create txt file and display it in internet browser inside vfp form - ole

Question

I'm facing difficulty when creating some kind of a report in vfp. I created a text file, used the ?/?? command to write to the file, then opened it using web browser (OLE Object in vfp form).
Set Printer To 'C:\temp\test.txt'
set printer on
set console off
?? 'test'
and then i called my prg :
PARAMETERS pUrl
lcURL = pUrl
PUBLIC oForm
oForm = CREATEOBJECT('IEForm')
oForm.SHOW()
oForm.oIE.Navigate2(m.lcURL)
READ events
DEFINE CLASS IEForm AS FORM
CAPTION = 'Report Preview'
HEIGHT = 512
WIDTH = 792
AUTOCENTER = .t.
ADD OBJECT oIE AS OLECONTROL WITH ;
HEIGHT=512,WIDTH=792,OLECLASS="Shell.Explorer",ANCHOR=195
PROCEDURE oIE.REFRESH
NODEFAULT
ENDPROC
ENDDEFINE
and used the C:\temp\test.txt as the url.
This works fine. But the problem occurs when I use fcreate to create the text file( not using the already existing text file)
lcfile ='C:\temp\'+SYS(2015)+'.txt'
lchandle=FCREATE(lcfile)
Set Printer To lcfile
sometimes the problem occurs when using ? ( resulting in blank doc), and sometimes the browser can't navigate to the file.
The second problem is : the browser can't navigate to the text file if i set the windowtype property to modal in the IEform. I need to set it modal because I have to delay the rest of the execution until the preview form is closed.
I hope I described the situation clear enough.
Thank You for helping Me :)

Answer 1

I would avoid using SET PRINTER TO, and just use the fcreate(), fwrite() and fclose(), especially if writing a large amount of text. If only writing a small amount of data, I would just build one long string by just appending each component to the prior and add cr/lf instead of "?" for new lines, then write the entire result to a file ONCE via StrToFile(). This way, you don't have to worry if things are actually closed (if you dont clear the set printer off, set printer to, or fclose(). Being an incomplete file, the browser won't navigate since the file handle may be "locked" to read anything.
Option 1 -- building a string
lcCRLF = chr(13)+chr(10)
lcMyOutput = "Some Text to Start with" + lcCRLF ;
+ "Today is: " + dtoc( date() ) + lcCRLF
use SomeTable
scan
lcMyOutput = lcMyOutput + "Some Field: " + SomeCharField;
+ "A numeric field: " + transform( SomeNumberField, "999,999.99" ) + lcCRLF
endscan
lcMyOutput = lcMyOutput + "All Done"
lcOutputFile = "C:\Temp\" + sys(2015) + ".txt"
StrToFile( lcMyOutput, lcOutputFile )
Option 2 -- using fcreate(), fwrite(), fclose()
lnHandle = 0
do while .t.
lcOutputFile = "C:\Temp\" + sys(2015) + ".txt"
lnHandle = fcreate( lcOutputFile )
*/ Only get out if we have a proper handle and thus
*/ we are exclusive to it for duration of our process
if( lnHandle > 0 )
exit
endif
enddo
lcCRLF = chr(13)+chr(10)
fwrite( lnHandle, "Some Text to Start with" + lcCRLF ;
+ "Today is: " + dtoc( date() ) + lcCRLF )
use SomeTable
scan
fwrite( lnHandle, "Some Field: " + SomeCharField;
+ "A numeric field: " + transform( SomeNumberField, "999,999.99" ) + lcCRLF )
endscan
fwrite( lnHandle, "All Done" )
fclose( lnHandle )
For running your "batch" file attempt with the RUN command, build the WHAT you want into a string, then run that... ex:
lcCommandToRun = '"' + sys(5) + sys(2003) + '\Compress.tzs"'
run ( lcCommandToRun )
I don't know if it was failing due to a space being in the path of your sys(2003) result turning the RUN into a multi-parameter interpretation, it would fail. By wrapping the entire text within double-quotes, it will prevent such "path" issue.
ADDITIONAL FEEDBACK
Trying to simulate a preview of a DOT-matrix printer using "?" to a text file is not something I would try. I would just do a standard report and draw it with all the data you are doing manually with the "?". If the user want's to preview the report, or send to a laser printer, let the normal report version handled through Windows for generation, font, and such do it for you. Leave the ancient code going to dot-matrix with whatever specific font rendering code as you have. I would just keep the actual report version CLOSE TO your "?" version.