Will you be able to have a web version for web based apps?
I just used up my free OpenCode message to answer this question.
Following is answered by the agent:
Short answer:
yes for server-generated reports — the engine already runs headless inside a
B4J server — but it's not a browser-side/JS renderer.
What works today
The core has no UI or JavaFX dependency, so it runs inside a jServer handler. There's a runnable example in
examples/server: a request comes in, the handler binds data, builds, and exports — the same
.repot template that produces PDF on desktop.
-
HTML export produces a complete standalone document (doctype, inline CSS,
@media print page rules), so a browser renders it directly — no assets to serve alongside it.
-
Deterministic: no ambient clock or locale, so identical input produces identical output. That's what makes server-side caching sane.
-
Any format from one build: HTML, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, ODT, ODS, CSV/JSON/XML.
A minimal handler looks like this (jServer API verified):
Sub Handle (req As ServletRequest, resp As ServletResponse)
Dim Report As Repot
Report.Initialize
Report.LoadTemplate(File.DirApp, "invoice.repot")
' ... bind parameters and data from the request / database ...
If Report.Build.Success = False Then
resp.Status = 500
resp.Write("Report build failed")
Return
End If
Dim ex As ReportHtmlExporter
ex.Initialize(Report.Diagnostics)
resp.ContentType = "text/html; charset=utf-8"
resp.Write(ex.ToHtml(Report.Result.RenderDocument))
End Sub
For a PDF response, export to
File.DirTemp, set
ContentType = "application/pdf" and
Content-Disposition, then copy the file to
resp.OutputStream (the exporters write to a path; a stream/in-memory export is a small addition I can make if it matters).
What it is not
-
Not responsive HTML. The HTML exporter is fixed-layout: absolutely positioned spans in points, one
div per page. It looks exactly like the PDF and prints page-for-page from the browser — great for invoices, statements, reports. It is
not a semantic, mobile-reflowing page. A "flow" mode (responsive HTML) was designed but never implemented.
-
No client-side rendering. Template evaluation, layout and pagination happen in B4X on the server. There's no JS runtime that renders
.repot in the browser, and no hosted service.
So the question back to you: is your web app showing
documents (invoice/statement/report the user prints or downloads) or
responsive pages (a report list that reflows on a phone)? The first works today. The second needs the flow exporter, which is a different layout engine — happy to gauge interest, since "web reports" is the reason it was on the roadmap.
