ReportBuilder 7.0 for Delphi 6 is now available.
Hi All!
At the end of last year, we sent out a notification which essentially
said: "Vote for RB as Product of the Year and we will deliver the Server
Edition." As RB developers are a truly awesome group, you did the
impossible and made us a four time winner of Product of the Year! This
sends a clear message to Borland and to the developer community: "RB is
the best!"
About a week ago, we delivered on our half of the bargain, releasing the
Server Edition for Delphi 6. It is now possible to publish your reports
to the web with only three lines of Delphi code!!! The new Server
Edition is truly a technical wonder, and if you need reports on the web,
you should check out the trial edition at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/server/TrialEdition.html
We also announced a new upgrade policy. In order to fund the continuing
development of RB, while maintaining the incredible level of technical
support that we provide, we do need to start charging for upgrades. We
understand that this may come as a bit of a shock to long-time users,
but the maturity of the Delphi market and of ReportBuilder itself, means
that it is no longer feasible for new users to pay for everything. As a
result, the new upgrade policy has been put in place.
However, in appreciation of our long-time customers, we are offering an
"Early Adopter Special". Purchase your Legacy upgrade on or before
September 30, 2002, and get RB 7.0 at the REGULAR UPGRADE PRICE!!!
Here's how much you save:
Early Adopter Special:
Legacy Regular You Save
---------- ---------- ----------
ReportBuilder Enterprise $549.00 $275.00 $274.00
ReportBuilder Professional $349.00 $175.00 $174.00
ReportBuilder Standard $149.00 $75.00 $74.00
So if you need D7 support or any of the RB 7.0 enhancements we encourage
you to upgrade now. The online order form is available at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/Secure/OrderForm.html
We greatly appreciate your support over the years and we look forward to
working with you in the years to come!
Sincerely,
The DM Creative Team
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Metaphors Corporation
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
mailto:info@digital-metaphors.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADE PRICING
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Purchase Date Upgrade Fee Schedule
---------------------- --------------------
July 1, 2002 or later Free
November 1, 2001 - June 30, 2002 Regular Upgrade
October 31, 2001 or prior Legacy Upgrade
Regular Upgrade Fees:
ReportBuilder Enterprise US $275.00
ReportBuilder Professional US $175.00
ReportBuilder Standard US $75.00
Legacy Upgrade Fees:
ReportBuilder Enterprise US $549.00
ReportBuilder Professional US $349.00
ReportBuilder Standard US $149.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADE BENEFITS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purchase an upgrade to ReportBuilder 7 and receive these valuable
benefits:
1. Delphi 6 support. Purchase now and we will send you the download link
for the Delphi 6 version of your edition. Delphi 5 support will be
available soon.
2. Delphi 7 support. As soon as we receive a Delphi 7 CD from Borland,
we will finalize the Server, Enterprise, Professional and Standard
editions and notify you with a download link.
3. Maintenances releases through August 31, 2003.
4. Upgraded versions through August 31, 2003. We have already committed
to full text search and background printing (via a thread) as the next
major enhancements. We expect these enhancements to be available within
the next month or two. Other minor enhancements will follow as the DM
Creative Team continues to move ReportBuilder forward.
5. All bug fixes and enhancements since November, 2001. Version 6.03 was
released last November - all issues which have been resolved for this
version are included in RB 7.0. See the list of fixes below for details.
6. Delphi 8 support is not included in this upgrade. We currently do not
know whether Borland will release a Delphi 8, or what that release might
include and so have no way to estimate the cost of such an effort.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enhancements for Version 7.0 - 9/2/2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Server Edition
Version 7 of ReportBuilder marks the release of the Server Edition. The
Server Edition represents over a years' worth of effort on the part of
DM. We think that you will be absolutely blown away by this product,
and how easy it makes web reporting. Check out the Trial Edition at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/server/TrialEdition.html
2. Thread safe DADE, RAP and Report Engine
In order to make the Server Edition possible, the data processing engine
(DADE), Object Pascal interpreter (RAP) and the report engine were all
made thread-safe. This means that you can now count on thread safety
when pursuing options such as background processing of print jobs, etc.
3. Outline
A TreeView summarizing the structure of the generated report and
providing clickable nodes which take you to the page for given content
is now displayed in the Print Preview form. The main report, groups and
section type subreports can participate in the generation of the
Outline. Use the OutlineSettings property for each of these objects to
control the generation of the outline.
