How to add html tables in progress 4gl? - openedge

Question

I created a temp table in Progress4gl and I need to email the data from temp table using html syntax. Which means I need to link all the fields in temp table to html table and email.
The fields in temp table are:
Part_ID, CustomerPartID, customer
Please help me with this.

Answer 1

Well you could just output the HTML. Something like this:
define temp-table tt_test
field f1 as integer
field f2 as character
field f3 as date
.
create tt_test.
assign
f1 = 1
f2 = "abc"
f3 = today
.
create tt_test.
assign
f1 = 2
f2 = "xyz"
f3 = today + 30
.
output to value( "mytable.html" ).
put unformatted "<table>" skip.
for each tt_test:
put unformatted substitute( " <tr><td>&1</td><td>&2</td><td>&3</td></tr>", f1, f2, f3 ) skip.
end.
put unformatted "</table>" skip.
output close.

Answer 2

For creating an html table you can (ab)use the power of datasets combined with serialize-name:
/* Write some awesome ABL code here, or load an existing snippet! */
define temp-table ttparts serialize-name "tr"
field part_id as char serialize-name "td"
field customerPartID as char serialize-name "td"
field customer as char serialize-name "td"
.
define dataset ds serialize-name "table" for ttparts .
define buffer bupart for ttparts.
create bupart.
assign
bupart.part_id = "one"
bupart.customer = "A"
.
create bupart.
assign
bupart.part_id = "two"
bupart.customer = "B"
.
def var lcc as longchar no-undo.
dataset ds:write-xml( "longchar", lcc, true ).
message string( lcc ).
https://abldojo.services.progress.com:443/#/?shareId=5d1618c14b1a0f40c34b8bc8
An updated version which accepts any temp-table handle and will return a longchar containing the HTML table:
function createHtmlTable returns longchar (
i_ht as handle
):
def var lcc as longchar.
def var hds as handle.
def var hb as handle.
def var ic as int.
create dataset hds.
hds:serialize-name = "table". // not needed if stripped below
create buffer hb for table i_ht.
hb:serialize-name = "tr".
hds:add-buffer( hb ).
do ic = 1 to hb:num-fields:
hb:buffer-field( ic ):serialize-name = "td".
end.
hds:write-xml( "longchar", lcc, true ).
// remove xml declaration
lcc = substring( lcc, index( lcc, "<", 2 ) ).
entry( 1, lcc, ">" ) = "<table". // see comment above
return lcc.
finally:
delete object hds.
end finally.
end function.
define temp-table ttparts
field part_id as char
field customerPartID as char
field customer as char
.
define buffer bupart for ttparts.
create bupart.
assign
bupart.part_id = "one"
bupart.customer = "A"
.
create bupart.
assign
bupart.part_id = "two"
bupart.customer = "B"
.
message string( createHtmlTable( temp-table ttparts:handle ) ).
https://abldojo.services.progress.com/#/?shareId=5d1760d84b1a0f40c34b8bcd

Answer 3

There is no built-in method to do this. One way that I could think of is converting the temp table to json and then json to HTML. I believe there are several utilities to convert json to html table. You can convert temp table to json in ABL using WRITE-JSON method.
An example from Progress documentation:
DEFINE VARIABLE cTargetType AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE cFile AS CHARACTER NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE lFormatted AS LOGICAL NO-UNDO.
DEFINE VARIABLE lRetOK AS LOGICAL NO-UNDO.
DEFINE TEMP-TABLE ttCust NO-UNDO LIKE Customer.
/* Code to populate the temp-table */
ASSIGN
cTargetType = "file"
cFile = "ttCust.json"
lFormatted = TRUE.
lRetOK = TEMP-TABLE ttCust:WRITE-JSON(cTargetType, cFile, lFormatted).