MATLAB: When using Simulink Report Generator, why do I not see the custom footer in the report after adding a chapter

Simulink Report Generator

I am creating a form report using Simulink Report Generator and a custom template. When I select my template, I am able to define the contents of the footer which works fine over the first few pages.

After this though, I add a model loop which adds chapters and the footers disappear. How can I fix this?

Best Answer

The reason the footer disappears is because the default footer definition only applies to the default first page formatting. When you add a chapter to the report, the document enters a new style which does not define footers by default.

The solution to this is to define a style for chapters in your template file so you can add custom footers to it explicitly.

Attached is an example using a Word template to demonstrate this.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to use a custom Word template for headers and footers in MATLAB Report Generator

To use a custom-made Word template, create a new document using the "mlreportgen.dom.Document" constructor and set the "templatePath" property to your DOTX file. Here is the documentation for a Document object:

<https://www.mathworks.com/help/rptgen/ug/mlreportgen.dom.document-class.html>

And here is a simple example using a custom-made template file from MS Word within the MALTAB Report Generator API:

import mlreportgen.dom.*

d = Document('MyWordDoc', 'docx', 'CustomTemplate.dotx'); %assuming template is in same folder; otherwise, specify full path

open(d);

append(d,'Hello World'); % add some text to generate doc

close(d);

rptview(d.OutputPath)

This formatting for headers and footers will disappear if you are adding chapters to the report. To customize chapter page headers, see the following documented examples for creating and editing chapter templates:

<https://www.mathworks.com/help/rptgen/ug/customize-chapter-page-headers-in-pdf-and-word-reports.html>

MATLAB: How to add a footer in PDF report using only Report API with chapters

The report generation in MATLAB allows you to create a custom template for reporters using 'customizeReporter' method for reporter classes in mlreportgen.report.*. You can create a custom chapter template first and add holes to create a footer in the PDF template. For reference, template holes are places in a template that the report program fills with content.

The following steps illustrate how to add a footer in the report:

Step 1 – Create a custom chapter class with the following command:

>> mlreportgen.report.Chapter.customizeReporter('@customChapter');
               This will create a folder named '@customChapter' in your current directory. It contains the file 'customChapter.m' and a resource directory.

Step 2 – Navigate to the PDF template - @customChapter/resources/templates/pdf, unzip the PDF template using the command:

>> unzip("default.pdftx","default")
              This will create a folder named “default” with "root.html" and "docpart_templates.html"

Step 3 – Edit the PDF template to add a footer containing a hole. For example, you can update the "docpart_templates.html" with following code in the <body> section :

......
<layout>
  <pfooter type="default" template-name="MyPageFooter"/>
</layout>
:
:
<dptemplate name="MyPageFooter">
    <p style="text-align:right;font-family:Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;font-size:10pt">
     <hole id="PageFooterHole1" /> </p>
   </dptemplate>
......

For more details on how to add footer, refer to

https://www.mathworks.com/help/releases/R2018a/rptgen/ug/add-page-footers-and-headers.html#bu710dp-1

Step 4 – Zip the template (remember to be on the path @customChapter/resources/templates/pdf:

>> zipTemplate("default.pdftx","default")

Step 5 – Edit 'customChapter.m' and add a property that matches the hole ID in the template. Each hole in the report will be replaced by the value of the corresponding property of the report. In this case, create property name 'PageFooterHole1' for 'customChapter' class.

Step 6 – Create a chapter with custom chapter template. Set the content for the footer hole by setting the corresponding property of the report object. In this example, following code would create report and add a chapter with desired footer content:

>> rpt = Report('test','pdf'); %create a report object
>> ch = customChapter;
>> tp = TitlePage;  %create a title page
>> tp.Title = 'Test Case Results';
>> tp.Subtitle = 'Subtitle';
>> tp.Author = 'John';
>> add(rpt,tp);
>> ch.PageFooterHole1 =  mlreportgen.dom.Text("This is my footer1");
>> add(rpt,ch);
>> add(rpt, "body content");
>> add(rpt, mlreportgen.dom.PageBreak);
>> add(rpt, "body content");
>> close(rpt);
>> rptview(rpt); % To view the report

This will create a PDF report with a title page and a chapter with two pages showing the footer with the style specified in "docpart_templates.html".

Files are attached for reference.

Please note that you can adapt this method to add headers as well or any other customization needed by your workflow. For instance, the following MATLAB Answers post discusses an approach to add an image to a header:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/469827-add-image-in-the-header-of-the-report

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to use a custom Word template for headers and footers in MATLAB Report Generator

MATLAB: How to add a footer in PDF report using only Report API with chapters

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