SSRS: Master-detail report with two datasources

Question

I have two local data sources that I can push into the report. Works no problem. But how do I set up the report? One data source contains a list of employees, and info about them. The other contains a bunch of working hours for each employee.

I would like to use a table for the list of employees, and then have another table for the working hours beneath each employee (with their working hours).

Is this even possible? Do I have to use a Sub-Report? Would I have to merge them into one datasource? =/

Answer 1

To set up multiple datasources...you need to place two separate list objects into the report. Go to the designer, and in the toolbox you can put a new "list" into it. Then, you can do another report. Link that second list to your secondary dataset, which you implement through the secondary datasource.

It's a little bit of a stretch, but the basic idea is that each list object in the report can only be linked to one datasource.

Answer 2

As far as I can tell, it is impossible to nest one dataset inside of another one without using a subreport.

This means you need to do one of two things:

1. Refactor your two datasources into a single datasource. For example, perform a join between the employees and the working hours for each employee. You can then use the grouping properties of the Table object to format the list the way you want it.

2. If joining the two data sources is not practical, you can use subreports to accomplish what you want. Create a subreport containing the working hours data source and give it a parameter for the current employee. Filter the working hours by this parameter.

   In your parent report, you can place the subreport in the list, and pass the employee ID for the current row as a parameter.

   Note that there are a few formatting quirks involved with using subreports. I've been able to work around them in most cases, but the preferred method would definitely be number one above.

Answer 3

Adding a new answer to make sure a notification is sent for it.

Using a subreport is the easiest method when it works. You can simply drag and drop a subreport onto a table cell, and it will fill that cell's content area. Right-clicking on the subreport will allow you to edit the parameters for the subreport. Like most values in SSRS, the parameters can be set to expressions which use the fields in the table.

Within the subreport, just filter your results to show only the records associated with the employee who was passed in as a parameter.

The other route you can take is to merge your two datasources using a join. This will give you data something like this:

employee1 time1.1
employee1 time1.2
employee1 time1.3
employee1 time1.4
employee2 time2.1
employee2 time2.2
employee2 time2.3

You can then create a group on the repeated columns (employee in this example), and enable the HideDuplicates property on those columns. The result will look like this:

employee1 time1.1
          time1.2
          time1.3
          time1.4
employee2 time2.1
          time2.2
          time2.3

Answer 4

In the report document class there is a property called "Database", which has a collection of tables. You can use "SetDataSource" on each one of those tables, in order to place the separate lists of objects into the report.