RTF Printing

[Scott24x7]

I experimented with an RTF control on my form, and when I tried to print that data from the memo field in a report form, I just got "memo" in the field. Is there some way to print RTF data in the report form?

Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[TamarGranor]

As Mike said, I wrote (along with Della Martin) a whole book about automating Office with VFP. To get started though, you could check out some articles I wrote about it. This one's a good start:

http://tomorrowssolutionsllc.com/ConferenceSessions/Getting Started with Office Automation.pdf

After that, go to this page:

http://tomorrowssolutionsllc.com/conferencepapers.php

and select Microsoft Office from the right-hand dropdown.

Tamar

 

[Olaf Doschke]

I'm oversimplifying, ok. Then you lost me, too.

I still have no idea what is the typical source of one report run. I would not expect that you turn all your data into one giant PDF. It may be oversimplifying things to say you only want to print one memo instead, but so what is the truth? If I assume you print multiple memos from multiple records, which means printing multiple documents, in the end.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Scott24x7]

Hi Olaf,
Sorry for the confusion, let me try to paint a clearer picture.
So the first thing that happens is some data is collected for comparison across several tables, but essentially it's Utility Power capacity, Generator plant Capacity UPS total capacity, and Cooling Plant Capacity. In my world, these 4 things make up a "balance". Wherever the weakest one is, that's your maximum capacity.

Each of these areas has it's own database to go with it, and we spend a lot of time describing the various points or characteristics of the components that make up each part of this. We also cover other areas, like the make up of various "zones". These zones include things like data hall, outside plant, fiber tunnels, and other parts. We use 3 standards as well and each standard has a different set of audit criteria. So we have them setup in 4 parts: Requirement, Criteria, Result and Comments. There are over 200 items in the smallest one. These can become quite detailed. And in this case, we would want at least 2 of not all 4 of them to be RTF fields. The "Result" field is ok not to be, it has 7 possible options and they are fixed. And this is one component of the overall report. (This is the easiest of them as well, we have 2 different sets actually, but I want to combine this one into the report as an appendix in the future. Though I suppose that could be done by creating two PDF outputs, and then merging them later).

The other areas though are more complicated. And we may have a building that is multistory, (almost always actually), up to 15 - 20 floors. Each floor then has multiple zones, and each zone can be of a different type. So this all gets detailed. We're dealing with data centers, and they are highly complex systems, much like a highly complex application. Some are simpler than others, but it's the complex ones we deal most with.

Then we add in the analysis element, which we do utilizing CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics), and we have those results as well. One thing about CFD is the image is one thing, but the analysis is similar to that of reading an x-ray. You have to understand what the data is telling you and we may have 8 - 20 different images that are associated with that. These in particular are conducive to lots of explanation and text, and another place where RTF would be of huge benefit in our reporting documents. Its set up so our analysts can drag and drop an image into a form, and then annotate that. But we also bring other metadata with that, like temperature, velocity, scale, and multiple views. There is no one "formula" in a CFD arrangement, we just have to keep adding images and annotations until we have a full analysis of what we've produced. We add some data that isn't reported as well, of course, which we use for longer term research and trending (even questions we don't know how to ask yet). So, when we compile the full analysis of any one site (which may also include an analysis of risks to the site), it's a big document. At the moment, some of it we do still by hand, as we're building this out, other pieces we are getting some traction on, but one thing I'm trying to do as well is think through the full requirement. I'm trying to prevent having to do major re-write later. I know this is a lot of detail, but I am hoping to create the picture for you of the problem we are trying to solve.

In fairness what we have seen so far is a major competitive advantage, because a) we don't reinvent the wheel every time we get asked to do an analysis (and we may get asked to analyze the same site by more than one client, sometimes from different perspectives, but we have the benefit then of just adding parts we don't already have detail for) and b) that means we can do the same type of analysis in about 1/2 the time as our competitors. We charge about 25% less, so it really is the holy grail of "Better, faster, cheaper", except for us "Cheaper" means we do far more in less time, and therefore we are actually charging more per hour, just completing the work in less time, which of course means higher margins. This field is highly competitive, and we are becoming unique in our approach to the consultancy. There is a whole project management component as well, which I haven't even begun to tackle, but once this core part is done, that will become the next focus, as I have spent an entire lifetime in "parallel" activity as a PM.

Sorry for the long winded explanation, but maybe it sheds some perspective on why this is important to me.


Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Olaf Doschke]

We're still only talking about the report, are we? I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Mike Gagnon]

This will do a report

http://www.atoutfox.org/articles.asp?ACTION=FCONSULTER&ID=0000000131

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.

 

[Scott24x7]

Hi Mike,
Struggling with the French. Is there an English version? I checked the home page of the site, but didn't find one, and even Google Translate struggles with this.

Best Regards,
Scott
MIET, MASHRAE, CDCP, CDCS, CDCE, CTDC, CTIA, ATS

"Everything should be made as simple as possible, and no simpler."

 

[Mike Gagnon]

Scott
No I wrote this for the french community, but the important part is this.

 CLEAR ALL

CLOSE DATABASES all 
LOCAL lcStr  
lcstr = "Note that there is a limit of 32 characters total for the sum of text"+;
"before and text after for simple numbering. Multilevel numbering has a limit"+;
"of 64 characters total for the sum of all levels.NOTE: The file must have a"+;
       ".RTF extension to work properly." && Remplir la variable de texte.
CREATE cursor ctext (lctext m,gText g) 
INSERT INTO ctext (lctext) VALUES (lcStr) 
_rtfFile = "c:\"+SYS(3)+".rtf"  
SCAN 
          SET TEXTMERGE TO &_rtfFile NOSHOW
          SET TEXTMERGE ON
           \\{\rtf1 <<ALLT(cText.lcText)>>}
          SET TEXTMERGE TO
   APPEND GENERAL gText FROM &_rtfFile CLASS "RICHTEXT.RICHTEXTCTRL.1" &&Class RTF
ENDSCAN
REPORT FORM rtfdemo PREVIEW NOCONSOLE
ERASE &_rtfFile

Mike Gagnon

If you want to get the best response to a question, please check out FAQ184-2483 first.