We are wanting to know if anybody has been able to hold a Document Composer file. Ultimately I would like to run a Document Composer page multiple times, for different inputs. I am trying to see if I can implement a similar solution to what Jim posted on http://forums.informationbuild...1057331/m/3617012906.

The final product will be a report that will generate a list of people and then use that list to create a separate PDF file for each person. Thanks for the help.

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

Check out the Dynamic Distribution List which, in conjunction with bursting, will distribute the bursted report to those in the distribution list.

Hi,
Do you want to do it with ReportCaster, or via an "online" request?

Assuming you want to run it "online", this would work.
I made two changes to the code that was generated by Dev Studio:
1) I added a FILEDEF i.e. FILEDEF H_2 DISK baseapp/h_2.pdf
2) I changed the COMPOUND LAYOUT PCHOLD statement to COMPOUND LAYOUT HOLD AS H_2 FORMAT PDF

To explain:
COMPOUND LAYOUT HOLD tells WebFOCUS to create a server HOLD file, instead of rendering it in the browser.
But, since you want to create multiple PDF files, I give the HOLD file a name - H_2 in my example - this can obviously be an &variable.
It isn't really necessary to have different names if your program loops through values, since this is just going to be a "placeholder" to link to the FILEDEF.

FILEDEF then tells it where to save this file, and with what name.
So my example will create h_2.pdf in the BASEAPP directory.

FILEDEF H_2 DISK baseapp/h_2.pdf
-RUN
*-HOLD_SOURCE
-* File tj_test.fex
SET HTMLARCHIVE=ON
COMPOUND LAYOUT HOLD AS H_2 FORMAT PDF
UNITS=IN, $
SECTION=section1, LAYOUT=ON, METADATA='prop_with_names^Margins_Left=0.5^Margins_Top=0.5^Margins_Right=0.5^Margins_Bottom=0.5^thumbnailscale=4', MERGE=OFF, ORIENTATION=PORTRAIT, PAGESIZE=Letter, SHOW_GLOBALFILTER=OFF, $
PAGELAYOUT=1, NAME='Page layout 1', text='Page layout 1', TOC-LEVEL=1, BOTTOMMARGIN=0.5, TOPMARGIN=0.5, METADATA='BOTTOMMARGIN=0.5,TOPMARGIN=0.5,LEFTMARGIN=0,RIGHTMARGIN=0,', $
OBJECT=STRING, NAME='text1', TEXT='<font face="TREBUCHET MS" size=10><FONT size=14 face="TREBUCHET MS ">Heading</FONT></font>', POSITION=(1.146 0.625), MARKUP=ON, WRAP=ON, DIMENSION=(6.458 0.312),  METADATA='Z-INDEX: 1; POSITION: absolute; WIDTH: 6.458in; FONT-FAMILY: Trebuchet MS; WORD-WRAP: break-word; HEIGHT: 0.312in; FONT-SIZE: 10pt; TOP: 0.625in; LEFT: 1.146in', $
COMPONENT='report1', TEXT='report1', TOC-LEVEL=2, POSITION=(0.625 1.146), DIMENSION=(2.708 4.167),  ARREPORTSIZE=DIMENSION, METADATA='Z-INDEX: 2; POSITION: absolute; WIDTH: 2.708in; HEIGHT: 4.167in; TOP: 1.146in; LEFT: 0.625in', $
END
SET COMPONENT='report1'
-*component_type report
TABLE FILE CENTURYSALES
SUM
     CENTURYSALES.PRODSEG.PROFIT
BY  LOWEST CENTURYSALES.ORDERS.STORECODE
ON TABLE SET PAGE-NUM NOLEAD
ON TABLE NOTOTAL
ON TABLE PCHOLD FORMAT PDF
ON TABLE SET HTMLCSS ON
ON TABLE SET STYLE *
     INCLUDE = endeflt,
$
ENDSTYLE
END
COMPOUND END

Thank you very much for the replies. It looks like the Dynamic Distribution List is what we will be wanting to use for this scenario. But I am sure that the knowledge of filedef will come in handy sometime soon.

Thanks again!