ANN: ReportBuilder 10.0 is now available for Delphi 2006, Delphi 2005, Delphi 7, and Delphi 6!

digitalmetaphors

Digital Metaphors Corporation announces the release of ReportBuilder 10.0!


ReportBuilder 10.0 includes VCL Win32 support for Delphi 2006, Delphi 2005,
Delphi 7, and Delphi 6.


Overview & screenshots: http://www.digital-metaphors.com/new_features.html

New Feature List: http://www.digital-metaphors.com/PDF/NewFeatures.pdf

Pricing: http://www.digital-metaphors.com/order/


Upgrade here! https://www.digital-metaphors.com/secure

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enhancements for Version 10.0 - 2/9/2006
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Delphi 2006 support


Designer Enhancements
---------------------
- new internal architecture - extensive rewrite
- new XP style toolbars (supports themes)
- new XP style menus (support themes)
- new XP style popup menu (supports themes)
- new XP style tabbed notebook
- new XP style dockable tool windows
- new XP style icons
- enhanced Object Inspector to support multi-selection
- enhanced popup menus to support multi-selection
- new RAP Code Editor**


Report Component Library (RCL) Enhancements
-------------------------------------------
- new 2D BarCode component: PDF417 and MaxiCode
- support for TeeChart 7.06 (Delphi 2006, Delphi 2005, Delphi 7)


Report Output Enhancements
--------------------------
- XP style Previewer
- new built-in Email capability w/plug-in architecture including Outlook,
MAPI, Indy plug-ins
- enhanced PDFDevice architecture to support registering "Renderer" classes
for each DrawCommand class


Report Explorer Enhancements*
----------------------------
- new XP style toolbars, menus, popup menus, icons
- optimized performance (new ItemTemplatePipeline property)
- enhanced to support Report Designer MRU (most recently used) Items


Visual Data Access Enhancements*
------------------------------
- new XP style tabs, toolbars, tool windows, menus, popup menus, icons
- enhanced scrollable work space
- new stored procedure custom DataView example (RBuilder\Demos\EndUser
Databases\SQL Server\ADO\Stored Procedures)


RAP Enhancements**
------------------
- new XP style tabs, menus, popup menus, icons
- new professional style RAP code editor


Server Enhancements***
-------------------
- XP style Client Report Explorer
- optimized Client Report Explorer performance (new
ReportExplorerVolume.ItemTemplatePipeline property)



*ReportBuilder Profession and Enterprise Editions
**ReportBuilder Enterprise Edition
***ReportBuilder Server Edition

---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixes for Version 10.0 - 2/9/2006
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

Designer
- Subreport destroy bug fix.
- MDI destroy bug fix.

RCL
- Rotated text was not aligned correctly when text is assigned via the
component OnGetText event.
- Images loaded via code were not exported to PDF/XHTML because the
internal image name was not updated.
- Fixed case in which Anchor bottom (i.e. ShiftWithParent) is True and the
stretchable object uses 0 space.
- CheckBox Color property was not supported
- Barcode dialog was not getting free'd when it closes. (It was getting
freed when the app ends)

PDF
- Fixed PDF transparency issues with right and center aligned text.


----> Professional <----------

DADE

- dbExpress plug-in did not reset the internal client dataset when SQL is
modified (i.e. AutoSearch)
- Fix for SQLBuilder to better support adding a field by its name
(Description or SQLFieldName)
- Fix for TdaSQL to better support adding a Calc field to the SQL Order By


----> Enterprise <----------

RAP

- fix for case in which a report definition is loaded into a childreport
and some of the RAP event-handlers have to be removed (i.e.
BeforeOpenDataPipelines).


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

rbuser

Note, the following is quoted from the email notification I received:

nardmoseley

For each version of Delphi, you can have one version of ReportBuilder
installed.

