RE: 4GL reports

David We must stop meeting like this ! We position users' reports on a networked drive which they then read into a product called Monarch (www.datawatch.com). This has pretty good tools to enable the setting up of "models" defining subsets of data, mainly using character positioning logic, they require, It also has the ability to output to Excel etc, and has some rudimentary selection tools. I note that you don't post your platform, so I am assuming some brand of UNIX ? That begin the case, you naturally have all the usual sed,ed,grep,egrep tools that could also be used to massage the report. Hope this is of use. Regards -----Original Message----- From: MALES, David [mailto:David.MALES@sema.co.uk] Sent: 20 September 2000 08:43 To: Informix-List (E-mail) Subject: 4GL reports Hi, I'm the curator of about 30 4GL reports whose been asked to identify the possibilities of plugging the report data into an excel worksheet and html format. Most of the reports implement quite complex business logic to derive values etc, some of which are calculated or retrieved within the REPORT function itself. Liberal use is also made of temporary tables in intermediate steps to calculate various data. General background: - Each report generates a file before being printed. - printer codes are sent to the report for formatting when printed. - some of the reports can be upto 10MB file size My aim is to do minimal work on the 4GL code itself and was wondering about displaying the file (eg in html) and then "scraping" off the values from the screen. I would appreciate your help. Thanks Dave Males MSc Senior Developer SEMA Group Livingston Tel: 01506 475237 Fax 01506 475333 ___________________________________________________________________________ This email is confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual to whom it is addressed. Any views or opinions presented are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Sema Group. If you are not the intended recipient, be advised that you have received this email in error and that any use, dissemination, forwarding, printing, or copying of this email is strictly prohibited. If you have received this email in error please notify the Sema Group Helpdesk by telephone on +44 (0) 121 627 5600. ___________________________________________________________________________