Report Builder verses Rave Reports in Delphi 7

rbuser

Hi,

Just a short question. What are the pro's and con's of Report Builder and
Rave Reports that come with Delphi 7 Arch. Edition?

I currently use Report Builder v6.x and am wondering what are the
differences between them both.

So...

1) Report Builder or Rave?

I need barcode components and labels that can be rotated too (not buggy 3rd
party versions). These are
essential to our product.

Thanks,

--
Justin Heasman
Software Development Manager
Office Mobile Solutions Ltd.
---
E: justinDEFINATELY@NOofficemobilesolutionsSPAM.PLEASEcom
W: www.officemobilesolutions.com

digitalmetaphors

Hi Justin,

If you want to know what has been added to ReportBuilder in version 7 over
6.03 then here it is. Below is a compilation of our release notes takenfrom
RB 7.0, 7.01 and 7.02. To get a better feel for it, download RB 7.02 Server
Edition (installs a copy of RB Enterprise by default as well) and give it a
test drive.

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Enhancements
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Version 7.02 - 3/15/2002
------------

1. Background Printing!

New Report.BackgroundPrintSettings can be used to enable a report to print
in a background thread. To use this option, you must ensure that the report
container (i.e. DataModule or Form) provides a thread-safe execution
evironment for the report.

2. Report Parameters!

New Report.Parameters property can be used to define custom report
parameters that can be saved as part of the report definition. The
Parameters are accessible from the RAP coding environment and can be used in
the Server Edition to send report parameters between the client and server.

3. TeeChart 6.0 support for Delphi 7, 6, & 5!

4. Custom Web Report Viewer!

The WebTier architecture has been enhanced to simplify customization of the
web viewer's toolbar. For an example, see RBServer\Demos\Web Tier\Custom
Viewer. The example includes a ReadMe.doc and commented code.

5. GUID Session ID's!

The WebTier and Server have been enhanced to generate GUID's for the session
id's.


Version 7.01 - 1/2/2003
------------

1. Text Search!

The print preview form supports text searching for all previewed pages. The
producers, TppReport, TppArchiveReader, TppDBArchiveReader, and
TppClientReport support a new TextSearchSettings property. This property is
used to control the default text search behavior.

2. TeeChart 5.03 support for Delphi 7!

3. Calculated fields in DADE query dataviews can be added as search
criteria!


Version 7 - 9/2/2002
----------


1. Server Edition

Version 7 of ReportBuilder marks the release of the Server Edition. The
Server Edition represents over a years' worth of effort on the part of DM.
We think that you will be absolutely blown away by this product, and how
easy it makes web reporting. Check out the Trial Edition at:

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/server/TrialEdition.html

2. Thread safe DADE, RAP and Report Engine

In order to make the Server Edition possible, the data processing engine
(DADE), Object Pascal interpreter (RAP) and the report engine were all made
thread-safe. This means that you can now count on thread safety when
pursuing options such as background processing of print jobs, etc.

3. Outline

A TreeView summarizing the structure of the generated report and
providing clickable nodes which take you to the page for given content is
now displayed in the Print Preview form. The main report, groups and section
type subreports can participate in the generation of the Outline. Use the
OutlineSettings property for each of these objects to control the generation
of the outline.

4. PreviewFormSettings

The main report component (TppReport) now contains a PreviewFormSettings
property. Use this to control the initial WindowState, ZoomSetting and
ZoomPercentage of the Preview Form (and say goodbye to all of those
OnPreviewFormCreate event handlers!)

5. DBArchiveReader

This new component makes it easy to preview and print report archives
stored in a database BLOB fields.

6. DBImage auto loading

When assigned to a database field with a string data type, the DBImage
component will now automatically assume that the string field contains the
full path and file name to an image file and attempt to load that image from
file when it generates.

7. Enhanced TeeChart support

It is no longer necessary to purchase the registered version of TeeChart
in order to print and preview reports containing charts. If you need to
redistribute the TeeChart UI as part of an end-user reporting solution (and
you are not building your application with packages), then it is still
necessary to purchase TeeChart. The dcu files for the TeeChart UI are not
(and never have been) included with the 'free' version of TeeChart which
installs with Delphi.

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As far as BarCodes go, ReportBuilder natively supports the following barcode
types:

- Codabar
- Code 128
- Code 39
- EAN-8
- EAN-13
- Interleaved 2 of 5
- PostNet
- UPC-A
- UPC-E

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Improving the rotated text support in RB is on the ToDo list.

I'm sure that you find the new features in RB 7.02 useful and that they will
provide you with added flexibility when a reporting application. Kind in
mind that RB 7 contains over a year's worth of maintenance (optimizations
and bug fixes) following the release of RB 6.03.

If you want to know what your fellow developer's in the Delphi community
think: ReportBuilder has won the Delphi Informant Magazine Reader's Choice
awards for 'Best Reporting Tool' and 'Product of the Year' for four years
running!

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors