Jondolar,

The trial version itself never expires. The applications themselves expire and cannot be used by the trial version if they are more than 30 days old. In this case, the original sample application was built more than 30 days ago, so it will not work with the trial version.

If you want to try this yourself, you can place a command button on the Gem Types form in the the Gems sample app that came with the trial version. Place this code in the On Element Entry event for the command button.

// This routine uses PrintString to create a formatted page including
// information from both the Main record and all of its subrecords.

var vDescription as string
var vPos as int
var vSub as int
var vSubTotal as int
var vPriceTotal as double
var vYCor as int
var vPrice as double
var vSPrice as string

//Create a new Page
NewPage(850,1100)

// Print header
PrintString("Lantica Jewelers", 300, 25, 0, "BArial", 30, 0)

// Format and print Gem_Type, Description and Occurence
vDescription = "The " + Gem_Type + " is " + Description + @NewLine() + "That is most commonly found in "
vDescription = Vdescription + Occurrence
PrintString(vDescription, 50, @PageExtentY() + 10, 725, "Arial", 15, 0)


//Format and print Birthstone and Hardness
vDescription = "It is the birthstone for the month of " + Birthstone_Month + "."
vDescription = vDescription + " It has a Hardness of " + Hardness
PrintString(vDescription, 50, @PageExtentY(), 725, "Arial", 15, 0)

// Print Appearance
PrintString(Appearance, 50, @PageExtentY(), 725, "Arial", 15, 0)

// Print Enhancements
PrintString(Enhancements , 50, @PageExtentY(), 725, "Arial", 15, 0)


// Format and print count of Subrecords.
vDescription = "We at Lantica Jewelers are lucky enough to have " + @FormResultSetTotal("Gems") + " of these rare jewels in stock"
PrintString(vDescription, 50, @PageExtentY() + 10, 725, "Arial", 15, 0)


// Prints Sub Header 1/10 of an inch below the general description of the gem
PrintString("Current Inventory of " + Gem_Type + @NewLine(), 255, @PageExtentY() + 20, 0, "Arial", 25, 0)


//Loops through the Subrecords
vSubTotal = @FormResultSetTotal("Gems")
vSub = 1
While vSub <= vSubTotal
{
	VDescription = @FormFieldValue("Gems", "Gem", vSub)
	vYCor = @PageExtentY() + 2				  // Y coordinate for the values
	FormResultSetCurrentPosition("Gems", vSub)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Gem", vSub), 50, vYCor, 90, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Origin", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 75, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Shape", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 130, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Color", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 100, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Size", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 100, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Weight", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 65, "Arial", 15, 0)
	PrintString(@FormFieldValue("Gems", "Clarity", vSub), @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 90, "Arial", 15, 0)
	vSPrice = @FormFieldValue("Gems", "Price", vSub)
	vPrice = @ToMoney(vSPrice)
	vsPrice = @Decimals(vSPrice, 2)
	PrintString(@Text((9 - @len(vSPrice)) * 2, " ") + "$" + vSPrice , @PageExtentX() + 1, vYCor, 100, "Arial", 15, 0)

	vPriceTotal += vPrice  // Total price being counted up
	vSub = vSub + 1
}
FormResultSetCurrentPosition("Gems", 1)


//List total cost of all gems and finish the page
//Note the following line will need to be changed if a different money symbol other than $ is desired.
PrintString("Total value of Gems listed is: $" + @Decimals(VPriceTotal,2), 50, @PageExtentY() + 20, 0, "Arial", 20, 0)
FinishPage()
 

The code may or may not need some adjustment to work with the trial sample app.

The browsers (all browsers) create their own page breaks and are quite bizarre in that the settings for what appears are stored in the registry! It makes it difficult for us to override them, although we are working on it. An upcoming version will likely allow you to set these options as part of your report design.  Since Sesame reports create a web page, it is all really one "page" until the printer gets ahold of it.

The Page Headers and Page Footers in Sesame reports can be made to appear if you place a Page Break element in a freeform section of your report. They will appear in addition to, rather than overriding the Page Headers and Footers that your browser provides. The concept of Page Headers and Footers does not mesh well with the concept of HTML. If Page Headers and Footers are paramount, you may want to explore the PrintString options.

You'd need to set it up in your browser itself. At this point, we don't have any control over it, although we may in a future release.

jondolar,

Try putting the static text in the "Group Header". This section tends to line up with the "Group Body" columns.

Oh yeah, I forgot about that. I also would like them to repeat at the top of each page.

Serge,

The point of the sample was to demonstrate precision printing and looping through subrecords in SBasic, not to demonstrate the simplest way to create a report.

You can also do this with a report/subreport from the Report Designer, with the exception of Page Headers and Footers.

We traded Page Headers and Footers for the tremendous power and transportability of HTML. HTML can be used and imported by many other programs, such as Word, Access and Excel. HTML reports can be emailed or mounted online without any further processing. They can be interactive (clickable). They automatically adjust themselves to fit on screen or printed page. Etc... Time will tell if Page Headers are so overwhelmingly important to people that all other benefits become irrelevant.

