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QuickReports nightmare: Is this a viable hack??

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Dave Watt

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
to
Here’s the situation... I told the company how great Delphi was and
convinced them to invest in using Delphi to develop a relatively simple
database application. I wrote the app in about a week, but now I’m
trying to fulfill the report aspect of the specs. How hard could it be?
I mean, Delphi works so well. Enter QuickReports.

The original problem was that QRImages looked great in preview but
looked terrible after printout. They were dithered to the extreme, like
a newspaper picture under a magnifying glass. So I downloaded the latest
version of QR for Delphi 3.x (QR 2.0k). Okay, bmps loaded into QRImages
now print great - and I can live with the fact that I can’t see the
images at design time due to a misplaced OnPaint even in 2.0k. (Wish I
had the source code so I could fix it myself.) But just when I thought I
might get a good night’s sleep, I discovered that QRDBImages suffer from
the exact same problem that originally plagued me - they print horribly
dithered.

So my questions are:

1. Has anyone else encountered this and found a fix?

2. Is it a viable hack to capture the area of the form that displays the
database image, save it as a temporary bmp and then feed it to
QuickReports in a QRImage (versus using a QRDBImage directly)? That is,
can I capture a select area of a form and save it as a bmp somehow?

Grateful for any input on this....

---
Dave

Brad Miller

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
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The fix is to get rid of quickReports and use a real tool. Try Ace,
ReportPrinter, ReportBuilder, etc....

Dave Watt

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
to
Brad Miller wrote:
>
> The fix is to get rid of quickReports and use a real tool. Try Ace,
> ReportPrinter, ReportBuilder, etc....

I'm getting that impression having read through all the QuickReports
horror stories in the NG. Do you have any links to Ace, ReportPrinter or
ReportBuilder and/or approximate prices? Do these work seamlessly with
Delphi?

And BTW, what's the deal with QuickReports? Is Inprise insane? Why
doesn't Inprise just buy QuickReports from QuSoft and 'professionalize'
it?

---
Dave

Frank Cowan

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
to
On Wed, 02 Sep 1998 12:20:14 -0700, Dave Watt <dw...@unixg.ubc.ca>
wrote:

Very good questions. try www.nevrona.com

Frank Cowan, Delphian
http://signaldata.com
See you at ICon 99 in Phila-Delphi-a !

Steve Tyrakowski

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
to
In article <35ED9A...@unixg.ubc.ca>, Dave Watt wrote:
> Do you have any links to Ace, ReportPrinter or
> ReportBuilder and/or approximate prices?
>
You can get a trial of ACE from our web site. ACE Professional is $245
and includes support for Delphi 1,2,3 and 4, as well as CBuilder 1 and
3, full source code and 280 page printed doc.

We just released a lower cost ACE STandard ($99 with a $79 intro price
thru 9/14/98) that only supports Delphi 3 and 4, but does not include
source code.

Regards,

Steve Tyrakowski
www.sct-associates.com


n4...@ix.netcom.com

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Sep 2, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/2/98
to
On Wed, 02 Sep 1998 09:44:37 -0700, Dave Watt <dw...@unixg.ubc.ca>
wrote:

>Here’s the situation... I told the company how great Delphi was and

Hi Dave

Use the TQRImage if it produces desired results. None of my report
work involves graphics so I have yet to explore that arena. Even so
your solution is viable and not even close to a hack.

In the detailband's BeforePrint handler (assuming this band is where
the bitmaps are to be printed) assign the bitmap in the current record
to the TQRImage object. If the bitmaps vary in size, this is where the
object can be resized.

AFA the QR source is concerned, buy it ;) How many hours of
programming will the $99 source code save? You could use that time to
catch up on your sleep...

regards
A.G.

Wei Tao

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Sep 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/3/98
to
Dave Watt wrote:
> I'm getting that impression having read through all the QuickReports
> horror stories in the NG. Do you have any links to Ace, ReportPrinter or
> ReportBuilder and/or approximate prices? Do these work seamlessly with
> Delphi?
ACE Reporter
http://www.sct-associates.com/

CrystalReport - SupraSoft Ltd
http://www.suprasoft.com/
(demo requires a dll which can't be downloaded)

ReportBuilder - Digital Metaphors Home Page
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/

ReportPrinter - Nevrona Designs Home Page
http://www.nevrona.com/

ShazamReport - ShazamWare Customer Service Forum
http://www.shazamware.com/


--
Wei Tao
Inst. of Digital Media
Founder R&D Center


Nard Moseley

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Sep 3, 1998, 3:00:00 AM9/3/98
to dw...@unxig.ubc.ca
Dave,

I discovered that QRDBImages suffer from
> the exact same problem that originally plagued me - they print horribly
> dithered.
>
> So my questions are:
>
> 1. Has anyone else encountered this and found a fix?
>
> 2. Is it a viable hack to capture the area of the form that displays the
> database image, save it as a temporary bmp and then feed it to
> QuickReports in a QRImage (versus using a QRDBImage directly)? That is,
> can I capture a select area of a form and save it as a bmp somehow?

Check out ReportBuilder - it will print the high-quality images without
resolution loss.


-----------------------------------------------------------------------
R E P O R T B U I L D E R W E B L I N K S
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

The press release is available at

http://digital-metaphors.com/news01.html


You can download a trial version from:

http://digital-metaphors.com/prodprodemo1.html


Ordering info is available at

https://secure.unicomp.net/digital-metaphors/


With the trial version you can create reports just as you would with the
registered version, the only limitations are max of 5 pages of output
for any report and if you print to the printer, our company info will
print on the page also.

For a quick look at what ReportBuilder is capable of run the demos:

1. RBuilder Pro\Demos\Reports\Demo.dpr - contains over 70 sample reports
that show the various cabalities of the product. Serves as a great
learning tool also.

2. RBuilder Pro\Demos\EndUser\EndUser.dpr - contains a complete,
professional end-user reporting solution built using our End-User
Reporting Framework.


--

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
R E P O R T B U I L D E R F E A T U R E S
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

ReportBuilder Features
---------------
Report Designer Full-featured, Office97 compliant

OnePass/TwoPass Report Engine Instant page generation,
incremental caching

Text, Line & Shape Components Work just like Delphi counterparts

Image Components Bitmaps and WMFs supported

Rich Text Components Stretches across pages, great for
mail-merge

Memo Components Stretches across pages

BarCode Components Code 128, UPC-A, Code39,
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Good luck!

Cheers,

--
Nard Moseley mailto:na...@digital-metaphors.com
Digital Metaphors http://www.digital-metaphors.com

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