[Solved] Export to pdf - column alignment

[Clive Hoggar]

Hi

I have looked at several threads on this but have not yet found a solution that works.
I must be missing something.

Using this code behind to set the column width works OK so I was trying to add the
column alignment in the same sub, but the alignment always defaults to left for items and centre for headers.
What am I missing?

Protected Sub ButtonGenPdf_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles ButtonGenPdf.Click         RadGridGenerateList.MasterTableView.Font.Name = "Arial"         RadGridGenerateList.ExportSettings.ExportOnlyData = False         RadGridGenerateList.ExportSettings.OpenInNewWindow = True         RadGridGenerateList.ExportSettings.IgnorePaging = True         RadGridGenerateList.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageHeight = Unit.Parse("210mm")         RadGridGenerateList.ExportSettings.Pdf.PageWidth = Unit.Parse("296mm")         RadGridGenerateList.Visible = True         RadGridGenerateList.Rebind()         For Each item As GridPagerItem In RadGridGenerateList.MasterTableView.GetItems(GridItemType.Pager)             item.PagerContentCell.Controls.Clear()         Next         DefineColumnWidths()         RadGridGenerateList.MasterTableView.ExportToPdf()     End Sub Protected Sub DefineColumnWidths()

For Each col As GridColumn In RadGridGenerateList.MasterTableView.RenderColumns

Select Case col.UniqueName

Case "Region"

col.HeaderStyle.Width = Unit.Pixel(100)

col.HeaderStyle.HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Left

Exit Select

Case "Name"

col.HeaderStyle.Width = Unit.Pixel(200)

col.HeaderStyle.HorizontalAlign = HorizontalAlign.Left

Exit Select

etc etc

Thanks a lot for suggestions!

Clive

[Daniel]

Hello Clive,

For your convenience I created a sample project that demonstrate how to align the text in the grid items. Please notice that when the item type is GridHeaderItem I set the alignment to every cell (TH element) and not to the whole row.

Kind regards,
Daniel
the Telerik team

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[Clive Hoggar]

Hi Daniel

Thanks for this.   I have been trying to adapt it to the case I need, which is that the 

column alignment really needs to be case by case.  

In general text columns should be left-aligned and numbers should be right-aligned.

I have tried a lot of different ways to adapt this sub but could not get to an error-free result.

Please advise!

 Protected Sub FormatItem(ByRef item As GridItem)

        Select Case item.GetType().Name
            Case "GridHeaderItem"
                For Each cell As TableCell In item.Cells
                    cell.Style("text-align") = "left"
                Next
                Exit Select
            Case "GridDataItem"
                item.Style("text-align") = "right"
                Exit Select
        End Select
    End Sub

[Daniel]

Hello Clive,

You can use TryParse to distinguish whether the cell contains a value:

Protected Sub FormatItem(ByRef item As GridItem)
    Select Case item.GetType().Name
        Case "GridHeaderItem"
            For Each cell As TableCell In item.Cells
                cell.Style("text-align") = "center"
            Next
            Exit Select

        Case "GridDataItem"
            For Each cell As TableCell In item.Cells
                Dim value As Double
                If Double.TryParse(cell.Text, value) Then
                    cell.Style("text-align") = "right"
                End If
            Next
    End Select
End Sub

In this case you should use ItemDataBound instead of ItemCreated

Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.Web.UI.GridItemEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ItemDataBound
    If IsExport Then
        FormatItem(e.Item)
    End If
End Sub

Regards
Daniel
the Telerik team

Instantly find answers to your questions on the new Telerik Support Portal.
Watch a video on how to optimize your support resource searches and check out more tips on the blogs.

[Clive Hoggar]

Hi Daniel

Thanks.  I have tried the code now, but I am getting an intellisense and a runtime error

"Name 'IsExport' not declared".  What am I missing?

Thanks

Clive

[Princy]

Hi Clive,

You have to actually globally declare the IsExport variable somewhere in the code behind page. Here's how you have to be declaring it:
vb:

Public IsPdfExport As Boolean = False
Protected Sub RadGrid1_ItemCommand(ByVal source As Object, ByVal e As Telerik.Web.UI.GridCommandEventArgs) Handles RadGrid1.ItemCommand
   If e.CommandName = RadGrid.ExportToPdfCommandName Then
     IsPdfExport = True
     RadGrid1.ExportSettings.IgnorePaging = True
   End If
End Sub

Thanks
Princy.

[Clive Hoggar]

Hi Princy

Thanks this does work as specified .. but the pdf layout looks a mess, because in fact some of the fields that actually contain prices are defined as text fields (for legacy reasons), so the wrong treatment gets applied.

Bottom line, I do need to specify the headings and the item alignment on a column-by-column basis.

How can I do that?

Thanks a lot

Clive

[Daniel]

Hello Clive,

1) You can wrap the cell contents in   tags and it won't pass the TryParse check. The easiest way is to use DataFormatString property.

2) Please try the following snippet:

Protected Sub FormatItem(ByRef item As GridItem)
    Select Case item.GetType().Name
        Case "GridHeaderItem"
            For Each column As GridColumn In RadGrid1.Columns
                Dim colName As String = column.UniqueName
                Dim headerItem As GridHeaderItem = CType(item, GridHeaderItem)
                Select Case colName
                    Case "ID"
                        headerItem(colName).Style("text-align") = "center"
                        Exit Select
                    Case "Name"
                        headerItem(colName).Style("text-align") = "right"
                End Select
            Next
            Exit Select
            ....

Regards,
Daniel
the Telerik team

Instantly find answers to your questions on the new Telerik Support Portal.
Watch a video on how to optimize your support resource searches and check out more tips on the blogs.

[Clive Hoggar]

Thanks Daniel.

I couldn't get the items to be consistently recognized as number format or not so I used the one-by-one approach as for the header items:

Case "GridDataItem"

For Each column As GridColumn In RadGridGenerateList.Columns

Dim colName As String = column.UniqueName

Dim ItemCell As GridDataItem = CType(item, GridDataItem)

Select Case colName

Case "PricePerBottle"

ItemCell(colName).Style("text-align") = "right"

Exit Select

Case "PricePerBottleEuro"

ItemCell(colName).Style("text-align") = "right"

Exit Select  etc etc

regards

Clive