Workaround for crystal reports soft hyphen bug - c#

I'm completely new to crystal reports 2013 and am running into the soft hyphen bug (as described in more detail in following SAP Thread). In short: the soft hyphen character won't show up in the generated crystal report file (but i need this exact character for a barcode validation but it's only shown in the generated pdf).
Since i need the crystal report file instead of a pdf, i'm looking for a workaround. I also tried the bug fix mentioned in the link above, but i have to do this fix on many systems, so it's not the best solution yet.
I thought about following workaround: If a crystal report file is going to be created, the program should generate an image of the bar code text and replace the barcode text with the generated image in the appropriate formula field.
What i want to know is:
Is this workaround even possible?
If not: are there any other, better, workarounds?
If not: do you know a working bugfix?
EDIT:
I tried a few things since i posted my question:
I thought, maybe it's a machine related problem. I'm working on a Windows 8.1 Enterprise, which is a german version. So i tried to recreate this exact problem on an english windows 8.1 OS. Unfortunately, i got the same incorrect barcode. So it doesn't seem to be a machine related problem.
I generated, programmatically with C#, a string with the "Code128" Font and saved it as a .png on my machine. It also rendered the soft hyphen as another character (unicode 172).
The problem is, that the barcode128 formula generates a checksum sign and for the exact string, i got a problem with validating, it generates the 173 char. So i can't directly influence the use of the soft hyphen since i need it for the validation.

Finally i've got the answer. It was a problem with my barcode font "Code128.ttf".
I don't know that much about fonts, but after a while, i decided to change the ascii code of the barcode character. So i opened the font in an editing software for fonts and saw, that there's actually no sign deposited for the soft hyphen. That's a little tricky since the windows character table and other programs are showing an alternate character for the soft hyphen. In my case, it was the Yen character (ascii code 165).
Either you use another barcode 128 font, or you have to use a font editing software to get the actual character layout.

Related

Special characters won't display after ServerReport.Render() call

On the server running SQL Server Reporting Services, I'm able to run a report and get back a document with symbols included within (☎ and ✉). I'm even able to save the resulting page as a PDF - special characters intact.
The problem turns up when I create the PDF in C# code using ServerReport.Render() and all the special characters get turned into little empty squares (􀀀 and 􀀀).
I tried adding <HumanReadablePDF>true</HumanReadablePDF> into <Extension Name="PDF" Type="Microsoft.ReportingServices.Rendering.ImageRenderer.PDFRenderer,Microsoft.ReportingServices.ImageRendering"> in the \Reporting Services\ReportServer\rsreportserver.config file but that hasn't helped either.
Is there something I'm missing the in the configuration of the SSRS server? Is there another way of accomplishing this, perhaps with a special font or by parsing and replacing text with images?

C# windows form cannot display simplified Chinese characters

Somehow my previous question has been marked as duplicate.
Question:
I have a database with records in Chinese characters. I can take them out, and use them in button.Text.
However, when I use
Console.WriteLine(button.Text);
The output displays every Chinese character as a "?"
Now, why is the question NOT duplicate?
I have THOROUGHLY searched for a solution, not just on stackoverflow, on everywhere I can search (with my limited skills). Read all those related posts. I found two potential solutions:
One:
Console.OutputEncoding = Encoding.Unicode;
Unicode, UTF8, UT7, UTF32.
Two:
Change my computer's locale in Control Panel to a region with Simplified Chinese. Then reboot and run the solution again.
I have tried both these suggested solutions, individually and together. Nothing works. The output changes from "?" to completely jibberish, unrecognizable characters.
Does anyone have any idea what to do here?
This is a more complete version of my comment. The way I was able to display Simplified Chinese characters was by changing the language of Non-Unicode programs to Chinese:
Then in the cmd properties set the font to Consolas
I didn't even need to set the Console.OutputEncoding. This is the result (these are Chinese characters copy/pasted from the internet):
I think this is a duplicate of How to write Unicode characters to the console? which indicates that although .net and Unicode support your characters, the Font you are using as the output font of the Console does not support that Unicode character.
Your post does not indicate that you have tried adjusting the Console Font.

