From 6.6 SP2 you are able to design the dispatch and project report to more visibly distinguish a parent object from its accessories. This is done by combining two elements in the report designers and using string operators. The two elements that were added from version 6.6 SP2 are; 1) Object Has Parent, 2) Object Has Children.
Example: You have a Drone that has a Canon 5D camera as its accessory. The Canon 5D also has an accessory, a Macro lens. When you book the Drone you will get a Booking with:
Drone: Main Object / Parent
Canon 5D: Accessory / Child
Macro lens: Accessory of the Accessory / Grand child
In the Booking it will look like this.
When listing the objects in the report you can distinguish and make it visible which item is the parent, which is the child and grand child, by for example displaying the parent object the Drone in bold and darker colour, and the child Canon 5D in bold and lighter colour, and then the lowest level, ie objects that do not have any accessories / children in normal black, as in the below example.
To achieve this you will use two print designer elements available in the project and dispatch report print designers and use string operators of the type String Compare:
- Object has parent
- Object has children
You will find these elements on the left hand side in the print designer window, in the section "Element row".
Here are the steps
Step 1: Copy to create new elements
In the print designer the Object name is the element D:[Name]. Select this and make 3 copies.
Step 2: Rename the new elements
When you have created the copies untick the D:[Name] and rename the new Elements that you have created. They will appear at the bottom in the Element Rows section. Click on Edit to rename them, for example Main Object, Child with accessories, Object with no accessories
Step 3: Create string operators
To create string operators click on the Edit button to open the Edit window and in the bottom right corner click on the green plus next to String Operators and select Type > String Compare
In the String Compare Operator window right mouse click to display the New button, click on it to open the Comparison Window
a) String operator for the Main object
- Compare what: Object Has Parent > in Compare What scroll down the list to find Object Has Parent
- How: Equals
- With: No > type in the word No
- Return: Input > click OK
- In window String Compare Operator click on Else Return > Select Value and leave it empty > click OK. As the value that is returned is nothing it is displayed as ""
b) String operator for Object that has both a parent an.d children, ie it is an accessory and has its own accessories. This one will require 2 String operators
First operator:
- Compare what: Object Has Parent
- How: Equals
- With: Yes (type the word Yes)
- Return: Input
- Else Return: Nothing (select Value and leave empty)
Second operator
- Compare what: Object Has Children
- How: Equals
- With: Yes
- Return: Input
- Else Return: Nothing (select Value and leave empty)
c) String operator for Objects that are accessories but do not have any accessory of their own
- Compare what: Object Has Children
- How: Equals
- With: No (type the word No)
- Return: Input
- Else Return: Nothing (select Value and leave empty)