Printing in calendar format using forms

Question

I need to print to a file in a calendar format, with
monthly view using Forms 9i. Oracle Portal and APEX
is not an option.
There is a table which consists data for several months,
and I need to use oracle forms as parameter form
to pass the date range to print the calendar.
The requirement is one month per page. I am thinking
there should be a way to generate an HTML output.
As always, looking forward to some great ideas.
thanks

Answer 1

OK. Here goes:
Query 1:
/*Select the months between the from and to dates */
SELECT months, to_date('01-'||months,'DD-MON-YYYY') order_date
FROM ( SELECT distinct TO_CHAR(days,'MON-YYYY') months
FROM (SELECT :p_fr_date + (ROWNUM-1) days
FROM M191F
WHERE ROWNUM <= to_number(:p_to_date - :p_fr_date) +1)
ORDER BY to_date('01-'||months,'DD-MON-YYYY')
M191F is a dummy table with 1000 rows in it. It has 1 column M191COPY NUMBER(10). We use it just as a driver if things want to bring out a given number of records. We are using a parameter form in the report to get p_to_date and p_fr_date but that would be easy to receive from a Form.
In the group I see there is a formula column producing the page title, it returns
return to_char(:order_date,'fmMonth YYYY');
Query 2
Now you need to take some headache pills:
SELECT
TO_CHAR((TO_DATE('01-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY') -
DECODE(TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('01-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'),
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('24-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 0,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('25-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 1,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('26-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 2,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('27-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 3,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('28-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 4,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('01-MAR-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 5,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('02-MAR-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 6)) + (ROWNUM-1) ,'FMDy dd Mon YYYY') datee,
'' day, '' tasks, to_date('') the_date
FROM M191F
WHERE ROWNUM <= DECODE(TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('01-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'),
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('24-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 0,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('25-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 1,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('26-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 2,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('27-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 3,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('28-FEB-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 4,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('01-MAR-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 5,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE('02-MAR-2003','DD-MON-YYYY'),'Dy'), 6)
UNION ALL
SELECT TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(ROWNUM||'-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY'),'FMDy dd Mon YYYY') datee,
TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(ROWNUM||'-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY'),'dd') day,
ans_y_util.daily_tasks (:p_owner, TO_DATE(ROWNUM||'-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY')) tasks,
TO_DATE(ROWNUM||'-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY') the_date
FROM M191F
WHERE ROWNUM <= TO_CHAR(LAST_DAY(TO_DATE('01-'||:months,'DD-MON-YYYY')),'DD')
The union bit is the call to our function in ans_y_util which I think will return some text to say what's happening on the date provided, for the user. So it calls that once for each date in the range, even if there's nothing happening on that day.
It looks like the trick is in working out which day of the week you're on about. Putting the hard coded date of reference in Feb 2003 gives it a starting point.
Then all this is neatly laid out in the Layout Editor... ;-) I guess it's something to do with an Across/Down layout, measured to fit the 7 cells in it across before going down.
I hope this is relevant. But you did ask!