D3 NT platform.

I know this has been discussed before and I have googled but it's still
unclear how to proceed.

We have some beautiful laser reports that we have written with PCL code
embedded in the BASIC programs.
Now we need to add some color images to these reports.

Has anyone done this and what method has worked best?

Thanks very much,
Jeff

Jeff,

I'm note sure of any methods that will enable you to (easily) keep your
PCL images and integrate COLOR images ... I would think the easiest (?)
mechanism if you wanted to keep everything in BASIC would be to
generate HTML, which could then reference colour images - but this is
likely to be non-trivial change.

<ad> If these were "form" style reports you could look at our WordLynx
product. You can harness all of the facilities of Word, so fnts,
graphics, images etc are a piece of cake.

If you were after "real reports" (and/or "forms" too) you could
consider Visage.Reporter - design your forms & reports with the same
drag'n'drop simplicity & power offered by Visage.Designer for screens.
Output can be directed to any printer, numerous file formats, fax
and/or email, with screen preview from PC devices.

Both of these products can also be harnessed from 'dumb terminals' -
and whilst integration is a trivial exercise, there would be changes
required to your existing programs [with Reporter the "program" may
virtually disappear, so much less ongoing maintenance] </ad>

Good luck !



Jeff Caspari wrote:

Okay, so we will proceed with the HTML generation. Thanks Ross.
Jeff


"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote

Jeff Caspari wrote:
You may need to be 'careful' of the formatting with the generated HTML,
as it might "overflow" pages, or re-format it self in "strange &
unexpected ways" !

I am curious though .... why not use the reporting capabilities of DB?

"Ross Ferris" <rossf (AT) stamina (DOT) com.au> wrote

Yes, we are experiencing that.

This is for a customer that will not be converting to DB for some time, as
virtually every aspect of their system has been customized, and we need this
immediately.

Can't you access their reporting capabilities from outside of DB?

I would have thought it would have been a cheaper/easier exercise to
rework forms/reports in your selected tool (ready for the future) and
just deploy those? I mean it is still only around $100/seat isn't it,
and if you only had, say, 4 people using these reports at any given
point in time, then a 4 seat licence would solve your problem --> I
have a suspicion you are likely to spend much more time/money playing
with HTML, and the client is still going to be "one off" --> isn't this
an opportunity to start to bring them "back to the straight & narrow" ?



Jeff Caspari wrote: