C# Discussion Boards - CodeProject

Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

itani1-Oct-14 20:03

itani

1-Oct-14 20:03

Hi.

Ive been given a project to change crystal reports into bitmap format.
Please do help!!

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Richard MacCutchan1-Oct-14 21:43

Richard MacCutchan

1-Oct-14 21:43

That makes no sense. Crystal Reports are for creating printed reports. What does that have to do with bitmaps?

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Bernhard Hiller1-Oct-14 23:18

Bernhard Hiller

1-Oct-14 23:18

Hm, rather than printing the reports he wants to send them per email in the form of bitmaps. You can open bitmaps on virtually any system, can't you? That means less harm to trees. Smile | :)

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Richard MacCutchan1-Oct-14 23:19

Richard MacCutchan

1-Oct-14 23:19

Bernhard Hiller wrote:
rather than printing the reports he wants to send them per email in the form of bitmaps.

I don't see that in OP's question.

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Marco Bertschi1-Oct-14 23:57

Marco Bertschi

1-Oct-14 23:57

As Bernhard pointed out, it makes sense in very specific use cases (which the author didn't mention, but they don't matter to answer the question, IMO). Imagine you create the Crystal Report on a System but want to send it somewhere where neither PDFs nor Crystal Reports work (for whatever reason it may be). Still, your argument remains valid, but remember that we can't read the OPs mind and there might in fact be a use case (unimaginable to us) giving his question sense.

The console is a black place

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Richard MacCutchan2-Oct-14 3:50

Richard MacCutchan

2-Oct-14 3:50

Yes, and there might be a million other things in his/her mind. So what? My response was an attempt to get OP to explain in clear terms what they were trying to achieve.

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

jschell3-Oct-14 9:18

jschell

3-Oct-14 9:18

Marco Bertschi wrote:
Imagine you create the Crystal Report on a System but want to send it somewhere where neither PDFs nor Crystal Reports work (for whatever reason it may be

Keep in mind that the system wouldn't be able to support HTML either, because that is another possible output type.

So what sort of system doesn't support html but does support bitmaps? One of course might also wonder if this limited system only supports one type of bitmap.

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Marco Bertschi4-Oct-14 2:17

Marco Bertschi

4-Oct-14 2:17

jschell wrote:
So what sort of system doesn't support html but does support bitmaps?

A system which is hardened down to meet some specific requirement defined by the customer, e.g. the customer doesn't want to have a browser installed?

The console is a black place

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

jschell6-Oct-14 10:01

jschell

6-Oct-14 10:01

Marco Bertschi wrote:
the customer doesn't want to have a browser installed?

Then they must be using a bit map viewer? Which would have its own limits?

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Gerry Schmitz3-Oct-14 4:48

Gerry Schmitz

3-Oct-14 4:48

Exactly. And since there was no mention of: number of pages; page size; etc.... It is rather premature to suggest solutions (to a poorly defined requirement).

I was once asked to send some (electronic) ascii text reports in a "larger font" because the final recipient didn't "see too well". Instead, I suggested they change the font size on their "viewer".

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Pete O'Hanlon1-Oct-14 23:50

Pete O'Hanlon

1-Oct-14 23:50

Probably the easiest way for you to do this would be to install an image printer[^] driver, and print to that rather than the default printer.

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Marco Bertschi1-Oct-14 23:54

Marco Bertschi

1-Oct-14 23:54

Damn. You were faster Laugh | :laugh:

Anyways, if he doesn't want to buy the ZAN license he could still use a free tool. We live in great times with loads of cool free stuff out there.

The console is a black place

Re: Converting Crystal Reports into Bitmap format

Marco Bertschi1-Oct-14 23:52

Marco Bertschi

1-Oct-14 23:52

As far as I'm concerned, Crystal Reports are designed to be printed out to whatever format, the format usually being a PDF or classic paper - I'm with Richard on this. Nowadays, we as Developers are in the lucky situation that a lot of freeware is out in the internet.
My approach would be to get a virtual printer driver which allows you to print a bitmap image ( instead of a physical piece of paper, or a PDF ) and then 'print' your report with this virtual printer. Of course this leads to the question if you don't want to print a PDF instead, if it is for the viewability of the report on different systems. If you want to use the report in a program which can't display Crystal Reports (for whatever reason it may be) stick with the Bitmap printer.

I had a quick look around, and found a few Bitmap virtual printers which I'd try out if I was you:

- ZAN Image printer [^] {Commercial License!}
- Virtual Image Printer Driver[^] {GPLv2}

The console is a black place

Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Jörgen Andersson1-Oct-14 9:00

Jörgen Andersson

1-Oct-14 9:00

Consider this code:

public static T ConfigSetting<T>(string settingName)
{  
    return /* code to retrieve T of the right type depending on a setting in config... */
}

I already know it's not possible, because the caller needs to specify the type, but I want to know if there are other ways to achieve what I want, or if I have overlooked something simple.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello[^]

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Eddy Vluggen1-Oct-14 9:07

Eddy Vluggen

1-Oct-14 9:07

try something like

T result = (T) CodeToRetrieveTofTheRightTypeDependingOnASettingInConfig();
return result;

--edit
ehr.. wait, what?