Example:

Delphi 6 and RB 7
Delphi 7 and RB 9
Delphi 2006 and RB 10

RB 10 can open and run reports created by prior versions. Once you save a
report using RB 10, then the new component properties will be saved as part
of the report defintion. (All Delphi components work in this same manner).

rbuser

Nard Moseley (Digital Metaphors) wrote:

Well, that's a start.

Is it possible to have multiple versions of RB for a single version of
Delphi by specifying which IDE packages are "loaded" in the IDE? That
would be very helpful and is what most other 3rd party components support.


Due to the wording of your strong warnings, though, we get the
impression that you modify or change the component properties so that
they are not backwards compatible in v10. Or do you just add additional
properties that prior versions would not understand? If that is the
only problem then it is a simple matter to strip the new properties from
the DFM so that reports edited with a higher version of RB are still
usable by a prior version. This is what we do right now, some of our
developers edit using RB9 but the project itself uses RB6.

So if v10 just adds new properties that is fine by us. What we need to
know is if v10 modifies or breaks the properties that were in use by
prior versions.

Thanks,
James

rbuser

Digital Metaphors wrote:


Is the source code to RAP supplied with this release?

Dean

rbuser

This would be wonderful and would help for RB sales, specially after the
announcment of Borland intentions.

rbuser

Hi,

Why is there not C++ Builder 2006 support when you only have to click on one
tick box?

I understand you have had a problem with abstract classes that aren't
supported in C++ builder but thats easy to fix. We could do it ourselves if
you released the RAP source. Any what I can understand is why don't you
release the RAP source, I mean you haven't done anything that anyone else
hasn't done before, theres TMS Script, FastScript, Runtime Scriptor, Dream
Scriptor, etc, etc.

I for one wont be upgrading to ReportBuilder 10. What a shame. :<

Simon

rbuser

In article <43ebf028$1@dm500.>, Digital Metaphors wrote:

Screenshots look good and the features sounds also very good, I am only sorry
that you don't support Delphi 5

Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter

rbuser

In article <43ebf347@dm500.>, James H wrote:

Use VMWare like I do. I have every projekt in on VMWare and one VMWare for
playing around. This will solve your problems.

Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter

rbuser

Günter Kieninger wrote:

VMWare is not a reasonable solution IMHO. It adds cost plus a rather
large amount of overhead. Not to mention that I'd need a whole lot of
separate VMWare virtual systems.

Using a product like that to work around poor 3rd party support simply
is not acceptable. I'd rather just switch to a 3rd party that authored
their components in a way that did not require such contrivances.

However, I'm hoping that Digital Metaphors has a workaround I can use so
neither is necessary.

James

rbuser

What...still no C++ edition!!!

You guys need to get a clue !!

rbuser

Günter Kieninger wrote:


IMO the menubars look awful

--
André Prins
Twain Development

rbuser

I think it looks awful too, theres no consistancy. ONly half XP themed,
shamed. If your going to theme then every control should be themed

Simon

rbuser

In article <43ec3bcd$1@dm500.>, James H wrote:

I love this. I can freeze a development-environment without problems.
And costs are not so high (VMWarePlayer is free)

Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter

rbuser

>G?nter Kieninger wrote:
for

The new VMWare server which is now free provides a good framework for this
sort of thing. It is built to be a server version and does some special
sharing between VMs etc.

Cheers

Dean



--- posted by geoForum on http://delphi.newswhat.com

nardmoseley

Should be possible as the package names have a unique suffix such as 97 (RB
9 for D7) and 107 (RB 10 for D7, etc). The RB installation will delete the
existing installation from your system - it does this rather aggressively.
So I recommend that you take the bpl and dcp files located in
Windows\System32 and put them in a zip file. And then unzip them after you
install. (For example search Windows\System32 for rb*97.bpl). Also rename
your existing RBuilder\ install directory to RBuilder7 or some such.


