ReportSculptor Code & Report Gallery
Here I am going to present you with some interesting scenarios and samples of reporting with ReportSculptor. I will present mostly examples which are normally impossible and/or very hard to do with standard FRX&ReportDesigner, in order to illustrate how you can complement your standard FRX reporting with ReportSculptor.  Â
Also,  I hereby want to invite YOU, to post your own ReportSculptor and (why not) any other cool report samples that you feel like sharing with other people. So be my guest and send me snapshots of your hyper complex reports  (TIF or PDF) via email, and I will gladly append them to this list.Â
So here is the 'starting lineup' [01] [02] [03] [04] [05] [06]
01 Smart Text Example In this example report is driven directly from plain text file kept on hard disc. SmartText Control (VFP EditBox) can easily 'inhale' text from plain tex file laying on our hardisc ( FileToStr() ) while RS has ability to render this text on report surface. While rendering text line by line we can also call all RS Engine methods. Text can also use form objects (from some object repository) , call FRXes etc, so when you put all this together you get VFP9 report that look like this; View Example (See RS demo form #09)
02Â FRX and BoilerPlate text Very common requirement in our lives. In this case I used VFP9 sample report employees and appended to it contract for each employee listed in front page (frx) . Note table fields being merged into text. View Example (File although shortened, is around 1mb so it might take some time to load)Â
03 Chain and Export multiple FRXes Again Very common requirement in our lives. This IS doable but it might be painfull if you want for instance to export it to PDF or TIF... With RS this is doable visually on a form by dragging&dropping controls from RS class library and filling up FRX filenames and report scope clauses into properties. Unlike with FRXes alone, you can insert any other report content between FRX-es easily. View Example (See RS demo form #12)
04 Create from scratch and/or Fill up Preprinted Forms.   In this example I used Government Tax Form published in PDF. First page was created from scratch using native form controls while for the rest 3 page(tab)s I made 1:1 snapshots in PNG and layed them out on pageframe tabs. On top of those bitmaps I simply overlayed fillable stuff.  That 'stuff' as you will see can be allmost all native FRP controls including grids for sections which require multiple data lines to fit in a form preprinted grids. Since I was writing stuff over those bitmaps and managed to nicely fill up content into little rectangles, this also means that we could do it as well on preprinted forms. View Example (See RS demo form #14)
05  Form Controls & OOP Data Reports. Real Power under your fingertips    This is as a matter of fact very ordinary grouped report which can be done with FRX in a matter of few minutes but; Here it is done using form controls and your code only, while retaining full power & control.  Sample is put up here simply to show you how easy YOU can do what ever FRX does. And hopefully much more on top of it. OOP Report Control Does Grouped Report But You can do it as well very easy (See RS demo form #07)
06 Grouping on multiple inner detail bands     If previous sample looked to you a bit way to 'tastrady', here is another one which actually shows you what that power can do for you. Here is sample of report which does what FRX is not designed to do, and unlike previous one is real life example. (Original report layout and data courtesy of Matt Slay) This is report which needs multiple detail bands but have 'nasty' requirement to make grouping on those inner detail bands. Since previous example showed that we can do easily 'freehand' data reporting with groups and all that, here is example which illustrates how this power can be put in action;  View Example (See RS demo form #15) Â
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