nav[aria-label="Primary Navigation"] { padding: 0; & ul { list-style: none; width: 100%; display: flex; flex-direction: row; justify-content: start; align-items: start; gap: 30px; padding: 0; & li { margin: 0; } & ul li { list-style: none; } } }

Display the first and last record in footer

ghigad

Hi all, 
 
I'm trying to reproduce the exemple shown in the <a class='bbc_url' href='http://www.eclipse.org/birt/phoenix/project/notable2.5.php#jump_4'>Release notes of BIRT 2.5</a> concerning the new OnPageStart/OnPageEnd events, since we will need similar functionality in our own reports. 
 
I'm using BIRT 2.6.2 and I attached my sample report. My report runs on the Classic Models sample database. 
 
Here are the basic steps I followed... 
<ul class='bbc'><li>Create the FIRST_ORDER and LAST_ORDER Page variables</li><li>In OnPageStart of the report, set both variables to null</li><li>In the onPageBreak event of my Order Number field, set the the FIRST_ORDER variable if it is null and set the LAST_ORDER variable</li><li>In the footer of the master page, add two auto texts to display both variables</li></ul>
 
My two auto text fields in the footer of the master page are always empty. 
 
So, I added messages to the report (logged to C:\report.log) to try to figure out what is going on... Here are my observations: 
<ul class='bbc'><li>The auto texts are rendered first</li><li>The onPageStart and onPageEnd of the report and of the master page are called only once each, even though there are more than 100 pages in my report. I thought these events were called for each page of the report.</li><li>The onPageBreak event of my Order Number field is called only 4 times. I thought this event would be called for every Order in my report, whenever a page break occured.</li></ul>
 
Are my assumptions correct? 
 
I even tried setting the text of my auto text fields in the onRender event, but since this is called only once at the beginning of the report, I'm out of luck! 
 
Here is a full sample of the report.log file generated by my report: I didn't truncate it and my report has 133 pages! 
 
<pre class='_prettyXprint _lang-auto _linenums:0'>In Report.initialize
In Report.beforeFactory
In Report.beforeRender
In First_order.onRender
In Last_order.onRender
In Report.onPageStart
In MasterPage.onPageStart
In onPageBreak - 10123
In onPageBreak - 10298
In onPageBreak - 10345
In onPageBreak - 10124
In MasterPage.onPageEnd
In Report.onPageEnd
In Report.afterRender
In Report.afterFactory</pre>
 
Can anyone help me on this? What am I doing wrong? 
 
Thank you for your help! 
 
Ghis

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Comments

mwilliams

Hi Ghis,

If you run your report in the web viewer, everything shows up as expected. I think the problem you're seeing in PDF is possibly the runAndRender task being called for PDF from the designer. Have you tried deploying this report and running it as PDF to see what happens?

ghigad

Hi Micheal, 
 
Thank you for your response. 
 
I tried my test report in the Web Viewer as you suggested... 
<ul class='bbc'><li>In the HTML format, the report looks fine and my fields showing the first and last order of the page have the right value.</li><li>When I render the report in PDF (by adding &__format=pdf to the URL...), I have strange values, depending on the Page Break Interval of my Table</li><li>When I set it to 0, the first order is the first order of the first page and the last order is the last order of the last page, on every page!</li><li>When I set it to some value (I tried 20 and 40), the first order of the first page and the last order of the last page are correct, but the others are not.</li></ul>
 
I also tried running the same report from our application and I get similar behavior. 
 
It seems there are problems with the PDF renderer when dealing with page breaks. 
 
Am I doing something wrong? What can I do to make things work? 
 
Thank you for your help. 
 
Note: I attached a sample of the PDF output...

mwilliams

Ah, I see one more thing to change that I forgot about. Make sure your table's page break interval is 0 and set the layout to "fixed" in the general tab of the property editor for the report. Then, if you run the web viewer from the designer and then export to PDF, you get the correct values in the footer. This should be the same as if you deploy the report and run format=pdf in the url.

Let me know.

ghigad

Hi Micheal,

It works! Thank you for your help.

But I'm wondering exactly what is the difference between Auto Layout and Fixed Layout... Auto Layout seemed more intuitive to me since it resizes my cells automatically, as opposed to Fixed Layout where I have to specify the exact sizes by hand...

Am I right on this one?

Can you explain the exact difference?

Is it better to NOT use Auto Layout when rendering a report to PDF?

Thank you for your help!

Ghis

mwilliams

Yes, with the newer versions, PDF is better off rendered in fixed layout. Since you're working with a fixed sized page, you should be able to easily design your table to fit your needs. Let us know whenever you have questions!