Configurable print formats.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ajit goel
  • Start date Start date
A

ajit goel

Hi;

We have a requirement in our application wherein all the TEXT in the
application especially the print formats for the documents and reports
are configurable files that would be part of the software packaging.
In other words, these formats can be changed, but the software need
not be re-loaded. We will just need to download the latest formats on
the handheld.

I would appreciate any pointers on how to go about doing this.

Thanks and Kind Regards;

Ajit Goel
 
Simply use separate text files for the formatting. The app should be able
to either import them or look in a specific place for them.

-Chris
 
Hi Ajit,

Are you asking how you could implement 'definable print formats?' If so then
we have incorporated what we call 'definable print layouts' for our main
application. This enables the layout of documents like delivery notes to be
defined/customized by the users or our engineers.

The layout file is basically broken up into several sections that each
define the document header, body and footer. Each section consists of lines
of fixed text to be printed as is that may also include datafield masks
which are replaced a data item at runtime. The data items to be printed on a
line are listed in the second line, so what you get are a series of lines
that alternate between printed text and data items, see below.

This is the method we first started using about ten years ago and have
retained the same technique since it is easily implemented and the exisiting
customers/engineers are very familiar with it.

These layout files are automatically updated to the device as part of the
daily comms process by way of a web service that is queried by the
application to decide whether an update is required, purely based upon the
file date time of the one on the server differing from that of the one last
loaded.

#HEADER <-
indicates the start of a 'header' section
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX <- data field mask
&PARAM.BILLHEADER1 <- data field
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&PARAM.BILLHEADER2
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&PARAM.BILLHEADER3
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&PARAM.BILLHEADER4
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&PARAM.BILLHEADER5
VAT REG :XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&PARAM.VATNO

Invoice
<-fixed text
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Acc XXXXXX <- two data field masks and fixed
text
&CUST.NAME,&CUST.CUSTID <- two data fields
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Date XXXXXXXXXXX
&CUST.ADDRESS1,&SYS.DATE
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Ref XXXXXXXXXXXX
&CUST.ADDRESS2,&TRANS.REF
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX Time XXXXX
&CUST.ADDRESS3,&SYS.TIME
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
&CUST.ADDRESS4
 
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