Yes, see here[^]. May require you create a new overload for each type of constraint.

Bastard Programmer from Hell Suspicious | :suss:

If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Jörgen Andersson1-Oct-14 21:14

Jörgen Andersson

1-Oct-14 21:14

Eddy Vluggen wrote:
a new overload for each type of constraint

That would probably work, even if it partly defeats the purpose with generics. But at least the calling methods would work like intended and receive the right type. Thumbs Up | :thumbsup:

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello[^]

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

PIEBALDconsult1-Oct-14 9:41

PIEBALDconsult

1-Oct-14 9:41

Have you tried: return (T) Convert.ChangeType ( val , typeof(T) ) ?

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dtb69x08(v=vs.110).aspx[^]

Or try my Parsomatic[^]

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Jörgen Andersson1-Oct-14 21:30

Jörgen Andersson

1-Oct-14 21:30

It's not the conversions I have a problem with.
I believe Eddy had the solution, even if it's not as elegant as I had wished for. Smile | :)

But I like the parsomatic.

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello[^]

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Pete O'Hanlon1-Oct-14 21:23

Pete O'Hanlon

1-Oct-14 21:23

This is exactly the problem that the Factory pattern was created to solve. If you want to get really fancy, you could use the Provider pattern.

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

Jörgen Andersson1-Oct-14 21:35

Jörgen Andersson

1-Oct-14 21:35

That's actually what I'm trying to do, but while using generics.
I'm probably overdoing it.
<edit>I certainly had my head screwed on the wrong way yesterday, what I was trying to do is certainly not possible.
Factory it will be.</edit>

Wrong is evil and must be defeated. - Jeff Ello[^]

modified 2-Oct-14 3:44am.

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

jschell3-Oct-14 9:20

jschell

3-Oct-14 9:20

Jörgen Andersson wrote:
without the caller knowing what type to expect

Why bother then? Use a single class or a proxy.

Re: Using generics without the caller knowing what type to expect

aljodav3-Oct-14 18:22

aljodav

3-Oct-14 18:22

Generics cannot be carried to runtime as generics, i.e., the generic type must be specified at compile time. In C#, the only type that can be determined at runtime is

dynamic

Thus:

class A { }
class B:A { }
class C:B { }

public static dynamic ConfigSetting(string s)
{
    switch (s)
    {
        case "A":
            return new A();
        case "C":
            return new C();
        case "double":
            return (double)123;
        case "int":
            return 123;
        default:
            return null as string;
    }
}

Using protected set accessor

robwm11-Oct-14 6:23

robwm1

1-Oct-14 6:23

Hi,

I'm working on a course for 98-361 Software Development Fundamentals. I am given the following example:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;

namespace Lesson02
{
    
    abstract class Polygon
    {
        public double Length {get; protected set;}
        public double Width {get; protected set;}
        abstract public double GetArea();
    }
    
    class Rectangle: Polygon
    {
        public Rectangle(double length, double width)
        {
            Length = length;
            Width = width;
        }

        public override double GetArea()
        {
            return Width * Length;
        }

    }

    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(10, 20);
            Console.WriteLine(
                "Width={0}, Length={1}, Area = {2}",
                rect.Width, rect.Length, rect.GetArea());
        }

    }
}

Here is a paragraph from the text that I am struggling with:

The properties Length and Width in the Polygon class are declared with a protected access modifier for the set accessor. This means that access to the set accessor is available only inside the Polygon class and its derived classes. You can still get the value of the Length and Width properties in the Main method, but you’ll get an error if you attempt to assign a value to these properties.

What I would like to know is to see code that shows how to use the set accessor properly and what does it look like if you try to assign a value from Main. I understand it will fail but I'd like to see it for myself. I am new to C# and unsure of how to introduce the code myself for an accurate demo.

Unfortunately, my instructors apparently don't write code so they are unable to answer my question.

Thank you!
Rob

modified 1-Oct-14 12:32pm.

Re: Using protected set accessor

BillWoodruff1-Oct-14 7:00

BillWoodruff

1-Oct-14 7:00

robwm1 wrote:
code that shows how to use the set accessor properly

What do you mean by: "set properly" ?

The access modifier used on the 'set method in a Property, and the access modifier used on the Property itself determine what type of write access users of instances of the class will have.

... you are using .NET's auto-generated Properties here that create an invisible 'backing field ...

A 'private set restricts write access to the declaring class only: that would be useless here since the declaring class is 'abstract, and meant to be inherited from. You already know what using a 'protected setter does. With no access modifier the 'set inherits the access-modifier-state of its Property declaration.

You could also use 'internal as the access-modifier for the 'set: that would limit write access to only the assembly in which the Property is declared.

robwm1 wrote:
Unfortunately, my instructors apparently don't write code so they are unable to answer my question.

Uh oh !

« I had therefore to remove knowledge, in order to make room for belief » Immanuel Kant

Re: Using protected set accessor

robwm11-Oct-14 7:17

robwm1

1-Oct-14 7:17

Richard Deeming seems to be on track with my question. If you look at his response, that is what I was looking for.

Thanks a lot for taking the time! I appreciate it!

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