Very unusual question.

[milmand]

I have the following situation:
Impromptu report has to have values located in precise positions on the page in order to be printed to a specialized printer.
Data for the report comes from a stored procedure that returns a ref cursor. I tried to use combination of database-specified spacing and fonts in Impromptu in order to place values in needed locations, but to no avail.
The other idea that I have is to create one row of text boxes with the correct locations on the report.
Then, to retrieve a record set from DB and, based on the number or records, create corresponding number of copies of the row of text boxes on the report. After that, assign appropriate values to each text box.
When I looked through Impromptu automation properties and methods, I did not find anything that would allow me to accomplish that.
Please let me know if this is doable or if anyone ever succedded at similar task using another approach.
Thanks.

 

[griffindm]

milmand,

You didn't give a lot of info on the type of report. If it is one row per page, then use a Form Frame report and you can precisely position the data columns in the frame, once you know the unprintable regions for your printer. If it is multiple rows per page, then use a list frame report and column spacers to move the columns around. You may also want to try using a monospace font, like Courier New, rather than proportional spaced fonts to better control the output.

Regards,

Dave Griffin
The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ20-2863 first!

 

[milmand]

Dave,
Thanks for your reply.
Unfortunately the report gets its data as one string, so there is only one column. I am using Currier New, and also, I tried to play around with the stored procedure that builds the string in order to adjust spacing between values. None of this helped, because there is not enough flexibility when it comes to fonts or database-specified spacing. For instance, for a string that is built in the following manner: LPAD(VALUE,SPACING,' ') where SPACING is set to 5.4999, the actual space between values on the report comes out too short. If SPACING:=5.5, the spacing on the report is too large. The only other thing is to change the size of the font, but this creates other problems as well...
P.S.
Report is using list frame to display this data.
Thanks for your advice.
Dima.