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Editing Report contents

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    Editing Report contents

    Hi all,

    I am creating editable report, which means the content of reports can be edited.Lets say an appointmnet letter , the contents are already stored in database and report generated from that content.
    Now i want to edit the contents of report using a form.this can be done by using textarea to submit data to databse and retreive data in report.
    but im facing problems for the reports where i have to place some entries along with edit contents, eg.i have a form where i fill in fromdate and todate then when i clik view report the fromdate and todate will display in reports along with the contents

    "We have decided to suspend you from work for a period of two weeks on half pay from 1/1/08 to 1/14/08 so as to ......"

    this 1/1/08 and 1/14/08 are the fromdate and todate i key in from the form...now if the user edit contents my question is ...is there any possibility that they can key in contents along with possibility to place the variables....?like...."we have decided to suspend you from work for a period of three weeks on No Pay from ##date## to ##date## so as to ....."

    once they keyin this content and saved , when it comes to report that ##date## should be replaced with fromdate & todate....

    is there any way to do this?
    Thanks & Regards,
    RR


    Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge

    #2
    Re: Editing Report contents

    Hello Revolutionist,

    Please may we have your real name. We do like to be friendly round here.

    Is the "Two Weeks" or the "Three Weeks" a field on the form?

    once they keyin this content and saved , when it comes to report that ##date## should be replaced with fromdate & todate....

    is there any way to do this?
    I always say yes, Alpha can do anything.
    Regards
    Keith Hubert
    Alpha Guild Member
    London.
    KHDB Management Systems
    Skype = keith.hubert


    For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Editing Report contents

      Originally posted by Keith Hubert View Post
      ,

      Is the "Two Weeks" or the "Three Weeks" a field on the form?
      I dont understand what u meant here

      Hi keith, thanks for the Reply..am Jini.i need a report in editable format....glad to hear that can do in alpha.can you please let me know the possible ways for it ?
      Thanks & Regards,
      RR


      Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Editing Report contents

        Hi Jini,

        What I'm suggesting is that you have a field on your form to enter the text, either, "Two Weeks" or "Three Weeks" and that field will be part of the text in your letter.

        You are not limited to the the text in the design, you can have a form with a text box where users can enter their own text but you control how it is displayed in the report/letter.

        It will help for you to zip your application and let us see where you have the difficulty.
        Regards
        Keith Hubert
        Alpha Guild Member
        London.
        KHDB Management Systems
        Skype = keith.hubert


        For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Editing Report contents

          I think this is a bit similar to my problem stated in this thread:

          Report Problem

          I would like to know how to make this kind of so called "report" ("letter" in fact it is) to display data appropriately.

          Thank you.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Editing Report contents

            Originally posted by DOntquIT View Post
            Hi all,

            I am creating editable report, which means the content of reports can be edited.Lets say an appointmnet letter , the contents are already stored in database and report generated from that content.
            Now i want to edit the contents of report using a form.this can be done by using textarea to submit data to databse and retreive data in report.
            but im facing problems for the reports where i have to place some entries along with edit contents, eg.i have a form where i fill in fromdate and todate then when i clik view report the fromdate and todate will display in reports along with the contents

            "We have decided to suspend you from work for a period of two weeks on half pay from 1/1/08 to 1/14/08 so as to ......"

            this 1/1/08 and 1/14/08 are the fromdate and todate i key in from the form...now if the user edit contents my question is ...is there any possibility that they can key in contents along with possibility to place the variables....?like...."we have decided to suspend you from work for a period of three weeks on No Pay from ##date## to ##date## so as to ....."

            once they keyin this content and saved , when it comes to report that ##date## should be replaced with fromdate & todate....

            is there any way to do this?

            Are all the parts of the letter editable?

            What I've done in the past is make some of the letter standard non-changing text and some editable.

            For example....

            We have decided to suspend you from work for a period of

            would be a part of the text the user cannot change. Then allow the user to pick a time period and enter dates into 3 separate fields. A dropdown for the time period and calendars for the dates. Anything that is variable gets entered into a field and the standard text that makes up the bulk of the sentences stays the same for all letters.

            For the end result concatonate all the pieces together to form your sentences.

            Hope that helps a bit.

            David

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Editing Report contents

              hi guys,

              Thanks for the reply.

              Yes, all parts of letter are editable, except the declaration part ....

              In our current system our letter is in the format as exactly as what David mentioned.but the draw back is if there is any change in employement act or law, in that case if they wanna modify the content , its not possible for mgmt to do without redesigning the entire report. thatsy we decided to design a flexible system where they can edit the content of the letter .

              so i jus wanna know that while editing contents is there possibility to standardise some variables to put in place where they want to get data from form..

