Executing report in ReportExplorer without showing it...

rbuser

Hi,
I would like to execute PrintPreview method of the custom ReportExplorer
form on button click without showing the form itself. The reason for it is
because I have my code inside PrintPreview method and also because all my
settings are already set.
So the question is: How do I execute a certain report without showing
ReportExplorer form?

My guess is that I must set focus on the report I want to print and call
PrintPreview method, or I could pass database Item_Id value to somewhere for
execution...

Thanks,
MB

rbuser

Also, it seems that I can't call a method of the report explorer without
creating it first.
But calling to the TppReportExplorer.Execute method creates and SHOWS the
dialog.
Can't I create the instance of the TppReportExplorer without showing it?

Thanks,
MB.

rbuser

One more thing.
Your "Tech Tip: How to Programmatically Load Reports that were Saved using
the Report Explorer"
doesn't work either unless Report Explorer is instantiated. (At lest 1st
method).
The question is still the same: How to instantiate Report Explorer without
showing it (in background).

Thanks,
MB.

digitalmetaphors

Waht do you want to do? If you know the report you want, simply load it from
database (Report.Template.LoadFromDatabase). Then access the other field in
the dataset that you want, ie ItemID, and then call Report.Print and then do
what you want with the ItemID or update a field saying that you've printed
this report. You can always fire a query to get an rbItem record from the
database table if you want the other fields rather than just the template
BLOB field. I would lean towards trying to load the template from database
and perform your other code in a new way, instead of trying to rely on the
code already in place inside your report explorer related code.

The report explorer is not meant to be used behind the scenes like that, and
no one has tried this before. It won't work because the Initialize method is
called in BeforeShowForm, and the report explorer needs to be initialized.
So, one option is to change the interface to the report explorer so that you
can use it without calling the intended Execute method. This isn't
recommended, but it is an option.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors

rbuser

Thank you for the explanation.
I guess I'll stick to the LoadFromDatabase method.

One more question:
But if I have several reports with same names in different folders, then do
I have to use ppReport1.Template.OnLocateRecord event? Or can I somehow
bypass it? And if not could you please give me a small example on using this
event?

Thanks,
MB.

digitalmetaphors

Sorry for the delay, I was out of town for a few days. The only way to
programatically find a report by name is to also search on FolderID in order
to be sure you find the report. This is done visually when the user selects
a folder and report in the report explorer interface. These two fields are
used together to find the correct report, since FolderID is a foreign key in
the rbItems table.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors


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