Classics Forum

RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep

Posted By: Miguel Caldera
Date: Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:59 p.m.

In Response To: What are you using to produce nice looking reports (ROGER BURTON)

Man, you want it all, don't you...

I have done similar things over the years, ranging from printing laser
checks with 4gl printing everything but the form itself (using hardcoded pcl
from 4gl and a hardware device that stores form, signatures, and logos) as
well as converting text files to PDF. I haven't done the pdf to email yet,
but have a project lined up to do that once I can squeeze in the time.

You will find many ways of doing what you're asking, and the most important
item for you to consider is your environment. This includes your
infrastructure as well as your users.

Most of my users are pretty savvy, so dropping to a Windows app to take care
of something that needs a gui is accepted very easily. From an automation
perspective, being able to do everything in Unix makes life easier. If
configured properly, email support is built-in. This means that you can
create a 4gl report, convert it to PDF, then use a table to control the
destination (text file, pdf file, or optional email of either file).

I also still use UUCP to distribute hundreds of reports a month. A handful
of these monthly reports are also converted to PDF using txt2pdf from
SANFACE software (they have other PDF tools worth looking at). Simple
software used to convert plain text reports to PDF format on SCO Unix
system. I don't email these out, but only because there isn't a need. It
would be easy enough to do.

If all you want is a pretty report, I would suggest using MS Access. It
isn't free, but quite often, it already exists in the office so it doesn't
cost anything extra. It isn't great, but it can provide a quick and simple
tool for pretty reports. I would probably write something in 4GL to
populate a table so the final report is just a table dump as opposed to
something with program logic to control the output.

There are freeware solutions to convert Windows output to PDF.
Unfortunately, doing email from Windows gets a bit more involved.

Just some ideas to think about.

Miguel

-----Original Message-----
From: classics-bounces@iiug.org [mailto:classics-bounces@iiug.org] On Behalf
Of ROGER BURTON
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008 2:35 PM
To: classics@iiug.org
Subject: What are you using to produce nice looking reports [2916]

Hello all,

I'm VERY NEW to this game - forgive me if I've slotted this in the wrong
place, but it seemed the most appropriate option of those presented to me.
I'm sure I'll hear about it if there is a better place.

I have used Informix-4GL (exclusively) to run the bulk of our operations and
I would like to continue to follow this path. Until recently, the production
of "documents" (Invoices, POs, Statements ...) was accomplished by running
an Informix Report and invoking a "form" (created with a third-party bit of
software that was stored as a "macro" on an HP printer) as an overlay. The
static portion (a.k.a. the pretty portion) of the document being the Macro,
and the data (the dynamic portion) being supplied by the Informix Report. It
looks respectable; monochrome and a little plain, but respectable.

This has served us well for many years. However, this solution is becoming
more and more difficult to support as the original (forms generation)
software is becoming more and more antiquated [it came on 5 1/4" floppies -
just to give you an idea]. Enough is enough, I said, time to re-evaluate. I
further speculated that this (the IIUG site) would be a good mechanism to
poll what others (YOU) are doing if you have a similar situation in YOUR
environment.
I'd like to know how others (you) are resolving this?

Resolving the aforementioned would be great, but if your solution also
encompasses the conditional creation of a PDF file that can be e-mailed,
that would make for a more complete solution. (And I'd look like a superstar
around
here.)

I am grateful for ALL input and I thank you in advance.

****************************************************************************
***
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Messages In This Thread

• What are you using to produce nice looking reports
  ROGER BURTON -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 3:34 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    McGrath, Colin -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 3:59 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Art Kagel -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 4:10 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    McGrath, Colin -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 4:19 p.m.
    • Re: RE: What are you using to produce nice looking
      ERICK NASSAR -- Monday, 27 October 2008, at 11:52 a.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Joel W Schumacher -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:02 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    DOUG ANDERSON -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:21 p.m.
  • RE: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    Miguel Caldera -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 5:59 p.m.
  • Re: What are you using to produce nice looking rep
    David Gerdt -- Tuesday, 9 September 2008, at 7:32 p.m.

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