[reportlab-users] Re: Using report lab for generating database reports

[Henning von Bargen]

There is still one thing that prevents me from
using report lab for generating database reports.
That is, our reports are often quite complex master-detail reports
and we often hava database columns which, for example,
allow 240 characters, but only a few records use more than 30 characters.
Customers often want 2 or 3 such columns formatted as table columns
in the layout. And some other columns contain not only plain text,
but require <para/> style.
The problem that arises then is that we have to specify
width _and_ height of the table cells.
We don't want to waste space by reserving space for
8 lines with 30 chars (this would result in a lot of white space on the
page).
On the other hand, we can never just cut the text
or overwrite the following columns.
So what we need is an automatic computation of the row height needed.
Also, is it possible to use rowspan and colspan like in HTML?
It would also be great if one could compute the optimal width and height
at least for paragraphs and use this height or width for a table definition.

Henning