Lines and shapes across sections

rbuser

How can I force vertical lines and boxes to span sections, say from header
to footer, not in code but just in the designer. Its a doddle in Crystal
Reports but I can't see how?

Paul

digitalmetaphors

Use the PageStyle band. It will print behind all other bands in the report.
You'll need to resize the band's height to be the height of the page.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

ok, but is not a very elegant solution. What if you want a box to flow from
a group header to a group footer?

digitalmetaphors

You'll have to use TppLines in the detailband to connect the group header to
the group footer.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Hmm...I see. Still a bit of a cludge. Am I right in thinking that, if I were
clever enough, the architecture is there for me to write a more
"intelligent" ( no offense intended) line component; or is the Designer
itself imposing this limitation?


Thanks, Paul

digitalmetaphors

RB is a banded style report writer. A component can only be parented by one
band and it generates a draw command when it has finished generating in its
band. You need to create a draw line command which has a length to extend
over multiple bands.

You may be able to do this with your own custom line descendent. Create a
vertical line component and register it with RB, so that your users can use
it in the designer. Add a property to it, like StretchToBottom?, and in the
PropertiesToDrawCommand method, it should create a draw line command that
which has a length from its top position to the bottom of the page. There
is an example of creating a custom component in your installation under
..\RBuilder\Demos\RCL\Checkbox.

The part thay may be hard, is adding the StretchToGroupFooterBottom
property. This will require a mechanism that runs the report in two passes
(Report.PassSetting). The first pass will generate a list of group footer
bottom positions. As the report generates in the second pass, the line draw
command will have to be generated based on the group footer positions in the
list. This is probably the best alternative if you want to drop one line
component in a band and have it generate to a position on the page
respective to another band?


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Thanks...that makes some sense...I'll give it a try when I get time and if I
succeed I'll post up the solution

rbuser

In article <8EAE82296ACCD311A039005004E0CAC0057A60@DMSERVER>, Paul Toms wrote:

I did it this way and it works well. Every Line which has ParentHeight,
ReprintonOverflow and Position Left or right will be painted to the footer or
to the summary-band.
---
Procedure TGFDrucken.GFPrintStartPage(Sender: TObject);
begin
{ Für das Linienmachen wichtig }
FCurrentPosition := -1;
end;

procedure TGFDrucken.GFPrintEndPage(Sender: TObject);
var
I: Integer;
liBottom: Integer;
liTop: Integer;
NewLine: TppDrawLine;
xLine: TppLine;
begin
if FCurrentPosition = -1 then exit;
if not MakeLines then exit;
liTop := FCurrentPosition;
liBottom := GFPrint.Engine.PageBottom;
if GfPrint.AbsolutePageCount = GfPrint.AbsolutePageNo then begin
if not GfPrint.FooterBand.PrintOnLastPage then liBottom :=
GfPrint.SummaryBand.CurrentPosition;
end;

{ TppDrawLine wird automatisch zerstört, braucht man sich nicht drum
kümmern! }
for I := 0 to GFPrint.DetailBand.ObjectCount-1 do begin // Iterate
if GFPrint.DetailBand.Objects[i] is TppLine then begin
xLine := TppLine(GFPrint.DetailBand.Objects[i]);
if (xLine.ParentHeight) and (xLine.ReprintOnOverFlow) and
(xLine.Position in [lpLeft, lpRight]) then begin
NewLine := TppDrawLine.Create(Nil);
NewLine.Page := GfPrint.Engine.Page;
NewLine.LinePosition := xLine.Position;
NewLine.Left := xLine.mmLeft +
Gfprint.PrinterSetup.PageDef.mmMarginLeft;
NewLine.Top := liTop;
NewLine.Height := liBottom - liTop;
NewLine.Width := xLine.mmWidth;
NewLine.LineStyle := xLine.Style;
NewLine.Pen.Assign(xLine.Pen);
end;
end;
end; // for
FCurrentPosition := -1;
end;

procedure TGFDrucken.ppDetailBand1AfterPrint(Sender: TObject);
begin
{ Hier muß die Position gemerkt werden }
FCurrentPosition := GFPrint.Engine.PrintPosRect.Top;
end;
---
HTH

Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter