Problem getting fixed list height

[Stevie102]

Hello,

I'm new to Report Studio and am trying to make a form for printing Order headers, lines and a total at the foot of the last page. The total is calculated in the query and is printed in the final block.

My page looks like this:

BLOCK - in page header
LIST - in page body
BLOCK - in page body

I have set the LIST size to 16cm but it expands up to 19, forcing the final BLOCK to split over two pages. Is there another way to control the height of the list or a template that can be used to create forms like this?

We are using version 8.2 with PDF output.

Many thanks,

Steve

[paddhu]

Is it the problem with the height of the list, or is it because there are many rows that force the report to break into the second page. Look into the Rows per page option for the list; set it appropriately and check...

[Stevie102]

I'm not sure if I have two problems here.

As you suggest, I can control the height of the list by setting the number of rows for the list. However, the block appears on every page when the list flows across more than one page.

I need to get a fixed height LIST(over 1 or more pages), then display the contents of a BLOCK after the last line of the list.

The list is on a page that is part of a page set so I can't use an overall footer because I only get one block at the end.

I have tried using a list page footer to hold the block and set up a boolean condition, PageNumber() = PageCount().

I applied the condition to the list page footer with option YES to show the page and option NO to hide it. But I still get a block on every page.

I displayed these values to show that they were different but the condition still gives me a block when I am on page 1 of 2.

[paddhu]

Ah... Now I got what is going on (hope so...  ;))
You need no block to do whatever you want to.
Select the list, go to Structure -> List Headers & Footers.
Select List Overall Footer.
Unlock the report (a small lock like icon on the toolbar)
Move the totals into the footer row.
This should do whatever you need. Kindly acknowledge...

[Stevie102]

Well that sort of worked!

When I did it the first time the footer only appeared at the end of the last page set. I displayed the RowNumber and saw that each page set carried on from the previous one. The report thought that there was only one list, even thought my page headers worked fine.

Then I put a check in the 'Repeat every page' box on the LIST Pagination property. This forced the RowNumber to reset to 1 at the start of each page set and made the footer appear correctly at the end of each list.

One thing I did notice, I set the list rows to 30, with a list column body height of 0.5cm to force the list height to be 15cm. This was fine up to 30 rows, but when I added more rows to the data it kept two more rows and the footer on the same page and only skipped to a new page at 33 rows. It look like the list will fill as much of the page as possible, whatever you specify in the number of rows or list height property.

The LIST height property only appears comes into effect when the list is not fully populated, say 20 records=10cm, it will expand with blank lines to 15cm.

Output is PDF if that makes any difference.

I've also noticed that the BLOCK in the Overall Footer now appears inside the list. I need it to appear outside/after the list.

The easiest solution would be to fix the height of the list bit I can't find any way of making this work using 'number of rows and row height' or 'list height' properties.

[paddhu]

What I would suggest is add another footer row above the footer, and set this row's bgcolor to the page bgcolor, and hide the borders. This would give an illusion that the footer is detached from the list, though it still is in the same list. Hope this works fine...

[Stevie102]

Thanks for the tip, I can see that may work but it seems like a lot of work.

There must be a way to control the height of a list.

I have to make forms for Purchase Orders/Invoices/Sales Orders all of which have to contain fixed size "Header"/"List"/"Total" data.

[paddhu]

Well, Cognos is a bit tough in that aspect; as a matter of fact in formatting itself generally. What you can do is ensure that every element in the page (including the page itself) has a defined size property. For blocks check that the option use scrollbars if necessary is used. If the option "content is not clipped" is checked, then the list ignores the size specified, if it goes beyond the size.

[Stevie102]

Thanks for the update and sorry for the delay in replying. I will apply the changes you've suggested and let you know how we got on.

Steve