using the same header/footer in multiple reports

Comments

• Quietman

  June 2006 edited 12:10AM

  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
• khh

  June 2006 edited 12:10AM

  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.
  
• Quietman

  June 2006 edited 12:10AM

  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
• hthvdmeer

  June 2006 edited 12:10AM

  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.
• Quietman

  June 2006 edited 12:10AM

  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