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The ASCIIPrintClass provides the user interface–a simple Print Options dialog–to print one or more lines from a text file. The ASCIIPrintClass interface lets the end user specify a range of lines to print, then optionally previews the lines before printing them. The ASCIIPrintClass interface also provides access to the standard Windows Print Setup dialog.

ASCIIPrintClass Relationship to Other Application Builder Classes

The ASCIIPrintClass relies on the ASCIIFileClass to read and index the file that it prints. It also relies on the PrintPreviewClass to provide the on-line preview. It also uses the TranslatorClass to translate its Print Options dialog text if needed.

The ASCIIViewerClass uses the ASCIIPrintClass to provide the end user with a Print Options dialog to print one or more lines from the viewed file.

There are several related classes whose collective purpose is to provide reusable, read-only, viewing, scrolling, searching, and printing capability for files, including variable length files. Although these classes are primarily designed for ASCII text and they anticipate using the Clarion ASCII Driver to access the files, they also work with binary files and with other database drivers. These classes can be used to build other components and functionality as well.

The classes that provide this read-only functionality are:

ASCIIPrintClass ABC Template Implementation

Both the Viewer procedure template and the ASCIIPrintButton control template generate code to instantiate an ASCIIPrintClass object. The Viewer template accomplishes this by adding a parameter to the ASCIIViewerClass.Init method. The ASCIIPrintButton template accomplishes this by declaring an ASCIIPrintClass object and calling the ASCIIViewerClass.AddItem method to register the ASCIIPrintClass object with the ASCIIViewerClass object.

ASCIIPrintClass Source Files

The ASCIIPrintClass source code is installed by default to the Clarion \LIBSRC folder. The specific ASCIIPrintClass source code and their respective components are contained in:

ASCIIPrintClass Conceptual Example

The following example shows a typical sequence of statements to declare, instantiate, initialize, use, and terminate an ASCIIPrintClass object and related objects.

This example lets the end user select a file, then search and print from it.

MEMBER('viewer.clw')

INCLUDE('ABASCII.INC')

INCLUDE('ABWINDOW.INC')

MAP

 MODULE('VIEWE002.CLW')

BrowseFiles  PROCEDURE

 END

END

BrowseFiles  PROCEDURE

FilesOpened   BYTE

ViewerActive  BYTE(False)

Filename      STRING(FILE:MaxFilePath),AUTO,STATIC,THREAD

AsciiFile     FILE,DRIVER('ASCII'),NAME(Filename),PRE(A1),THREAD

RECORD         RECORD,PRE()

Line            STRING(255)

              END

             END

ViewWindow  WINDOW('View an ASCII File'),AT(3,7,296,136),SYSTEM,GRAY

            LIST,AT(5,5,285,110),USE(?AsciiBox),IMM,FROM('')

            BUTTON('&Print…'),AT(7,119),USE(?Print)

            BUTTON('&Search…'),AT(44,119),USE(?Search)

           END

ThisWindow  CLASS(WindowManager)

Init          PROCEDURE(),BYTE,PROC,VIRTUAL

TakeAccepted  PROCEDURE(),BYTE,PROC,VIRTUAL

           END

Viewer    AsciiViewerClass            !declare Viewer object

Searcher  AsciiSearchClass            !declare Searcher object

Printer   AsciiPrintClass             !declare Printer object

CODE

GlobalResponse = ThisWindow.Run()

ThisWindow.Init PROCEDURE()

ReturnValue   BYTE,AUTO

CODE

ReturnValue = PARENT.Init()

IF ReturnValue THEN RETURN ReturnValue.

SELF.FirstField = ?AsciiBox

SELF.VCRRequest &= VCRRequest

SELF.Errors &= GlobalErrors

OPEN(ViewWindow)

SELF.Opened=True

CLEAR(Filename)

ViewerActive=Viewer.Init(AsciiFile,A1:Line,Filename,?AsciiBox,GlobalErrors)

IF ~ViewerActive THEN RETURN Level:Fatal.

Viewer.AddItem(Searcher)               !register Searcher with Viewer

Viewer.AddItem(Printer)                !register Printer with Viewer

SELF.SetAlerts()

RETURN ReturnValue

ThisWindow.TakeAccepted PROCEDURE()

ReturnValue          BYTE,AUTO

 CODE

 ReturnValue = PARENT.TakeAccepted()

   CASE ACCEPTED()

   OF ?Print

     ThisWindow.Update

     IF ViewerActive THEN Viewer.Printer.Ask.  !display Print Options dialog

   OF ?Search

     ThisWindow.Update

     IF ViewerActive

      IF CHOICE(?AsciiBox)>0                   !search from current line

       Viewer.Searcher.Ask(Viewer.TopLine+CHOICE(?AsciiBox)-1)

      ELSE

       Viewer.Searcher.Ask(1)            !search from line 1

      END

     END

    END

   RETURN ReturnValue