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The Report to TXT (Text File) Procedure template provides exact control as to when to use the output document format, global overrides of selected string settings, and report controls that need to be hidden or skipped when this output format is enabled.
The following options are provided (and only available if the associated Global Extension is active):
Populate on Report
The Report to TXT Global Extension populates this template in all reports by default. Select Never if you do not want this report to be directed to an TXT document. Select Always if you want to have this capability available always for this report at runtime. Select Conditional if you need to make this output available based on a certain condition, specified in the next prompt.
Condition
This prompt is available if you have specified Conditional in the Populate on Report prompt above. A condition can be a simple variable or an expression. If the variable or expression evaluates to non-zero, the TXT document output capability will be active for this report at runtime.
Press the “E” button to call the Expression Editor. This dialog is used to help you construct syntactically correct expressions to use in the Condition prompt.
General Tab Options
Output Name Type
If you have directed that the report print to a TXT document file specify a Fixed, Variable or Runtime name here. Fixed will use a default name, and add page numbers and other extensions (as discussed on the tab control). Variable can be used to designate a fixed name based on a variable condition at runtime, like a date, user name, order number, etc.
Runtime allows the end user to specify a custom name and optional folder to direct the TXT document to.
Save output as separate files
By default, a TXT document will be a continuous single document, regardless of the size of the contents of the generated report. Check this box to designate that TXT documents are generated based on the number of pages generated by the report.
Margin and Page Length
The Margin and Page Length dialog allows you to control the position of the text that will be output to the document file based on a row and columns measurement unit.
Use the spin control to set the appropriate margins from the document edge. Defaults for all margins is zero (0), which exclude any margins. Maximum margin size is 200.
Initial margin sets the number of rows to skip before generating the first text row. This is only used for the first document page.
Page Length allows you to control how many rows of you report prints on each page. The default is zero (0) which defaults to the report's page length. Maximum page length size (in rows) is 600.
Override global string settings
A series of TXT text values that “translate” graphic controls are available in the TXT to Report - Global String Settingsglobal template. If you need to change specific values for a single report, check this box to enable the TXT Local String Settings button. Press this button to modify the default global settings.
Graphics (IMAGE fields) are NOT supported in TXT documents, and are ignored.
TXT Local String settings
This dialog duplicates the settings available in the TXT Global String Settings dialog. Enter new text if needed here to override the global settings.
Press the Reset from Global button to restore the state of the global settings if needed.
Controls Tab Options
The Controls tab displays a list box of every report control's Field equate label that is populated on the report structure. A Field equate label (FEQ) can represent text displayed on the generated report output, but can also identify report logic for Headers, Footers, Detail Bands, Form Bands, and Break structures. Select a control in the list box, and press the Properties button to modify a report's target FEQ.
Controls' TXT Properties
HIDE (Omit printing)
If a report's FEQ targets a field used specifically for special documents generation (i.e., Hyperlinks, Bookmarks, etc.), check this box to hide (omit) this FEQ from the report's printed output.
SKIP (Omit processing)
A report's contents can be redirected to multiple types of output documents when using the new Advanced Report Generation templates. Check this box to designate that the selected FEQ will not be used for this type of generated document output (e.g., TXT). For example, you would want to skip a control used to generate a special XML tag when generating to TXT.