Quick Reports

[Guthro]

I've been plodding away with my invoicing program for sometime now but hit a wall when it comes to output.
I just can't grasp Quick reports.
Using Quick Reports, if you create a report layout for an invoice and there are more item lines than one page handles, does it automatically produce a second page that will still use the report layout or do you have to program for the likelihood of a second page and therefore allow for sub totals on page one instead of final total and then a final total on the second page ?
I'm using Delphi 5 Enterprise on Win ME and now on XP.
Is there something better than Quick Reports or does a later version of Delphi include it's own reporting components.
Thanks.

 

[Guthro]

Anyone have any good alternates to Quikreports to Delphi ?

Am I allowed to bump threads ?


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[whosrdaddy]

try rave reports:

http://www.nevrona.com/Default.aspx?tabid=150

Cheers,
Daddy

-----------------------------------------------------
What You See Is What You Get
Never underestimate tha powah of tha google!

 

[DelphiAaron]

i think fast report is 1 of the best of seen
and they have a free version

http://fast-report.com/en/

Aaron Taylor
John Mutch Electronics

http://www.jme.com.au

 

[DelphiAaron]

and to answer your first question.

the report can be made up of bands,
here is an example.

page header (used fer every report page)

detail (the fields of data that will flow on to other pages if nessesary)

page footer (used fer every report page with page number ect)

Aaron Taylor
John Mutch Electronics

http://www.jme.com.au

 

[Guthro]

Thanks for the replies guys.
I'll check out them all.

Aaron, further to your example, assuming two pages are used, and I needed a subtotal on the first page, would it be programed from the form talking to the report or is a detail band intelligent enough to be used only if it sees a second page is required ?

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[DelphiAaron]

fastreport has a prepare report function that will process the pages before displaying them, so you can perform totaling, page numbers ect.

Aaron Taylor
John Mutch Electronics

http://www.jme.com.au

 

[Guthro]

Thanks.
I've already downloaded and installed the component set. Can't do much now while at work but will have a good look later.
Thanks for your time.

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[cehowski]

If you want to have a Sub-Total at the bottom of each page, then you would put it in the PageFooter band of your report.

 

[Guthro]

Thanks cehowski.
Sorry for not coming back to this thread.
I have got a bit more used to handling these reports now.
They're still a bit clunky and now I get text at the bottom of a page being stretched and distorted.
Weird.

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[roo0047]

Guthro - In my experience, starting with canned report writers with Borland Turbo Pascal (DOS), they all come and go. When delphi 2, 3 and or 4 came out I struggled with the included Chrystal Reports. Fortunately D5 came out before I had to make serious (productive) reports, so I learned the included QuickReports. With D7 came Rave Designer. I wasted a day trying to figure it out and had to go back to what I knew. (BTW: you have to manually install QuickQeports into D7 from the CD - not loaded by default.)

To answer your question:

... does it automatically produce a second page that will still use the report layout or do you have to program for the likelihood of a second page and therefore allow for sub totals on page one instead of final total and then a final total on the second page?

Yes, page after page, if you do it correctly. The quickest way to learn QuickReports is to load each of the included example programs (..\Delphi\Demos\Quickrpt\Qr2\ (and ..\Qr3)) in the IDE and compare each dpr to your desired output. Set breakpoints where you need help. Move stuff around and see how far you can go before it breaks, which is easy to do. Change the DataSource to tables of your own and play with it. Once you figure out what not to do, the rest falls into place. It's a big PITA but setup delphi help to integrate the QuickReports Help files into the IDE. Well worth it when you need to hit F1 for properties. Get familiar with its hierarchy.

One plus for QuickReports is that you can purchase the DELPHI source code if you really want to get down with it. Their website gives me the impression they're not going anywhere soon and there's also more demo code available on their website. The biggest negative is memory leaks if you don't nill everything you open.

Rave reports look more elegant and flexible. Hopefully, someone with more experience will comment.

HTH (hope that helps)

BTW: I'm hoping to hear from someone that's used both.

Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[roo0047]

Forgot to mention I also tried FastReports and found it so similar to QuickReports to not be worth the bother to switch. QuickReports also has a Prepare function.


Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[Guthro]

Thanks for that roo.
I had Quickreports with both Delphi 3 and 5. I think it was versions 2 and 3 respectively.
I downloaded FastReports and there's loads of components to master. I think I'll stick qith Quickreports first.

Any idea why text at the bottom of a report gets printed distorted ?

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[roo0047]

Try moving the control up a little.

Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[Guthro]

Try moving the control up a little.

I'll have a go but I don't think its as simple as that. But then again, a lot of problems are often solved easily.

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[roo0047]

My therory is that todays photo printers can print right to the bottom edge on thick photo paper, usually at a very slow speed. But on plain paper at high speed, the grippers just can't hold it steady. Why I said, move it up, away from that gray area. Let me know if it worked.


Roo
Delphi Rules!

 

[Guthro]

The problem of stretched text was on both a laser and dot matrix. Weird.
I changed various bands and removed a superfluous first page only footer type band and placed some QRdbtext components in a different band to do the same job.
I also changed some font settings so that all used the same and tried to get a good size for a dot matrix output.
Everything I did seemed to work and the stretched text seems to have been cleared with the changes.
I'm happy with that.
All I need to do now is get the best font for output to a dot matrix. I think there's some code I can add that will use the printer's own fonts but I'm not sure if this will effect the page layout.
I only get to work on it once or twice a week so its a real pain getting back to where I was at the end of each session.

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