continuous scrolling

rbuser

My client would like the ability to continuously scroll through a report
using a viewer similar to Adobe Reader. The scroll bar needs to reflect the
total report, not just the position on a single page.

Can this be accomplished? If not, can the report be printed as a single
page?

Michael Philbrick

rbuser

> Can this be accomplished?

now without spinning your own previewer--a bit of work.


Yes. I did something like this a long time ago for an HTML reporter. I
created a 2 pass report with a very long page. In the first pass I set a
variable to the max bottom position of the object that got printed and
before the 2nd pass set the page length a bit longer then the bottom
position.

HTH
Ed Dressel
Team DM

rbuser

So, how much work to create a previewer? In further discussions with my
client, it is important for the output to look WYSIWYG, including page
numbers.

My option is to export PDF to stream, then import into a PDF viewer
component (I think WPTools has one). If the time delay on a report 10-30
pages is not too long, this would be the easiest solution. However, if it
can be accomplished by creating a custom previewer, I would like to give
this a try.

Can anyone provide me with direction on how to approach this, and if so, how
much work might be involved? Finally, I would be open to paying someone to
help develop the framework if it is too difficult for an applications
programmer like myself (never really got into component building).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

Michael Philbrick

nicocizik

Hi Michael,

The ReportBuilder previewer sets its scrollbar size based on the size of a
page. If you were to fit your entire report on a single page, there would
be no need to create a custom previewer. However you mention that you would
like to keep your existing page structure only have it scroll like a single
page report. The viewer was not designed to handle this type of navigation.
If you have RB 9 or higher, your easiest option would be to automatically
export your report to PDF with the OpenPDFFile property set to True so
Acrobat automatically opens once the report has been generated.

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Nico,

Thanks for your response.

Regarding the PDF, actually that is what I am doing now. The only difference
is that instead of spawning another window, I placed an instance of
TWebBrowser on the form and called TWebBrowser.Navigate(FName), effectively
achieving the same result in a modal window.

There are two downsides to this approach. The first is that IE and Adobe
need to be loaded (which generally is not an issue) and the second is speed
for large reports. It would be nice to stream it to the viewer instead of
writing it to disk, but maybe the time savings is minimal.

Regarding the "one page" viewing option, how do I calculate the page length?

BTW, I had not upgraded RBuilder in a few years, and with version 10 I have
noticed many little enhancements that really improve the usability of the
product. I enjoy working with it.

Michael Philbrick

nicocizik

Hi Michael,


I have not tried it myself, but Ed mentioned a method that he's used before
in a previous post. Note that you are going to want to avoid using the page
footer band as this will always print at the bottom of a page. Perhaps use
the Summary band to determine where the bottom of the report is.

---

...created a 2 pass report with a very long page. In the first pass I set a
variable to the max bottom position of the object that got printed and
before the 2nd pass set the page length a bit longer then the bottom
position.

--
Regards,

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