Hiding column header

Hello there, 
 
I'm stuck with a requirement where I am supposed to hide the column header when there are no values/ blank values in the column. 
 
One possible way that I can think of is to have a check in my code and then pass a parameter that would tell whether or not to hide the header, but that needs code modifications. 
 
Is there any other way to achieve this. 
 
Need Help !!!! <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/public/style_emoticons/'>http://www.birt-exchange.org/org/forum/public/style_emoticons/</a><#EMO_DIR#>/confused.gif 
 
regards 
Arpan

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mwilliams

Hi Arpan,

So, sometimes your query returns lines that have no data in certain columns and you want to not show these columns when this happens? Is it a certain column or columns that will sometimes have no data? Or would you want this check for all columns? Let me know. Also, what is your BIRT version?

SailRCG

I think you might be able to do most of this in your query or computed column. For example set a 1 for every null or blank value then in your report, then in your header visibilty you can check when the row count = the toal of your calculated column. There may be a cooler way to do it, but I think handling it as a flag in the query is probably the quickest answer.

Megha Nidhi Dahal

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'mwilliams'" data-cid="65249" data-time="1275492379" data-date="02 June 2010 - 08:26 AM">
Hi Arpan, 
 
So, sometimes your query returns lines that have no data in certain columns and you want to not show these columns when this happens? Is it a certain column or columns that will sometimes have no data? Or would you want this check for all columns? Let me know. Also, what is your BIRT version? </blockquote>
 
Hi Michael, 
 
You understood me correctly. I want to hide a column, very specifically only one column that will sometimes have no data. Check for all columns is not needed in my case. 
 
I'm using BIRT 2.5. 
 
regards 
Arpan

Megha Nidhi Dahal

<blockquote class='ipsBlockquote' data-author="'SailRCG'" data-cid="65256" data-time="1275528129" data-date="02 June 2010 - 06:22 PM">
I think you might be able to do most of this in your query or computed column. For example set a 1 for every null or blank value then in your report, then in your header visibilty you can check when the row count = the toal of your calculated column. There may be a cooler way to do it, but I think handling it as a flag in the query is probably the quickest answer. </blockquote>
 
I think setting of 1 or null is not needed, as it would already be blank, the checks I apply on column having 1 or null can be used to see if columns have blank. Handling using flag is a very straight forward approach as I can see either, but I'm wondering if there is some other cooler approach

mwilliams

Arpan,

Here's another simple way to do it. You can add an aggregation to your table that concatenates the values of your column and in the visibility expression for the column you can check this value. If it is an empty string, you hide the column, if not, you don't. Attached is an example made in 2.5.0.

Megha Nidhi Dahal

Michael,

I went through the test design file you sent, I must confess that I'm new to BIRT so was not able to clearly identify where was that aggregation("AllState")happening.

And also, my data source is flat file, I read data from a tsv, can I go for the approach you suggested even in this case?

If I can go ahead with this approach, it would be very useful if I get some links which explains how to write aggregations in birt.

Once again, thanks a lot.

regards
Arpan

Megha Nidhi Dahal

Michael,

I followed the approach you suggested, but instead of concatenation I checked for number of not null values, if it is zero, I'm hiding the column.

Please instruct me if this approach is incorrect or has some flaws.

Once again, thank you very much.

regards
Arpan

mwilliams

Arpan,

Sorry for the delay. I am in Orlando at the IBM Rational Conference.

The aggregation works in the table, so it'd work for a flat file as well. If you clicked on the table, you'd see the aggregation in the bindings tab of the property editor. As I said in my post, that was just one way to do it. The way you describe should work just as well!

Let me know if you have any issues!

Megha Nidhi Dahal

Michael,

Thank you very much for the information. Have a great time at the conference

.
Will continue bugging if I have any questions!

regards
Arpan