Where to put _REPORTBUILDER?

[TonyScarpelli]

I have a VFP 9 report. I have "SET REPORTBEHAVIOR 90", in my setup .prg, and in my Tools "Report Options" I set "Report Engine Behavior" to "90 (Object Assisted)"

In my Main.prg I set _REPORTBUILDER = "", and when I ran the report I was getting an error that it couldn't find "_REPORTBUILDER". I then moved _REPORTBUILDER = "" to the form that called the report and still got the same error.

So since I didn't want to use any "Reportbuilder" at this time, why am I getting this error? Why can't the application find this system variable?

Where does _REPORTBUILDER = "" go in an application so the report can find it?

Thanks.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[Dan Freeman]

Why are you setting _REPORTBUILDER to nothing?

It should point to the current location of reportbuilder.app.

 

[TonyScarpelli]

Some of my reports are using old FoxPro 2.6 reports that I don't want to change and I want to use the old report builder for other reports.

By setting it to nothing, the app uses the old builder.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[Dan Freeman]

For that, use SET REPORTBEHAVIOR. Shoulden't need to muck with the system vars.

 

[TonyScarpelli]

Right.

This is a mixed report application and on some of my reports, I'm getting an error, when I run the report, asking where _REPORTBUILDER is at.

Why would it be asking that question on the new reports and not on the older reports?

Thanks.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[Olaf Doschke]

how do you call the new reports? You may do so in a way the reportBUILDER is needed instead of only the reportOUTPUT and reportPREVIEW apps. You can and should deploy all thre apps and see how it works then. Especially any MODIFY REPORT will need the ReportBuilder.app, perhaps also some reportlistener you use.

Even if you haven't planned to make users modify reports, simply provide all three apps and prevent any dependencies catching you this way.

Bye, Olaf.

 

[Dan Freeman]

What Olaf said, plus...

I don't think those system vars are populated at runtime so you have to do it yourself. Are you?

 

[TonyScarpelli]

As I mention in my main question, in my Main.prg I set '_REPORTBUILDER = ""', and when I run the report I am getting an error that it can't find "_REPORTBUILDER".

I then moved '_REPORTBUILDER = ""' to the form that calls the report and still got the same error.

I've been noticing that the older reports run very fast, but the newer reports run very slowly. I think the rendering is slowing everything down.

Since I don't need anything fancy, I think I'll just recreated the reports and use the old report builder. Right now, speed is more important than anything fancy.

Thanks.


Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102

 

[Dan Freeman]

I suspect the error message you're under-reporting here is telling you it cannot find reportbuilder.app, which is natural since you're telling VFP there isn't one.

_REPORTBUILDER is a SYSTEM memory variable. You cannot release it. It will always exist. But since you're storing an empty string in it, there's no reportbuilder.app for VFP to use.

 

[TonyScarpelli]

I was just reading yesterday, in the paper "Visual FoxPro 9.0 Report Writer In Action" that "_REPORTBUILDER" can be set in Config.fpw.

Also, I think you're right about the error message. The message is wrong.

It could be finding the _REPORTBUILDER system variable, but not the Reportbuilder.app.

I'll have to play with this to see if that's the cause.

Thanks.

Tony Scarpelli
Clinical Engineering Dept.
Maine Medical Center
Portland, Maine 04102