Report has no dataset

hansfousert

Trying to learn Visual Studio with NAV 2009... but I'm not getting very far. :?

Installed is Visual Studo 2005 Professional edition
Created a report based on Customer table with 3 fields: No., Name, Balance (LCY) without the Wizard

Firstly: selecting View, Layout in Report designer starts Visual Studio. Visual Studio Conversion Wizard comes up: "The solution or project you are opening was created in a previous version of Visual studio. It must be converted..."

Secondly: sometimes there is no DataSet in Visual Studio. Selecting the Value property in a Table shows no DataSets

Thirdly: back in Report design the changes made are loaded. When saving the report this error message pops up: "Error while validating RDL-content:
An error occurred during local report processing.
The definition of the report ‘Main report’ is invalid.
The data set ‘DataSet_Result’ refers to the data set “DummyDataSource”, which does not exist."

Anyone any idea what's going on and what to do next?

Lastly, does anyone have a good manual on how to learn Visual Studio when you only know Report design?

ara3n

Hello.

You need to click on tools and Suggest Layout. This will create the first layout based on what you have put in the section of the report.

hansfousert

When I read your reply Ara3n I was wondering if this would ever help, but it did =D>

I still wonder why trying to create a manual layout (View, Layout) does not work and the automatic function (Tools, Create Layout Suggestion) does. Can you explain that please?

Thank you Ara3n. Another step forward.

ara3n

You were doubting me?

I cannot explain it. I can only say that's how it works. It creates the data source and RDL.

hansfousert

Yes, I was... because it makes no sense to me. Not because of you - no worries - I'm very glad to be a step further.

So, here I am still wondering why I got these errors when following a procedure that - according to what I read - should be possible.

If anyone has a clue... I'm all ears (hmmmm... there's no smily with ears).

DenSter

The philosophy for NAV 2009 is simple: ALL development is done in C/SIDE. ALL Objects are stored within C/SIDE. As such, RDLC layout is part of the proprietary NAV report object, and layouts are generated from within C/SIDE. You don't HAVE to do 'Generate Layout', you can do 'view layout' and create your own from there. The essential part there is that the RDLC is generated (with or without layout content) from the report designer in C/SIDE, and when you save the RDLC in Visual Studio, it becomes part of the report object in C/SIDE. You will need to create the dataset in the NAV report object by adding the fields you need to the sections in the NAV report object. For more information on how to create these reports, see Developer Help.

Any objects created outside of C/SIDE are just not recognized in C/SIDE, and will not be part of the NAV 2009 user experience, at least not without 'fancy trickery', none of which is likely to be supported. Your assumption is that you can create an external object and make it appear in NAV. That is not the case. You say it doesn't make sense, but it's just the way that it works.

hansfousert

Hi Denster,

Thanks for the reply, but I guess I did not express myself well enough?

So let me try again in a different way:
- don't worry about me not knowing how to create a report in Report design
- I made a new report in Report designer with 3 fields from the customer table
- I understand that Visual Studio imports info (RDLC) from my report. I know nothing about Visual Studio, but eager to learn.

But:
- when I use View Layout in NAV my Visual Studio opens up with a remark about a previous version of Visual Studio. What is the reason? Is it ok? Can I switch if off?
- my data set does not appear in Visual Studio. What could be the cause of that?
- when importing in NAV in the report designer I get an error message. What could be the reason?
(please read my first posting about the complete description of the messages)

This occurs when I use View, Layout. But when I use Tools, Suggest layout (like ara3n suggested) have no problems at all.
That's strange isn't it? And indeed, not what documentation and help says. And yes, I read everything before creating this topic.

Does this make it more clear to what I asked? Thanks for your help!

DenSter

Hm... Interesting... the way I read your initial post I thought you were not using C/SIDE at all, just Visual Studio. Sorry about that, I completely misread your question.

Now the error message... I don't get that error message. I just created a new report, canceled the wizard, entered the customer table and put a few of the fields in the body section. Then I did View Layout, and it opened VS with my blank layout. To see the fields, click the 'Data' menu, and in it you should see 'Show Data Sources (Shift+Alt+D)'. Clicking that, opens up the data source, and lists the fields that I selected. I don't have to do "generate layout" to see the fields, they appear just fine when doing View, Layout.

What it feels like to me is that NAV2009 was installed on a computer with either no VS at all yet, or with VS 2005 installed, and that VS was upgraded to 2008 after that. NAV, when generating the RDLC, starts out with 2005 version, and when VS opens up it sees a conflict. I don't know though, I am totally guessing. It's easy to guess when your own instalation works fine isn't it

hansfousert

Glad to hear that someone's got it working as how it should be working

I will have the installation of Visual Studio checked. As said, I'm when it comes to Visual Studio, so actually I have no idea about that part.

Thanks for your help and patience. Have a good day!

DenSter

Sorry I'm of such little use to you. Let us know how you did it if you get it solved.

clausl

Please read the Blog I just posted here about the options for Visual Studio and NAV 2009.
http://blogs.msdn.com/nav-reporting/arc ... -2009.aspx

Thanks,
Claus

ara3n

Thanks Claus. One more blog to add to my GoogleReader.

hansfousert

Installing SP1 for Visual Studio 2005 solved all the problems I had. Thanks Claus!