TIFF Files

rbuser

Chaps

Is there any way that I can create a report that displays TIFF files ?

Luckily these files are not multi page TIFF's but the client has a huge
library of TIFF files that they would lile to report on.

I store the location of these files in a database and just use the
Image1.Picture.LoadFromFile function in RAP. Works a treat until it comes
across a TIFF file.

Any suggestions ?

Cheers

Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

I believe GraphicEx supports certain types of TIFF images.

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Article: ReportBuilder Image Support
---------------------------------------------------------------------

ReportBuilder natively supports .bmp, .jpeg, .wmf, .ico image formats.

ReportBuilder has an open architecture that supports any TGraphic
descendant.

For example, ReportBuilder ships with a freeware component called GIFImage
that can be used with ReportBuilder to print .gif images. (see the main
report demo app for an example.)

There is another freeware component called GraphicEx that
supports several additional formats - including tiff, targa, and autodesk.

It can be downloaded from:

http://www.lischke-online.de/Graphics.php


ReportBuilder can easily support TGraphic descendants
with a simple register call.

Below is the code to our ppGIF.pas unit which
'uses' and registers the freeware GIFImage component.


{********************************************************************}
{ }
{ ReportBuilder Report Component Library }
{ }
{ Copyright (c) 1996, 2000 Digital Metaphors Corporation }
{ }
{********************************************************************}

unit ppGIF;

interface

{$I ppIfDef.pas}

uses
ppCtrls, GIFImage;

implementation

{***************************************************************
*
** I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N / F I N A L I Z A T I O N
*
{****************************************************************}

initialization

ppRegisterGraphicClass('GIF', TGIFImage);

finalization

ppUnRegisterGraphicClass(TGIFImage);

end.

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Nico

Downloaded the library and just added it to a uses clause of my program (my
End User Report main form from your demo) and now I can select from many
more formats - great - thanks so far...

When I use an image component now in ReportBuilder - if I select picture and
browse to a tif I get the following message

Cannot Load Image. The compression scheme is not supported for TIF/TIFF
files.

Any ideas??

Cheers

Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

You are going to need to create a TIFF unit that registers the TIFFImage
component with ReportBuilder. The article I posted in my last message gives
an example of how this is done for GIF images. You will need to do
something similar for TIFF images.

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Mark Doel is rumoured to have said:


TIFF comes in a number of variants, and it looks like GraphicEx does
not contain code for handling the particular compression used by your
client.

Paint Shop Pro can show details about an image file in its open dialog,
and I'm sure other bitmap programs do as well. Find its TIFF version
and the compression scheme used, and see if it is mentioned in the
GraphicEx source, on its website, or ask in its forums.

-tor

rbuser

Nico

Can you elaborate please..sorry for my misunderstanding (I am not a
developer just dabble with report builder bits).

What TIFFImage Component. I understand that we need to register a component
so that we can use it in ReportBuilder.

How do I do this with GraphicEx, have you done this before if so can you
send me a sample ?

Cheers

Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

In order to allow TIFF images to show up in your reports, you will need to
register the TTIFFImage class in the GraphiEX library with ReportBuilder
using a format similar to the ppGIF unit already included in RB. Something
like the following...

unit ppTIFF;

interface

{$I ppIfDef.pas}

uses
ppCtrls, TIFFImage;

implementation

{***************************************************************
*
** I N I T I A L I Z A T I O N / F I N A L I Z A T I O N
*
{****************************************************************}

initialization

ppRegisterGraphicClass('TIFF', TTIFFImage);

finalization

ppUnRegisterGraphicClass(TTIFFImage);

end.

Note: If you have already done this and the error still persists, take a
look at the post by Tor Helland on this thread. He reminded me that there
are many compression variations of the TIFF image format and only a couple
of them are supported by the GraphiEX library. Check the GraphicEx help
file for the TIFF types that are supported and use an imaging application
such as PaintShop Pro to determine whether the images you are using are of
this type and to perhaps convert them if they aren't.

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Nico

1. You do not seem to have to do the registerclass thing. Just add the
GraphicEx unit to a pas file in the project and it all works.
2. I tried the register class thing (The class is TTIFFGraphic) the results
are the same so it makes no difference.

The compression is the thing.

I can open un-compressed TIFFS and using PhotoShop TIFF's compressed in some
ways work others dont.

The files I have do not open but if I change the compression and save a new
file work.

My next question then is

Using RAP how can I test of the LoadFromFile has worked on the image
component.

If LoadFromFile works - display image if not move onto next record.

Hopefully you can help as you have so far come up trumps!!!

Cheers

Mark

rbuser

Just to complete the story

The TIFF files I am trying to open are compressed as

CCITT Group 4 (2d) Fax

I cannot see this in the GraphicEx pas file.

I will post something on their newsgroups to see if this can be supported.
It seems a very popular compression as thousands of the files we have seem
to use the same compression.

I downloaded some sample files from the web and again these used this
compression.

I can change them but it would be nice to see if the GraphicEx comp will
support in the future

I will post back if I have any luck

Cheers

Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

Take a look at the reply Nard gave you in the RAP newsgroup. My answer to
your question below would be very similar .

--
Regards,

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

rbuser

Nico

I thought you may say that as just spotted his reply...;-)

I am not a great programmer just learning and so am asking have you any
thing that does anything similar that I can use to understand and then have
a go at writing this thing.

You would be saving my bacon!! ;-)

Cheers

Mark

nicocizik

Hi Mark,

A Pass-Thru function in RAP is fairly simple to create. There is a full
example of creating one inside the ReportBuilder Developer's Guide located
in your \RBuilder\Developers Guide\... directory.

The basic idea would be to register a new RAP function perhaps called
"LoadTIFFImage" that returns a valid TTIFFImage. When this routine is
called in RAP, it will execute some code in Delphi that tries to load a TIFF
image and if the compression is incorrect, returns nil. Inside RAP, if the
return value is nil, simply display nothing in your ppImage component,
otherwise assign the return value to the image component.

--
Regards,

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