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Author Topic: Choosing report tools  (Read 15897 times)

djdjdjole

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Choosing report tools
« on: June 27, 2016, 02:42:06 pm »
Presently I am at the point to decide what report tool should I use in my Lazarus (1.6 - Windows10) applications.
Download page for LazReport component on Sourceforge states that last update was at year 2013. Fortes report at least suffers lack of documentation.
I found documentation for Freereport (v2.32) for Lazarus, but not downloads (for Lazarus).
I've used Fast report in Delphi, but here it is in beta. I appreciate any help.

Thanks

zeljko

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #1 on: June 27, 2016, 03:09:51 pm »
LazReport is part of lazarus, so that's why last update says 2013 yr. It's actively maintained inside lazarus components tree.

Graeme

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #2 on: June 27, 2016, 04:05:49 pm »
If you can wait a month, then Free Pascal's own fpReport should be released. It is unit tested every step of the way so should be stable out of the box. It is also actively being testing by my client that commissioned the work. Feature wise and developer friendliness, it knocks the socks of LazReport, FastReport and ForteReport, plus it doesn't depend on any GUI toolkit, so can even be used in a true headless server environment.
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JanRoza

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #3 on: June 27, 2016, 04:47:01 pm »
That's great news Graeme! Although I'm satisfied with using FortesReport a stable and better report "from our stable" is always welcome.  ;D
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Hansaplast

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #4 on: June 27, 2016, 04:47:44 pm »
@Graeme;


Where can one find more info on fpReport? Sounds promising!

JD

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #5 on: June 27, 2016, 04:58:39 pm »
If you can wait a month, then Free Pascal's own fpReport should be released. It is unit tested every step of the way so should be stable out of the box. It is also actively being testing by my client that commissioned the work. Feature wise and developer friendliness, it knocks the socks of LazReport, FastReport and ForteReport, plus it doesn't depend on any GUI toolkit, so can even be used in a true headless server environment.

Wonderful news. Where can I learn more about fpReport?

JD
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ahiggins

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #6 on: June 27, 2016, 06:09:49 pm »
Quote
If you can wait a month, then Free Pascal's own fpReport should be released. It is unit tested every step of the way so should be stable out of the box. It is also actively being testing by my client that commissioned the work. Feature wise and developer friendliness, it knocks the socks of LazReport, FastReport and ForteReport, plus it doesn't depend on any GUI toolkit, so can even be used in a true headless server environment.

No GUI dependencies, this will be extremely useful. I look forward to seeing the end product.   

Graeme

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #7 on: June 29, 2016, 02:13:13 pm »
Although I'm satisfied with using FortesReport...

Then you have never created reports running on a true headless environment.  ;) eg: Console or Web Server. ForteReport, just like pretty much every other Delphi or Lazarus report solution pulls in LCL or VCL as a dependency. Making it useless for headless environments, and can't be used by other toolkits like fpGUI or MSEgui.
« Last Edit: June 29, 2016, 02:19:30 pm by Graeme »
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Graeme

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #8 on: June 29, 2016, 02:16:49 pm »
Where can one find more info on fpReport? Sounds promising!
Nothing has been released publicly yet, hence no detailed information. All will be announced in a couple of weeks when it is added to the FPC repository (target is mid to end July).

Note:
   Even though it will be added to FPC Trunk, it works 100% with FPC 2.6.4 and FPC 3.0 too.
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JanRoza

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #9 on: June 29, 2016, 02:33:23 pm »
Graeme, you assume correct, until now I only used FortesReport for desktop applications.
I will definitely try out fpReport the moment it arrives.
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Hansaplast

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #10 on: June 30, 2016, 11:43:29 am »
Thanks Graeme!
I'll be looking forward to the announcement.
Would you mind posting the announcement here as well?

Graeme

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #11 on: July 01, 2016, 12:30:24 pm »
Would you mind posting the announcement here as well?
I definitely will. :)
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Blestan

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #12 on: July 01, 2016, 01:20:54 pm »
hi!
good news!
witch "canvas"/ export format  does the new report uses?
btw.. im working now on an json like data format  witch may be usefull to supply data to the report tool to avoid db dependency

regrads,
blestan
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Graeme

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #13 on: July 01, 2016, 01:36:27 pm »
witch "canvas"/ export format  does the new report uses?
I have implemented PDF and PNG (via AggPas) exporting options for fpReport. They are considered the reference implementations. Other developers will be welcome to contribute alternative exporting options - the more the better. The AggPas based export class can be used to export to other images formats too, but PNG is preferred.

The reason I chose AggPas (instead of say FPCanvas) is because AggPas has far superior anti-aliased and sub-pixel graphics rendering. (see here) Saying that, a FPCanvas/FPImage version will probably be implemented too.

Quote
btw.. im working now on an json like data format  witch may be usefull to supply data to the report tool to avoid db dependency
fpReport currently persists (read & write) report designs to a JSON file. For actual reporting data, fpReport can report from any data. I've created sample reports reporting from a TStringList, TObjectList and a DB Dataset. Using JSON as a data source is a good solution too - I use it in other projects to feed Charting widgets with data, and it works very well. JSON is so much better than XML.
« Last Edit: July 01, 2016, 01:39:59 pm by Graeme »
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Blestan

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Re: Choosing report tools
« Reply #14 on: July 01, 2016, 07:08:08 pm »
1/wow cool .. does your pdf implementations includes correct non latin fonts handling (font subsampling), as all previous implementations ... including mine own lackes correct  font manipulation.
2/ json is  fine .. that means that i will easily plug in mine XON format that is a superset of json / xml / bson
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