Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

[gilbertro]

I have an Ink Control on a UX Component and the ink data stored in a MySQL longtext field.
I have a report that prints the ink image/data from the MySQL field.

I however have a problem:
The generated image on the report has about 1/4 inch of the right edge cutoff and about 1/4 inch of the bottom edge cutoff as well..
Has anyone experienced this ?

Any ideas ?

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

I'm sorry, Robert, but I don't have a solution to that because I haven't gotten that far. In the latest builds, Alpha has added the ability to do the ink on different images dynamically, because it was something I asked for. Now I am wondering how to get both the photo with the ink on top of it onto a report. Would you mind sharing with me how you are doing that? Then I can try to accomplish it and see if I have the same issue with getting that cutoff on my image, too. Collaboration... :)

[Davidk]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

The UX Ink control is tightly bound with an optional Image control. I don't think the same is true in reports. I can display the Ink and I can display the Image... both by editing the data source, using Advanced Options and changing the default Ink (Memo) to Ink Image and the Image (Bitmap) to Jpeg Image.

Back in the Report you can then drag the Ink over top the Image... but the proportions, sizing, etc. are not tuned to each other... as they are in the Ink control. I can position the Ink image and size it to fully display and get it displayed in the right place with reference to the image... but that's just for one record. They're out of place for other rows.

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

Here's a great tip from Max Hammond of Alpha Technology Solutions that I got this morning! I am really learning a lot via their mentoring service. Very valuable.

In the override field definitions under Advance Options on the data source genie, I changed my attached_ink field from memo to Ink Image and left the field definition of my binary field (image_blob) as bitmap.

THEN (the very cool thing...) in report design, do a calculated (xy) field like this:
inkInImage = a5_composite_picture_and_ink(image_blob,attached_ink)

My dynamic image AND the ink ARE scaling together! YAYYYYY!

I am on Alpha build 3962 - 4772

[Davidk]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

Nice function. Be sure to check the doc on this... specially with reference to Windows 10.

http://documentation.alphasoftware.c...20Function.xml

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

So, I wonder if that function can be used to smash the image binary and ink together to make a jpg to attach to an email??

[CharlesParker]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

Well if it cannot then you can include the report as an attachment...but knowing AS - you can probably get it done!

[Sarah Mitchell]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

So, I wonder if that function can be used to smash the image binary and ink together to make a jpg to attach to an email??

The a5_composite_picture_and_ink function produces an SVG file. Alpha Anywhere's charting namespace includes several functions that can be used to convert an SVG to another file type:

• charting::Chart::SvgToBmp as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToEmf as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToIcon as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToPng as B (svg as C)

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

The a5_composite_picture_and_ink function produces an SVG file. Alpha Anywhere's charting namespace includes several functions that can be used to convert an SVG to another file type:

• charting::Chart::SvgToBmp as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToEmf as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToIcon as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg as B (svg as C)
• charting::Chart::SvgToPng as B (svg as C)

Sarah, I've tried by looking at your link for the charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg function, but I am going to need an example of doing this because I can't figure it out.

On a ux component, I have a field named image_blob_1 that is a binary field, and then a field named attached_ink_1 which is the memo field with the ink. Based on error messages I've received when trying an xbasic function, I first need to dim a variable as p to use the a5_composite_picture_and_ink function.

dim comPI as p = a5_composite_picture_and_ink(e.dataSubmitted.image_blob_1,e.dataSubmitted.attached_ink_1)

But from there, I have tried different things that all fail with the charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg function. I basically don't have a clue what to do with my variable comPI .

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

Here's some guessing code I did and attached is a screenshot of the error that returned. (The image_blob_1 field on my ux is set as an Image control type. Does it need to be some other type?)

dim comPI as p = a5_composite_picture_and_ink(e.dataSubmitted.image_blob_1,e.dataSubmitted.attached_ink_1)
dim svg as c = convert_type(comPI,"C")
dim bl as b = charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg(svg)
file.from_blob("c:\Carol\testPhoto.jpeg",bl)

'sys_open("c:\Carol\testPhoto.jpeg")

ErrorTryingToGetJpeg.jpg

[Sarah Mitchell]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

My apologies. The documentation is not clear on what exactly was being created and returned by a5_composite_picture_and_ink.

