If Tag Tutorial

an \<if> tag allows you to display conditional information in your report when you run a report, if the data retrieved meets a condition written into the template, the report will display information of your choosing when you create an \<if> tag, you are setting the criteria for the condition and creating the information to be displayed if the data meets that criteria step 1 create a table to place an tag below is a table from the northwind xml data explained in about data sources docid\ cspkol51ailrlf97 8rtm employeeid lastname firstname title \<employees>\<employeeid> \<lastname> \<firstname> \<title> if you're working with an sql database, you'll have slightly different language in the table the table starts with a \<foreach> tag, which earlier had been given the variable name employeelist (see add tags with the tag builder docid\ ygbf3e0jh08jskdmipjtp ) remember, it is important to know the name (also referred to as the "var") of the \<foreach> tag, because you'll need this information to create your \<if> tag this tag is followed by four \<out> tags \<employeeid> , \<lastname> , \<firstname> , and \<title> finally, you see the \<endforeach> tag step 2 determine the condition suppose in the above example that you don't want to see the exact job title of each employee instead, all of the sales reps are being promoted, and you want a table that will tell you at a glance who is due a promotion you want the output under job title to display the word "promotion" if an employee is a sales rep employeeid lastname firstname title \<employees>\<employeeid> \<lastname> \<firstname> \ foreach> notemtpy property in the if tag you can set the notempty property to true or false this property is only used for a sql select that returns null or an xpath select that returns a zero length string for the case of returning a node that exists but is empty notempty = true the if tag will return false because the node must not be empty to return true notempty = false the if tag will return true because the node exists and you are not requiring it be empty delete the \<out> tag under job title/ now you're ready to create your \<if> tag step 3 open the tag builder click the empty cell under job title and click the tag builder icon in autotag in the tags tab, click the \<if> tag icon then, click the select tab step 4 use the wizard or the select bar what you do next will depend upon your data source if you're using an xml file, you will use the xpath wizard if you're using an sql data source, you will be working directly with the select bar or with the sql wizard we'll walk through the xpath wizard first, followed by what to do if you're connected to an sql database the xpath wizard you may be interested in viewing the using the xpath wizard tutorial video http //documentation blueprintcloud com/developercenter/templateauthoring/reference guide/xpath/the xpath wizard htm click the wizard in the left pane of the wizard dialog box, click the statement \[click here to add a node] now you must tell autotag where to look for the data because you're inside a \<foreach> loop, here you will choose the name of the \<foreach> variable in this case, our var is named employeelist in the dialog box that appears, click the node employeelist and then click ok the data of the first entry of the var appears in the right pane of the wizard, helping you confirm that you've chosen the correct node your next step is to set up the basis of the condition in the left pane, click the statement \[click here to add a group] in the left pane, click the statement \[click here to add a condition] now you're ready to start adding information to the condition the condition is made up of three parts the node, the comparison, and the value click the first part, the statement \[click here to select a node] in the dialog box, click the node upon which you want to place the condition – in this case, the title node click the second part, the comparison by default, the comparison is set to equal to from the context menu, select the appropriate comparison – in this case, equal to and then click ok click the third part, the value type the appropriate value in the drop down menu – in this case, sales representative you can see the entire select statement (the query that will be sent to the data source when you run the report) in the lower pane of the wizard click ok this closes the xpath wizard click save tag step 5 enter the text to be displayed now that the formatting of the \<if> tag has been taken care of, you can enter the text you want displayed your table looks like this employeeid lastname firstname title \<employees>\<employeeid> \<lastname> \<firstname> \<title = 'sales representative'> \ foreach> click the last cell immediately after the closing angle bracket for the \<if> tag and type the word "promotion" employeeid lastname firstname title \<employees>\<employeeid> \<lastname> \<firstname> \<title = 'sales representative'>promotion \ foreach> step 6 close the \<if> tag click the last cell immediately after the word "promotion " open the tag builder, click the \<endif> tag icon, and click ok the table now looks like this employeeid lastname firstname title \<employees>\<employeeid> \<lastname> \<firstname> \<title = 'sales representative'>promotion\ if> \ foreach> step 7 run the report save your blueprint using word's save command then, from the autotag run report group, click the desired report format icon in this example, we chose to view the report as a pdf file, and this is the result you've successfully created an \<if> tag now that you've mastered that, we'll introduce you the \<if> tag's cousin, the else tag docid 5yavygmdnrvflxvqjzu3s