Assign a dynamic value to a report

[compuaid]

I have a report that works perfectly in the desktop environment where I assign a dynamic value to an image field obtained from a UDF. When I run the report on the desktop the correct image is displayed. Now, when I publish the report and run it under WAS the report does not seem to be able to find the UDF and run the function to obtain the image name. I've verified this by adding a calculated field on the report that just shows the name of the image obtained from the function. On the desktop the correct name shows but when running on the WAS the field does not get a name. I'm including the compiled AEX file when I publish so I'd hoped my report would then be able to see the global function.

There must be a way to do this otherwise reports would be extremely limited when running through the web interface. Any suggestions? I know that to call UDFs from a grid you have to reference the Xbasic library (which I call PVA which matches the name of my web project) but I don't see anything under reports to create the same type of reference.

[compuaid]

Re: Assign a dynamic value to a report

Is there any way to use the dynamic fields in a report that's running from the web server to reference a session variable or call a function? I suppose if I can't call an Xbasic function from the report I could set a session variable in the button that calls the report beforehand and establish the filename for the image field assuming the image field would then be able to dynamically use the session variable. This one has me totally stumped!

[compuaid]

Re: Assign a dynamic value to a report

Okay I seem to have solved this one. I had a couple of issues. The first was that I had forgotten to clear the AEX cache on the WAS server after publishing. The second was that while I have to use relative paths to images within a list control on a UX component apparently the report engine that builds the report prior to sending it through the WAS wants the actual physical path to the image directory so I had to modify my UDF to return the correct path. Once I did both of these things I was able to simply insert the UDF name and parameters in the Dynamic property of the Image component on the report and voila the right photos started showing up when running on the WAS.

[compuaid]

Re: Assign a dynamic value to a report

Further follow up with Selwyn provided another option. If you use Layout Tables or convert your freeform table to a layout table then you can simply embed a calculated field that contains the HTML markup for an <img src> tag that points to your photo. One caveat is that the function I call has to determine whether you are running on the desktop or from a browser via WAS and adjust the src file for the image tag with the correct path. It should be a file://fullpathname/filename.jpg for the desktop and a relative path imagepath/filename.jpg for running under WAS.

Selwyn produced a short video to demonstrate this:
http://screencast.com/t/NzLKRfql

The sample on the video only works for the desktop. To get it working under WAS I create a logical variable IsDeskTop in my Autoexec script and set it to true and then I call the following function from my calculated variable:

'Date Created: 23-Jul-2013 09:08:06 PM
'Last Updated: 24-Jul-2013 07:47:31 AM
'Created By  : Brad
'Updated By  : Brad
FUNCTION GetPhoto AS C (ID AS N )

	Dim fn as c
	Dim wn as c 'Relative path web name used for WAS
	Dim desktop as L 'Flag to determine if running in desktop or WAS
	Dim pathroot as c 'Holds the root path to the files based on desktop or WAS runtime
	
	desktop = eval_valid("IsDeskTop") 'This will only evaluate to true when running on the desktop
	
	if desktop then
		' Use a5.Get_Name to get the name of the current database
		fn = a5.Get_Name()
		' Now parse out the path of the current database working directory
		' and add \images\employeeid.jpg to the filename
		pathroot = file.filename_parse(fn,"dp")+"images"
		'fn = file.filename_parse(fn,"dp")+"images"+chr(92)+id+".jpg"
	else
		' Use the relative path off of the A5Webroot (or modify to the project web root if publishing to a project directory)
		' To link off of web root or project web root to a physical directory elsewhere use the 
		' mklink <project_directory_name> <physical directory path> /D command as Administrator to 
		' create a symbolic link.  This gives WAS the equivalent of a virtual directory in IIS'
		pathroot = "C:"+chr(92)+"A5Webroot"+chr(92)+"TestImages"
		'fn = "C:"+chr(92)+"A5Webroot"+chr(92)+"TestImages"+chr(92)+id+".jpg"
	end if

	' Set fn to the full physical path and wn to the relative web path
	' In this case we're assuming that the physical path is a subdirectory 
	' "images" under the project directory and that the relative web path
	' is a symbolic link to that directory located under the A5webroot.
	fn = pathroot+chr(92)+id+".jpg"
	wn = "TestImages/"+id+".jpg"
	
	' Check to see if the file exists and if not show the nophoto image
	if file.exists(fn) = .f. then 	
			fn = pathroot+chr(92)+"NoPhoto.jpg"
			wn = "TestImages/NoPhoto.jpg"
	end if
	dim txt as c
	
	if file.exists(fn) then ' We found either the employee photo or the nophoto.jpg photo
		if Desktop then
			dim fn2 as c
			' Convert backslashes to forward slashes for HTML
			fn2 = stritran(fn,chr(92),"/") 
			' Add the preamble file:// to use the physical path
			fn2 = "file://" + fn2 
			' Now create an HTML img src tag with the filename in fn2.
			txt = "<img style=\"width: 200px; border: solid 1px blue;\" src=\""+fn2+"\" />"
		else
			' Otherwise just use the relative path since we're running in WAS
			txt = "<img src=\""+wn+"\" style=\"width: 200px; border: solid 1px blue;\" />"
		end if
	else
		txt = "Image not found - " + wn
	end if
	GetPhoto = txt
END FUNCTION