Capturing Multiple Lines Containing Page Breaks

Courtney_20597
Courtney_20597 Altair Community Member
edited February 2019 in Community Q&A
​Hello,


I am having an issue where I need to capture a specific line. However, a page break interferes with some lines causing there to be nulls. There is a page header that I could exclude but it sill isn't allowing me to capture. Any suggestions? I have attached both images to show my issue.

(Normal- easy two line capture>)
this is how most are captured correctly


(Problem- $0.00 is by itself under a page header) 
$0.00 is by itself under page header

------------------------------
Courtney Bertholf
Financial Analyst
Dssw, LLC
San Antonio TX
(210) 798-0123
------------------------------
Tagged:

Best Answer

  • Steve_Caiels
    Steve_Caiels
    Altair Employee
    edited February 2019 Answer ✓
    Hi Courtney,

    Are you doing this as a two line detail sample, separate single line detail and footer, or a detail with 'advanced field options'? 

    From the screen shot, it looks like separate single line detail and footer templates.  If that is true, you might find the issue goes away by changing your existing Page Header template to an Append.

    Generally, Page Header templates are only required when multi line templates or fields using 'advanced field options' are getting split up by Page Headers in the report.  If the Page Headers are not inherently causing a problem, then regular Detail, Append and Footer templates are usually sufficient.

    If you are printing or exporting from the report window or using it in Datawatch Content Server, where page breaks become critical, it's a different matter.  If that is the case or
    you are using multi line samples or advanced field options, the Page Header Template should take care of it; as long as the page header is a consistent number of lines for each occurrence of the page break.

    Step 1: Delete your existing Page Header Template, if you have one defined.

    Step 2: Make sure you are happy with the capture on all the records that are not being messed up by the page header.

    Step 3: Turn off the automatic pagination and recognition of embedded page breaks.  This is not always necessary and is occasionally a bad step, but 9 times out of 10 it makes step 4 easier. Under Options->Input->Text Files, tick the 'Ignore print control characters' and set the 'Force page break' to 256.  You will probably see random page break lines in the report at this stage, but Step 4 will fix that.

    Step 4: Define a Page Header template to cover all the lines, including blank lines, that are breaking up a multi line sample or field.  In this example, the lines highlighted will make up the page header.  Once this is defined, the "APPORVAL" will act like it is directly below the "SPECIAL ORDER NEED" and all the multi line and advanced field functions should work as expected.



    As long as your page breaks are a consistent number of lines, this should work.  But I have seen reports where the number of lines in the Page Break varies according to what part of the report they occur is - this is a pain!

    Regards,
    Steve.

    ------------------------------
    Steve Caiels
    Professional Service
    Datawatch Corporation
    +44 203 868 0253
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 02-13-2019 03:04 PM
    From: Courtney Bertholf
    Subject: Capturing Multiple Lines Containing Page Breaks

    Hello,


    I am having an issue where I need to capture a specific line. However, a page break interferes with some lines causing there to be nulls. There is a page header that I could exclude but it sill isn't allowing me to capture. Any suggestions? I have attached both images to show my issue.

    (Normal- easy two line capture>)
    this is how most are captured correctly


    (Problem- $0.00 is by itself under a page header)
    $0.00 is by itself under page header

    ------------------------------
    Courtney Bertholf
    Financial Analyst
    Dssw, LLC
    San Antonio TX
    (210) 798-0123
    ------------------------------"

Answers

  • Steve_Caiels
    Steve_Caiels
    Altair Employee
    edited February 2019 Answer ✓
    Hi Courtney,

    Are you doing this as a two line detail sample, separate single line detail and footer, or a detail with 'advanced field options'? 

    From the screen shot, it looks like separate single line detail and footer templates.  If that is true, you might find the issue goes away by changing your existing Page Header template to an Append.

    Generally, Page Header templates are only required when multi line templates or fields using 'advanced field options' are getting split up by Page Headers in the report.  If the Page Headers are not inherently causing a problem, then regular Detail, Append and Footer templates are usually sufficient.

    If you are printing or exporting from the report window or using it in Datawatch Content Server, where page breaks become critical, it's a different matter.  If that is the case or
    you are using multi line samples or advanced field options, the Page Header Template should take care of it; as long as the page header is a consistent number of lines for each occurrence of the page break.

    Step 1: Delete your existing Page Header Template, if you have one defined.

    Step 2: Make sure you are happy with the capture on all the records that are not being messed up by the page header.

    Step 3: Turn off the automatic pagination and recognition of embedded page breaks.  This is not always necessary and is occasionally a bad step, but 9 times out of 10 it makes step 4 easier. Under Options->Input->Text Files, tick the 'Ignore print control characters' and set the 'Force page break' to 256.  You will probably see random page break lines in the report at this stage, but Step 4 will fix that.

    Step 4: Define a Page Header template to cover all the lines, including blank lines, that are breaking up a multi line sample or field.  In this example, the lines highlighted will make up the page header.  Once this is defined, the "APPORVAL" will act like it is directly below the "SPECIAL ORDER NEED" and all the multi line and advanced field functions should work as expected.



    As long as your page breaks are a consistent number of lines, this should work.  But I have seen reports where the number of lines in the Page Break varies according to what part of the report they occur is - this is a pain!

    Regards,
    Steve.

    ------------------------------
    Steve Caiels
    Professional Service
    Datawatch Corporation
    +44 203 868 0253
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 02-13-2019 03:04 PM
    From: Courtney Bertholf
    Subject: Capturing Multiple Lines Containing Page Breaks

    Hello,


    I am having an issue where I need to capture a specific line. However, a page break interferes with some lines causing there to be nulls. There is a page header that I could exclude but it sill isn't allowing me to capture. Any suggestions? I have attached both images to show my issue.

    (Normal- easy two line capture>)
    this is how most are captured correctly


    (Problem- $0.00 is by itself under a page header)
    $0.00 is by itself under page header

    ------------------------------
    Courtney Bertholf
    Financial Analyst
    Dssw, LLC
    San Antonio TX
    (210) 798-0123
    ------------------------------"