Building reports at run time

rbuser

Hi,

New in RBuilder and haven't fully explored it yet.

AIM: I'm trying to avoid to re-issue the exe to the users every time a
report is changed or added.

Could anyone please tell me if this is possible using RBuilder components as
explained below? Or suggest ways to do this.
I have a database table that holds metadata about the reports that are
available within our application. Example metadata are the sql query, name,
etc.
What I like to be able to do is to add a blob field to this table that
defines the physical structure of each report and then:
- create the reports in delphi IDE
- store the definition of the report in the above mentioned field
- have one form with the necessary rbuilder components
- build the exe and then at runtime, depending on what report the user
selects, pass the definition from the db to the rbuilder component and
display the report.

The question is can I do this and if yes how can I get hold of the
definition of a report that I've finished designing in delphi? Is it the dfm
file that I need to store in the blob?

Many thanks
Farshid

digitalmetaphors

You can store the report definition in either files or database BLOB fields
in order to get independence from the exe. See the Deployment section on
page 225 of the Developer's Guide.

Developer's Guide is in Program Files\Borland\Delphi7\RBuilder\Developer's
Guide...

Cheers,

Tom Ollar
Digital Metaphors Corporation