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FastReport 4 User`s Manual

1. ear h ti 12 bas Efe por t Inherit from base report 10 FR 3 102 Fr3 103 Fr3 100 Fr3 104 Fr3 You will learn about inheritance later in the Report inheritance chapter In this dialogue you can see the base report s name if the report is inherited detach the base report in which case your report will be standalone and non inherited or inherit the report from one of the available base reports The third page of the dialogue allows you to set descriptive properties for the report FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 12 Report Settings General Inheritance Description Description Description This report demonstrates the ability to draw diagrams on the Data bab Picture Browse Version Major Minor Release Build Created 20 09 2006 22 15 43 Modified 21 09 2006 15 27 19 All fields on this page are for information purposes only and are not printable FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 13 FastReport 4 User s Manual 1 6 Page options The Page Options are available via either the File gt Page settings clicking on blank space on the page The dialogue has two pages menu or by double Page Options Paper Other options Size At width cm Height 29 70 cm Orientation Portrait i
2. 2 14 some of the object s properties are available on the context menu as well as in the object inspector AutoSize Stretch enabled by default Center KeepAspectRatio enabled by default When AutoSize is enabled the object is re sized up to the size of the picture it contains Sometimes this can be useful if database pictures of differing size are being displayed AutoSize is disabled by default Stretch is enabled by default This property stretches the picture within the object Change the object s size using the mouse and you will see that the whole picture is always displayed within the object s frame If Stretch is disabled the picture or only part of it is displayed at its Original size This behaviour differs from AutoSize in that you have control of the object s frame size which can be larger or smaller than the picture it contains With AutoSize enabled you have no control over the object s frame size The Center property aligns the picture within the object KeepAspectRatio is enabled by default it keeps the picture from distorting when the object s size is changed This property is only effective when Stretch is also enabled With KeepAspectRatio enabled a drawn circle remains a circle without turning into an oval whatever the Picture object s size The stretched picture occupies only that part of the internal space of the object needed t
3. Report Wizard Fields Groups Step 4 Define the page orientation and data layout Orientation Portrait gt A Landscape Layout Tabular Columnar Fit Fields to page width Company Address Action Club PO Box 5 Action Ower supply Blue Spar Adventure Undersea PO Box American sCUBA 1739 Atlar Aquatic Drama 921 Everg Blue Glass Happiness 6345 Wit The chosen layout is illustrated on the right side of the dialogue Finally the last tab lists the available color schemes for your report again illustrated on the right side of the dialogue Report Wizard Fields Groups Step 5 Choose the report style Company Address Action Club Action Club PO Box 5451 F Action Dwer supply Glue spar Box Adventure Undersea PO Box 744 Count 3 When the Finish button is pressed the wizard will create the following report FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 181 FastReport 4 User s Manual ReportTitlhe ReportTitle1 PageHeader PageHeader 1 Company Contact Phone FAX Customers Company Customers Contact Customers Phon Customers FAA PageFooter PageFooter L ro u The report can now be previewed 13 2 New connection wizard This wizard adds a new database connection to an existing report Two or more connections may be needed if data from two or more databases is to appear in the report The wizard adds the da
4. _ 400Tablel Trx4 00Table Properties Events CloseDataSou True Database ADOC Connectioni M enm Li m 200 Note that the Database property is already connected to our database because this was specified in the TfrxADOComponents DefaultDatabase property But the table name has to be set now FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 167 FastReport 4 User s Manual TableName Customer Switch to the Page1 tab Connect the MasterData band to the table by double clicking on it and selecting ADOTable1 in the dialogue Drag the fields shown below from the Data tree window to the report page which will then look roughly like this ReportTitle ReportTitle1 r ADOT ablel Company ADO Table1 Phone ADOTable FAA PageFooter PageFooter i Preview the report with the Preview button L4 on the toolbar 11 4 Report with parametric query Let s design a more complicated report in which the query parameters are requested in a dialogue before the report is created Use the same project as in the previous section and click the New Report button in the report designer to clear the old one Switch to the Data tab and place an ADO Query component on the page Double click on it to open its editor and enter the following SQL text select from Customer where CustNo gt pl Add a dialogue form to the report and
5. Formatting highlighting 66 1176 26 07 94 p4 176 05 1269 16 12 94 p1 400 00 5 1450 au Inline formatting In the example formatting was applied to the object and any expression contained in the object Everything worked as expected because there was only one expression in the object However if we have more than one expression in any object and each requires different formatting then we can use inline formatting Using the example re size the footer and its object and change the object text to this Total SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterData1 Number COUNT MasterData1 The total and the number of orders will be displayed in the object In the report preview both of these values are shown in monetary format which we had previously set This is incorrect 1269 16 12 94 p1 400 00 Total 51 450 80 Mumber 6 00 To display each value in its correct format they need to be formatted individually To do this we use format tags which are placed just before the closing square bracket of the expression In our example disable formatting for the object select Text no formatting category in the format editor Now we need to specify the format for just the first expression as the second one will be displayed correctly by default i e as an integer Change the object text as follows Sum SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterData1 n 2 2m Number COUNT MasterData1 Preview the report
6. 85 FastReport 4 User s Manual 6 10 Example of using the OnBeforePrint event To demonstrate this event create a report representing a list of clients This report will include only those companies whose name begins with the letter A Let s create a new project in Delphi place ITable IfrxDBDataSet and TfrxReport components on the form and set these properties Tablet DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName customer db frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Table1 UserName Customers Open the report designer and create a report like this Customers Company Customers Addr Select the data band and switch to the Events tab in the object inspector MasterDatal ThrxMasterData Properties Events OnafterCalcH On fterPrint OnBeforeFrint OnMasterDete To create an OnBeforePrint event handler which is the most appropriate for us double click on the blank field to the right of the event s name MasterDatal ThrxMasterData Properties Events On fterTalcH On FterPrint OnBeForePrint Eeg OnMasterDete eforePrint fled This adds a blank handler to the script and the designer switches to the Code tab FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 86 Language PascalScript W br F E3 3 procedure MasterDatalOnbetforePrint Sender TtrxeComponent begin enid begin end Al
7. ccccccceeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeasaeeeeeeneeaaeeeeeseeneseeeeeseoes 205 6 Sending a Report via E mail nannnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn mnnn 206 7 Report DESIGN CONSIGCIALIONS ssanie O na A A D a E E A 208 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Designer Designer 2 The report component is supplied with an embedded visual report designer which can be opened at design time by double clicking on the TfrxReport component The designer provides the user with all the tools necessary for designing and previewing reports The designers interface meets current requirements It contains several toolbars which can be docked wherever wanted These toolbar locations are restored every time the designer is opened Toolbar locations together with other designer settings are stored in the registry or should one be assigned in an ini file To give the end user of your project the ability to design reports you should either place a TfrxDesigner component from the FastReport component palette onto a Delphi form or add the frxDesgn unit to the unit s Uses list NB spelling Using the designer at run time allows the user to change the report s appearance as well as to edit the finished report Note you should also place any other Tfrx components that will be used on the Delphi form R FastReport 93 fr3 File Edit Report Yiew Help OSBHER GANU 428 9 By eae lm
8. procedure DBCross1cell0OnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Value is the current cell s value if Value lt 100 then begin first shape object DBCrosslObject1 Color clMaroon dark red second shape object DBCrosslOb i ect2 Color clwhite third shape object DBCrosslObject3 Color clWhite end else if Value lt 3000 then begin DBCrossiOb ject1 Color lt SU0CCIF y7 yellow DBCrosslOb ectZ Color SUUCCFF DBCrosslObject3 Color clWhite end else begin DBCrosslObject1 Color 00CC98 green FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 130 DBCroOsslOb ectz2 Color t s00CC e DBCrosslObject3 Color S0O0CC98 end end That s all preview the report which will be similar to that shown at the top of this section 7 12 Some useful settings Let s look at some other settings available in the cross tab editor Show title Show corner Column header Row header Column grand total Row grand total Auto size Border around cells Print down then across Reprint headers on new page Side by side cells Join equal cells The first six options allow you to show or hide various table elements The Auto size option is already well known It allows us to set the table width and height manually The Border around cells option allows the drawing of a frame around the cell elements Here is an example table
9. Highlight Condition Font Bold Italic F Underline Background CO Transparent These settings produce this report 1221 Kauai Dive Shoppe 1023 01 07 58 4 674 00 1076 16 12 94 RTF 781 00 1123 24 08 93 13 945 00 1169 06 07 94 9 47195 1176 26 07 94 b4 175 55 1269 16 12 94 p1 400 00 Total 51 450 au Note the conditional expression we used Value gt 5000 Here Value is the value of the DB field to which the object is linked Alternatively the condition could be set as lt Group ItemsTotal gt gt 5000 In general any legal expression may be used Coloring alternate data rows Using conditional highlighting it is easy to create reports having a banded look where data lines are alternately colored To save some effort let s use the Customer List example that we designed previously Remove all the Text objects from the MasterData band Place a Text object on the data band and stretch it to cover almost all of the band space FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 69 FastReport 4 User s Manual ReportTitle Bandi L m This object will change its color dependent on the data line number Select the object and set the following conditional expression in the Highlight tab of the object editor lt Line gt mod 2 1 Note if you have selected C Script as the script language see more details in the Script chapter you
10. Pagel oo AC Memo Ekl ES E g w Caption IK Default L False a Description Enabled True Font TFont O Height 25 Controls To use Dialogue form controls in a report place a TfrxDialogControls component from the FastReport component palette on the Delphi project form Alternatively add frxDCtrl to the Uses list The following controls then become available for use in the report C S TfrxLabelControl control for displaying fixed texts on the dialogue form TfrxEditControl control for entering text using the keyboard FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dialogue forms 152 TfrxMemocControl control for entering multiple lines of text using the keyboard TfrxButtonControl control representing a button TfrxCheckBoxControl control representing a flag having two states enabled or disabled has an adjacent label O TfrxRadioButtonControl control representing a radio button There must be more than one radio button control on the form BH TfrxListBoxControl control representing a list of items from which one can be selected TfrxComboBoxControl control representing a drop down list of items from which one can be selected T TfrxDateEditControl control representing a field with a drop down calendar for date entry TfrxGroupBoxControl control representing a labelled box that can contain other objects il TfrxPanelControl control representing a panel whic
11. Aliases In the previous report the data source was named frxDBDataSet1 the fields were named CustNo Company Phone and FAX and we referred to them in the report using something like frxDBDataSet1 CustNo Is this easy to understand Not really It would be clearer if the data source and the field were named Our clients and Number respectively There is a problem frxDBDataSet1 is the name of the component within which spaces are not supported and CustNo is the name of the field in the database which cannot be changed without database restructure However there is a way around this We can use pseudonyms or aliases for these items In FastReport both the dataset and its fields possess a second name property known as UserName i e an alias which can easily be changed Whenever a component has been given an alias i e UserName changed from its default this alias must be used in FastReport the component s Name property will not be recognized It is very easy to set aliases for a data source and its fields in FastReport It is done in the Delphi environment To open the alias editor double click on the frxDBDataSet1 component or use its context menu You can modify the dataset and field aliases in the editor and also specify which fields are needed in the report Let s rename the dataset and fields as below FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating r
12. CurX is changed when printing multi column reports Engine CurX and Engine CurY are available not only for reading but also for writing This means that bands can be shifted by incrementing or decrementing these values For example in a report resembling this Customers Company _fustomers Contact Customers Phone it can be printed in the following way Action Club Michael Spurling o 13 570 0239 Action Diver Supply Marianne Miles 22 44 5002 1 1 Adventure Undersea Gloria Gonzales 011 344 0905 4 American SCUBA Supply Lynn Cinciripin 213 654 0092 Aquatic Drama Gilian Owen b1a 442 7b54 Blue slass Happiness Christine Taylor 213 555 1964 This is achieved by writing a handler for the band s OnBeforePrint event PascalScript procedure MasterDatalOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Engine CurX Engine CurxX 5 end C Script void MasterDatalOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Engine CurX Engine CurxX 5 Changing CurY can make bands overlap for example FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 97 FastReport 4 User s Manual Achieved by this script PascalScript procedure MasterDatalOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Engine CurY Engine CurY 15 end C Script void MasterDatalOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Engine Cury Enogine Cury 15 The Engine NewPage method i
13. New Item Items Templates J 5 Standard Standard Dot Matrix Report Wizard Report Report wizard BS t Dot Matrix Me Mew Table Report Connecti Wizard New Query Wizard On clicking an empty design page is shown marked out for a dot matrix font FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dot Matrix reports 144 P24 Gl 11011271141 161 181 Z0 lee 241 761 281 30 32 1341 36 1 o 9 8 Ff amp 8 amp 8 4 3 F The object toolbar also changes to show the objects available for dot matrix printing these are Band Text Line ESC Command Subreport Cross tab and DBCross tab objects Other objects cannot be used on a dot matrix printer Ey Bl gt oh m E l Place Report Title Page Header and Master Data bands on the report page ReportTitle ReportTitlel Peles a l Place Text objects on the bands as follows FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 145 FastReport 4 User s Manual ReportTitlhe ReportTitlei Customer list 90 PageHeader PageHeader 1 Sa le fe ea pe aa a Company i Address Customers Company Custome rs Addri The placement of Dot matrix objects is similar to that in ordinary reports However these objects are strictly limited in position and appearance The objects snap to the grid the font size height cannot be c
14. method This method has three parameters each of them an array of Variant type The first parameter is the row value the second the column value and the third the cell value Note that the number of values in each array must match the settings for the object In our example the object has one level in the row title two levels in the column title and one level of cells so the AddValue method s Variant array parameters need one value for the rows two values for the columns and one value for the cells On preview the report output is Grand Total Ann 1600 1600 3100 1700 170o 4800 Ben ofa 2000 2000 Den soosoo too of 8100 Grand Total 4000 5600 1600 11200 3700 3700 14900 The AddValue method can also be used for the DB cross tab object This allows the insertion of data which is not derived from the data source attached to the object If any data is added in this way it is also summarized with the data from the data source FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 128 7 11 Adding external objects to the table External objects such as lines shapes pictures can be placed in the cross tab You may need to show for example some data in a graphical form Let s look at an example that uses shapes to display a rudimentary progress bar 10800 1700 3300 3100 m 2 OU ame 83900 se 2100 m es 160
15. A Landscape Margins Left cm Right cm Top cm Bottom cm Paper Source First page Default ka Other pages Default w On the first dialogue page you can set the size and alignment of the paper as well as the margins In Paper source the drop down lists allow selection of printer tray for the first page and for the rest of the report pages FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 14 Page Options Paper other options Columns Number width Do jem Positions Other F Print to previous page F Mirror margins _ Endless page width Endless page height Large height in design mode Duplex Default Ww On the second dialogue page you can set the number of columns for multi column reports The current settings are also displayed in the designer The Print to previous page flag allows you to print pages without starting a new page instead beginning in any blank space on the previous page This option can be useful when a report template consists of several pages or when printing batch composite reports The Mirror margins option switches the right and left margins of even numbered pages during previewing or printing of a report The Endless page width amp height options increase page sizes depending on the number of data records on the page when the report is run When set the report will appear on one big page in the p
16. D im ee mm amp to hi DI Pi lt should be noted that the splitting algorithm is not perfect and the final output may not be quite as expected You should use this option very carefully in cases where objects on the split band are grouped in a complicated way and or their font sizes differ Here is an example of what could be generated D E oi bo 2 J 4 5 1 2 17 Text wrap of objects In some report designs text may be required to wrap around other objects often when using pictures Let s demonstrate how FastReport can do this in our current example Add one more Text object to the data band below the Bio Notes object as shown here FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 38 ReportTitle ReportTitle1 Bio Com mon Name Bio Notes We will disable stretching for the Bio Notes object and enable it for the bottom object To make the text flow from the Bio Notes object into the bottom one set the FlowTo property of the Bio Notes object in the object inspector it is a drop down list Select the bottom object s name from this list The resulting report will look like this Fishes Clown Triggertish Also known as the big spotted triggerfish Inhabits outer reef areas and feeds upon crustaceans and mollusks by crushing them with powertul teeth They are voracious eaters and divers report seeing
17. It is evident that navigation right down to order numbers is possible and that the hierarchy of the elements in the tree resembles that in the report Now we will create a similar tree but using a script instead of the OutlineText property In the report clear the OutlineText properties of both of the bands and create two event handlers GroupHeader1 OnBeforePrint and MasterData1 OnBeforePrint PascalScript procedure GroupHeaderlOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Outline LevelRoot FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 101 FastReport 4 User s Manual Outline AddItem lt Group Company gt end procedure MasterDatalOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Outline AddiItem lt Group OrderNo gt Outline LevelUp end begin end C Script void GroupHeaderlOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Outline LevelRoot Outline AddItem lt Group Company gt void MasterDatalOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Outline AddItem lt Group OrderNo gt Outline LevelUp Preview the report to make sure that it works in the same way as previously where the tree was created automatically Let s see how the tree is created by the script The Outline Addltem method adds a child node to the current tree node and then makes the child node the current one So if Addltem were called several times in a row i
18. SUM sum of values MIN minimal value MAX maximal value AVG average value COUNT number of values Let s use the MIN function in our example Open the cross tab editor and in list 5 the Salary field item click the down arrow salary E DID Mone Sum Max Average Count Tal eb i em er Select the MIN function from the drop down list Now we can change the text in the total cells from Total to Minimum The finished report looks like this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 115 FastReport 4 User s Manual 7 4 7 9 Sorting values Lines and columns by default are arranged in ascending order either numerically or alphabetically depending on the type of the data Sort modes can be set independently for lines and columns The sort modes are arrange in ascending order arrange in descending order and perform no sorting With no sorting the lines columns are displayed in default database order Let s change the column sorting in our example Let the years be arranged in decreasing order To do this open the cross tab editor select the Year column element and change the sorting mode by clicking on the down arrow and selecting Descending Ascending 4 2 e Descending 7 4 Mo Sort Close the editor and preview the report It will look like this 002 2001 1999 Men sro
19. Text object on the data band The result will then look like FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 59 FastReport 4 User s Manual 1023 01 07 69 2 1076 16 12 94 J 1123 24 00 93 4 1169 06 07 S4 5 1176 26 07 94 z 1269 16 12 94 2 1233 Uisce i 1060 20 02 09 o 1073 15 04 09 3 1102 06 06 92 3 6 Aggregate functions In most cases group reports need to display some summary information such as total of a group number of group elements etc FastReport provides aggregate functions for calculating aggregate values over some data span The aggregate functions are SUM returns the total of an expression MIN returns the minimal value of an expression MAX returns the maximal value of an expression AVG returns the average value of an expression COUNT returns the number of lines rows in the data span The syntax of all aggregate functions except COUNT is similar to that of the SUM function SUM expression band flags SUM expression band SUM expression The parameters are expression the expression to be calculated band the name of the data band within which the calculation is performed flags a bit field with values 1 include invisible bands in calculation 2 accumulate the aggregate as a running total do not reset the aggregate when the current data span resets 3 both of the two previous options An expression is the only mandatory parameter t
20. as a rule take into account these requirements when objects are exported by FastReport by the use of special algorithms dealing with intersections and the optimal placing of cells At object intersections new columns and lines are created in the output table This is necessary to enable FastReport to position objects exactly and to obtain the best correspondence with the Original preview page A large number of intersecting objects in a report design leads to a large number of additional columns and rows in the output table This in turn can lead to the need for editing of the exported file in its own editor before suitable for further use Memo 1 Memo 2 gt For example take a report where the design has a slight overlap of two objects in the same band and the number of records in the report is 150 On export to RTF format 450 lines will be created 150 rows for each object and 150 rows for the intersection If we remove the overlap there would only be 300 rows For large reports with a large number of objects the difference would be much greater This of course affects the size of the output file hemo 2 Objects in the report Export to Excel result Bear this in mind when designing reports intended for export to any of the formats that use the table output method When designing tables in reports be aware of the borders of neighboring cells It is important that cells do not overlap and are not arranged in layers Th
21. begin MemoHeight TfrxMemoView Sender CalcHeight end C Script float MemoHeight MemoHeight TfrxMemoView Sender CalcHeight If this code were used in the OnBeforePrint event the result will be the height of the object containing the expression before the expression is evaluated and not its actual value on printing 6 13 Service objects There are some other system objects which can be used in scripts in addition to the normal report objects like pages bands Text and other objects They may be useful in the management of report construction The Engine object used in the previous chapter is one such object and all of them are listed here Report the Report object Engine the link to the report Engine Outline the link to the Report tree element in a previewed report Let s look at each of these objects 6 13 1 Report object This object represents a link to the current report The properties of this object can be seen when selecting the Report element in the Report tree window Methods a a a function Calc returns the value of Expr which is an expression const Expr String Variant for example Report Calc 1 2 returns 3 any valid fastReport expression can be passed in the parameter function GetDataSet returns the dataset having the specified name const Alias String TfrxDataSet the dataset must appear in the report
22. from the Delphi FastReport component palette is used to connect a table or any other data source to FastReport This component acts as the messenger between the data source and the FastReport core The component is responsible for record navigation and field reference This allows the FastReport core to be independent of any data access library FastReport can simultaneously work with BDE IB Objects which have a non standard implementation incompatible with TDataSet and other libraries as well as with data from sources not connected to a DB for example arrays or files The TfrxDBDataSet component is intended for working with data sources compatible with TDataSet such as BDE ADO IBX and the majority of other libraries The TfrxIBODataSet component is intended for working with IB_ Objects The TfrxUserDataSet component ay works with other data sources arrays files etc It is very easy to use the TfrxDBDataSet component Connect it to the data source by setting the DataSet property for direct connection to a table or a query or the DataSource property for connection via a IT DataSource component The two methods are equivalent and mutually exclusive though the first does allow data management without requiring a TDataSource component To make the Delphi component and the data connected to it available to the report any dataset used in the report must be enabled Do this thr
23. menu item or click the Variables button in the toolbar The list of variables in FastReport has a two level structure The first level simply contains the category and the second level contains the variable itself This categorization of variables is convenient when the list of variables is very long A variable list must contain at least one category which means that variables cannot be located at the top level Furthermore category FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 29 FastReport 4 User s Manual names cannot be included in reports so each name within the list must be unique Let s illustrate the use of variables with the following example Assume we have two data sources the first is frxDBDataSet1 with CustNo and Name fields and the second is frxDBDataSet2 with OrderNo and Date fields We can associate the following list of variables with the fields Clients Client number Client name Orders Order number Order date where Clients and Orders are two categories Open the variables editor and create this structure by using of the New category New variable and Edit buttons To link the variables to the DB fields select a variable and double click on the required DB field in the right hand pane The link to the DB field will be shown in the bottom pane The variable is now associated with this expression so the value of the
24. so srl a ea Tables with composite headers Our previous example contained a single value per line and single column headers Let s look at a cross tab design having a composite header with more than one value The source data has data in the following format Name Year Month Days Salary Ann 1999 2 3 1000 Ben 2002 1 5 2000 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 116 We have added the Month and Days fields containing the month number and the number of working days respectively Several different reports can be constructed from this data for example salaries of employees over each year broken down in months What kind of a report will we get It must resemble the report from the previous example but having the annual data subdivided by month The cross tab object must be set up in the same manner as before This time we will also drag the Month field into the column header list as shown here Cross bab structure Subtotal fr 4 2 fe A Z SS SS On preview we see the following report Spe Pe fea e Ps roel 72 Te arn 1000 ran taco 3300 1300 t400 roo 1600 tea Ben mo aa00 e 2400 athens foa o sec szool Den g Note that FastReport has automatically added a column of intermediate totals displayed after each year This can be turned off in the cross tab editor by de selecting the Subtotal flag of the Year
25. Place TTable TfrxDBDataSet TfrxChart and TfrxReport components on the form and set these properties Tablet DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName country db frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Table UserName Country Open the report designer create a new report and connect the data source in the Report gt Data dialogue Add a Chart object ul to the report design page and set its size to 18 cm wide x 8 cm high Open its object editor by double clicking on it FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 135 FastReport 4 User s Manual Chart Editor GlignvvithMargins Ais Visible BackColor BackWall HBottomAxis Bokbornyy all Chart3DPercent DepthAsis Gradient Ler basis Lert all Legend Margins Monochrome Rightaxis Title Topas View so Views DOptions View SD Walls False True H Default TEhart w all TEhart xis TEhart w all lo iTChartDepth xis TCharkisradient TCharkaxis TChart yall TChartLegend THargins _ False TCharkaxis TChart Title TCharkaxis True TviewsDOptions True Key to the chart editor above Select the chart series or add a new one 1 chart structure a chart can contain one or more series 2 object inspector showing the properties of the element selected in the window set the chart properties here 3 options area for connection
