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OnCustomDocumentMergerEx event

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This article describes the syntax of the OnCustomDocumentMergerEx event, which will enable use of custom renders given a dataset and a layout. The layout must be specified as a Custom Layout in the rendering section within the report definition.

Usage

Use the OnCustomDocumentMergerEx event to specify what happens when the user has specified a custom report layout type that is to be rendered into an artifact in application code. For more information about subscribing to this event, see Developing Report Custom Render Extensions Overview.

Publisher

Codeunit 44 ReportManagement.

Raised

When a user runs a report that uses a custom layout format handled by application code (extension).

Syntax

 [IntegrationEvent(false, false)]
local procedure OnCustomDocumentMergerEx(ObjectID: Integer; ReportAction: Option SaveAsPdf,SaveAsWord,SaveAsExcel,Preview,Print,SaveAsHtml; ObjectPayload: JsonObject; XmlData: InStream; LayoutData: InStream; var DocumentStream: OutStream; var IsHandled: Boolean)

Parameters

ObjectID

Type: Integer

The ID of the report object to be run.

ReportAction

Type: [Option]

Specifies the action to take in the custom document merge process.

Valid values include:

  • SaveAsPdf Generates a PDF document in the target stream.
  • SaveAsWord Generates a Microsoft Word document in the target stream.
  • SaveAsExcel Generates a Microsoft Excel document in the target stream.
  • SaveAsHtml Generates an HTML document in the target stream.
  • Preview Generates a PDF document in the target stream, which the platform downloads to the client for preview.
  • Print Generates a PDF document in the target stream, which the platform prints using the printer specified for the present report ID.

ObjectPayload

Type: JsonObject

Instance of the report payload. For more information, see Report payload structure.

XmlData

Type: InStream

A stream object that contains the XML dataset generated by the platform runtime. This stream contains the input data for the rendering process.

LayoutData

Type: InStream

A stream object that contains the report layout to be used in the rendering process. The platform provides this data from the standard report layout selection logic and it contains the currently selected layout.

Success

Type: Boolean

Specifies whether the extension handled the merge action successfully.

Note

The platform will handle further processing of the result stream and the extension code must return the rendered artifact in the target stream. The platform will handle:

  • Saving to a specified file in save-as scenarios
  • Saving to a given stream
  • Download to the client
  • Print or preview

Report payload

The report payload contains metadata for the report object and a list of attributes that identifies that current invocation. The payload consists of several attributes and has the following structure.

{
    "filterviews":
    [
        {"name":"Header","tableid":112,"view":"VERSION(1) SORTING(Field3) WHERE(Field3=1(103027))"},
        {"name":"Line","tableid":113,"view":"VERSION(1) SORTING(Field3,Field4) WHERE(Field4=1(0..10000))"},
        {"name":"ShipmentLine","tableid":7190,"view":"VERSION(1) SORTING(Field1,Field2,Field3) WHERE(Field2=1(10000))"}
    ],
    "version":1,
    "objectname":"Standard Sales - Invoice",
    "objectid":1306,
    "documenttype":"application/pdf",
    "invokedby":"00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000001",
    "invokeddatetime":"2020-01-17T15:33:52.48+01:00",
    "companyname":"CRONUS International Ltd.",
    "printername":"My Printer",
    "duplex":false,
    "color":false,
    "defaultcopies":1,
    "papertray":
    {
        "papersourcekind":257,
        "paperkind":0,
        "landscape":false,
        "units":0,
        "height":1268,
        "width":929
    },
    "intent":"Print",
    "layoutmodel": "Rdlc",
    "layoutname": "RDLCLayout",
    "layoutmimetype": "Application/ReportLayout/Rdlc",
    "layoutapplicationid": "00001111-aaaa-2222-bbbb-3333cccc4444",
    "reportrunid": "6a3742c1-65ef-44a6-af58-3ef4a902932b"
}

Attributes

objectname

Specifies the name of the object.

objectid

Specifies the ID of the object.

documenttype

Specifies the MIME type of the document. Currently only application/pdf is supported for printing, other intents can have types specific to the report layout model and selected output target type.

invokedby

Specifies the ID of the user who invoked the print action.

invokeddatetime

Specifies the date and time that the print action was invoked, for example, 2019-10-22T22:25:54.338+02:00. The value is the date and time on the client machine.

companyname

Specifies the Business Central company.

version

Specifies the version of the report payload. Currently, the only supported version for the payload is 1.

duplex

Specifies whether to use duplex (2-sided) printing. true specifies duplex printing; otherwise false.

Note

duplex is currently not used and ignored at runtime.

color

Specifies whether color printing is set. true specifies color printing; otherwise false.

Note

color is currently not used and ignored at runtime.

defaultcopies

Specifies the number of copies to print by default. The default is 1.

Note

defaultcopies is currently not used and ignored at runtime.

filterviews

Specifies views that are used on the document.

name

Specifies the name of data item that the filter view applies to.

tableid

Specifies the ID of the table for the view.

view

Specifies the name of the view.

papertray

Specifies the paper tray settings from the printer payload.

papersourcekind

Specifies a standard paper source for the paper tray. The value can be either the text representation (such as AutomaticFeed) or the corresponding number (such as 7).

paperkind

Specifies the paper size. The value can be either the text representation (such as A4) or the corresponding number (such as 9).

landscape

Specifies whether landscape orientation is used. true specifies landscape orientation; otherwise false.

units

Specifies the units of measurement for values in height and width attributes. Valid values include:

  • HI for hundredths of an inch (default value).
  • TI for thousandths of an inch.
  • IN for inches.
  • CM for centimeters.
  • MM for millimeters.
  • PC for picas.
  • PT for points.

height

Specifies the height of the paper. The values include positive integers up to 2,147,483,647.

width

Specifies the width of the paper. The values include positive integers up to 2,147,483,647.

intent

Specifies the intent of the current report invocation, which can be one of the following values.