Uneven character kerning in PDF when converted from Word via automation

I need your expertise in fixing a problem I have been facing from a week. This has already turned into a 'royal pain in the lower back side' category and time is running out fast.
Problem
I have developed a C# script that I call from ColdFusion to assist me in converting Word documents to PDF. This script is doing the conversion properly, but the (justified) text in the paragraphs is not being spaced properly. I get a non-select-able space next to some character.
See the image -
What is should look like...
What it looks like...
The red marks are added to show the spaces created.
Now, if I open the file by word manually and save it, I do not get this same problem. What is that I'm missing or doing wrong, that has resulted in this error?
Details of my application flow -
I create a DOC (based on my design needs) and save it as HTML.
This HTML will be used by my CF application to manipulate the content based on some placeholders and the final output is again saved as HTML.
The xx.html file is renamed to xx.doc and passed to my C# based converter, which does the doc to pdf convertion via Word Automation.
I ponder in joy seeing my well formed PDF output, but get sad that the text is a bit messy.
I have tried this with multiple fonts and what i observe is that it only happens with certain fonts (in my case its Palatino - Linotype). I want to know, what is the difference from manual to automation? Is there a setting (like a boolean) that is to done for this or some other hacks?
My system configuration -
Windows 2008 R2 64b + .NET 4 + Office 2010
Note: I know that office automation is bad. So on this date and time, this is the only option I have to get my job done.
I found a work-around for this. It seems to be dependent on the selected printer!
First go to the print dialog (File / Print) and select "Microsoft XPS Document Writer" instead of your normal printer. You don't need to print anything,
Now export the PDF (File / Export / Create PDF)
Selecting other printer drivers may work also. I found this solution at this thread: http://www.howtofixcomputers.com/forums/microsoft-office/bad-kerning-pdf-using-save-pdf-xps-add-244886.html
Notes:
I also installed Adobe PDF Writer before finding this. It's possible that affected it.
My system is Windows 8.1 & Office 2013 running under Fusion 5.0.3 on a Mac mini.
I guess that the trouble could be in used font. Please try:
change font
ensure, that language of the text (LanguageID Property) is correct
Or it could be inserted special character, for example, wrong way interpreted inserted "no-width optional break". Try to select the text, cut&paste in word and see non-printable characters - it should be visible.

Whitespace converted to rectangle

When I copy the first paragraph of this page from my browser to a notepad which is under (محمد بصل), I see whitespaces replaced with rectangles in my notepad:
http://www.shorouknews.com/news/view.aspx?cdate=03092012&id=73df0e96-a9d8-44a1-83a8-77b0daf314a7
How can I convert this in C# code to be inserted properly as whitespace in a SQL Server table?
Thanks.
The issue is likely that the characters used in the source web page are not supported by the font used by notepad. As long as the character codes are maintained by everything (your IDE, DB library and so on), you should be fine. Of course, this is an assumption. I have not tried out Visual Studio's extended character support myself.

How to create barcodes using ReportViewer Local Report VS 2008?

I'm trying to figure out how to create barcodes using ReportViewer Local Report VS 2008.
I find a component at:
www.neodynamic.com/barcodes/Interleaved_2_of_5_Barcode_asp_net.aspx
It seems there is no other solution native... Is there another alternative way?
Depends on what kind of barcode you need. For basic barcodes you could just use free barcode font
I've always implemented barcodes using a font. Barcodes are nothing more than data presented in a different way. Instead of human-readable they are "barcode scanner readable", so to speak.
You'll need to find fonts (Google search - there's lots available for free) that suit the symbology (or symbologies) supported by the scanner being used. Some readers need start and stop characters as well. So, for example, if you had an ID value of 123456 you might put that in a textbox on your report surrounded by start and stop character * - *123456*, and then apply your barcode font to the textbox.

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