Xdialog and Print Preview

[MoGrace]

I have several XD's now that I use for searches and opening forms, so I decided to try one for selecting reports to preview. I made it modeless with a rollup feature, which works fine EXCEPT I lose focus on the XD when the preview window is opened. Once the preview window is closed I can access the XD again.

Has anyone else noticed this behavior - or is it just me?

I should mention that the red X will close the dialog while the preview is open, but nothing else is accessible.

[Tim Kiebert]

Hi Robin,

See if setting the 'session modal' parameter to false makes a difference for you. Its default is true. That means you have to set the preceding parameters so set 'modal' to false which is its default.

[MoGrace]

Hi Tim,
Where are those settings found?

[Tim Kiebert]

Oops sorry, I assumed (bad idea I know) that you were using report.preview(). Its the fifth parameter in that function.

[MoGrace]

I'll check it out, since I am calling that function from my XD.

[MoGrace]

Defining the additional parameters for report.preview() works great.

Now I am trying to add a filter_expression box so the user can create a filter expression for the selected report based on its primary table. I can get the table name fine if it is not a set - but how do I get the primary table name if the report is based on a set?

Surely there is already a function for this...?

Edit: I'm trying too hard as usual - there is a parameter right in a5_get_filter() that if set to .t. will display the tables in a set.

go figure...

[MoGrace]

My finished script - add your own tables or sets to test.
RepList_10-04-2015.txt

[johnkoh]

Hi Robin,

but how do I get the primary table name if the report is based on a set?

Not sure that why do you need the primary table in order to show the report list?

'Report Search Option
vSearch ="customer"
if vSearch ="Customer" then
	tblist ="customer.dbf"
'else if vSearch ="other" 
	'tblist ="other table dbf name	
end if
a_repname = a5enum("report",alltrim(tblist))

'It will be focused on the preview, the preview will be on top of the your dialog.

if a_dlg_button = "ev_Prev" then
	if vfltr = "" then
		vfltr = ".t."
	end if
	:report.preview(repname,vfltr,"",.t.,.f.)	
	'Tln("Preview Report",repname,"USER")
       msgbox("just exist from preview") 'I gave up that How to find the "Preview" is opened or closed stage. 
end if

[MoGrace]

Hi John,
Did you take a look at my script? My modeless XD does not disappear when the preview window opens and I did resolve how to close the preview from the XD.

:report.preview(repname,vfltr,"",.f.,.f.) keeps the XD from losing focus.

Although if the same report is previewed again while the 1st is open, my close button doesn't close the 2nd report...

Eventually this script is going to be used in a supercontrol, so that won't be an issue. This version is called from my toolbox menu.

[Tom Patten]

Robin,

I like this, but want to manually enter the reports rather than show ALL the reports for a table or set. How should I edit your script to accomplish this?

TIA - Tom

[Stan Mathews]

auto_list_repname = a5enum("report",alltrim(tblist))

a5enum("report",alltrim(tblist)) creates a crlf() delimited list of reports. If you create a crlf() list of your own and point auto_list_rename to that list you should have it.

auto_list_repname = my_list_of_reports_variable

instead.

[Tom Patten]

I used then tblist variable and it worked like a charm. Thanks ~ Tom

[Stan Mathews]

Makes sense. You could have a table of report names and get them into a list with table.external_record_content_get(), for example. Doing that allows you to change the available reports by managing the table instead of modifying the xdialog code.

[MoGrace]

Stan,
That is what I am doing as well. In the table I have added a group field that I use in a tree on the preview supercontrol. In that script, instead of calling report.preview, I reset the filter for the SC.

[MoGrace]

I am changing my RepList() function to display a tree instead of a list and am trying to use a button to close the currently active report preview window. The script below works well enough on the last preview window but needs to be refreshed somehow after the current window closes in case 2 or more reports were previewed.

if a_dlg_button ="ev_exitprev" then
	openlist = a5_list_open_windows()
	vlist = crlf_to_comma(openlist) 
	windowname = object_name_normalize(vTree) 'refers to last report only
	windowname = "Preview__"+windowname
	if inlist2(windowname,vlist)
		cmd = windowname+".close()"
		evaluate_template(cmd)
	end if
end if

I have another button that calls the actual report.preview() and am thinking that maybe that event ought to build the openlist and vlist variables. Then if more than one report was called the list would have more than one report... Does this make sense?

Maybe something like a *for_each or for...next except that I want the button to close the current report with each push not all of them (maybe another button could do that...)

Any ideas?

Edit:

Perhaps I could add a small listbox to show a list of the selected reports, because when I clicked on the report name again regardless of whether it was the current report or not, the button did close the selection.

[Stan Mathews]

Once a window (preview or other) is closed it should no longer appear in a5_list_open_windows(). Not sure why you're having a problem.

[MoGrace]

Clicking on the report in the tree again does set the vTree var so if open the button should find it. But the list of reports can be very long, and the user may not remember which report he is viewing. So the 2nd list seemed like a good idea.

[MoGrace]

Another anomaly to consider. If you call preview_report() from an xd with the session modal flag set to false, this allows the xd to close properly. However, if that report has a button to open a popup form, the popup form will not close when you exit the preview window using the OnPrintExit event to close the form (which works only if the session modal flag is true).

So something to consider: either the user will have to close the xd or the form - because you will not be able to auto close them both!

Another note to myself...