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Pdf versus html reports

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    Pdf versus html reports

    I have spent the past 7 days starting to convert some of my 400+ reports to layout so they could be opened as html.. Thinking this would allow us to avoid hangups on report servers. I have come to realize that my users would always click the pdf button on the html view because the html does not have page breaks, so no page headers, page breaks, and other things critical to decent looking accounting and job cost reports. And clicking the pdf button activates the report servers.

    In the past week since i put some html reports on app server, we have started having trouble with the report servers hanging up when other reports in pdf were opened. I don't know if this is a coicidence or if we are now getting too many users opening reports.

    2 questions: is there a limit on what the report servers can handle? Bhow do I increase that limit?

    And... What is the advantage of opening an html report since users will almost always then click the pdf button?

    My main goal is to avoid having reports hang up in my report intensive application and to have reports in a very presentable format.
    Carol King
    Developer of Custom Homebuilders' Solutions (CHS)
    http://www.CHSBuilderSoftware.com

    #2
    Re: Pdf versus html reports

    Hi Carol,

    It would be a lot of work, but would give you and the users enormous flexibility and avoid pdf totally.

    Would creating xml documents based on templates a better option for you?

    See our use case: http://screencast.com/t/smEmC51Vuufk
    Ger Kurvers
    Alpha Anywhere / V4.6.1.9- Build 6488 (production) / V4.6.5.1 - 8722-5683(testing)
    Development: Mysql, windows 10 64 Applicationserver: standard on Windows server 2019

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Pdf versus html reports

      Thank you, Ger. I don't really know what XML is and perhaps should learn, but I probably can't even think about doing this with my 400+ reports right now. Does Alpha have some features or genies that help create XML reports or templates?
      Carol King
      Developer of Custom Homebuilders' Solutions (CHS)
      http://www.CHSBuilderSoftware.com

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Pdf versus html reports

        hi Carol,

        Don't want to hijack your thread, so i keep it breef.
        converting 400 reports is a hell of a job in every variant, so take time to choose the best :-)
        creating xml templates is the easiest part: just create in Word the template, add placeholders for database field en save as a word - xml file

        If you are interested in the xbasic part how to merge the database fields with this template lets start another thread?
        Last edited by cptutrecht; 07-08-2014, 11:30 AM.
        Ger Kurvers
        Alpha Anywhere / V4.6.1.9- Build 6488 (production) / V4.6.5.1 - 8722-5683(testing)
        Development: Mysql, windows 10 64 Applicationserver: standard on Windows server 2019

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Pdf versus html reports

          Originally posted by kingcarol View Post
          ...html does not have page breaks...
          Carol,
          I'm not so sure about that. I think I have seen headings repeat themselves after a physical page break when printing to paper. They could not be seen on-screen, but when I actually printed to paper they appeared. It could be browser/version dependent. When I looked at the generated HTML source onscreen I saw the table header lines had a different tag or class than the body of the table. If I recall, it had something to do with the <THEAD> element ( http://www.w3schools.com/tags/tag_thead.asp ).

          There is the problem of controlling the browser's inserted page header and footer (that ugly line with the web page address). The user can configure that, but I was hoping someday to find js code or html directives that could temporarily change those things for the user.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Pdf versus html reports

            Interesting, Rich. When I printed a multiple page html, the page headers did not repeat and detail records would print top of letters or boxes at bottom of page and the bottom half of letters or boxes on next page. This was in IE 10. I should go see what happens in Firefox or Chrome. I wonder if Alpha has tried to make use of the <thead> stuff in generating html reports. Ot anything about using js to get rid of the ugly browser header/footer inserts.
            Carol King
            Developer of Custom Homebuilders' Solutions (CHS)
            http://www.CHSBuilderSoftware.com

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Pdf versus html reports

              Argh, I cannot get the "Page Header for Report" to repeat on subsequent pages unless I print directly from the Designer's preview window :-(

              I cannot find the <thead> elements that I thought I had seen before either.

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