Fairly new to Report Builder

rbuser

Hi there all,

Not sure where to place this, but here seems a good place to start.

I have a generic export mechanism that allows the user to select which
columns they want to be exported out to an Excel file, from a result set
generated from a search query. The list is inherited from TObjectList, and
so is a list of TObjects. As a result of this I will need to use a
JITPipeline to generate a Report Builder alternative to the Excel option.
The problem I have is that as the User can tick which fields they want, I
will have to dynamically place the fields onto the report. That is fine,
though I have not done it before, but where I see a problem is that should
the User choose more fields than will fit on a single line it will have to
wrap.

So my big question is, are there any tech tips either in the developers
guide or on the web, or from anyone who has overcome this problem and feels
so good about it that they want to share their wisdom!

Any ideas or pointers would be MOST gratefully received.

TIA
Colin B

digitalmetaphors

You could use the Report.Printer.Canvas to measure the text width that is
taken up, to create the spacing for the field columns. However, if you run
out of space, you'll have to wrap the components. Our ReportWizard does
this, and the source is located in your RBuilder\Source\ppRptWiz.pas

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors Corp

rbuser

Hi Jim,

First of all many thanks for your help, I had a play around with the
wizard, you know to see what it does, but I could only get it to wrap on one
run thro' and after thtat i couldn't repeat it so couldn't work out the
combination, which would then lead me to the code in the file you mentioned.
One other thing I noticed was the time it did wrap it put the field directly
underneath, whereas I would have thought it would look better if it was
staggered.

Interested to hear your thoughts on these point, but thanks again
regs
Colin B

digitalmetaphors

It doesn't stagger them. Here is an example of createing a spreadsheet
style report, where you can use multiple subreports to emulate a spreadsheet
style report, where the columns for one record print over two consecutive
pages.

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/SpreadsheetStyleReport.zip


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors Corp

rbuser

Jim,

Many thanks for that, I ran the demo, and I see that is a neat solution.
What I was trying to say in my last post was that using the wizard I managed
to get it to wrap the fields onto the next line, i.e. directly underneath,
but could only seem to do it once, every time I went thro the wizard steps
after that I couldn't do it again, and I didn't note down which options I
had chosen when it did do it.

When I said staggered, I realised it didn't do it, but was commenting that
it would look clearer on the report it the wrapped fields instead of
appearing directly underneath the fields above, i.e. with their left
property set the same, it would be good if they were like this:

First Name Family Name field n
Date of Birth

Joe Bloggworth data n
28/01/1960

I dunno, now I've done it I am not so sure. But that was what I was getting
at, but if I am honest I kinda like the demo actually, hadn't thought of it
like that, but by doing that they can put them next to each other on the
table and see the records like they were on one sheet.

So I guess the only outstanding question is do you know the options I need
to choose in the wizard to get the fields to wrap, not like above, but
directly underneath each other.

Thanks for your help...
Have a good day
Colin

digitalmetaphors

There is a check box in the report wizard called 'Adjust field widths so all
fields fit on page' Uncheck this to get the wrapping effect in the report
layout.


Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors