Register Components Questions

rbuser

Hello All:

We need to "simplify" the ReportBuilder IDE for our employees. They are
getting confused with so many properties and components.

Please let us know if you see any issues with the following ideas:


1) We have created our own toolbar 'Monster Tools' to hold all of our
custom components

2) We have re-registered some of the ReportBuilder components we use (
TppLabel, TppImage, TppLine ) and placed them on our 'Monster Tools'
toolbar.

3) We have unchecked most of the ReportBuilder toolbars in the Designer

4) We Overrode the OnFieldChange event in our own custom DBText
component. If the new field is currency, we set the display format to
',#0.00' and TextAlignment is set to Right Justified

5) In the registration section, we have unregistered properties that we
dont use in our specific use of ReportBuilder by registering them with nil
property editors. The following properties were unregistered:

RegisterPropertyEditor(TypeInfo(Boolean), TppNHDBCheck,'CharWrap',nil);
ParentDataPipeLine
ReprintOnOverFlow
ReprintOnSubsequent
Save
SaveOrder
SaveLength
ShiftWithParent
SuppressRepeatedValues
Transparent
WordWrap
Color
ResetGroup

6) What effect if any would the above changes have on our ability ro
deploy the end user solution ??? We would want those changes reflected in
the end user solution.

Any comments or insights would be greatly appreciated. Our objective is
to increase the speed at which we churn our reports. However, we dont want
to box ourselves into a corner. Thank you very much.


Neil Huhta

digitalmetaphors

The runtime designer won't be affected by nilling the property editors. The
property editors are for use in the object inspector at delphi design time.
If you get your designer working, then we don't see any problems with this
approach. If you are also asking if we are going to change the designer
code in a future release (which would break your new code), well, if you
look at the history of the designer, it hasn't changed much over time. A
safe bet would be that it will stay the same for a while longer, but we
can't make any promises. If we feel that a new designer is needed in order
to keep RB as the best reporting tool, then we will not hesitate to redesign
it. It looks like your approach will work as far as we can tell.

Cheers,

Jim Bennett
Digital Metaphors