Viewing all activities on the same line

Viewing all activities on the same line

I've got management asking me for a view that shows every activity a person has scheduled for the next six months on the same line. Each activity is a separate entry form. Although I have told them this is not possible because each document is represented by its own line, I am starting to question my response since everyone is pushing so hard for it. Is it in fact possible? If so (and I don't think it is), can you give me point me in the right direction?

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You're thinking along the right lines. This isn't doable in a view as a report ready to be seen at a moment's notice. You might be able to accomplish it with a third-party reporting tool, or you can use a little trick to make it look like you have done the same thing. I've used this trick in a few other projects and it works well if the report is "batch generated."

Create a view that has your general report layout but with the event information on separate lines as you would expect. For example:

J. Gibson
 Event A Phoenix June 1, 2005
 Event C New York June 12, 2005
 Event A Fresno July 3, 2005
T. Jones
 Event R Philadelphia May 15, 2005
 Event Q Chicago  June 12, 2005
 Event W Seattle  August 9, 2005

Then, during the batch cycle, process the view and create a condensed line for the report based on the data displayed in the view. Based on the information above, it might look like this:

J. Gibson   Event A--Phoenix--June 1, 2005; Event C--New York--June 12, 2005; Event A--Fresno--July 3, 2005
T. Jones   Event R--Philadelphia--May 15, 2005; Event Q--Chicago--June 12, 2005; Event W--Seattle--August 9, 2005

Another option is to have a report form that parses the view when the form is opened. This gives a more accurate representation of the current data, but it may take a while for the form to display depending on the amount of data in the view.

Do you have comments on this Ask the Expert question and response? Let us know.

This was first published in May 2005

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