Importance of .dtl file for a report

I know one thing it does is allow you to send your report to a csv file from the print manager. Without that dtl file, you cannot create a csv file output.

The .dtl file mirrors the .prt file, at least in number of records.  The records in the .dtl file indicate the format/type of the corresponding record in the .prt file.  This is used by prtmgr and other utilities to help facilitate report drill-around and CSV file creation among others

one of my custom report doesnt show the send to csv option. I verified the .dtl file and it is created. The only difference i see is that the records in .dtl file are not vertical lines. There is only one line with all the data scrolling till the end.

when I manually changed the records in .dtl file to vertical lines. I could see the send to csv option.


can anyone tell me what would be the reason behind creating the .dtl file with only one horizontal record?

It sounds like you're saying there are no line-feed (hex 0A) characters in the .dtl file?  That kind of makes sense if Lawson thinks the .prt and .dtl files aren't in synch, there coul dbe all sorts of issues.

Is this a standard 4GL report program or is the something special about this report?

Finally, how did you 'convert' the .dtl so that it worked

its a simple custom 4GL program report program. There is nothing special with this program.


I changed the .dtl file which printed a single horizontal line to n number of vertical lines...

Please see the attached files for the before .dtl and after .dtl.

before file is the file before changes..

some breakthrough for the issue....

the problem is with standard footer in the report. when i removed the standard footer i could see the Send to CSV option enabled.


But the same thing was working in 7.2.4 but not in 8.10 applications.

Is it a constraint in 8.10?

I think it stopped working with the 8.0.3 environment, when the 'xtra' components were added; it also messed up PDF generation. Lawson removed all of their usage within their standard programs. You have to count lines if you need that functionality.