> I am using LV 5.1.1 on a Win 9x platform. I am trying to come up with a
> way to let users save reports easily from Labview.
>
> I have stayed away from the LV report VI's because they do not support
> graphics. What I have come up with is less than optimal in my view. I
> am using a front panel as my report template to show the user the data.
> I am hiding any control or indicator via attribute nodes that should not
> show on the report. Then I am using the Get Panel Image Vi Server
> method to grab the front panel and save it as an image file (why isn't
> gif format available? Is it the Unisys copyright deal?). This allows
> for a user to at least be able to print or save the report to file in a
> nicely formatted, 1" inch margin, etc. way. One problem that this is
> less than optimal is that the portable network graphic (*.png) format is
> not fully supported (without plugins and the like) via common browsers
> or graphic viewers.
>
> Another problem I encountered was when merely trying to just print the
> front panel programmatically from LV, no matter where I placed my
> controls the ones on the left ended up printing right on the left side
> of the page leaving minimal page margin. One thing I did try was to
> place a trasparent decoration box around the report to give LV the
> reference edge I guess it is looking for. However, an unexpected result
> with this was that even though the decoration was transparent on the
> page it printed with a fine border. Not sure what is going on here.
>
> I also tried using the print to RTF format method and that did not allow
> for setting of margins that I could see. It also printed the vi name
> and the words "front panel" in the RTF document. Could not find a way
> to stop it from doing this which was annoying.
>
> Another attempt was made using the print to HTML method, but this would
> mean that the user would have to keep up with the html and image files
> that go to make up the report. This creates a potential problem when
> the user would like to copy the file or email it because they have to
> keep up with all the files both html and image and keep them in their
> proper referenced locations (so that the htm file can find its images
> unless the end user wants to go in and edit tags.)
>
Since you have several approaches going here, there are several suggestions
in different areas. First off, the you don't mention trying to use the
margin settings on a VI, set from the VI Setup dialog Execution page. There
are other settings there for hiding various borders, dates, etc. This may
not turn off the Front Panel setting since the RTF printing is really more
for documentation than for reports.
The GIF format is not supported because, you guessed it, licensing. We have
plans to support loading GIFs, and the two seem to be exclusive unless you
want to license the patent. I can't help much with the HTML stuff, but it
might be a good start, then use Word or another tool to import and translate
to something else like pdf, rtf, doc, etc.
Greg McKaskle