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Getting back the old VB6 export options

PostPosted: Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:31 pm
by DannyC
Hi,
I'm getting more and more users getting frustrated at the wonderful SAP decision to remove the 2 dialogs when exporting reports from the .NET viewer. They used to be there in the VB6 viewer.
Those dialogs are the one to choose the export format, and the destination (application - which would launch the app e.g. Excel, to disk, MAPI etc).

The other dialog is the one which displays the Excel Format Options which displayed after choosing the format Excel data only.

I certainly understand there is nothing you can do about the standard report viewer, but I wonder if there has been any pushing from Jiwa to see what avenues are available to get those back? I also understand SAP is a behemoth corporation and a request from an Aussie developer may just land on deaf ears but it a fairly important option and it would be great to see them back.

Have you also looked at programatically modding the Crystal toolbar with Jiwa's own Export button which could bring those features back? Apparently there is a Crystal SDK which may be able to be utilised?
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-205794

Cheers

Re: Getting back the old VB6 export options

PostPosted: Fri Apr 22, 2016 8:08 pm
by Mike.Sheen
DannyC wrote:Have you also looked at programatically modding the Crystal toolbar with Jiwa's own Export button which could bring those features back? Apparently there is a Crystal SDK which may be able to be utilised?
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-205794

Cheers


Hi Danny,

The Ludek and Don duo on the SAP Crystal forums have already made it clear SAP have no intentions of reinstating that functionality.

From the SAP forums:
As to why the export dialog changed - not a clue. Things change. In my old car, the radio kept playing until I opened the door to exit (even if I took out the key). I liked that. In the new model I bought last month, as soon as you remove the key, the radio goes off. Things change...


When we have some time, we'll look at what we can do to emulate the old behavior - I have about a 80% confidence we can do that via a plugin. I've butted heads with SAP before about some issues and never had a positive result - we have no influence - so I'm not going to waste time and resources on trying to coerce SAP to bring that functionality back.

Mike

PS: your link gives a soft 404:
SAP.PNG
Soft 404

Re: Getting back the old VB6 export options

PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:17 pm
by DannyC
Mike,
I understand about getting through to SAP!
I have found this SAP Kbase article which has a Visual Studio sample which apparently provides an export button and gives a developer the ability to set export options.
It may be of use?
Google the following
1765153 - How to customize .NET Viewer Control Export button to manage custom export options and enable Application as the destination
and
1493592 - How to create customized export options button for Crystal Reports winform viewer in Visual Studio .NET


Else here are the links
http://search.sap.com/ui/notes?id=00017 ... compatible
http://search.sap.com/notes?id=00014935 ... 3933353932

Cheers

Re: Getting back the old VB6 export options  Topic is solved

PostPosted: Thu Apr 28, 2016 3:58 pm
by Mike.Sheen
Sample plugin attached.

When imported, the report preview form will have a new "Export" button on the tool bar. When pressed a dialog will open to prompt the user to specify the export format and if it is to be to disk or to application. When to application is selected, the application associated with the file extension is invoked and loads the exported document data.

ExportToApplication.PNG
Export tp application

Re: Getting back the old VB6 export options

PostPosted: Fri Apr 29, 2016 3:24 pm
by DannyC
That is awesome!

Now if I could give you another challenge, when the format chosen is Excel (any of those 3 Excel choices, but particularly the Data Only one) there used to be a dialog popup to adjust the format options. The dialog is slightly different if you chose the XLS option or the Data Only XLS option.
Can you get that back?

And of very lesser importance was a destination called MAPI. It used to bring up an email dialog with empty fields for To, From, Subject, Message etc. That would be a nice addition too.

Excellent progress Mike.

Cheers

Danny

Re: Getting back the old VB6 export options

PostPosted: Sat Apr 30, 2016 12:19 am
by Mike.Sheen
DannyC wrote:Now if I could give you another challenge, when the format chosen is Excel (any of those 3 Excel choices, but particularly the Data Only one) there used to be a dialog popup to adjust the format options. The dialog is slightly different if you chose the XLS option or the Data Only XLS option.
Can you get that back?

And of very lesser importance was a destination called MAPI. It used to bring up an email dialog with empty fields for To, From, Subject, Message etc. That would be a nice addition too.


I think you're pushing the envelope of what this forum is intended for.