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M2Doc Sample Reports #C: Templates

medini_1024169437

This is the third article of a series of articles about M2Doc as a new technology to generate Word reports out of medini models. You can find additional extensions (beta status) for 2022 R1 and 2022 R2 in our extension area on the online support page. An official release is planned for 2023 R1. All samples posted here are for 2022 R2. Main intention is to make you aware of the new technology but also to get any kind of feedback.

The third sample is about templates, an own m2doc mechanism to deal with repetitive elements and define nice word snippets (templates) inside the m2doc report. The required m2doc expressions are again very simple:

{ m:template something(a: Integer)}
 here goes the template stuff with nice formats
{ m:endTemplate }

Cool is that you can now put arbitrary word stuff inside the template and use it at any other location. The attached sample just illustrates the usage with a few very basic ideas, but does not reveal the full power yet. The project also contains a few things that do not work as expected or are not yet finished, precisely how to work with collections passed into a template, but see for yourself.

Happy Reporting

Jan

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medini_1063548292

Hi Jan,

I tried to utilize templates for couple of cases. One of them is to provide a simple scan of object to see what available properties are available for given object and what are their Values.
Another case was to simply try to implement missing OCL collection operations ( min(),max()).=> Here I don't believe that is is eve possible to create some template that will return a value as in case of java-script function(a,b) {return max(a,b)} Heere I think the template only returns M2DOC object not sure how to use it though.

I have encountered another problem when I created template that should take the collect and other additional argument/arguments.
For instance my templates
propertiesAsTable(items:Sequence(ecore::EObject)
propertiesAsTable2(items:Sequence(ecore::EObject),showValues:Boolean)
The second parameter in second template could be used to display the values or not.
However when I called it on the Sequence of objects the M2DOC raised warning:

Couldn't find the 'propertiesAsTable2(java.util.ArrayList,java.lang.Boolean)' service

Any advice or suggestions on this ?Am i missing some critical information or m:template argument for or this is simply only possible through javascript service?

Thanks for your insights!

Happy reporting!

Marian

medini_1063548292

Hi al,

I think i figured it out. O used ''.trace() m2doc serivce and thanks to that I was able to shed some light no this

So if you want the template construct to accept the sequence and other arguments you just have to change the order of the arguments so it does not begins with first argument being a sequence but something else String/Integer etc. then the template is actually correctly registered. The only drawback that it cannot be used directly on sequence but a with a first argument.

I don't not know know whether this is bug or intentional.I did nod find any corresponding report the GitHub.

--this does not work
sequence{obj1,obj2,obj3}->renderSequence(10,'Text to title')

m:template renderSequence3(inputs:Sequence(ecore::EObject),factor:Integer,Subtitle:String)
m:for i|inputs 
m: (i.eGet('count')*10).toString()+':\t'+Subtitle
m:endtemplate


=>rasied error couldn't find the renderSequence3(Java.util.ArrrayList,Java.lang.Integer,Java.langString)'
-- using ''.trace() i saw this registration 
=>renderSequence3(Java.util.ArrrayList)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--this works 
10.renderSequence3x(sequence{obj1,obj2,obj3},'Text to title')

m:template renderSequence3x(factor:Integer,inputs:Sequence(ecore::EObject),Subtitle:String)
m:for i|inputs 
m: (i.eGet('count')*10).toString()+':\t'+Subtitle
m:endtemplate
-- using ''.trace() i saw this registration 
=>renderSequence3x(Java.lang.Integer,Java.util.ArrrayList,Java.lang.String)

And another strange behaviour, I used global variable ( subitem under in the VARIABLE chekclist)

and try to use it also in templates but for some reason it was not recognized.

String variable inside of checklist
vverbose (with string false)

--this conditioned prompting woks
m:if vverbose <> 'false' 
m: 'Verbosity here'.promptString()
m:endif

--no conditioning
m: 'Testing input'.testx()

m:template testx(input:String)
m:if vverbose <> 'false'
m: ('Verbosity in template here with input:'+input).promptString()
m:endif
m:endtemplate

What is even strange when I did not define the vverobse variable inside of checklist then missing vverbose variable is detected only after the generation is finished it is mentioned that the vverbose variable is not found .

