Get Started with Master-Detail Reports for Nested DataSets

A master-detail report is a report that displays data structures that are related to each other by hierarchical relationships. For example, you can use such a report to visualize a list of orders where each order contains the header(master data) and line items(detail data). ActiveReportsJS offers multiple ways to create master-detail reports. This tutorial will show you how to create a master-detail report from a single hierarchical data set that contains objects like the following:

{
    "Name": "Long-Sleeve Logo Jersey, L",
    "ProductNumber": "LJ-0192-L",
    "Color": "Multi",
    "Size": "L",
    "ProductListPriceHistories": [
        {
            "StartDate": "2011-05-31T00:00:00Z",
            "EndDate": "2012-05-29",
            "ListPrice": 48.0673,
        },
        {
            "StartDate": "2012-05-30T00:00:00Z",
            "EndDate": "2013-05-29",
            "ListPrice": 48.0673,
        },
        {
            "StartDate": "2013-05-30T00:00:00Z",
            "EndDate": null,
            "ListPrice": 49.99,
        }
    ]
}

This tutorial builds the Product Inventory report from the ground up, providing experience with the typical report designing process. By the end, you will be able to do the following:

• Create a new report

• Bind the report to the OData API

• Use the OData $select and $filter query options to reduce the volume of retrieved data

• Use the OData $expand query option to retrieve hierarchical data

• Use field tags to define the data type of a field.

• Create a Table data region to display the Master data.

• Format rows, columns, and cells of the table.

• Add a nested List data region to display the Detail data.

• Use the Format function to display formatted data.

Upon completing all tutorial steps, the final report will look like this: live demo.

Prerequisites

The following content assumes that you have the Standalone Report Designer running. Visit the tutorial for detailed information. A stable internet connection is also required to access the Demo Data Hub.

Creating a New Report

In the standalone report designer, click the File menu and select the Continuous Page Layout template for a newly created report. Click anywhere on the gray area around the report layout to load the report properties in the properties panel. In the Margins section, set the Style property to Narrow to change the report page margins size.

Data Binding

Data Binding establishes a connection between a report and the data it displays. For this demo, we use the MESCIUS Demo OData API that contains the data for a fictitious company called AdventureWorks that manufactures and sells bicycles worldwide.

Adding Data Source

You can think of the AdventureWorks OData API as the "database" that you can connect to using its root URL https://demodata.mescius.io/adventureworks/odata/v1, and that has multiple "tables" which presented with endpoints such as /Customers, /Stores, and /Products. Using the following steps, you can create a Report DataSource that establishes the connection to such a "database."

• Open the Data panel of the property inspector and click the Add button.

• In the Data Source editor dialog, type AdventureWorks in the NAME field and https://demodata.mescius.io/adventureworks/odata/v1 in the ENDPOINT field.

• Click the Save Changes button.

Adding Data Set

Data Sets represent one or more endpoints of the Data Source. For the Product Inventory Report, we need to access the data from the /Products and /ProductListPriceHistories endpoints of the AdventureWorks Data Source that we added in the previous section. These end-points are related by the ProductId field, and we can use this relationship to select the hierarchical data with the single query.

Use the following steps to add the Products data set:

• Click the + icon near AdventureWorks in the Data panel.

• In the Data Set Editor dialog, type Products in the NAME field, /Products in the Uri/Path field, and $.value.* in the Json Path field.

• By default, each Product record includes 25 fields, but we don't need them all. Therefore we limit the retrieved fields by applying the OData $select query option via a query parameter.

  • Click the + icon on the right side of the Parameters section.

  • Type $select in the Parameter field of the newly added Parameter item.

  • Type ProductNumber,Name,Color,Size in the Value field of the same Parameter item.

• By applying the $filter query option, we can further reduce the volume of data retrieved.

  • Click the + icon on the right side of the Parameters section.

  • Type $filter in the Parameter field of the newly added Parameter item.

