[reportlab-users] Flowing onto second column

[Jim Steil]

Jim Steil wrote:

> Robin Becker wrote:

>> Jim Steil wrote:

>>> 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?

>> ........

>> no I'm saying I don't know how you managed to end up with this 

>> tr._traceInfo problem. I just checked most of our code base and the 

>> only refs to _traceInfo are in doctemplate.py and flowables.py. Every 

>> flowable is supposed to descend from Flowable which has an initial 

>> setting of _traceInfo to None. The code in doctemplate is then only 

>> supposd to try and refer to x._traceInfo if 1) 

>> hasattr(x,'_traceInfo') is True and 2) x._traceInfo is non-zero. If 

>> that's the case then we attempt to pull those attributes of the 

>> _traceInfo object and incorporate them into the current traceback. 

>> That's so we get a more detailed error message when a particular 

>> flowable is putting this _traceInfo onto itself with some meaninful 

>> info (like which file it came from and where etc etc).

>>

>> So is there anywhere in your code where _traceInfo is mentioned?

> No, there is not.  I'm making some changes to the code now.  I think I 

> may have not been wrapping things in a list exactly as the sample had 

> done.  I'm verifying/fixing that now and will be back once I find the 

> result.  Thanks for helping out on this.

>

>    -Jim

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Robin:  I just ran my code, but modified a bit so that it doesn't 
include the table in the flowables to include in the column.  Now, it 
only has a paragraph, and everything works.  When I put the code back in 
to include the Table, I get the error mentioned.  Is what I'm doing 
something that cannot be done, or am I missing something here?  What I 
want to be able to do is to display tables (similar, but one right after 
another) in a two-column page, and have the tables wrap to the next 
column when the current column fills up.  I'm using the example sited by 
Tim as my basis.  I have modified it to include Tables as well as 
Paragraphs. 

    -Jim