Merging to Reports into one PDF - Second Report Sometimes Has No Data - PDF Erased

rbuser

Using the technique described in this article:

http://www.digital-metaphors.com:8080/Output/PDF/How_To...Merge_Multiple_Reports_into_one_PDF

I find that on the occasions when the 2nd report has no data, the entire PDF
is erased when it attempts to generate the 2nd report.

I am setting the NoDataBehaviors for the report to [ndBlankPage].

Is there something else I am missing? Is there an easy way to get the PDF to
retain the contents of the first report when the 2nd has no data?

Thanks,

Steve Elliott

nicocizik

Hi Steve,

If you have the NoDataBehaviors set to BlankPage, you should still get a
page when exporting a report regardless the data provided. In my testing
with the example you mentioned below, I reconfigured the second report to an
empty report and exported to PDF. This gave me a merged PDF which included
the first report and a blank page for the second. Are you able to alter the
example to demonstrate what is happening to your app? If so, please give me
the steps I can take and I'll take a look at it for you.


Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Nico,

Making up an example report would take me some time, so I did a little
debugging and code browsing first.

If I set the the NoDatabehaviors to [ndBlankReport], then the PDF file is
not deleted. However, I really do not want an unpopulated report page if
there is not data for the 2nd report.

Also, I see this little block of code in ppReport.pas:

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
{cancel the job if no page was sent to the device}
if DonePrinting and (AbsolutePageCount = 0) and (ndBlankPage in
NoDataBehaviors) then
begin
Cancel;
// Reset;
end;
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I may be reading this wrong, but this would seem to indicate if printing is
complete, with no pages, and ndBlankPage is in the NoDatabehaviors, then it
calls the Cancel routine - which in the case of the PDF device - deletes the
file.

Am I reading this correctly?

Steve Elliott

rbuser

OK. I replicated the issue using the example and actually linking the 2nd
report to data.

1) I downloaded the example MultipleReportsAsOnePDF.zip

2) Modified ppReport 2 to actually pull data from a database - using the
report designer on ppReport2 I did a file, new, added the animals table with
all defaults,

3) Right clicked on the animals table displayed in the Data tab, did a
preview to show all records.

4) Switched to the design tab, added a dbtext field linked to the Name field
in the detail section.

5) Saved, compiled, all worked as expected. PDF file produced.

6) Went back into the ppReport2 in the designer, on the data tab, right
clicked on the animals table and selected search, added a criteria of size =
200 (no records in the table have this size).

7) Saved, compiled, executed. No PDF.

8) If I step through the program in the Delphi debugger I see the PDF get
created after the ppReport1.PrintToDevices call.

9) If I step through the rest of the code after ppReport2.PrintToDevices is
called, the PDF is deleted.

Steve

nicocizik

Hi Steve,

Thanks, there is now a patch available for RB 12.02 that addresses this
issue. Please contact support@digital-metaphors.com if you would like the
patch.


Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
"Steve Elliott" wrote in message news:4cdabf55$1@mail....

OK. I replicated the issue using the example and actually linking the 2nd
report to data.

1) I downloaded the example MultipleReportsAsOnePDF.zip

2) Modified ppReport 2 to actually pull data from a database - using the
report designer on ppReport2 I did a file, new, added the animals table with
all defaults,

3) Right clicked on the animals table displayed in the Data tab, did a
preview to show all records.

4) Switched to the design tab, added a dbtext field linked to the Name field
in the detail section.

5) Saved, compiled, all worked as expected. PDF file produced.

6) Went back into the ppReport2 in the designer, on the data tab, right
clicked on the animals table and selected search, added a criteria of size =
200 (no records in the table have this size).

7) Saved, compiled, executed. No PDF.

8) If I step through the program in the Delphi debugger I see the PDF get
created after the ppReport1.PrintToDevices call.

9) If I step through the rest of the code after ppReport2.PrintToDevices is
called, the PDF is deleted.

Steve

rbuser

Thank you. I will be applying the patch later today.

rbuser

Nico,

That works!

Thanks,

Steve Elliott