Word Layout - advanced issues

andrewt

With the new word layout option introduced with NAV 2015 I started to apply word layouts for a multi-tenancy environment to standard NAV document reports such as 206 - Sales Invoice or 405 - Order. The initial idea behind this concept is to have one dataset for all tenants but provide each tenant with its own document layout.
The main goal is to keep the dataset 'as-is' and apply any adjustments, formattings etc. to the layout only, but with that I am currently facing some issues where I haven't found a solution yet and hope to get some support from the community:

1) Totals
Some totals such as the total line amount are generated as accumulated values on the lines and issued on the dataset by the line item. Thus, the last line record would be required on the total section to display the total values. The resolution used by the RDLC layout is to use the LAST statement as expression to retreive the value from the last record of the dataset. I haven't found anything similar for the Content Control in Word which instead displays the value from the first record.
Is there anything I can use in Word to retrieve a value from the last record of the associated XML Mapping similar to what is done in RDLC ?

2) Blank Zeros
In some cases I don't want to get zero values displayed on the layout, such as discounts. Is there a way to control the value formatting within the Word layout or would I have to manage this already on the dataset ?

3) Carry-Overs
How to handle accumulated amounts carried over to be displayed at the bottom of the prior page and/or at the top of the next page ?

So far, except the very simple tutorials based on these new Mini... reports, I haven't found any advanced documentation that may help resolving these basic requirements to external document layouts so any hints, comments, links etc. pointing me into the right direction are highly appreciated.

Thanks in advance
AndrewT

BardurKnudsen

As you mention in the end of your post, we shipped the a small set of Mini-... reports, numbered 1304..1307 and match the original 204..207. I suggest you start work off the new reports, unless you have done heavy modifications to the existing 20X reports. The new reports are almost on-par with the old reports, but hopefully easier to maintain and the datasets have been adapted for Word.
1. Totals: Exactly because Word doesn't have conditional printing, we added a totals-buffer so the totaling section is also just a repeater. See report 130X.
2. Blank Zeros: Word cannot do conditional formatting, so you need to build this into the dataset.
3. No, Word cannot handle the carry-overs, or at least we haven't found a way yet.

You can read more on msdn, e.g. https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dn789519(v=nav.80).aspx

andrewt

Thank you, Bardur for this assessment, at least it confirms my findings and assuptions.
I think, our expectations from the new word layout option were to high at some point. We now understand that some fundamental requiements from document layouting with Word are missing or at least are not supported by Word, such as Totaling, handling First-Middle-Last Pages with different layouts, conditional formatting, carry-overs...
Also, regarding the Mini... section some basic documents are still missing. From the sales site this is a Sales Shipment document while purchasing hasn't been included at all. At least a Purchase Quote and a Purchase Order document would be essential for basic business processing.
Moving external documents to this area would require some development efforts to create additional datasets for the missing documents.

With all this on mind we've come to the conclusion that the Word layout in its current status is not an option for us to provide our customers with a self-service document layout feature. Instead, we will continue to stay on the usage of 3rd party tools such as Lasernet, Forms!Pipe or List&Label, hoping that Microsoft will going to improve this feature with one of the next releases

Cheers
AndrewT