              " you are suspend from ##var1## to ##var2##"
              so the end user keyin this content and save in database.

              while comin to report view must find a way to replace that ##var1## and ##var2## to what they key in textbox1 and textbox2...

              Is that can be done or any other better suggestion?
              Last edited by DOntquIT; 07-23-2008, 09:04 PM.
              Thanks & Regards,
              RR


              Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Editing Report contents

                Jini,
                Basically any field or variable if scoped properly) you have on a form that is also on a report (letter) is changed when the form's field value is changed---which is, I believe, what you are wanting. So if you have a date field (or even just a variable that is dimmed as D), then the value can be used in a report. If needed to be used as part of a filter then it can either be done as such from a button's script that calls the report or from the report's OnPrintInit event.

                I didn't notice any specific question or even a sample that showed a problem....if you actually have something put together that has a problem or even just a specific question then let us know. It is then that you will see more help given.
                Mike
                __________________________________________
                It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                Henry David Thoreau
                __________________________________________



                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Editing Report contents

                  Have a look in the help file for this...

                  REPLACE_VARIABLES_IN_STRING()

                  If I read it correctly the original body of the letter needs to contain the dot variables to be replaced... and, you'll be replacing those variables with the actual values from another dot variable. The example is pretty good and it looks like what you need.

                  David

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Editing Report contents

                    Hi, i havent started developin the application.now in planning stage..may be it will be better if i get back to u all in couple of days with designs....

                    P/S : its a web application...
                    Last edited by DOntquIT; 07-23-2008, 10:33 PM.
                    Thanks & Regards,
                    RR


                    Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Editing Report contents

                      Thanks David,

                      Im looking forward for something like this....
                      will go though it....
                      Thanks & Regards,
                      RR


                      Wonder rather than doubt is the root of all knowledge

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Editing Report contents

                        Jini,

                        P/S : its a web application...
                        I am not yet totally enlightened of the Web Side of things so what I stated in my prior post most likely will NOT work directly but only as a basis of premise. Please post in the Web side when you do have questions for a web problem as the answers will vary most times from desktop ones.

                        Glad I held off on presenting an example database!!!
                        Mike
                        __________________________________________
                        It is only when we forget all our learning that we begin to know.
                        It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.
                        Henry David Thoreau
                        __________________________________________



                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Editing Report contents

                          Originally posted by DOntquIT View Post
                          Hi, i havent started developin the application.now in planning stage..may be it will be better if i get back to u all in couple of days with designs....

                          P/S : its a web application...
                          All you need is a plain text email or letter text template and a list of available variables... The user can then use the variables using any notation you decide on (we use [VARIABLE] which translates to {VARIABLE}*)

                          * and is then resolved using evalute_string() on the whole char string the variable is used in... for example a letter template might be

                          Code:
                          Dear [ContactName],
                          
                          [EmailBody]
                          
                          Regards,
                          
                          [AccountExecName]
                          [AccountExecemail]
                          [AccountExecPhoneNo]
                          where the elements in [] are variables taken from either a database or a lookup file. Then you stritran(wholetext,"[","{") and the same with ]/} and evaluate_string(wholetext)...

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Re: Editing Report contents

                            Hi Andrea,

                            I have one question:

                            If I need the letter to be signed by 2 persons or more in the company, how can I show the names side-by-side?

                            For instance, a letter that need to be signed by board of directors and the names are already in the database but the number of directors are vary from time to time. So how am I going to show the format like this:

                            Board of Directors

                            _______________ ________________ _________________
                            ( James Morrison ) (Alexander Brown) (Katherine Dawnson)
                            I've read the help file and it stated that a sub-report can perform this format but I can't find any tutorial to illustrate how to do this step-by-step. Hopefully you can guide me to the right direction.

                            Thank you.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Re: Editing Report contents

                              Hi Leow,

                              There are so many ways to do this.

                              My first thought is to get the directors into global variables. That way the letter is not tied to the directors table.

                              So now you can use the directors in a RTF. Even the line can be a calculated expression, which will draw the number of lines required to the number of directors.

                              When you use a field/variable in a RTF, if it is blank then Alpha does not leave the space left by empty value.

                              Another way of doing this, is with a conditional object. Each layer would be set to the number of directors.

                              So you see there is not just one answer which says you must do it this or that way.
                              Regards
                              Keith Hubert
                              Alpha Guild Member
                              London.
                              KHDB Management Systems
                              Skype = keith.hubert


                              For your day-to-day Needs, you Need an Alpha Database!

                              Comment

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