Re: Page breaks in HTML

[Cherno Jagne <ITSCJ@QE2-HSC.NS.CA>]

The PRINTER:EH (Enhanced HTML) command line flag
uses CSS to ensure page-breaks when the HTML output
is printed, at least from MSIE40 and with SQR432. This
format however seems to do away with the navigation
buttons, in favor of empty tables as vertical spacers within
the viewed HTML doc. Give it a shot, Ragu, if your SQR
version supports it--it may be just what you're looking for.

Cherno.


>>> Anthony J Vesey <a.vesey@AUCKLAND.AC.NZ> 07/12 10:24 PM >>>
Ragu,

Page breaks are possible in HTML, although not necessarily 'on-screen'
breaks. HTML is a structural markup language, defining elements (i.e
this is
a paragraph, a title etc). It is not designed for layout (i.e. page
break
here). The WWW consortium who define HTML and like standards have
developed
the CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) stanard for this very purpose. It
allows
you to specify how elements on a page (of HTML) should be laid out, what
colour etc. CSS2 is the latest recommendation and includes the ability
to
target output for different media. Therefore is is possible to produce
an
HTML file that looks like one page onscreen and when printed has the
authors
defined page breaks.

To use these elements with SQR would require more effort however. And
you
would need to make sure that the customers browsers supported the
standard.
Sadly many current generation browsers do not support the standard
properly,
if only partially, and many are buggy to boot. And purists will argue
that
you can't force people to use a particular browser just to get page
breaks.

In summary , you might be able to implement page breaks but the results
will
be browser dependent anyway.

The relevant standards can be found on the W3C page http://www.w3c.org

http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/ for Cascading Style Sheets

and

http://www.w3.org/MarkUp/ for HTML


Hope this helps


Anthony Vesey

-----Original Message-----
From: Discussion of SQR, Brio Technology's database reporting language
[mailto:SQR-USERS@list.iex.net]On Behalf Of Ragu Sadasivam
Sent: Thursday, 13 July 2000 08:28
To: SQR-USERS@list.iex.net
Subject: Re: Page breaks in HTML


The reason I am even concerned about page breaks is b'cos, the report
originally was designed that way per customer's request.  Right now, it
can
be viewed with the SQR Viewer and printed. [It is a lengthy document -
1800
pages].  The reason we want it on the web is for distribution and also
the
licensing issues with SQR Viewer.  Only y'day I found out about the page
breaks not being possible in HTML.  If people are looking to put their
reports out in the web, for the ease of distribution and viewing [since
IE
or Netscape is on everyone's desktop], should it not be able to
recognize
page breaks.  What is the use of publishing these reports online and go
through the trouble of trying to fit them logically, if HTML is going to
do
its own thing?

Any thoughts on the FONT BASESIZE [mentioned below]- what triggers this?

Appreciate your help...
>From: "Dombrowski, Dave F" <David_Dombrowski@LORD.COM>
>Reply-To: sqr-users@list.iex.net
>To: SQR-USERS@list.iex.net
>Subject: Re: Page breaks in HTML
>Date: Wed, 12 Jul 2000 15:11:42 -0400
>
>I could be wrong, but I've never heard of page breaks in HTML. Don't
>confuse
>separate web pages from a single web page with page breaking. Using SQR
>printer options will yield separate web pages. A three page 'document'
is
>actually three separate web pages (HTML files). A browser has no
>capabilities to interpret printer commands like page breaks, carriage
>returns or tabbing. How could it? Even if you 'space out' things so
that a
>page 'appears' to break where intended, what would happen when the user
>alters the text size through the browser?
>
>I'm not talking about .PDF or .DOC or .RPT files, just .HTM/.HTML
files.
>The
>advantage you gain with straight HTML is that you are truly browser
>independent - no third party server software or browser plugins needed
-
>and
>that you can do other things like edit data and more easily pull data
>dynamically. The advantage you gain from a .PDF or other file is full
>control over formatting.
>
>In the end, it's a matter of knowing who your clients are and what
software
>they have. For 'pure' internet apps, you usually end up using
server-side
>processing with as little JavaScript as possible and send out straight
HTML
>to the client. For reporting purposes, use HTML tables to format things
as
>best as possible. If you get concerned with page breks, split the
output
>into separate web pages and provide navigation to move from one to
another.
>Finally, if you absolutely must use something like .PDF files, always
>always
>always provide a prominent link for users to download the software
needed
>to
>open it.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Ragu Sadasivam [mailto:sathyamangalam@HOTMAIL.COM]
>Sent: Wednesday, July 12, 2000 1:40 PM
>To: SQR-USERS@list.iex.net
>Subject: Re: Page breaks in HTML
>
>
>I tried this and ended with an error for the PDF file.  I'll try again.
>
>Does anyone know what triggers the FONT BASESIZE in the HTML document.
My
>sqr generates multiple reports and on every report the first page the
>headings and the columns are off.  It is introducing a FONT BASESIZE 4
>eventhough I have reduced it to 2.  But then there is FONT size 2 and
the
>output is ok.
>
>Any thoughts on this one....
>
>
> >From: Enrique Muņoz <enrique_munoz@KAIZEN.COM.MX>
> >Reply-To: sqr-users@list.iex.net
> >To: SQR-USERS@list.iex.net
> >Subject: Re: Page breaks in HTML
> >Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2000 17:06:54 +0100
> >
> >You can do this:
> >
> >-printer:ep
> >
> >Now, This flag you cag get html file and pdf file... And the breaks
> >
> >Ragu Sadasivam wrote:
> >
> > > Hi Everyone,
> > >
> > > I have an sqr that generates a report in HTML format using the
> >-PRINTER:HT
> > > feature.
> > >
> > > * Even though there are page breaks in the output, when I print
from
> >within
> > > IE it ignores the breaks.  In the sense, if one page has 10 lines
and
>so
> > > does the next page, it prints both on one page with the break.
How do
>I
> >get
> > > IE to recognize the breaks?
> > >
> > > Appreciate your help.
> > >
> > > Thanks.
> > >
> > > LKR
> > >
> > >
>________________________________________________________________________
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