How To Design HTML Browser Reports
This topic discusses using HTML code in the Report Body to design your own reports to
Print via Browser. This requires experience using Collect!'s report writer and familiarity with the
HTML language and creating HTML pages.
By default, Collect! prints reports as HTML pages whenever "Print Via Browser" is enabled through
the Report and Printer Setup, for individual operators through the Operator form, or through
individual reports through the Destination on the Report Options.
Collect! uses predefined HTML printing commands from the HTML section of the Printer Control Codes
list. If the operator has a style sheet, Collect! displays the letter or report within the style sheet.
This default behavior of Collect!'s printing functions may not give you enough control over the
results you want to see in your browser. If you are an experienced web page designer, you may want
to create your own HTML pages. Collect!'s Web Host uses custom HTML pages designed in this way.
Custom HTML Pages
If you want to create your own reports with HTML code, you can turn off the report writer's
interpretation of Print via Browser reports with the @no html command.
No HTML
The command @no html tells Collect! that you will handle all of the HTML coding
in the page that is printed to the browser. With this code, you completely control the page layout
yourself.
SYNTAX: @no html
Usage: This command turns off the automatic internal generation of HTML pages when you enable
Print via Browser.
Place this code at the very beginning of your report or letter, on a line by itself. Then design
your page just as you would build a web page, starting with <html>. Use whatever HTML code
you wish to format the page as you would like it to display.
@no html stops Collect! from converting hard returns to <:br> and gives you
have full control of HTML coding within the report.
Add printable field codes wherever you want to pull information into the report from your database.
For Example:
<strong><center>@de.na</center></strong>
Bold and centers the Debtor name. In other words, your report is sent directly to the browser as
an HTML page rather than going through the internal HTML generator first.
You can design a web page and test it in your browser. Then open it in a simple text editor. Copy
and paste the entire HTML code into a new report body in Collect! Substitute printable field codes
where appropriate to bring in data from the database.
Collect!'s Web Host uses reports designed in this way. Examine the list of reports in the
Web Host Report Definition list for examples and ideas.
No HTML Wrapper
This command stops Collect! from grabbing the system.html when printing to browser.
SYNTAX: @No HTML wrapper
Usage: Collect! ships with a system.html file in the bin\styles folder. On the
Operator form there is a button labeled EDIT STYLE. When you select this, Collect! copies the
system.html and renames it to {op.id}.html where
op.id is whatever operator you are signed on as. You can customize this file to
display whatever you want. Whenever an operator prints any report to Browser, Collect! looks for
an {op id}.html file and if one is not found, then it grabs the system.html file
to wrap the report in before displaying to Browser.
@no html wrapper stops this from happening and thus you are responsible for all
the HTML code in the report, including <html> <head> and <body> commands.
@no html wrapper gives you full control over what is sent to the Browser.
This enables Collect! to talk to many third party applications through web pages.
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