26. Use object s font settings option is enabled the font in the text editor window matches the font of the object being edited The default white background of the designer workspace and tool windows can be modified via the Workspace and the Tool windows buttons FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 FastReport 4 User s Manual 1 5 The LCD grid color option increases contrast of the grid lines a little and improves their visibility on LCD monitors The Show editor after insert option controls what happens when new objects are inserted If the option is enabled its editor will be displayed each time an object is inserted When creating a large number of blank objects it is recommended to temporarily disable the option Disabling the Show band captions option hides band captions so saving some space on a design page When disabled the band captions are shown inside the band workspace The Show drop down list of fields option controls whether the drop down list is accessible when pointing with the mouse to Text objects which are connected to data fields This may be necessary if there are many narrow Text objects in a band The Free band placement option disables snapping of bands to the page This option is disabled by default and bands are automatically grouped on the page according to their function The gap between bands is set in the Gap
27. Variant var Width Extended begin if VarToStr ColumnValues 0 1999 and VarToStr ColumnValues 1 ll then Width 100 end C Script void Crossl0OnCalcWidth int Columnindex variant ColumnValues Extended amp Width 1f VarToStr ColumnValues 0 1999 amp amp VarTostr ColumnValues 1 11 Width 100 And the report becomes ANM ann Grand Total To hide a column in our example just set the Width to zero Note that the totals are not recalculated as the table is already filled with values at this point FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 126 7 10 Filling a table manually There are two versions of the cross tab object DB cross tab and Cross tab So far we have worked with the first object attached to data from a DB table The object fills itself automatically as soon as the report runs Let s look at the second object Cross tab The Cross tab object is not attached to a DB table Therefore it has to be filled with data manually The Cross tab object has a similar editor to the DB cross tab object though it differs in that the dimensions of the table s titles and cells have to be specified instead of being set by the DB fields Cross tab Editor Dimensions Cross tab structure Subtotal fr A Z le 2 7 Rows Columns Cells
28. _ lt Select style Show title Show corner Columnt Column 4 Column header Column ang Total Row header Column grand total ra o a ae Auto size Border around cells Print down then across Reprint headers on new page Side by side cells Join equal cells Let s show the use of a Cross tab object with an example Place a Cross tab object on the report design page and set its properties as shown above the number of levels in the rows title is 1 in the columns title is 2 and in the cells is 1 Let s fill the table with data using the OnBeforePrint event handler PascalScript FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 127 FastReport 4 User s Manual procedure CrosslOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin with Crossl do begin AddValue Ann j i AddValue Ann 2001 3 116001 AddValue Ann j AddValue Ben 2002 1 2000 AddValue Den r AddValue Den 2001 2 4100 end end C Script void CrosslOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Cross AddValve Anni 2001 2 Crossl AddValue Ann 2001 3 1600 Cross AddValue Ann 2002 1 Cross AddValue Ben 2002 Ll 2000 Cross AddValue Den 2001 1 Crossl AddValue Den 2001 2 4100 In the handler data is added to the table through the TfrxCrossView AddValue
29. but detracts from spreadsheet appearance Pictures graphic images exported to spreadsheet As text all objects exported to spreadsheet as text may be useful when exporting numeric fields with complex formatting Fast export optimizes export soeeding up data transfer to file when disabled data transfer is Slower but more stable in some situations Merge cells cells are merged to achieve maximum correspondence with previewed report when disabled speeds up export at expense of spreadsheet appearance WYSIWYG full compliance to report appearance when disabled optimization is allowed reducing the number of lines and columns in the export file Background background color of report page s exported to spreadsheet Page breaks enables page breaks in the spreadsheet Open Excel after export exported file is opened immediately after export Export features Microsoft Excel must be installed on your PC RichText objects are transferred as simple text graphic image transfer is supported 14 5 5 Export to XML Format XML Extensible Markup Language is an extendable markup language XML is intended for structured data storage and also for information exchange between different programs FastReport uses XML format for data transfer into Excel ver 2003 and later Export method is table On exporting to XML format the dialogue box for output file parameter settings appears FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastRep
30. column element Also note that the last column element in the column header list never has a Subtotal flag including the case of a single element In our example we do not need intermediate totals for each month so the Subtotal flag can be turned off There is another feature of intermediate totals if they are used it might be preferable to head the intermediate total as Year year total instead of Total In the cross tab object on the report page double click the intermediate total cell and in the text editor type FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 117 FastReport 4 User s Manual 7 6 Total for Value On report construction the Value expression is replaced by the actual value of the column header in the cell above am fon foo oo en po sw Catherine 000 st0o 61o Den ee A S E Grand Total 1000 5100 6400 1200 13700 Adjusting cell width Looking at the previous illustration it is obvious that FastReport automatically adjusts cell widths so that larger cell values do actually fit within the cells This may not be desirable in some cases however as extra wide columns can appear ugly What can be done about this Let s look at three methods of controlling cell width The simplest method of controlling cell width is to add line breaks to the text of intermediate totals i e Total for Value The resulting table
31. gt No style Arial agio S B Z U F Z D Code Data Pagel ig Data 3 Pagel 8 MasterDatal C Shape A Memo2 A Memo3 A Memo4 A Memo5 n A Memo HCustomers Comgany B Customers Company A Memo Phone Customers Phone o 5 ReportTitle1 FAX Customers FAX 13121 1 lt B t 4 B Tax Rate E Contact B Last Invoice Date Ke Properties Events Align baNone AllowExpressioi True AllowHTMLTags _ False Auto Width _ False BrushStyle W bsSolid CharSpacing 0 Clipped v True Color W clone Cursor crDeFault DataField Company DataSet Customers Description DisplayFormat ExpressionDelir FlowTo Font TFont Frame TfrxFrame Gapx 2 Gap 1 o gt 116 6 15 14513 11211711019 1 84s 7 118 1 17 lt Align Determines the alignment of the object relative to band or page g Create field y Ll Create caption 19 Centimeters MemoS Customers Company Key to report designer features 1 report design workspace 2 menu bar 3 toolbars 4 object toolbar 5 report page tabs 6 Report tree pane FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 3 FastReport 4 User s Manual 7 Object inspector pane 8 Data tree pane elements can be dragged from this pane onto a report page 9 rulers a ruler can be dragged onto a report
32. such as company name contact phone Fax 400Tablel Trrx4D0T able Properties Events CloseDataSou True Database ADOC Connectioni Description FieldAliases TStrings Filter Filtered _ False IndexFieldNanc Te This table contains all orders made by Hoe ls customers Table is linked to the IndexName ADOTablee Customers table by master detail Master Not assigned relationship MasterFields E Mame ADOTable 1 200 The Orders table 300 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components 160 11 1 11 1 1 Component descriptions Let s see how components are used for data access via ADO They are made available in ADO FastReport by adding the TfrxADOComponents F component from the Delphi FastReport palette to the project form The following objects then appear on the object toolbar when you switch to the Data tab in the report designer TfrxADOTable TfrxADOQuery and TfrxADODataBase These components are similar to the corresponding Delphi components TADOTable TADOQuery and TADOConnection in terms of their functionality There is also a TfrxDBLookupComboBox control which can be used in dialogue forms Vicon Name Description Usedin TfrxDBLookupComboB control used for selecting a value from aj dialogue OX directory forms TfrxADO Table control used for accessing a DB table
33. 2 b 10 1 b10 1 b 10 2 b10 2 b 20 1 b20 1 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 7 1 Cross tab reports 110 b 20 2 b20 2 Here the first field contains the line index as before the second and third fields contain column indexes and the last field contains the cell value Look at how FastReport constructs the memory table when handling cross tab data with complex titles When outputting the report from this memory table FastReport joins those title cells which have the same value and are located at the same level Here is a more complex cross tab report incorporating intermediate and grand totals A Ca fata A02 ato rato a201 e202 a201 202 sumi _ e oroa e102 oto 1010 2 b201 e202 201202 sume Total 810 1 ja10 2 a10 1 b10 1 jaz 1 ja20 2 ja20 1 b20 1 sumtaj b10 1 b10 2 a10 2 b10 2 b20 1 b20 2 a20 2 b20 2 sumib This report is derived from the same data as before The values in the cells highlighted in the new color are automatically calculated and are not present in the original data set Constructing a cross tab report Now let s turn from theory to practice We will construct a simple cross tab report displaying employees salaries over four years To do this we need the crosstest table which is located in the FastReport DEMOS MAIN folder The table contains data like Name Year Salary Ann 1999 3300 Ben 2002 2000 Cr
34. Manual ReportTitle ReportTitlei OnManualBuild test f PageFooter PageFooter 1 The handler will display these bands in alternate order six times for each one After six bands have been displayed a small gap will be inserted PascalScript procedure PagelOnManualBuild Sender TfrxComponent var 1 Integer begin for i 1 to 6 do begin show two bands Engine ShowBand MasterDatal Engine ShowBand MasterData2 make a gap if i 3 then Engine CurY Engine CurY 10 end end C Script void PagelOnManualBuild TfirxComponent Sender int i for i 1 1 lt 6 itt Show two bands Engine ShowBand MasterDatal Engine ShowBand MasterData2 make a gap if i 3 Engine CurY Engine CurY 10 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 104 OnManualb uild test MasterData MasterDatal Ma sterDlataz MasterDatal ha sterData KWasterDatal WasterDataZ hWasterDatal hWasterDatal Wa sterDataZ ma m1 on a tT Lm lt fl I pai pai pai pai J The following example displays the same bands with a second copy shifted to the right PascalScript procedure PagelOnManualBuild Sender TfrxComponent var Ty Integer SaveY Extended begin SaveY Engine CurY for j 1 to 2 do begin for i 1 to 6 do begin Engine ShowBand MasterDatal Engine ShowBand
35. Mone Columns T DataSet Mok assigned Ded Duplex dmtane gy EndlessHeight _ False o Endless idth False I ElFont TFont af Frame ThreFrarme LargeDesignH False LeftMargin 1 MirrorMargins _ False Name Pagel lt Orientation poPortrait a OutlineText vl y 2 eT BackPicture The background page picture Month nok accessible Centimeters i2 1 Pagel Key to the labelling above 1 Code tab 2 script editor pane 3 drop down list for selecting the language in which the script is written a a StartDay not accessible L hl 4 BPa sl le MA ili FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 77 FastReport 4 User s Manual 4 debugger toolbar run report in debugging mode F9 run to cursor F4 execute the regular code line Step into F7 d interrupt running script Ctrl F2 gl preview value of expression Evaluate Ctrl F7 toggle breakpoint F5 5 Watches pane 6 bookmarks and breakpoints are displayed in this column also line of executing code highlighted here List of the shortcut keys which can be used in the script editor undo last action up to 32 events set breakpoint for script to run to Run to cursor FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 6 2 Script 78 Ctrl F2 reset the scr
36. O O Besada Auto size Border around cells Print down then across Reprint headers on new page Side by side cells Join equal cells FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 112 Key to the items shown above 1 a drop down list of available data sources 2 the list of fields in the selected data source the fields from this list can be dragged to the lists numbered 3 4 or 5 3 the list of fields which generate line row headers 4 the list of fields which generate column headers 5 the list of fields which generate table cells 6 table structure preview 7 structure options display of titles totals etc You can only use the mouse in this editor to make changes For our example it is only necessary to drag fields from the list 2 to lists 3 4 and 5 in the diagram above After that close the editor by clicking the button The cross tab object now shows its structure Salaty Year Name of ol o a Grand Total Grand Total 7 2 Changing the appearance Lets modify the cross tab object s appearance The first thing we want to do is to change the title colors and display Total instead of Grand total This is very easy to change the title color to gray click on the Year Name and Grand Total cells in turn and select gray using the background button SA on the toolbar FastReport v4 1998
37. PieValues RotationAngle Series Color Show InLegend Title LisePatterns ValueForrriat Verbaxis Click OK to close the editor and preview the report True E clDeFault _ False True T T True T aBottomAxis TSeriesMarks TRieGther Slice HUH Vo TChartPen TChartvalueList T E Red True _ False EERO eee aLerkaxis Data Source DataSet Band source Fixed data Values Label Fie Other options Sort order Toph values Toph caption A AMIS oof America Country Country Mame Country Area B 2 777 815 Argentina GS 1 096 575 Bolivia 8 511 196 Brazil E 5 976 147 Canada C 756 943 Chile GS 1 138 907 Colombia GS 144 524 Cuba GR 455 502 Ecuador E 20 865 El Salvador E 214 969 Guyana TS 11 424 Jamaica 1 567 180 Mexico E 139 000 Nicaragua C 406 576 Paraguay 731 285 215 Peru E 3 363 130 United States of America HS 176 140 Uruguay B 912 O47 Venezuela What can be improved in this report It would be nice to sort the populations in descending order Open the chart editor again select the series in the chart structure and change the sort order from None to Descending FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Charts 138 Other options Sort order Descending Toph values o a lf we previewed the report now we would see that the data in the legend table has been sorted in descending order 8 1 Limiting the number of
38. Report Connecti Wizard Hew Query Wizard Cancel 13 1 New report wizard There are two icons for wizards helping to create new reports and two icons for the straight forward creation of new reports Standard report wizard Dot matrix report wizard Standard report Dot matrix report Icons of type Standard report and Dot matrix report create the empty standard and dot matrix reports respectively there is more about dot matrix reports in previous sections These new reports contain one empty page Icons of type Standard report wizard and Dot matrix report wizard guide the process of choosing the dataset and fields required for the report the optional creation of groups and the selection of data layout Let s look at a report created with the help of the Standard report wizard Choose File gt New and the Standard report wizard icon The report wizard dialogue appears FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 178 Report Wizard Step 1 Select the dataset Customers w Mew table Mew Query The dialogue has several tabs On the first tab choose the data source for the report All data sources available in your application are listed here TfrxDBDataSet components New data sources can be created either tables or queries using the New table or New query buttons These buttons open the New table query wizard de
39. a report FastReport scans the Text object contents to find any aggregate functions The aggregates found are linked to the data bands in their parameters in our example SUM is linked to the MasterData1 band During report output when the data band is displayed the values of the aggregates linked to it are calculated In our case the Group ItemsTotal field values are accumulated Once the group footer displaying the aggregate has been output the aggregate value is reset to zero and the cycle is repeated for the next group and so on What is the purpose of the optional Flags parameter in aggregate functions Reports may have some or all of the data bands hidden We may however need to calculate aggregates over all the data bands whether visible or not In our example set the Visible property of the data band to false so preventing its display To still have this hidden data band included in the calculations we have to set the third optional parameter in the function call to the figure 1 i e FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 61 FastReport 4 User s Manual SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterData1 1 This produces a report looking like tis 51450 6 5645 6 2561575 0 When the Flags parameter value is set to 2 the aggregate value is not reset immediately after it is displayed the aggregate becomes a running calculation for each
40. a window with the same greeting Open the designer and click on the New report button so that FastReport automatically creates a basic template Switch to the Code tab and write the following script PascalScript begin ShowMessage Hello World end C Script ShowMessage Hello World After that run the report As expected FastReport displays a little dialogue with a greeting Frdemo Eg Hello World Let s explain some details We created a script consisting of a single begin end block So our script has a very simple structure it consists only of a main procedure see the Structure of a script section above The main procedure is executed as soon as the report runs In this case it displayed a greeting dialogue the procedure ends right after the dialogue is closed After the main procedure has finished running the normal report construction begins 6 4 Using objects in the script Any report object can be accessed from a script So if there are for example the Page1 page and a Memo1 object they can be used in the script calling them by their names PascalScript Memol Color clRed C Script Memol Color clRed FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 81 FastReport 4 User s Manual The list of report objects accessible from the script is shown in the Report tree pane What object properties are available to
41. also use the context menu for the data band Footer After Each Row causes footer output after each data row This may be useful in the design of some master detail reports If FooterAfterEach for the master data band is set to True the report will look like this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 50 2 24 masterheader masterdata detailheader detalldata detalldata detailfooter masterfooter masterdata detailheader detalldata detalldata detailfooter mastertooter Multi page reports A FastReport report can consist of several design pages Multi page designs allow for the adjustment of properties such as size and orientation of each page as well as allowing variation in the placement of objects and bands on the pages When this type of report is output all bands from the first design page are be displayed then bands from the second page and so on When a new report is created in the designer it contains one page by default You can add a new page by clicking on the G button in the toolbar or by selecting the File gt New page menu command Then you would see that a new page tab appears in the designer kl Code Data Pagel Page You can easily switch between pages by clicking on the page tabs Page tabs can be dragged drag amp drop to easily change their printing order An unnecessary page can be deleted using the button in the toolbar or by
42. aul JAYIOUE si siy puy BUI 4x Huo Ajaa AJaa Aaa SI SIU JAYJOUE 1 SIU puy 4a Buoj Mar Ja MaA E SI SIY Low D m D on T Let s briefly look at some other Text object properties which influence its appearance Most of these properties are available only in the object inspector BrushStyle type of object filling CharSpacing sp cing between characters in pixels GapX GapY text indents from left and top edges in pixels LineSpacing spacing between lines in pixels ParagraphGap first line indent for the paragraph in pixels 2 4 HTML tags in the Text object The Text object does understand some simple HTML tags Tags can be located within the text of the object Tags are disabled by default but to enable them either select Allow HTML tags in the object context menu or enable the AllowHIMLTags property in the object inspector Here is the list of supported tags lt b gt bold text lt i gt italic text lt u gt underlined text lt sub gt subscript lt Sup gt Superscript lt font color gt font color lt nowrap gt text which is not split when WordWrap is enabled the whole text is shifted to the next line Please note that only a few tags are supported but this should be enough for the majority of applications It is not possible to modify the font size or name by means of HTML tags The following examples show how these tags can
43. cards or post cards For this purpose data bands have the RowCount property and the report page has the PageCount property These two properties control the degree of band page repetition in the report without being influenced by the report data FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Groups and aggregates 53 FastReport 4 User s Manual 3 1 Report with groups In the previous example we constructed a two level report based on the data from two tables Another report which looks the same can be constructed in FastReport this time based on a dataset obtained from a joined query To do this an SQL query is needed which returns data from both tables and sorted in a particular way In our example the tables will be joined on the CustNo fields present in both tables The query might be select from customer orders where orders CustNo customer CustNo order by customer CustNo The order by line is required to sort the records on the CustNo field This query returns a dataset like CustNo Company eee OrderNo SaleDate 1221 Kauai Dive Shoppe 1023 01 07 1988 1221 Kauai Dive Shoppe 1123 24 08 1993 1231 Unisco 1060 28 02 1989 1351 Sight Diver 1003 12 04 1988 1351 Sight Diver 1052 06 01 1989 1351 Sight Diver 1055 04 02 1989 How can a multi level report be designed using this data In FastReport there is a special band the Group Header A condition a D
44. data levels in reports can be achieved by the use of the Subreport object this object is covered later on Most reports in general need only one two or three data levels larger numbers of data levels are rare FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 46 Let s look at how to design a two data level report The report will output data from the demo tables Customer and Orders The first table is a list of customers and the second one is a list of orders placed by those customers The tables contain data in the following fields Kauai Dive Shoppe Customer CustNo Company 1221 1231 Unisco 1351 Sight Diver Orders OrderNo CustNo 1003 1351 1023 1221 1052 1351 1055 1351 1060 1231 1123 1221 SaleDate 12 04 1988 01 07 1988 06 01 1989 04 02 1989 28 02 1989 24 08 1993 As you can see the second table contains the list of all the orders placed by all the customers To view the orders from the Orders table which are placed by one customer in the Customers table the two tables are linked on the CustNo field which is common to both tables The report output from this data should appear as follows 1055 Kauai Dive Shoppe 01 07 1988 24 08 1993 Unisco 28 02 1989 Sight Diver 12 04 1988 06 01 1989 04 02 1989 Let s design the report Create a new project in Delphi place two TTable one TDataSource two TfrxDBDataSet and
45. default zero to prevent column 2 overlaying column 1 optionally the Column Gap property can also be changed FastReport then shows the column frames as dotted lines Bio Specie Bio Category L Bio Common Mame Bio Length L This design displays data in left to right then top to bottom order Child bands There can be a problem when one field in a label type report has content of variable length To simulate this in our example let s reduce the width of the Bio Common Name object to 2 5 cm and enable the Stretch property for this object and also for the First level data band Enable all the frame lines for all the objects so that the effects of the stretching function are clear to see The design now outputs a report like this 020 ategory rqgertish Pi 3 g D i I Sa lown raqertish amie i Bi 0 ength cm OU napper a J umber ateqory 0 ed Emperor mz pez pak 2 ength cm Here the first Bio Common Name field object contains a lot of text and is stretched into two lines This causes the Bio Length cm field object located beneath it to be shifted downwards This happens because all the objects have their ShiftWMode property set to smAlways by default meaning they shift downwards if there is a stretchable object a Text object with the Stretch property enabled above them The distance sh
46. editor after insert Show band captions Show drop down Fields list Free bands placement Gap between bands Restore defaults FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 211 FastReport 4 User s Manual When using frames around Text objects it is best to use the object s frame properties rather than adding graphic objects like lines and rectangles around the text Also try not to use objects in the background beneath transparent text objects Keeping these simple rules in mind will help you to create a report which will look perfect after export to any format that uses the table based output method Below are some examples of good and bad arrangement of objects Memo 2 Memo 2 Bad Good The objects are displaced horizontally they do not line up horizontally with the vertical guideline Memo 2 Bad memo temo 2 Good The objects are overlapping on export to a table diagram format additional unnecessary rows and columns and also three additional cells in the overlap zone are created Study of the demo reports included in the FastReport installation is recommended to help master the basic principles of good report design FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0
47. has the following structure Number i Bio Specie Category i Bio Category Name i Bio Comman Mame Length cm i Bio Length When previewed we would see the following output Number 90020 Category Triggerfish Mame Clown Triggertish Length cm 40 Number 90030 Category Snapper Mame Red Emperor Length cm BO Notice there is a lot of blank space on the right side of the page To make use of the whole page the number of columns in which data is displayed can be set in the report page settings To do this either double click on the white space on the design page or use File gt Page Settings on the menu FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 42 Page Options Paper ther options Columns Number Width cra Positions T 9 50 The column count width and positions are set on the Other options tab in the dialogue In our example only the Number needs to be set at 2 as FastReport adjusts the other options automatically The column frame is displayed in the designer as a thin vertical line i Specie lo Category io Common Name i Length The report is now created in the following way FastReport repeats the First level data band as long as there is white space at the bottom of the page After that a new column on the same page is created and data bands continue repeating fro
48. is more compact However there are circumstances where it is difficult or impossible to sensibly break lines manually The cross tab object has therefore been given both MinWidth and MaxWidth properties referring to cell widths Both of these properties are only accessible via the object inspector By default MinWidth is 0 and MaxWidth is 200 which is adequate in most cases The second method of controlling cell width is to alter these values according to special FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 118 requirements So in our example we can set both MinWidth and MaxWidth to 50 This means that a data cell must be at least 50 pixels wide even if the cell value would fit into fewer pixels For large cell values the cell width is limited to the MaxWidth value and the text in the cell is broken as required So our example now looks like this 1999 2 10 11 12 Total for 1999 en a0 a Bo carere f sia 6100 Com The third method of controlling cell width is to change cell widths manually To be able to do this the AutoSize property must be set to False The cross tab cell width can then be changed using the mouse In the report page cross tab object the mouse cursor changes shape over cell borders so allowing the borders to be dragged Here is an example of what can be achieved ooo ee Mame Total ao mof
49. is opened first of all followed by the derived one 12 1 Creating a base report Let s create a simple report that uses inheritance Our finished report should look like this Our company our email email email coam Logo Customer Phone Action Club o 13 0r0 0239 Action Ower supply 2 2 4 4 500211 Adventure Undersea O11 54 09054 American SCUBA Supply 213 654 0092 First the base report has to be created Which elements must it contain They are the logo bitmap Our company title and email address Create a new report and place the common objects in the ReportTitle ReportTitle ReportTitlel Logo Our company r 1 our email emailemail om L l FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report inheritance 172 Save the report as base fr3 In which folder This depends on how you setup the TfirxDesigner component By default FastReport searches for base reports in the folder that contains the application s exe file Alternatively a folder for templates can be specified in the TfrxDesigner TemplateDir property Now create the derived report To do this use File gt New select the Templates tab in the dialogue and search for the base report base fr3 Click the Inherit the report checkbox and press OK Hew Item Items Templates FastReport will create a report containing all of the objects from the base report They are ta
50. mode later on Here we are interested in the Stretch property of the Text object Enable it using the object s context menu or by setting StretchMode to smActualHeight Also enable the band s Stretch property Preview the report and make sure that everything is now as expected FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 35 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 16 Clown Triggertish Also known as the big spotted triggerish Inhabits outer reef areas and feeds upon crustaceans and mollusks by crushing them with powerful teeth They are voracious eaters and divers report seeing the clown trigqertish devour beds of pearl oysters Dio not eat this fish According to an 10 70 account the poisonous flesh acts primarily upon the nervous tissue of the stomach occasioning violent spasms of that organ and shortly afterwards all the muscles ofthe body The frame becomes rocked with spasms the tonque thickened the eye fixed the breathing laborious and the patient expires ina paroxysm of extreme suffering Mot edible Range is Indo Pacific and East Africa ta somoaa Red Emperor Called seaperch in Australia Inhabits the areas around lagoon coral reefs and sandy bottoms The red emperor is a valuable food fish and considered a great sporting fish that fights with fury when hooked The flesh of an old fish is just as tender to eat as that of the very young Range is from the In
51. of the series to data it is activated once a series in area 1 has been selected When first opened the chart editor will appear as in the image shown above The first task is to add one or more series to the chart just one series in our example Do this by clicking the add button gt and selecting the pie chart in the Gallery FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Charts 136 F TeeChart Galle ry Sees standard Extended Financial Uther 3U Stats Line Bar Horizontal m jga TE Fast Line Horizontal Line OK Cancel jw aD W Smooth The vertical arrows change the order of the series in the list To change the name of a series select the series then one second later click on it again note that this is not a double click There are many different types of series available After a series has been added the options area 3 becomes active Here you specify which data should be used for plotting the chart First let s choose the dataset in the DataSet drop down list Then choose the Label and Pie fields using their respective drop down lists as shown below FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 137 FastReport 4 User s Manual Chart Editor ckive CircleBackColor Circled ColorEachPoint CustomeRadius Custom Radius DarkaD ExplodeBiggest HorizAxis Marks ObtherSlice PercentFormat PiePen
