Job / JobData

Overview

Printing (or more general: producing output) is done with the help of a so-called Job. A Job prints a stand-alone or Repository based FormLayout with dynamic data provided by JobData.

A Job provides various methods for controlling the output behavior. Among other functions it is possible

• to select the target device and the required output format (Output Format Prefixes),
• set Job options (Print Options),
• and to select a specific configuration file (TFORMer.XML Configuration File).

Workflow

The basic steps to generate output are as follows:

• Create a Job
  The Job class is the main class for printing a FormLayout.
• Create JobData
  JobData is used to pass data to a Job.
• Provide data for the JobData
  Provide data programmatically or connect the JobData with a file or a database. The JobData is responsible to provide values for the data fields required for the FormLayout to be printed.
• Connect the Job with the JobData
  If no JobData is provided for Job the default data for the FormLayout is used. This default data is identical to the data-set which was used for printing or previewing the FormLayout in the last TFORMer Designer session.
• Adjust the properties of the Job
  The most important properties are the output-type and the name of the target device (TFormer_SetOutputName, TFormer_SetPrinterType or TFormer_SetPrinterName). The order in which the properties are set is irrelevant.
• Print the Job
  To generate the Job based on the FormLayout and JobData in the required output format use one of the print-methods (TFormer_Print, TFormer_PrintToStream, TFormer_PrintToStream) provided by a Job.

More Information

• JobData
  Base class for JobData