  • None
  • Print
  • Preview
  • Save
  • Schedule
  • Download
  • Parameters

layoutmodel

Specifies the layout model selected for teh current report invocation, which can be one of the following values.

  • Rdlc
  • Word
  • Excel
  • Custom

layoutname

Specifies the layout name for the currently selected layout.

layoutmimetype

Specifies the layout mimetype for the currently selected layout. The built-in layout types are:

  • Application/ReportLayout/Rdlc
  • Application/ReportLayout/Word
  • Application/ReportLayout/Excel

layoutapplicationid

Specifies the ID of the application that provides the selected layout.

reportrunid

Specifies a unique ID of type Guid that identifies the current report invocation. This value can be used to correlate calls to report event that support json payloads.

Sample code

The simplest possible custom document render can be implemented as shown in the following sample, which will use the existing application logic to render XML datasets into Microsoft Word or PDF documents using a given template (Word template).

    [EventSubscriber(ObjectType::Codeunit, Codeunit::ReportManagement, 'OnCustomDocumentMergerEx', '', true, true)]
    local procedure OnCustomDocumentMergerEx(ObjectID: Integer; ReportAction: Option SaveAsPdf,SaveAsWord,SaveAsExcel,Preview,Print,SaveAsHtml; ObjectPayload: JsonObject; XmlData: InStream; LayoutData: InStream; var DocumentStream: OutStream; var IsHandled: Boolean)
    var
        DocumentReportMgt: Codeunit "Document Report Mgt.";
        TempBlob: Codeunit "Temp Blob";
        DataInStream: InStream;
        DataOutStream: OutStream;
        SharedXmlData: InStream;
        SharedLayoutData: InStream;
        ObjectName: JsonToken;
        DocumentTypeParts: List of [Text];
        DocumentType: JsonToken;
        Extension: Text;
        Token: JsonToken;
        MimeType: Text;
        LayoutName: Text;
        LayoutModel: Text;
        JsonText: Text;
        JsonFile: File;
    begin        
        if IsHandled then
            exit;

        // Setup shared streams

        // Empty stream, no actions possible on the stream so return immediately
        if XmlData.Length < 1 then
            exit;

        // Use a shared stream and reset the read pointer to beginning of stream
        SharedXmlData := XmlData;
        if SharedXmlData.Position > 1 then
            SharedXmlData.ResetPosition();

        SharedLayoutData := LayoutData;
        if SharedLayoutData.Position > 1 then
            SharedLayoutData.ResetPosition();

        Init();

        // Sample code to persist the JSON object to disk
        ObjectPayload.WriteTo(JsonText);
        JsonFile.TextMode := true;
        JsonFile.Create(TempFolderPath + 'OnCustomDocumentMergerEx.json', TextEncoding::UTF8);
        JsonFile.Write(JsonText);
        JsonFile.Close();

        // Get report options from the JSON object
        ObjectPayload.Get('objectname', ObjectName);
        ObjectPayload.Get('documenttype', DocumentType);
        ObjectPayload.Get('layoutmimetype', Token);
        MimeType := Token.AsValue().AsText();

        ObjectPayload.Get('layoutname', Token);
        LayoutName := Token.AsValue().AsText();

        ObjectPayload.Get('layoutmodel', Token);
        LayoutModel := Token.AsValue().AsText();

        DocumentTypeParts := DocumentType.AsValue().AsText().Split('/');
        
        // Notice that the Extension string below have to be remapped to a standard file extension
        // based on the document mimetype
        Extension := DocumentTypeParts.Get(DocumentTypeParts.Count);

        TempBlob.CreateOutStream(DataOutStream);

        // The 
        case ReportAction of
            ReportAction::SaveAsPdf, ReportAction::Preview, ReportAction::Print:
                begin
                    if not DocumentReportMgt.TryXmlMergeWordDocument(SharedLayoutData, SharedXmlData, DataOutStream) then
                        error('Unable to handle custom document merge');
                    DocumentReportMgt.ConvertWordToPdf(TempBlob, ObjectID);
                    TempBlob.CreateInStream(DataInStream);
                    CopyStream(DocumentStream, DataInStream);
                    IsHandled := true;
                end;
            ReportAction::SaveAsHtml:
                begin
                    if not DocumentReportMgt.TryXmlMergeWordDocument(SharedLayoutData, SharedXmlData, DataOutStream) then
                        error('Unable to handle custom document merge');
                    DocumentReportMgt.ConvertWordToHtml(TempBlob);
                    TempBlob.CreateInStream(DataInStream);
                    CopyStream(DocumentStream, DataInStream);
                    IsHandled := true;
                end;
            ReportAction::SaveAsWord:
                begin
                    if not DocumentReportMgt.TryXmlMergeWordDocument(SharedLayoutData, SharedXmlData, DocumentStream) then
                        error('Unable to handle custom document merge');
                    IsHandled := true;
                end;
            else
                error('Unsupported report action %0', ReportAction);
        end;
    end;

See also

Working With and Troubleshooting Payloads
Developing Report Custom Render Extensions Overview
Developing Printer Extensions Overview
Creating a Printer Extension
Events in AL
Publishing Events
Raising Events
Subscribing to Events