  • Type ProductId+gt+714+and+ProductSubCategoryId+eq+21 in the Value field of the same Parameter item.

• By applying the $expand query option, we request the hierarchical data where each product data contains its price history.

  • Click the + icon on the right side of the Parameters section.

  • Type $expand in the Parameter field of the newly added Parameter item.

  • Type ProductListPriceHistories in the Value field of the same Parameter item.

• Click the Validate button.

• Ensure that the DataBase Fields section displays [5 items] text.

• Ensure that the Nested DataSets section displays the ProductListPriceHistories text.

• Click the ProductListPriceHistories text to switch to the properties of the nested dataset.

• Expand the DataBase Fields section and set the DataField property of the StartDate and the EndDate fields to StartDate[Date] and EndDate[Date], respectively.

• Click the Save Changes button.

The created dataset returns the list of products with the price history for each product. You can see the data set tree reflects this structure.

Adding Table Data Region

To display the product information(master data) we will use the Table Data Region. There are several ways to add a new table into the report. We will use the quick way for this tutorial:

• Expand the Products data set in the Data panel using the chevron-down icon.

• Click the Select fields icon near the Products data set name.

• Select ProductNumber, Name, Color, and Size fields.

• Drag and Drop selected fields into a top left corner of a report layout.

The newly created table has four columns, one per each field of the dataset, the header row that displays the field names, and the details row that shows the values of the fields.

Formatting Table Columns

All the columns of the newly created table have the same width, and it needs to be adjusted according to the data displayed in each column. To do this, click anywhere inside the table so that it shows the columns and rows handlers and follow the next steps:

• Click the first column handler and set its Width to 2.5in in the Properties panel

• Click the second column handler and set its Width to 2in in the Properties panel

• Click the third column handler and set its Width to 1in in the Properties panel

• Click the fourth column handler and set its Width to 2in in the Properties panel

Adding Table Rows

The table currently has only two rows. The following steps add one more row for the table header to show the report title and two more rows for the table details to display the product price history.

• Right-click the first row handler and select the Row > Insert Row Above item the drop-down menu

• In the same manner, insert two rows below the last row.

Merging Table Cells

The first row of the table will display the report title. Therefore, it is convenient to merge the cells of the first row:

• Click the first cell of the first row, press the Ctrl button on Windows or Cmd on Mac OS, and click the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th cells on the same row

• Right click on the selection and select the Cells > Merge Cells item in the drop-down menu. The row now has a single cell that occupies four columns

Repeat the same procedure for the last two rows of the table - they will host the title and the nested List for the detail data.

Formatting the Report Title

The first row of the table should display the report title. Follow the next steps to format the row accordingly.

• Click the handler of the first row and set its Height property to 0.5in in the Property Inspector

• Switch to the TextBox tab in the Property inspector and set the following properties for the text of the report title

Formatting Column Headers

The second row of the table contains the column headers. Using the same steps as for the report title, set the following properties for the row height and the text displayed in the row's cells.

Formatting Master Data

The third row of the table repeats for each data record of the Products dataset. Set the following properties for the row height and the text displayed in the cells of the row.

Formatting Detail Data Title

The 4th row of the table should display the title of the nested List for the detail data. Set the following properties for the row height and the text displayed in the cells of the row.

Adding nested data region

The last row of the table should display the price history for the current product. To do that, add the nested List to the row using the following steps:

• Click the handler of the last row and set its Height property to 0.35in in the Property Inspector

• Expand the toolbox using the Hamburger menu located on the toolbar's left side

• Drag and drop the List item from the toolbox into the last row of the table

• In the Property Inspector of the newly added List set the DataSet Name property to ProductListPriceHistories

Displaying the detail data

Drag and drop two TextBox items from the toolbox into the List and set the following properties for newly added textboxes:

Preview the report output

You can now preview the report output and notice that the following information is displayed for each product:

• Product Name, Number, Size, and Color(Master data)

• Product Price History(Detail data)

The final version of the report is available at the demo website.