[CODE] Rotating Text in PDF's and other interesting things

Focal Point

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https://forums.informationbuilders.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/7971057331/m/8381082572

March 09, 2008, 06:09 PM

Waz

[CODE] Rotating Text in PDF's and other interesting things

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,

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

March 10, 2008, 05:07 AM

Tony A

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

In FOCUS since 1986	WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
	WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10

April 29, 2008, 05:57 PM

Waz

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.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

April 29, 2008, 06:01 PM

Francis Mariani

Very nice!

Francis

Give me code, or give me retirement. In FOCUS since 1991

Production: WF 7.7.05M, Dev Studio, BID, MRE, WebSphere, DB2 / Test: WF 8.1.05M, App Studio, BI Portal, Report Caster, jQuery, HighCharts, Apache Tomcat, MS SQL Server

May 06, 2008, 09:19 AM

Waz

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)

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

July 18, 2008, 09:36 AM

Waz

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

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

July 18, 2008, 11:14 AM

susannah

-* 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

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

July 18, 2008, 12:13 PM

susannah

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.

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

July 18, 2008, 12:22 PM

Tony A

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

In FOCUS since 1986	WebFOCUS Server 8.2.01M, thru 8.2.07 on Windows Svr 2008 R2
	WebFOCUS App Studio 8.2.06 standalone on Windows 10

July 20, 2008, 06:54 PM

Waz

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,

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

July 21, 2008, 04:51 PM

PBrightwell

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

Pat
WF 7.6.8, AIX, AS400, NT
AS400 FOCUS, AIX FOCUS,
Oracle, DB2, JDE, Lotus Notes

July 21, 2008, 08:46 PM

Waz

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

Pat, I don't follow.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

July 22, 2008, 09:38 AM

PBrightwell

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

Pat
WF 7.6.8, AIX, AS400, NT
AS400 FOCUS, AIX FOCUS,
Oracle, DB2, JDE, Lotus Notes

July 22, 2008, 09:42 AM

susannah

i think its a comment about our eyes

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

July 22, 2008, 09:54 AM

Waz

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

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

July 24, 2008, 10:48 AM

Llance

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?

Live and Direct from the University of Virginia.

DevStudio 7.6.9 - WF-7.6.9 - Win2k3 - MRE - RC - MSSQL - XBOX-360 Elite - Playstation 3 - Wii - PSP - Nintendo DSi - iPod Touch - Suzuki B-King - Honda Valkyrie - Subaru WRX STI - Canon EOS 1D Mark IV - Lover of Toys.

July 24, 2008, 11:12 AM

Llance

Oh now I get it!

Veeery nice.

July 24, 2008, 12:17 PM

susannah

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

In Focus since 1979///7706m/5 ;wintel 2008/64;OAM security; Oracle db, ///MRE/BID

July 24, 2008, 05:30 PM

Waz

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...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

August 06, 2008, 03:17 PM

zoogy55

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')

Prod: WebFOCUS 7.1.6 Servlet - Self Service on Solaris 8 - Apache Tomcat 5.0.28
DevStudio 7.1.6 on MS Windows XP SP2
Output: HTML, Excel 2000 and PDF

August 07, 2008, 08:39 AM

Waz

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

The new version has some other general fixes as well.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!

September 25, 2014, 08:21 AM

Richard Copeland

Doesn't appear to work correctly with 7.7.03. Looks like some syntax errors. Working to try to correct them.

WebFOCUS 7.6
Windows, All Outputs

September 25, 2014, 07:02 PM

Waz

Not sure if I have ever tested it on 7.7 and certainly not 8.

Waz...

Prod:	WebFOCUS 7.6.10/8.1.04	Upgrade:	WebFOCUS 8.2.07	OS:	Linux	Outputs:	HTML, PDF, Excel, PPT
In Focus since 1984
Pity the lost knowledge of an old programmer!