Hi Kevin,
A bit more detailed than i needed but it helped my understanding of the
repeater, and yes i did know the difference between a web page and a
printable page.
my original in asp i made by looping through the number of records and on
each building the table, filling in the data and then breaking the page with
css pagebreak.
it would seem the repeater does exactly this for you as you dont need to add
the loop just bind it.
Anyway i wanted to do it without the need to table it all, so keeping my
position absolute because it is so easy and quick in the design view to
position things.
Anyhow i took your advice and put my old asp fomrat into the repeater and it
works a treat.
Thanks for taking the time to reply so detailed, it really helped me
understand the repeater control.
"Kevin Spencer" <kevin@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote in message
news:u0mn91vDGHA.3856@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...[color=blue]
> Hi Daniel,
>[color=green]
>> Kevin - Yes i had looked at repeaters but I have never used them before
>> and was not sure if they can handle absolutely positioned items, if i
>> understand right a repeater needs a template given to it, so i woul dhave
>> to pass in my full structure of my table layout but use the
>> databinder.eval where the vars would go. Is that right? If you can
>> provide some sample code on a very basic repeater that would help.[/color]
>
> A Repeater will repeat whatever HTML is inside it, and whatever HTML is
> rendered by Controls inside it. Looking at the ASP.Net object model, an
> ASP.Net Page is an HttpHandler, which is also a Templated Control, and a
> container for a WebForm, and/or other .Net Server Controls. Note that it
> is also a Control. A Control renders HTML to an HttpHandler's
> Response.OutputStream. So, you have 2 diffferent classes of Controls here.
> One handles an HTTP Request. Both write HTML to an HttpHandler's
> Response.OutputStream. You only need one HTTP Handler to handle a Request.
> There is only one Response, and that belongs to the HttpHandler.
>
> Let's take a look at your initial (ASP) solution to your requirements:
>[color=green][color=darkred]
>>>> 1) looped through the database retrieving all the orderids of open
>>>> orders
>>>> 2) For each it found it then retrieved the sub parts of that order,
>>>> e.g. tin of beans £10, tin of tuna £5 etc
>>>> 3) It then wrote this out building the complete page on the fly in a
>>>> table, putting in the company logo, address, delivery address....made
>>>> the invoice basically.
>>>> 4) Once the first invoice is done I then created a page break (using
>>>> CSS) to force a new page and write the next invoice etc[/color][/color]
>
> So, breaking this down abstractly into a set of requirements, you have a
> requirement to create a single HTML document that prints out as multiple
> printer documents. You're fetching data from a database and populating an
> HTML table with the data.
> According to your OP, you're not building more than one page. You're
> adding HTML blocks to a single web page, and using CSS page breaks to
> break it up when printing, correct?
>
> It is important to note that, while ASP.Net uses a fully-object-oriented
> and highly-structured object model, under the hood, ASP and ASP.Net both
> do the same thing: They handle HTTP Requests, perform server-side
> processing, and render HTML to the Response object's output stream, which
> is a file stream.
>
> I may be wrong here, but I think I detect a bit of confusion between the
> word "page" in the context of a web page rendered by ASP or ASP.Net, and
> "page" in the context of printing. It is important to distinguish between
> them. A single HTML web page can (and often does) print out to many pages
> on a printer. Forgive me if I'm wrong about your understanding regarding
> this.
>
> Okay, so, how does the web page control where the printer pages break?
> Well, there are 2 options: If no CSS page breaks are used, the printer
> will create page breaks at points in the page where the remaining content
> does not fit in the printed page, whatever its dimensions are. The printer
> knows the dimensions of the printable page, and the dimensions of the web
> page, and simply cuts it up wherever it happens to break. If CSS page
> breaks are used, the printer will break and create a new page whenever it
> encounters one of these breaks. Also, if the content between the CSS
> breaks is longer than the printable area, the printer will chop this up
> too. So, if we want full control over the pagination, we need to ensure
> that the HTML content between the page breaks is smaller than the
> printable page size.
>
> Putting it all together, you want to create a single HTML document from
> multiple database records. This single HTML document will repeatedly
> render HTML blocks that are smaller than the printable target area, and
> put CSS Page breaks between them.
