an easier example?

rbuser

Hi;

im trying to create a custom preview form, that allows the user to chose the
output device for the report. im trying to follow the example on the
tutorial/demos directory, but to be honest, i can understand it. is there
another step-by-step procedure that i can follow to do that?


TIA

nicocizik

Hi Arturo,

Take a look at the following example and article. They should get you on
the right track with creating a custom preview form.

http://www.digital-metaphors.com/tips/PreviewPlugin.zip

-----------------------------------------
Article: Creating a Preview Plugin
-----------------------------------------

Here is an example of creating a simple custom preview that access the
viewer its been assigned in order to change the page color. You can also do
more advanced operations such as adding and removing buttons and change the
behavior of the preview form. Access the inherited controls via. protected
properties and override the virtual methods in order to customize behavior.

Open ppPreview.pas and view the TppPreview class as a guide to create a
custom preview descendent.


unit MyPreviewPlugin;

interface

uses
ppPreview;

type
TMyPreviewPlugin = class(TppPreview)
public
procedure BeforePreview; override;

end;


implementation

uses
Graphics;


procedure TMyPreviewPlugin.BeforePreview;
begin
inherited BeforePreview;

Viewer.PageColor := clRed;

end;

initialization
TppPreviewPlugIn.Register(TMyPreviewPlugin);

finalization
TppPreviewPlugIn.UnRegister(TMyPreviewPlugin);

end.


--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Thanks Nico...

finally i was able to deal with the tutorial's example, and i included the
rbPrvDlg.pas unit on my project, i even changed the lay out and added some
buttons to the form, but; on one of the buttons, i need to let the user to
choose the device to print out the report (printer or file).

On the onclick event of that button, i changed the DeviceType,
AllowPrinttoFile,ArchiveFile properties, but even i noticed (debugging the
code) that event is executed w/o problems, when i click on the printer
button (ppviewer.report.print), the print dialog shows the "Print to File"
checkbox uncheked, and sends the report to the printer.

Any idea to solve this?

TIA

nicocizik

Hi Arturo,

If you want the PrintDialog to reflect the changes you've made after the
report has already generated once, you will need to chang the PrintDialog
properties.

For instance...

myReport.PrintDialog.AllowPrintToFile := True;

--
Regards,

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