Hello,

I browse through various news threads and advertising material for Alaska Xbase 2.0.
I don't see any information about the tools and possibilities to generate various printouts.
What are the options for building reports and their export, e.g. to PDF, XLSX, DOCX, XML, etc.
Can anyone comment on this?
Does Alaska have a built-in graphical report generator?
If not - what generators do you use?
Thank you in advance and best regards

Peter

> I browse through various news threads and advertising material for Alaska Xbase 2.0.
> I don't see any information about the tools and possibilities to generate various printouts.
> Does Alaska have a built-in graphical report generator?

There are no build-in tools in Xbase++ for generating reports.

> What are the options for building reports and their export, e.g. to PDF, XLSX, DOCX, XML, etc.
> Does Alaska have a built-in graphical report generator?
> If not - what generators do you use?

Personally I am using List&Label (from Combit).
It comes with a graphical report designer and has various export
facilities.
For basic reports it's a relatively easy tool to use.
You have to dive into it for more complex report layouts.

It serves me well.

Peter

Second to L&L . It is about only client side report generator still 
actively developed for Xbase.

If you do Express++ you can print reports too, but it is all code, 
output is decent.


If you switch to open source side though, then options are limitless, 
but you will need some rethinking on how you do reporting and printing + 
some syncing of DBF data to SQL as this is what most of those tools require.

Peter Alderliesten je 14.1.2021 ob 16:13 napisal:
> 
>> I browse through various news threads and advertising material for Alaska Xbase 2.0.
>> I don't see any information about the tools and possibilities to generate various printouts.
>> Does Alaska have a built-in graphical report generator?
> 
> There are no build-in tools in Xbase++ for generating reports.
> 
>> What are the options for building reports and their export, e.g. to PDF, XLSX, DOCX, XML, etc.
>> Does Alaska have a built-in graphical report generator?
>> If not - what generators do you use?
> 
> Personally I am using List&Label (from Combit).
> It comes with a graphical report designer and has various export
> facilities.
> For basic reports it's a relatively easy tool to use.
> You have to dive into it for more complex report layouts.
> 
> It serves me well.
> 
> Peter
>

hi,

as Xbase++ is a Commercial Produkt most Answer only "know" other Commercial 
Produkt.
but you can use every Product that understand xBase

for a "native" (= Source Code) Product you have to search under Open-Source

Jim Lee wrote in message news:40d4b9c5$1b22bb7f$9730@news.alaska-software.com...
>hi,
>
>as Xbase++ is a Commercial Produkt most Answer only "know" other Commercial 
>Produkt.
>but you can use every Product that understand xBase
>
>for a "native" (= Source Code) Product you have to search under Open-Source

I am currently using Alaska 1.92 together with SqlExpress and a Fastreport generator.
The problem is that Fastreport for Alaska is no longer supported.
I would like to change my environment to Alaska 2.0 but this purchase does not guarantee me any built-in report generator.
That's why I ask if Alaska 2.0 has any report generator, because the manufacturer does not boast about this topic, so I suspect that there is nothing like this.
I will ask otherwise, if Alaska 2.0 does not have such a tool, what other libraries do you use?

Peter

You can use Fastrep with xbase 2.x except, that for memo fields you will 
have to change code so that text is stored either in text-files or a 
simple xbase callback function that returns string of that field. It is 
due to api changes.

Can confirm it works.

afaik author of fastreport passed away decade ago



piko koko je 16.1.2021 ob 15:18 napisal:
> Jim Lee wrote in message news:40d4b9c5$1b22bb7f$9730@news.alaska-software.com...
>> hi,
>>
>> as Xbase++ is a Commercial Produkt most Answer only "know" other Commercial
>> Produkt.
>> but you can use every Product that understand xBase
>>
>> for a "native" (= Source Code) Product you have to search under Open-Source
> 
> I am currently using Alaska 1.92 together with SqlExpress and a Fastreport generator.
> The problem is that Fastreport for Alaska is no longer supported.
> I would like to change my environment to Alaska 2.0 but this purchase does not guarantee me any built-in report generator.
> That's why I ask if Alaska 2.0 has any report generator, because the manufacturer does not boast about this topic, so I suspect that there is nothing like this.
> I will ask otherwise, if Alaska 2.0 does not have such a tool, what other libraries do you use?
> 
> Peter
>