>
> So, note that we haven't talked about having to render more than one
> ASP.Net page; only that we need to break it up into repeating blocks, one
> for each database record.
>
> This is exactly what a Repeater Control does. It is like an "embedded"
> template in a Page. The Repeater Template is databound to data in a data
> source, such as a DataSet or DataTable. It will repeat its functional
> output once per item in the data source. This could include style
> information, as well as CSS Page breaks, in addition to the content of
> each invoice. Here are some excellent references regarding Repeaters,
> using Templated Controls, and DataBinding Expressions:
>
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...vercontrol.asp
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...edcontrols.asp
>
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...evaltopic1.asp
>
> As for your absolute positioning (thought I'd forgot?), There is no doubt
> a CSS solution to your positioning problem. However, using absolute
> positioning is not likely to be the solution. It may involve the judicious
> use of HTML tables, with perhaps some relative positioning of the tables
> themselves. The table can be used to keep everything inside it aligned
> relatively within the table, and then use relative positioning to position
> itself relative to the printed page (left, right, top, bottom).
>
> BTW, you could also combine the use of a Repeater with a User Control in
> it, as Peter suggested. The User Control would contain all the content you
> want repeated, and be data-bound to each individual record via data
> binding. This may not be necessary, depending upon your overall
> requirements (extensibility, for example).
>
> --
> HTH,
>
> Kevin Spencer
> Microsoft MVP
> .Net Developer
> You can lead a fish to a bicycle,
> but it takes a very long time,
> and the bicycle has to *want* to change.
>
> "Daniel" <DanielV@vestryonline.com> wrote in message
> news:ehdsRUYDGHA.272@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...[color=green]
>> Hi Kevin/Peter
>>
>> Peter - User controls sounds ideal not sure how to sort the new page
>> issue with it tho, i could look into a way of padding it. So if i
>> understand you right i make a control that draws the invoice and take a
>> var of orderid, then just keep making new instances one after the other
>> for each order id? Sounds like a good solution
>>
>> Kevin - Yes i had looked at repeaters but I have never used them before
>> and was not sure if they can handle absolutely positioned items, if i
>> understand right a repeater needs a template given to it, so i woul dhave
>> to pass in my full structure of my table layout but use the
>> databinder.eval where the vars would go. Is that right? If you can
>> provide some sample code on a very basic repeater that would help.
>>
>> Either way thanks a million for both your responses.
>>
>>
>>
>> "Kevin Spencer" <kevin@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote in message
>> news:OHpCNTXDGHA.2072@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...[color=darkred]
>>> Hi Daniel,
>>>
>>> Sounds like a Repeater Control to me. Have you looked into it?
>>>
>>> The issue here is that an ASP.Net page is designed to render an entire
>>> HTML document. While it can do otherwise, Server Controls are
>>> specifically designed to render HTML *in* HTML documents. So, a Repeater
>>> Control will render the same HTML over an over again, which it sounds
>>> like you want to do.
>>>
>>> --
>>> HTH,
>>>
>>> Kevin Spencer
>>> Microsoft MVP
>>> .Net Developer
>>> You can lead a fish to a bicycle,
>>> but it takes a very long time,
>>> and the bicycle has to *want* to change.
>>>
>>> "Daniel" <DanielV@vestryonline.com> wrote in message
>>> news:eSxi$2WDGHA.688@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
>>>> Hi Kevin,
>>>>
>>>> Thank you for replying. A very long way of saying 'why do you want to
>>>> do that' but i will explain :)
>>>>
>>>> I have posted this elsewhere in detail and had a few replies but its
>>>> difficult to explain so i will try again here.
>>>>
>>>> I have made an invoice in old asp a while ago. It did the following:
>>>>
>>>> 1) looped through the database retrieving all the orderids of open
>>>> orders
>>>> 2) For each it found it then retrieved the sub parts of that order,
>>>> e.g. tin of beans £10, tin of tuna £5 etc
>>>> 3) It then wrote this out building the complete page on the fly in a
>>>> table, putting in the company logo, address, delivery address....made
>>>> the invoice basically.
