I'm looking for some feedback on a new Report Creator/Preview/Printing Control that I've been creating this summer.
Here a a few of the Features you may like as VFPers:
- Zoom from 10% to 1,000,000% (1,000,000% isn't very useable but it's fun to do)
- Each page can be of any size and/or orientation provided your printer supports the paper size specified when printing
- It can hold 1000's of pages which is only limited by the amount of available memory/disk space.
- It can print Page X of Y without making multiple passes
- Save to PDF without a PDF Printer Driver (very fast by the way)
- Rotate Text at any angle
- Place a Watermark on a page by simply setting a property and each page has it's own Watermark Property
- Set Properties for JPEGQuality and BITMAPQuality separately for PDF output
- Print your report without having the Report Preview Close
(This way you can go to the first page and print it, then go to the last page and print it)
- Print All Pages, Current Page or Range of Pages
- Print Both Even and Odd, Odd Only or Even Only pages
- Print in Reverse Order
- Set a Property to automatically Overaly a Calendar on top of Photos load on pages for making Photo Calendars
The control itself is independent of Visual FoxPro since it is an ActiveX control written in Delphi. However, it has been designed with my fellow VFPers in mind. I have been thinking of ways to fix a lot of the shortcomings in our Report Writer since there has been very little change to it since 1995. Cathy Pountney has written an excellent book on how to work around almost every problem encountered with using the current Report Writer. But some of them are really a PITA. <g> I know there are still things that we all would like to see improved or changed and so that is what I have been slaving on for the last several months. I have been creating reports for clients since 1986 and I don't like doing them anyway. But it is a necessary evil of database development. Customers always want to print out their data for some reason or other.
I am currently finishing up a separate VFP Report Engine Class to actually pump almost any standard VFP FRX report into the control for both Previewing and Printing. So take a look at some of the features that I have put into the control and if you get a chance to look at it please let me know what you think. I'm always looking for suggestions and ways to improve it.
To get a preview of the control you can see more info and see a demo at:
http://www.mindseyeinc.com/VFPTools/ReportPreviewThanks for taking the time to take a look to see what's possible.
