Printing DataRepeater Control

Question

"I just drag & drop customer dataset with Details selected from Datasource Explorer on the DataRepeater control. Now I just try to print populated records from DataRepeater control. Any suggestion? or anyother solution?"

Answer 1

Have you tried the PrintForm control comes with the Visual Basic PowerPacks?

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John Chen -- See my team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata

Answer 2

I read about PrintForm but it is only print one page? I need to print whatever records populated in DataRepeater control, all those records to print. And also the same format?

Answer 3

You mean even it is not shown in the form?
You probably have to write your own code to do so.
I will ask around to see there is a better solution.  

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John Chen -- See my team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata

Answer 4

I did not write any code now. I have one DataRepeater control, on to that I placed two bounded textboxes(I drag & drop these textboxes from Datasource explorer, so system automatically generated Code-1). I run the application it is populates 100 records. How can I print these records(100 records)? If we see all those records we needs to scroll DataRepeater control. I'm expecting your sample code. Thanks!

Code-1 :-

    Private Sub Form3_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

        'TODO: This line of code loads data into the 'CustomerDataSet.Customer' table. You can move, or remove it, as needed.

        Me.CustomerTableAdapter.Fill(Me.CustomerDataSet.Customer)

    End Sub

    Private Sub CustomerBindingNavigatorSaveItem_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles CustomerBindingNavigatorSaveItem.Click

        Me.Validate()

        Me.CustomerBindingSource.EndEdit()

        Me.CustomerTableAdapter.Update(Me.CustomerDataSet.Customer)

    End Sub

Answer 5

What I'm exactly mean, I needs to print also scroll part of the DataRepeater control. Can anyone help me please?

Answer 6

Sharfundeen, you can use Printer object to print all the DataRepeater items.  The basic idea is to go through all the DataRepeater items and draw each item to a bitmap, then print the bitmap to the printer.

Sample code:

    Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks
    Imports Microsoft.VisualBasic.PowerPacks.Printing.Compatibility.VB6

    Private Sub Print_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        If Me.DataRepeater1.ItemCount > 0 Then
            ' define a VB Power Packs Printer object
            Dim printer As New Printer()

            Dim sz As Size = Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItem.ClientSize
            Dim w As Integer = sz.Width
            Dim h As Integer = sz.Height

            Dim bm As New Bitmap(w, h)

            Dim x = 0
            Dim y = 100

            Dim n As Integer = Me.DataRepeater1.ItemCount
            For i As Integer = 1 To n
                ' Set item i be the current item so that it can be visible
                Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItemIndex = i - 1

                ' Paint the content of the current DataRepeater item to a bitmap
                Dim item As DataRepeaterItem = Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItem
                item.DrawToBitmap(bm, item.ClientRectangle)

                ' if y coordinate > height of the page, start a new page
                If y + h * 15 + 100 > printer.ScaleHeight Then
                    printer.NewPage()
                    y = 100
                End If

                ' Print the bitmap to the printer
                printer.PaintPicture(bm, x, y)

                ' Calculate the next left,top position
                y += h * 15
            Next

            printer.EndDoc()
        End If
    End Sub

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Yunfeng Dong (Microsoft)

Answer 7

Thank you so much Yunfeng Dong! It is pretty good. How can I use printprivew in your code?

Answer 8

This is what I thought as well but I don't have the code :).  Yfdong is the true expert for data repeater. :)

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John Chen -- See my team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata. All my posts are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.

Answer 9

One more question, when I'm going to use that code it goes to printer and also DataRepeater control scrolls down. How can I use printpreviewdialog instead and how to stop scroll down?

Answer 10

I do not think you can stop the scroll down. At the end of the print, yo ucan set the current row back to the original row.
For the preview, I think you can set the printer.PrintAction = PrintToPreview see ref:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.drawing.printing.printaction.aspx

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John Chen -- See my team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata. All my posts are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.

Answer 11

Hi John, I put this line after printer.EndDoc()

printer.PrintAction = Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview

it does not show printpreviewdialog. I dont have an idea how to printpreview and also setting up current row in datarepeater control. Do it for me? please...

Answer 12

You should set printer.PrintAction = Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview as early as possible not after printer.EndDoc(), which is too late. 
To set the current row in the datarepeater, you can see it in YFDong's sample. See revised example bellow.   

Private Sub Print_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs)
        If Me.DataRepeater1.ItemCount > 0 Then
            ' define a VB Power Packs Printer object
            Dim printer As New Printer()

         ' Set print to preview  
         printer.PrintAction = Printing.PrintAction.PrintToPreview

            Dim sz As Size = Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItem.ClientSize
            Dim w As Integer = sz.Width
            Dim h As Integer = sz.Height

            Dim bm As New Bitmap(w, h)

            Dim x = 0
            Dim y = 100
           
            ' Save the current row index here
            Dim oldItemIndex = Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItemIndex;  

            Dim n As Integer = Me.DataRepeater1.ItemCount
            For i As Integer = 1 To n
                ' Set item i be the current item so that it can be visible
                Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItemIndex = i - 1

                ' Paint the content of the current DataRepeater item to a bitmap
                Dim item As DataRepeaterItem = Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItem
                item.DrawToBitmap(bm, item.ClientRectangle)

                ' if y coordinate > height of the page, start a new page
                If y + h * 15 + 100 > printer.ScaleHeight Then
                    printer.NewPage()
                    y = 100
                End If

                ' Print the bitmap to the printer
                printer.PaintPicture(bm, x, y)

                ' Calculate the next left,top position
                y += h * 15
            Next

            printer.EndDoc()

            ' Restore the current row index here 
            Me.DataRepeater1.CurrentItemIndex = oldItemIndex  
        End If
    End Sub

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John Chen -- See my team blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata. All my posts are provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confer no rights.

Answer 13

Thanks John. Before going to show printpreview dialog, still it scroll down. Anyway we can set the current row back to the original row!

Thanks again! Great support!

:)

Answer 14

I wrote a blog post on this topic: http://blogs.msdn.com/vsdata/archive/2010/03/05/using-printer-to-print-all-the-records-of-datarepeater.aspx

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Yunfeng Dong (Microsoft)