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Forms Designer
The Forms Designer is used to create and amend multi-page business form layouts such
as invoices, statements, purchase orders, delivery dockets, job tickets and the like.
It runs under Windows or Linux (X Windows) and provides a graphical screen
where elements of a business form can be manipulated. Separate areas are
provided for the forms header and footer and different headers and footers
can be created for continuation pages.
The Forms Designer outputs platform-independent PDFmail scripts.
PDFmail outputs the reports as PDF
files emailed, archived etc, or output directly to PCL-compatible laser printers.
The scripts created by the Forms Designer can be copied to wherever
PDFmail is to be run. This allows forms to be designed under Windows and run under Linux or Unix;
or vice versa. This also means that even if the application platform is changed the
business forms can carry on being used.
Here is a screenshot.
The following PDF files were created using the Forms Designer and
serve to explain its operation in more detail.
Shows creation and modification of PDFmail scripts using the Forms Designer.
Format of the interface file created by the application and passed
both to the Forms Designer for design information, and to the PDFmail script to
produce the actual report
Running PDFmail using a script created using the Forms Designer
Note: although the Forms Designer is mainly used for business forms
it can also be used to great effect with simple business reports
such as lists of stocks, or employees, sales reps, customers etc.
Why does the Forms Designer produce scripts?
One reason is that the script itself can then
be modified directly. There are many things that a business forms program might
like to do that is not currently directly supported by the Forms Designer.
Two practical examples of this are where a client wanted a diagonal message to appear
across the form, and another where a client wanted an extra internal copy of the
form to be produced. These extra facilities can be catered for by direct editing of the script.
The scripts are written in a cross-platform language called Python.
This is a free non-proprietary language; tutorials on the language are available
on the internet, and books are available in technical bookshops.
The scripts the Forms Designer creates are written in very simple Python in order
to make it easier to understand.
You do not need to know any Python to produce the standard forms - only if you
want to do more advanced programming.
How do the scripts handle multiple pages?
The script calculates the page numbering first, then goes back and prints
the form. It puts as many details lines as it can on a page allowing for
the fact that fields may be in different font sizes, and allowing for
empty fields. If you look at the example
you will notice that the detail lines vary. The script will start a new page
only where it knows that it cannot fit an entire detail line in the space
before the footer appears.
Does the script do any calculations?
No. The scripts produced by the Forms Designer assume that totals etc have been
calculated in the application. However, the script may be amended if any calculations
are required.
What else could I do in my script?
Graphs. eg for sales reports. or to show usage figures.
Extra image files. For example, to show an image of a product on an invoice.
Vary the format according to the data eg to suppress decimal places on large amounts,
or to show extra information required by certain suppliers or clients, etc.
Why doesn't the interface file use XML?
The file format is similar to XML but simpler. Maybe in a future version full XML will be supported.
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