report discussion

[JertoZ]

Hey guys

I need inspiration this morning.

I have built a big project in LabVIEW with several applications for different users. They all work on their project with one single number that follows the object thru the whole process in our company.

All the data collected is stored into a couple of mysql databases and tables depending of the kind of work.

Anyway, my  question is more about report generation.

This is where I am right now...

We used to produce report with Word and LabVIEW but I'm not really satisfied with this avenue since it needs recode each time we want to add/delete a field in the report.

I have seen that with Word you can use bookmarks.
My first idea was to scan all bookmarks in a page then query my database in order to fill all the fields required.
I'm a bit disappointed with bookmarks in Word since they only allow base characters.
I also really hate the procedure to insert bookmarks in Word, wich is for my experience really painfull.
I have tried to find another way to insert bookmarks in word and I found that it is feseable with VSTO (visual studio tools for office in visual studio)
This way is a bit better than the method implemented in word but I'm still stuck with thoses base characters for bookmark's names.

While navigating in visual studio, trying to find VSTO, my eye saw Cristal Report.
I don't know if any of you is using this tool wich seem to be great...
I haven't managed to realise complex mysql queries in it...

Now I'm looking at Adobe Acrobat. I know that you can insert bookmarks in Acrobat, but I haven't found a good example on the utilisation of the API.
I would like to call the API thru activex, but it is not really clear how to do it. I mean open a document, find all bookmarks and fill the form.

So this is where I am this morning, hope I haven't knock you down with all my taughts.

So if any of you experienced the same problem or if you have an idea, please feel free to write it down

Thanks

Julien

[Jason_Whaylen]

Hi Julien,

Thank you for contacting National Instruments.  From the information you have provided here, it looks like you have tried numerous methods in order to most easily generate your desired reports.  Due to the explanation that you provided about using LabVIEW with Word to produce the reports I am still uncertain, but are you using the LabVIEW Report Generation Toolkit?  This should make this type of process easier to do and cleaner when using LabVIEW for this type of application.

Jason W.

[JertoZ]

Hi Jason

Yes, I'm using the report generation toolbox. In fact, I'm not having trouble with LabVIEW. It's more with the insertion of bookmarks in Word that I have trouble. Since I have over a thousand bookmarks to insert in my reports I find that the ways offered in both Word and VSTO are pretty fastidious. I was seeking to easier ways to get the job done. Looks like I'll have to walk the hard path...


Thanks

Julien