52. on the assumption that the principles of good report design were followed see Report Design considerations chapter Drawing exported objects are captured from the page image The exported output is a FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 198 direct copy of the preview This method is used when exporting to graphic formats 14 5 1 Export to PDF Format PDF Portable Document Format a platform independent format of electronic documents created by Adobe Systems The free Adobe Reader package is used for viewing This format is flexible it allows inclusion of required fonts vector and bitmapped images it is a means to distribute and store documents intended for viewing and or printing The Export method is layer by layer When exporting to PDF format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings Export to PDF Page range All CO Current page Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Compressed Print optimized Embedded Fonts Background Open after export Export settings Compressed output file is compressed file size is reduced but export time is increased Embedded fonts all fonts used in report are contained in the PDF output file allows accurate rendering on computers where the fonts are absent output file size is considerably increas
53. page to create a blue guideline on the page objects snap to nearby guidelines 10 status bar 1 1 Control keys Keys Ctrl O Ctrl S Ctrl P Ctrl Z Ctrl C Ctrl V Ctrl X Ctrl A Arrow Tab Enter Shift arrows Ctrl arrows Alt arrows File gt Open menu command File gt Save menu command File gt Preview menu command Edit gt Undo menu command Edit gt Copy menu command Edit gt Paste menu command Edit gt Cut menu command Edit gt Select all menu command attach selected object to adjacent object in specified direction 1 2 Mouse control Left button select object paste new object move or resize objects for selected objects zoom in and out by dragging red square in bottom left corner of selected objects group Right button selected object s contextual menu Double click open editor for object double clicking on white space opens the Page Settings dialogue Shift left button toggle object selection Ctrl left button create frame by moving mouse FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 1 3 1 3 1 1 3 2 release button to select all objects captured in the frame can also click on blank space and move mouse as required Alt left button edit contents in place if a Text object is selected Toolbars Designer mode bar The Mode toolbar is integrated with the O
54. place a Label an Edit and two Button components on the dialogue form Set the component properties Label1 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components 168 Caption Select if CustNo greater than Edit1 Text 2000 Button1 Caption OK ModalResult mrOk Button2 Caption Cancel ModalResult mrCancel Open the Params property editor of the Query component and set the parameter Parameters Editor Data Type Value Float Edit Text E After that switch to the report design Page1 and create the report as in the previous example ADOGUery1 Cust Mo AD0Query1 Company When the report is previewed the dialogue prompting for a customer number is displayed After a figure is entered and the dialogue has been closed with the button the report is created All customers with CustNos larger than that entered are shown FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 169 FastReport 4 User s Manual Select if CustNo greater than Eooo 11 5 Other useful features Text and Draw elements can be placed on the Data page Using these elements simple explanatory diagrams can be drawn as shown below 100 200 300 I 400 Use the Text object and Draw category objects to draw a diagram The Customers table 100 ADOTable 200 Orders Cust
55. so TEOR Remember that if auto size is turned off then the cross tab will not automatically adjust the cell widths and heights and you may see something like this in the report preview FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 119 FastReport 4 User s Manual Name 2 wo in p1 000 0 E ee If so then just increase the cell widths a little 7 7 Font colors and highlighting Sometimes it is necessary to highlight values and or change the font color We have looked at this in the group report example where we used conditional highlighting for Text objects Conditional highlighting can also be useful for us here To add highlighting to our example report assuming we need to change the font color for values greater than 3000 select the object representing the table cell and set the highlighting parameters by clicking the highlight button on the toolbar The familiar highlighting editor window will open where this condition can be set Value gt 3000 and the font color set to red FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 120 Blu t AMS zla m Mame Total Rena of of o Tota of of o Highlight Condition Value 3000 Font Bold Italic F Underline Background Transparent O Other This is all that is required Close the editor by clicking on the OK button and preview the repo
56. the declaration Pascal script procedure Cross1l0OnPrintCell Memo TfrxMemoView RowIndex ColumniIindex CelliIndex Integer RowValues ColumnValues Value Variant begin if ColumniIndex 2 then Memo Color clRed end C Script void CrosslOnPrintCell TfirxMemoView Memo int Rowlndex int Columnindex int Cellindex Variant RowValues Variant ColumnValues Variant Value if Columnindex 2 Memo Color clRed We will see the following when the report is previewed am o Cen poi ow Catherine oo 6100 on fm Grand Total 1000 5100 To highlight a column title create an OnPrintColumnHeader event handler in a similar way Pascal script procedure Crossl0OnPrintColumnHeader Memo TfrxMemoView HeaderIndexes HeaderValues Value Variant begin if VarToStr HeaderValues 0 1999 and VarToStr HeaderValues 1 ll then Memo Color cilRed end C Script void CrosslOnPrintColumnHeader TfirxMemoView Memo Variant HeaderIndexes FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 123 FastReport 4 User s Manual Variant HeaderValues Variant Value if VarToStr HeaderValues 0 VarToStr HeaderValues 1 Memo Color clRed The report preview is now am o Cen poi ow Catherine o 6100 on a 1999 11 amp amp This is how the script work
57. will show how to construct a report with a List of clients we have shown several versions before using the OnManualBuild event This time connect the data band to the data Source FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 106 ReportTitle Bandi Customers PageHeader Band Company Contact Phone h Customers Company Customers Contact Customers Ph PageFooter Bands T aue a ae a a a ee aa a a ae a L And use this script PascalScript procedure PagelOnManualBuild Sender TfrxComponent var DataSet TfirxDataset begin DataSet MasterDatal DataSet Dataset r irst while not DataSet Kof do begin Engine ShowBand MasterDatal Dataset Next end end C Script void PagelOnManualBuild TfirxComponent Sender TfirxDataSet DataSet DataSet MasterDatal DataSet DataSet First while DataSet EHof Engine ShowBand MasterDatal DataSet Next Preview the report to make sure that the script produces a report identical to the standard report Note how we got a link to the Dataset we connected a dataset variable to the data source using this code DataSet MasterDatal DataSet FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 107 FastReport 4 User s Manual If the MasterData band is not connected to a data source then the link to the required data source can be made in the
58. worth noting that to assign a string value to the variable you must add quotes around the value PascalScript Sel my variable rr p etrang TIIT C Script Set my varidble String i System variables such as Page should be referenced in exactly the same way PascalScript if lt Page gt 1 then C Script if lt Page gt 1 6 6 Referencing the DB fields Just as with variables angle brackets should be used when referencing DB fields in a report PascalScript if lt Tablel Fieldl gt Null then C Script if lt Tablel Field1l gt Null Alternatively the Get function can be used for accessing DB fields in fact this function is used implicitly by FastReport when calculating expressions enclosed in angle brackets FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 83 FastReport 4 User s Manual 6 7 6 8 6 9 Using aggregate functions in the script An idiosyncrasy of aggregate functions is that they must be used inside Text objects once used in this manner they can then be used in the script itself If an aggregate function only appears in a script without appearing in a Text object an error message is generated This happens because an aggregate function must be connected to a specific band once so connected it will work correctly Displaying a variable s value in a report Variables can be
59. 0 F800 ame 6100 oem 5200 m m 400 m mam 999 mem 66100 m 12099 13300 11999 11200 3500 39999 A dark red bar is displayed if the cell value is less than 100 yellow if less than 3000 or green if more that 3000 Let s start with our report Place a DB Cross tab object on the report page and set its properties like this Cross bab structure Year r 4 2 Salary fe Surm SS SS SS SS SS SS l l SS SS SS SS SS Se l Turn off the Auto Size property and set the column widths as shown below Now add the shape object to our table by selecting the Rectangle object on the object toolbar and placing it inside the cell FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 129 FastReport 4 User s Manual Ee a Line object Ne Diagonal line a Diagonal line Diagonal line a Diagonal line MM Rectangle __ Rounded rectangle D Ellipse A Triangle Change its height and width to 0 2cm and set its top and left properties Add two more similar rectangles Now create a script that will show the correct number of colored shapes depending on the cell value To do this select the cell and create an OnBeforePrint event handler H DBCross4Celll ThrxMemoview c On fterFrint z l OnBeforePrint Mae i OnPreviewClic 2 t i Write the following code in the event handler pay attention to the shape names so that they match your objects
60. 05 88 1027 7 07 88 Looking at the report it is unclear to which client the list of orders at the top of the second page refers FastReport allows the group header to be output on the new page which in our case identifies the client To do this enable the ReprintOnNewPage property for the Group header band using the object inspector or the context menu This will alter the report as FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Groups and aggregates 56 shown 1006 06 11 94 1079 03 05 69 1106 22 09 9Y 1153 16 04 94 1253 25 11 94 1007 01 05 66 There is another way to avoid breaking groups at page boundaries This is to enable the KeepTogether property for the group header in the object inspector or context menu Then if the whole group doesn t fit into the free space on the output page it is moved as a whole to a new page In our example appearing like this 1005 20 04 56 1054 24 02 569 1072 11 04 65 1080 05 05 54 1105 21 07 92 1180 06 05 94 1266 15 12 94 1200 26 12 94 1305 20 01 95 1006 06 11 94 1079 03 05 54 A lot of blank space may be left on some pages but if possible the group is displayed FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 57 FastReport 4 User s Manual 3 3 3 4 complete on one page The StartNewPage group header property allows the output of groups on separate pages It possibly will lead to a was
61. 178 02 08 94 As you can see the Group header band is output only when the field to which it is linked changes in value Otherwise the data band connected to the Group dataset is displayed If we FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 55 FastReport 4 User s Manual 3 2 compare this report to the master detail report constructed earlier it is obvious that order numbers are not sorted at all This can be easily corrected by changing the SQL query s order by clause select from customer orders where orders CustNo customer CustNo order by customer CustNo orders OrderNo Reports having nested groups can be designed in a similar way The depth of nesting of groups is unlimited Reports which use groups have some advantages over reports of the master detail type the whole report needs only one dataset query the number of data grouping levels is unlimited data sorting becomes possible more optimal usage of the DB resources the query returns only one dataset for output with filtering done by the query The only disadvantage is the need to write queries in the SQL language However a basic knowledge of SQL is virtually obligatory for any programmer working with databases Other group features Let s look at how the group is output when the report calls for a new page 1079 03 05 89 1106 23 09 92 1153 16 04 94 1253 26 11 94 130400 MIP Divers Club 1007 01
62. 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 113 FastReport 4 User s Manual o Mame Grand Total of 0 We can also use a Set of predefined styles These are available in the cross tab editor click Select style and choose one Show til white Show ce Column ay d Total a range Row he Green g Column Green and Orange 0 Row gr Blue Blue and White Auto siz Gray and Orange Border Blue and Grange Print do n Orange and hite Reprint Side b la Save current style s Join eq To change the two Grand Total texts double click on each cell which opens the familiar text editor where we can type Total Year Name of 0 Total o o To format the currency values select the first cell intersection of Name and Year in our example right click to display the context menu and select Display Format FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 114 Display Format Clear Contents Select the required format and close the format editor All this produces the report Ben 3 900 00 s2 100 00 1 800 00 7 soo oo Catherine 5 100 00 3 20000 89 300 00 Den 3999 00 8 100 00 12 099 00 7 3 Using functions In our example we see the sum of each employee s salary over four years in the Total line Any of the following aggregate functions can be used
63. 3 format is also available for selection Advanced export settings when enabled the OK button opens the appropriate export format settings dialogue when disabled default export settings are used Export via e mail features only plain authentication on SMIP servers is supported If authentication is not required then it is not necessary to enter Login and Password Report Design considerations The quality of the export output in any format is highly dependent on the quality of the original report design FastReport can manipulate objects in a large number of ways during report creation This has the advantage of fast development of reports and subsequent printing Printed documents look just as previewed This is the primary objective of the FastReport report engine The downside of this development freedom is the complexity of exporting FastReport documents to different data formats each of which has its own sometimes complex requirements and limitations In this chapter special design requirements for reports intended for export will be discussed Many formats use tabular data presentation such as HTML XLS XML RIF and CSV In contrast to the freedom allowed in FastReport page design when exporting to these formats FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 209 FastReport 4 User s Manual the output cells created for these tables cannot intersect or be arranged in layers Export filters
64. 7 01 1994 4 229 80p 919 728 20 Total 2922666 1 Total this page 320572 5 Inserting aggregate functions So far we have manually inserted the aggregate functions into Text objects Now we will look at other ways to insert aggregate functions Firstly we can use the System text object to output an aggregate In fact this object is similar to a Text object with its own special editor for more easily specifying system variables or FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 63 FastReport 4 User s Manual aggregate functions System Memo O System variable Aggregate value Function M4 Data band MasterDatal Dataset DataField Thems Total Expression Count invisible bands Running total SUM lt Group ItemsTotal MasterDatal Text Select a function type then a data band over which the aggregate is to be calculated and finally a DB field or an expression whose value is to be calculated You can also set the Count invisible bands and Running totals flags if required The second method is to use a Text object and click the button in its editor this opens a dialogue similar to the System text object editor When the OK button is clicked a call to the aggregate function is inserted into the object s text FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Formatting highlighting 65 F
65. A4 sheet One preview page is printed on more than one sheet When this mode is chosen the sheet size Print on sheet must also be specified gt E Join small pages Join small pages this mode is useful if printing an A4 report on an A3 sheet Two or more preview pages are printed on one sheet When this mode is chosen the sheet size Print on sheet must also be specified l gt Scale Scale mode report is printed on specified size of sheet All report output is scaled One preview page is printed on one sheet When this mode is chosen the sheet size Print on sheet must also be specified When is clicked the report printing begins If Print to file is checked then the standard Save As dialogue opens The report is saved to this file with prn extension The file contains a copy of the information sent to the printer 14 4 Text search in reports FastReport can search for a given phrase within the text of a previewed report Search using the 4 button on the toolbar or Ctrl F hotkey The search dialogue opens Find Text Text to Find ee Search options _ Search From beginning C Case sensitive Enter the phrase to be searched for and select options if required Search from beginning search report from the beginning otherwise searching is from Current page on Case sensitive match the case of the search phrase lower or upper when searching On clicking the s
66. B field value or an expression is specifed for the band the band is output every time the condition s value changes The following example illustrates this Let s create a new project in Delphi and place TQuery TfrxReport and TfrxDBDataSet components on the form Set their properties as shown here Query1 DatabaseName DBDEMOS SQL select from customer orders where orders CustNo customer CustNo order by customer CustNo frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Query UserName Group Open the report designer and create a new report Connect our data source to the report After that add a Group header band to the report Set a condition in this case the Group CustNo data field in the Group header band editor FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Groups and aggregates 54 Break on Data Field O Expression Options d keep group together d Start new page Show in outline Drill Down Reset Page Numbers Also link the data band to the Group data source and arrange some objects as shown note that the group header must be placed above the data band GroupHeader GroupHeader 1 Group Custho T Sroup OrderNo Group saleDate F On previewing the report we obtain output similar to this 1269 16 12 94 1023 01 07 88 1176 25 07 94 1076 16 12 94 1123 24 08 93 1169 06 07 94 12390000 __ 1173 16 07 94 1
67. DErN O siaa N E enc detuvesevelaiaaesecvedsiaacauioe 58 6 AGGregatle TUNCHOINS sissioni a a aa ai a 59 T Pageandreport totals erei E e E E EA E 61 8 Inserting aggregate functions s sssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn mnnn 62 Chapter IV Formatting highlighting 65 1 Formatting Of vals ssania a aa aa a aE aaa 65 2 nine formatih gusien aa a a eE 66 3 Conditional MONNONUN O saaa Ea 67 4 Coloring alternate data OWS ssnsssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn 68 Chapter V Nested reports subreports 71 1 Nested reports subreportsS ssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn mnnn 71 2 Olde Hy SIJe SUDTeEDOTIS oriasi a a E a a E A Na 71 3 Limitations on use of subreports s sssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnmnnn mnnn 72 4 PrMONParent OPUOn psina aa aaea 73 Chapter VI Script 75 T 4 ie ieee Ern a a a a a Soren ter nes ine treerer A 76 2 SUUCtUIE OF a SCHIDE sisii a E AAEN 78 3 Helo World SCPE aa a e A AES E E EAR 80 4 USING ODjects MAINE SCIIDE sirieni ade aaia r a 80 5 Calling the variables from the report s variables liSt scsseeecseesseeeseceesseeeseeeenseeesees 81 6 Referencing the DB Tel Sarisin a a a a a a deede 82 7 Using aggregate functions in the script ssssssssnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn mnnn 83 8 Displaying a varia
68. Data tab TfrxADOQuery control used for executing a SQL query Data tab Let s look at each component TfrxDBLookupComboBox This component is used for selecting a value from a look up dataset The component has the following properties KeyValue value of DB key field returned by the selection from the list Text value of DB list field displayed in the list AutoOpenDataSet when True the connected data source is opened automatically after the dialogue s OnActivate event To connect the control to the look up dataset enter values for the three properties DataSet FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 161 FastReport 4 User s Manual ListField and KeyField Note that the returned value is available via either the Text or the KeyValue properties neither of which appears in the object inspector They are accessible only through code The initial position of the cursor in the look up dataset can be set in code using KeyValue 11 1 2 TfrxADOTable This component is used for accessing a DB table using ADO The component has the following properties These properties are similar to those of Delphi s TADOTable component To connect the component to a DB table just set the DatabaseName and TableName properties The Table is opened either by setting Active property to True or by calling the Open method The F
69. FastReport 4 User s Manual FastReport 4 User s Manual Table of contents Chapter Designer 2 COMEOMKCYS cii tieccstse teates cece eaaate Sehas eaewesits sctenan uy cueassceinacecsteascecnssonneuebesscesseiencousvens 3 2 MOUS CONTO ines a hace weueennncendenGuneweeioas ont bacevaceeusiexecabacGssenteeencusdaseeechecseceast 3 S SOO ID ANS zirana E EE A A EEN 4 DESIGNER mode bat rias E EAE EEEa FERAE K a EEEE Aaaa AEE E EKA AEEA 4 Standard toolbar aassnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nn nnnnnnn nnn nnnnnn nnen n nnen n mennaan 4 TENE LON eh aaa E A E E E E 5 EMELNI as 1 ES EEE E E I te ramen E AE ET EA EE E E E A A E E ANE 6 ANON AOOUD AN ser E E A 7 4 DESIGNEE ODUON Sarena E EA anaa 8 S REDOM SENINO Saarna a e a Aa a E AAEE e a AAA a A EEEN 9 0 Page OplonS sisina a aa aai 13 Chapter Il Creating reports 16 1 Report ODICCIS acinacea a a a a 16 2 Hello World report example iian aaa aaa a aa aeaa aaan 16 3 INE TE ODICC oaa a a teeny ree eerereen renters 17 4 HTML tags inthe Text ODjeCt issin aa ae aaa a Aa 19 5 Displaying expressions with the help of the Text object cssseceseeeseseeeeeneeeeeees 20 Bands mn FastREpON acisini iaaa a aaa 21 T Data ands sesoses UE a UNENE NEUERE SAE AEEA NEEE UAS 23 3 THXDB DataSet COMPONENT arai a 23 9 lt CUStOMEr LIST reDOr iiei a a E a tee lush eweesbieiacaucesaasueute 24 10 Displaying DB fields with the he
70. Length Place the Text objects side by side on the band and minimize the band s height The first and the simplest type of table has full cell framing To achieve this enable all frame lines found in Frame Typ property for every object 90020 Clown Triggerfish 90030 Red Emperor BO ooo 90080 90070 Blue Angelfish 90080 Lunartail Rockcod BO The next type of framing draws only horizontal or only vertical cell lines again through the Frame Typ property SUD 0 Clown Triggertish ou 40030 Red Emperor BU gosi Giant Maori Wrasse 229 400 0 Blue Angelfish a0 g0 Lunartall Rockcod ou Finally to draw only an external frame to the table the report needs a modification PageHeader PageHeader1 r q1 Bio Specie Bio Common Mame Bio Length ReportSummary ReportSummary 1 L al FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 40 You can see that we have added two Text objects one in the pageheader and one in the pagefooter bands The appropriate frame lines for the objects along the edges of the data band have been enabled resulting in the report looking like this 40020 Clown Triggertish S50 g0030 Red Emperor BU gosi Giant Maori Wrasse 224 goo Blue Angelfish aU 40080 Lunartall Rockcod ou SU0S0 Firefish 30 All these examples contained bands which had fixed sizes How is it possible to display a table when the band is stretched Let s explain
71. List variable is straight forward Now let s see how the script works At the start of the page the counter for the current group the variable i is reset to zero and it is incremented after each group has been printed in the GroupFooter1 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 90 OnBeforePrint event The calculated sum is added to List in this event before the counter is incremented The GroupHeader1 OnBeforePrint event does nothing during the first pass lf Engine FinalPass condition but during the second pass when List has been filled with values the sum corresponding to the current group is retrieved from List and is output to the Memo8 object to display the sum in the group header In the finished report it appears as follows 1221 Kauai Dive Shoppe Sum 514508 1023 01 07 56 4 674 00 1076 16 12 94 17 781 00 1123 24 05 93 13 945 00 1169 06 07 94 9 47195 1176 26 07 94 4176685 1269 16 12 94 1 400 00 51 450 60 This algorithm is quite straight forward However it can be simplified The second method We will use the collection of report variables as an array for storing the group sums Remember that report variables are accessed via the Get and Set functions Using these functions also saves us from having to explicitly create and destroy these variables Our script will look as follows PascalScript procedure GroupH
72. MasterData2 if i 3 then Engine CuUuryY t Engine Curry 10 end Engine CurY SaveyY Engine CurX Engine CurX 200 end end LJ ja C Script void PagelOnManualBuild TfirxComponent Sender int i VF Extended SaveyY SaveY Engine CurY for j 1 j lt 2 jtt FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 105 FastReport 4 User s Manual for i 1 i lt 6 itt Engine ShowBand MasterDatal Engine ShowBand MasterDataZ2 if 1 3 Engine CurY Engine CurY 10 Engine CurY SaveyY Engine CurX Engine CurxX 200 OnManualB uild test MasterDatal Masterllata MasterDatal MasterDataz MasterDatal MasterDataz MasterDatal MasterDataz MasterDatal MasterDlata MasterDatal Masterllata m1 D ou pa i mo a ai mi ou mo ma m1 wn es ol wn D ol on oy on on wn wn rE O ta in m tm ta to to to Di in m lt Ss a e Ss Sa Se a I Loy oy G Ga oo Cy O yy oy aa fo m1 mo on m1 mo a ma my au ma m1 m1 pai my a m1 mo ou ma my au ma ma mi Poy Poy Poy Poy j Poy A Rj As you can see in these examples we controlled only the output of data bands The rest of the bands in our case the Report title were output automatically Finally we
73. UMs Group Items Total gt MasterData 1 L To display the sum we use the arrowed object in the design in our example it is named Memo8 The first method We will use the TStringList class as an array for storing the sums we will be storing the numeric values as strings The first item in the StringList will correspond to the sum of the first group as so on An integer variable which we will increment after printing each group is used to calculate the group s index number So our script will look like this PascalScript var Lists TecrinGgiasc 1 Integer procedure frReportlOnStartReport Sender TfirxComponent begin List TStringList Create end procedure frReportlOnStopReport Sender TfrxComponent begin List Free end procedure PagelOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin i U end procedure GroupHeaderlOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin if Engine FinalPass then Memo8 Text t Sum List i end procedure GroupFooterlOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin 1f not Engine FinalPass then List Add FloatToStr SUM lt Group ItemsTotal gt MasterDatal Ine i end FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 89 FastReport 4 User s Manual begin end C Script TSCEInghist List int i void frReportlOnStartReport TfrxComponent Sender List TStringList Create void frReportlOnSto
74. a Notes field which contains a detailed description of each fish Update our report by adding this field to it At first glance this would seem to be easy add a Text object to the data band between the existing objects connect it to the Notes field and set the object s size to 8 x 2 5 cm However the report preview is not exactly what we want Clown Triggertish Also known as the big spotted triggertish Inhabits outer reef areas and feeds upon crustaceans and mollusks by crushing them with powertul teeth They are voracious eaters and divers report seeing the clown triggertish devour beds of pearl oysters Red Emperor Called seaperch in Australia Inhabits the areas around lagoon coral reefs and sandy bottoms The red emperor is a valuable food fish and considered a great sporting fish that fights with fury wath oe aol asd Tha flack nf rF mle fieh Ta uait mh i Giant Maori Wrasse This is the largest of all the wrasse It is found in FastReport performed exactly what it was instructed to do The Notes field contains multi lined text of varying length but the Text object displaying the information from this field has a fixed size This is why some lines appear to be cut off What can be done about this Of course either the size of the object could be increased or its font size could be reduced However this may lead to wastage of space on the output page as some fish have long FastR
75. a script The answer is simple all those that are visible in the object inspector The object inspector also shows hints for each property at the bottom Both panes report tree and object inspector are available while working with a script To get detailed help on object properties and methods use the FastReport help file which is included in the distribution kit Here s a simple example Place a Text object named MyTextObject and containing Test onto the report design page Then write this script PascalScript begin MyTextObject Color clRed end C Script MyTextObject Color clRed Run the report and see that the object s color is red 6 5 Calling the variables from the report s variables list Any variable that is defined in the list of the report variables Report gt Variables menu item can be referenced in a script The variable s name should be enclosed in angle brackets PascalScript if lt my variable gt 10 then C Script if lt my variable gt 10 An alternative way is to use the Get function PascalScript if Get my variable 10 then C Script if Get my variable 10 A variable s value is changed only via the Set procedure PascalScript FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 82 Set my variable 10 C Script Set my variable 10 It is
76. ach subreport 5 3 Limitations on use of subreports Since subreports are placed on the basic design page they cannot contain any of the following bands ReportTitle ReportFooter PageTitle PageFooter PageBackground or Column Title ColumnFooter If any of these bands are placed on a nested report page they will not be recognised For the same reason there is no point in changing any nested report page options as the options of the basic report page override those of any nested pages Do not place objects below the Subreport object Company Customers Company Subreportl If this is done then the objects created in the subreport will overlay everything placed below the subreport object on the main design page and the output will be something like this Order Mo 1014 This 1s al To display objects below or after a nested report use a child band Company Customers Company Child hildi That s right This method is also used when several Subreports must be placed one below the other Use a child band for each Subreport and chain them together setting the child property of Child1 to Child2 and so on FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 73 FastReport 4 User s Manual 5 4 PrintOnParent option The Subreport object has a PrintOnParent property which can sometimes be useful This property is False by default Usually a
77. aks export of page breaks to resulting file Empty lines enables page breaks in the document Frames enables text object frame export OEM codepage OEM coding for exported file Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export using default text viewer installed on the computer Export features no layout information i e report design is included in the export file graphic images are not supported page width is automatically set dependent on the type of text objects on report page 14 5 9 Export to Jpeg BMP Gif Tiff Graphic Formats FastReport exports to graphic formats JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group a compressed format based on an algorithm that records differences between pixels It is characterized by high compression at the expense of graphic accuracy BMP Windows Device Independent Bitmap used for storage of bitmap images used in Windows A standard file format for computers under Windows control GIF Graphics Interchange Format hardware independent format was developed for transmission of bitmap images through networks Well suited for compressing homogeneous content logos inscriptions schemes TIFF TIF Target Image File Format hardware independent format Today it is one of the most widespread and reliable in polygraphy and facsimile transmission The Export method is enveloping FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual
78. alues are printed side by side or stacked one above the other the FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 132 default The Join equal cells option merges cells horizontally if they contain the same value Some other properties are also available in the object inspector AddWidth AddHeight adds a specified amount of space to the cell width or height It is taken into account when the FastReport engine calculates the cell size the Auto size option must be on NextCross a pointer to another cross tab object that will be printed to the side of this one NextCrossGap the gap between the two adjacent cross tab objects FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Charts 134 FastReport can insert charts into a report The TfrxChartObject object from the FastReport component palette in Delphi is used for this purpoae The component is based on the TeeChart library which is included in Delphi distribution kit Alternatively the TeeChartPro library can be purchased separately Let s make an example report with a simple chart The chart will use the Country table from the DBDEMOS database that comes with Delphi The table contains data about countries their areas and populations Name Area Population Argentina 2 815 32 300 003 Bolivia 1 098 575 7 300 000 Create a new project in Delphi
79. ants chapter void pl1 F Tune IONS no nested procedures main procedure JScript structure language JScript if Optionally the import chapter should be before any other chapter Import unitil js anitz 7s var i j 0 the variables chapter can be located anywhere function pl 77 FunNCEIONS fF main procedure pl for 1 0 42 lt 10 ae Jet BasicScript structure language BasicScript optionally the imports chapter should be located before Any other chapter imports Tunitl vo Tunitz vp Dim i J 0 the variables chapter can be placed anywhere Function pl functio s T main procedure For i 0 To 10 ple Next A more detailed description of the FastScript engine can be found in its documentation This information is not repeated here in this user manual syntactic charts for each of the supported languages supported data types operations with classes properties methods and events nested functions enumerations and sets Later we will look at examples of scripts written in the PascalScript language When a new report is created this language is selected by default FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 80 6 3 Hello World script We have already seen an example of a Hello World report now let s see how to create a simple script which displays
80. anual This kind of report has a tabular structure which means that it consists of rows and columns At design time it is not known how many lines and columns the output table will have This is why a report grows not only downwards as in the types of report previously described but also sideways A typical example of a cross tab report is shown below Let s look at the elements in the table In the illustration we see a table with two lines rows and four columns where a and b are line titles 1 2 3 and 4 are column titles and a1 a4 and b1 b4 are cells To construct a report like this we need just one set of data from a query or a table which has three fields and contains the following values al a2 a3 OoOoOOoOOoOM DM DM DM RONM FWD You can see that the first field contains a line letter the second a column number and the third the contents of the cell at the intersection of the specified line and column When outputting the report FastReport creates a table in memory and fills it with data So the table expands dynamically creating lines and columns where they do not already exist Titles can occur at more than one level as illustrated here In this example the number or index of the column is composite i e it consists of two values This report is generated from the following data a 10 1 al0 1 a 10 2 a10 2 a 20 1 a20 1 a 20 2 a20
81. astReport 4 User s Manual 4 1 Formatting of values A feature of aggregate functions is that the returned numerical values are not formatted as shown by the first example which uses SUM 1176 26 07 94 p4 175 55 1269 16 12 94 p1 400 00 51450 6 Data fields usually return a formatted value which is simply displayed by the Text object without any change To apply formatting to the SUM result let s use the value formatting tools in FastReport Select the object containing the Sum and open the format editor either from Display Format in its context menu or through the DisplayFormat property in the object inspector Display Format Category Format Text no Formatting Humber Format string Decimal separator This editor lists the format categories on the left the corresponding formats on the right and the format string and decimal separator for the selected category and format below We ll select the Number category and 1 234 50 format The format string is an argument for the Delphi Format function which FastReport uses to implement number formatting The format string and decimal separator can be changed If the decimal separator is left blank then the current regional setup value is used After clicking and previewing the report you will see that the Sum in the report is now formatted correctly FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 4 2
82. band PageHeader Click the Add band button on the object toolbar and select PageHeader from the drop down list We see that a new band is added to the page At the same time the existing bands are moved down FastReport designer automatically positions bands on the page header bands at the top data bands in the middle and footer bands at the bottom Now let s add some objects Add a System text object to the PageHeader band and in its editor select DATE from the System variable drop down list you should remember that the current date can also be displayed in a Text object by typing DATE in its editor Next add a Text object containing Hello to the ReportTitle band A Text object displaying the page number has already been automatically added to the PageFooter band FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 22 ReportTitlhe ReportTitle1 r q Hello L l PageHeader PageHeader 1 r 1 DATE L l PageFooter PageFooterl r 1 _ Faget When running the report you will see that the objects in the finished report are printed in the proper positions on the page Hella So bands are responsible for positioning objects on the page Depending on the type of band we can print objects at the top or the bottom of a page and on the first or the last page The basic bands needed in most report
83. be enabled either by clicking the button in the toolbar of the preview window or by setting the Report PreviewOptions OutlineVisible property to True The Outline s width in pixels can be set there as well Report PreviewOptions OutlineWidth The Outline methods are procedure Addltem adds an element having Text name at the current tree position const Text String the current report page and position on the page are linked FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 95 FastReport 4 User s Manual procedure LevelRoot moves the current position in the tree to the root level procedure LevelUp moves the current position in the tree up one level 6 14 Using the Engine object We have already said that the Engine object represents the report s engine which manages report construction The process of arranging band s on a page can be managed by using the engine s properties and methods First some theory The diagram below shows various dimensions of the report page FreeSpace PageHeight PaperHeight a i PaperWidth The physical dimensions of the page are the PaperWidth and PaperHeight properties visible in the object inspector when the page is selected So the size of an A4 page is 210 x 29 mm PageWidth and PageHeight are the dimensions of the printable region which is usually less than the physical dimensio
84. be composed here The visual query builder can be used to do this click the 3 button The query builder is described later in this chapter NB a new query can be created manually by placing a IfrxADOQuery component on the report s Data tab 13 5 Query construction FastQueryBuilder can be used to compose queries visually FastQueryBuilder is included in FastReport Professional and Enterprise editions or alternatively it can be purchased as an independent product The query builder builds queries visually in the SQL language The builder is illustrated below FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 184 Led Fast Query Builder Designer eW 2 xv Collurnin Visible Where SQL Result Bi customer c LIL Company CwWideString Addri wWideString C Addr wWideString C City WideString State WideString Zip wWideString Country wWideString Phone wWwideString Fax WideString TaxRate Float E Contact wWideString Company Add rl Phone FAY Ordera SaleDate 1 toolbar Si orders a Ci J OrderMo Float Custho Float ap SaleDate DateTime ShipDate DateTine _ EmpNo Integer _ ShipToContact Wides C ShipToAddri Widestr C ShipToAddr Widest ShipTocity wWideStrin ShipToState wWideStri C ShipTozip WideString C ShipToCountry vides sare o Function arl Group Asc
85. be used FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 2 5 Creating reports 20 text lt b gt bold text lt b gt lt i gt text in italic lt i gt lt b gt lt I gt bold and in ittalic lt b gt lt l gt E mc lt sup gt 2 lt Sup gt A lt sub gt 1 lt sub gt B lt sup gt 2 lt sup gt this is a usual text lt font color red gt and this is a red one lt font gt this is a usual text lt font color 4FF8030 gt and this is an orange one lt font gt text bold text text in italic bold and in italic E mez A BF thig is a usual text andthis is a red one this is a usual text and this is an orange one L l Displaying expressions with the help of the Text object One of the most important features of this basic object is its ability to display not only a static text but expressions as well Expressions can be located within the object mixed in with normal text Let s see a simple example of how this works Type the following into the object Hello World Today is DATE When the report is run we can get something like this Hello World Today is 01 01 2004 How does this happen When FastReport creates the report and encounters an expression enclosed in square brackets the report engine calculates the expression s value and inserts this value into the text in place of the expression Text objects can contain any number of expressions mixed in with the normal text Complex expressi
86. between bands field Report settings The Report Settings dialogue is available from the Report gt Options menu The dialogue has three pages On the first page you can see the general settings for the report Report Settings General Inheritance Description Printer settings Se Microsoft Office Document Image Writer on Microsoft Document Imagir SS Canon iP4200 on USBO01 Copies e Collate copies General Double pass Password Print iF empty Cancel FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 10 You can tie a report to one of the printers installed in the system This means that the selected printer will become the default when printing that report This might be useful in cases where there are several different printers in the system e g text documents can be tied to monochrome printers while documents with graphics tied to color capable ones Default is listed in Printer settings when this is selected the report will not be tied to any particular printer but will be printed on the system s default printer You can also set the number of report copies to be printed and whether to collate the output The value set in this dialogue will be shown in the Print dialogue when printing the report If the Double pass flag is checked report generation will be performed in two steps During the first pass a draft report is created and divided
87. bject toolbar at the left hand edge of the designer window and has these buttons icon Name SSC sito Object selection standard mode of operation mouse cursor selects object s modifies their sizes etc ep m allows dragging of whole report page allows left clicking to zoom in adds 25 if already 25 75 else adds 100 or right clicking to zoom out subtracts 25 if already 50 100 else subtracts 100 holding left mouse button while dragging zooms in to selected area Text editor allows in place editing of Text object holding left mouse button and moving the cursor creates and sizes a new Text object and opens its editor Format copying allows Format copying from one Text object to others select a Text object click Format mode button select Target Text objects in turn exit Format copying mode by clicking any other mode button Standard toolbar DEHA GANU A aA e se icon Name Description New Report creates new blank report E Open Report opens existing report from file hotkey combination Ctrl 0 Save Report saves report to file hotkey combination Ctrl S FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 5 FastReport 4 User s Manual previews report hotkey combination Ctrl P tu Page Settings opens page properties dialogue TE one pma cuts selected object s onto clipboard hotkey combination Ctrl X
88. ble s value in a report sssssnnnsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn mnnn 83 9 EVENTS ai e E E A a a a a aE 83 10 Example of using the OnBeforePrint event ccccccsesssseeescenseeeeseeenseeeeseeenseeesseoenseees 85 11 Printing a group sum in the group header nsnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn nnmnnn nnn 87 12 OnAfterDala evehbois sio a a Sede on ue raua as auis 91 13 SEVICE ODICCUS sisri a aeaa E 92 Bele ella ma olo o E E EE ST E EEE E E E E EE E E E E T 92 1998 2012 FastReports Inc lll FastReport 4 User s Manual ENGINE ODjOCCE scccsccececsceccettrceraectecrsaseenees netic OULLNE ODI CG enai vivedeirteradadawivadetsdvvadatauee 14 Using the Engine object 15 Anchors 16 Using the Outline object 17 OnManualBuild page event 18 Creation of objects in the script Chapter VII O ON OO OF FP WS DYNO a O 12 Some useful settings Chapter VIII a fF W N Chapter IX Dot Matrix reports 1 Cross tab in dot matrix 2 Dot matrix report printing 3 Command object Changing the appearance Using functions Sorting values Adjusting cell width Font colors and highlighting Adjusting row column size Filling a table manually Some useful settings Cross tab reports Constructing a cross tab report Tables with composite headers Managing a cross tab in script Adding external objects to t
89. ce remaining at the bottom of the page as shown here FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 36 To limit paper wastage let s use a FastReport feature that makes paragraphs from a band s contents All we need do is enable the AllowSplit property of the First level data band You will see that there is now less white space at the bottom of the report pages ee EEE T G How does this band splitting work There are some objects in FastReport which support this feature They are the Text Line and RichEdit objects They can be split while other objects cannot When FastReport needs to split a band it does it in the following way displays the non splittable objects which have room in the white space partially displays splittable objects Text objects are displayed in a way that all lines have space in the object creates a new page and continues with object display in the band if anon splittable object does not have room in the white space it is shifted to the next page at the same time all the objects located beneath it are shifted as required the process continues until all of the band objects are fully displayed The splitting algorithm will become clearer by looking at this example FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 37 FastReport 4 User s Manual Before split After split oy
90. ch resolution To be able to send these extra attributes to the printer use the ESC Command object in the report Place the ESC Command object at the correct place on the report page before any objects which use the non standard attributes e g in the top left corner of the page To set a command edit the Command property of the object in the object inspector DMPCommand1 TrreDMPCommn Properties Events Align baone Command 27 40l The property can be set using one of the two formats FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 149 FastReport 4 User s Manual decimal e g 27 40 or hexadecimal e g 1B28 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dialogue forms 151 FastReport 4 User s Manual 10 1 As well as the usual report design pages you can use dialogue forms in a report Dialogue forms are created in the usual report designer using the button in the designer toolbar the button adds a new dialogue page tab to the report When switching to the dialogue page tab the designer workspace changes to show the form and the object toolbar changes to show the control objects which can be placed on the form Ld FastReport 41 fr3 File Edit Report View Help DEHA Beau e aala e n see it Tahoma BZ U Ff A wel Z ZE lg Code Data DialogPagel Pagel A l 100 700 300 E SS DialogPaget P B
91. chart values Our chart is over crowded with many small values which has resulted in many becoming invisible FastReport allows you to limit the number of values displayed in the chart All the values in excess of a set number are displayed as a single composite value consisting of the sum of all these values In our example the chart has 18 values but practically only 8 of them can be seen Open the chart editor and set the limit to 8 Other options Sort order Toph values Toph caption xs Text If TopN is set to zero then there will be no limitation A name should be entered in TopN caption so that the aggregated values are identified correctly in the legend list The Sort mode is irrelevant as the values will always be sorted descending by default The report will look like this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 139 FastReport 4 User s Manual 8 2 8 3 i 5 976 147 Canada GS 3 363 150 United States of America 76 511 196 Brazil MS 2 FT 815 Argentina L 1 967 180 Mexico GS 1 285 215 Peru GS 1 138 907 Colombia GS 1 098 575 Bolivia WS 3 207 990 Others Some useful settings Let s look at some useful settings for controlling the chart s appearance These settings can only be accessed through the object inspector of the chart editor These basic properties are available when Chart is selected in the Chart Structure Gradient settings for gradie
92. copies selected object s onto clipboard hotkey combination Ctrl C pastes object s from clipboard hotkey combination Ctrl V undo last operation hotkey combination Ctrl Z redo last cancelled undone operation hotkey combination Ctrl Y HE Show Grid shows grid on the page toggles on off grid pitch can be set in View gt Options gt Designer Options a Align to Grid aligns selected object to nearest grid points when dragging toggles on off or resizing Jm Fit to Grid moves and resizes selected object so its four corners are aligned to nearest grid points 1 3 3 Text toolbar No style F Arial gt io E B t U F Tl Mh hhli Cion name J O esnin OOOO No style Style shows style of selected Text object select from drop down list to change style of selected object define styles in Report gt Styles J gt eg Z j Ili lu il Font Name shows font of selected Text object select from drop down list to change font of selected object shows last five fonts used at head of list Font Size shows font size of selected Text object select from drop down list to change font size of selected object can also type digits directly into edit box FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 6 Bold toggle ar Font Settings opens Font setings dialogue A Font Coor rops down font color selecton gid ab Highlight opens high
93. d drag it onto the workspace alternatively double click on the table Select the CustNo Company and Phone fields FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 187 FastReport 4 User s Manual Ld Fast Query Builder Designer Bec gH alx SQL Result E customer c E p A Custho Float Company WideString C Addri WideString C Addr WideString City WideString State Wwidestring C zip WideString Country CWwideStringi Phone wWwideString L biolife rr country Th crosstest Th currency quoting a customer Fh customer query L employee Eh items E MMSysaccessObjects L MSyvs4ccessahL Sl MSysACEs Eh MSysIMEX Columns LS MSysIMEXSpecs T MSysObjects E MSysOueries E MSysRelationships Collunn Visible Where I Sort Function Group T nextcust Custhlo Li nextikem Company Phone T nexkord Eh orders L parts T unicode Th vendors BiFa WideString TaxRate Float C Contact WideString That is all that is required for query building The query text appears on the SQL tab and the Result tab shows the data returned by the query Click to close the builder and to return to the query editor where the query text is now displayed FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 188 13 5 2 x wv SELECT c CustWo c Company c PFPhone FROM Customer c Please Note If the query
94. declared and used locally within a script Once declared a script variable can have a value assigned to it Here is a simple example of a script variable in use PascalScript var MyVariable String begin MyVariable Hello end C Script string MyVariable MyVariable iello The variable s value can be displayed in a Text object for example by typing MyVariable into the object A variable s name must be unique This means the name must not duplicate the name of any other report object standard function or constant If there is an error in a script a message will be displayed when the report is run and report construction will be stopped Events So far we have looked at scripts with only a main procedure which is executed when a report starts running In the main procedure initial settings can be made and variables initialized However this is not enough for total control over the process of report generation To enable as much control as possible over report generation every object has several events to which handlers i e procedures in the script can be assigned For example connecting a handler to the data band enables records to be filtered such that the band can be hidden or revealed according to specific conditions being met Let s demonstrate the process of report creation and the events triggered by means of a simple report containing one page and having one MasterData band
95. do Pacific ta East Africa Giant Maori Wrasse This ts the largest of all the wrasse It is found in m As you can see when constructing the report FastReport fills objects with data and stretches them if Stretch is enabled It then computes the band s height so each object has enough room If the band s Stretch property is disabled this height adjustment is not performed and the band is displayed at the height set in the design In this case we would see that the objects with longer text would still be stretched but the band would not which leads to overlaying of text since the following band is displayed immediately after the previous one Data splitting Let s look at a peculiarity of this report There is a lot of blank space at bottom of the pages Why is this When a report is created the FastReport engine fills the white space of the page with the bands After displaying each band the current position shifts down When FastReport finds that there is not enough white space left to display the next band its height is larger than the white space left on the page FastReport creates a new page and carries on with band display from there This sequence continues for as many times as there are records in the dataset Our report contains an object with large text which is why the band height is quite large Furthermore if a large band does not have enough room on a page it is shifted to the next one leaving a lot of unused spa
96. e expanded header Company Address Contact Phone Fax Catamaran Dive Club Box 264 Pleasure Point Nicole Dupont 213 223 0941 213 223 2324 Cayman Divers World Unlimited PO Box 541 Joe Bailey 011 5 697044 011 5 697064 Central Underwater Supplies PO Box 737 Maria Eventosh 2f 11 4452450 27 11 4433259 Count 3 D F FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 3 5 Groups and aggregates 58 You can control whether all groups are collapsed or expanded when the report first runs By default a group is collapsed but you can set ExpandDrillDown to True if you want it expanded You can also use the preview s context menu to expand or collapse all groups at once Line numbering Let s use our example to show how to number the lines in a group To do this we add a Text object containing a system variable Line to both of our bands this is most easily done by dragging amp dropping from the Variables tab of the Data Tree pane GroupHeader GroupHeader 1 Line Group OrderNo Group saleD ate When previewing the report we can see that both the data levels now have their own line numbers 1023 01 07 06 2 1076 16 12 94 4 1123 24 06 95 4 1169 06 07 94 5 1176 26 07 94 b 1269 16 12 94 2 12331 Unisea 1060 20 02 09 1073 15 04 59 3 1102 06 06 92 4 1160 01 06 94 To continuously number the second level data lines use the Line variable instead of Line in the
97. e export algorithm may deal with the cells in an unexpected way and give a result far from that intended It is best to arrange objects in such a way that they are placed in line both vertically and horizontally Guidelines can help to achieve this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 210 lx b gt t E a gt 2 _ D eo ert a a x z 7 o D o 1x8 payejoy a D x Oo ss wT sa i Daaa PSSS EEES x EESAN EESE PESSE EEES be it aad Res ee SEES PEE gt EEES PSS PESSE Aon be Using guidelines in the designer To use guidelines in FastReport designer just click on the horizontal or vertical ruler at the top or left edge of the report page and drag the ruler to the required position on the page where a guideline will be displayed You will then be able to place objects aligning to these horizontal and vertical guidelines Grid alignment can also be helpful in placing Text objects to avoid them overlapping The grid is enabled in the designer Options where the pitch can also be adjusted View gt Options gt Grid Designer Options Size Centimeters cm Show grid Inches a Align to Grid C Pixels pt Dialog Form pt Fonts Use object s Font settings Colors C wose J Ld toolwindows J ooo LED grid color Other Show
98. e of two types its value either derived from the master source or set as a discrete value either an absolute value as shown above or linked to a variable or to an object property FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 165 FastReport 4 User s Manual 11 1 4 When a parameter is derived from the data master set the TfrxADOQuery Master property has to be set This dataset must contain a field of the same name as the parameter Neither the parameter type nor its value has to be specified TfrxADODataBase This component is used to connect to a database lts function is similar to the TADOConnection Delphi component The component has the following properties when True the connection is activated DatabaseName the ADO connection string LoginPrompt whether to prompt for the password when connecting to the DB The LoginPrompt property defines whether to prompt for the password when connecting to the DB When LoginPrompi is False a user name and password must be included in the ADO connection string Report designer Let s look at the design of a simple report using data access components at runtime It will use the Demo mdb database that comes with FastReport as the data source FR Demos Main demo mdb Create a new Delphi project and add one each of TfrxReport TfrxDesigner TfrxDialogControls TfrxADOComponents TADOConnection and TButto
99. eaderlOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin if Engine FinalPass then Memoco lext t Sume Ger lt Group CusctNo gt end procedure GroupFooterlOnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin set lt Group CustNo gt FloatToStr SUM lt Group ItemsTotal gt MasterDatal end begin end C Script void GroupHeaderlOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender if Engine FinalPass Memo8 Text Sum Get lt Group CustNo gt void GroupFooterlOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 91 FastReport 4 User s Manual Set lt Grou up CustNnGe gt FloatToStr SUM lt Group ItemsTotal gt MasterDatal As you can see this script is somewhat simpler Code in the GroupFooter1 OnBeforePrint handler sets the value of a variable having a name derived from the client number or any other identifier which unambiguously identifies the client could be used for example lt Group Company gt If there isn t a variable with that name already existing then the script automatically creates it otherwise if it does exist then its value is updated In the GroupHeader1 OnBeforePrint handler the value of the appropriate variable is retrieved 6 12 OnAfterData event This event is triggered after a report object has been filled with the data from the source to which it is connected Use this event for acces
100. earch is started and the first occurrence if any is highlighted FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 197 FastReport 4 User s Manual Company Address Action Club PO Box 5451 F Blue spar Box 3 Adventure Undersea PO Box 44 To continue searching click F3 The next occurrence if any will be highlighted 14 5 Report Export FastReport can export a previewed report to various formats for further editing archiving or sending by e mail etc To enable export the appropriate FR export components must be added to the Delphi form FastReport can export to thirteen formats They are PDF Open Document Spreadsheet Open Document Text Excel XML RTF HTML text CSV BMP Jpeg Tiff and Gif Also reports can be sent by e mail in any of these listed formats 46H 4 0 4 A 10o Q PDF File HTML File RTF File Excel table OLE Excel table XML BMP image JPEG image TIFF image E mail CSW File Gif image Text File Open Document Spreadsheet Open Document Text FastReport uses one of the three following methods to export reports Layer each report object is exported to a separate layer The exported output approximates to the original preview Table export of objects to the output file is by creation of a transitional grid in memory and then output of this grid The exported output closely matches the original preview based
101. eate a new project in Delphi place TTable TfrxDBDataSet and TfrxReport components on the form and set their properties Tablet DatabaseName c Program Files FastReport 4 Demos Main TableName crosstest db the DatabaseName property of course must correspond to the path of your FastReport installation folder FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 111 FastReport 4 User s Manual frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Table1 UserName SimpleCross The TfrxCrossObject component ig from the FastReport component palette is used to design a cross tab report Just place it on the Delphi form it does not need any properties to be changed The frxCross unit containing the cross tab functionality is added to the uses list when the Delphi application is compiled Open the report designer Firstly connect the data source using the Report gt Data menu item Then select the DB cross tab object 1 from the designer s object toolbar and click on the design page to place the object there n 1 U H All settings are made using the cross tab editor Open it by double clicking on the object Cross tab Editor Source data Cross tab structure J SimpleCross Ww _ lt Select style Show title Show corner y G d Total Column header ame Row header Name of ol Column grand total Grand Total
102. ect on the report page and open its editor Cross tab Editor Source data Cross tab structure Subtotal F 4 7 fe A Z lt lt Show title Show corner Salary Year Ma Year Month Column header Row header eee Year Column grand total Employee rotar Total Aene Border around cells Reprint headers on new page Side by side cells Join equal cells The cross tab editor shows the structure of the output table in dot matrix mode The cell font attributes can be set using the Tt button in the toolbar In all other respects the cross tab objects behave as previously described The previewed report looks like this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 147 FastReport 4 User s Manual pam TH 3999 4000 sooj 3200 12299 4000 5600 1600 9 2 Dot matrix report printing To enable the actual printing of a previewed dot matrix report it is necessary to first place a TfrxDotMatrixExport component from the FastReport component palette on your Delphi project form This component handles the conversion of the preview report into the text format required by dot matrix printers It also replaces the normal printer dialogue with a special one for dot matrix printers Printer ag Canon iP4200 v Escape commands Copies IBM Generic yt Mumber of copies Fages Options All Print to File Current page Page breaks Opagss oe cod
