HOWTO: Manually modify a NAV report - Zetadocs client side installation using the Microsoft SQL Server Report Builder

This Zetadocs technical note applies to:

• Zetadocs for NAV version 11.1 and older
• Zetadocs delivery set for Client-Side delivery (32-bit)
• Business Central 13 and 14 and NAV 2013 R2 and later

Summary

This technote is only required for Zetadocs Client-side Delivery and applies only to the versions of BC and NAV mentioned above. For older versions of NAV, please see the technote ZTN4448.

Zetadocs requires existing NAV and BC reports to be modified to add the Zetadocs reference that the Zetadocs PDF printer interprets as the start of the next document in a batch.

The process is divided into three main steps:

• Modifying the report with the Zetadocs Modification Tool
• Modifying the Header and Body Section for RDLC report

• Testing the report

More information

To make this process quicker and easier, we have provided the Zetadocs Report Modifier tool which can be downloaded from our website.

1. Download the latest Report Modification Tool from the Equisys website and extract it.
2. Open the NAV or BC development environment and select the reports you wish to add the Zetadocs functionality to.

3. Export the reports as a text file.

4. Run the Report Modification Tool and click Load Reports.
5. Select the version of NAV or BC.

6. Browse to your exported reports and click Start.

7. The Conversion Options window will appear. Modify the new report ID range as required. This specifies the starting ID that the Report Modification Tool will use for the first modified report. Subsequent reports will use values incremented from this base value.

8. Modify the report name prefix, as required. This specifies a 0 to 3 characters prefix that all reports will have appended to their names. This ensures the reports have a unique name. Leaving the prefix blank will allow the existing report name to be used. However, you may get name collisions if you have chosen to use new report IDs as well.

You may be asked to delete the existing output directory. We recommend you back up this directory before proceeding.
If a report cannot be modified, the reason will be listed. For successful conversions, the new report ID and report name are given.
The modified reports are now available in the folder containing the original reports, in an Output subfolder.

9. Re-import the reports and deal with any merge and conflict messages that appear.

Modifying the Header and Body Section RDLC reports

If you are using the RDLC (Report Definition Language Client) reports you need the following additional steps to ensure the Zetadocs reference is visible to the Zetadocs PDF printer.

There are two different methods to do this, depending on how it has been designed and the version of NAV or BC in question:

• Modifying the Header and Body section
• Modifying the Body section only

Most can use the header and body section modifications, but some reports (for example, the remittance advice journal) require the body only modifications.

The Order confirmation report is an example where the page header section is used to display header information on each page for the record. To add the Zetadocs reference:

1. Open the NAV / BC development environment
2. Go to Tools > Options and set Use Report Builder to Yes

3. Locate the report that you want to modify, go into design mode and click View > Layout. This will open the Microsoft SQL Report Builder.
4. Add a new text box in the top left of the body section, ensuring it does not overlap any existing controls.

• Existing text boxes have a parent listbox called list1. In this situation, ensure that this new textbox has the same.

5.  Right click on the box and select Text Box Properties. Adjust the properties as follows:

Name: Zetadocs_Reference_tb.

Value: =Fields!Zetadocs_Reference.Value.

Visibility Hidden: TRUE.

Colour: Red.

Font size: 6 (4 being the minimum).

Also, ensure the box is wide enough for the whole reference to fit in.

6. Right click on the box, then select Layout and Bring to Front.

7. Add a new text box to the top left of the page header section of the report.
   1. Ensure the textbox does not overlap any existing controls.
   2. Ensure the whole 15 digits ZD Reference will fit in the text box on one line.
8. Right click on the box and select Text Box Properties. Adjust the properties as follows:

Name: ZDRef

Value: =ReportItems!Zetadocs_Reference_tb.Value

Colour: Red.

Font size: 6 (4 being the minimum).

Also, ensure the box is wide enough for the whole 15 digits reference to fit in.

9. Close, save and compile the report

Testing the report

To test that the report has correctly been modified, follow the steps below:

1. Go to the Report Selection – Sales or Purchase page on the NAV client and select the report ID of the report that you have modified for the relevant record:

2. Open the Zetadocs Report Settings and configure the report that you have modified:

3. Print the relevant record to the Zetadocs PDF printer and that should open the Zetadocs client showing the ZD Reference in both the header and the body of the report

4. If the test is successful, open the report again on the Microsoft SQL Report Builder and change the colour of the font to white.

References

HOWTO: Manually modify NAV Reports to work with Zetadocs Client Delivery

Last updated: 13^th May 2021 (EG/CR) 

Keywords: Zetadocs Client, ZDRef, SQL server report builder, 32 bit