Reports

This appendix describes utilities that are useful in developing and running reports. Utilities are listed in alphabetical order; descriptions are organized into the following components, as applicable:

• Utility name and brief description.

• Syntax line and argument descriptions.

• Description of the utility.

• Possible errors and corrective action.

In addition, the following utilities are also used with reports:

• binherit updates screens and reports with inherited property values from the repository.

• f2asc converts screens and reports between binary and ASCII format.

• rw6toprl converts reports created with JAM/ReportWriter 6 to Panther report files.

To get a command-line description of a utility's available arguments and command options, type the utility's name with the -h switch. For example:

dev2bin -h

This yields the following output:

DEV2BIN 5.5 - Converts Panther report device file to binary
Copyright (C) Prolifics, 1985 - 2016

Usage: dev2bin -e <device file>

-e<str> Use specified extension for output file  (default 'bin')

Compiles a device configuration file for report output

dev2bin [-e ext] filename

-e ext

Specify the extension for the device binary file. If the -e option is omitted, the resulting file is named filename.bin.

filename

Name of the device configuration file. If the name does not include an extension, dev2bin looks first for filename.dev. If that file cannot be opened, it attempts to open filename (with no extension).

dev2bin produces a device binary file from the device configuration file identified by filename. The output of dev2bin is a binary file named filename.bin or filename.ext if the -e option is specified.

A report accesses a device configuration file it by specifying it as an invocation option.

Device configuration files specify formatting options for reports generated in ASCII text format. For more information on these formatting options, refer to Appendix C, "Report Device Configuration Files."

Runs a report

rwrun filename[!reportname] [ (arg[, ... ] )] [ option ]...

filename

Name of report file. Panther looks for the file in the application's memory-resident list, then in all open libraries. For remote report processing, the report file must be in a server or common library.

reportname

Name of a report definition in filename to invoke. If reportname is omitted, Panther uses the first report definition in the file.

arg

One or more arguments to the report. Each argument must be a valid JPL expression–either a string within quotation marks, a number, or the name of a Panther variable to evaluate when the report is run. In order to process these arguments, the following conditions must be true:

• Each argument has a corresponding parameter that is declared in the report node's Parameters property (refer to "Report Parameters").

• Arguments are supplied in the same order as their corresponding parameters are defined.

• Each declared parameter exists in the report as a widget, a JPL global variable, or an LDB variable.

  Note: Any punctuation that has a special usage in the operating system such as parentheses () must be prefixed with an escape character (\).

option

Specify one or more invocation options–for example, to specify the desired driver, output destination, and page orientation. For a description of invocation options, refer to "Setting Invocation Options."

rwrun invokes Panther's report generation facility to execute the specified report. The following requirements apply when using rwrun:

• Set the output file on the command line; otherwise, the report is displayed in standard output on the screen. For more information about output options, refer to "Output Destination."

• Control the database connection within the report file. Generally, a call node attached to an instance node calls the JPL procedure or C function which connects to the database, and a final call node calls the procedure or function which disconnects from the database.

If rwrun specifies the remote option, the utility connects to the application middleware through a call to client_init. This call supplies no arguments for client authentication. If an application requires authentication such as an application password, attempts to run the report remotely with rwrun will fail. In this case, modify rwmain.c to include a call to client_init that supplies the necessary arguments. This source module is part of the Panther distribution; it contains a comment block with sample code that shows how to call client_init.

The following example runs the custinfo.rpt report for customer ID 11 and writes the report to the file custinfo.txt.

rwrun custinfo.rpt \(11\) output=custinfo.txt

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