From an Information Builders email:

quote:

Effective with WebFOCUS Developer Studio Release 7.7, the Compound Document Tool will no longer be supported. The Compound Document Tool, only accessible from the Developer Studio Local Projects environment, provided a graphical environment which allowed you to combine reports with styled HOLD formats (for example, PDF, HTML, PS, EXL2K) or regular character-based reports into one file.

Information Builders is making this decision because the PDF Layout Painter is the recommended tool to create compound reports. In addition, the compound report syntax created by the Compound Document tool is an earlier implementation that is functionally stabilized.

The syntax generated by the Compound Document Tool will continue to be supported on the Reporting Server and existing reports will continue to run. Existing reports created with the Compound Document Tool can be edited with the Text Editor. There will be no migration of procedures using the older compound report syntax, but individual reports and charts can be imported into the PDF Layout Painter to create new compound reports.

It's interesting to me to see a Developer Studio tool come and go before I even got to work with it.

I wonder how you would use the "PDF Layout Painter" to create a compound EXL2K document.

I'll try it and let you know. You getting upgrade anytime soon?

We're upgrading in four to six months. Who knows what version will be around then...

The Compound Document Tool was a GUI way of producing a focexec that just did:

EX FEX1
EX FEX2
etc.

I personally didn't think it was worth the effort.

Now the PDF Layout Painter, on the other hand, is quite impressive. I haven't done anything with Excel but I have created a report with a report and graph on CENTSALES that puts a report and graph for the same region together on a page with a page break on region. I also used a page master to put the company logo and date on the top and the page number on the bottom.

I took two existing EXL2K reports and put them in the PDF Tool,ran it and it was PDF. I had to manually go in and change this line

COMPOUND LAYOUT PCHOLD FORMAT PDF
TO
COMPOUND LAYOUT PCHOLD FORMAT EXL2K
And it was a compound Excel. I'm sure I'm just missing how to set it in the GUI...since I'm not a GUI Person...I immediatly look for a solution in the code.

But bottom line...it works...

I agree with Ginny that achieving the "straight forward" compound of reports doesn't make you want to use the compound doc tool. Hopefully I'll still be able to code COMPOUND OPEN etc. manually to achieve this. However, as Ginny points out, the ability to combine reports, graphics, text et al with the new tool is very impressive.

If only I used the GUI .....

T

On further inspection I found it in the properties panel you have the option of setting it to PDF, Excel, Powerpoint,HTML and Active reports. Perhaps...this Tool needs a new name.

How about: Compound Document Tool???

That will work!

Yes, that sounds right. While they're at it, they have to change FML to something else too

Trust me, Tony. You are not going to want to code the PDF Layout Painter stuff by hand. What you can do, however, is code the pieces by hand or specific tool like Report Painter, etc. Then use the PDF tool to put them together. The Page Master stuff is really cool and you can create a TOC.

And this really cool stuff like Page Master and TOC can be used in Excel, Powerpoint, HTML and Active reports as well as PDF?

I'd be surprised.

Ginny,

I have coded the new stuff by hand and I find it "fairly" intuitive and it is the method I prefer to learn (sad I know). The more that I do the more that I will understand it (hopefully) and being an old coder I just can't "get into" the GUI, it just takes too long.

I suppose that I will have to bite the bullet one day and use the other new abilities offered via the GUI, but only until I learn what code it produces and why.

T

Well get in there and and play around..cause I'm tying to figure out what kinda code it is producing at the beginning of each Fex...and how to change it. For instance...All this to make a compound EXL2K report.
SET HTMLARCHIVE=ON
COMPOUND LAYOUT PCHOLD FORMAT EXL2K
UNITS=IN, $
OBJECT=TOC, NAME='Table of Contents', METADATA='Table of Contents', TEXT='Table of Contents ok', MARKUP=OFF, TOC-NUMBERING=ON, POSITION=(0.750 0.854), DIMENSION=(7.000 9.500), font='ARIAL', color=RGB(0 0 0), size=10, TOC-FILL=DOTS, $
OBJECT=bookmarks ,$
SECTION=section1, LAYOUT=ON, METADATA='0.5^0.5^0.5^0.5', MERGE=OFF, ORIENTATION=PORTRAIT, PAGESIZE=Letter, $
PAGELAYOUT=1, NAME='Page 1', text='Page one', TOC-LEVEL=1, BOTTOMMARGIN=0.5, TOPMARGIN=0.5, METADATA='0^0.5^0^0.5', $
COMPONENT='report1', TEXT='report1', TOC-LEVEL=2, POSITION=(0.500 0.500), DIMENSION=(5.641 2.083), METADATA='Z-INDEX: 1; LEFT: 0.5in; WIDTH: 5.641in; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 0.5in; HEIGHT: 2.083in', $
COMPONENT='report2', TEXT='report2', TOC-LEVEL=2, POSITION=(0.729 2.813), DIMENSION=(5.833 2.708), METADATA='Z-INDEX: 100; LEFT: 0.729in; WIDTH: 5.833in; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 2.813in; HEIGHT: 2.708in', $
END

Yes Ma'am!!

T

quote:

Perhaps...this Tool needs a new name.

quote:

How about: Compound Document Tool???

quote:

Yes, that sounds right. While they're at it, they have to change FML to something else too

Absolutely!

IBI have a trouble with naming =)

PDF Layout Tool - is not about only PDF.
FML - I never understood why it's financial

Dialog Manager - where the dialog? And manager?
"Managed Reporting" is confusing for me. (Is WebFOCUS wo MRE "unmanaged"?)
I think it's right to name WebFOCUS Client as just "Web Components".

As time passed I became used to this names.
But when I try to tell about WebFOCUS to someone new - confusion is guaranteed.

It's actually spelled Dialogue Manager.

If it's spelled wrong on a resume, I know the person doesn't know Dialgue Manager.

Carol,

I suppose it should matter whether English is your first language or else we would probably have the same reservations about people who spell colour as color! or those who use "z"s everywhere there should be an "s".

T

Such a happy group.

Adapter comes up wrong in my spell-checker.

Must be Friday - we've turned this post into a spelling bee. Have a good weekend everyone!

Weekend, is it weekend......

Bye....see you on Monday

Yep, it must be almost Miller time in Texas!!

T

You bet it is!