using the same header/footer in multiple reports

hthvdmeerhthvdmeer
edited 2:44PM in FastReport 3.0
Hi,
I have a large number of reports and they all have the same page-header and page-footer withall kinds of text-objects and image-objects. If I want to change one item in the header or footer, I must edit all 20 reports.

Is there a function to bypass this (sort of 'include') so all reports use the same header and/or footer ?

Henk

Comments

  • QuietmanQuietman
    edited 2:44PM
    I used to do what you are saying with QuickReports by inheriting the form but I haven't found the a way to do that with Fast Reports.

    If you look at the source code that generates the .FR3 file you'll notice that the .FR3 file is nothing but a XML file. I had to write a simple DB app that looks for a TAG field (TAG=n) and replace those XML lines from my common report template.

    I wrote a simple BDE app and used TStringList and took me about 3 or 4 hours to write. Now I can change my formats across dozens of reports in a few seconds after making the required changes to my Template.FR3.

    Wayne
  • khhkhh
    edited 2:44PM
    Very important feature especially for ServerEdition.

    I have more than 70 report all with same header and footer.
    I had to copy and past header and footer for every single one.

    The real nightmare is when you decide to change something later in header or footer.

    I hope we see some solution soon.

    Thanks.
  • QuietmanQuietman
    edited 2:44PM
    That's why I wrote a custom app that changes the XML. It would be nice to be able to create an inherited object but that's not possible. Since I rarely use TAG in TObject I descided to take advantage of this in the XML. Everything with the same TAG is considered common so I update those XML fields.

    More difficult because I need to make sure I use the common template but for my low end development where users only select the fields and I generate the datasets myself thus the .FR3 file and the associated controls can be inherited from the common template.

    Wayne
  • hthvdmeerhthvdmeer
    edited 2:44PM
    I have been looking at the files and... yep.. it's XML. So I can make a template with only a header and footer and replace them in all files I can select in my appl.
    Does not look too complicated.

    An Include-function would help users with no XML-knowledge and make it more userefriendly.
    Anyway, thanks. I will start programming.
  • QuietmanQuietman
    edited 2:44PM
    Look at frxXMLSerializer. This should give you some hints.

    Only thing you're doing is adding a field/tag to the XML so I don't know how much easier (user friendly) you can make it. Maybe if I get bored this weekend I'll convert what I've written into a class and then post the source.

    Glad I was able to be of assistance.

    Wayne

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