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Report and Excel issues

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    #1

    Report and Excel issues

    Hi,
    I'm developing a report in AA to mimic an excel currently used by my customer. I've defined the report as a tabular report, and have a button on a grid detail view to export it to excel using the advanced export action.

    After struggling for some time to fully understand how variables are used in reports (initially I though I could set a variable in the onrecord event, and have it display field values from another table - I realized it doesn't quite work this way; seems a variable is a single instance - the setting of the variable in a subsequent onrecord event will change the value previously written to a cell in the report!). Anyway, managed to overcome this problem by setting some triggers on the table to update fields in the main table.

    Which leads me to my next set of problems:
    1. I can't find any way of setting the format of the cells in the created excel. I have some columns in the report definition which are formatted as currency values. However, when the excel is created, all the cells seem to be created as 'General' format. Is there a way to format cells as 'currency' or any other non-general format ?
    2. I have borders around each of the cells. This seems to work fine in preview mode. However, when I generate the excel, the borders don't appear around cells with 'null' values. Is there a way to always generate borders, regardless of whether the cell contains a value or not ?
    3. I think the answer to this is no, but I'll ask the question anyway. The customer report is multi-tabbed (it has 4 sheets which contain different filtered views of the records). Is there a way to create a multi-tab excel ? The only way I can think of doing it is to create multiple copies of the report definition, each with different filters, and generate 4 excel files. Then use a macro in one of the excels to combine them together. Anyone have a more elegant solution ?

    Cheers,
    greg
    Tags: None
    #2
    Re: Report and Excel issues

    You are in Desktop but you mention using a grid - are you sure this is the right place for your post?
    Robin

    Discernment is not needed in things that differ, but in those things that appear to be the same. - Miles Sanford

    Comment

      #3
      Re: Report and Excel issues

      Sorry my bad. Should have said tabbed UI not grid.

      Comment

        #4
        Re: Report and Excel issues

        Greg, I presume you have read the responses to Excel formatting in the V11 and V10 Forum pages?
        Stan Mathews has done a lot of excellent work on the Excel issues. Desktop ain't that different between versions.
        See our Hybrid Option here;
        https://hybridapps.example-software.com/

        Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
        You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

        Comment

          #5
          Re: Report and Excel issues

          Hi Ted,

          Currently I'm using a report definition and the Advanced Export to Excel action to create the excel. I did a search for Stan's threads, and the only relevant ones I can find discuss using Xbasic to create the excels from scratch. Are these the ones you are referring to, or are there pother ones I am missing?

          Cheers,
          Greg

          Comment

            #6
            Re: Report and Excel issues

            This might get you started. It changes the column names in "excelname" to those found in "col_names".

            Code:
            'column names should be passed to the function as a comma delimited string
FUNCTION ex_col_names AS L (excelname AS C, col_names as C)
	ex_col_names = .F.
	col_cnt = w_count(col_names,",")
	Dim xlApp as p
	xlApp = ole.GetObject("","Excel.Application")
	xlApp.Workbooks.Open(excelname)
	for qx = 1 to col_cnt
		cl = chr(64+qx)
		xlApp.Range(cl+"1").Select()
		xlApp.ActiveCell.Formula = word(col_names,qx,",")
	next
	xlapp.DisplayAlerts = .F.
	xlApp.ActiveWorkbook.SaveAs(excelname,56) '-4143 is Excel workbook in Excel 2003, 56 in Excel 2010
	xlApp.Workbooks.Close()
	xlapp.DisplayAlerts = .T.
	xlApp.Quit()
	delete xlApp
	ex_col_names = .T.
END FUNCTION
            There can be only one.

            Comment

              #7
              Re: Report and Excel issues

              Thanks Stan. However, I'm still not sure how I should approach this. Currently, the excel is automatically downloaded to the browser once I trigger the "Advanced Export to Excel" action. So I can't see how I could apply any Xbasic to it to change any of the properties before its downloaded.

              Otherwise, I would need to generate the excel completely in Xbasic with the cells properties I need. Am I correct in this ?

              Greg

              Comment

                #8
                Re: Report and Excel issues

                I am unclear on the whole process you are using. The methods described take an existing file and "tidy" it up. You open the existing file, apply any formatting desired, rename columns, add calculations, etc. and save the result.

                The suggestion is to perform your current export and clean up the result file. If that isn't an option then the suggestion isn't suitable to your needs.
                There can be only one.

                Comment

                  #9
                  Re: Report and Excel issues

                  I sort of agree with Stan.
                  You mention Browser to show the Excel. Do you really mean that?
                  I don't understand the process as you describe it.
                  Eg.
                  Create Excel look alike in Alpha.
                  Export it to Excel with Excel field formatting.

                  Have you tried doing it the other way?
                  Import an excel multi page sheet into Alpha with the formatting you want and see what happens when you export it out again.
                  See our Hybrid Option here;
                  https://hybridapps.example-software.com/

                  Apologies to anyone I haven't managed to upset yet.
                  You are held in a queue and I will get to you soon.

                  Comment

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