I know I've been trying to find decent documentation on the Document Exporter recently.
I looked at the Features Browser at: http://samples.infragistics.com/2007.3/webfeaturebrowser/default.htm
There was an example how you can export a single grid to PDF. Useful, but not what I wanted.
I wanted to export grids AND charts. So, the next link I find is the Document Exporter control summary at: http://ko.infragistics.com/dotnet/netadvantage/aspnet/webgriddocumentexporter.aspx
On this page, there is a video demonstrating how the control work. Great! I watch it. Lets see..... There's a sample grid, some examples of exporting to Excel, PDF, and XPS....... Some code that shows how simple it is. Nice..... Now, I see someone demonstrating how you can add charts and graphics to an export. There's even a pretty example of what it can look like. That's what I was looking for...... WHAT? No code samples? What gives?!? They tell you that there is a object model to do those kind of things. I've read it. Without decent examples, it's difficult to follow.
It seems all the controls described on this site are 100% Show Off, 50% Show How. I get about half the knowledge I need to get things to work and have to waste time figuring out the rest. I don't think it's just me. I'm one of five programmers on a team here and we all got question marks floating over our heads on these.
BTW, I found the Web Showcase on the site which is where the chart export PDF was demonstrated from. There are no source code samples online. So, I dig through anything and everything I've installed on my local computer from Infragistics. I finally find the Web Showcase code. Now, let me preface this with the fact that we are a VB shop here. We don't care for C#, nor do we see any great advantage to using it. So why is the only code example for chart export in PDF in a C# project? This means more work on my part to translate code in order to use the features on a package in which good money was spent. I doubt any great insight can be derived from the source code, either.
Tim Hitchings "]Please see this section here in the help file: http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/NET/2007.3/CLR2.0/html/Web_Infragistics_Document_Engine.html The Writing Reports section contains detailed descriptions of every element of the Document Engine and they include code samples in VB and C#. This section may help. Also see this Chart topic:http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/NET/2007.3/CLR2.0/html/Chart_Exporting_Numerous_Charts_to_a_PDF.html which may also assist you in learning more on how to use the Chart in the Document Engine. The WebGridDocumentExporter section in the help may also assist. I've alerted the documentation team to work to include a future topic that demonstrates with code how to use the Document Engine to export both a grid and a chart on one page. If the above doesn't provide the help with learning the Document Engine that you're looking for please log an incident with Developer Support
Please see this section here in the help file: http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/NET/2007.3/CLR2.0/html/Web_Infragistics_Document_Engine.html
The Writing Reports section contains detailed descriptions of every element of the Document Engine and they include code samples in VB and C#. This section may help.
Also see this Chart topic:http://help.infragistics.com/Help/NetAdvantage/NET/2007.3/CLR2.0/html/Chart_Exporting_Numerous_Charts_to_a_PDF.html
which may also assist you in learning more on how to use the Chart in the Document Engine.
The WebGridDocumentExporter section in the help may also assist.
I've alerted the documentation team to work to include a future topic that demonstrates with code how to use the Document Engine to export both a grid and a chart on one page.
If the above doesn't provide the help with learning the Document Engine that you're looking for please log an incident with Developer Support
That information is very useful. I'll most likely get started on it right away and at first glance, the information seems to be enough to be quite productive with.
But I believe I may have proven my point on access to help references. Looking at the link, I notice a resemblance in the URL to other help pages I've been to. So, in humility, I retraced my steps through known self help vectors.
In the Get Help folder of Infragistics on my computer's Start Menu, I click on "Documentation (Local)". I get the familiar Windows Help format documentation. I've seen this already and had trouble finding (or using) any sample code. Next, I click on "Documentation (Online)". It takes me to a menu page for help. I click on the "2007 Volume 3" NetVantage link and get a page resembling the familiar Windows Help file. So, I browse the document tree for anything related to the Document Engine and I can't seem to work my way to any page that looks like the page in the link you sent me. So, I use the help Search tool, search for "Engine" and the first results are for the Document Engine. I get two results. When I click on either one, I get a page not found or moved error.
With this dead end, I go back to my Start Menu and choose the last help option "Get Help (Online)". This takes me to an Infragistice help jump page. I click on "Online Documentation" and it takes be to the same page I went to when I clicked on "Documentation (Online)". We now know where that ends up.
So, did I miss something? Where did I go wrong trying to navigate my help resources to get to the page you send me the direct link to?