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Report Generator

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11 Oct 2006Public Domain3 min read 1.7M   69.7K   504   521
A plug-in report generator

Sample Image - ReportCreator.gif

Introduction

Printing is a normal part of most applications, but far too convoluted for many developers. The amount of work necessary to add printing of lists and reports to an application often seems daunting, and there are many pitfalls. Here, I come to the aid, with a package containing a plug-in report generator working with template files, a SDI-demo, a plug-and-play report editor for the template files, as well as a demo of the latter. And documentation! The code is intended either for use as-is in your own applications, or as a CReportEditor as well.

ReportCreator also contains a ruler that can be ripped out and used with other CDiagramEditor-derived works. This is an exercise left to the reader, however.

The documentation contains docs on the package structure.

Using ReportCreator

ReportCreator is an editor for the report generator template files. It's first and foremost a vector editor, letting you draw fields on screen with all the features of CDiagramEditor, such as panning, zoom, multiple selects, and much, much more.

It allows you to work in pixels, centimeters or inches as is befitting for a printer-oriented application. The documentation contains detailed information.

Licenses

If you want to add the package(s) or parts of them into your own code - commercial or not, you are completely free to do so. The code comes with the TISATAAFL-license, There Is Such A Thing As A Free Lunch, and you are free to modify, rewrite, resell or do whatever you feel like with the code. You are explicitly allowed to remove my comments in the source and headers, replacing them with your own. You don't have to acknowledge me, neither in code, nor in documentation or the finished application if you should use the code in a commercial application.

History

6/5/2005

  • Initial version

28/5/2005

First of all, a few bug corrections:

  • Fixed resource leak in CCornerBox::OnPaint in the report creator (alex_br).
  • Fixed silly line-thickness bug in draw object line thickness/brush creation (lordly).

As well as a few others that was removed as a spin-off from other modifications.

There are also quite a few changes:

  • Multi-template reports. A report can be composed from several templates, for example, a title page, several sections and a summary (Carsten Bøgh Poulsen).
  • Dynamic object access. Objects can be accessed at runtime, so attributes can be inspected and modified. Objects can also be added at runtime (Håkan Nilsson).
  • More special markers for fields and cells. [%bold%] and [%italic%] will make the field/cell bold or italic respectively. [%separator%], [%bold-separator%], [%double-separator%] will draw a thin line, a thick line or a double line across a row in a grid instead of data (Carsten Bøgh Poulsen).
  • Images can not only be set from files, but also from HBITMAPs and handles to DIBs (Alex Evans).
  • Templates can not only be added from file, but also with data from a CStringArray, a LPCTSTR, a CFile or even from the application resources (DaberElay, Carsten Bøgh Poulsen).

1/10/2006

This project has been neglected for some time, but now it's time for an update! This time, we have:

  • Returning TRUE from Add when adding data as per documentation
  • Added support for font charset. (Vladimir Svrkota, J Bartkowiak).
  • Added locale-handling (J Bartkowiak).
  • Added [%pagebreak%]-command for grids. This works as the other commands, when putting this text in a cell, the grid will break and continue on the next page. (Charlie Curry, Carsten B Poulsen)
  • Added a function call ReplaceCell to set cell data in a grid. This call replaces the data in a specific cell with new data. (Carsten B Poulsen)

And a big thanks for all the help, feedback and support for this project!

License

This article, along with any associated source code and files, is licensed under A Public Domain dedication


Written By
Software Developer (Senior) Abstrakt Mekanik AB
Sweden Sweden
45 years old, married, three kids.

Started with computers more than 20 years ago on a CBM-64.

Read Theoretical Philosophy at the University of Lund.

Working as a C++ consultant developer.

Science-fiction freak. Enjoy vintage punkrock.