103. ed Background graphic image assigned to page background is exported to PDF file output file size is considerably increased Print optimized graphic images output in high resolution for accurate printing this option is only necessary when a document contains graphics and will be printed output file size is considerably increased Outline option is enabled only when report contains an outline outline is exported to PDF file Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export using default PDF viewer installed on the computer for example Adobe Reader Export feature RichText objects are exported as graphics FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 199 FastReport 4 User s Manual 14 5 2 Export to Open Document Open Document Format ODF OASIS Open Document Format for Office Application was designed by OASIS and based on the XML format used in OpenOffice FastReport supports export to table ods and text odt files These files can be opened in OpenOffice The Export method is table When exporting to ODF format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings Open Document Text Page range All Current page O Pages Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Continuous WYSIWYG Page breaks Background Open after export Export settings Continuous export as a con
104. ellindex Variant RowValues FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 124 Variant ColumnValues Variant Value if VarToStr ColumnValues 0 1999 amp amp VarloStr ColumnValues 1 11 Memo Color clRed The RowValues and ColumnValues parameters are arrays of the Variant type having a zero base The 0 element is at the highest level of the table title the 1 element is at the next level etc In our example ColumnValues 0 contains years and ColumnValues 1 contains months Why is the VarToStr function required This prevents errors during type conversion When working with the Variant type FastReport tries to automatically cast strings to number format which in turn can lead to errors when casting the Total and Grand Total column values The OnPrintColumnHeader event handler is called during output of the column title cells The parameter list is similar to that of the OnPrintCell handler though in this case the cell s address Headerlndexes and HeaderValues parameters is in a different form The HeaderValues parameter holds the same values as the ColumnValues and RowValues in the OnPrintCell handler The Headerlndexes parameter is also an array of values of Variant type and contains the address of the title cell in a different form t
105. ending Bele HJ biolife T country a crosstest Ta currency quoting T customer Ta customer _query T employee Ta items T MMSysAccessObjects Th M ys ccesssmML Ul MSysACEs Ta MS SysIME Columns LES MSysIMEXSpecs Th MSysObjects T MSyvs Queries Th MSysRelationships Th nextcust Th nextitem Les nexbtord FS orders T parts Th unicode a vendors 2 builder workspace 3 list of available tables 4 selected table field properties Toolbar J open SQL file lal save query to file query diagram is also saved in the file 2 clear builder workspace w K button save and exit builder X Cancel button exit builder without saving The builder s workspace and the list of available tables support Drag amp Drop i e tables can be dragged onto the workspace with the mouse Alternatively double click on a table in the list of available tables FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 185 FastReport 4 User s Manual To include a field from the table in the query select it in the list FE customer c IME a Custho Float Company WwideString Addri WideString Addr WideString City WwideString State wWideString zip WideString Country WwideString Phone wWideString Taras CWideString TaxRiate Float Contact wWideString selected fields appear in the field properties space 4 Collumn Visible where Sor
106. epage Enter page numbers and or page ranges _ Pseudographic separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 The printer dialogue is similar to the normal one but has dot matrix printer specifics The printer s commands system must be chosen from the following list before printing the ESC commands FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 9 3 Dot Matrix reports 148 Escape commands IBM Generic Mone Epson Generic HP Generic IBM Generic There are also some other options for dot matrix printing Print to file whether to send the print stream to a file on the hard disk If enabled then the normal Save As dialogue appears Page breaks whether a Page break control command is sent on reaching the bottom of the page If disabled then printing is unbroken on continuous stationery codepage whether to perform symbol conversion PSeudographic specifies how to draw vertical and horizontal lines If disabled then lines are drawn using and symbols Command object As described earlier these attributes can be set for dot matrix report objects yA ZP w Bold Italic Underline Superscript Subscript Condensed Wide 12 cpi 15 cpi This is a standard set that is understood by all models of dot matrix printer Certain printer models can support other commands that are not present in the standard set for example printing at 20 character per in
107. eport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 34 descriptions while others have short ones FastReport has some properties which allow us to resolve this problem These properties allow a band or an object to automatically adjust its height to create the necessary space for a given record row To achieve this we just need to enable the Stretch property of both the band and the Text object However that is not quite all because a Text object with longer text should be able to stretch by itself we ll need to set some of its other properties too The Text object can automatically set its height and width to make space for its contents AutoWidth and StretchMode can be used for this AutoWidth allows the Text object to vary its width so that all the lines make space without splitting any words This mode is useful when an object has a single text line and when growth to the right will not effect other objects The Stretch property allows the object s height to grow to accommodate the text without changing the object s width Stretch has several modes which can be selected in the object inspector smDontStretch don t stretch the object the default smActualHeight stretch the object so it makes room for the whole text smMaxHeight stretch the object so that its bottom reaches the bottom of the band in which it is placed we ll look at this
108. eports 28 2 12 Edit Aliases Dataset alias Gur customers Field aliases Press Enter to edit item User name Original name Custho Company Company Address Addr addr Oddr J city City State State Zip zip F Country Country Phone Phone Fax FAx F TaxRate TaxRate C Contact contact F LastInyvoiceDate LastInyvoiceDate The alias for the dataset can also be modified without using the alias editor changing the UserName property of the frxDBDataSet1 component Having done this we now need to modify the report as the names of the dataset and fields have been changed To modify the field names in report objects it is easiest to use the fourth method described in the Customer List report section Move the mouse cursor over the Text object so that the button in the right hand end of the object appears click on the button and select the field from the list Following this the origin of the data in the dataset and its fields is more apparent Note It is better to assign aliases at the very beginning of report design to avoid having to later rename all the fields within a report Variables As well as aliases there is another way to help the report designer set more understandable names for DB fields and other information elements A DB field name or any expression can be associated with a variable To create and work with variables in FastReport select the Report gt Variables
109. er 2 23 Headers and footers of a data band Each data band may have a header and a footer Headers are output first then all the records in the data band and finally the footers Here is an example of how the headers and footers work in a simple report FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 49 FastReport 4 User s Manual Header Header1 header header vai data data data Footer Footer1 data footer data footer Let s look at a more complex example using two data levels master and detail Header Header 1 masterheader r 1 masterheader masterdata detaillheader Mmasterdata detaildata Footer Footer1 detaildata mastetooter detailfooter Z gt Header Header na sterdata detailheader det ailheader detaildata Setaildata detaildata Footer Footer det ailfooter Setailfooter masterooter As you can see the header is output before all data band records So the master data header is Output once at the beginning of the report and a detail data header is output before each group of detail bands belonging to the current master record band The detail footer is output after the group of detail bands belonging to the master record band and the master footer is not output until after all the master data band records have been output Using the FooterAfterEach property of the data band we can override this behavior Setting this property to True you may
110. ested report resembles a multi page report in terms of design structure The only difference is that the nested report is displayed in a specific location on the basic design page and not after it When this report is output as soon as the Subreport object is encountered the report engine outputs the connected subreport page in its entirety After that output continues with the rest of the basic design page Further Subreport objects can be inserted into a subreport design page so increasing the depth of nesting An example of a nested report can be found in the demo program the Subreports report It is worth noting that FastReport s ability to use subreports enables deep nesting of data Remember that the number of data levels in FastReport is limited to only six when Detail data bands are used instead of the Subreport object Side by side subreports Two or more Subreport objects can be placed side by side on the same data band This design allows reports where the data output of each Subreport has varying lengths of rows records or varying heights or degree of stretching FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Nested reports subreports 72 As illustrated FastReport continues to output the basic design page only after the longest Subreport has finished The Vertical Alignment property can also be used to adjust Text object alignment within e
111. etched and the FastReport core will first calculate the maximum band height and then stretch objects with stretch enabled to the bottom edge of the band Because object frames stretch together with the object the report s appearance changes FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 41 FastReport 4 User s Manual agaj Clown Triggem sh Also known as the big spotted triggerish Inh ab its outer reef areas and feeds upon crustaceans and moluse by cmushing them with powertul teeth They are voradous eates and divers eportseeing the clown tiggentsh devour beds of pearl oystec Do noteatthi fish According to an 1878 account the poisonous flesh act primarily upon the nenrous tizue ofthe stomach occasioning wiolentsp ams of that organ and shorth attenwards all the musdes of the body The frame becomes rocked with spasms the tongue thickened the eye fixed the breathing laborious and the patient expires in a paroxysm of extreme suffering Mot edible Range isindo Pacific and East Africa to Somoa SOO Called seaperch in Australia inhabits the areas around lagoon coral reet and sandy botore 2 19 Printing labels In contrast to table type reports other reports such as label printing reports may have the data arranged one field under another Let s look at an example of this kind of report which displays data about fish as in the previous example The report data is presented as a label and
112. f the report where the anchor was added Use anchors when constructing a Contents table for example with links to corresponding chapters Let s illustrate this in the following example First we need the familiar Customer table Our report will be a multi page one with two design pages We will place the Contents table on the first page and the list of clients on the second page Clicking on any Content line executes a jump to the corresponding report element The first design page ReportTitlhe ReportTitle1 _ Table of contents EP Customers Company Place the following text in the URL property of the Text object contained in the data band Customers Company and set the font properties to blue and underlined to simulate the look of a hyperlink The second design page ReportTitle ReportTitlez Customers PageHeader PageHeader 1 Company Address Contact Customers Company Customers Addr Customers Contact Customers P To add an anchor create a MasterData2 OnBeforePrint event handler in the script PascalScript FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 99 FastReport 4 User s Manual procedure MasterData2OnBeforePrint Sender TfrxComponent begin Engine AddAnchor lt Customers Company gt end C Script void MasterData2OnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender Engine AddAnchor lt Customer
113. fields to which it is connected become visible in the Data tree pane in the IDE Now let s design the report First add a Text object containing List of clients to the ReportTitle band Next connect the MasterData band to our dataset This can done in any of three ways double click on the band select Edit in the band s contextual menu or click on the DataSet property of the band in the object inspector Now place four Text objects which will display the client number customer name phone and fax fields from the dataset on the band Let s do this in several different ways to demonstrate FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 25 FastReport 4 User s Manual some features of the FastReport designer The first way is to place a Text object on the band and type frxDBDataSet1 CustNo into it This is the least convenient way since the field link has to be entered manually with the possibility of incorrectly typing the text Somewhat easier is to use the expression designer double click the Text object and click the leftmost button on the Text tab of the editor window which opens To insert our field double click the field name in the expression designer Click the OK button to close the dialogue and see the field link inserted into the Text object The second way of adding the DB field to the Text object is by se
114. following way DataSet Report GetDataSet Customers Of course the data source we are interested in must be enabled in the menu Report gt Data dialogue 6 18 Creation of objects in the script New objects can be added to a report using a script Let s show how this is done with a simple example Create a blank report and enter this code in the script s main procedure PascalScript var Band TfrxReportTitle Memo TfrxMemoView begin Band TfrxReportTitle Create Pagel Band Height 20 Memo TfrxMemoView Create Band Memo SetBounds 10 0 100 20 Memo Text This memo is created in code end C Script TfrxReportTitle Band Tf rxMemoView Memo Band TfrxReportTitle Create Pagel Band Height 20 Memo TfrxMemoView Create Band Memo SetBounds 10 0 100 20 Memo Text This memo is created in code Preview the report THIS memo is created in code Note that we did not destroy the FastReport objects we created in this example This is not required as FastReport objects are automatically destroyed by the Delphi application after the report is completed Also note that when we create standard Delphi objects in a script such as TStringLists we also have to destroy them in the script as this will not be done automatically by the application FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 109 FastReport 4 User s M
115. g a base report Open the base report base fr3 in our example and change some fields Let s alter the email address ReportTitle ReportTitlel Logo Our company r i q Our email new _emailkte mail com L al al Save the report Now open the derived report and see that the email address has been changed in this report as well FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report inheritance 174 ReportTitle ReportTitle1 Logo PageHeader PageHeader 1 Our company F R g 7 eur email nesy_emailgee mail com L l r r Custom er Phone J Customers Company Customers Phone What if some objects have to be added to the base report There is a simple rule the base and derived reports cannot contain any objects having the same name While changing base reports it may not be known how many reports use the base report nor what object names have been used in these derived reports So a simple strategy is when adding objects to base reports name the objects using a template like ReportName_ObjectName In our example add a Text object to our report and set its name to BaseMemos3 There is no restriction on deleting objects from a base report nor on moving them 12 3 Inheritance control We have followed the creation of a derived report from scratch What happens if an existing report is to be changed to inherit from a different report To do this ope
116. g to the current record of the FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 163 FastReport 4 User s Manual master dataset are shown To connect fields in the two datasets select a field from the list on the left the detail dataset then a field from the list on the right the master dataset and click the Add button The link between the two fields is then displayed in the bottom list To clear the bottom list use the Clear button The linked fields must of compatible type and be indexed 11 1 3 TfrxADOQuery This component executes SQL queries on a DB It has the following properties Params list of query parameters SQL Query text UserName alias for the dataset used in code IgnoreDupParams when True allows parameters with duplicate names The name of the Query parameters will not be edited in the parameter editor The Active DatabaseName FieldAliases Filter Filtered and Master properties are similar to those of the TfrxADOTable component described above The SQL property has its own editor for entering the SQL query FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components 164 BLE select From customer The Params property also has its own editor It is enabled when a Query text contains parameters Parameters Editor Data Type Value Integer 2000 A parameter can be on
117. gged with the lock symbol ReportTitle ReportTitle1 Ll 1 Logo Our company ra i eur email emailemail om L l What does lock symbol mean It means that these objects cannot be renamed or deleted nor can they be moved to another band Changes to any other property such as text color or frame can be made Note that if you change some property of a locked object for example color this change will be stored in the derived report If you subsequently change the color of this object in the base report the change will be ignored by the derived report For example open the derived report change the color of Our company to red and save the report Now open the base report and set the color for Our company to green When the derived report is opened again the color of Our company is still red It is therefore preferable to change the properties of objects having the lock symbol back in the base report and not in the derived FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 173 FastReport 4 User s Manual report Let s finish our report All that is needed is to add page header and master data bands ReportTitle ReportTitle1 Our company 4 L l 4 r i Gur email email email com L PageHeader PageHeader1 s Custom er Phone Custormers Company Customers Phone And the report is finished 12 2 Changing a base report Let s look at changin
118. gle rounded rectangle ellipse triangle and diamond H Chart object displays data in various chart formats pie chart histogram etc RichText object displays text in Rich Text Format RTF CheckBox object displays a checkbox with either a tick or a cross Barcode object displays data as one of several barcode types ote OLE object displays any object using OLE technology The basic objects most commonly used are the Band and Text objects You will learn about their capabilities in detail later in this chapter Hello World report example The example report will contain just one piece of information Hello World Open the report designer and click on the Text button in the Object toolbar Move the mouse cursor over the page and click again The object is inserted at the mouse position Lo cau The text editor window will be opened right away if it does not appear automatically then double click the object Text editor opening can be configured in the designer settings see later on Type in Hello World and then click the button FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 17 FastReport 4 User s Manual R Memo Text Format Highlight aj F Hella orld The report design is finished To preview the report either select the File gt Preview menu item or click the correspond
119. h can contain other objects TfrxBitBtnControl control representing a button containing a picture TfrxSpeedButtonControl control representing a speed button containing a picture TfrxMaskEditControl control for entering text using the keyboard and conforming to a template TfrxCheckListBoxControl control representing a list of items selected by means of a checkbox TfrxBevelControl control used for showing lines and frames on the form E TfrxImageControl control representing a picture in BMP ICO WMF or EMF format All the controls are similar to those used in Delphi See the FastReport component help for information on the properties events and methods of each control 10 2 Hello World report In this example we will create a report which before creating the preview displays a greeting window using a dialogue form Create a new project in Delphi and place TfrxReport and TfrxDialogControls components on the form Open the FastReport designer by double clicking on the TfrxReport component and add a dialogue form to the report Place TfrxLabelControl and TfrxButtonControl objects on the form FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 153 FastReport 4 User s Manual Set the object properties TfrxLabelControl Caption Hello World TfrxButtonControl Caption OK Default True ModalResult mrOk Se
120. hanged and they cannot be colored But some font attributes can be modified by selecting the Text object and clicking the Tt button on the toolbar rAL Se w Bold Italic Underline Superscript Subscript Condensed Wide 12 cpi 15 cpi These font attributes are specific to dot matrix printing The report page and all the dot matrix objects excepting bands have these attributes Note in the designer and in the preview only Bold Italic and Underline attributes are implemented on screen The whole set of attributes is implemented only when printing Let s modify our report using the Bold style for the headings The report is finished and ready for previewing Customer list Company Address Action Club PO Box 5451 F Action Diver Supply Blue Spar Box 3 Adventure Undersea PO Bou 744 American SCUBA Supply 1739 Atlantic Avenue Aquatic Drama Yel Everglades Way FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dot Matrix reports 146 9 1 Cross tab in dot matrix The range of objects usable in dot matrix reports is restricted to those that can be displayed in a textual form Among these are the two Cross tab objects Let s look at a simple cross tab report similar to the one built earlier in the Tables with composite headers section Create a dot matrix report as in the previous section choosing a Dot Matrix Report Place a DB cross tab obj
121. he 0 element is the index at the highest level in the table title the 1 one is at the next level etc To clarify the principle of cell numbering refer to the picture below D S E S a a ee a oj no sooja aroo 500 taco 3100 a e sooj fao a a oa o o ee BE 810 5299 3800 3200 12299 4000 5600 1600 1120 oas f 3999 4000 4100 In our example it was easier to use the HeaderValues parameter but the following handler could be used instead Pascal script procedure CrosslOnPrintColumnHeader Memo TfrxMemoView HeaderIndexes HeaderValues Value Variant begin if HeaderIndexes 0 0 and HeaderIndexes 1 2 then Memo Color clRed end C Script void CrosslOnPrintColumnHeader FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 125 FastReport 4 User s Manual TfirxMemoView Memo Variant HeaderIndexes Variant HeaderValues Variant Value if HeaderIndexes 0O 0 amp amp HeaderIndexes 1 2 Memo Color clRed 7 9 Adjusting row column size The width and height of the table columns and rows can be adjusted by using the OnCalcWidth and OnCalcHeight event handlers Let s see how to increase the width of the column holding the 11 month of 1999 with the following example Create an OnCalcWidth event handler Pascal script procedure Crossl0OnCalcWidth Columnindex Integer ColumnValues
122. he New report button to create a basic design in FastReport Now enable the use of the frxDBDataset and its connected table in the report from the Menu select Report gt Data select the Bio dataset and click OK Now we ll add objects to the report page Place a Text object containing Fish in the ReportTitle band Connect the Master data band to the data source double click on the band and select Bio from the list Increase the band s height to 5 cm by dragging the bottom of the band down or by using the object inspector Place a Text object in the band and connect it to the CommonName field using any of the methods previously described After that drop the Picture object alongside and connect it to the Graphic field by setting its properties in the object inspector DataSet Bio DataField Graphic Note that both of these properties are of the List type and can be set to the required values using the mouse To make room for the picture stretch the object to 4 x 2 5cm ReportTitle ReportTitle1 Fishes Bio Comman Name The report design is now finished and it produces the report shown here FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 33 FastReport 4 User s Manual Clown Triggertish Red Emperor 2 15 Multi lined text display We ll improve the previous example The Biolife table has
123. he other two are optional Nevertheless to avoid making mistakes it is recommended that band parameters are always given The COUNT aggregate function has the following syntax FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Groups and aggregates 60 COUNT band flags COUNT band where the parameters have the same meaning as above There is a general rule for all aggregate functions an aggregate can only be calculated over a data band and can only be used in that band s footer which can be one of footer page footer group footer column footer or report footer Summary band How do aggregate functions work We will look at this using our group report example Let s add some new elements to the report GroupHeader GroupHeader1 Sroup OrderNo Group saleDate Group ltemsT otal GroupFooter GroupFooter SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterData1 L The Group ItemsTotal field in the data band displays the current order total Place a Text object in the group footer containing the aggregate SUM shown above It will display the total of all orders placed by the given customer Using a calculator we can check that the result is correct 1023 01 07 06 p4 674 00 1076 16 12 94 bi 70100 1123 24 05 93 p13 945 00 1169 06 07 94 p3 47195 1176 26 07 94 p4 170 05 1269 16 12 94 bt 400 00 51450 0 Aggregate functions work like this before outputting
124. he table Charts Limiting the number of chart values Chart with manually entered values Chart completion from Script Printing a chart built in Delphi Chapter X Dialogue forms O oo Ff W N Controls Hello World report Interaction with controls Several dialogue forms Managing dialogue forms Entering parameters and transferring them into a report 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Table of contents IV Chapter XI Data access components 159 k Component descriptions issena Ea aaa DANAA aaa 160 TiFXDBEOOKUPCOMDOBOX soriire na enpa enna ennaa ea E aap aa anai anand eaea COE ariaa nates 160 TERESA E o E E E EE E E RAE E EE EEEE E EEEE 161 TIFXADO QUGIY iaioa anaia aE TNE TEETER AEN ANANA ENR TAONE AEO EKEN a aE 163 THXADO Data Base a a a a ices eee et 165 2 REPON GESIQING i ciuri aaa aaa a aa 165 3 SIMple report OF LCIS ly Pe sia 166 4 Report with parametric Query cccccccssesseessesseeeeeesseeeeesseeeeenseeeeenseeeeeaseeeoenseeeneesseesoensessns 167 5 OMEN useful TEAL SS soin A O S EEEE 169 Chapter XII Report inheritance 171 T Creating a Dase Tepon aiostar aaaea daoa aain 171 2 CHANGING a DASE report weseeceecstecweuseuvecsertesads ccevestesttuewesstervevestuievedselaesvueeaneaeuveietneneeseies 173 3 Inheritance control icaieceed nSucceccudet seat ncecaucudawsabantceca vce lec anaes oucwoveeDerestauSuecacculaneaianareeeatiensieuees 174 Chapter XIII Wizards 177 T NeW FO DOME wizard oninia uaeb ss
125. how by means of an example Add a new field multi lined text from Bio Notes to our report As you have already learnt the Stretch property must be enabled both for this object and for the band in which the object is located so that the band height is altered dependent on the size of the text in the Text object The generated report looks like this Clown Triggerish fo Als known as the big spotted triggerfish Inh abits outer reef areas and feeds upon crustaceare and moluss by cmshing them with powertul teeth They are woradous ates and divers eportseeing the clown tiggentsh devour beds of pearl oystes Do noteatthis fish According ta an 1878 account the poisonous fesh ace primarily upon the merous tissue ofthe stomach occasioning violentspasms of that organ and shorth attenuards all the musdes of the body The frame becomes rocked with spasms the tongue thickened the eye fixed the breathing laborious and the patient expires in a parosaysm of extreme suffering Hot edible Range it Indo Pacific and East Africa to Somoa ceo Red Emperar 6 Caled seaperch in Australia Inhabitsthe areas around lagoon coral reeg and sandy botore This is a bit different from what we need it looks nicer if the frames of the neighboring objects stretch as well FastReport can solve this problem easily Set the StretchMode property to smMaxHeight in the object inspector for all objects which are to be str
126. ieldAliases property editor is opened from the object inspector or by double clicking on the component The editor allows the selection of which fields will become available for use in code and the setting of aliases for these fields and for the dataset as a whole FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components Edit Aliases Dataset alias Field aliases User name ddr1 Addr City State Zip Country Phone FAX Tax Rate Contact Last Invoice Date Internal Customers Press Enter to edit item Original name Lustho Company Addr ddre City State Zip Country Phone Fax TaxRate contact LastinvoiceDate 162 The MasterFields property editor is used for creating master detail connections between two tables To connect two tables with the master detail relation a second table must be set in the Master property of the dependent table and the MasterFields property editor opened If the table has secondary indexes which are to be used then set the IndexName property beforehand Master Detail Link Detail Fields ShipToConkact ShipToAddr 1 Linked Fields Custho Custhlo The editor visually binds the master and the detail fields of the datasets When two datasets are connected in a Master Detail relationship movement within the master dataset automatically filters the detail dataset so that only records belongin
127. ifted depends on how much the object above is stretched But this is not want we want to happen on our label we want the Length cm object also to FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 44 be shifted by the same amount This can be achieved by using a special FastReport band type called the Child band A Child band is linked to and displayed after its parent band Add a Child band to the design and drag the two Text objects into it as shown here Number Bia Speci Bio Category Child hildi Length cm Bio Length Link the MasterData band to the Child band by setting its Child property to Child1 in the object inspector Now each time the MasterData band prints the Child band is printed immediately after it Clown Triggertish The Length cm title now lines up exactly with its value field 50 To prevent a child band from being moved to the next page if there is insufficient white space on the page and becoming so called orphaned from its parent band enable the KeepChild property of the parent band in the object inspector 2 21 Shifting objects You have already seen how smAlways works for the ShiftMode property Let s look at the next mode of shifting smWhenOverlapped In this mode object shifting occurs when the object above stretches and overlaps the object bel
