Report%20Builder

1
Report Builder

• Third party Banded Report writer coded in Delphi
• Available in four versions from Digital Metaphors
• Integrates into the Delphi environment
• Delphi 4 to Rad Studio
• Supports external templates to allow user
  customisation
• Very powerful
• Working with Professional Version today
• Current US pricing is 495

2
Report Builder

• Why do I use this product
• Tired of Borland changing the reporting tool from
  version to version - Report Smith, Quick
  Reports, Rave Reports
• Needed to be able to offer our customer base an
  easy way to personalise their reports with out
  attending a major training course
• Easy for support guys to whip up a change that
  looks good and is chargeable

3
Report Builder

• Why do I use this product
• Tired of Borland changing the reporting tool from
  version to version - Report Smith, Quick
  Reports, Rave Reports
• Needed to be able to offer our customer base an
  easy way to personalise their reports with out
  attending a major training course
• Easy for support guys to whip up a change that
  looks good and is chargeable
• Major benefit is that, with a minimal amount of
  programming, printed reports e.g. invoices can be
  personalised by client or other appropriate
  records

4
Report Builder

• Why do I use this product
• Tired of Borland changing the reporting tool from
  version to version - Report Smith, Quick
  Reports, Rave Reports
• Needed to be able to offer our customer base an
  easy way to personalise their reports with out
  attending a major training course
• Easy for support guys to whip up a change that
  looks good and is chargeable
• Major benefit is that, with a minimal amount of
  programming, printed reports e.g. invoices can be
  personalised by client or other appropriate
  records
• Handles complex form like reports such as
  payslips with multiple datasources placed beside
  each other

5
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder
• Create a new form
• Select the Rbuilder tab
• Insert a ppReport component

6
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder
• Create a new form
• Select the Rbuilder tab
• Insert a ppReport component
• Set up a data source such as a table or Query

7
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder
• Create a new form
• Select the Rbuilder tab
• Insert a ppReport component
• Set up a data source such as a table or Query
• Now add TppPipeLine component which can be
• A TppDBPipeLine (which is what I use)
• A ppBDEPipeline for BDE use
• A ppTextPipeline (data from an Ascii text file)
• A ppJITPipeline (data from Delphi objects)
• Beware of getting all the relevant fields

8
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• Now double click on the ppReport component and
  the layout screen appears
• Next insert the appropriate components as in a
  typical report generator via the Command bar at
  the top
• The icons on the left of the double bar are
  the Static items such as labels, memos,
  pictures, bar codes

9
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• Now double click on the ppReport component and
  the layout screen appears
• Next insert the appropriate components as in a
  typical report generator via the Command bar at
  the top
• The icons on the left of the double bar are
  the Static items such as labels, memos,
  pictures, bar codes
• The next set of icons are the database components

10
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• Now double click on the ppReport component and
  the layout screen appears
• Next insert the appropriate components as in a
  typical report generator via the Command bar at
  the top
• The icons on the left of the double bar are
  the Static items such as labels, memos,
  pictures, bar codes
• The next set of icons are the database
  components
• All the static items can be programmed to
  different values as the report transverses the
  data stream use the alignment tools to position
  the components

11
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• The three icons after the second double bar
  are the most interesting
• Regions
• Used to group components which must move together
• Can contain anything and can stretch or be of
  fixed size
• Can be set to move relative to another stretching
  component
• Use region to contain non stretching components
  and then reference this region

12
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• The three icons after the second double bar
  are the most interesting
• Regions
• Used to group components which must move together
• Can contain anything and can stretch or be of
  fixed size
• Can be set to move relative to another stretching
  component
• Use region to contain non stretching components
  and then reference this region
• Subreports
• This function the same way as other report
  writers

13
Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• The three icons after the second double bar
  are the most interesting
• Regions
• Used to group components which must move together
• Can contain anything and can stretch or be of
  fixed size
• Can be set to move relative to another stretching
  component
• Use region to contain non stretching components
  and then reference this region
• Subreports
• This functions the same way as normal
• Cross Tabs
• This functions the same way as other report
  writers

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Report Builder

• How to use the Report Builder continued
• Report can be called via Show or ShowModal (I use
  Show) e.g.
• Spa_print true // flag to skip on
  re-activating calling form InstNetForm.Show
  InstNetForm.CloseThen, inside the
  report.onActive have code of the formif scn_flg
  then ppReport1.DeviceType dtScreenelse
  ppReport1.DeviceType dtPrinter
• ppReport1.Print//while not CloseQuery do
  Application.ProcessMessages

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Report Builder

• Tricks
• Emailing
• Achieving a different look for each record
  reported on