Comments and Discussions

 
GeneralRe: Report preview in dialog control Pin
Johan Rosengren16-Mar-06 5:47
Johan Rosengren16-Mar-06 5:47 
GeneralPrint Templates,you can customize how the WebBrowser Control and Internet Explorer print and preview documents Pin
wsy115616-Mar-06 21:24
wsy115616-Mar-06 21:24 
GeneralCreating a form Pin
AlexEvans21-Feb-06 15:49
AlexEvans21-Feb-06 15:49 
GeneralMore than one viewer Pin
Paul Sujkov20-Feb-06 21:14
Paul Sujkov20-Feb-06 21:14 
GeneralRe: More than one viewer Pin
Johan Rosengren21-Feb-06 6:07
Johan Rosengren21-Feb-06 6:07 
GeneralSofisticated Rulers Pin
Paul Sujkov17-Feb-06 3:45
Paul Sujkov17-Feb-06 3:45 
GeneralRe: Sofisticated Rulers Pin
Johan Rosengren17-Feb-06 6:52
Johan Rosengren17-Feb-06 6:52 
GeneralRe: Sofisticated Rulers Pin
Paul Sujkov19-Feb-06 1:47
Paul Sujkov19-Feb-06 1:47 
Thank you for the answer ! Smile | :)

But it is still some points which I don't understand Hmmm | :|
How to place ruler on a desired position ?
When I try to create vertical ruler with a height of 100, and another one below it, I got only one ruler with a height of the window, and some flickering on OnPaint event Hmmm | :| I tried to encapsulate position of the ruler in it's class, creating fields x_, y_, width_, height_, and methods to set them before placement, and I've changed some code in OnPaint event, calling for those fields, but it still has some wierd look and even more wierd feel Smile | :) Can you give me some example of how it should be done ?

Best regards,

P. Sujkov, XTEX Software
GeneralRe: Sofisticated Rulers Pin
Johan Rosengren19-Feb-06 6:25
Johan Rosengren19-Feb-06 6:25 
GeneralRe: Sofisticated Rulers Pin
Paul Sujkov19-Feb-06 21:33
Paul Sujkov19-Feb-06 21:33 
GeneralReport Creator Pin
Henk Lankamp8-Feb-06 11:22
Henk Lankamp8-Feb-06 11:22 
GeneralRe: Report Creator Pin
Johan Rosengren9-Feb-06 6:08
Johan Rosengren9-Feb-06 6:08 
GeneralRe: Great job! Pin
Johan Rosengren31-Jan-06 6:49
Johan Rosengren31-Jan-06 6:49 
GeneralPrinting issues[modified] Pin
ddmcr22-Jan-06 10:58
ddmcr22-Jan-06 10:58 
GeneralRe: Printing issues[modified] Pin
Johan Rosengren23-Jan-06 6:12
Johan Rosengren23-Jan-06 6:12 
GeneralRe: Printing issues[modified] Pin
ddmcr23-Jan-06 8:12
ddmcr23-Jan-06 8:12 
GeneralRe: Printing issues[modified] Pin
Johan Rosengren24-Jan-06 4:55
Johan Rosengren24-Jan-06 4:55 
GeneralRe: Printing issues[modified] Pin
ddmcr31-Jan-06 2:01
ddmcr31-Jan-06 2:01 
GeneralRe: Printing issues[modified] Pin
Johan Rosengren31-Jan-06 6:49
Johan Rosengren31-Jan-06 6:49 
Generaladding pictures in runtime Pin
tomsonovic9-Jan-06 0:15
tomsonovic9-Jan-06 0:15 
GeneralRe: adding pictures in runtime Pin
Johan Rosengren9-Jan-06 6:02
Johan Rosengren9-Jan-06 6:02 
GeneralBitmap not showing Pin
CarlH23-Dec-05 10:07
CarlH23-Dec-05 10:07 
GeneralRe: Bitmap not showing Pin
Johan Rosengren28-Dec-05 22:39
Johan Rosengren28-Dec-05 22:39 
GeneralRe: Bitmap not showing Pin
clauva19-Feb-06 10:07
clauva19-Feb-06 10:07 
GeneralRe: Bitmap not showing Pin
Johan Rosengren20-Feb-06 6:03
Johan Rosengren20-Feb-06 6:03 

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