128. ing button in the toolbar The preview window containing a report page with the Hello World text will appear This report can be printed out saved to a file fp3 or exported to one of the supported export formats 2 3 The Text object The Text object has many features It can display text in a frame and be filled with a color The text can be displayed using any font of any size and style All the properties can be set visually with the help of the toolbars gt No style F Arial gt j B Zz a a Cs ol i it Ml Here are some examples of text design r 7 r Ser era rece ees Test Test Te st Now let s look at other features of this basic object As an example let s create a new Text object to display two lines of text This is a very very very long text line And this is another line the shorter one FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 18 Enable the object frame from the toolbar and re size the object up to 9x3 cm using the mouse We see that the object can display not only a single line but also several lines of text Now reduce the object width to 5cm It is obvious that long lines did not fit across the object and were therefore wrapped This is controlled by the WordWrap object property If it is disabled either in the object inspector or via the object context menu any long lines will be simply cut sho
129. instead of the dot in the format_string for numerical formatting This symbol is used as the separator between the integer and the fractional parts of the value Any other character is not allowed For formatting with the b type boolean the format_string is entered as two values separated by a comma The first value corresponds to False and the second to True To save having to memorize all these tags and their meanings there is a convenient shortcut for inserting format tags in the Text object editor Clicking the button opens the format editor described above When a format is selected it is inserted into the text and if the cursor Is placed just before the closing square bracket the format string will be correctly inserted Conditional highlighting This feature of the Text object allows you to color an object depending on a specified condition being met The condition can be any expression We ll use the example with groups to demonstrate this Let s set order totals greater than 5000 to be colored green Select the object containing the Group ItemsTotal field and click on the Highlight button in the designer toolbar In the highlight editor enter a conditional expression which if exceeded will highlight the object also set the font and background attributes for the highlight FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 4 4 Formatting highlighting 68
130. into pages but is not available for preview In the second pass the draft report is converted to a standard report which is then saved in the preview stream Why are two passes necessary Mostly this option is used in cases where a report needs access to the total number of pages in the report i e for use as Page 1 of 15 The total number of pages is calculated during the first pass and is made available via the TOTALPAGES system variable The most frequent mistake is to attempt to use this variable in a single pass report when the variable will return O Another use for two passes is to perform some calculations in the first pass and display the results in the second pass For example when a sum is to be displayed in a group header instead of in the usual group footer Calculations of this type are accomplished by writing report script code in the OnBeforePrint event of an object The Print if empty flag allows creation of a report containing no data lines If this option is disabled blank reports will not be created The Password field enables the setting of a password which must be entered before a report can be opened On the second page you can set up the report inheritance options FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 11 FastReport 4 User s Manual Report Settings Inheritance settings This report is not inherited Select the option Don t change
131. ipt Ctrl F7 preview value of variable Evaluate F 9 run the script Run F7 or F8 execute code line Step into Ctrl Space show list of methods and properties of object Ctrl Shift Delete delete word to right of cursor Ctrl Shift Backspace delete word to left of cursor Structure of a script The structure of a script depends on the language used however there are some elements common to each language These are the script s title and body and the main procedure which will be executed when the report runs Below are examples of scripts in all four of the supported languages PascalScript structure language PascalScript optional program MyProgram 77 Optional the uses chapter should be located before any other chapter uses unitl pas unit2 pas var the variables chapter can be placed anywhere 1 j Integer const 74 Constants chapter bi 3 14159 procedure pl procedures and functions var i Integer procedure p2 nested procedure begin end begin end begin main procedure end C Script structure language Script Optional the include chapter should be placed before any other chapter Fainclude T unitl cpp units cop FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 79 FastReport 4 User s Manual int i j 0 the variables chapter can be placed anywhere DEFINE pi 3 14159 Const
132. itle cell event is called before displaying the row title the event handler can modify the design or content of the title cell We can use the following methods of the Cross tab object in these events function ColCount Integer function RowCount Integer returns the number of columns in the table returns the number of rows in the table function IsGrandTotalColumn returns True if the Index column is a total Index Integer Boolean function IsGrandTotalRow Index Integer Boolean function IsTotalColumn Index Integer Boolean function Is TotalRow Index Integer Boolean procedure AddValue returns True if the Index row is a total returns True if the Index column is a sub total returns True if the Index row is sub total adds a value to the table const Rows Columns Cells array of Variant Let s show how to highlight t he third column in our example the November 1999 date Select the cross tab object on the report design page in the object inspector click on the events tab locate the OnPrintCell event and create a handler on the code page by double clicking in the FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Cross tab reports 122 empty list to the right of the event name The script editor will appear with the basic declaration created for you then add the code required in the empty begin end block of
133. l j Customer list i L l fred ata 56 tDBData Seti Company frDB Dataset Pho frDBDatasett a FAR J PageFooter PageFooter i Faget Click on the Preview button to see the result Customer list 1221 Kaual Dive Shoppe o0g 555 02769 o06 555 02 70 1231 Unisca o09 555 3915 o09 555 4950 1351 sight Diver 35r 6 6767 06 35r 6 670943 1354 Cayman Divers World Unlimited 011 5 597044 011 5 6597064 1356 Tom Sawyer Diving Centre 504 798 3022 504 798 7772 1380 Blue Jack Aqua Center 401 609 7623 401 609 4403 1384 WIF Divers Club o0g 453 5976 o0g 453 5932 1510 Ocean Paradise o06 555 025 1 og 068 555 0450 1513 Fantastique Aquatica 0577 1 7 73434 057 1 73421 1551 Marmot Divers Club 416 695 0399 426 690 0599 1560 The Depth Charge g00 555 37 98 g00 555 03553 1563 Blue Sports 610 772 6704 610 772 6096 1624 Makai SCUBA Club 317 649 9096 317 649 6757 1645 Action Club 013 870 0239 013 070 0252 1651 Jamaica SCUBA Centre 011 3 697043 011 3 697043 1680 Island Finders f13 4235 56 75 f13 4235 56 76 2 10 Displaying DB fields with the help of the Text object As you have seen Text objects can display data from a DB as well as static text and expressions We have also seen that it can be done in two ways either by placing a link to the DB field into the object text or by connecting the object to the required field through its DataSet and DataField properties The first way is suitable for displaying both field co
134. l that is needed now is to type the following code in the handler s body PascalScript if Copy lt Customers Company gt 1 1 A then MasterDatal Visible True else MasterDatal Visible False C Script if Copy lt Customers Company gt 1 1 A MasterDatal Visible true else MasterDatal Visible false Run the report and make sure that the script works correctly Action Club Michael Spurling o 13 570 0239 Action Over Supply Marianne Miles 22 44 5002 1 1 Adventure Undersea Gloria Gonzales 011 34 09054 American SCUBA Supply Lynn Cinciripini 213 654 0092 Aquatic Drama Gillian Owen b1a 442 7b54 Let s explain several things One handler can be assigned to the events of more than one object the Sender parameter shows which object has initiated the event To assign an existing handler to an event either type it directly into the object inspector or select it from the drop down list FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 87 FastReport 4 User s Manual 6 11 Memol TrreMemoview Properties Events On fterData OnAfterPrint OnbeforePrint OnPriMasterDatal OnBeforePrint A link to a handler can easily be deleted select the assigned handler in the object inspector and press the Delete key Printing a group sum in the group header This method is used quite often and requires the use of a script because the value of a group sum is only kn
135. lar brackets for the expressions instead of square ones ali lt myVar gt The lt gt value must be set in the ExpressionDelimiters property where the comma is required to separate the opening and closing symbols Another requirement is that the opening and closing symbols cannot be identical so will not work Complex symbols can be used for example lt gt So our example could look like this alt lt myVar gt Bands in FastReport Bands are used for placing the objects they contain at particular locations on the output page When placing an object in the PageHeader band we tell the report engine that the given object must be displayed at the top of each page in the finished report Similarly objects in the PageFooter band are displayed at the bottom of each page Let s demonstrate this with an example We ll create a report containing Hello at the top of the page the current date to the right of it and the page number at the foot of the page on the right hand side Open the FastReport designer and click the New report button in the toolbar You will see a report template which already contains three bands ReportTitle MasterData and PageFooter Let s remove the MasterData band for a while click either on any free space inside the band or on its header and remove it with the Delete key or Delete in the context menu Now let s add a new
136. le Indexes Cust Detail Fields Master Fields Add Joned Fields FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 48 We need to link together the CustNo fields in the two sources To do this select the desired fields and click the Add button The Field link will appear in the bottom pane Finish by closing the editor using When creating the preview FastReport does the following After a record is output from the master table Customer it sets the filter on the detail table Orders Only those records which meet the Orders CustNo Customer CustNo condition will remain in the table This means that for each customer only those orders which belong to the current customer will be displayed in the detail band This is an important concept to grasp Even though data bands may be of master or of detail type they only control the positioning of the data on the output page order and number of times displayed The data displayed by the objects in the bands is dependent on which fields the objects are linked to and on the external linking of the two tables This is the final output 1221 1023 01 07 88 1224 1076 16 12 94 1221 1123 24 08 93 1221 1169 06 07 94 1221 1176 25 07 94 1221 1269 16 12 94 1290000 Unis 1231 1060 25 02 89 1231 1073 15 04 89 123 1102 06 06 92 1231 1160 01 06 94 Reports containing up to 6 data levels can be constructed in a similar mann
137. light dialogue can set a condition for highlighting Text Rotation changes text rotation from drop down list Alignleft left aligns text within Text object s frame AlignCenter centre aligns text within Text object s frame Align Right right aligns text within Text object s frame 2 sustify justifies text within Text object s frame W Align Top top aligns vertical text within Text object s frame itt Align Middle middle aligns vertical text within Text object s frame thik Align Bottom bottom aligns vertical text within Text object s frame 1 3 4 Frame toolbar icon Name Desonpton TopLine toggle toggles top frame line of Text object on off toggles bottom frame line of Text object on off Left Line toggle toggles left frame line of Text object on off toggles right frame line of Text object on off All Frame Lines sets all four frame lines of Text object on No Frame sets all four frame lines of Text object off toggles shadow for Text object on off 2 drops down frame line style selection list 1 Frame Width sets frame line width from drop down list can also type digits 0 1 to 10 directly into edit box Pa E FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 7 FastReport 4 User s Manual 1 3 5 Align toolbar 2424 7 a l co 4 When more than o
138. logs event to create a handler Ly Data ES DialogPaget Button Labell Button Fagel A Mera FrxReporti TrreReport w Properties Events OnRunDialogs t1OnRunDialogs OnStartRhepor OnStopReport Write the following code in the handler PascalScript FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 157 FastReport 4 User s Manual procedure frxReportlOnRunDialogs var Result Boolean begin Result DialogPagel ShowModal mrOk if Result then begin if CheckBoxl Checked then Result DialogPage2 ShowModal mrOk end end C Script void frxReportlOnRunDialogs bool amp Result Result DialogPagel ShowModal mrOk if Result if CheckBoxl Checked Result DialogPage2 ShowModal mrOk The handler works like this the first dialogue is shown if it is closed via the button then look at the state of CheckBox1 if this state is Checked then show the second dialogue if the second dialogue is closed via the button then set Result to True If the handler returns Result True then the preview is built if Result False then the report stops running without building a preview FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components 159 FastReport 4 User s Manual As a rule most reports are based on data sourced from a DB Delphi provides a variety of components for linking to DB data and FastReport
139. lp of the Text object ccsssseeseesseeeeeeseeeeeenseeseenseeees 26 TI ANISES Siri E A a E EEE a E A AE 27 12 VANADISS iececssosiatres seer eaa Eea tui conte EEEE teen tally E E 28 13 Picture ODJECE 30 14 REDON with pICtUreS iici a a a a a a aa Eaa aaa EA 31 15 MUlt line d text display cciccctcentaisetcacsevteedccte aaa iaaa aa ina 33 16 Data SPINN srini a E E a S E steam awciutansuulaneuniutndiee 35 17 Tet wap Of ODICCIS asc a a a Aaaa area a 37 18 Displaying data in the form Of a table 2 0 0 0 eeseeeeeeeseeeeenseeeeeeneeeeeenseeseeseeseeseeseoesseesoenseeses 39 WS Printing lape lS si a a e E 41 20 C ild Dand S renr Ta 43 2A SNURO ODJECIS ranana E E EE E E 44 22 Report with two data levels master detail ccececeseseeceenseeseenseeeeeenseeseenseeseenseeesones 45 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Table of contents il 23 Headers and footers Of a data band ccceceeeeeenseeeeseeenseeeeeeeenseeeeeoeenseeeseoeenseesseoeesseeesees 48 24 M Dade FE DOMS croia A EE AE AE E 50 25 RowCount and PageCount properties cccccccceesseeseeeeeeeeeecensneeeeeeeeeeceennseeeeeeseeceeseneeeeees 51 Chapter Ill Groups and aggregates 53 Ml R epor WH QEOUDS sion a a ar 53 2 ONErgroup TO AU UNE Serica al a cee tea let E A O E 55 3 RESET page NUMDEFS rarna coeceteacesvtdsesveseescowsvecuccoscstasececsesaceeteassaveccusscteuetacts 57 A DIG OWN OrOUD S iisang aa a a a a 57 D gt IMG NUM
140. m the top of the new column this contrasts with simple reports where a new page is created instead of a new column When the second column has been filled then a third column is created and so on our example only has two columns though When all of the columns have been filled then FastReport creates a new page and continues displaying data starting in the first column again Our two column report should look like this Nurmber 90020 Number 401 40 Category Trigqerish Category Cod Mame Clown Triggertish Mame Lingcod Length cm 50 Length cm 150 Number 40050 Number 40750 Category snapper Category SCulpin Name Red Emperor Name Cabezon Length cm BU Length cm 4 The Columns property available in the object inspector for all data bands is another way to set the number of columns If this property is changed from zero however the number of FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 43 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 20 columns is set only for the selected databand and not for the whole page as in the previous example The effect is to display data firstly from left to right then top to bottom in contrast to the top to bottom then left to the right output shown above Disable the columns in the Page Options dialogue set Column Number to 1 and enter 2 in the databand Columns property Note that the ColumnWidth property must also be changed from the
141. makes use of these links Here we discuss the use of TTable and TQuery components as data sources for reports but in general any TDataSet descendant can be used As well as the data access components of Delphi projects such as the TfrxDBDataset that we have used in our examples so far there are several specific DB components in FastReport that can be used in reports which ones are used being dependent on the choices made during installation The principles of data access in FastReport are much the same as those used in the Delphi environment Just as in Delphi a component is placed on a dialogue form and its properties are set in the object inspector Component design is very flexible and new components to support different database engines can easily be created see the Developers Manual With the support of the TfrxDesigner component they give end users of an application the ability to design reports at runtime FastReport 100 fr3 File Edit Report wiew Help OD a ia fe 5 Tey ey Ae iea Ta B Z U F aT J Code Data Pagel A k PITICTTTTTITrririrrrirrirritrrirtr errr terete i 100 i 00 i snc i 4c Report al T D ADO E ata n i P n n ii Te ADOT ablet Use the Text object and Draw category objects to draw a diagram ai TA ADOT able apo Fagel fp A Memo E The Customers table z 0 This table contains all information about ADOTable the customer
142. n components to the form SE Setup the database connection by double clicking on the TADOConnection and choosing Build connection string the provider Microsoft Jet 4 0 OLE DB Provider and the database FR Demos Main demo mdb Close the connection dialogue with OK and set the component properties here ADOConnection1 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Data access components 166 LoginPrompt False frxADOComponents1 DefaultDatabase ADOConnection1 Define the following handler for the Design button procedure TForml ButtonlClick Sender TObject begin frxReportl DesignReport end After that compile and run the project This is all you need to do to create an end user runtime reports designer When the Design button is clicked the FR report designer opens containing a blank report Let s look at the design of a simple report in this environment 11 3 Simple report of List type This report will contain data from a single DB table To construct the report take these steps Click on the New report button _ on the designer toolbar FastReport creates an empty report containing Code Data and Page1 tabs Switch to the Data tab and place an ADO Table component on page w Code Data Pagel A an T Data Te ADOT able E fp MasterDatal B PageFooter A Mero 4007 able 1 a
143. n be accessed in a similar way Since each object has a name that is unique within the whole report it can be used anywhere within the same report Interaction with controls By using a script complex logic can be incorporated into a dialogue s operation Let s illustrate this with a simple example modify the form like this ox Double click on the CheckBox object to create an OnClick event handler and enter the following script PascalScript procedure CheckBoxlOnClick Sender TfrxComponent begin Buttonl Enabled not CheckBoxl Checked end C Script void CheckBoxlOnClick TfrxComponent Sender FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 155 FastReport 4 User s Manual 10 5 Buttonl Enabled CheckBoxl Checked This code is the same as is used in Delphi On running the report the button responds to the state of the check box Several dialogue forms Let s see how a report with two dialogues works Create a report with two dialogues and one design page Name Edit Text Childi name Edit2 Text Child2 name Edit3 Text Set the ModalResult property for the OK and Cancel buttons to mrOk and mrCancel respectively Now run the report First of all the user will be asked to answer questions from the first dialogue name any children then after clicking from the second one childrens names After clicking in the second dial
144. n from Script Label January February April 31 January 26 February 31 March 30 April Let s look at how to construct the previous chart using a script Leave the Label and Y fields empty in the chart editor In the report script enter the following code PascalScript begin Chartl SeriesData 0 Chartl SeriesData 0 end C Script Chartl SeriesData 0 Chartl SeriesData 0 X Source YSource X Source YSource Jan Feb Mar Apr r S13 25751750 Jan Feb Mar Apr EIE oop Ly cue FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 141 FastReport 4 User s Manual 8 5 SeriesData 0 in this case allows us to set parameters for the first series in the chart If the chart has more than one series then refer to them with SeriesData 1 etc Printing a chart built in Delphi If you have already built a chart in your Delphi code and want to print it in the report you need to use a Picture object from the FastReport object toolbar Place the object in the required place on the report design page and create the following TfrxReport OnBeforePrint event handler in the Delphi application procedure TForml frxReport1BeforePrint Sender TfrxReportComponent begin if Sender Name Picturel then T amp rxPictureView Sender Picture Assign Chartl TeeCreateMetafile False Rect 0 0 Round Sender Width Round Sender Height end where Pictu
145. n some cases an event can be called repeatedly during grouping if True then the script has already been called Methods procedure AddAnchor adds Text to the list of anchors const Text String see more below procedure NewColumn creates a new column in a multi column report after the last column a page break is automatically FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 94 eS ee procedure NewPage creates a new page page break procedure ShowBand displays a band with a specified name Band TfrxBand after displaying the band the CurY position is automatically incremented function FreeSpace Extended returns height of the white space left on page in pixels function GetAnchorPage returns the page number where the specified anchor const Text String Integer has been placed 6 13 3 Outline object This object represents the Report tree control element in a previewed report 4 Preview gd e HGA AAS lios S B ala B Action Club 1014 1029 1036 1129 B Action Diver Supply 1039 B Adventure Undersea 101 1037 T612 krypt 1074 1099 Order Wo 1029 Lis 1117 Part 1137 1328 Regul aad 5313 safet 1294 gt UU Order Mo 1014 Lis Part The Outline displays a tree like structure of the finished report When any tree node is clicked the preview pane jumps to the page displaying this node To display the Outline it should
146. n the report and from Report gt Options choose the Inheritance tab FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 175 FastReport 4 User s Manual Report Settings General Inheritance Description a Inheritance settings This report is not inherited Select the option Don t change Tee tf Wea E E LER Ma ee ae Ae ae E Debach the base renort Inherit from base report 100 fr3 101 fr3 J 5 102 Fr3 103 Fr3 104 Fr3 105 Fr3 Select the Inherit from base report option and choose the base report from the list If necessary change the Template path to see a different set of templates Press OK and FastReport will combine the two reports The following error message may appear Inherit error Base and inherited reports have duplicate objects What should we do Delete duplicates O Rename duplicates This happens if the two reports contain objects having the same name Objects with duplicated names can be deleted from the derived report or can be renamed in the derived report FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 177 FastReport 4 User s Manual FastReport provides some wizards that simplify the report creation process Wizards are found under File gt New Hew Item Items Templates Standard Standard Dot Matrix Report Wizard Report Report wizard J Dot Matrix Me Mew Table
147. ne Text object is selected eon Desorption aion horizontal centres o frst selected objec 7 z L l individually centre each object horizontally in band individually centre each object vertically in band TF set equal widths same as first selected object space equally in vertical direction ie Space equally in horizontal direction set equal heights same as first selected object FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Designer 8 1 4 Designer options Set the designer options via the View gt Options menu command Designer Options rid Type Size Centimeters Show grid Inches F Align to Grid O Pixels Dialog Form Fonts Use object s Font settings Colors C wose J Towns J LCD grid color Other Show editor after insert Show band captions Show drop down Fields list Free bands placement Gap between bands Restore defaults Here you can set the preferred units centimetres inches pixels and grid spacing Tip you can also cycle through the units from within the designer by double clicking on the left part of the status bar where the current units are displayed You can set grid visibility and alignment to grid This can also be done via buttons in the Standard toolbar from within the designer You can set a font for the code editor window and for the Text object editor If the
148. ns of the page The size of the printable region is dependent on the report page properties LeftMargin TopMargin RightMargin and BottomMargin The printable region s size in pixels is returned by the Engine PageWidth and Engine PageHeight functions Finally FreeSpace is the height of the free space on a page If there is a Page Footer band on the page its height is taken into account when calculating the FreeSpace This height is returned in pixels by the Engine FreeSpace function Note that after displaying the next band the free space is reduced on the page this is taken into account when calculating the FreeSpace FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 96 How are report pages constructed The FastReport core displays bands on a page as long as there is enough free space When there is no more free space left the Page Footer band is printed if required and a new blank page is created As already said after displaying the next band the height of free space is reduced Moreover display of the next band begins from the current position which is defined by coordinates on the X axis and the Y axis The current position is returned by Engine CurX and Engine CurY respectively After printing the next band CurY automatically increases by the height of the printed band After a new page is created CurY equals 0
149. nserts a page break at any required point in a report following which printing continues from the top of the new output page In our example a break can be inserted after printing the second record PascalScript procedure MasterDatalOnAfterPrint Sender TfirxComponent begin if lt Line gt 2 then Engine NewPage end C Script void MasterDatalOnAfterPrint TfrxComponent Sender if lt Line gt J Engine NewPage Note that we used the OnAfterPrint event that is to say after the band has been printed Also note that the Line system variable returns the sequential number of the record The Engine NewColumn method inserts a column break in multi columned reports If there are no more free columns left on the page then a new page is created 6 15 Anchors An Anchor is one of the elements in the hyperlink system which enables jumping to any element connected to the finished report s object by clicking on it in the preview window Anchor can be set via the Engine AddAnchor method Anchor has a name and a position within a report page To jump to an anchor with a specified name type the following line into the URL property of any report object FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 98 AnchorName or AnchorName In the second case FastReport substitutes a value for the expression Clicking on the object executes a jump to that part o
150. nt background fill Enable the Gradient Visible property to show gradients Legend settings for the Legend List The List can be hidden through the Legend Visible property and its position set through the Legend Alignment property The following properties are available when a series has been selected ColorEachPoint color each value with a different color ExplodeBiggest outset the largest value only works for pie charts Marks settings for the look of chart labels ValueFormat the line for formatting values Note that all charting capabilities are accessible in the TeeChart Pro library which can be bought separately from www teechart com This library contains many types of chart and inludes a convenient chart and series editor Chart with manually entered values In the previous example we created a chart using data from a DB table A chart can also be created from manually entered data This method can be convenient if the chart is small Let s demonstrate how this works with a simple example Place a chart on the report design page and open the chart editor Add a series of Bar chart type and set these properties using semi colons to separate individual values FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Charts 140 Data Source DataSet Band source Fixed data values 31 26 31 30 4 Coptional January February March 8 4 Chart completio
151. ntents and qualifying text in the same object For example Contact person frxDBDataSet1 Contact_Person Special syntax is required for links to the DB field datasetname fieldname The field name as well as the dataset name can contain spaces but there must not be any space between the point and quote symbols FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 27 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 11 Furthermore we can also apply computing operations to a field in the expression as shown here Length cm lt frxDBDataSet1 Length_in gt 2 54 Note how square and angle brackets have to be used Remember that square brackets are used by default for delimiting expressions in the object s text Where required the square brackets can be replaced by any other opening closing character pairs see the section Displaying expression with the help of the Text object Angle brackets are used inside expressions for delineating the FastReport variables or DB fields Logically we should write Contact person lt frxDBDataSet1 Contact_Person gt instead of Contact person frxDBDataSet1 Contact_Person However both these notations are correct as FastReport does not require angle brackets where the expression contains only a variable or only a DB field In all other cases the angle brackets are required as in Length cm lt frxDBDataSet1 Length_in gt 2 54
152. numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export properties OEM codepage Separator i Open after export Export settings OEM codepage OEM coding for exported file Separator separator used between columns Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export using default CSV viewer installed on the computer Export features no layout information i e report design is included in the export file graphic images are not supported 14 5 7 Export into HTML Format HTML Hypertext Markup Language is regarded as the standard language for documents on the Internet It is used for creating relatively simple but well designed documents HTML supports hypertext linking as well as simple document layout The Export method is table When exporting to HTML format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 204 Export to HTML table Page range All Current page Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Styles Fixed width All in one Folder Multipage Page navigator Background Pickures JPEG ae Open after export Export settings Styles design styles for text objects exported when disabled exporting speed is increased but detracts from spreadshee