piko koko wrote in message news:7be1ec1b$288317f6$d854@news.alaska-software.com...
>Jim Lee wrote in message news:40d4b9c5$1b22bb7f$9730@news.alaska-software.com...
>>hi,
>>
>>as Xbase++ is a Commercial Produkt most Answer only "know" other Commercial 
>>Produkt.
>>but you can use every Product that understand xBase
>>
>>for a "native" (= Source Code) Product you have to search under Open-Source
>
>I am currently using Alaska 1.92 together with SqlExpress and a Fastreport generator.
>The problem is that Fastreport for Alaska is no longer supported.
>I would like to change my environment to Alaska 2.0 but this purchase does not guarantee me any built-in report generator.
>That's why I ask if Alaska 2.0 has any report generator, because the manufacturer does not boast about this topic, so I suspect that there is nothing like this.
>I will ask otherwise, if Alaska 2.0 does not have such a tool, what other libraries do you use?
>
>Peter

I also feel the same for Alaska 2.0 and was expecting a report designer from Alaska Team now. I hoped they can also make the FastReport from .Net as the last author did, alas he passed away.

What is other open source options which member here are using ? Any link ?

Regards,

Anand

hi,

> I also feel the same for Alaska 2.0 and was expecting a report designer
> from Alaska Team now.

Xmas is over 

> I hoped they can also make the FastReport from .Net as the last author
> did, alas he passed away.

FastReport  & FRAX are based on Delphi.
Xbase++ User pay for "Wrapper" to use it

Dot Net is a different Framework and "only" for Windows OS

---

there is a German Product called List & Label which include DLL "Wrapper"
and activeX you can also use it with "C" and other xBase Dialect like xSharp 
or harbour

Peter,
Several options:
1. Use the xBase++ built-in graphic engine (Pro: no dependency on
third party. Con: no export; require a small investment in developing
a class and a few functions).

2. Use Crystal-Reports ActiveX (Pro: easy to customize different
layout for different clients without any code change. Con: most
reports require a preprocess to hand a data-file for merging with a
report file; require a system for delivery of each report to
clients/users).

3. Use a PDF lib or ActiveX (Pro: easy to save and transmit; easy to
use existing forms. Con: dependency on continued support by a third
party; require a PDF reader).

4. Use Excel XML (Pro: fast and portable. Con: require investment in
developing a class or each report; require Excel).

5. Use HTML (Pro: fast and portable; use CSS to separate data from
layout; platform/device independent. Con: require investment in
developing a class or each report).

I use all of the above and select the method best fits the
requirements.  If you anticipate customization of same report for
different clients/users, use Crystal-Report or L&L.  Otherwise, I
suggest Excel or HTML.  For audited reports (where no one is allowed
to change a report), I suggest to use the xBase++ built-in graphic
engine.

-Itai

Itai Ben-Artzi wrote in message news:9ftn0gdodmgh1jhiqm2u0hgrso83attmsb@4ax.com...
>I use all of the above and select the method best fits the
>requirements.  If you anticipate customization of same report for
>different clients/users, use Crystal-Report or L&L.  Otherwise, I
>suggest Excel or HTML.  For audited reports (where no one is allowed
>to change a report), I suggest to use the xBase++ built-in graphic
>engine.
>
>-Itai

Hi Itai,

Thanks for your explanations and suggestions.

Can you suggest any free/open source report designer ? (like FastReport but not all features of it required)

I can make csv data from my dbf files for it. But need to call the designer and output from dllcall() for it. That is user will not run separate exe.

Any suggestion ?

Regards,

Anand

Anand,
FastReport is not free.  It is very similar to Crystal-Reports.  I use
the Crystal-Reports designer to create a report (*.rpt), and the
ActiveX to generate a report at runtime.  FastReport works the same
(also cost the same).

-Itai

Itai Ben-Artzi wrote in message news:s5k31ghc3ehpeubuubhk9nnih80rbiqc3c@4ax.com...
>Anand,
>FastReport is not free.  It is very similar to Crystal-Reports.  I use
>the Crystal-Reports designer to create a report (*.rpt), and the
>ActiveX to generate a report at runtime.  FastReport works the same
>(also cost the same).
>
>-Itai

Hi Itai

I use FastReport, alas the developer passed away. 

Am looking for alternative, just like it. Mostly open source.
I have checked Crystal Reports but do not want to use ActiveX, have faced problems at client machines earlier.

Regards,

Anand