ReportEase is the most cost effective way of incorporating report writing feature into your application.
ReportEase consists of two components. The first component is the report designer. This component allows your users to design report layouts. The second component is the report executor. The report executor is used to print a report using a specified template.
Both the report designer and the report executor are available Royalty free for distribution.
ReportEase provides a comprehensive set of features. The basic features of the product allow even a novice user to become productive quickly. Your users will find this product very intuitive and user friendly. The advanced features of ReportEase can be used to generate very imaginative reports and documents.
Multiple File/Multiple Section: ReportEase does not impose any limitation on the number of data files that can be used to supply data. A report or document can have up to 9 sort break sections. Your application supplies a list of data fields that can be used as the sort fields. In addition to the sort sections, you can also define the page header/footer, and report header/footer sections. The section footers can display subtotals, average, minimum, maximum and count fields. Each section can have multiple lines containing text and fields in any format.
The report designer also allows you to specify a selection criteria for the records to be printed. This feature allows your user to print only the desired subset of the data.
A number of advanced features are also available. For example, you can specify a calculation field for a section break. A report section can be conditionally suppressed using a section selection criteria. A section can be instructed to print on every page break. You can suppress blank lines within a section. A section split can be prevented during the page break. You can specify page break criteria for every section. Moreover, multiple records can be printed across the page.
Fields: The report designer supports text, numeric, float, logical and date type fields. A long text string field can be word wrapped for printing. The ReportEase fields can come from one of the following sources:
- Data Field: TA field that is associated with a data record. The data field types include integer, float, text, word-wrapped text, date, logical, and dynamic picture fields.
- Formula Field: A formula can be written using constants, operators, functions and other fields.
The product also supports nested calculation fields.
- Print View Mode to facilitate WYSIWYG editing.
- System Field: Page-number, page-count, current date, record number, etc.
- Dialog Field: These fields can be inserted to prompt the user for record selection parameters during report execution. It can also be printed in the report header for information. An example of this type of fields would be the beginning and ending dates for a report.
Character Formatting Options: The report designer allows multiple fonts and point sizes within a report.
The product supports conditional fonts. This feature allows you to change the font and color for the report items depending upon its value.
Embedded Pictures: The product also allows you to import a picture bitmap from a disk file or from the clipboard. The picture can be embedded anywhere in the report.
The dynamic pictures are also supported. For example in a employee report, you can print the picture of each employee.
Printing: The product also allows you to import a picture bitmap from a disk file or from the clipboard. The picture can be embedded anywhere in the report.
ASP.NET Interface:
ReportEase includes an ASP .NET Web Control which can be used to embed the report designer and report executor within your ASP.NET page. When the client loads your application page containing ReportEase control, the ReportEase ActiveX control automatically gets downloaded. Your application would pass the data definition and data record files to let the user create report templates or to execute a report template.
Interface with Your Application:
Your application can interface with ReportEase using two methods:
- Simple Method: This method involves passing the data definition and data record files to ReportEase Control. These are simple comma-delimited text files. Your application would generate these files and pass them to ReportEase control using a bunch of properties. ReportEase then takes care of letting the user select fields to drop into a report template, and sorting of data and execution of report templates.
- Low-level Interface Method:
- Report Designer: Your application calls the report designer with the name of the template to be edited. Since ReportEase is not aware of your data structure, your application provides a callback function (or an event handler) that allows the user to select the data fields. When the user wishes to insert a data field into the report, the report designer fires an event to let your user select one of you data fields.
- Report Executer: Your application initializes the report executor by calling the initialization function passing the name of the report template to run. Then your application calls the print function to pass each logical record set from your database. Since ReportEase is not aware of your data source, your data can come from any source including from memory variables.
- The Report Executer performs record selection, sort breaks, calculations and printing functions. At the end, your application calls the exit routine to print the footers and release the resources.
Version 8.0 of ReportEase includes these
additional features:
- ASP .NET Interface: Allows your users to edit report template or to execute a report template using data from your server.
- Simple Interface Mode: This method allows you to pass the data to ReportEase control using simple comma-delimited files.
- Many additional features available via toolbar.
- Bug fixes, etc.
Version 7.0 of ReportEase includes these additional features:
- Date Field Enhacement: The date field is now enhanced to support the date/time format. You can pass the data to the date/time field either using the previous date format, or using the new date/time format. All date operators and functions are still valid for the new date/time field.
- Spell-checker Support: ReportEase now automatically interfaces with our SpellTime product to provide spell-checking for the 'label' type items.
- Popup Menu: The popup menu now displays when you right-click on any report item when editing the report in the report designer. The popup menu include all relevant editing options for the current item.
- Keyboard Support for report-editing: You can now use the keyboard arrow keys to move or size the report items. These keyboard operations work for single item, or for multple selected items.
- PDF export: ReportEase now automatically interfaces with our WinPDF product to provide PDF output. The user can simply select the PDF format to save the report when viewing the report on the screen.
- Jpeg Support: The jpeg picture can now be embedded in the report.
- The report-editor now supports unlimited expression size.
- Mouse wheel support.
- Detail Section Enhancement: A new cap-section attribute allows you to print a detail section at the end of the page. This technique is useful for printing text or to draw lines at the end of the page.
- Sorting in Descending Order: ReportEase now allows you to enable sorting the records in the descending order.
- Bug fixes, etc.
Version 6.0 of ReportEase includes these additional features:
- Hyperlink Support: You can now flag a label or a field as a hyperlink text. This text is then treated as hyperlink text during report preview on the screen. The user can click on the hyperlink text to invoke the browser to jump to the link. This feature also works for links to the MS Excel, MS Word, or other registered programs.
- Comma or Tab Delimited Output: This feature allows your user to export data in the comma or tab delimited format to import into a spreadsheet or other applications.
- Multiple Item Selection: The product now supports an alternative method of selecting items during form design. You can use the control key to select (or deselect) multiple items for editing operations.
- Printer Selection: The report designer now allows a user to flag a report to be run on the default printer. This ensures that a report can be run properly on the installed printer.
- Dialog Field Enhancement: You can now provide default data for the dialog fields.
- Report Sections: The product now supports up to 9 report headers.
- The report executor now allows you to select a printer to print the report from the screen.
- The new keep-together feature can be used to print the entire section on one page.
- Additional features include new date formats, new user functions, and new API functions.
- Bug fixes, etc.
Version 5.0 of ReportEase includes these additional features:
- Copy selected report pages to clipboard.
- Ability to attach RTF files before or after the report as appendices.
- Page count system field. This feature allows you to print page information in the form 'Page xx of yy'.
- The report executor shows the report pages centered within page border in MSWord style display.
- The form designer can optionally display field names instead of field formatting information such as 'xxx' or '999'. The form designer can also display field bounds to greatly simplify field alignment task.
- ReportEase now supports 9 levels of report footer sections.
- The form designer now supports vertical spanning lines to draw column lines to separate item information in an invoice form.
- You can now print sort header and detail records side-by-side.
- The report executor now allows you to display a printer selection dialog box before running the report.
- The calculation expressions now support the 'Plus' and 'Minus' operators for the date fields. This simplifies date calculations greatly.
- Addional functions to convert between text and numeric fields.
Version 4.0 of ReportEase includes these additional features:
- Saving the reports in the text format.
- Default item and field styles. This features allows your users to quickly copy the display attributes of one item to a set of selected items.
- Undo of editing operations.
- The new version supports a non-standalone mode which allows you to embed the ReportEase control within a parent form.
- Location and size information display for the selected item.
- Bug fixes, etc.
Royalty Free : Your application using ReportEase can be distributed Royalty free provided the application is not a stand- alone report writer or a mail merge product. Both the designer and the report executor components are Royalty free!
The product includes a DLL, ActiveX, and Delphi interface.