4. PreviewFormSettings
The main report component (TppReport) now contains a PreviewFormSettings
property. Use this to control the initial WindowState, ZoomSetting and
ZoomPercentage of the Preview Form (and say goodbye to all of those
OnPreviewFormCreate event handlers!)
5. DBArchiveReader
This new component makes it easy to preview and print report archives
stored in database BLOB fields.
6. DBImage auto loading
When assigned to a database field with a string data type, the DBImage
component will now automatically assume that the string field contains
the full path and file name to an image file and attempt to load that
image from file when it generates.
7. Enhanced TeeChart support
It is no longer necessary to purchase the registered version of TeeChart
in order to print and preview reports containing charts. If you need to
redistribute the TeeChart UI as part of an end-user reporting solution
(and you are not building your application with packages), then it is
still necessary to purchase TeeChart. The dcu files for the TeeChart UI
are not (and never have been) included with the 'free' version of
TeeChart which installs with Delphi.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixes for Version 7.0 - 9/2/2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. When an application did not have access to a printer, a 'Canvas does
not allow drawing' exception was raised in some cases.
2. When loading a template, the PaperName may not be restored properly.
3. When printing to the printer, and the printer setup was changed, the
report engine was not always reset.
4. When report archive file was too big to fit on disk, the archive
device needed to free the streams and the temporary file.
5. Enhanced DBImage so that it can be assigned to a string field
containing file references, which can then be used to load the images
from the file.
6. When a data pipeline is used in a Master/Detail configuration
(MasterDataPipeline/MasterFieldLinks) and the master field has a null
value, exceptions were raised due to changes in Delphi 6, Service Pack
2.
7. When a crosstab attempted to compare null values to non-null values,
an exception was raised under Delphi 6, Service Pack 2.
8. Crosstab raised 'List Index out of bounds' error when multiple
subtotal rows were set to Visible = False.
9. When subreports contained columnar layouts, left-to-right traversal
did not work properly.
For a full listing of fixes and enhancements, see the History of
ReportBuilder Versions topic in the on-line help.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Metaphors Corporation
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
mailto:info@digital-metaphors.com
At the end of last year, we sent out a notification which essentially
said: "Vote for RB as Product of the Year and we will deliver the Server
Edition." As RB developers are a truly awesome group, you did the
impossible and made us a four time winner of Product of the Year! This
sends a clear message to Borland and to the developer community: "RB is
the best!"
About a week ago, we delivered on our half of the bargain, releasing the
Server Edition for Delphi 6. It is now possible to publish your reports
to the web with only three lines of Delphi code!!! The new Server
Edition is truly a technical wonder, and if you need reports on the web,
you should check out the trial edition at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/server/TrialEdition.html
We also announced a new upgrade policy. In order to fund the continuing
development of RB, while maintaining the incredible level of technical
support that we provide, we do need to start charging for upgrades. We
understand that this may come as a bit of a shock to long-time users,
but the maturity of the Delphi market and of ReportBuilder itself, means
that it is no longer feasible for new users to pay for everything. As a
result, the new upgrade policy has been put in place.
However, in appreciation of our long-time customers, we are offering an
"Early Adopter Special". Purchase your Legacy upgrade on or before
September 30, 2002, and get RB 7.0 at the REGULAR UPGRADE PRICE!!!
Here's how much you save:
Early Adopter Special:
Legacy Regular You Save
---------- ---------- ----------
ReportBuilder Enterprise $549.00 $275.00 $274.00
ReportBuilder Professional $349.00 $175.00 $174.00
ReportBuilder Standard $149.00 $75.00 $74.00
So if you need D7 support or any of the RB 7.0 enhancements we encourage
you to upgrade now. The online order form is available at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/Secure/OrderForm.html
We greatly appreciate your support over the years and we look forward to
working with you in the years to come!
Sincerely,
The DM Creative Team
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Metaphors Corporation
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
mailto:info@digital-metaphors.com
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADE PRICING
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Original Purchase Date Upgrade Fee Schedule
---------------------- --------------------
July 1, 2002 or later Free
November 1, 2001 - June 30, 2002 Regular Upgrade
October 31, 2001 or prior Legacy Upgrade
Regular Upgrade Fees:
ReportBuilder Enterprise US $275.00
ReportBuilder Professional US $175.00
ReportBuilder Standard US $75.00
Legacy Upgrade Fees:
ReportBuilder Enterprise US $549.00
ReportBuilder Professional US $349.00
ReportBuilder Standard US $149.00
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
UPGRADE BENEFITS
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Purchase an upgrade to ReportBuilder 7 and receive these valuable
benefits:
1. Delphi 6 support. Purchase now and we will send you the download link
for the Delphi 6 version of your edition. Delphi 5 support will be
available soon.
