||I tried this on some of the reports we have been creating and it works great on the first page but in the rest of the report the cells in the header are unable to reference the cells in the body. We are using 2005.|||

Another option is to add a (hidden) report parameter at the beginning of your list of report parameters with a query-based default value (the field you want to show in the report header). If your query returns multiple rows, you will need to perform aggregations (e.g. Max(...)) directly in the query so that the first row contains the value you want to use for the parameter value.
Then, in the report header reference the parameter value.

-- Robert

|||

I'm experiencing the same issue, were you able to resolve the problem? It works fine on page 1, but not on subsequent pages.

Alternatively, I was able to use the Parameters!parameter.value consistently in the header, but when I used Parameters!parameter.label, the value would disappear from the header when I changed any parameter that affected a report filter without requerying.

|||

The secret of this is, to embed the data in a table header. Have the table header repeat on every page, and refer to the table header cell in the text field of the page header.

unfortuantely the only way I've been able hide the data, in the table header, and not be noticeable, is take make the font really small, and make the text, and row black. Hope this helps.

M

|||

Another way to do this is to have the Data you want displayed in the header to be retrieved into Report paramaters.

Then the parameters can be put in the Page Header.

Set up a Paramater for each piece of Data you require and retrieve into the Paramaters setting the default values with the values you want displayed.

It works fine. It would be much better if we could ust put Data bound fields into the Page Header.

Dave

|||

I created a report (rs2005) with a hidden header row in the table that repeats on each page. When I view the report it looks fine, but when I export to a PDF the ReportItem data is missing from the header.

Header before exporting to PDF:

Title: This Should be Easier Date: 5/19/06

Header after exporting to PDF:

Title: Date:

Is there any way to fix this?

|||

This could quite possibly be the biggest pain in Reporting Services, compared to other reporting tools. It is quite probable that anyone doing reports is doing so in a corporate environment where key data values must be displayed in the header. When report details relating to these key data values span more than one page, the RS engine should be able to handle this and continue to display the data associated with these values in the header. In addition, it should be able to handle changes in this data and apply appropriate page breaks.

I have tried all these so called "work arounds" and they only work about 80% of the time. I am slowly, (or quickly, and can't admit it) coming to the conclusion that RS is not yet ready for Prime-Time corporate reporting. I agree with the previous post that these only make development in RS much more difficult and hoaky work-arounds make for difficult to maintain and basically not very functional reports.

I have some complicated reports that use subreports, datalists, and intrictate formating of textboxes and images which need to span multiple pages and print nicely in PDF. Unfortunately, the reference to a textbox or reference to hidden row in a table just does not always work.

IS THERE ANYONE out there that has found a simple, consistant and non-cumbersome way of doing this.

AND for Microsoft RS development team...when are you going to provide an actual solution to this issue? It was a problem in RS2000 and continues in RS2005.

|||You hit the nail right on the head there buddy. This task is so basic it seems ridiculous to have to resort to these tricks. I hope they get this fixed cause it's ugly.

Frank
|||

I have a few clients who love SRS but almost dropped it because of this.

We have found ways around it by using a table and putting a subreports into table headers so we could control if they displayed on first page only or all pages or not at all. Or for simpler solutions by using parameters to store the data that is required in the header.

Either way it's a huge pain in the ^$% for what should be a simple task.

I would also like to plead to the PM of this project to fix this in the next release or a patch it's a necessary feature if you plan to compete with other reporting tools.

Dave

|||

I tried putting the value into a parameter field, but we are setting the datasource of the report at runtime. It works fine in the development environment, but when I deploy the app (even locally) I get this error:

The 'prmFOFCode' parameter is missing a value|||

I used Oracle Reports for years and must admit, SSRS is a pretty disappointing enterprise reporting tool. No data fields in headers, no multi axis charts ... and the list goes on. Nice designer and clicky windows but presenting information is just a pain in the neck. Hope the SSRS team will get their act together and provide some basic corporate features.

|||i agree with that, microsoft need to improve its reporting services by keeping corporate business in mind

Databound image in report header

After finding out that SSRS doesn't directly support databound items in the header or footer, I found the workaround from Microsoft yesterday at http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159677.aspx. The problem is that their solution only works for the first page of the report, so it's basically useless! Because this is an image, it also means the workaround of using a parameter doesn't work, either.

Does anybody have any advice? Is there a solution to this problem?

One approach to accomplish this is to create a custom function that queries the database for the image, caches it and then returns it for use in the Value property of the database image in the report header.

Private m_headerImage As Object

Public Function GetHeaderImage() As object
' be sure to add appropriate error handling

If m_headerImage = Nothing Then
Dim adapter as new System.Data.SqlClient.SqlDataAdapter("Select ThumbnailPhoto From Production.Productphoto", "Data Source=localhost; Initial Catalog=AdventureWorks; Integrated Security=SSPI;" )
Dim ds as new System.Data.DataSet()
adapter.Fill(ds)
m_headerImage = ds.Tables(0).Rows(0)(0)
End If

Return m_headerImage

End Function

Set the image Value property to

=Code.GetHeaderImage()

Also, you will need to add a references to the System.Sql.Data and System.Xml assemblies.

More information on cutom code:
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms155798.aspx

Ian|||

Mark, which version of SSRS are you using?