In the end, Sesame does not actually print your report. On Windows the operating system's HTML Printer (an included .dll) actually prints the report. Sesame merely sees it as another document (a file). On Windows the the page header and footer information is stored in your registry(!). Sesame could alter these and then restore them when printing is complete. I've experimented a little with this technique and got it to work. But the user still does not have page by page control over the content, and the content formatting allowed by the OS is very "lightweight". Additionally, I really don't like the idea of altering your registry settings on the fly. On Unix, the printing is done by a html to postscript conversion (producing a file - not a print) that gets sent to the user specified "lp/lpr" device. Here there is some leeway in term of page header and footer specifications - but still not enough.

We have been looking for a good HTML library to parse and print the HTML with callback notification, so that Sesame can intervene and insert page headers and footers, yet not interfere with using the HTML as a "document" as opposed to the printed piece of paper.

Quote:


Any progress on this yet?
All our Q&A application users rely heavily on multipage column reports.

Without controlled positioning of headers, footers and page numbers, we can't sell them on Sesame applications.

I thought most other Q&A users also needed these reports, but based on the lack of discussion on this subject I'm beginning to think I misjudged and that capability will remain missing.

It would be nice to finally know so I can decide whether to hang in there or cut bait.

???

Using Mozilla 1.7.2 provides ability to create headers and footers when printing. 

Can do Headers, Footers, Left, Right, Center justification.  Auto insert date, time, custom line contents.  Can shrink to fit page, and can toggle background colors/images on/off.  Can do Page # of #. and URL.

MSIE does have ability for Header and Footer line, but only has 2 options vs. 6 for Mozilla.

Many other reasons to use Mozilla, but that is another discussion.

Quote:


Thanks Bob & Erika,

But I don't see how this resolves the COLUMN headers problem. All I'm looking for is what Q&A has been able to do for the last 20 years. I know this isn't Q&A but assume that with over 20 years of software evolution since then someone could figure out a way to copy that capability?

Forget HTML, browsers, Godzilla, etc. Just get back to basics. I'm afraid that whatever you ultimately end up with on this track is going to be a real Rube Goldberg for an inexperienced application user.

Incidentally Erika, you say "I know that some of you want this". Does anyone have any numbers on what percentage of Q&A users bought it because of it's column report capabilities, or are you refering only to Sesame users?

I just don't understand how you can sell a DBMS that produces column reports without fixed position headers. Gotta be missing something.

I said this long ago, but will say it again for the record.  I liked Q&A and converted an office into believers.  Yes it  had its limits.  but with only a lttle help from the manual I could print to disk screen, or paper.  I could print forms to my style and reports that did not need to be exported to excel or a word processor to be tidied-up.  I like some of the other above miss these simple features. 
And when you cant get multiline headers,  set colume widths, set alignments or formats easily, you do get discouraged.

Foster

Also, 1.0.5 adds the capacity for multi-line headers/footers and multiple group breaks.

Quote:


The property editor allows you to set widths, alignments, and formats. Nor does it require you to learn (read: memorize) a multitude of single letter codes, indeed it even provides live examples of the formatting. I know that for those of you who have been using Q&A for 15+ years, that having to type something like:
2,AS, SC, ST, C, T, H(25:My Column Header), F(JC, U), TL
... then pressing Shift-F6 to select fonts and text formatting actually does come naturally and easily to you. However, a newcomer might find it quite daunting, as opposed to (for example) clicking BOLD on a list of available text formats.

And while HTML reports may on occassion need to be "tidied-up" in a word processor or spreadsheet - at least they can be. The only way to import a Q&A report into anything other than Q&A is by printing to file, and then you have to go through and get rid of all the places where there are blank lines and repeated column headers for each "page" in the file because they don't correspond to the page breaks in your word processor. Not to mention having lost all the formatting information in the process.

Something to consider is that, for much of the current business world (including small business), a report printed on paper is absolutely the last thing anyone wants. Reports have become an active principle - a document. We have a number of Q&A clients who have to deliver reports to their customers. The comment we most often hear is that, while they like being able to do their work in Q&A, their customers consider the reports produced by Q&A to be unacceptable. They just aren't "pretty" enough. The customer wants it via email. They want to import it into Excel and resort it by different columns. They want to forward it to their boss and three colleagues after annotating/amending it. They have little to no interest in printing it, because they really don't want paper. These are all real world business requirements that Q&A just can't meet. Sesame, as a current product, needed be capable of handling the "active" quality of today's reporting requirements. 

Over and beyond pagination issues, a report is not just a table anymore. Reports often need to be accompanied by additional charts, spreadsheets, and explanatory text, summaries, and conclusions, cover sheets, and occasionally indexes. Nevermind tables of contents. Many times, the contents of a report need to be folded into and combined with the reports of others  as they progress, being edited, amended and appended.

