[reportlab-users] Flowing onto second column

[Jim Steil]

Robin Becker wrote:

> Jim Steil wrote:

>> Tim Roberts wrote:

>>> Jim Steil wrote:

>>>>

>>>> Is there an easy way to get data to flow to a second column the way 

>>>> you can get it to flow to multiple pages with Platypus?

>>>

>>> Sure.  You just create multiple frames, one for each column, and add 

>>> the collection of frames when you create the PageTemplate.

>>>

>>> Here's a web page that shows an example:

>>>    http://www.hoboes.com/Mimsy/?ART=558

>>>

>> Ok, I'm trying to get my report working per the instructions at the 

>> link above.  However, I've changed it a bit because instead of having 

>> paragraphs display in my columns, I have tables that I want to snake 

>> around the columns.  So, where this doc refers to paragraphs in the 

>> 'items' list, I'm appending tables.  But, when I get to the 

>> document.build(posts) statement, I get the following dump:

>>

>> Traceback (most recent call last):

>>  File "C:\PyWork\Motion\motion\utility\priceSheet.py", line 187, in 

>> <module>

>>    priceSheets(filename)

>>  File "C:\PyWork\Motion\motion\utility\priceSheet.py", line 178, in 

>> priceSheets

>>    go(doc, c)

>>  File "C:\PyWork\Motion\motion\utility\priceSheet.py", line 167, in go

>>    doc.build(allData)

>>  File 

>> "c:\python25\lib\site-packages\reportlab\platypus\doctemplate.py", 

>> line 749, in build

>>    tr.srcFile,

>> AttributeError: Field instance has no attribute 'srcFile'

>>

>> I'm stumped as to where I should look for the problem.  Can anyone 

>> give me any clues?

> .......

> well tr is obtained because the erroneous flowable was given some sort 

> of _traceInfo. That should be an object with the following attributes

>

> srcFile,startLineNo,endLineNo,endLinePos

>

> if it doesn't have those attributes then an error will result. I don't 

> think there's any way that _traceInfo can be non None unless it's 

> being set somewhere deliberately. Just create a tracing class and use 

> that instead of a simple string or whatever. I suppose we could 

> consider allowing _traceInfo to be a simple string of your choosing 

> and using that rather than a structured object. I have to confess I 

> know little (or perhaps have forgotten) about this code. I suspect in 

> the modern world we'd just make _traceInfo something with a __str__ 

> method (or a str).

So, are you implying that I should be looking into the doctemplate.py 
and find a better solution to the reportlab code?  I don't think I have 
the depth of knowledge necessary to take that on.  Or, are you saying 
that I'm giving it a bad flowable that is causing the problem?  If so, 
how could I identify that?

Thanks for any input you can give.

    -Jim