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Editting RAF files

rbuserrbuser
edited April 2003 in General
I have approximately 50 Report Archive Files (RAF) that are samples of our
application's output. The sample reports in the user interface and used in
marketing literature. We recently updated our company logo and need to
update each RAF file with it. I'd like to be able to simply replace the
logo and not have to regenerate the files (which will be a really large
project!).

Any suggestions ?

Thank you,
Terry.

Comments

  • rbuserrbuser
    edited April 2003
    > I have approximately 50 Report Archive Files (RAF) that are samples of our
    in

    Change your logo back to what it was.

    I have never heard of the RAF file format being published--not that this is
    impossible to do. I would guess that regenerating the 50 reports is part of
    the cost of changing the logo.

    Ed Dressel
    Team DM
  • rbuserrbuser
    edited April 2003
    Hi Ed,


    it looks like created by Delphi's component streaming feature using a simple header. I think it could be converted by Borland's 'Convert.exe' to text after manipulating the header. It would be possible to exchange the bitmaps by exchanging the data of property 'Picture.Data' and correcting the length bytes (you need a hex editor that allows this kind of changes). If the bitmaps has the same resolution and size it would be simpler. You need to created first a RAF file that has the new bitmaps embedded (and therefore as text converted).

    regards,
    Chris Ueberall;
  • nicociziknicocizik
    edited April 2003
    Terry,

    This is not a built-in function of ReportBuilder. Archive files are meant
    to act as a snapshot of a set of reports. You may be able to create a
    utility to preform the task automatically but this may end up taking more
    time than just regenerating the .raf files. If you would like to try
    creating a utility to do this, check out the TppArchiveDevice class in the
    ppFilDev.pas file and the TppArchiveReader in the ppArchiv.pas file. At the
    top of the archive file a directory structure is built so that you will know
    the starting position of each page in the archive file. Each page contains
    a different amount of data so please see the TppArchiveReader for an example
    of reading page objects from the archive file.

    --
    Best Regards,

    Nico Cizik
    Digital Metaphors
    http://www.digital-metaphors.com
  • rbuserrbuser
    edited April 2003
    Thanks for all your comments. Regenerating the .raf samples is not an
    option so I will attempt a utility to do the image replacements.

    Thanks,
    Terry.

  • rbuserrbuser
    edited April 2003
    Terry;

    I have a utility that can reverse engineer a page (or pages) in a RAF file
    and allow you to make changes. It does not write it back to the RAF file
    (but I could make it do that). I save it to a template file and also
    provide the ability to generate a bitmap. I created this to do just what
    you are doing, update the marketing literature. Are you sending out the RAF
    files or just using them as printed examples?

    I had thought of making this utility available to the public, but didn't
    know if anyone had a use for it.

    E-mail me if you need this!

    Regards,
    Chuck Van Acker
    Alogent Corp.
    Software Architect
    www.Alogent.com
This discussion has been closed.