Hello,
This is a question about customizing notices - which I realize is an “attempt at your own risk” situation - but just in case there is a straightforward answer, I thought I would post this query.
One of the libraries here would like the parent/guardian name to appear above the mailing address in billing and overdue Zfold mailers.
We use the User2 field in patron records for the parent guardian name.
I made a copy of the overdue notice, moved it to a Notices folder in my Custom folder, and opened it in Microsoft Report Builder. I now see the address is in the header of the report, and even though I can add a text box above the mailing address, I cannot figure out what sort of expression to add, if one is possible.
I see User2 in the OverdueNotice dataset, but I have not worked with report headers or ReportItems before.
I am learning as I go with SQL and Report Builder and realize this question may be out of the scope for this forum.
Thank you in advance, either way.
The expression is “=Fields!PatronName.Value + vbcrlf + Fields!PatronAddress.Value” - I think you should be able to update that to “=Fields!PatronName.Value + vbcrlf + Fields!User2.Value + vbcrlf + Fields!PatronAddress.Value.” You may want an IIF statement in case any of your patrons don’t have anything in that field.
@ebrondermajor beat me to it! Interesting stuff for sure! What is appears the system does is use this hidden text box PatronAddr in the table to then populate the address area in the header of the report.
Which is why if you look at the visibility of the table text box, it will shown as hidden:
It was actually easier to see, and may be easier to edit, by looking at the .RDL file in a text editor and searching for the PatronAddr expression in there.
First, thanks to both @ebrondermajor and @wesochuck for pointing out the hidden text boxes! I had thought I completely misunderstood what I was reading about report items in headers and footers when I could not find what they were referencing in the body.
I tried Eleanor’s suggestion and added =Fields!User2.Value + vbcrlf + Fields!PatronName.Value + vbcrlf + Fields!PatronAddress.Value to the hidden text box in the billing z fold mailer notice - and it worked. If no entry is present in the User2 field, a notice looks as it always did. But if an entry is present in the User 2 field, it appears above the main part of the address, and it did not appear to cause problems with the formatting of the report:
When I ran the original report with the intent of capturing a “before” example, I saw the User2 field displaying there as well …
I double-checked that text box in the original report to confirm I did not somehow accidentally edit it - and it is still the original.
Is what I encountered expected, even though I only edited the copy in the new location?
Or did I misunderstand where/how to save the copy I am editing?
So a partial success, and yay to learning about those hidden text boxes!, but unfortunately I cannot roll it out. Only one library wants to utilize this right now, so I will leave my edited tests on the training server.
When you run notices, it checks the Custom folder(s) and if it finds something there, it runs that instead of what is in the “normal” notice location. This is how you can customize email notices for example, buy putting a new version in the proper custom folder location.
If you want it to only run for one location, you’ll need to put the new RDL in a Notices folder for each branch (I don’t think it works at the library level), for example: Polaris → Custom → PCL Younkin Branch → Notices. The branch name of course will need to match the Branch Record in Polaris exactly.
Thank you, @wesochuck!
That fills in some gaps about how the Custom folder structure works.
I could have sworn I first tested the new Notices folder under the Custom folder for a specific branch, but it was the branch for my System office (which is where I typically test new reports I create from scratch), so I wonder if that was part of the problem.
In any case, a quick test of moving the new Notices folder to the specific branch that requested the adjustments seems to be working - without impacting the main Notices report.
