Hi all, Does anyone have a favorite technique for managing reports in a DP database? Here's mine:
Tony and I are working together, but not in the same location, and we have frequent need to share reports for the same structure file. So, I created a little program on the server to pull out the reports, each in a separate STE file. Having done that, Tony can save it from his browser. This was done using (for those interested in the technology) the Linux bash shell, and the scripts look like lightening hit the keyboard. As I sought to extend this to make it more useable, I got frustrated and thought about using other programming languages. In the end, I hit on DP itself! The database is named REPER (with a nod to the French *repérer* -- to find or locate) (or an American neologism REP'er indicating "take care of that report.") It is available for download and comment at: http://www.sanbachs.net/firestorm/reper/REPER.STE To use it, you would first DPIMP the STE file. Then, you import the STE file of a database of interest into panel 1 of the REPER database. So, this is an STE-manager kind of application of DataPerfect. The import is a bit fussy. You must select DOS delimited, using some character that never appears in the STE file. I use the back-tick character: ` for the field separator. Then, use the space bar for the record delimiter. You need an import control list, importing the first field (and only: the entire line) of the input file into field 2 of panel 1. Finally, hit 8 to import w/o disk checking. Select option 1 to renumber field 1 of panel 1. If all goes well, the entire STE file will get imported into panel 1. Sometimes a line longer than 78 characters (rare, but possible) stops the process. If so, you have to edit by hand to break the long line. It will probably be in a report and you can safely split a long line between spaces outside of the tilde quoted strings. Assuming the import is successful, there are several REPER reports available. I could list them here, but you might as well see how it works on the Internet. I processed REPER.STE with the first generation code, producing the web page at: http://www.sanbachs.net/cgi-bin/reports.cgi/REPER/ which allows you to see the report list and look at the individual reports. You would typically run the reports in the order given. If your report names have extended characters, you will need to run report 2 after using the /W flag to start DP. I actually wrote the reports in a different order as I was creating the database, and used the BAT command at http://www.sanbachs.net/firestorm/reper/reorder.bat to produce a REPER.STR with the reports in the desired order. Best wishes, Bruce
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