Deal with incomplete data

In some cases (on a specific set of input parameters), database fields and respectively CustomXML attributes may contain empty values (nulls). This results in Word writing "Click or tap here to enter text" in Content Control positions. To avoid this effect, just use nvl(database_column, ' ') in the definition of node attributes.

The other case is when a user enters report parameters that reference to non-existing data. Without additional precautions, this results in Report Designer Error 1 “Cannot generate Report as configuration of CustomXML Report Component produces dynamic sql statement which selects no rows”. To show the empty report instead, you have to modify Data Source Node and Condition so that 1 record can be always selected from Data Source given any input parameters. E.g. by

1. Adding to Data Source priority Column:

   1 as priority

2. Adding to DataSource clause:

   UNION ALL select 0 as priority, null as department_id, 'n/a' as department_name, 0 as employees_qty, ' ' as manager_name from dual

3. Transforming Condition to something like:

   nvl(department_id, to_number([REPORT_INPUT.PARAMETER_1]) ) = to_number( [REPORT_INPUT.PARAMETER_1] ) order by priority desc fetch first 1 row only