HTML is 'Hyper Text Mark-up Language'. This output is placed in a pre-determined directory within your PC or server and is retrieved by a standard web browser. To utilise the HTML output you need to create an export facility first. Export facilities are normally created by System Managers. One export facility with a name of 'html' (lower case), should always exist.
Note:There is no setting up to do although one consideration is that the HTML report hypertext links are built in from the totals to the details. In the sequence tab, the more totals you build in the more links you will have in your HTML document. Some formatting called from the derived tab can allocate background colours, pictures, titles and so on, you can even build a link into the top of the document to link to your home Web page.
On Unix Systems: Make sure that a secure ftp server has been established within the Unix file system.
The export facility needs a host directory and a browser address. Both of these addresses should be the same. However a Unix system prefers the host address to be 'verbal' and the browser address to be numeric. Network users may see 'local' addresses.
For Example:
Host = /user7/kccpjj/help/reps
Browser = ftp://123.34.0.567/reps
Host = $BASE/misc/htmlreps
Browser = FILE://D:\v8\misc/htmlreps
Note : These addresses are examples only. Do not attempt to use them on your system.
Certain commands can be sent to the HTML output file to format the output, changing the background and foreground colours for example. These is detailed during the explanation of the derived field options. You can also determine the output file name with a derived field called EXFILE$.
There are a number of controls that can be introduced to HTML reports in order to enhance their appearance or usefulness. Reports can be published straight onto a public access area of a computer where outside parties can gain access to valuable information. These reports can be ‘branded’ with company logo’s by spending just a few seconds applying some quite basic derived fields.
HTML Images in put as ‘rg_html_image(Banner image file name, Wallpaper image file name)
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_html_image("images/backkcc.gif" ,"images/kcc.gif" ) |
This routine will apply an image to the HTML output, and will use the files specified as either wallpaper or a banner for the top of the page. Make sure that the image files are placed either into the HTML output directory, or, as in the case above, in a directory within the HTML output directory.
HTML colours input as ‘rg_html_colours(Background, Heading, Sub-heading, Sub-total, Text)
Up to five different colours can be specified when using this routine. Obviously the choice of colours, if used, will depend on personal choice and possibly on the corporate image you may want to maintain. The choice of colours used is based on the full range of colours currently in use within HTML applications. There are currently 200 colour names supported by Explorer and Navigator.
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_html_colours("brown"," ","cyan","green","red" ) |
In the example above colours have been attributed to all but the heading, which will therefore retain it’s default value.
Add link to HTML output input as ‘rg_html_link(Link text , Link URL)
An HTML link can be added to the top of the report output which will link the user to another document, or location, if used. This could be your company home page, it could be a link to another report, or it could be a document explaining the report being viewed.
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_html_link("Help document for viewing report", "../docs/Report_ADH.htm") |
In the example above you will see that there is a link to a document. We will assume that this document holds an explanation of all of the fields shown on the output.
Define name for grand total input as ‘rg_html_all("title")
This control enables you to define a specific name for the grand total at the head of the report, (remember the final total is at the top – HTML reports appear ‘upside down’)
It is a simple command, and very effective if used properly.
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_html_all("Total of all payments") |
Suppress banner in sub totals shown as ‘rg_html_no_banner
This control is used without parameters. It will remove the banner, or column headings, from the section breaks on the output. This may be convenient if there are only a couple of columns on the output file. More complex output however isnefit from banner output to show what information appears in each column.
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_html_no_banner |
Specify output file name shown as ‘rg_export_filename("filename")
The default output name for all HTML files is created by taking the two character module ID and the three character report ID and putting them together with an extension of HTML. Thus report APD within the Sales Ledger module would return a file name of SL_APD.html. The ability to change the filename being output is not available to V8 users.
Simply type in the output filename required and it is used in preference to the default name.
If you enter a file name it must be made up with characters in the range A to Z or numbers from 0 to 9. Any other characters such as full stops or slashes will cause the filename to be ignored.
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Name |
=...... |
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‘rg_export_filename("SLDEBTOR") |