Only new properties are added. We do not try to prevent you from using older
versions. From RB 7 to RB 9 we added new Anchor and Border properties to the
components. And a new Report.PDFSettings property. For RB 10 we added a new
Report.EmailSettings property. There might be a few others, but those are
the new properties that come to mind.

nardmoseley

In the shipping version, the menu bars are rendered correctly. There was a
bug we fixed after the screen shots were taken. We will be redoing the
screen shots. Sorry about that.

nardmoseley

Thanks for the feedback. We would like to hear what others think as well. We
can definitely theme more of the controls. I have not checked into every
single control, but most can be themed very easily.

If you look at MS Outlook and MS Excel, not all of the controls are themed,
and so that is why went with the look you see in the screen shots.

The screen shots show the Office 2003 theme - which has the ability to adapt
to the XP color schemes: blue, olive, and silver. From the Report Designer
you can select View | Themes and switch to a different theme. There is theme
called Whidbey that always uses the silver color. There are also themes for
the older Office XP style, and there is an Aluminum theme.

rbuser

In article <43ec42fa$1@dm500.>, André Prins wrote:

They look like the menubars from DevExpress and I use them so both is
looking the same, maybe ugly, way. But's thats the new looking and our
software should not look very very old

Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter

nardmoseley

I think he is refering to the color - which is not correct in the screen
shot. We fixed this for the shipping version.(as I said in my reply to his
post - and will update the screen shots).

Another thing which you cannot see in the screen shot is that the menus and
component popup menus have extensive use of XP style icons.

I really think you have to download a trial version and see for your self.
Bring up MS Office 2003 apps or Outlook 2003 and look at them side by side.

rbuser

Thank you very much. This information has been most valuable and based
on it I do believe we can get v10 to coexist with others and maintain
backwards compatibility.

We actually have a tool developed in house that strips the extra
properties added between v6 and v9 from a DFM automatically. Thus we
run it on any reports edited in v9 and they work without issue in v6.
It sounds like we can do the same for v10, which is good.

Please note that while information is appreciated, having such bold and
aggressive compatibility warnings makes it sound like there were huge
changes. Such as the ones DevEx did a few years ago where they changed
the meaning of all their properties and it broke everything. FYI.

James

rbuser

In article <43ecbced$1@dm500.>, Nard Moseley (Digital Metaphors) wrote:

I will hope the look alike. Which Bars do you use now? Have you switched away
from Tb97?


Gruß aus den Bergen
Günter

rbuser

>Thanks for the feedback. We would like to hear what others think as well.

Hi Nard,

Any news on whether the source to RAP is supplied with this release. I
have scoured the DM web site but not noticed anything to that effect.

Thanks

Dean



--- posted by geoForum on http://delphi.newswhat.com

rbuser

Günter Kieninger wrote:


These are not rendered like the ones in the screenshots.
Anyway, Nard said they fixed this, so I guess it's ok now.

--
André Prins
Twain Development

nardmoseley

Thanks for the feedback. The verbage has been in there for years - probably
just the first time you read the release notes, lol. For RB 10, we just
updated the version number, date, and feature set. The reason the verbage is
strong is that the RB installation program agressively deletes the existing
version you have installed. You can literally just install over the top
without uninstalling a prior version. This is an attempt to maximize success
of the installation (i.e. avoid conflict with a prior version installed to
the same version of Delphi).

nardmoseley

We obtained a special license to use TB2000 and TBX. This is noted in the
Help | About box of the Report Designer. (We then built on top of that - for
example the Anchor palette on the toolbar is a custom extension).

rbuser

Nard Moseley (Digital Metaphors) wrote:

Ah, interesting - yes I'm a new customer. Some colleagues I work with
who though have been using RB since v6 (at least), they also saw those
warnings and thought the same thing. Like most people they probably
forgot about having read them before.

Could you please make the aggressive uninstall optional? Put a check
box (or whatever) in the setup program, default it to on and give the
user who turns it off a stern warning that turning off the aggressive
uninstall could cause compatibility issues or whatever. One of the
team's I'm on is discussing what we're going to need to do to work
around this. Like trying to capture your setup and repackage or
manually install the files & apply registry changes, etc.

Thanks again,
James