Re: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Fabian Anderson

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Mar 1, 2007, 10:28:04 PM3/1/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Hi Andrew,

Adobe (formerly Jetforms) CentralPro and OutputDesigner works well with OpenROAD. It merges a data stream with a form template and can then print, fax or archive (as PDF) the result. You can write a similar utility that uses MSWord to process and merge RTF or DOC template files.

Regards,

Fabian Anderson

Systems Analyst / Programmer

Fintechnix Pty Ltd

From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of Andrew
Sent: Friday, 2 March 2007 13:12
To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Hi All,

I know this issue has been bought up before but I need to
know if anyone has made any wonderful discoveries lately
in the world of reporting.

We have looked at OR's Reporter, Crystal Reports and the
old Ingres RWs but need something else.

We are printing reports that currently use PCL codes and
would like to move to postscript/html/pdf/word docs or anything
else that will allow us to put data into tables (varying columns,
rows, widths and heights) with all nice extras - bold, underline,
fonts selection, tick boxes, shading, etc.

The best end result would be to have something the users
can adjust as required.

As usual, cost is a great factor in our choice.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Regards,
Andrew.

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Antill, Jim

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Mar 2, 2007, 9:34:43 AM3/2/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Andrew,

Another approach you could take is to use XML/XSLT processing within your OpenROAD application, by using something like MSXML.

For example, you'd first construct an XML document containing all the data you need for the report. You would then transform this using an XSLT stylesheet so that an HTML document is produced. Or you could take the same XML document and use a different stylesheet to produce a file suitable for loading into Excel. From what I've seen you could also use XSLT-FO to generate a PDF document from your XML (don't know if there is a Windows engine for XSLT-FO though). So the same XML document can yield a wide variety of outputs by applying different stylesheets.

From looking at the Microsoft site it would appear that MSXML3 contains an XSLT engine. How compatible this is with OpenROAD I don't know. It would be extra work getting the various bits and pieces in place, but I think it would be well worth the effort as the final solution would be very flexible.

Hope that helps.

Regards,

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com]On Behalf Of Andrew
Sent: 02 March 2007 02:12
To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

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Hi All,

I know this issue has been bought up before but I need to
know if anyone has made any wonderful discoveries lately
in the world of reporting.

We have looked at OR's Reporter, Crystal Reports and the
old Ingres RWs but need something else.

We are printing reports that currently use PCL codes and
would like to move to postscript/html/pdf/word docs or anything
else that will allow us to put data into tables (varying columns,
rows, widths and heights) with all nice extras - bold, underline,
fonts selection, tick boxes, shading, etc.

The best end result would be to have something the users
can adjust as required.

As usual, cost is a great factor in our choice.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Regards,
Andrew.

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This message has been delivered to the Internet by the Revenue Internet e-mail service

*************************

Andrew

unread,

Mar 6, 2007, 5:58:41 PM3/6/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Wow, lots of options.

Thanks to all who contributed.

I will go away now and review my options (when I can).

If I find anything spectacular I will report back to the group.

Regards,

Andrew.

Antill, Jim wrote:

Hi,

I did write a set of routines to use MS-Word, Excel etc. a while back using Office 2000 and above. I remember Christian, myself and a few others exchanged information during the ongoing development of this area of code. Let me know if you any further info on this.

I also wrote a userclass that allowed an HTML report to be built up. The class was simple, just building the HTML in a StringObject and writing it out to a file which could then be viewed. The class contains methods to add tables, images etc. When the HTML is then combined with CSS some nice effects can be produced. Again, if you want any info on this let me know.

The HTML route is the one I take for most reports now as the HTML files are small, easily viewed, stored, mailed to other users etc. Previously I used OR Reporter which I found good if a little fiddly at times. If I was revisiting the whole thing now I'd be looking closely into the XSLT stuff.

Are there any new Reporting developments in OR2006?

