how to write "page break"??

[freddy1228]

Dear all,

I'm new to php, hope someone can solve my problem.

i have a text file named records.txt
and i collect a set of data from a html form.
After, I need to print out the set of data per page.

here is the code:

$rec_file="records.txt";
$something="data from html \n";

$fpr = fopen($rec_file,'a');
if ($fpr) {
fwrite($fpr, $something);
fwrite($fpr,"\f"); //insert page break
fclose($fpr);
}

But the file don't have the page break...just have new line (\n)
is .txt file not support page break?
if so, any suggestion to solve?
Thanks very much

P.S. i have try \f \r \a, but still not work..

[freddy1228]

Please help me...

[pyro]

What exactly is the problem? Does the file records.txt not contain new lines once it is written to? What do you mean by "page break"?

[ereptur]

Page break, you know... one of those codes that tells a printer to stop printing on the current page and begin within the margin of the next page.

[pyro]

Ah well, as far as I know, it is not possible to do that in a simple text file...

[ereptur]

That's what I thought, but I wasn't sure. I was wondering about this as well. Now I guess we all know.

[BeastRider]

Are you trying to put your text on multiple html pages or multiple printer pages?

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by pyro
What exactly is the problem? Does the file records.txt not contain new lines once it is written to? What do you mean by "page break"?

page break, i mean form feed.

After a set of data is printed out,
start printing the second set of data from a new blank paper.

[ereptur]

Yeah, it's just that I don't think that you can do this with regular ASCII text files.

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by ereptur
Yeah, it's just that I don't think that you can do this with regular ASCII text files.

OH..
what can i do?

is there any other method to do this task?

[pyro]

In an HTML file, you would use CSS:

<p style="page-break-before: always;">Your first set of data</p>
<p style="page-break-before: always;">Your second set of data</p>

[ereptur]

I believe that regular paper (8.5x11) will general look good with 60-65 lines of text. You could create a counter and as you write your file to disk, you could inject 10 "\n" everytime it hits 60 some-odd lines.

This is over simplified, but you get the idea.

foreach($fileline as $line) {
   fwrite($line,$fp);
   if($counter % 60 == 0) {
      fwrite("\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n",$fp);
   }
}

Edit: added code

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by pyro
In an HTML file, you would use CSS:

<p style="page-break-before: always;">Your first set of data</p>
<p style="page-break-before: always;">Your second set of data</p>

The whole fact is that,

1. A HTML form for collecting data, which contain,
   for example:
   <form action="store_data.php" method="post">
   Name: <input type="text" name="name">
   Address:<textarea rows="40" cols="5" name="add"></textarea>
   <input type="submit">
   </form>

2. A PHP file named store_data.php, which will write
   the data collected into a text file named records.txt
   (it is described in the first post)

3. The final task is printout the data one set of data per page.
   because there is <textarea> in the html form, so i don't know the number of lines per record, otherwise i can use
   fwrite(" \n");
   to fill the remaining lines in the file

the first method i use is insert a page break(form feed) after a set of data is written to the file, but it seems not work...

Therefore, from your experience, what can i do now??

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by ereptur
I believe that regular paper (8.5x11) will general look good with 60-65 lines of text. You could create a counter and as you write your file to disk, you could inject 10 "\n" everytime it hits 60 some-odd lines.

This is over simplified, but you get the idea.

foreach($fileline as $line) {
   fwrite($line,$fp);
   if($counter % 60 == 0) {
      fwrite("\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n",$fp);
   }
}

Edit: added code [/B]

that's what i am doing, but i don't know the number lines per records, cause it's not fixed

[ereptur]

What do you mean it's not fixed? Are you printing out pages alphabetically? If that's the case, then you can do the modulus on the 60 lines records and also test for changes in the first letter of the record.

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by ereptur
What do you mean it's not fixed? Are you printing out pages alphabetically? If that's the case, then you can do the modulus on the 60 lines records and also test for changes in the first letter of the record.

The number of lines of a record is not fixed mean
the first record maybe like this:

Name: Freddy
Address: Flat abc, xyz street
mnopq district,
hong kong

the second record maybe like this:

Name : Mary
Address: Room abc
15 floor,
DEF Bldg.,
XXX street,
qqq,
Hong Kong

so, the first record have 4 lines, if a A4 paper should write, say 60 lines, i can fill the remaining line by 56 times fwrite("\n")
but
the second record have 7 number of lines, it should write 53 times..

do u get what i mean??
sorry for my poor english /.\

[ereptur]

I get what you mean now. It is an interesting problem. I'm not sure how to go about solving this problem. Maybe try storing all of the output in an array until it goes over the number of lines allowed on a page. Then back up one record. Fill the rest of the array with "\n". Then output the file. Just use a preset 10 lines for a header and 10 lines for a footer. Then you have 40 lines left to work with. This should give you good margins.

[BeastRider]

If you are running this print routine under windows, then the solution is relatively trivial... use a printer "start page" to force a new page... you do not need to keep track of lines.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.printer.php

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by BeastRider
If you are running this print routine under windows, then the solution is relatively trivial... use a printer "start page" to force a new page... you do not need to keep track of lines.

http://www.php.net/manual/en/ref.printer.php

I'm runing PHP on linux....

[freddy1228]

Originally posted by ereptur
I get what you mean now. It is an interesting problem. I'm not sure how to go about solving this problem. Maybe try storing all of the output in an array until it goes over the number of lines allowed on a page. Then back up one record. Fill the rest of the array with "\n". Then output the file. Just use a preset 10 lines for a header and 10 lines for a footer. Then you have 40 lines left to work with. This should give you good margins.

thanks all

i think i know how to do...
just can't believe such simple task need so many lines of code...

i will try using array, but the full set of data is more than 2 pages...and 5 textarea input from HTML,
the effort on formatting the printout is much much more than collecting and processing the data.....-.-"