TeeChartPro usage

rbuser

Hello,
I'm testing TeeChartPro 8.04 for Delphi 2007 + RB. Right now I'm working on
some reports for statistics and am having doubts about what I'm getting as a
result.

Looking here
http://www.steema.com/uploads/gallery/BarSeries_thumb.jpg
http://www.steema.com/uploads/gallery/PieExploded_tmb.png
http://www.steema.com/uploads/gallery/pieTranparency.png

I would say those are pretty nice looking charts, but that's not what I'm
getting while designing them within RB with the current versions I have.
The charts I'm creating are far from the look of those above. Ok, I'm not
the best designer for sure, but the difference is just too big.

Is there anything special which needs to be done to get such charts as in
the screenshots? Any units, settings, packages etc...

The setting dialog, which appears when editing a chart within a report,
seems not to save the values sometimes.
I saw there is a ChartEditor component, which offers a different settings
dialog, right? Within IDE I can insert only a DBChart, while whithin the
report I can insert a ppDPTeeChart. Where is the difference?

Also within Delphi I can set the language and some other options, which I
seem not to be able to set for the ppDPTeeChart within the report.

Am I doing anything wrong?

Regards,
Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

The TeeChart component is simply a wrapper to the actual TChart component in
Delphi. The editor used inside the report is identical to the one used on a
for in the VCL so theoretically anything you can do with a TeeChart in
Delphi, you can do in ReportBuilder.

I suggest taking a look at the demos provided with TeeChart and/or
contacting their support on how to create the advanced charts shown on their
web site. If there is a limitation with creating such charts from within
the report, take a look at the following article to work around the issue.

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/rbWiki/RCL/Chart/How_To...Chart_As_Image

--
Regards,

Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com

rbuser

Mark:

I do quite a bit with TeeChart in my app and in reports.

First, the images you are seeing--I believe they are for the next version of
TeeChart (version 2010, which they just annouced the beta for:
http://www.steema.com/entry/15) or the .NET version. The images apper to use
OpenGL or .NET technology (I belive .NET has its own technology).

Second, if your charts appear in your app and in your software, you might
consider just using the chart in your app--and rendering images from there
for the reports. This is because there are ***a lot**** of configuration
options in the chart, and getting one configured is difficult
enough--keeping them looking the same can be a lot of work.

Even if this is not for you, invariable I post this and someone wants more
information on the "how do I do this"--so here are some codes snippets:

To do this, I get the the images from the report (after loading the report
from a database)--with some conditions that allow me to have images in the
report that do not get overwritten:

for I := ComponentCount-1 downto 0 do
if (Components[I] is TppImage) then
begin
lImg := TppImage(Components[I]);
if (not (lImg.Band is TppPageStyle)) then
begin
if (not SameText(Copy(lImg.UserName, 1, 5), 'image')) and
(Pos('COVER', UpperCase(lImg.UserName)) = 0) then
begin
lReportGraphic := TReportGraphic.Create(lImg.UserName,
{FReportSetup.AutoScale,} lImg);
lReportGraphic.Rect := Rect(1, 1, Trunc(lImg.spWidth),
Trunc(lImg.spHeight));
lImageLst.Add(lReportGraphic);
end;
end;
end;

I then send the list out to the programs and compare the list of
TReportGraphic names against the name of the chart. If it is a match, I
call:

AssignChartToGraphic(lChart, lRG.Rect, lRG.Graphic);

I then assign send the TReportGraphicList to the program to get the images.
I use the name of the image to determine which chart's image gets assigned
the TReportGraphic. Here is the code for assigning the TChart's image to the
TReportGraphic.Bitmap or Metafile

procedure AssignChartToGraphic(aChart: TChart; const aRect: TRect;
aGraphic: TGraphic);
var
lHoldShadow: boolean;
I: Integer;
lBoolArray: array of boolean;
lHoldBevel: TPanelBevel;
lHoldColor: TColor;
lHoldGradientVisible: boolean;
lMetafile: TMetafile;
lBmp: TBitmap;
begin

lHoldGradientVisible := aChart.Gradient.Visible;
lHoldColor := aChart.Color;
lHoldBevel := aChart.BevelOuter;
lHoldShadow := aChart.Shadow.Visible;

try
SetLength(lBoolArray, aChart.SeriesCount);
for I := 0 to aChart.SeriesCount - 1 do // Iterate
if aChart.Series[I] is TPieSeries then
begin
lBoolArray[I] := TPieSeries(aChart.Series[I]).Circled;
TPieSeries(aChart.Series[I]).Circled := True;
end
else
lBoolArray[I] := True;

aChart.Gradient.Visible := false;
aChart.Color := clWhite;
aChart.BevelOuter := bvNone;
aChart.Shadow.Visible := False;

if aGraphic is TMetafile then
begin
lMetafile := aChart.TeeCreateMetafile(false, aRect);
try
aGraphic.Assign(lMetafile);
finally
lMetafile.Free;
end;
end
else
begin
lBmp := aChart.TeeCreateBitmap(clWhite, aRect);
try
aGraphic.Assign(lBmp);
finally
lBmp.Free;
end;
end;
finally
aChart.Shadow.Visible := lHoldShadow;
aChart.Gradient.Visible := lHoldGradientVisible;
aChart.Color := lHoldColor;
aChart.BevelOuter := lHoldBevel;
for I := 0 to aChart.SeriesCount - 1 do // Iterate
if aChart.Series[I] is TPieSeries then
TPieSeries(aChart.Series[I]).Circled := lBoolArray[I];
end;
end;

Finally, I assign the images back to the TppImages in the reports:

for I := 0 to lImageLst.Count - 1 do // Iterate
begin
lItem := lImageLst[I];
lImg := lItem.Image as TppImage;
lImg.Stretch := True;
if lItem.UseBitmap then
lImg.Picture.Bitmap.Assign(lItem.Bitmap)
else
if (lItem.Metafile.Width > 0) then
lImg.Picture.Metafile.Assign(lItem.Metafile);
end; // for

Hope that helps.

Ed Dressel

rbuser

Thanks Nico,
I will see, what I can achieve. Just thought there is something special to
do to get it to work better / properly.

Mark

rbuser

Hi Ed,
thanks a lot for the detailed reply and the code snippets! I well see, if I
can make use of it

Since you are doing a lot with TeeChart I still would like to ask, if you
were / are having problems with some setting not being saved sometimes?
Within the report that is.
Looks as if there is a certain order of what can be changed after what and
what prevents changing of other options etc., but somehow I still didn't
figure out how this works (if that's the case at all).

One of the examples:
the round border of the marks on a pie chart isn't being saved. We change it
from 16 to 8, save and once we open the settings dialog again, the value is
16 again. The same for some gradient values etc.

Maybe you know, what the reason is.

Mark

rbuser

> Looks as if there is a certain order of what can be changed after what and

Never seen anyting like this--but they have good support (I have the pro
version--their 2010 version looks very promising).

Ed Dressel

rbuser

Ok,
thank you.