The COBOL Printing page. The Rpv concept.

Rpv works absolutely different than other reporting tools. However, we can assure that the Rpv concept is the simplest one that you will find.

Rpv is a software able to "understand" simple plain text files, which you can generate using your language. Rpv lets you to format them using the graphical capabilities of Windows.

These files that you (your program) will generate, will follow a very easy syntax. Once you or your program has finished the file, just run Rpv from your program to preview or print the file.

Once you learn to use Rpv for developing your reports (we estimate to learn Rpv in no more than 2 hours), you will not need to migrate your reporting tool even when you migrate your programming language: a Rpv report generated for COBOL, is the same report for another language.

Working with Rpv, you don´t need to know an additional programming language to extract your data from your databases. You manage the data with your language in the same way that you do it to prepare traditional reports.

Example:

Currently, your program generates a report like this one to send to printer.

   ===============================================================
    Employees report                                       Page: 1
   ===============================================================
    NAME                     PHONE
   ===============================================================

    JUAN CARLOS AVILA        205-4654124
    JOHN MC ALLISTER         609-8541234
    HUGH BARNEY              212-2143214
    ROBERT JOHNSON           609-1245463
    OSWALD VARTA             212-3451248
    EDWARD DUNCAN            609-6421472

   ===============================================================
    Employees report                                       Page: 2
   ===============================================================
    NAME                     PHONE
   ===============================================================

    PAUL CASCELLA            609-4452121
    GEORGE DAVIDSON          609-4534561
    RICHARD ADLER            212-8765542
    JOHN SWARTZ              609-9754357

We omitted ESC commands that you may be using. However, observe that the report has two pages. To do so, lines have to be counted to send the HEADER section when an specific number of lines are counted plus the needed command to start a new page.

Rpv needs minor changes. The following is the same report prepared following Rpv syntax.

REPORT_TITLE=Employees report
$1=400
$2=4000
[HEADER]
{\N;\N;F=ARIAL;S=18}
{$1} Employees report {S=8;5000} Page: {pag} {\n;\n;\n}
{LINE=400,6000}
{$1} NAME {$2} PHONE {\N}
{LINE=400,6000}
{\N}
[DATA]
{$1} JUAN CARLOS AVILA   {$2} 205-4654124 {\N}
{$1} JOHN MC ALLISTER    {$2} 609-8541234 {\N}
{$1} HUGH BARNEY         {$2} 212-2143214 {\N}
{$1} ROBERT JOHNSON      {$2} 609-1245463 {\N}
{$1} OSWALD VARTA        {$2} 212-3451248 {\N}
{$1} EDWARD DUNCAN       {$2} 609-6421472 {\N}
{$1} PAUL CASCELLA       {$2} 609-4452121 {\N}
{$1} GEORGE DAVIDSON     {$2} 609-4534561 {\N}
{$1} RICHARD ADLER       {$2} 212-8765542 {\N}
{$1} JOHN SWARTZ         {$2} 609-9754357 {\N}

Observe that the file contains commands between brackets ("{" and "}") and contains three defined sections:

First: configuration (three first lines)

These lines identify the report and it is used to declare some values such as columns ($1 and $2).
You can see in HEADER and DATA sections that $1 and $2 are used to specify a position into the report.
$1 and $2 are expressed in TWIPS. Each centimeter contains 567 twips and each inch contains 1440. This gives you more flexibility to place your text exactly where you want.

Second: [HEADER]

Header section is all the information to be repeated in all the pages. This means that when you start a new page, the HEADER section will be displayed.

Third: [DATA]

DATA section is the real data in your report. Observe that we do not take care about counting lines or because all the lines are there. Rpv will take care to cut the pages and to increase the value of {pag} automatically.

In case you are new to Rpv, we strongly recommend you to open this report with the viewer to edit it, modify it and see the effects you can produce.

To do so, just copy the code and paste it into a notepad, and after that name it "test.rpv" or the name that you want dot RPV.
If you do not have Rpv, you can download it by clicking here (new window)