To follow syntax to develop an Rpv report is really easy and does not require to learn many commands and settings.
We will begin with Rpv files, and when we're done, the Rpd files will be explained because is needed to learn how to use Rpv BR to understand Rpd (Basically Rpd
files have data to be inserted into Rpv files).
An Rpv file is a normal ascii text file with extension Rpv and must be structured in an specific way.
With this concept, you are not sending the report directly to the printer, so you are only generating a text file. If you are modifying your program and sends data to the printer, you will have modify the program to redirect the output to a file instead the printer.
Before beginning, you must know that you will only have to take care of the X's and not of the Y's. This doesn't mean that you only have control of the columns of you report but probably most of cases will be this way.
Since all the files that the application can print/view are ascii plain files, Rpv files can be generated using any language running on any operating system. In fact you could use the awk (the Unix tool) in any "x" OS to generate one rpv report.
To follow the syntax we begin saying that all the text between brackets ("{" and "}" chars) will be commands interpreted by rpv and
the rest of the text that are not between brackets is going to be printed.
Example:
{b=y} Hi, this is bold {i=y} and this is italic and bold {\n}
{b=n;i=n} this text is normal (bold=no and italic=no) {\n}
In an Rpv file, we can recognize three sections.
- Configuration section
- Header section
- Data section
The configuration section is the section in which the report has values such as papersize, default printer, report title, etc.
It is recognized because it is at the top of the report before the header section.
The header section is the text that will be printed in all the pages of the report. In header section you can define footer too as desired. It is recognized by the identifier [header].
The data section is the data of the report and it must be placed after header section. It will be recognized by the identifier [data]. The data will change page by page.
Being familiar with DOS programming, you will remember that you can place 80 chars per line, or sometimes 132 if you are compressing the font with a standard letter paper.
Rpv needs columns to be defined too, but said in "twips" and not in columns.
Each centimeter has about 567 twips and each inch has about 1440.
This means for example that if you want to place a text two centimeters from the left margin, you will specify {1134}. (567 * 2).
This example specifies 2 centimeters, it's more used to specify round values. Ex: {1100}.
See also:
Rpv first example
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