>>see if this rings any bells ;)

Yeah.... It looks a little bit (ha ha) like this sample report you built for me back in September 2008.

(See the attached image to see a blast from the past.)

I still have the zip file you sent me, and a few emails we exchnaged back then.

I have always been intruiged by this tool. Maybe in the coming months I can get a chance to play with it on my own machine.

It looks very nice.



>This is reply to Matt
>(Thread buttons did not appear under his message only ??)
>
>Hi Matt :)
>
>lw() method is used for is writing text in current line. Idea with .ln() /.lw() /.ltx() / .eject() methods was to provide some sort of backward compatibility for rewriting those old fashion DOS reports which were using ?/?? / eject as method of writing directly to printer device
>without using FRX . (I wrote quiet a bit of those back in DOS days)
>
>Idea is exactly the same. You start writing line by line and as you would have paper advance on a printer,
>here these advances are done internally by RS engine. When page space is spent (at page eject point)
>just as matrix printer would eject page and start writing on new one, exactly the same is done here by RS engine.
>You write as you go. However, unlike with straight matrix printer, here you exactly know both current vertical position
>AND reminder of page in pixels. (All kept in properties). Unlike majority of DOS printers, here you can actually revert row position :)
>
>For instance
>

>.ln(-2)  
>

>will jump two lines up. And you can write into the same rows again.
>
>However there are MUCH more powerful report writing methods, which use visual content created on form
>(Container/Textboxes/Labels) to create report rows or entire sections (divisions in HTML terms ?)
>
>So instead of using multiple .ln() .lw() report lines (and end up in lot of code to maintain) here you can simply create entire section visually using form designer and then use methods
>
>

>select myRptCursor
>.FlashContainer(oForm.ReportHeaderContainer)
>scan 
>  .FlashContainer(oForm.DetailBandContainer)
>endscan
>.FlashContainer(oForm.ReportSummaryContainer)
>

>
>Effect will be the same as if you did
>
>

>select myRptCursor
>
>**block of code to write rpt header
>scan
>
>**block of code to write rpt detail
>.lw(25,'text') 
>.lw(50,nValue)
>.
>
>endscan
>**block of code to write rpt summary
>.lw() 
>.lw()
>.
>
>

>
>But with huge reduction in code written! Meaning you get all flexibility of scripted report while in the same you
>get to design it visually. I highly doubt that any other programming language / reporting tool can do this as easy
>as we now have in VFP ;-)
>
>So this is the idea. Now properties involved in this are folowing
>
>

>
>.RSPageHeight
>.RSPageWidth
>
>.RSRowHeight &&when  using .ln() .lw() 
>
>.PgReminder &&Reminder of page in pixels
>
>.PgFooterAt  &&Page break point calculated at run time
>.PgFooterHeight  &&Dependding on this prop
>
>.nTop , .nLeft  &&Current writing position
>
>.nColumnLeft  &&Default left margin / starting position
>
>

>
>
>However you should not play to much with these. All you need to know is basically reminder of the page.
>Current vertical position is not so important.
>
>Here is code snippet from RS report code which illustrates using combination of scripting and visual report design that talked about earlier; It is from RS Demo form sample #15.
>Quiet interesting report which have 3 detail bands with grouping needed within one inner band only. So there is outer scan on parent
>table and then inner bands are done as separate scans. Report is titled 'Building Costs Breakdown Report', see if this rings any bells ;)
>
>

>
>** code snippet
>
>select parenttable
>scan
>.
>.
>select timerecords
>        .FlashContainer(thisform.LabourHeader)
>        scan while Timerecords.ifkey  =   parenttable.ipkey  &&Outer loop
>            
>            if .pgRemainder < 200
>               .Eject()
>            endif
>        
>            cGrp=str(timerecords.ifkey,1,0) +  Timerecords.mach_num
>            nMachTot=0.00
>            .FlashContainer(thisform.MachineGroupHeader)   &&Group Header
>            scan while str(timerecords.ifkey,1,0) + Timerecords.mach_num == cGrp      &&Grouping
>                nLineTot   = Timerecords.mach_rate * Timerecords.hrs_worked           &&Calculate Totals
>                nMachTot = nMachTot + nLineTot
>                nLabTot = nLabTot + nLineTot
>                .FlashContainer(thisform.MachineDetail)
>            endscan
>            skip -1
>            .FlashContainer(thisform.MachineGroupFooter)    &&GroupFooter
>        endscan
>        .FlashContainer(thisform.LabourFooter)
>
>.
>.
>.
>endscan
>
>*See demo sample #15 for full report code  / content.
>

>
>
>Now if HTML is what you are after, you can send this report to HTML via XFRX. Also to all other file formats supported by XFRX.
>(If you own their license that is)
>
>So to turn this report of yours into a web page (provided you own XFRX) you would simply use parameter 306 at the end of report session in Output method call ;
>

>
>cHTMLFile = oRS.Output(306,.f.)  &&produce silently & returns path/name of result file 
>
>**Then you take it and copy it to web folder of yours for publishing
>cWebFile= '\\mywebfolder\mypage.html'
>copy file (cHTMLFile) to (cWebFile)   &&or ftp or whatever
>
>&& 301 PDF
>&& 302 Word doc
>&& 303 FDOC
>&& 304 RTF
>etc
>* See RS docs for all XFRX output  parameters / file export type options
>
>

>
>
>
>Enjoy using Report Sculptor :)