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| 1 | +*********************************************************** |
| 2 | +*** ZReport 2.0 - Delphi VCL for text reports. *** |
| 3 | +*********************************************************** |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | + Greetings to all those who are interested in ZReport! - |
| 6 | + a library for visual text report design under Delphi. |
| 7 | + |
| 8 | +!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| 9 | +Unfortunately ZReport v2.0 is not compatible with the |
| 10 | +previous versions. Deinstall v1.x before trying v2.0. |
| 11 | + Sorry. |
| 12 | +!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Attention!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! |
| 13 | + |
| 14 | +Contents: |
| 15 | +1. What is it? |
| 16 | +2. Deja vu. |
| 17 | +3. How to deal with it. |
| 18 | +4. Who gains money? |
| 19 | +5. Gratefullness. |
| 20 | + |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +1. What is it? |
| 23 | +======================= |
| 24 | + |
| 25 | +Most of our users hate computers but respect papers, lists |
| 26 | +and other computer generated reports. Have you ever seen a |
| 27 | +boss who beleives in what is drawn on a screen? If you give |
| 28 | +him a paper he`ll stamp and sign it and trust it just as |
| 29 | +in Holey Book. |
| 30 | + |
| 31 | +I mean that we, programmers, have to produce numerous reports. |
| 32 | +Most of them come out on matrix dot printers. But nobody is |
| 33 | +going back to DOS - we enjoy using visual development tools |
| 34 | +which are equipped with visual report generators - and that`s |
| 35 | +great! So you draw you report with nice fonts, pictures and |
| 36 | +frames. But in a couple of weeks your user comes and says: |
| 37 | +my deer, you`ve done a good work but... I`ve got N thousand |
| 38 | +employees and if I print all those beauties of your wage |
| 39 | +report on a laser/ink printer it`ll cost me as much as the |
| 40 | +wage itself, and if I print it out on a matrix printer I`ll |
| 41 | +just finish to the next payment day. |
| 42 | + |
| 43 | +At last here you are. This library joins together visual report |
| 44 | +design in Delphi and report output as text (not graphics!). |
| 45 | +It means you can send your long-long report to an ordinary |
| 46 | +matrix printer installed in Windows and it starts printing |
| 47 | +it in text mode! Be quick enough to supply paper! |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | + |
| 50 | +2. Deja vu (or Readme for ZReport v1.x) |
| 51 | +====================================== |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +Here you are with ZReport - almost |
| 54 | +complete analog of QuickReport, except that |
| 55 | +it is developed to design text reports. |
| 56 | +I needed it because we have to produce a lot of |
| 57 | +reports for matrix printers on the one hand |
| 58 | +and we want to develop our report visually |
| 59 | +and with no exporting QuickReport reports |
| 60 | +to text format. |
| 61 | + |
| 62 | +Beg your pardon: I'm too short of time to |
| 63 | +document my library (VCL development is not my |
| 64 | +direct job), so I hope that you can deal with it |
| 65 | +yourself as soon as the idea of ZReport is much |
| 66 | +close to QuickReport (QuickReport 2.0i was used |
| 67 | +as an example). |
| 68 | + |
| 69 | +3. How to deal with it. |
| 70 | +======================= |
| 71 | + |
| 72 | +Read the history? However since v2.0 it is all wrong. |
| 73 | +The ideology is now not so close to QR. |
| 74 | + |
| 75 | +The ideology is completely mine, though you still can |
| 76 | +find some features of QuickReport`� by QuSoft AS and |
| 77 | +Ace Reporter`� by SCT Associates and others. You`ll |
| 78 | +get my idea if you study the sources (it is unlikely, |
| 79 | +I`m not sure I can understand them myself :). |
| 80 | + |
| 81 | +The main features are as follows: |
| 82 | +- a band - is something containing labels to be |
| 83 | + printered out; |
| 84 | +- a controller - is a band controlling data (ex. a |
| 85 | + DataSet), groups and other bands of various types |
| 86 | + which belong the controller; |
| 87 | +- a report - is a top-level controller; |
| 88 | +- most panel types can have subcontrollers - this is |
| 89 | + the way to organize master-detail of unlimited depth |
| 90 | + (and not only master-detail); |
| 91 | +- every controller does its best to look nice: it tries |
| 92 | + to keep headers and footer together with detail |
| 93 | + when the page intends to break. So some space on |
| 94 | + a sheet is spent. But the report looks rather good! |
| 95 | +- labels can print values of variables of a controller. |
| 96 | + Yes, controller also controls variables - they can |
| 97 | + be of three types: data fields, expressions and |
| 98 | + aggregates (count, sum, min, max, avg operations |
| 99 | + over other variables); |
| 100 | +- printing is directed through the standard Windows |
| 101 | + printer (i.e. print spooler), not through LPTx |
| 102 | + as in previous version. |
| 103 | + |
| 104 | +Installation: |
| 105 | +- install the package (Component/Install Packages/ |
| 106 | + Add..): x:/ZReport/DelphiX/zrpt.dpl; |
| 107 | +- add ZReport to Delphi path (Tools/Environment |
| 108 | + Options/Library/Library Path): x:/ZReport/DelphiX. |
| 109 | + |
| 110 | +To define groups and variables you have to use a |
| 111 | +"report designer" extensively - just double click |
| 112 | +any of the panels or the report. |
| 113 | + |
| 114 | + |
| 115 | +4. Who gains money? |
| 116 | +==================== |
| 117 | +Nobody. It is written as I needed it for internal usage. |
| 118 | +Just use it freely. You are encouraged to change the |
| 119 | +sources - just inform me in case I need you changes either. |
| 120 | +No responsibilities - do you think I`m responsible for |
| 121 | +the software you`ve got from Internet? |
| 122 | +You`re welcome to inform me about the bugs. |
| 123 | +If you got spare money just send them to me (beer is |
| 124 | +never enough) - I mean the library is DonationWare. |
| 125 | + |
| 126 | + |
| 127 | +5. Thanks and gratefullness. |
| 128 | +========================================= |
| 129 | + |
| 130 | +I`ve got a lot of collegues who helped me in development. |
| 131 | +Special thanks to (alphabetical order): |
| 132 | +- Denis Galitsky <galitsky@geocities.com>; |
| 133 | +- Alexey Gorbunov <algo_kov@chat.ru>; |
| 134 | +- Antoni Aloy Lopez <aloy@cvt.es>; |
| 135 | +- Mamede Milanez <mamede@enter-net.com.br>; |
| 136 | +- Davide Moretti <dave@rimini.com>; |
| 137 | +- Max Potapov <bomber@chat.ru>; |
| 138 | +- and others... |
| 139 | + |
| 140 | + |
| 141 | +Best regards, |
| 142 | + Zaitsev Y.A. (ZYZ) |
| 143 | + zyz@inbox.ru |
| 144 | + |
| 145 | +(09232) 9-30-73 |
| 146 | +Kovrov Electro-mechanical plant, Accounting |
| 147 | +Russia, 601900, Kovrov, Krupskaya street, 55. |
| 148 | + |
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