I have an old Active Report I'm trying to recreate in Telerik reporting. There are a number of horizontal and vertical lines on the old report that I have had little success in making look right in Telerik reports. The main problem is the difference between the designer view and the preview window. I understand why the html preview is rendered differently... since html formatting is tricky, being a web designer myself I'm perplexed with how well that works. But I'm also thinking that it should be no problem to allow overlapping lines and textboxes if your goal is to only export to PDF or print (which is the case here). I'm looking at a report here where I have a line shape overlapping another perpendicular line by about 2 pixels, yet on the preview it's almost 10 pixels away from it. I've messed with this enough to decide I can't outsmart it and predict where the line will actually be rendered without clicking on the preview button...
Is there any way to make this more consistent? Is this just me having problems?
Thanks
Is there any way to make this more consistent? Is this just me having problems?
Thanks
7 Answers, 1 is accepted
0
Hello Greg,
Currently if you are trying to create a table-like layout, we recommend you to use the borders of the textboxes (more info here) instead of shape items which have not been designed for such purposes. However if you do want to use shapes, you can zoom in the designer and turn off snapping to gridlines to match perpendicular lines precisely.
The PDF rendering extension is based on the Image rendering extension, with some differences, but as the image rendering - it allows for items to be overlapped. For information common to the Image rendering extension and the PDF rendering extension, see Design Considerations for Image Rendering
Our devs are currently working on crosstab/table item for the Q1 2009 release and once ready, table like layout would be available out of the box.
Sorry for the temporary inconvenience.
Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
Currently if you are trying to create a table-like layout, we recommend you to use the borders of the textboxes (more info here) instead of shape items which have not been designed for such purposes. However if you do want to use shapes, you can zoom in the designer and turn off snapping to gridlines to match perpendicular lines precisely.
The PDF rendering extension is based on the Image rendering extension, with some differences, but as the image rendering - it allows for items to be overlapped. For information common to the Image rendering extension and the PDF rendering extension, see Design Considerations for Image Rendering
Our devs are currently working on crosstab/table item for the Q1 2009 release and once ready, table like layout would be available out of the box.
Sorry for the temporary inconvenience.
Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
0
Greg
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answered on 08 Dec 2008, 03:27 PM
Thanks for your reply,
I had tried zooming in as you suggested, in the designer and preview modes. Zooming in makes the issue even more apparent. The problem still remains that in the designer mode it shows the line in one place, while in the preview mode the line is almost 10 pixels away from where it was in the designer. I'm not even sure if its an issue with overlapping or not, I just know the position of the shapes is not consistent and that makes it very hard to make reports that are pixel perfect.
I will be glad to use the tabular layout for some of my future reports, however, the report I'm working on here is not tabular, so I must use the shape tool.
I had tried zooming in as you suggested, in the designer and preview modes. Zooming in makes the issue even more apparent. The problem still remains that in the designer mode it shows the line in one place, while in the preview mode the line is almost 10 pixels away from where it was in the designer. I'm not even sure if its an issue with overlapping or not, I just know the position of the shapes is not consistent and that makes it very hard to make reports that are pixel perfect.
I will be glad to use the tabular layout for some of my future reports, however, the report I'm working on here is not tabular, so I must use the shape tool.
0
Hi Greg,
The Reporting designer is not a CAD kind of designer and we have never aimed at such accuracy. If you want to have everything precisely lined up, please set the location of the items manually through the property grid or programmatically in code behind, instead of using a mouse.
Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
The Reporting designer is not a CAD kind of designer and we have never aimed at such accuracy. If you want to have everything precisely lined up, please set the location of the items manually through the property grid or programmatically in code behind, instead of using a mouse.
Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
0
Greg
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answered on 08 Dec 2008, 04:51 PM
So for very precise reports I should be creating it programatically rather than in the designer? If that is the case I will be content and leave you with the feature request for a more precise designer :) I actually have been using the arrow keys to move items, and sometimes typing in dimensions manually in the designers property window to get exactly what I want rather than the mouse, which does help some, tho I still have to flip to preview constantly to see how it will really render... and it'd be great for that to be more accurate.
Thanks
Thanks
0
Hi Greg,
The "drawing" in the designer and in the image preview is different, so for "pixel perfect" reports as you have put it, rounding of values makes the smallest differences. Using the same units for Size and Location should help in producing the same result in both "views".
Sincerely yours,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
The "drawing" in the designer and in the image preview is different, so for "pixel perfect" reports as you have put it, rounding of values makes the smallest differences. Using the same units for Size and Location should help in producing the same result in both "views".
Sincerely yours,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
0
Greg
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answered on 08 Dec 2008, 07:28 PM
OK, I thought I was done with this thread... but I just figured out the problem on my own, and I'm posting a screen shot so everyone can see and learn from my travails.
Here's the designer mode view. Notice the vertical line is overshooting the bottom line:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35305572@N00/3093522962/
Here's the preview. Notice the beautiful alignment:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35305572@N00/3092681551/
Why the difference? It's because of the "Claim Report" text box at the top. It looks like since I have its vertical height resized smaller than it should be, it's causing the vertical line (which it doesn't even touch) to move. If I cut that text box out, suddenly the shapes all show up correctly aligned, the same in both design and preview. This may or may not be a bug, but maybe this gives you guys more info to look into.
Here's the designer mode view. Notice the vertical line is overshooting the bottom line:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35305572@N00/3093522962/
Here's the preview. Notice the beautiful alignment:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35305572@N00/3092681551/
Why the difference? It's because of the "Claim Report" text box at the top. It looks like since I have its vertical height resized smaller than it should be, it's causing the vertical line (which it doesn't even touch) to move. If I cut that text box out, suddenly the shapes all show up correctly aligned, the same in both design and preview. This may or may not be a bug, but maybe this gives you guys more info to look into.
0
Hi Greg,
It would be best if you send us your report for local investigation. Open official support ticket and attach it there - once we review it we would be able to provide you with more info.
Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.
It would be best if you send us your report for local investigation. Open official support ticket and attach it there - once we review it we would be able to provide you with more info.
Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team
Check out Telerik Trainer, the state of the art learning tool for Telerik products.