The a5_composite_picture_and_ink method returns a mime object, not just an SVG image. One of the methods available is toString(). This can be used to extract the SVG image data. EG:

dim comPI as p = a5_composite_picture_and_ink(e.dataSubmitted.image_blob_1,e.dataSubmitted.attached_ink_1)
[COLOR="#0000FF"][B]dim svg as c = comPI.toString()[/B][/COLOR]
dim bl as b = charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg(svg)
file.from_blob("c:\Carol\testPhoto.jpeg",bl)

sys_open("c:\Carol\testPhoto.jpeg")

We'll be updating the a5_composite_picture_and_ink method with this information.

You can create your own mime objects using the *mime_object function.

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

Thanks, Sarah. I have copied and pasted your code and still get this error:

Error executing Ajax callback. Error executing Ajax callback function 'CompressToJpeg ': command: dim bl as b = charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg(svg)
Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation.
Root element is missing.
===== Stack Trace Follows =====
System.Reflection.TargetInvocationException: Exception has been thrown by the target of an invocation. ---> System.Xml.XmlException: Root element is missing.
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Throw(Exception e)
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.ParseDocumentContent()
at System.Xml.XmlTextReaderImpl.Read()
at Svg.SvgTextReader.Read()
at Svg.SvgDocument.Open[T](XmlReader reader)
at Svg.SvgDocument.Open[T](Stream stream, Dictionary`2 entities)
at AlphaSoftware.Chart.SvgToImageLow(String svg, ImageFormat format)
at AlphaSoftware.Chart.SvgToJpeg(String svg)
--- End of inner exception stack trace ---
at System.RuntimeMethodHandle.InvokeMethod(Object target, Object[] arguments, Signature sig, Boolean constructor)
at System.Reflection.RuntimeMethodInfo.UnsafeInvokeInternal(Object obj, Object[] parameters,

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

OK, I decided that using e.dataSubmitted.IMAGE_BLOB_1 might be the problem because it is an image control on the ux, so I decided to do a query to my database as follows, (after doing connection, etc.) and that seems to be working:

dim entNum as n
entNum = convert_type(e.dataSubmitted.ENT_NUM,"N")

sql = "select IMAGE_BLOB_1, ATTACHED_INK_1 from TblActivities where ENT_NUM = :whatEntNum"
dim args as sql::Arguments
args.add("whatEntNum",entNum)
cn.execute(sql,args)
dim rs as sql::ResultSet
rs = cn.ResultSet

dim ib as b
ib = convert_type(rs.data(1),"B")
dim ink as C
ai = convert_type(rs.data(2),"C")

dim comPI as p = a5_composite_picture_and_ink(ib,ai)
dim svg as c = comPI.toString()
dim bl as b = charting::Chart::SvgToJpeg(svg)
file.from_blob("c:\Carol\testPhoto.jpeg",bl)

[kingcarol]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

(Sorry to have hijacked this thread, Robert, but maybe this stuff will help with someone wanting to go further with image and ink.)

ANYWAY, Sarah, the code above is working to make the jpeg, but I would like to know how to retain the size of the original image. The resulting jpeg with the ink in it ends up at only 16KB (333 x 333), which is way too small to see the ink very well. The original image I am using is 827KB (1024 x 768). So, can I include something in the code to make the svg (or whatever) larger? Or is it the a5_composite_picture_and_ink function that is making it small?

[Sarah Mitchell]

Re: Ink Control and Printing Ink Image on Report - edges cut off

(Sorry to have hijacked this thread, Robert, but maybe this stuff will help with someone wanting to go further with image and ink.)

ANYWAY, Sarah, the code above is working to make the jpeg, but I would like to know how to retain the size of the original image. The resulting jpeg with the ink in it ends up at only 16KB (333 x 333), which is way too small to see the ink very well. The original image I am using is 827KB (1024 x 768). So, can I include something in the code to make the svg (or whatever) larger? Or is it the a5_composite_picture_and_ink function that is making it small?

Without seeing a sample component/image/data, I'm not sure what would be affecting the image size. Could you post an example?