Being able to make a simple table is a good thing. And being able to do so simply is also good.  But having to renumber all of your columns if you insert a new column - isn't simple. Having to remember numerous pnuemonic (and not so pnuemonic) codes, isn't simple. Having to type that code into a field that cannot accomodate it (try typing in a radio button or a choice list) isn't simple. Being completely unable to use my report for anything other than a printed table, is frustrating beyond all else.

Hammer here: Here's a actual real world example. Last week, Bill Halpern asked me for some figures. I pulled up my Sesame database and ran the report he wanted in Preview. When it came up in my browser, I hit the Send Page button, put in Bill's email address and hit Send. Done. He had a nicely formatted report in his email, where he could look at it however he wanted, including using his browser to instantly make the text larger. And I didn't have to print it out and fax it to him! 

In addition, if he wanted, he could immediately forward it to the accountant, search inside it for a particular item using his browser/email search function, or drop it into the business plan he was creating in Word. No muss, no fuss, no bother. 

-- The Cow and Hammer (together)

Quote:


Gotta strongly agree with Pineberry.

Sounds like the tail wagging the dog.
We rely heavily on Q&A column reports for our own business, as do the users of our applications. If we told them "a report printed on paper is absolutely the last thing anyone wants", we'd get thrown out the door.

Please don't take our statements to mean that we are not still working towards a way to get the "page" oriented functions for you. We know that you are frustrated that column headers don't repeat at the top of each page when you print to paper.

However, I'm frustrated too. I've spent years listening to Q&A users and consultants express dissatisfaction with Q&A reports. I've spent years listening to my clients pass on the complaints of their customers about Q&A reports. I've spent years creating workarounds, batch files, macros and specialized exports to produce the output required by customers.  It's frustrating to me that the tremendous functionality provided is dismissed as worthless because of page header issues.

When we made this choice for Sesame's reports, we were making a choice  designed to open up what we could do in the future. This choice has provided a huge amount of functionality and almost infinite expandability, including (given a little time to do so) the implementation of the "page" functions.

I was told ten years ago that we were going paperless, so what is all these boxes of paper doing in my office, in my company the ones in higher places do not understand computers or do not trust that the info will be there when they need it, so for instance I have to print two reports each years consisting of approx 60-pages, really they only look at the last page "Total's"."Avg", but they still want to file the sixty pages why? beats me ! But until people's minds catch up with computer technology I will have to print paper reports, and when they want one of these reports they usually give me a hour to produce it, that has almost grinded my Sesame Application Dev to a halt, the header on each page I can live without, but the complexity to create a report quickly in Sesame I can't. I purchased Sesame ver 1.0 knowing that I more than likely would not be happy until it reached ver 5.0 or >.I'm very pleased with Sesame overall it is a great DBMS with powerful features that I haven't touched on. It has a super technical staff, so I believe its future is bright, "To me" its weakest point is its report writer. And really I need to spend a little more time in it, right now I've spent about 8-hours in it, being successful in creating the report and getting it to look acceptable about 50%. My bosses offices have many file cabinets in them, all 95% full, I have 22 yrs here I have 2-Drawers about 1/2 full, 90% of my work is on the computer and filed in it. Heck I still can't get them to use instant messenger, get a faster internet line "still on modems" and they don't like e-mail, so paper is a way of life around here, and I look foward to the day when they see the reports the way Mark & Erica do, it will be a great day.

Quote:


The Width setting is available from the Property Editor.

Quote:


I'm not sure what you mean. Normally, a column of numbers is formatted so that they all have the same number of decimal places, in which case, right-aligning is easy. If you are treating them as text and looking for something like this:

1234
368.2
3300.50
   1.75

...that requires some doing, because it's not actually right or left aligned.

To right-align a column, select the report element (you'll probably also want to select it's matching header and footer element - if any). On the Look Tab in the Property Editor, select one of the right align choices from the Label Alignment dropdown. I recommend number 9 - Right Top.

That should do it for you. 

Quote:


That's not how it works. Only those elements selected when you applied the setting should be affected.  If that's not what you're seeing, get in touch with Support so they can take a look at your Report.

Thanks for the help   I can know get needed reports printed.  Just two suggestions: Fix it so we can get totals AND grand totals that line up!  Give us a way to print  more then one form to a page other then writing and embeding a program in a database.  OK, I will shut up now

Thanks for reply    Happy to hear about fix in 1.0.5.  I was under impression that views were NOT bound to columns and would not line up no matter how many space cells one created.  Wish I could have been at the conference and maybe I would have learned a thing or two!

Quote:


As Cow says, in 1.0.4, you can use Width settings combined with multiple Views to get Grand Totals to line up. This method does not use the View Header and Footer.

Views are not bound to Group columns, however, in 1.0.5, you can have multiple Groups. If you add a Group that does not break, it will behave much like a View Header/Footer, but will be bound to the columns.