Regards,

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com]On Behalf Of CAMF Delaunay
Sent: 03 March 2007 21:53
To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

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Hello Andrew,

I wrote a long time ago VB6 ActiveX controls to drive MS-Excel and MS-Word. from OR4:

open a new document/sheet, add text, change format,...

Unfortunately m desktop crashed since that time, with no safe copy of course :(,

but I shared them with Kim Ginnerup ( Hello Kim )

and someone else but I don't remember who ( Jim Antill but not sure )

maybe they can share them with you

Regards

Christian

----- Original Message -----

From: Andrew

To: International OpenROAD Users

Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 3:12 AM

Subject: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Hi All,

I know this issue has been bought up before but I need to
know if anyone has made any wonderful discoveries lately
in the world of reporting.

We have looked at OR's Reporter, Crystal Reports and the
old Ingres RWs but need something else.

We are printing reports that currently use PCL codes and
would like to move to postscript/html/pdf/word docs or anything
else that will allow us to put data into tables (varying columns,
rows, widths and heights) with all nice extras - bold, underline,
fonts selection, tick boxes, shading, etc.

The best end result would be to have something the users
can adjust as required.

As usual, cost is a great factor in our choice.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Regards,
Andrew.

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Fabian Anderson

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Mar 4, 2007, 7:57:16 PM3/4/07

to Andrew, International OpenROAD Users

Hi Andrew,

I don’t have any sample handy, but the RTF specification has lots of sample code for parsing RTF. RTF also has support for fields, but the simplest option is to define your own “control tags” and embed them in an RTF document. A simple string utility class can parse and merge RTF streams with RTF control words or your own control words.

The RTF v1.6 specification can be found here:-

http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa140277(office.10).aspx

Regards,

Fabian.

From: Andrew [mailto:and...@delta-link.com.au]
Sent: Friday, 2 March 2007 16:54
To: Fabian Anderson
Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Hi Fabian,

I think the Adobe option might be a bit too expensive, but I will look into it
when I can.

Are you able to provide any samples/examples of the Word/RTF option
that you mentioned? We have got the basic mail merge working with word
docs but not sure how you are using the merge to/with rtf files.

Regards,

Andrew.

Fabian Anderson wrote:

Hi Andrew,

Adobe (formerly Jetforms) CentralPro and OutputDesigner works well with OpenROAD. It merges a data stream with a form template and can then print, fax or archive (as PDF) the result. You can write a similar utility that uses MSWord to process and merge RTF or DOC template files.

Regards,

Fabian Anderson

Systems Analyst / Programmer

Fintechnix Pty Ltd

From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of Andrew

Sent: Friday, 2 March 2007 13:12

To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Hi All,

I know this issue has been bought up before but I need to
know if anyone has made any wonderful discoveries lately
in the world of reporting.

We have looked at OR's Reporter, Crystal Reports and the
old Ingres RWs but need something else.

We are printing reports that currently use PCL codes and
would like to move to postscript/html/pdf/word docs or anything
else that will allow us to put data into tables (varying columns,
rows, widths and heights) with all nice extras - bold, underline,
fonts selection, tick boxes, shading, etc.

The best end result would be to have something the users
can adjust as required.

As usual, cost is a great factor in our choice.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Regards,
Andrew.

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Allan Biggs

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Mar 7, 2007, 9:01:07 AM3/7/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Great to see this - http://community.ingres.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=7 - I had suggested something like this a few times - both to this list and to Deb Woods et al. - phpbb which it is powered by usually runs against mysql.

Well done for setting it up - and against an ingres database !!!

Allan

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Chris Wallace

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Mar 4, 2007, 8:23:31 PM3/4/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Andrew,

The world of “open source” business intelligence and reporting tools is growing and certainly worthwhile considering. Some of these tools have been around for a number of years and are relatively mature. Three that are of particular note are:

Jasper Reports
BIRT
Pentaho

Each of these has a report designer (although I believe the Jasper designer is licensed commercially)

Each of these products allows you to generate a range of output formats

Each supports charting.

