Before buying
Hello,
I tried some report generators and think that RB is my favorite so I may buy
it if I get a few answers.
1 / Is it possible to share or inherit a part of a report. For exemple, I
want all my report to use the same header and, if possible, I don't want to
recreate it each time.
2 / I've got some applications that use the same presentation (header,
footer, ...). If the answer to my first question is yes, then is it possible
to share a report (or one part of a report) between apps (I don't want, if
possible to provide a separated report file, see next question). Of course,
if it's possible to inherit a report (QReport can do it) there is not such a
problem as you just have to share the common report.
3 / I want to give the ability to the user to edit the reports, with the
report generator. But I also want to provide them with a default report.
What I thought is : I provide a report in my exe. If the user want to
customize the report he click on a button and the report is stored on the
disk. He can edit the report stored on disk. If a report exists on disk,
then my application use that one, if not, the application use the embedded
report. This way I can provide new versions of my reports without erasing
the modifications done by the user.
So my question is : is it possible to save a report stored in the exe ? Is
it a good way to process or do you think that a better way to do this exists
(this is an important answer to me) ?
Thanxs in advance
Julien
I tried some report generators and think that RB is my favorite so I may buy
it if I get a few answers.
1 / Is it possible to share or inherit a part of a report. For exemple, I
want all my report to use the same header and, if possible, I don't want to
recreate it each time.
2 / I've got some applications that use the same presentation (header,
footer, ...). If the answer to my first question is yes, then is it possible
to share a report (or one part of a report) between apps (I don't want, if
possible to provide a separated report file, see next question). Of course,
if it's possible to inherit a report (QReport can do it) there is not such a
problem as you just have to share the common report.
3 / I want to give the ability to the user to edit the reports, with the
report generator. But I also want to provide them with a default report.
What I thought is : I provide a report in my exe. If the user want to
customize the report he click on a button and the report is stored on the
disk. He can edit the report stored on disk. If a report exists on disk,
then my application use that one, if not, the application use the embedded
report. This way I can provide new versions of my reports without erasing
the modifications done by the user.
So my question is : is it possible to save a report stored in the exe ? Is
it a good way to process or do you think that a better way to do this exists
(this is an important answer to me) ?
Thanxs in advance
Julien
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Thanks for your interest in ReportBuilder.
1. Two options for inheritance:
a. Use Delphi's Form inheritance. This does not work for the DataPipelines
but will work for the report layouts. Form inheritance is not compatible
with the use of report templates (i.e. rtm files), but since you prefer not
to use them, I do not think this will be an issue for you.
b. Use subreports that you save to template files. Since you prefer to not
use .rtm files, there is also a technique you can use, in which a subreport
refers to another report. An example of this technique can be downloaded
from
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/SubReference.zip
2. Yes.
3. Yes this is a good way to accomplish this. The only other alternative
would be to distribute the default reports as template files or a template
database.
--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
Best regards,
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
www.digital-metaphors.com