Row Types

Rows are an important fundamental aspect of tables. There are three types of table rows: Header, Details, and Summary.  The different types of rows can be independently enabled for each level of Grouping, and for each table in a Table Group. Adding or removing the Header, Details, or Summary rows is as simple as selecting the Row boxes in the Configure Table tab of the Property Inspector. A row can also be structured or unstructured. A structured row having a variable number of columns, and unstructured row having no columns so you can add images, charts, data, and text shapes anywhere in the row. Additionally, Table Row Versioning gives you the option of conditionally displaying rows with a different format to make them stand out.    

To learn more about Tables, go to Report Tables and Table in the Appendix.

Header Row

The Header Row allows for a single row to be placed before the Details rows. This is commonly used to create a header for the Table. In many cases where one header is used, the other header could be used equivalently in its place. An interesting feature of the header row is the Reprint When Wrapped property which allows the header row to be reprinted on a new page when its data crosses a page boundary. To disable this feature, uncheck the Print When Wrapped property in the Properties tab.

Automatic Text Resizing

As of 7.9.6, if text in a Header Row is so long that it will result in truncation or overflow, the size of the text will automatically resize to accommodate. 

Detail Rows

The Detail Rows typically represent the majority of the data on a table or commonly referred to as the "middle" rows. Once you configure the Detail rows with your datasource, the table displays your data in a structured, repetitious format. You can customize the layout and organize the data to determine how you want your data to look on the report. You can even disable Detail Rows in unusual situations such as only displaying aggregate summaries. 

Summary Row

The Summary Row is like the Header row only it prints at the bottom of the table, and is typically used to display aggregates for keys. They are typically used in conjunction with some of the Show Calculation keys, such as count, total, running total, etc. 

Configuring Header, Details, and Summary Rows

Adding Header, Details, and Summary Rows is super easy. Once a Table component is in your Design Panel and your Datasource is populated in the Data Key field, check the Header and Summary boxes. The Header, Details, and Summary rows will be added to your report.  The Details box will be checked by default. To remove the Header, Details, or Summary rows, uncheck the applicable rows.

Structured vs Unstructured Rows

Structured Rows behave like a row in a spreadsheet: a series of columns are horizontally adjacent to each other. In the case of a row, the columns are Text Shapes. A structured row can have a variable number of Text Shapes. Structured rows provide more control over the layout, wrapping, and organization of text based table data. Since structured rows only allow for Text Shapes, they can not contain components like images, barcodes, charts, and text shapes.

To view the properties of the Details row (or any row), super-select the row by clicking on the Details row (dark bar in the table), or clicking the Details node in the Project Browser tree.  You can confirm that a row is structured by looking at the Structured Columns property in the Properties Tab, or by looking at the Row Structure icon  next to the Standard row version label. You can also change the number of columns in a row, using the Column Count property.

You can tell when a row (any row) is selected by looking at the Project Browser tree, or by looking at the red outline of the rows in a table. A row's content is above its respective dark row bar.

Unstructured Rows are functionally very similar to structured rows, but they do not offer the same column based text constraints. Instead, Unstructured Rows allow you to place any other report component inside of the row. Unstructured rows are highly customizable rows allowing you to place data, text shapes, images, or charts anywhere you want them within the row. 

There are two ways to make a row unstructured once your row is selected:

• In the Property Tab of the Property Inspector, set the Structured Columns property to 'false.'
• In your Table, click on the Row Structure icon  on the right side of you row. Click the icon to make the row unstructured .  You can toggle the Row Structure icon to switch between a structured row and unstructured row. 
  
  
  

Now that the Header row is unstructured, drag the Header row down the page making room to add any component(s) from the Report Design Palette, and place it anywhere in the row. In this example, you can see a Text Shape was added for the report title, an image was dragged from the Image Management Tool, and a Line Shape was drawn to separate the image from the report data.  

Here is what the report looks like in the Preview panel.