>>>> 4) Once the first invoice is done I then created a page break (using
>>>> CSS) to force a new page and write the next invoice etc
>>>>
>>>> So once finished i had a load of invoices one after the other in a web
>>>> page, then i press print and out they come ready for dispatch.
>>>>
>>>> With that in mind i now want to update that page to do the same task in
>>>> asp.net. I now have some new stationary, paper with a peel off label
>>>> attached.
>>>>
>>>> So i now need the exact same thing achieved but with the exact position
>>>> of the delivery address to match with the label, in .net using absolute
>>>> positioning and the lovely interface this didnt take long and so i have
>>>> created my .net page to take an order id and create my invoice with
>>>> everything where it should be.
>>>>
>>>> All make sense so far?
>>>>
>>>> My problem is as with my original, i want it to now move onto the
>>>> second invoice, create a new page, and repeat....then to the net and so
>>>> on.
>>>>
>>>> I want to avoid making a page that writes out html tags like my
>>>> original asp page and builds the tables on the fly.
>>>>
>>>> So i have looked at putting it all in a panel and then making a new
>>>> panel on the fly for the second invoice and placing this one on a new
>>>> page using my css break to break them apart on a new page. Problem is i
>>>> dont seem to be able to get the panel position programatically in order
>>>> to do this. (i also dont even know if that is a viable solution)
>>>>
>>>> Another option which i was checking with my original question was to
>>>> run and embed the output of the single page that does work, changing
>>>> the querystring to each order id.....i agree it is very inefficient but
>>>> it would work. Then i could put my css page break between each output
>>>> stream.
>>>>
>>>> I hope that all makes sense, if you can help i would be very grateful
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "Kevin Spencer" <kevin@DIESPAMMERSDIEtakempis.com> wrote in message
>>>> news:exUR1uWDGHA.740@TK2MSFTNGP12.phx.gbl...
>>>>> Hi Daniel,
>>>>>
>>>>> I think you need to back up a bit. You're talking about a solution,
>>>>> but you haven't described the requirement. The solution is always
>>>>> based first upon the requirement (in purely abstract terms), and upon
>>>>> the available resources for satisfying the requirement.
>>>>>
>>>>> The difference is that when you talk about puttting ASPX pages inside
>>>>> one another, you're talking about a solution. The requirement would be
>>>>> more along the lines of "I want to display a variable number of
>>>>> database records on a page," or "I want to display one record on a
>>>>> page, and have a link to the next page." It might include such
>>>>> requirements as "The page body should look the same."
>>>>>
>>>>> An ASPX Page is an HTTP Handler. There are situations in which you
>>>>> might want to embed the output of one ASPX Page inside another, and
>>>>> you can use Server.Transfer to accomplish this, but these situations
>>>>> are relatively rare. Most of the time, Server Controls are used for
>>>>> this sort of thing. Without knowing your requirements, it isn't
>>>>> possible to advise you as to the correct solution.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> HTH,
>>>>>
>>>>> Kevin Spencer
>>>>> Microsoft MVP
>>>>> .Net Developer
>>>>> You can lead a fish to a bicycle,
>>>>> but it takes a very long time,
>>>>> and the bicycle has to *want* to change.
>>>>>
>>>>> "Daniel" <DanielV@vestryonline.com> wrote in message
>>>>> news:uiYIwjWDGHA.3444@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl...
>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Does anyone know if it is possible to put an aspx page inside of
>>>>>> another? OR run an aspx page and capture the output as a string and
>>>>>> then write this out to a page....
>>>>>>
>>>>>> So for example say you have a page that takes an id number as a query
>>>>>> string and displays different things based on that id number.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> If you were able to loop through running the aspx pages with id=100,
>>>>>> id=200, id=300 etc and on each loop capture the output as a string
>>>>>> and then response.write it out on the page this script was being
>>>>>> executed, the end result would be the page shown over and over again
>>>>>> one after the other but as if each had been run with a different id
>>>>>> number?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>>[/color]
>>
>>[/color]
>
>[/color]
