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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.Close; Then, inside the report.onActive have code of the form if scn_flg then ppReport1.DeviceType := dtScreen else ppReport1.DeviceType := dtPrinter; ppReport1.Print; // while not CloseQuery do Application.ProcessMessages;

Report Builder Tricks Emailing Achieving a different look for each record reported on