Rick Graves wrote:
Hello,
I am wondering whether the report designer can handle
putting colored boxes on the page. In landscape
orientation, I need to make a step pyramid of colored
boxes, with 4 rows, one box on the top row and 4 boxes
across the bottom row.
On a real report, the color of each box will be data
driven, but for a first trial run, static colors will
do. Also, on a real report, there would be some text
in each box.
This would be a one page (one pyramid) per table row
type report.
If the report designer can handle this, I would
appreciate some suggestions on getting started steps.
Ok, looks like I didn't have time today. Basic steps would be:
+ New report
+ Resize detail band to usable size (enough to draw your pyramid)
+ Draw pyramid by making several rectangle objects (right-click in
detail band, New Object|Rectangle)
+ For each rectangle you can drag it and size it using the mouse and/or
keyboard
+ Set FillColor property for each rectangle
+ Get some test data added to the report. You can do this by going into
the XML editor, and adding the following close to the bottom (right
above the closing </Report>:
<TestCursor>
<record pk="1" name="'Paul'" />
</TestCursor>
If you don't add the test cursor, nothing will preview because the
detail band only prints if there is a record to print.
+ Test your design by previewing it.
+ Rinse and repeat.
To get dynamic fill colors for your boxes based on some flag in your
dataset, the easiest way currently is to pre-populate your report cursor
with the color information. For example:
<TestCursor>
<record pk="1" box_1_color="(0.769, 0.247, 0.247)"/>
<record pk="2" box_1_color="(0.25, 0, .50)"/>
</TestCursor>
And then, for FillColor, put: self.Record["box_1_color"]
In the future, I'll have a way for you to define a function to embed in
the report to determine the color based on a value in the cursor,
although the technique of fabricating a cursor from your code before
running the report is a powerful, general, and flexible one.
I also note that when doing these steps in the report designer, I had to
restart the designer at least once for property values to stick. IOW, it
is still buggy.
I hope this gets you started.
--
pkm ~ http://paulmcnett.com
_______________________________________________
Post Messages to: [email protected]
Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/dabo-users
