Vertical spacing in Mongoose reports - How to fill the page

I'm starting to work with Mongoose Reports and am having spacing problems. I'm able to do horizontal spacing just fine with combinations of Flex and Char fields. Vertical spacing I'm finding problematic. When I create the Main Flex Layout, it will only let me specify units of Char. for the vertical units. Nested Flex Layouts I can pick Flex/Char. I'm trying to recreate an SSRS report that is actually a large printed label. Currently, the report is printing correctly, but only taking up 1/2 of the page.

How do you make a Mongoose Report fill its vertical space out dynamically, or is it not possible?

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Caitlin Porter

I am sure that it's possible, you are using a form type of "Report" right? You should just be able to change one of the regions in your MainFlexLayout to 1 Flex, which would fill up the container. Are you saying that it is not allowing you to use flex units?

Caitlin Porter

If you want to design a report specific to a paper size like a label size, I recommend selecting the paper size in the new form wizard when creating the report form. If a new paper size is needed, it can be added on the Report Paper Sizes form. The generated form and MainFlexLayout will be generated to fully fill the paper size. In this case, it sounds like you would want to make one region in the flex layout whose size is the same as the height of the MainFlexLayout.

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Caitlin Porter

Stephen Cena

Correct. When I place the main Flex Layout down for a report, all it will let me do is make Char spacing. In the screenshot, you can see there is no down arrow to change it to Flex. I thought it was odd, but I wasn't sure. Going in after the fact doesn't let me change anything.

I tried setting the Can Grow to "true" and it looks right in the output but in Design Mode it gets illegible, so I'm kind of scratching my head right now.

Caitlin Porter

That's odd, I have never seen that field disabled before. Any chance you could script out that form in Form Sync so I can plug it into my env?

Stephen Cena

Sure thing. This is the Form as it stands. Even if I delete the flex layout & put down a new one it still only lets me do Char.

[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/78/FullPageReportSkeleton.XML:320:240]

Stephen Cena

So this gets stranger for me.....

I'm working with Infor on this issue now, to make sure that it's not a bug/issue in our installs. So far, it's sounding like this was a conscious decision by Infor to default to Char only for the Main Flex Layout of a report.

This doesn't sound right to me. As was pointed out that Vertical Flex Layouts are what you'd use to fill the entire page of a report.

Is the proper/correct way to fill a page of a Mongoose Report to use Flex as the unit? Are people able to create a report with type Flex for the Main Flex Layout?

Waiting for response from Infor but figured I'd update.

Caitlin Porter

I don't know why it was a conscious decision to default it to only char units, I would like to know what the reasoning is for that.

I am working in 2021.04 and I am able to change regions of MainFlexLayout to flex units. Yes on a report form with a flex layout component on it, using a combination of flex units and setting the bottom glue property should expand the report to the bottom of the page.

Stephen Cena

I may not be understanding the tech response correctly. What makes me believe I'm incorrect is your answer. It sounds like you are on 10, while I'm on 9.01.01/9.01.12. It seems very odd that a "conscious choice" to take place in 9 and then changed in 10.

I'm still in the camp that it's somehow something I'm doing wrong, but I can't figure out what.

So far, the only way I can make the change to Flex is to:

Create the report regions as best I can.
Export the Form via FormSync in XML
Locate the regions I need to make Flex in the XML file and change the units from Char to Flex. The example I showed the tech is as follows:

Original:
<LayoutAttributes>TYPE(VerticalBox) AUTOSIZE(0) REGION0(ID: FrameReportHeader; VALUE: 2; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: ReportHeader) REGION1(ID: FrameReportBody; VALUE: 40; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: Detail) REGION2(ID: FramePageFooter; VALUE: 1; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: PageFooter) INDEX(0)</LayoutAttributes>

New code:
<LayoutAttributes>TYPE(VerticalBox) AUTOSIZE(0) REGION0(ID: FrameReportHeader; VALUE: 2fl; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: ReportHeader) REGION1(ID: FrameReportBody; VALUE: 40; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: Detail) REGION2(ID: FramePageFooter; VALUE: 1fl; ORIEN: Fill; ; PACK: Start; BORDER: Enable; SECTYPE: PageFooter) INDEX(0)</LayoutAttributes>

Importing this 'hacked' Form changes the first and last regions to Flex. However, they are now "locked" to Flex, and cannot be changed. If I try to add any new fields they all show up as Char.

Stephen Cena

So it's clear what I'm doing, these are the videos I submitted to Infor to illustrate my problem. The only difference between them is in once scenario I let the Wizard populate regions for me, while in the other I leave everything empty & try to build the main Flex Layout myself.

[View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/78/Scenario1.mp4:320:240][View:/cfs-file/__key/communityserver-discussions-components-files/78/Scenario2.mp4:320:240]

It's just so strange to me.

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