PDA

View Full Version : Visual Report Writer Release Candidate III available!



Vincent Oorsprong
7-May-2010, 10:14 AM
With thanks to all the testers for their input, we are pleased to announce the availability of Visual Report Writer Release Candidate III. This version contains a vastly extended integration library, a check database function, several important other improvements and fixes. Bringing you this new version has taken longer than expected.

This version is developed with, and for Visual DataFlex Studio 15.1. So make sure you have a 15.1 Visual DataFlex Studio, or Client License installed and download RC III now! Follow the instructions at:

Register and Download Visual Report Writer release Candidate III (http://www.dataaccess.nl/IframeText.asp?pageid=2028)

Check Database
Developers have asked us to provide a means to update reports, after the underlying database definition has been changed. This new Function is introduced in this version and has been tested by a few key beta-testers. We apologize for the delay this has caused, but hope to be able to release a better, more usable first release.

Find more details about the integration and Check Database Function in the updated User’s Guide that comes with RC III.

Language support
Visual Report Writer Release Candidate III ships with support for the English, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Spanish languages. Before changing the language used in Visual Report Writer you must Set your Windows Regional Options to the language of your choice. This ensures that the correct (ANSI) code page is selected in Windows. You can change the Regional Options in the Windows Control Panel, for full language support you must change both the ‘Standards and formats’ option to ensure correct Date and Number handling and the ‘Language for non-unicode programs’ option. Please note that the name of these options may differ in various versions of Windows. After changing the Windows Regional Options you can change the language in Visual Report Writer by choosing a language from the ‘Language’ menu.
Note: In order to Get you the new RC in hand as soon as possible, few new components of this version are not fully translated yet.

Changes in RC III with regards to integration:


Added conversion functions for strings, integers, dates and numbers as in cCrystal and CrystalReport.
Added FunctionCount Function to return the Number of functions defined in the report.
Added FunctionType Function to return the type of the N-th Function defined in the report.
Added FunctionLength Function to return the length of the N-th Function defined in the report.
Added private OnReportError event which sends OnError when the report generates errors. If you Set pbHasErrors False in the OnError routine no Error information is presented.
Added Property psFunctionName which can be used to retrieve or Set the name of the N-th Function defined in the report.
Added Property psFunction which can be used to retrieve or Set the contents of the N-th Function defined in the report.
Added better filter Function coding to the wizard.
Added adding of library bitmaps and icon to the project.cfg file when the file exists.
Added SubReportCount Function to return the Number of subreports in a (sub)report.
Added SubReportId Function to return the ID of the subreport of a (sub)report.
Added 4425 as generic VRW errornumber, added to the standard Error Object as usererror. Temporarily added to cVisualReport Class package, will be moved to Visual DataFlex core with revision 16.
Changed Property piReportId to psReportId.
The following functions now take the (sub)reportId as first parameter: TableCount, FunctionCount, psFunctionName, psFunction, psFilterFunction, peDatabaseType, psDatabaseName, psDatabaseConnection, psTableSchema, psTableName, TestFilterFunction, ReportQuery, FunctionIdByName, If the first parameter is C_USEMAINVRWREPORTID the value of psReportId is taken.
Added Property pbAutoLocateDFFiles; default is True; when True and the database connection of the (sub)report is DataFlex the path to the database (If filelist is used) or the path to tables (If individual tables are used) is automatically changed. Also iterates subreports. Set this Property to False when the report accesses tables outside the current workspace or when the contents of psDataPath from the workspace does not return the correct path to the tables or database.
Changed OpenReport to Use pbAutoLocateDFFiles and correct the paths to the database and tables.
Changed OpenReport to automatically Set the psReportId Property.
Changed OpenReport to return a String with the report id, -1 or a 0 and higher is no longer used.
Reversed the order of OnInitializeReport and setting the psFilterFunction in OpenReport.
Removed sReportId parameter from OutputReport method, was not in Use anymore.
Removed the internal Property psPrivateFilterFunction which means that you cannot Set the filter Function before the report is opened.
When you invoke a Function and the COM Object is not yet created you will Get a user Error that the COM Object is not created.
Change that all errors generated inside cVisualReport Class methods and COM module are being handled by the local Error handler in the Class (Error_Report). In that event we call the OnError event which you can Use to cancel Error display by setting pbDisplayError to False.
Renamed all OLEvrwXXX constants to C_vrwXXX constants.
Added constants for the report statistics.
Renamed the properties PDFExportOption to pPDFExportOptions, CSVExportOption to pCSVExportOptions and ImageExportOption to pImageExportOptions in the cVisualReport Class.
Added phoExportOptionsDialog Property to the cVRWExportMenuItem Class to specify the Object identifier.
Used the renamed export option properties in VRWExportOptions.dg.
Renamed peDatabaseType to DataBaseType. It is a Function, not a Property.
The wizard to generated reportviews has been extended with a new preview style; this embeds the cVisualReport Object in a report view.
The toolbar button objects in the commandbar Object in cVRWReportView.pkg and VRWPreviewPanel.dg are now using their own classes instead of settings.
for printing we now supply a new Class cPrintDialog. You can Get the required Print Handle from that Class directly or let cVisualReport Class Get one.
Find more details in the updated User’s Guide that comes with RC II.

Release Candidate III changes and fixes


Changes

Added ability to check the database used in a report for changes via the ‘Check database’ option in the database menu.
‘Lasso’ select now also selects objects that are partially within the selection rectangle.

Fixes

Fixed problems with unwanted page breaks when using subreports.
Fixed GPF when using subreports.
Fixed problem with size of Field headings.
Fixed GPF when sorting on a memo type Field.
Fixed problem with the OEM/ANSI option not always working correctly.
The ‘Remove all’ button in the database expert did not work correctly.
Fixed problem with ‘new page after this section’ option.
Objects will now display multiple lines of text without the need for the ‘Can Grow’ option If the text does not fit on a single line. Note, the text will never exceed the size of the Object, Use the ‘Can Grow’ option If the size of the Field should be adjusted to fit all the text.
Fixed problem with section names when using multiple sections (ie Details a, Details B etc).
The ‘Number of decimals’ settings was not saved in the ‘Format Field’ dialog.
Fixed GPF when grouping on a Function.



Reporting bugs, comments and suggestions

We have tried to resolve all the serious reports on the RC II build. Please let us know If this build fixes the reported issues, If you have not done so yet. If your reported bug is not fixed in this release Send an email to support@dataaccess.nl and we’ll inform you about status and plans, or you can look up the status in HelpDeskExpress.

Please report bugs to support@dataaccess.nl. Make sure to provide as much detail as possible to Define and reproduce the problem that you are reporting. Upon your report, you will be invited to Use an account on our help-desk support system for reporting future issues.

Best regards,

Data Access Worldwide