Wednesday, December 5, 2007
Tip of the Day: Defining Built-in PAUSE Messages in Reports
Section: Reports
Versions: R:BASE 7.6, C/S:I 7.6 and Turbo V-8 for Windows
There are situations where a report with hundreds of thousands
of records may take a while to print to a file or on screen,
and you may want your end-users to stay tuned while the report
is being prepared.
The traditional approach of displaying PAUSE 3 option in a
command file, before PRINTing the report, is good. However, as
soon as the report starts printing, the report is taking over
and your good old PAUSE command is no longer staying on top.
So, how do we print a huge report and display the PAUSE
message until the entire report is actually generated.
Did you know that you can use the PAUSE 3 command with a cool
message such as "Before Generate..." action and then the "CLS"
command to clear PAUSE 3 message when the report is actually
finished as "After Generate..." action?
Here's how:
01. Start R:BASE 7.6 or Turbo V-8 for Windows
02. Open your favorite report in Report Designer
03. Use the following code as "Before Generate..." action
Report Designer | Main Menu | Report | Actions
Before Generate...
-- Before Generate Action in Report
CLS
GETPROPERTY REPORT REPORT_NAME vReportName
PAUSE 3 USING +
'Preparing Report ... Please Stand By ...' +
CAPTION .vReportName +
ICON APP +
OPTION GAUGE_VISIBLE ON +
|GAUGE_COLOR 2708091 +
|GAUGE_INTERVAL 10 +
|MESSAGE_FONT_NAME VERDANA +
|MESSAGE_FONT_SIZE 10 +
|MESSAGE_FONT_COLOR RED +
|THEMENAME R:BASE Rocks!
RETURN
04. Use the following code as "After Generate..." action
Report Designer | Main Menu | Report | Actions
After Generate...
-- After Generate Action in Report
CLS
CLEAR VARIABLE vReportName
RETURN
05. Save the report
06. You may "Preview" the report while in Report Designer,
PRINT the report using the Database Explorer or use the
PRINT reportname ... OPTION command to see the results.
Notice the real-time PAUSE 3 message with report name
as caption and moving gauge stays on screen until the
entire report is completely generated.
Enjoy and make sure to have fun!
Very Best R:egards,
Razzak.
P.S.
All reports in the latest versions of Running R:BASE Your Way!
(Part 14) include this feature.
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