Note: the parameter approach for databound images in page header/footer works correctly with RS 2005 SP1.

-- Robert

|||Robert,

I am using RS 2005 SP1; I just assumed that the parameter approach wouldn't work for binary image data due to the size factor. I'll have to try that out.

-Mark
|||Robert,

How exactly do I get this to work using the parameter approach? I've tried everything I can think of. It works for text, but not images.

Thanks,
Mark
|||

Mark, I attached a small sample report (based on the Northwind database) that shows how to do it.

Important parts:
* the report parameter default value is based on a calculated field (ImageBase64) from the dataset
* the calculated field is converting the image data field into a base-64 encoded string, e.g. =Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Mid(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(Fields!Photo.Value),79)))
* the image report item takes the value of the Image report parameter and converts it back from a base-64 string to a byte array:
=Convert.FromBase64String(Parameters!Image.Value)

-- Robert

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Report xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/reporting/2005/01/reportdefinition" xmlns:rd="http://schemas.microsoft.com/SQLServer/reporting/reportdesigner">
<DataSources>
<DataSource Name="Northwind">
<DataSourceReference>Northwind</DataSourceReference>
<rd:DataSourceID>02f7d41c-e5a6-4015-9bd4-6aa837db9bb6</rd:DataSourceID>
</DataSource>
</DataSources>
<BottomMargin>1in</BottomMargin>
<RightMargin>1in</RightMargin>
<ReportParameters>
<ReportParameter Name="Image">
<DataType>String</DataType>
<DefaultValue>
<DataSetReference>
<DataSetName>DataSet1</DataSetName>
<ValueField>ImageBase64</ValueField>
</DataSetReference>
</DefaultValue>
<AllowBlank>true</AllowBlank>
<Prompt>Image</Prompt>
<Hidden>true</Hidden>
</ReportParameter>
</ReportParameters>
<rd:DrawGrid>true</rd:DrawGrid>
<InteractiveWidth>8.5in</InteractiveWidth>
<rd:SnapToGrid>true</rd:SnapToGrid>
<Body>
<Height>1.5in</Height>
</Body>
<PageHeader>
<ReportItems>
<Image Name="image2">
<Sizing>AutoSize</Sizing>
<MIMEType>image/bmp</MIMEType>
<Width>2.875in</Width>
<Source>Database</Source>
<Style>
<BorderStyle>
<Default>Solid</Default>
</BorderStyle>
<BorderWidth>
<Default>2pt</Default>
</BorderWidth>
</Style>
<Value>=Convert.FromBase64String(Parameters!Image.Value)</Value>
</Image>
</ReportItems>
<Height>2.625in</Height>
<PrintOnLastPage>true</PrintOnLastPage>
<PrintOnFirstPage>true</PrintOnFirstPage>
</PageHeader>
<rd:ReportID>14f7b895-1a77-410d-ae9c-58cfb7418d60</rd:ReportID>
<LeftMargin>1in</LeftMargin>
<DataSets>
<DataSet Name="DataSet1">
<Query>
<rd:UseGenericDesigner>true</rd:UseGenericDesigner>
<CommandText>select * from employees</CommandText>
<DataSourceName>Northwind</DataSourceName>
</Query>
<Fields>
<Field Name="EmployeeID">
<rd:TypeName>System.Int32</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>EmployeeID</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="LastName">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>LastName</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="FirstName">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>FirstName</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Title">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Title</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="TitleOfCourtesy">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>TitleOfCourtesy</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="BirthDate">
<rd:TypeName>System.DateTime</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>BirthDate</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="HireDate">
<rd:TypeName>System.DateTime</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>HireDate</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Address">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Address</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="City">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>City</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Region">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Region</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="PostalCode">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>PostalCode</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Country">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Country</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="HomePhone">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>HomePhone</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Extension">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Extension</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Photo">
<rd:TypeName>System.Byte[]</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Photo</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="Notes">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>Notes</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="ReportsTo">
<rd:TypeName>System.Int32</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>ReportsTo</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="PhotoPath">
<rd:TypeName>System.String</rd:TypeName>
<DataField>PhotoPath</DataField>
</Field>
<Field Name="ImageBase64">
<Value>=Convert.ToBase64String(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetBytes(Mid(System.Text.Encoding.Default.GetString(Fields!Photo.Value),79)))</Value>
</Field>
</Fields>
</DataSet>
</DataSets>
<Width>4.875in</Width>
<InteractiveHeight>11in</InteractiveHeight>
<Language>en-US</Language>
<TopMargin>1in</TopMargin>
</Report>

|||

Robert,

I am in the same fix regarding the databound image situation. I've used the hidden text box field inside the body of the report that converts the image (a field in the dataset) to a string and then the actual image in the page header references the hidden text box. This works great in the preview of BI Studio. It also works when the report is exported to Excel. However, when exported to PDF, the image is not shown. Is this even possible?

Regarding the solution above, I tried your suggestion. However, I'm back to the situation where a "fields cannot be used in report parameter expressions". Is there something I'm missing in your explanation above? This particular report will eventually become an "rdlc" report on a remote site so I'm limited as to what I can do in the BI environment.

Any help or direction would be appreciated! I've spent way too much time on what should be a simple task, in my opinion, to implement.

Also, do you still have the sample report?

Thanks,

John