Reports - how to add unbroken frame

[Steve Wood]

See attached image for reference. The Detail section of my report will grow or shrink depending on how many child records are included. I want the top and bottom of my report to have fixed positions. That part is easy, I can accomplish that simply by using Page Footer and Page Header.

But I also want a continuous unbroken "frame" that spans my entire report. Note in my example there is about an inch dead apace above the Footer and below the Detail or Detail Footer section. I cannot figure out how to fill that dead space with vertical lines in order to effect a continuous frame. I've tried including objects in every possible region between the Detail and the Page Footer.

[Lance Gurd]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Dont we all Steve, this has been added to the wish list several times!

[Steve Wood]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

The Wish List section of the message board is an area of false hope since there is no real system in place to evaluate and officially get those ideas in to the product. The only thing that section is good for is if someone posts a "wish", others can point out workarounds or existing solutions.

I gave up and instead fine tuned the detail area so it about perfectly is positioned between header and footer. Looks nice when there is a full suite of child records. Looks stupid when there are less child records because there still is a large dead space gap between the last child and the footer.

Actually, I just thought of a solution. I have not tried it yet, but I know it will work, but only if the report is going to be rendered to a PDF. Create a PDF that has only the desired border object, nothing else. Then, in the script that generates the report to PDF, use PDF_Merge() to overlay the border-only PDF on top of the report PDF. I use PDF_Merge() now to do similar overlay.

In fact, now that I think of it, that is a solution to a very major problem (for me at least). Currently there is no ability to add a graphic background to a report using the "Absolute" setting. This long standing adn ignored BUG means you have to use Best Fit to add a graphic and (I don't care what anyone else says about this, that means the graphic background is blurred.). With PDF_Merge() I can create my report without any graphic items (boxes, lines, static text, etc) and merge in the pre-made template at runtime.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Hi Steve,

How do you get the page footer to be in a fixed position?

[Steve Wood]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Items in a Group footer fluctuate in postion based on the child records. Items in a Page footer are flush bottom if you use the default setting (somewhere it asks if you want it flush bottom, default is True.

[MikeC]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Hi Steve,
I know you have a solution via a pdf merge work-a-round but would be interested in having a looksee at your report as I don't seem to have a problem accomplishing what you desire....curious as to what is different or what you/I are doing differently.





EDIT: Just saw your response to Keith and makes more sense as to why with the records of varying amount....still would like to mess around with your problem a bit---when I get back into town most likely.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

The difference may be that I must ensure the elements outside of the detail area are exactly positioned, do not also fluctuate with the number of detail records. It is easy to achieve a 'continuous unbroken" border around all objects IF you do not have this requirement. In that case you use a Group Footer.

I mocked it up in the attached images. Pretend the black border is my physical page edge. I have a static Page Header and Footer - that NEVER change position, always flush top and bottom, respectively. I have a Detail section that may have one, two or 15 records, I cannot predetermine.

Pretend that Orange line is the pretty border I want around the whole thing, to give a constant border regardless of how many detail records there are.

The problem is, I get what is in image 2 if there are less than the number of detail records required to physically fill that void between the header and footer. Image two has just one detail record, in hot pink. Not enough to fill the void. I cannot get my nice orange border to complete.

Also, there is a problem with my PDF_Merge() solution. Although I can overcome it, I need to make sure my border-only PDF has the same number of pages as my actual report. Else only the first of a multi-page report, will have that overlay.

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Steve,

In the PDF print options is a place to specify a watermark. One type is text but the other is pdf. When you choose pdf then you can specify another pdf to use as the watermark. This should allow you to have a one page template that will be applied to each page printed.

I have never used it, just remembered it was there.

[Keith Hubert]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Steve,

Some years ago I seem to recall that there was a function to count the number of lines used in the detail section and then fill the page with the remaining number to set required text to the fixed position at the bottom of the page.

Maybe Selwyn can help.

[Steve Wood]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Thanks for the reminder Tim. It was one argument over in the PDF_Merge() function. It works now.

In case anyone is interested, here is the general script for this. Note there are three PDF documents being merged. That's because of the peculiar nature of the report. It has "two sides" and each has to be rendered as a separate report, left and right, and then merged. The last to merge is the border.pdf.The script is missing some error trap if any of the PDF's fail to generate.

Again, I think this is a very good solution when you need to merge data on to a very complex 'template'. This since you can use advanced design tools to create pristine PDF overlays. I may go back and do that for this report as it has difficult 7 pt font, fancy checkboxes, colored fonts and mixed formatting such as underline, bold (which is a problem since you cannot selectively format text in a textbox.

E.g., you could not place this sentence directly on a report in a single text box.

dim filter as c 
dim order as c 
Filter = "yourfilterhere"
Order = ""
Dim filename as c 
Dim filename1 as c 
Dim filename2 as c 
borderfile = "c:\_docs\border.pdf"
filename = session.session_folder + "merged_doc.pdf"
filename1 = session.session_folder + "doc_left.pdf"
filename2 = session.session_folder + "doc_right.pdf"
filename1 = report.saveas("doc_left@[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\report.set","pdf",filter,order,filename1,.f.)
filename2 = report.saveas("doc_right@[PathAlias.ADB_Path]\report.set","pdf",filter,order,filename2,.f.)
if file.exists(filename1) .and. file.exists(filename2) .and. file.exists(borderfile)
	pdf_merge(filename1,filename2,filename)
	pdf_merge(filename,borderfile,"",.t.)
	file.remove(filename1)
	file.remove(filename2)
	response.redirect(session.session_url + "merged_doc.pdf?" +  time("hms3"))
end if

[Tim Kiebert]

Re: Reports - how to add unbroken frame

Your welcome, I figured it would not take you long to find the xbasic version of the same thing but I did not realise it was so close either. :)