2. Delphi 7 support. As soon as we receive a Delphi 7 CD from Borland,
we will finalize the Server, Enterprise, Professional and Standard
editions and notify you with a download link.
3. Maintenances releases through August 31, 2003.
4. Upgraded versions through August 31, 2003. We have already committed
to full text search and background printing (via a thread) as the next
major enhancements. We expect these enhancements to be available within
the next month or two. Other minor enhancements will follow as the DM
Creative Team continues to move ReportBuilder forward.
5. All bug fixes and enhancements since November, 2001. Version 6.03 was
released last November - all issues which have been resolved for this
version are included in RB 7.0. See the list of fixes below for details.
6. Delphi 8 support is not included in this upgrade. We currently do not
know whether Borland will release a Delphi 8, or what that release might
include and so have no way to estimate the cost of such an effort.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Enhancements for Version 7.0 - 9/2/2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Server Edition
Version 7 of ReportBuilder marks the release of the Server Edition. The
Server Edition represents over a years' worth of effort on the part of
DM. We think that you will be absolutely blown away by this product,
and how easy it makes web reporting. Check out the Trial Edition at:
http://www.digital-metaphors.com/server/TrialEdition.html
2. Thread safe DADE, RAP and Report Engine
In order to make the Server Edition possible, the data processing engine
(DADE), Object Pascal interpreter (RAP) and the report engine were all
made thread-safe. This means that you can now count on thread safety
when pursuing options such as background processing of print jobs, etc.
3. Outline
A TreeView summarizing the structure of the generated report and
providing clickable nodes which take you to the page for given content
is now displayed in the Print Preview form. The main report, groups and
section type subreports can participate in the generation of the
Outline. Use the OutlineSettings property for each of these objects to
control the generation of the outline.
4. PreviewFormSettings
The main report component (TppReport) now contains a PreviewFormSettings
property. Use this to control the initial WindowState, ZoomSetting and
ZoomPercentage of the Preview Form (and say goodbye to all of those
OnPreviewFormCreate event handlers!)
5. DBArchiveReader
This new component makes it easy to preview and print report archives
stored in database BLOB fields.
6. DBImage auto loading
When assigned to a database field with a string data type, the DBImage
component will now automatically assume that the string field contains
the full path and file name to an image file and attempt to load that
image from file when it generates.
7. Enhanced TeeChart support
It is no longer necessary to purchase the registered version of TeeChart
in order to print and preview reports containing charts. If you need to
redistribute the TeeChart UI as part of an end-user reporting solution
(and you are not building your application with packages), then it is
still necessary to purchase TeeChart. The dcu files for the TeeChart UI
are not (and never have been) included with the 'free' version of
TeeChart which installs with Delphi.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fixes for Version 7.0 - 9/2/2002
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. When an application did not have access to a printer, a 'Canvas does
not allow drawing' exception was raised in some cases.
2. When loading a template, the PaperName may not be restored properly.
3. When printing to the printer, and the printer setup was changed, the
report engine was not always reset.
4. When report archive file was too big to fit on disk, the archive
device needed to free the streams and the temporary file.
5. Enhanced DBImage so that it can be assigned to a string field
containing file references, which can then be used to load the images
from the file.
6. When a data pipeline is used in a Master/Detail configuration
(MasterDataPipeline/MasterFieldLinks) and the master field has a null
value, exceptions were raised due to changes in Delphi 6, Service Pack
2.
7. When a crosstab attempted to compare null values to non-null values,
an exception was raised under Delphi 6, Service Pack 2.
8. Crosstab raised 'List Index out of bounds' error when multiple
subtotal rows were set to Visible = False.
9. When subreports contained columnar layouts, left-to-right traversal
did not work properly.
For a full listing of fixes and enhancements, see the History of
ReportBuilder Versions topic in the on-line help.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Digital Metaphors Corporation
http://www.digital-metaphors.com
mailto:info@digital-metaphors.com