If you have ever wanted to say rotate the titles on a PDF report, but everyone says its impossible, they're wrong.

I have created a utility (Written in FOCUS) that can do this.

There are limits to this, some are WF based, some not.

• Currently only tested on WF 7.1.6 and WF 7.6.4
  
• Can only process 12 items at a time, this process could be rewritten in a scripting language such as Perl.
  
• With WF the file must be post processed to remove trailing spaces.
  
• You cannot use PCHOLD OR ONLINE-FMT = PDF.
  

Can simulate a PCHOLD with the command

SET HTMLFORMTYPE = PDF
-HTMLFORM {name of pdf file without extenstion}

Here is a sample

The example PDF is here

A zip file of the code and samples is here

If you have any issues with the code, please add to this post, and I'll attempt to fix the problem.

If anyone is interested in how this is done, please add to this post and I'll explain what I know.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Waz,

Very nice Warren, manipulating the PDF file stream itself, amending control objects etc.

Also good to see that you've tried to incorporate full error vetting as well.

It would have been good to know what environment and platform from your signature, but I guess that you are running on a unix box due to the following code snippet?

! sed 's/[ ]*$//' tmp_pdf.ftm > &UTLPDFFX_File

This obviously restricts it, but should be able to be coded to for some other platforms by using &FOCMODE tests.

T

I've just made some changes to the PDF Effects routine.

Fixed some bugs

And

Added an outline functionality.

This will allow you to either have text as an outline or filled outline.

The obvious use for the outline would be a watermark in the report like DRAFT.

Very nice!

I've just replaced the SED command with Dialog Manager, so now the utility is pure FOCUS code.

This has been tested with WF 7.1.6 (Unix) and 7.6.4 (Windows and Unix)

Oops another typo, seems to get worse the older I get, or are the keyboards changing ?

-* Write out a master to read the BSB_ACC list
EX -LINES 5 EDAPUT MASTER,pdf_effects,CV,FILE

just this wee bit of syntax by itself is the most brilliant thing i've ever seen...
wow

so it seems that DEALER_COST is the key element in this whole thing..
One of the TITLE's has to be set
with a whole lot of room vertically, in the usual sense, in order to get the rotated titles to fit.

so the entry for [c] could be an explicit blank
-SET &UTLPDFFX_Fx3 = '[c];R0;;; ' ;
and the AS phrase for DEALER_COST
DEALER_COST AS '[c], , ,Dealer'
will make the whole title bar tall enough to handle flipped titles.

this is sooooooo sweet.
i hope you won a tv or a car or a house or something.
Last year T and I won iPods...very sweet,
but this one's worth a sailboat.

quote:

or are the keyboards changing

You must have had the same batch as mine - it's disl dyls can't spell either

As for the top tip Summit 2008, a worthy winner

T

Susannah, if you need more info on EDAPUT, have a look here

As for how it works, yes, you have to consider the space that WebFOCUS will leave.

I won an iPod, its billiant.

Perhaps next time the prize will be an iPhone ??

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Waz,

And no matter what size font you use the print on the screen just keeps getting smaller!

quote:

And no matter what size font you use the print on the screen just keeps getting smaller!

Pat, I don't follow.

quote:

Oops another typo, seems to get worse the older I get, or are the keyboards changing ?

i think its a comment about our eyes

The eyes are going, and the keyboards are getting smaller.

The result is extremely cool! To be frank I barely understand how it works. OK, I'll admit right now I don't understand how it works at all

However I must say that it appeals to my sense of irony that the winning entry is based on a feature that is both undocumented and unsupported, which of course makes the achievement even more impressive.

Do you think they'll 'code-tighten' then ask for the ipod back when it no longer works?

Oh now I get it!

Veeery nice.

its not even a feature
its all 'Waz', hacking a result out of thin air and magic.
Waz is the real 'David Copperfield'

Stop it, my head is getting bigger, oopps it exploded.

But seriously, any of us can do this sort of thing, you just have to keep an open mind and think outside the box, well perhaps in another container in another port.

Waz.... great routine. Thanks. I needed to add parentheses around the code in line 202 of your zipped utlpdffx to get it to work for me, else it gave an:

 0 ERROR AT OR NEAR LINE    202  IN PROCEDURE UTLPDFFXFOCEXEC *
 (FOC279) NUMERIC ARGUMENTS IN PLACE WHERE ALPHA ARE CALLED FOR

works great as:

 S&Cntr..ALin2/I9    = IF ('&UTLPDFFX_Efct.&Cntr' CONTAINS 'R270')
                       (OR '&UTLPDFFX_Efct.&Cntr' CONTAINS 'R90')

Thanks zoogy55, i've fixed it in the zip in the link above.

The new version has some other general fixes as well.