BIRT is an entry level “open source” version of Actuate, which has been adopted by the Eclipse Foundation.

Pentaho seems to be gathering some groundswell in the US following VC funding in 2005/2006. Pentaho is the amalgamation of JFreeReports & JFreeCharts, plus Mondrian EIS and Kettle Data Transformation tools etc. into a coherent integrated product set. Interestingly. Optwize (a US BI integrator) who recently signed as an Ingres BP is also a Pentaho BP.

Regards

Chris Wallace

Management Information Systems (WA) Pty Ltd
Level 9, MIS House
231 Adelaide Terrace, PERTH WA 6000
Ph: (08) 9221-9221 Fax: (08) 9221-9224
Email: chr...@miswa.com.au
Web: http://www.miswa.com.au

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Antill, Jim

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Mar 5, 2007, 4:42:29 AM3/5/07

to International OpenROAD Users

Hi,

I did write a set of routines to use MS-Word, Excel etc. a while back using Office 2000 and above. I remember Christian, myself and a few others exchanged information during the ongoing development of this area of code. Let me know if you any further info on this.

I also wrote a userclass that allowed an HTML report to be built up. The class was simple, just building the HTML in a StringObject and writing it out to a file which could then be viewed. The class contains methods to add tables, images etc. When the HTML is then combined with CSS some nice effects can be produced. Again, if you want any info on this let me know.

The HTML route is the one I take for most reports now as the HTML files are small, easily viewed, stored, mailed to other users etc. Previously I used OR Reporter which I found good if a little fiddly at times. If I was revisiting the whole thing now I'd be looking closely into the XSLT stuff.

Are there any new Reporting developments in OR2006?

Regards,

Jim

-----Original Message-----
From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com]On Behalf Of CAMF Delaunay
Sent: 03 March 2007 21:53

To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: Re: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

*************************************

This e-mail has been received by the Revenue Internet e-mail service.

*************************************

Hello Andrew,

I wrote a long time ago VB6 ActiveX controls to drive MS-Excel and MS-Word. from OR4:

open a new document/sheet, add text, change format,...

Unfortunately m desktop crashed since that time, with no safe copy of course :(,

but I shared them with Kim Ginnerup ( Hello Kim )

and someone else but I don't remember who ( Jim Antill but not sure )

maybe they can share them with you

Regards

Christian

----- Original Message -----

From: Andrew

To: International OpenROAD Users

Sent: Friday, March 02, 2007 3:12 AM

Subject: [Openroad-users] Reporting options.

Hi All,

I know this issue has been bought up before but I need to
know if anyone has made any wonderful discoveries lately
in the world of reporting.

We have looked at OR's Reporter, Crystal Reports and the
old Ingres RWs but need something else.

We are printing reports that currently use PCL codes and
would like to move to postscript/html/pdf/word docs or anything
else that will allow us to put data into tables (varying columns,
rows, widths and heights) with all nice extras - bold, underline,
fonts selection, tick boxes, shading, etc.

The best end result would be to have something the users
can adjust as required.

As usual, cost is a great factor in our choice.

Any help will greatly be appreciated.

Regards,
Andrew.

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Ce message a ete verifie par NOD32 Antivirus System.
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gareth.2...@bt.com

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Mar 7, 2007, 9:28:27 AM3/7/07

to openroa...@peerlessit.com

Good stuff, about time!

Cheers,
Gareth Edwards

BT Global Services
tel: +44 (0)131 345 4671
email: gareth.2...@bt.com

From: openroad-us...@peerlessit.com [mailto:openroad-us...@peerlessit.com] On Behalf Of Allan Biggs
Sent: Wednesday, March 07, 2007 2:01 PM
To: International OpenROAD Users
Subject: [Openroad-users] Open ROAD Forum on Open Source Community Web Site

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