Report Explorer XP style

rbuser

Hi

We are evaluating Report Builder for use with our products and we are
currently looking into using the Report Explorer feature. We are using the
example in the Tutorials directory ( \Tutorials\Complete\II.
Applications\04. End-User with Custom Explorer ) and we are using this as a
template.

However, with our application we are striving to achieve a sort of XP look
and feel and we would like to know how to override the images in the
TppItemList that is created on the fly (
TrbReportExplorerForm.Create(aOwner: TComponent); ) in this example.

We only have an evaluation version, so cannot alter any code.
Is it possible ??

Thanks
Tony Danby, Point4

nicocizik

Hi Tony,

Thank you for evaluating ReportBuilder.

All dialogs in ReportBuilder are replaceable with the exception of the
Designer. There is infact a step by step example available in the
ReportBuilder Developer's Guide and in the completed tutorials directory...
\RBuilder\Tutorials\Complete\II. Applications\04. End-User with Custom
Explorer\... This shoulde get you on the right track to creating your own
dialogs and registering them with ReportBuilder. Below is a small article
that may help you out as well.

------------------------------------------------------------
Tech Tip: Replacing Built-in Dialogs/Forms in ReportBuilder
------------------------------------------------------------

ReportBuilder has an open architecture for replacing any of the built-in
dialogs. You can replace any of the built-in dialogs by creating a new form
that inherits from an abstract ancestor and then registering it as the new
built-in dialog.

For example to replace ReportBuilder's preview dialog you could

1. Create a new Preview dialog by renaming ReportBuilder's default preview
dialog, then doing a SaveAs to save it under another unit name.

The default dialog resides in RBuilder\Source\ppPrvDlg.pas and the form is
called ppPreviewDialog. You should assign your form a unique name, for
example, myPreviewDlg, and save the unit to another name. Also save the unit
to the directory where your other forms are stored (not RBuilder\Source).

2. Make desired changes.

You will notice that the preview dialog inherits from an ancestor
TppCustomPreviewDialog - this ancestor resides in ppForms.pas (where all the
abstract ancestor forms for ReportBuilder are defined).

3. Register the new form.

Declare an initializtion section at the bottom of the unit:

initialization

ppRegisterForm(TppCustomPreviewer, TmyPreviewDlg);


4. Add the new unit to your project and compile.

Now your preview dialog should be automatically created and destroyed by
ReportBuilder. The two page preview dialog in the
RBuilder\Demos\Reports\Demo.dpro was created this same way. The only
difference is the ppRegisterForm call is in then OnClick event of the
button.

--

nardmoseley

There is a tutorial on customizing the report explorer.....

RBuilder\Tutorials\Complete\II. Applications\04. End-User with Custom
Explorer

--
Nard Moseley
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com