Designer Improvements (Laser Guides, Positioning etc) / General Questions
Hi,
I'm avaluating RB Enterprise atm and I'm impressed by how much
real-world problems you actually foresaw (like custom float formating
etc.), the pluggable architecture and so on.
I have a few remarks concerning the designer though:
- Is it possible to implement "Laser Guides" ? I mean the temporary
lines that have been introduced in D2005/2006 when you move controls.
Controls automatically snap to these lines so they are aligned.
Despite the fact that I don't like FR (having had too many problems with
2.xx in the past) they have it in their designer. This feature is
extremely handy if you have to align a lot of fields (I know that you
have all these align buttons in the toolbar but it is far easier if
controls are aligned while you move / resize them)
- There seems to be a odditiy when you automatically align controls
horizontally ("Equal distance horizontally" button). The distance
between the left position is indeed equal, but I would expect that the
horizontal distance between the controls would be normalized. Just try
to put three labels on a report, one small, one extrely wide, on small
and press the button. This feature would be incredibliy useful for table
headers where between each two consequtive labels you want the same
distance (like 2 screen pixels).
What is you general advice or using rb in a multitier setup where I
cannot connect to an sql server directly. I cannot really see if I can
use your end-user features for the "data" tab in the designer. More
specifically I am using Remobjects Data Abstract.
For the reports provided by us I don't see a problem because I can just
pre-prepare all the Pipelines and just pass a set of parameters to the
server which executes the report on the server and just sends back an
archive file to the client.
regards,
Magnus Jungsbluth
I'm avaluating RB Enterprise atm and I'm impressed by how much
real-world problems you actually foresaw (like custom float formating
etc.), the pluggable architecture and so on.
I have a few remarks concerning the designer though:
- Is it possible to implement "Laser Guides" ? I mean the temporary
lines that have been introduced in D2005/2006 when you move controls.
Controls automatically snap to these lines so they are aligned.
Despite the fact that I don't like FR (having had too many problems with
2.xx in the past) they have it in their designer. This feature is
extremely handy if you have to align a lot of fields (I know that you
have all these align buttons in the toolbar but it is far easier if
controls are aligned while you move / resize them)
- There seems to be a odditiy when you automatically align controls
horizontally ("Equal distance horizontally" button). The distance
between the left position is indeed equal, but I would expect that the
horizontal distance between the controls would be normalized. Just try
to put three labels on a report, one small, one extrely wide, on small
and press the button. This feature would be incredibliy useful for table
headers where between each two consequtive labels you want the same
distance (like 2 screen pixels).
What is you general advice or using rb in a multitier setup where I
cannot connect to an sql server directly. I cannot really see if I can
use your end-user features for the "data" tab in the designer. More
specifically I am using Remobjects Data Abstract.
For the reports provided by us I don't see a problem because I can just
pre-prepare all the Pipelines and just pass a set of parameters to the
server which executes the report on the server and just sends back an
archive file to the client.
regards,
Magnus Jungsbluth
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Thanks for the feedback. We will consider adding features such as Laser
Guides and normalized spacing for a later release of ReportBuilder.
- creation of the existing DADE plug-ins have been a joint effort between
Digital Metaphors, publishers of third party data access component sets, and
customers. There are plug-ins that have been created by all of these groups.
(And we have provided the technical support required to assist third parties
and customers in development of new plug-ins.)
- We have had discussions in the past with RemObjects about developing a
DADE plug-in for Data Abstract. We have an excellent relationship with those
guys and both parties would like to have integration. All of the existing
DADE plug-ins are "boiler plate" - it usually takes about one or two days to
create a new plug-in. The existing plug-ins are built around the concept of
working with a SQL based TDataSet descendant. However, with Data Abstract
and DADE, this is not the case. There is much overlap in what the two
environments try provide. Thus, much more design and development work is
required. We have this project on our todo list, but we have not had the
resources to devote to it.
- one option is to create custom dataview templates that contain the data
access components that connect to the Data Abstract. For an example, see
RBuilder\Demos\Enduser\Custom DataViews.
--
Regards,
Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
Nico Cizik
Digital Metaphors
http://www.digital-metaphors.com