153. o Customers _ustho Te AD This table contains all information about the customer such as company name contact phone Fax The Orders table 300 Ir This table contains all orders made by customers Table is linked to the 4007 ablez relationship Customers table by master detail FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Chapter Report inheritance 171 FastReport 4 User s Manual Often a group of reports share some common data for example the header footer with company logo or other data like email or address etc Should the situation arise that some of this company data needs changing for example the email address then it would have to be done in each report To avoid this tedious task report inheritance can be used What is report inheritance As an example reports commonly have elements logo company name email etc typically placed in the report title and or page header A base report can be designed that contains only these common elements All other reports can then use the base report and thus contain all of the common elements as well as other elements specifically added to each report Should something e g logo or email need changing then the base report would be opened and the necessary changes made there All reports inheriting from the base report would then be amended automatically In fact when a report based on inheritance is opened the base report
154. o display it with the correct aspect ratio When disabled the picture will be stretched to fill the object s frame and will be distorted if the frame s aspect ratio is not the same as the picture s aspect ratio Another useful property available only in the object inspector is FileLink Entering a filename such as c picture omp or a variable which contains a filename such as picture_file will load the picture from the named file when you run the report Report with pictures The Picture object like many objects in FastReport can display data from a DB This object can be connected to a DB field by setting the DataSet and DataField properties in the object inspector In contrast to the Text object this is the only way to connect this object to its data Let s demonstrate this with a report giving the names and images of some fish We will again need the DBDEMOS database that is included in the Delphi distribution kit Create a blank project in Delphi place a ITTable component on the form and set some properties DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName Biolife db To work with this table in FastReport add a IfrxDBDataSet component and set these properties FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 32 DataSet Table1 UserName Bio Finally add a TfrxReport component to the form Open the report designer and click t
155. ogue the report will be built FastReport handles multiple dialogues in this way the dialogues are displayed in their creation order each dialogue is displayed only after the previous one has been closed with ModalResult mrOk in this example by clicking each OK button If any dialogue is closed using the Cancel button or the system menu button then building of the report is prevented FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dialogue forms 156 10 6 Managing dialogue forms In the previous example the second dialogue is displayed irrespective of whether Have children was checked Let s show how to hide the second dialogue when this flag is unchecked Create an OnClick handler for the button on the first dialogue double click on the button to create the handler PascalScript procedure ButtonlOnClick Sender TfrxComponent begin DialogPage2 Visible CheckBoxl1 Checked end C Script void ButtonlOnClick TfrxComponent Sender DialogPage2 Visible CheckBoxl1 Checked This code hides the second dialogue DialogPage2 if the flag is not checked Preview the report to see that this works correctly Another way of managing the forms is to use the OnRunDialogs report event To create this event handler select the Report object in the report tree or object inspector and switch to the Events tab in the object inspector Double click on the OnRunDia
156. omer IHHER JOIH orders o OW c CustNo oa CustNa ORDER BY CustHo FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export Report viewing printing and export 192 A built report can be displayed and printed or exported into one of the supported formats Everything can be done in the preview window Ld Preview E Q4 HQG404 Q s l olaa uy B Action Club ie 1014 w Page 1 of 30 Key 1 finished report pages 2 toolbar 3 status bar 4 outline space for either the outline tree as shown above or for thumbnails The toolbar has these buttons g g HGA 2A Ql QBi FsBuUF nw 1 gt bl Icon Name Description Print report prints report Hotkey Ctrl P Open report opens file containing finished report fp3 Report export exports report to one of the supported formats A Export to PDF exports report to Adobe Acrobat file pdf visible if corresponding export filter is installed FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 193 FastReport 4 User s Manual Send via e mail exports report to one of the supported formats and sends it via e mail as enclosure visible if corresponding export filter is installed text search in report Hotkey Ctrl F G 100 El Bl E u Clase Zoom in zooms in on the preview scale selects arbitrary scale for Zoom Zoom out zo
157. oms out of the preview return to normal size by double clicking on report type number and press Enter Close window close preview 14 1 Control keys FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 194 14 2 Mouse control Action Description Left button click on selected object in interactive report report scrolling in hand mode move mouse with button held down Zoom in when in magnifier mode Right button context menu Zoom out in magnifier mode Double click return to normal size when in full screen mode Mouse wheel report scrolling 14 3 Report printing To print a report click on the amp button or Ctrl P hotkey The standard print dialogue opens Printer Name Sy Microsoft Office Document Image Writer w where Print to File Pages Copies a nl oe O Current aa Pages Collate Enter page numbers el page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Other Prink mode Print Alpages o y ages LPL l Default Order Direct 1 g Duplex Default kal Print on sheet Default Let s look at the options available in this dialogue Printer panel select printer on which to print the report set printer properties for example printing quality choose to print to file Printer Mame g Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Ww Where Print to file FastReport v4 1998 2012 Fas
158. one TfrxReport components on the form Set the component properties as shown here Tablet DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName Customer db Table2 DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName Orders db FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 47 FastReport 4 User s Manual DataSource1 DataSet Table frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Table1 UserName Customers frxDBDataSet2 DataSet Table2 UserName Orders In the report designer enable the data sources in the Report gt Data dialogue Now add a MasterData and a DetailData band to the page Ua Orders Cust Mo Orders Order Mo Orders sale Date Note that the MasterData band must be placed above the DetailData band Drag it there if necessary If the Master is placed under the Detail FastReport will generate an error message when you preview the report If you previewed the report now you would see that the list of orders remains the same for every customer and contains all the records from the Orders table This would be because we have not set the MasterSource property of the Orders table Set MasterSource DataSource for the Table2 component on the Delphi form Now we have set a master detail relationship After that we select the fields to link on Set the MasterFields property of the Table2 component Field Link Designer Availab
159. ons can contain brackets for example 1 2 3 4 Constants variables functions and DB fields can all be used in expressions We will learn more about these later in the chapter FastReport automatically recognizes expressions enclosed in square brackets in the text But what happens if our normal text contains square brackets which we do not want to be considered as expressions For example if we need to display the following ali 10 FastReport would consider 1 as an expression and display the text as al 10 which is not what we want of course One way to avoid this happening is to disable expression recognition Disable the AllowExpressions property or Allow Expressions in the context menu and all expressions in the text will be ignored In our example FastReport would then display exactly what we need ali 10 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 21 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 6 But sometimes text is required to contain both an expression and normal text with square brackets for example ali myVar Disabling AllowExpressions lets us display square brackets in the required places but it also disables handling of expression In this situation FastReport allows you to use an alternative set of symbols to designate expressions The ExpressionDelimiters property by default is responsible for this In our example we can use angu
160. operation of a tree in a report having groups GroupHeader GSroupHeader1 Group Custho Group OrderNo Group saleD ate Set the value of the GroupHeader1 OutlineText band property to lt Group Company gt To make the tree visible as soon as the preview window opens set the PreviewOptions OutlineVisible property of the Report object to True On previewing the report you will now see the following FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 100 g e HGA AAS lios S B an ug Id 4 3 Pl Kauai Dive Shoppe Unisco Sight Diver 1015 25 05 1986 Cayman Divers World Unlimite 1028 07 07 1956 Tom Sawyer Diving Centre Blue Jack Aqua Center 1120 05 10 1933 VIP Divers Club 1 16 11 1994 Ocean Paradise Fantastique Aquatica 1315 26 01 1935 U aao 1093 01 06 1989 Blue Sports Makai SCUBA Club 1016 02 06 1958 Action Club 1084 11 05 1989 Jamaica SCUBA Centre Island Finders 1116 21 03 1993 Adventure Undersea 1034 13 08 1958 Clicking on any element in the tree executes a jump to the corresponding page in the report with the selected element at the top of the window Let s add the second level to the report tree Just set the OutlineText property of the MasterData band to lt Group OrderNo gt and the tree will change to this Kauai Dive Shoppe A 1076 J 1125 1169 1176 1269 1025 Unisco 1160 1302 12 76 1202 1173 E
161. ort when disabled optimization is allowed reducing the number of lines and columns in the export file Continuous export as a continuous document without page breaks and without page headers footers Page header footer header footer export mode modes are Text h f exported as normal text Header Footer h f exported and None h f not exported Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export using default RTF viewer installed on the computer for example Microsoft WordPad Export feature RichText objects are fully integrated in RTF format accuracy of rendering and file size depend on how the report was designed see the Report Design considerations chapter 14 5 4 Export to Excel Excel application for working with electronic spreadsheets It is included in Microsoft Office The Export method is table When exporting to Excel format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 201 FastReport 4 User s Manual Export to Excel Page range All O Current page Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Styles Merge cells Pictures WYSIWYG As text Background Fast export Page breaks Open Excel after export Export settings Styles design styles for text objects exported in spreadsheet when disabled exporting speed is increased
162. orts Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 202 Export to Excel Page range all Current page O Pages Enter page numbers andfor page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Continuous WYSIWYG Page breaks Background Open Excel after export Export parameters Continuous generate continuous document without page breaks and page headers footers Page breaks enables page breaks in the document WYSIWYG accurate rendition of previewed report when disabled optimization is allowed reducing the number of lines and columns in the export file Background background color of report page s exported to spreadsheet Open Excel after export exported file is opened immediately after export Export features RichText objects are exported as simple text graphic images are not supported 14 5 6 Export to CSV Format CSV files contain tabular data numbers and text in plain text form A specified separator is inserted between column values and each row starts on a new line This format can be opened by various table diagram editors The Export method is table When exporting to CSV format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 203 FastReport 4 User s Manual Export to CSV Page range All CO Current page CO Pages Enter page
163. ough the Report gt Data menu item in the FastReport designer selecting the required datasets in the opened dialogue FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 2 9 Creating reports 24 Select Report Datasets x Bio Country Cross Ww Customers Items Orders Parts Sales Customer List report Our second report will be much more complicated than the first one it will contain a DB table of company clients To produce this report let s use the demonstration database DBDEMOS that is included in the Delphi distribution kit Create a new project in Delphi place a T Table component on the form and set some of its properties DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName Customer db To make the table s data available for use in FastReport add a TfrxDBDataSet component to the form and then set one property DataSet Table1 Finally add a TfrxReport the basic component of FastReport to the form double click it to open the FastReport designer and click the New report button there to automatically create a basic report design with three bands Report title Master data and Page footer To make our table useable we must enable it in FastReport Do this by clicking the Report gt Data menu item checking frxDBDataset1 it is the only dataset listed at the moment and clicking OK After the dialogue has closed the DBDataset and the table
164. ow Here are two secenarios 1 the three top objects have Stretch enabled and the three bottom objects have ShiftMode set to smAlways The bottom objects only shift far enough to allow space for the stretched object above it FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 45 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 22 iz l o 2 the three top objects have Stretch enabled and the three bottom objects have ShiftMode set to smWhenOverlapped The bottom objects shift to allow space for the stretched object and also to maintain the designed separation of the two objects o l Om A O M This allows the creation of complicated reports in particular where an object could overlap several other objects above it at the same time In the example below all the upper objects contain stretchable text and all the lower ones are in smWhenOverlapped mode The lower objects will always be displayed close to the object above irrespective of text length in the objects above a i i p tr 4 l amp to hi Report with two data levels master detail So far our example reports have used only one data band First level data or MasterData to control data output This was adequate for the output of data from one DB table FastReport also allows reports to be designed having up to six data levels all on the one design page Furthermore an unlimited number of
165. own after all the records in the group have been processed To display the sum in the group header i e before the group is output to the report the following algorithm is used turn on the two pass report option Report gt Options menu item in the first pass calculate the sums for each group and save them in an array in the second pass extract the values from the array and display them in the group headers Let s show two methods for performing this task First create a new project in Delphi place TQuery TfrxReport and TfrxDBDataSet components on the form and set them up as follows Query1 DatabaseName DBDEMOS SQL select from customer orders where orders CustNo customer CustNo order by customer CustNo orders OrderNo frxDBDataSet1 DataSet Query1 UserName Group Open the designer and connect the data source to the report Enable double pass in the report s settings Report gt Options menu item Add two bands to the report GroupHeader and MasterData In the GroupHeader band s editor enter the Group CustNo data field Connect the data band to the Group data source and then arrange some objects in the following way FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 88 GroupHeader GroupHeader 1 Group OrderNo Group saleDate Group lternsTotal GroupFooter GroupFooterl S
166. pReport TfrxComponent Sender List Free void PagelOnBeforePrint TfirxComponent Sender void GroupHeaderlOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender if Engine FinalPass Memo8 Text Sum List i void GroupFooterlOnBeforePrint TfrxComponent Sender List Add FloatToStr SUM lt Group ItemsTotal gt MasterDatal Ly The procedure names in the script show which events we have used They are Report OnStartReport Report OnStopReport Page1 OnBeforePrint GroupHeader1 OnBeforePrint and GroupFooter1 OnBeforePrint The first two events are called at the beginning and the end of the report respectively To create handlers for these two events select the Report object in the object inspector s drop down list and its properties will appear in the object inspector Then switch to the object inspector s Events tab and create the handlers Why didn t we create the List variable in the script s main procedure We created it in the OnStartReport event because dynamically created variables should be destroyed after the report has been finished It is logical to create dynamic variables in the OnStartReport event and destroy them in the OnStopReport event In other cases when memory does not need to be freed on completion of the script one can use the script s main procedure for initialization of variables The creation and destruction of the
167. port construction It displays the report bands in a specific order as many times as required by the data thus creating a complete report Sometimes it is necessary to display a report in a non standard form which the FastReport core is unable to accomplish In this case it is possible to construct a report manually using the OnManualBuild event of the report s design page If the handler for this event is defined then the FastReport core transfers control to it when data output is required At the same time the FastReport core automatically handles the display of those bands which are located on the page such as Report title Page title Column title Report footer Page footer Column footer and Background The core also handles the creation of new pages and columns The purpose of the OnManualBuild event handler is to display data bands their titles and their footers in a user controlled order That is to say the essence of the OnManualBuild handler is to give commands to the FastReport core for displaying bands at particular times The core does the rest itself it creates new pages as soon as there is no free space on the current one handles scripts attached to events etc Let s demonstrate a handler using a simple example This report has two master data bands which are not connected to data FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 103 FastReport 4 User s
168. re1 is the Picture object s name and Chart1 is your Delphi chart Note When you have code assigned to the event handlers of the TfrxReport component within a Delphi application you must preview the report by running the compiled Delphi application You cannot preview the report from within the FastReport report designer FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dot Matrix reports 143 FastReport 4 User s Manual Earlier we looked at reports intended for printing on standard modern printers stylus laser etc A report sent to a dot matrix printer will be printed very slowly FastReport allows the creation of special reports intended for dot matrix printers where only standard font symbols and no graphic elements are output this results in a faster printing speed Let s see how to build a report of List type intended for dot matrix printing Earlier we created this kind of report see the List of clients report We will use the same data for the report So start a new project in Delphi place TTable TfrxDBDataSet TfrxReport and TfrxDotMatrixExport components on the form and set their properties T Table DatabaseName DBDEMOS TableName Customer db TfrxDBDataSet DataSet Table1 UserName Customers Open the report designer Select File gt New to open the report wizard dialogue and select the Dot Matrix Report item
169. review window instead of on several standard size pages The Large height in design mode option increases the page height in the designer This feature can be useful if there are many bands on a page it must be used when working with overlayed bands It only effects the page height in design mode FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 2 1 2 2 Creating reports 16 Report objects The FastReport Designer represents reports as a collection of schematic pages Objects are placed anywhere on the report pages and are used to define the report s appearance and to display various information such as text and graphics FastReport objects which are included in the standard package are Band object an area on a design page which behaves according to its type e g Header band Data band A Text object displays one or more lines of text within a rectangular area wal Picture object displays a graphic file in BMP JPEG ICO WMEF or EMF format amp Line object displays a horizontal or vertical line System text object displays either system information date time page number etc or aggregate values cal Subreport object allows insertion of another report design page within the host page 4 Draw category objects displays various geometrical shapes diagonal line rectan
170. rt 1999 000 Te el T a for 1999 for 000 Ann o foj 3300 1300 1400 2700 ee aozo 4300 f 200 Catherine faofa 6100 ef 3200 oa e Grand Total 1000 5100 6400 1200 13700 5299 3800 3200 12299 Likewise total values can be highlighted if required and also cells and lines using the background and frame color buttons FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 121 FastReport 4 User s Manual 7 8 Managing a cross ta b in script If any of the methods shown above do not achieve the required report look then a report script can be used instead The Cross tab object has the following events Event OnAfterPrint OnBeforePrint OnCalcHeight OnCalcWidth OnPrintCell OnPrintColumnHeader OnPrintRowHeader event is called after printing a table event is called before printing a table event is called before calculating height of a row in the table the event handler can be set to either the required height or to O if the row needs to be hidden event is called before calculating column width in a table the event handler can be set to either the required width or to 0 if the column needs to be hidden event is called before displaying a table cell the event handler can modify the cell design or its contents event is called before displaying the column title the event handler can modify the design or content of the t
171. rt Now let s see how text alignment inside the object works Alignment buttons are located in the Text toolbar and control horizontal or vertical text alignment Note the Justify button which lets you align paragraphs to both object edges to do this WordWrap must be enabled This is avery very very long This is avery very very long This is avery very very long text line text line text line And this is another line the And this is another line the And this is another line the shorter one shorter one shorter one This is a very very very long text line And this is another line the text line oe shorter one This is avery very very long This is avery very very long And this is another line the shorter one text line And this is another line the shorter one All the text in the object can be rotated to any angle in the range 0 360 The button in the Text toolbar allows you to quickly rotate the text to pre sets of 0 45 90 180 or 270 For any other value set the required angle in the Rotation property of the object inspector When rotating text to angles other than 90 180 or 270 the text may be cut off by the frame of the object as shown below To cure this increase the object height a little so that all the text fits within the object FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 19 FastReport 4 User s Manual ao Japoys ay
172. s Company gt That is all that is needed Preview the report and make sure that the hyperlinks work The last thing to be mentioned is the Engine GetAnchorPage function This function returns the number of the page on which the corresponding anchor was added and is useful when creating the Contents table The report must be a two pass one otherwise this function cannot be used 6 16 Using the Outline object The Outline object as previously stated represents a report tree which can be displayed in a preview window Clicking on an element in the tree executes a jump to the report s output page that contains the corresponding element It is not necessary to use a script to work with an Outline as some bands can automatically create a tree Let s look at two examples showing how an Outline can be used with the help of bands and a script Almost all bands have the OutlineText property to contain a text expression which automatically creates the tree The expression is evaluated when creating a report and its value is added to the tree when the band is printed So the hierarchy of elements in the tree is similar to the hierarchy of bands in the report meaning that the tree will have main and subordinate elements which correspond to the main and subordinate bands in the report for example where the report has two levels of data or has groups We will use our previous example to show the
173. s including case try finally except with types integral fractional logical character line multi dimensional arrays variant classes with methods events properties indexes and default properties type compatibility checking access to any of the report s objects FastScript however does not support the following declarations of these types records classes pointers sets but the IN operator can be used in expressions such as a in a c d shortstring type unconditional jumps GOTO Scripts can be created in the FastReport designer which contains a script editor with syntax highlighting There is also an embedded debugger which has the following functions Step 7J 14 Breakpoint Run to cursor and Evaluate FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 6 1 Script 76 A Taste of Script The tools for working with scripts are located in the Code tab of the FastReport designer When switching to this tab the IDE looks like this R FastReport 100 fr3 File Edit Report wiew Help T T T E E U D Code Data Pagel AeEVeeeRTceuayGbuvererEVT is TENT EpETELENTED TEN VT rEsy Language PascalScript Report T Data LEA ADOTable fj begin Te ADOT able he Paget end A Memo A Pagel TfrzReportPage w Properties Events eJ S BackPicture ot assigned A BoktomMargin 1 Color H
174. s the OnPrintCell event handler is called before printing a cell in the table s data area note that cells in the table titles call either the OnPrintColumnHeader or the OnPrintRowHeader handler The OnPrintCell handler parameters include a link to the Text object which represents the table cell the Memo parameter and the cell s address as the location of the row column and cell cell is relevant if your cross tab contains multi leveled cells as the Rowlndex Columnindex and Celllndex parameters respectively The parameter list also has the header s values specified as Variants the RowValues and ColumnValues parameters and the Value Variant parameter which holds the cell contents In our example it is easier to specify the address using the Rowlndex and Columnindex Numbering of columns and rows begins at 0 so ColumnIindex 2 refers to the third column We could also specify the correct column by looking at its data content we need the 11th month of 1999 Pascal script procedure CrosslOnPrintCell Memo TfrxMemoView RowIndex Columnindex CelliIndex Integer RowValues ColumnValues Value Variant begin if VarToStr ColumnValues 0 1999 and VarToStr ColumnValues 1 ll then Memo Color clRed end C Script void CrosslOnPrintCell TfirxMemoView Memo int Rowlndex int Columnindex int C
175. s variables expressions or a combination of all of these Data type bands Master Detail Subdetail etc when connected to a TfrxDbDataset control the number of times these bands appear rows and together with the report engine determine the number of finished pages output by the report Note even though these data bands may have types like Master Detail etc this is only a place relationship of the bands hierarchical position on the output pages s The actual data relationships are dependent on the table query relationships within the connected frxdbdatasets Each data band level requires a separate TfrxDoDataset or equivalent association 2 13 Picture object The next object to look at is the Picture object It is also frequently used in reports Using this object you can insert logos photos e g of an employee or any other pictorial information The object can display graphics in BMP JPEG ICO WMF or EMF format Let s look at the capabilities of this object Create a blank report and place a Picture object on the report page If the picture editor does not open automatically then double click on the Picture object You can load any picture from a graphic file or clear the existing picture and close the editor by clicking on the green Tick Picture 160 x 160 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 31 FastReport 4 User s Manual
176. s dataset list FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 93 FastReport 4 User s Manual 6 13 2 Engine object This is the most useful and interesting object it represents a link to the engine FastReport s core which manages report construction By using the engine s properties and methods really exotic report design layouts can be created The methods and properties of this object CurColumn Integer the index of the current column in a multi columned report a value can be assigned to this property CurX Extended the current print position on the X axis a value can be assigned to this property CurY Extended the current print position on the Y axis a value can be assigned to this property DoublePass Boolean equals True if the report is a two pass one analogous to Report EngineOptions DoublePass FinalPass equals True when in last pass of a two pass report PageHeight printable region s height in pixels PageWidth Extended printable region s width in pixels StartDate TDateTime time of report running the same as the lt Date gt system variable StartTime TDateTime time of report running the same as the lt Time gt system variable TotalPages Integer the number of pages in a report the same as the lt TotalPages gt system variable the report should be a two pass one if this variable is used SecondsScriptcall Boolean flag returning repeat call status of an event i
177. s work as follows PageHeader band displayed at the very top of each page PageFooter band displayed at the very bottom of each page ReportTitle band displayed at the top of the first page this can be before or after the PageHeader band depending on the page s TitleBeforeHeader property found in the FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 23 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 7 2 8 object inspector after clicking on any free space on the page ReportSummary band displayed in the free space at the very end of the report Data bands Now we will learn how to print data from DB tables or from queries What is considered to be a table or a query They consist of data organized into lines records or rows which contain one or more columns fields To print this sort of data FastReport uses a special type of band the various bands which are named Data To print a whole table or just some of its rows and fields you must add one or more of these bands to the report connect them to the table and place field objects within them When FastReport builds the report the bands will be printed on the output page once for each record in the table If there is no free space left on the output page for a band a new output page will be created by the report engine before continuing TfrxDBDataSet component The TfrxDBDataSet connector component
178. scribed later in this chapter Let s choose the Customers table Then press the Next gt gt button On the next tab select the fields to be displayed in the report Report Wizard Data Fields Groups Layout Style Step 2 Select the fields to display Available Fields Bicusthio LastinvoiceDate On the left side is a list of available fields on the right side a list of fields already selected to FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 179 FastReport 4 User s Manual appear in the report Use the Add gt Add all gt gt lt Remove and lt lt Remove all buttons to move fields from one list to another Use the oG buttons to move selected fields up or down in the list Let s add the Company Contact Phone and FAX fields to the selected fields list and press the Next gt gt button On the next tab one or more groups can be created FastReport will add the Group header and Group footer bands to the report Report Wizard Data Fields Groups Layout Style Step 3 Create groups optional Available fields Groups lt Remove Group creation is optional Skip it here by pressing the Next gt gt button The next tab sets the page orientation and one of two data layouts tabular and columnar FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 180
