Extending Excel Button

rbuser

Hello All, I don't mean to repost but I accidentally posted this as a reply
to a post from many months ago.

I currently have an "excel button" implemented but would like to
extend it somewhat. I have reports that have header and footer bands that
make the reports look good online and as PDFs but make working with the
excel output very tedious. What I would like to accomplish is to either
redirect the excel button to an excel-friendly version of the current
report, forwarding all of the current autosearch values, or to set a boolean
variable or other flag within the report that I can use on
Report.BeforePrint to disable the header and footer bands and move some of
the rows closer together.

Thanks All,
Branden Johnson

nardmoseley

Simplest solution would be to add some code to the WebModule action handler
to check the TrsWebRequest.ContentType. When the ContentType is XLS, then
request a different version of the report, one that has an XLS suffix. The
server would need to host two versions of the report, for example, myInvoice
and myInvoiceXLS.

Something like this...

procedure TWebModule1.WebModule1waDefaultAction(Sender: TObject; Request:
TWebRequest; Response: TWebResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
var
lWebRequest: TrsWebRequest;
begin

{use the incoming request parameters to create a TrsWebRequest}
lWebRequest := rsWebTier1.CreateWebRequest(Request.QueryFields,
Request.Content);

try
if lWebRequest.ContentType = 'XLS' then
lWebRequest.ReportName := lWebRequest.ReportName + 'XLS'

Response.Content := ProcessDefaultRequest(lWebRequest);

finally
lWebRequest.Free;
end;

end;




--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Thank you Nard. That is exactly what I was looking for!

rbuser

Would there be any way to search for the excel-friendly report and disable
the excel button if one does not exist, or to only redirect to an
excel-friendly report if it exists?

rbuser

Also, how would I go about changing the file name to include information
from the report. Currently, my XLS rendered reports are saved as
report.xls. I would like to include header info that I had to do away with
like date of printing and customer #.

Thanks All,
Brandne Johnson

nardmoseley

Below is an example I created. When a reqest is made for 'xls', it checks
whether the server contains a special version of the report called
ReportNameXLS.


uses
rsWebRequest,
rsConnection,
rsClientReportCatalog,
rsReportVolumeDirectory;

procedure TWebModule1.WebModule1WebActionItem1Action(Sender: TObject;
Request: TWebRequest; Response: TWebResponse; var Handled: Boolean);
var
lWebRequest: TrsWebRequest;
lsReportName: String;
lsFormat: string;
lbReportExists: Boolean;
begin

// create a WebRequestObject
lWebRequest := rsWebTier1.CreateWebRequest(Request.QueryFields,
Request.Content);

lsFormat := 'xls';

// check whether request is for specified format
if (lWebRequest.ContentType = lsFormat) then
begin
lsReportName := lWebRequest.ReportName + lsFormat;

lbReportExists := CheckReportExists(rsWebTier1.ServerConnection,
lWebRequest.SessionID, lWebRequest.VolumeName, lsReportName);

if lbReportExists then
lWebRequest.ReportName := lsReportName;

end;


Response.Content := rsWebTier1.ProcessWebRequest(lWebRequest);

lWebRequest.Free;

end;

function TWebModule1.CheckReportExists(aServerConnection: TrsConnection;
aSessionID, aVolumeName, aReportName: String): Boolean;
var
lReportCatalog: TrsClientReportCatalog;
lVolumeDirectory: TrsReportVolumeDirectory;
begin


// access the report catalog
lReportCatalog := TrsClientReportCatalog.Create(nil);

try
lReportCatalog.ServerConnection := aServerConnection;
lReportCatalog.SessionID := aSessionID;

lVolumeDirectory := lReportCatalog.GetVolumeDirectory(aVolumeName);

Result := (lVolumeDirectory.GetItemNodeForName(aReportName) <> nil);

finally
lReportCatalog.Free;

end;

end;


--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Nard, I tried this but I am running into a problem. The default action of
the webtier is not firing. I have added this code but nothing has changed.
I added some code to write a text file to see what info was being passed but
the text file was never generated. I thought maybe the new .dll was not
being used so I deleted it from the server and the web service no longer
worked; this confirmed to me that the new .ddl was in fact being used. The
only thing I could figure was that the default action of the webtier was not
being used. So I deleted it from the action editor and removed all code
from the OnAction event, comiled the .dll and put it on the server. This
ned .dll is being used and is functioning without any problem. I thought
the Response.Content := RBWebServer.ProcessWebRequest(Request.QueryFields,
Request.Content) served a purpose but it looks as though it does not. I may
be way pff base here but I have no clue what is going on.

nardmoseley

As a starting point, try using the WebDebugger app installed to
RBServer\Demos\WebTier. Get that working. Then add in the custom code and
test at each step.

Without a default action firing nothing would ever happen - unless you have
coded some other actions.

Without calling WebTier.ProcessWebRequest nothing would ever happen.



--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

nardmoseley

Perhaps you can put the description information in the report's title band
and then generate the information to the xls file.

Currently there is no way to customize the export file name.


--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

I had forgotten to recycle the application pool so it was still using the
cached dll. I thought that I was on the wrong train of thought there. The
code to search for an existing exce-friendly report works brilliantly.
Thank you very much. I am always amazed by the versatility of Report
Builder and the support that you give.