Best way to generate HTML report from UIA

[Nancy Palmquist]

Boaz Bezborodko wrote:
> I want to generate some A/R information reports from the UIA screen of a
> customer's record.  I would like to be able to generate it as an HTML
> document.  But the question is what is the fastest method.
> 
> I ma operating in a windows environment with a Novell file server for
> the data.  I figure there are two ways to do this.  The first is use a
> SYSTEM call using the START command to open a new window to run a report
> while passing the customers number.  The other is to do the lookups and
> generate the file with OPENFILE and WRITELN statements.
> 
> Executing a report in a separate screen will involve a little bit of a
> delay to both open the screen and start RREPORT.  Does this mean that
> the OPENFILE option would be quicker?


Boaz,

I am a bit behind on responding to the list so I apologize for those 
that have already moved on past this thread.

If you generate a report from UIA using lookups, it will be faster.

Running a report from SYSTEM, had the disadvantage that it has to 
process the entire file.  You can use a selection set and have it do an 
index scan type of selection and that can improve the speed (Or use 
lookup - logic to jump right to the records you want.) but you are 
loading another filepro program and locking can be an issue for some 
reports.

Running lookups to the exact records you want, formating an output and 
generating a report is much faster.

Of course, this all depends on the volumes.  I have a long time customer 
and running statements once a month on about 1,900,000 records of which 
about 40,000 are current billing.  I started by designing the statements 
to run from the detail and selecting the 40,000 records, sorting and 
printing statements.  This took 2.5 days to run (yes I said days)

I redesigned it to run from a monthly summary account record, selecting 
about 2,000 records, it would generate the statements for the 40,000 
records in about 5 hours.

Now it is so fast it can not keep up with a high-speed line printer and 
with some new hardware it runs in a few hours.

Now this example is extreme but demonstrates the difference in speed 
when changing the point of view of a process or output.

Nancy
-- 
Nancy Palmquist 		MOS & filePro Training Available
Virtual Software Systems	Web Based Training and Consulting	
PHONE: (412) 835-9417		   Web site:  http://www.vss3.com