Print Barcodes with the Client Report Option

The SEQUEL Client Report Option (CRO) lets you design reports for PC printer output using System i data. There’s no need to download data to a PC-based product to create nicely formatted reports. You can specify fonts, colors, pictures, and other formatting capabilities, such as shading, borders, and conditional highlighting using the CRO, right on the System i!

In the October issue of SEQUEL Connections, we provided an overview of the CRO. If you missed that article, you can read it now.

This month, we’ll take a look at how to create and include a barcode in a CRO report. These instructions assume you have the Client Report Option installed. Here are the steps:

1. Install a barcode font on your workstation. Barcode fonts are not typically installed with Windows, so you’ll have to acquire and install one yourself. You can find a number of standard barcode fonts—many of them freeware—through an Internet search. Check with your IT department if you need help with this step.
    
2. Create a SEQUEL view to extract the information you want to print. In our example, we use the concatenation (CAT) function to create a barcode field (called BARCODE) from a number of different fields and literals. BARCODE is composed of a product class field (CLASS) and a product number field (PRODUCT) separated by a hyphen. These values need to be enclosed between two asterisks—a common barcode convention. The full CAT statement is below:

   SELECT CAT("*",CLASS,"-",PRODUCT,"*") NAME(BARCODE) len(22)
    

3. After you’ve designed your SEQUEL view, save it, then select File > New > SEQUEL Client Report from one of the ViewPoint menus to start the Client Report design session.
    
4. If you choose to use the new Report Wizard, make sure your BARCODE field is included in the list of fields to add to the report. If you prefer to lay out the fields by hand, simply drag-and-drop the BARCODE field to your client report layout.
    
5. Right-click the BARCODE field and select the Format option from the drop-down menu.

   
    

6. In the Format Editor, select the Font tab and then select the bar code font which was installed previously. You may also want to specify a larger font size, if available. (Some bar code fonts are only available in one point size.) Click OK to save your choices.

   
    

7. Click Preview Results to verify that you sized the barcode field so that the entire barcode appears.

   

   If you made the field too small on the report layout, the barcode may be cropped horizontally or vertically (like the first barcode image, below). If you sized the barcode field properly, the barcode won’t be cropped and will look more like the second image.

   

   
    

8. If you need to resize the barcode field so that the entire barcode will print on the report, return to the report design layout and drag one of the field’s corner placeholders to enlarge the field as shown below.

   

That’s all there is to it! If you’re looking for a quicker and easier way to create nicely formatted reports for PC printer output, try the SEQUEL Client Report Option.

By Steven Smith, Technical Consultant