[Hwgui-developers] Few comments about the latest Designer changes

[Alexander S.K. <al...@be...>]

Hello All,

 As it is written in the Changelog, the Designer now is able to
 create/modify reports. To do this, it should be called with -r
 switch.
 I shall not develop the Hwreport anymore, Designer becomes the main
 report builder now. It has more modern and advanced engine than
 Hwreport and, what is important, it is more easy to support one
 engine than two different :). The important point is that now the
 report builder may be integrated into the application and it is
 convenient, IMO, that the same code, the same module, linked into the
 application, implements two tasks - works with input forms and with
 reports.
 The compatibility with the *.rpt files, created with Hwreport, is
 implemented via the plugin ( resource/r_text.prg ) - you may open rpt
 files, choosing the 'plain text format' and then save them in a new
 format, which is exactly the same as for input forms.

 The new report engine uses a bit different approach than the old one.
 There are no 'markers' - the widget 'area' is used instead. I didn't
 provide examples yet, but you can convert any rpt file into the new
 format and you will see how these 'areas' are used. The 'area' has
 two main properties:

 - AreaType - it may be Table, DocHeader, DocFooter, PageHeader,
              PageFooter. The Table is the same as the space between
              'Start line' and 'End line' markers in the old engine.
 - VarOffset - False/True, it determines, if the area position on the
               paper is fixed ( False ), or it depends on the size of
               previous area ( True ).

 The areas may be nested - I didn't check yet, does it work, but it
 should.

 Few notes about the methods.
 The report itself has two methods:

 - onRepInit, which is executed when the report starts
 - onRepExit.
 
 Every print item ( Label, Box, Vline, HLine, Bitmap ) has three
 methods:

  - onBegin  - it is executed before the item is being printed
  - Condition - it must return a logical value ( with the 'Return'
                statement ), which determines, should this item be
                printed or no.
  - onExit  - it is executed after the item is being printed

 The 'Label' item has additionally a method 'Expression', which
 calculates a string, which should be printed.

 The 'area' has additionally a method 'onNextLine', which is executed
 for the each line in a 'Table' area - it is the same as script for
 the 'End Line' marker in an old report engine.
 

Regards,
 Alexander
http://kresin.belgorod.su