179. selecting the Edit gt Delete page menu command You can also call the context menu by right clicking on the page tab Fage ee 2 New Page fe New Dialog E Delete Page A Page Settings E ens nn The number of design pages in a report is unlimited As a rule additional pages are used either for title pages or in more complicated reports for data coming from many data sources FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 51 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 25 Here is a simple example of creating a title page Let s use our previous report having one data level Add a new page to it it will be added as a second page Move it to the front of the report by grabbing the page2 tab with the mouse and dragging it over the first page tab page1 This changes the page order Select the new page and place a Text object containing Our report in the middle of the page That is all that is needed The report with a title page is complete Our report Pay attention to one feature of multi page reports however If the PrintOnPreviousPage property is enabled in the object inspector for the second output page then the second output page s objects will start printing on the white space of the first output page and not on the new output page RowCount and PageCount properties Sometimes the need arises to show static data several times over for example when printing Blank business
180. should write the condition using C Script as lt Line gt 2 1 Select a gray as the color for highlighting not too saturated a color but closer to white Now the other objects can be added to the data band on top of the first empty Text object ReportTitle Bandi eustomers Company o eustomers Prone Customers FAs On preview the report produces this output Action Club Action Diver supply Adventure Undersea American SCUBA Supply Aquatic Drama Blue slass Happiness Blue Jack Aqua Center Blue Sports o 133 070 0239 22 44 5002 11 011 34 09054 213 654 0092 b13 442 r654 215 555 1904 401 609 7623 610 772 6704 013 070 0202 2 2 4 4 500596 0011 34 0906 4 213 654 0095 613 442 670 213 555 1995 401 609 9403 610 772 6090 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Nested reports Subreports 71 FastReport 4 User s Manual 5 1 5 2 Nested reports subreports Sometimes very complex report are needed which contain blocks of additional data inserted at particular points in the design Although many of these reports can be designed using an arrangement of FastReport bands sometimes it just becomes too complicated In these circumstances it is necessary to use the Subreport object al When a Subreport object is inserted into a design FastReport automatically adds a new page which is connected to the Subreport Such a n
181. sing either a DB field value or an expression contained in the object This value is placed in the Value system variable which is available only in this event So if two Text objects contain the expressions Table1 Field1 and lt Table2 Field1 gt 10 the values of these expressions can be used by referring to the Value variable for the objects PascalScript if Value gt 3000 then Memol Color clRed C Script if Value gt 3000 Memol Color clRed which is simpler than writing something like this PascalScript if lt Tablel Fieldl gt gt 3000 then Memol Color clRed C Script if lt Tablel Fieldl gt gt 3000 Memol Color clRed Using Value instead of an expression enables you to write one multi purpose handler for the OnAfterData event which can be connected to several objects Please note something else if an object contains several expressions for example expr1 expr2 it is the value of the last expression that is transferred to the Value variable FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 92 The OnAfterData event is ideal for calculating the height and width of objects such as Text That is if the exact height of a stretched Text object containing an expression is needed in a script you can use this code in the OnAfterData event PascalScript var MemoHeight Extended
182. subreport is output as a set of bands on the basic report page When this is so the height of the parent band containing the Subreport object is not controlled by the bands in the subreport i e it cannot be stretched If the subreport PrintOnParent property is set to True either in the object inspector or the context menu the objects in the subreport are physically printed on the band which contains the Subreport object This band can be made to stretch and can have stretched objects placed on tt FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Chapter Script 75 FastReport 4 User s Manual A script is a program written in a high level language which is part of a report As the report runs the script runs as well A script can handle data in ways that are not possible just using the normal operations of the FastReport core for example a script can hide redundant data depending on a predefined condition A script can also be used for controlling the properties of dialogue forms which are part of a report A script is written in one of the languages supported by the script engine FastScript Currently these are PascalScript C Script BasicScript JScript The following features are supported by the FastScript engine standard language set variables constants procedures functions which may be nested and having variables constants default parameters all standard operator
183. successive output Lets modify the function call as shown here SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterData1 3 The value 3 is a bit combination of 1 and 2 meaning that we need to include the invisible bands without resetting the total after each group As a result we have 51450 6 137094 4 3406r 2 3 7 Page and report totals Quite often we need to display summary totals for a page or for a whole report We can use the aggregate functions in this situation as well We ll show this by making some changes to our example FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 3 8 Groups and aggregates GroupHeader GSroupHeader1 Group Custho Group OrderMo Group saleDate Group temsTotal GroupFooter GroupFooter SUM lt Group Items Total gt MasterDatal L ReportSummary ReportSummary1 Total SUM lt Group tems Total gt MasterData1 L PageFooter PageFooter Total this page SUM lt Group ItemsTotal gt MasterDatat 62 As you can see we have added a Report Summary band containing a Text object with the aggregate SUM to both the Report Summary band and the Page Footer band That is all that is needed 1040 04 09 1968 3 632 00p 1140 12 12 1993 1 240 00p 8 872 0p 9841 Neptune s Trident Supply 1149 14 03 1994 12 900 75p 1045 16 10 1988 787 850p 1049 13 12 1988 1 809 85p 1145 1
184. t Function Group Company Phone FAK Ascending OrderMo SaleDate Visible whether field appears in the output Where field selection condition e g gt 5 Sort sorting direction for field Function function applied to field Group grouping on the field By dragging fields between the tables in the workspace 2 Join lines appear When fields are joined the compatibility of the types of the joined fields is checked The builder prevents joins between type incompatible fields To change the join parameters hold the cursor over the join line right click and select the Options item The Link Options dialogue will open where the join can be configured as below FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 186 Link Options Table 1 customer Column 1 Custo Table 2 orders Column 2 Custho Join Operator Join Type Inner Left Outer O Right Outer O Full Guter 13 5 1 Using the Query constructor Let s create a simple report using the query builder Click New report 1 on the designer toolbar to create a report page having Report header First level data and Page footer bands Place an ADO Query component on the Data tab Double click on the component to open the query editor Click the 5 button in the query editor to open the query builder window Select the Customer table in the list of tables 3 an
185. t appearance All in one folder all additional files are saved in the same folder as the main file Page navigator special navigator for fast jumping between pages created Fixed width blocks automatic table diagram width adjustment when changing display window size Multipage each page exported as a separate file Background graphic image assigned to page background is exported to HTML file Pictures graphic image exported to HTML file Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export using default HTML viewer installed on the computer Export features export may consist of several files each graphic image exported to its own file RichText objects are exported as simple text accuracy of rendering and file size depend on how the report was designed see the Report Design considerations chapter 14 5 8 Export to Text Format Normal plain text file without any graphics The Export method is table When exporting to Text format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 205 FastReport 4 User s Manual Export to Text Page range All CO Current page CO Pages Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export properties Page breaks J Empty lines _ Frames _ OEM codepage Open after export Export settings Page bre
186. t the BorderStyle bsDialog property for the form Both the controls and the form have the same set of properties as for the corresponding Delphi controls When the dialogue form design is complete return to the report design Page tab and place a Text object containing the greeting on the page Preview the report and you will see the dialogue form Hello vworld After clicking on the OK button the dialogue closes and the report is constructed and displayed If the dialogue is closed by clicking the system menu button then the report will not be constructed FastReport works like this if there are dialogue forms in a report the report is only constructed after each dialogue has been closed with ModalResult mrOk i e in this example by clicking the button That is why the ModalResult property of the button had to be set to mrOk FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Dialogue forms 154 10 3 10 4 Entering parameters and transferring them into a report Let s make this example more complicated to show how to transfer values entered in the dialogue to the report Modify the dialogue as here 0x Place a Text object containing this text on the report Page1 and set its AutoWidth to True You entered Edit1 Text Preview the report and make sure that the text typed in is successfully displayed in the report Other objects in the dialogue ca
187. t would create the ladder shown here ltem1 ltem2 lItem3 The LevelUp and LevelRoot Outline methods are used to control which element is the current one The first method moves the cursor to the element located one level up So this script Outline AddItem Iteml1 Outline AddItem Item2 Outline AddiItem Item3 Outline LevelUp Outline AddItem Item4 constructs a tree like this ltem1 ltem2 FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 102 6 17 lItem3 ltem4 This shows that Item4 is a child element of the Item2 element The LevelRoot method on the other hand moves the cursor up to the root of the tree For example the script Outline AddItem Iteml1 Outline AddItem Item2 Outline AddItem Item3 Outline LevelRoot Outline AddItem Item4 constructs this tree Item ltem2 Item3 ltem4 Knowing this it is clear how the report works Before every group title company name is output the root of the tree is made the current element After that the list of orders is output each order being added as a child element of the company To ensure that all the orders are located on one level and not displayed as a ladder the Outline LevelUp method is called after each order addition to shift the cursor back to the company level OnManualBuild page event The FastReport core is usually responsible for re
188. tReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 195 FastReport 4 User s Manual Pages panel select which pages to print all current or selected range Pages All CO Current page CO Pages Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Copies panel set number of copies to print If printing more than one copy and Collate is checked then the first copy is printed in full then the second in full etc If Collate is not checked then all copies of the first page are printed followed by all copies of the second page etc Copies 4 gt Number of copies Collate Other panel Print select which pages to print All pages Even pages Odd pages Order print pages in direct or reverse order first page to last last page to first Duplex handle duplex by default report settings are used or choose one of duplex options vertical horizontal simplex Other Print All pages we Order Direct 1 9 we Duplex Default kd Print mode panel select the printing mode Frink mode l gt a Default wt Frink on sheet Default yt gt a Default Default mode prints on the sheet defined in the report One preview page is printed on each sheet FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 196 Lp Split big pages Split big pages this mode is useful if printing an A3 report on an
189. tabase component for example TfrxADODatabase to your report Connection Wizard Connection Choose the connection type 400 Database Choose the database ee Prompt login Use loginipassword Login Password The connection string must be created using the button which opens the standard Windows connection dialogue for setting the database and connection parameters After this the user name and password can be set if necessary Note a new connection can be made manually just place a TfrxADODatabase component on the report s Data tab FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 13 3 New table wizard This wizard adds a new database table to an existing report Connection Wizard Choose the connection type ADO Table w Choose the table name Filter records Select the table name If required a filter can also be defined for example CustNo gt 2000 and CustNo lt 3000 182 NB a new table can be created manually by placing a IfrxADOTable component on the report s Data tab FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 183 FastReport 4 User s Manual 13 4 New query wizard This wizard adds a new SQL query to an existing report Connection Wizard Query Choose the connection type A400 Query t SOL statement select from Customer The SQL query must
190. tage of paper but might be useful in some situations Reset page numbers The Group header band has a ResetPageNumbers property which allows us to reset page numbers when printing a group What is it for Here s an example you have created a report which puts the customer name in a group header and customer orders in the data band Now you need to print the report and send it to all your customers each customer getting only the pages of the report which refer to them Unfortunately the page numbering in the report is continuous so a customer getting the pages numbered 50 to 52 will ask where are the first 49 pages To avoid this situation you have to number to each customer s pages with its own sequence Inside the report each group will have pages numbered from 1 Please note if you set ResetPageNumbers to True you should also set StartNewPage to True so that each group will start on a new page To print the page number or total pages you should use the Page and TotalPages system variables and not Page and TotalPages Drill down groups The group header has a property called DrillDown If you set it to True the group becomes interactive This means you can click on the group header in the preview window and the group will expand display all records in the group or collapse display only the header and if ShowFooterlfDrillDown is True the footer Here is an example of such a group with on
191. text is altered in the query editor then the query diagram of tables and joins will be lost Do not alter the query text manually always open the query builder and modify the diagram visually Clicking in the query editor returns to the report designer All that is left to do is to connect the MasterData band to the data source and place the required fields on the MasterData band Complex query building In the last example we built a report based on one table Let s now look at query building where data comes from two tables Earlier we looked at a report working with groups Let s build a query for this report using the query builder We need to compose a query in SQL which will return data from both tables with the data grouped on a specific condition In our example the condition will be CustNo fields in both tables As in the previous example create a new report and put a TADOQuery component on the page Open the query editor and then the query builder Drag two tables to the work area Customers and Orders Both tables have a CustNo field which we will use to join them Drag the CustNo field from one table to the other table to create a join between the two tables FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 189 FastReport 4 User s Manual Now the fields to be displayed and the sort field need to be set Check the field in both tables and check the CustNo field in the Cus
192. the clown triggertish devour beds of pearl oysters Do not eat this fish According to an 1676 account the poisonous flesh acts primarily upon the nervous tissue ofthe stomach occasioning violent spasms of that organ and shortly afterwards all the muscles ofthe body The frame becomes rocked with spasms the tongue thickened the eye fixed the breathing laborious and the patient expires in a paroxysm of extreme suffering When the report is generated if the text does not fit into the top object the excess part is shifted to the bottom object With the arrangement of the two objects around the picture the effect of text wrapping is achieved Please note the main object must be inserted in the report before inserting the linked one otherwise text flow may not function correctly If this occurs select the linked object and bring it to the front using the Edit gt Bring to front menu item FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 39 FastReport 4 User s Manual 2 18 Displaying data in the form of a table Sometimes it is necessary to display data in the form of a framed table An example of this type of report might be a price list To create this type of report in FastReport just requires the enabling of frames for the objects located in the data band Let s demonstrate several variants of frames with an example Create a report similar to this Bio specie Bio common Mame Bio
193. the output page 9 1 O the OnAfterPrint event of each band object is called 0 the OnAfterPrint event of the band itself is called Bands continue to be printed as long as the source connected to the band has data After that report printing stops the report page s OnAfterPrint event is called and finally the Report object s OnStopReport event So by using the events of different objects practically every step of the report creation process can be managed The key to using events is a thorough understanding of the band output process which is discussed in the next nine sections Most of the actions can be performed using the band s OnBeforePrint event only any modifications made to an object are displayed immediately However if the band is stretchable it is impossible to say in this event on which page the band will be printed since calculation of the band s height is performed in step 5 It can be done however either in the OnAfterCalcHeight event in step 6 or in the OnAfterPrint event in step 9 Note that in the last event the band will already have been output so modification to objects will not have any visible effect It is essential to clearly understand where and when the bands are output and to understand the timing calling order of each of their events Likewise for each of the objects contained in the bands FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0
194. tie caste ceed saxiacuseeeaceusesaedesoaededeiea sects 177 2 NEW CONNECTION WIZAN CO sciora nenna Aa ENEA ANEA 181 3 New table Wizara sosiaa aa a a a a A aaa A Aa aE Aa 182 A ING WIGUGEY WIZANG cacsicescccsetivetosasicerssccdsebetioascis aa Eda aaa ora EE aa 183 5 QU ery CONSUUCUOT setae scence cieetecweuseese terrae a tales eee au ENNE a a N ae a 183 Using the Query COnStructor ivssesececsee ice ices ceevies caren settee Seties cisenceeenec ekce bse leat vies nnmnnn nenna nnmnnn nnmnnn nnna 186 Complex guery DUNAIN retis orsina tah te anaa AE aae Ee EA TAa AA AEEA ESE EAAS ASA AENEA ELEAN 188 Chapter XIV Report viewing printing and export 192 T CODNVOLKEYS oaii a Ea aa aa E 193 2 IMIOUSE CONTO cinnara aa a E AA 194 3 Report PrINUNO viseri o aia R 194 A Text SEALCH IN repOrNS caa a O a 196 5 Repo EXPONIT c2scn2cccsrececacsicecctcsszdccavaccucsssaccescashectastces aa R Eara Ea OSEE rE Ea R 197 EXDOFrt 10 PDF F rmate eea enade aika nda denrea Cenad oned eea enea tda deare tenata done Esseri n ind 198 ExpOR tO Open Doc MeN siini a aa E A a aT 199 EXport tO RTF Format esera a a aa aA a a A a aTa O Eaa aE Eai 199 EXPOLIO EXCOl dania a ea a R e E 200 Export to XML F rmate eaa Aae aaa aaa eara eaaa Aaa aaea a ea aaaea 201 Export 6 CSV ForMalina E AEAEE E EEEREN ORINE Aa 202 EXPOrtINO HTME F rmat srie aana aisa a aE Esa a a A EREET 203 EXDORL 10 Text Forma ansen a a a a Aaaa aa aee ae iai 204 Export to Jpeg BMP Gif Tiff Graphic Formats
195. tinuous document without page breaks and without page headers footers Page breaks enables page breaks in the document WYSIWYG accurate rendition of previewed report when disabled optimization is allowed reducing the number of lines and columns in the export file Background graphic image assigned to page background s is exported to ODF file output file size is considerably increased Open after export exported file is opened immediately after export Export feature RichText objects are exported as simple text export of graphic images is supported 14 5 3 Export to RTF Format RTF Rich Text Format was developed by Microsoft as a standard for the interchange of text documents RIF documents are supported by many modern text editors and operating systems FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 200 The Export method is table When exporting to RTF format a dialogue opens requesting output file settings Export to RTF Page range All O Current page Enter page numbers and or page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Export settings Pictures WYSIWYG Page breaks Continuous Page Header Footer Open after export Export settings Pictures enables export of graphic images to file Page breaks enables page breaks in the document WYSIWYG accurate rendition of previewed rep
196. to make sure that the object is displayed correctly 1269 16 12 94 p1 400 00 Total 51 450 850 Number 6 The general syntax of format tags is expression formattag Note that the space character between the expression and the symbol is mandatory The format tag itself might look like FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 67 FastReport 4 User s Manual 4 3 nformat_string numerical format dformat_string date time format bFalse True boolean format Format_string in each case is the argument to the function used for formatting So for numerical formatting the Delphi Format function is used and for date time the FormatDateTime function The syntax for these functions can be found in the Delphi help system Below are several values used in FastReport for numerical formatting Qg number with the minimal places after the decimal point 2 2f number with a fixed number of places after the decimal point 2 2n as previous but with thousands separator 2 2m monetary format accepted by the Windows OS dependent on the regional settings in the control panel for date time formatting dd mm yyyy date as 23 12 2003 dd mmm yyyy date as 23 Nov 2003 dd mmmm yyyy date as 23 November 2003 hh mm time as 23 12 hh mm ss time as 23 12 00 dd mmmm yyyy hh mm date and time as 23 November 2008 23 12 A comma or a dash can be used
197. tomer table The selected fields appear in the field Collurmn Lid Fast Query Builder Designer Result customer c E3 My Custha Flaat Company WideString C Addri WideString C Addr WideString C City WideString State WideString Zip wWideString Country wWideString Phone wWideString C FAs fWideString _ TaxRate Float _ Contact WideString Visible Where RB orders o OrderMo Float C SaleDate DateTime ShipDate DateTime Empo Integer ShipToContact Widet C ShipToAddrt yWidestr C ShipToAddr2 Widest ShipTocity WideStrin ShipToState wWidestri C ShipTozip WidesString ShipToCountry Wide Sort Function Group parameters list Select the sort order for the CustNo field St biolife T country T crosstest T currency quoting T customer T customer query T employee Ta items Ta MSys ccessObjects Ta MSy s4ccessaML US MSysAces Ta MSysIMEs Columns US MSysIMEXSpecs Ta MSysObjecks T MSysouerjes Ta MSysRelationships T nexkcust Ta nextitem T nextord fe orders Ta parts Ta unicode Ta vendors Collurnn Custhlo Visible Where Sort Function Group That is all that is needed to complete the Query The SQL code looks like this FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Wizards 190 x wv SELECT c o CustNa FROM cust
198. tting two properties in the object inspector Place a second Text object on the band without writing anything in the editor window Set the object s properties using the object inspector DataSet frxDBDataSet1 DataField Company Both of these properties are presented as a list so just select the required value from the drop down using the mouse The third way is to drag and drop the required field from the Data tree pane into the report This is the simplest and easiest way but before doing it uncheck the Create header checkbox at the bottom of the Data tree pane otherwise a second Text object containing the field s name is created in addition to the field link object itself In this way select the Phone field and drag it onto the band The fourth way requires the designer option Show drop down fields list flag to be set via main menu View gt Options and the band to be already connected to the dataset Place a blank Text object on the band and hover the cursor over the object a drop down button will appear at the right hand end Click this button to open the list of DB fields and select the FAX field Customers F w ut mri TI cu city fo ri te a 2 T E T Ta D a tT Our report design is complete FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 26 ReportTitle ReportTitle
199. v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 206 When exporting in the above graphic formats a dialogue opens requesting output file settings Export Settings Page range All O Current page Enter page numbers andfor page ranges separated by commas For example 1 3 5 12 Separate Files Image settings C Monochrome F Crop pages JPEG quality Resolution dpi Export settings Separate files when enabled each report page is exported to a separate file filenames are derived from the specified filename by suffixing an underscore page number Monochrome exports as a monochrome image Crop pages blank space round the page edges are cropped JPEG quality JPEG compression ratio only enabled when exporting to JPEG format Resolution graphic resolution of exported image Export features when the Separate files is disabled one very large file is created 14 6 Sending a Report via E mail FastReport can send a finished report by e mail in any format required without the need for a separate mail application When exporting by e mail the E mail setup dialogue is opened Before exporting begins the sender s email account details should be set on the Account tab FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 207 FastReport 4 User s Manual Send by E mail E mail Account Mail From Name Mike Smith From Address mikecohotmail corn Organi
200. variable becomes the value of the expression If necessary the expression can be edited or modified manually and any FR functions or other variables can be used within it Remember that categories must not be associated with any expression C Edit Variables Sel pi EP ol Xx Dg Variables Data Variables Functions Classes E Clients J Data Client number a Ea Customers T m Client name Cust No B Orders ase Order number ase Order date Expression lt lustomers Cust No After the list of variables has been created close the variables editor Now we can insert the variables into the report In contrast to DB fields there are fewer insertion methods We can either insert a variable into the object text manually by typing Client number or we can drag a variable from the Data tree pane onto the report page in which case switch to the FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Creating reports 30 Variables tab in this pane Let s review what we have learnt so far A report design is composed of design pages Pages may contain FR objects either placed on the page or within a band Bands are placeholders on the design page and control where the objects they contain appear on the output page s according to the band type Text objects contain the text we want to output in a given position they can be multi lined and may contain static text data field
201. with a border note that the cells themselves don t have borders salary Year Marne 1999 2000 2001 2002 Grand Total ANN S300 2700 3100 1700 Ben a900 2100 1800 Catherine b100 3200 Den 3999 8100 Grand Total 1 3300 11999 11200 3500 The Print down then across option determines how a table is printed across several pages Here are two examples showing how this option works note the page order 1 Print down then across is off FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 131 FastReport 4 User s Manual salary 1499 2000 2001 2002 Grand Total Employee Ann 3 300 00p 2700 00p 10000p 1 700 00p 10 800 00p Ben 3 900 00p 2 100 00p 1 800 00p 7 800 00p Catherine 6 100 00p 3 200 00p 9 300 00p Den 3 999 Up 12 099 000p rand Total 13 300 00p 11 999 00p U 00p 350000 39 999 00p 2 Print down then across is on salary Employee 1994 2000 2001 2002 Grand Total Ann 3 300 00p 270000p 100 00p 1 700 00p 10 800 00p Ben 3 900 00 p 2 100 00p 1 800 00p 7 800 00p Catherine 6 100 00p 3 200 00p 9 300 00p Den 3 999 000p 12 099 Op rand Total 43 5300 00p 11 999 00p 000P 3 S00 00 39 939 00p The Reprint headers on new page option determines whether table headers are printed on each new preview page The Side by side cells option is used if you have two or more values in a table cell It determines if these cell v
202. with two Text objects on the band FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Script 84 Customers Company Customers Addrl As described above the script s main procedure is called at the very start of running the report After that the essentials of report construction begin Firstly the OnStartReport event of the Report object is called Then before an output page is created the OnBeforePrint page event is called This event is called once for each design page in the report template design pages should not be confused with the output pages of a report In our example the event is called once as the report design consists of only one design page Then the events of the data bands are called in the following order 1 the band s OnBeforePrint event is called 2 the OnBeforePrint event of each object contained in the band is called 3 each object is filled with data in our example with values of the Company and Addr1 DB fields the OnAfterData event of each object is called actions such as positioning objects on the band if there are stretchable objects among them calculating band height and stretching it if it is stretchable are performed 6 the band s OnAfterCalcHeight event is called 7 a new output page is created if the band hasn t enough room in the page s white space 8 the band and all of its objects are displayed on
203. zation Signature i Best regards n Connection Host smtp hotmail com Port Login Password From Name sender s name From Address sender s e mail address Organization sender s organization Signature signature for e mail it can be generated by clicking on the Build button once the earlier fields have been filled in Host SMTP server service Port SMTP server port Login access name for authorization on SMTP server if required by the specified SMTP server Password authorization password if required by the specified SMTP server Remember properties remember all fields for further usage After filling in the necessary fields on the Account tab the message fields on the E mail tab must be completed FastReport v4 1998 2012 FastReports Inc Manual v1 2 0 Report viewing printing and export 208 14 7 Send by E mail E mail Account Message Address supporti fast report cam Subject POF Export Feature request i Text Hello Atbkachment Format PDF File ay Advanced export settings Address e mail address of recipient previously used addresses can be selected from the drop down list Subject message subject previously used subjects can be selected from the drop down list Text message text Format format of exported report attached to the e mail select one of the available export formats the FastReport FR

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