Looks like there is no global variable applicable also to the templates.

PS: i tried also different variable names just in case it would be a reserved word but with the same result

Marian

medini_1024169437

Thanks Marian,

seems you have been using templates beyond my experience. The behavior you described with the order of arguments sounds weird indeed, sounds like there is some m2doc magic working here.

Maybe I can try to reproduce and debug this to at least understand the reason.

The last point is even more interesting, though I am not 100% sure I got it. So you say that variables inside templates are handled differently by medini then other variables?

Regards

Jan

medini_1063548292

HI JAn,

I need ot make an correction.

in case of a template with many arguments ANY argument specified after the sequence is dropped => not recognized see attached file

With regards to the variables seems like if there is variable defined in the template the report generation is executed. While in case if there would be an variable inside of m: constructs that is not declared inside of the checklist the generation is not executed and a warning is raised "missing variable" and there is no generation of the output document.

Marian

medini_1059007410

Hi Marian,

For the sequence parameter: The M2Doc developer has several test cases for template parameters, including sequences, ordered sets and multiple parameters, but not the combination of sequence and multiple parameters. Maybe it's just something he could be poked at on GitHub. He might have an explanation why that's not possible, or might change a small thing (in the M2Doc code) to get it working.

On your statement:

While in case if there would be an variable inside of m: constructs that is not declared inside of the [checklist > template?] the generation is not executed and a warning is raised "missing variable" and there is no generation of the output document.

This behavior indicates that M2Doc itself is missing the variable definition at that position, and thus the medini Wizard asks you to add the missing variable - but only if you click "Finish". You probably can still click "Next" in the Wizard, which continues the report generation. Of course, with the M2Doc error message in the report, and not exactly with your intended template behavior.

Just for your understanding of the generation logic :-)

Regards,

Nils

medini_1063548292

Hi Nils,

thanks I did also explore the GitHub just do be sure that this is not flagged already but seems not. I setup a GitHub account, and created a Issue entry - author poked .

wrt. missing variables yes you are absolutely correct this seems to be a problem of m2doc recognition itself.

Anyway I am still confused about the variables. They are actually not a variables but rather parameters that cannot be changed.

Furthermore it seems the m:template scope is completely disconnected from the main md2doc scope so there is nothing like a global parameter that is also visible inside of the m:template.

For instance using "vverbose" report variable defined in the checklist will fail when used inside of the template. So "vverbose" inside simply treated as template local parameter.

So one would have crate a extra parameter of the template where this vverbose would be handed over through a template argument.

--declaration of vverbose declared in m2doc config checklist as a string vverbose="false"
m:'Handing over the report parameter:'.myTemplate(vverbose)

--Handover used to propagate the vverbose form the document template inside of the m:template construct

m: myTemplate(Something:String,Handover:String)
m: Something+Handover
m:endtemplate

Marian

medini_1024169437

At some day I would like to play a bit with this template issue to understand what we at least can do on our end.

Currently we extract the variables from the M2doc parser, maybe we can distinguish something.

Jan

medini_1063548292

Hello Jan,

A short update .

So the MD2Oc will now be bale to handle all types and all combinations of t template arguments.

The issue that I reported on git-hub was fixed and will be part of the 3.3.1 m2doc release.

So following will be possible:

--using sequence and arrow operator
sequence{obj1,obj2,obj3}->renderSequence3(10,'Text to title')

m:template renderSequence3(inputs:Sequence(ecore::EObject),factor:Integer,Subtitle:String)
m:for i|inputs 
m: (i.eGet('count')*10).toString()+':\t'+Subtitle
m:endtemplate

Happy reporting.

Marian

medini_1024169437

Nice! For 24.1 we though can only jump to 3.2.2. Jumping to 3.3.0 was not possible at this stage because it introduces some incompatibilities with other bundles (poi, batik, etc).

Lets see what we can do when 3.3.1 is out.

Jan