RTF Report - generate printable TXT or RTF documents

It uses prepared template file in TXT or RTF format with special TAGs and fill data into it instead of TAGs. Result is again file in the same format but filled by data from variables, datasets etc.

See example of report template Employee_list2.rtf (on each page is one example of report) and the result of report Result.rtf

User can use any editor to prepare RTF template. MS Word can be used too but see important instruction for setting of MS Word to prepare correct template file.
Download CheckRTF tool to check all tags and remove ThemeData in RTF template.

List of special tags which can be used inside of RTF template file:
(X) in tags specify one dataset, datasets are passed as parameter and are marked by character from A to Z

FIELD tags

FIELDS tags is used for inserting of field value from selected dataset (X) and current record

\X.FieldName\

Insert value of specified field in their default format, example: \A.LastName\

\X.FieldName:Format\

Insert value of specified field in specified format, Format has the same format string as in Delphi
example: \A.Salary:# ##0.00\ \A.OrderDate:mm/dd/yy\

\X.FieldName:Width:Format\

Width is used for TXT template and must starts by < (left alignment) or > (right alignment), field value is extended by separators to specified width
Example: \A.Name:<20\ - name extended to 20 characters and aligned to left; \A.Phone:>12\ - phone extended to 12 characters and aligned to right

\X.#FieldIndex\ \X.#FieldIndex:Format\

Insert value of field specified by their index, example: \A.#2\

Special format strings:

if Format is set to string LABEL then "Display Label" of the field is inserted (instead of field value)

Special format string can be used for MEMO and BLOB field:

TEXT - blob is handled as text
RTF - blob is handled as RTF text
RTFLINE - blob is handled as RTF text and last /par is removed
PLAIN - blob is converted from rtf to plaintext

Example: \A.Note:RTFLINE\

Special format string composed from one or more parts separated by semicolon can be used for graphics field:

W=number - define max width of picture in pixels
H=number - define max height of picture in pixels
Wcm=number - define max width of picture in centimeters
Hcm=number - define max height of picture in centimeters
Rotate=number - define angle of rotation
Enlarge - define that smaller pictures than defined W or H will be enlarged
InsertInRTF - picture will be inserted directly to RTF report in binary format (windows metafile is used), if this tag is missing, in rtf report will be only link to external file with picture
Quality - define quality of inserted picture (10..100, 100=full quality; Auto=automatic resize)
SaveAsJPG - define that all pictures will be saved in report in JPG format
SaveAsBMP - define that all pictures will be saved in report in BMP format
NameField=fieldname - define field whose value will be used as filename of picture, field should has unique values, in other case one picture will be used for more records; recno is used if NameField is missing

Example: \A.Photo:Wcm=5;Hcm=5;Rotate=90;InsertInRTF;Quality=Auto\; \A.Photo:Wcm=5;Hcm=5;Quality=50;NameField="Pic_"+PicName\

VARIABLES and FUNCTIONS tags:

\VariableName\

insert value of variable from list of variables which is defined in property Variables, OnUserCalc events is called if variable is not found in variable list
Example: \UserName\

\FuncName(Param1;Param2;Param3...)\

insert value of FuncName from list of variables which is defined in property Variables, OnUserCalcParams events (if used) is called with all defined parameters if variable is not found in variable list; if OnUserCalcParams is not used then standard OnUserCalc without parameters is called
Example: \MyCalcFunc(A.Price;A.Items;0.05;"Discounted price")\

CALCULATION tags:

CALCULATION tags are used for evaluating and/or inserting of any numeric expression

\=expression:Format\

expression can contain:

signs: + - * /
any number of brackets: ( )
number constant
Field value: X.Field (value of the field must have number format)
user defined variables (value of the variable must have number format)
result of aggregation function: FuncName[X.Field] or FuncName[CalcName], where FuncName can be one of Sum, Max, Min, Count, Avg or GrandSum, GrandMax, GrandMin, GrandCount, GrandAvg; each X.Field or CalcName must be defined in CALC part of SCAN tags before using in aggregation functions

Example: \=B.Salary*1.2\ \=B.Salary*1.3:# ##0.00\ \=(Sum[A.Salary]+Sum[A.Bonus])/2:# ##0\

\ResetCalc\

reset all aggregation fields to 0

SCAN tags

Scan tags are used for repeating some part of report for more dataset records.

\Scan(X);While(condition);SkipIf(condition); MinRows(number); MaxRows(number); NewLine;NewCol;NewPage;Sep(string); NoIfEmpty;NoFirst; Calc(X.Field1,X.Field2,CalcAvg=(X.Field1+X.Field2)/2,...)\

defines first point and conditions of scan function
scan loop is finished when While condition come false
scan loop skip record if SkipIf condition is true
MinRows define minimum number of printed rows (if dataset has less records empty records are printed)
MaxRows define maximum number of printed rows (scan loop is finished after defined number of records)
NewLine insert new line after each record
NewCol insert new column after each record
NewPage insert new page after each record
Sep(string) insert defined string as separator after each record
scan loop do not move to first record if NoFirst is used
Calc defines list of Fields or Named expression for aggregation function, for each listed field or expression will be calculated following values: Sum, Min, Max, Avg, Count and GrandSum, GrandMin and so on

\ScanEntry(X)\

defines start point of repetition, this tag is optional

\ScanFooter(X)\

defines stop point of repetition, this tag is optional

\EndScan(X)\

defines last point of scan function

Typical use:

Example 1 - simple loop:


\Scan(B)\

body of table - is repeated for each record

\EndScan(B)\

Example 2 - full loop:


\Scan(B)\

any header

\ScanEntry(B)\

body of table - is repeated for each record

\ScanFooter(B)\

any footer

\EndScan(B)\

Example 3 - full loop with conditions:


\Scan(B);SkipIf(B.Retired);Calc(Salary,Bonus)\

any header

\ScanEntry(B)\

body of table - is repeated for each record

\ScanFooter(B)\

any footer

\EndScan(B)\

Note:

If any of scan tag is alone in the line, whole line will be removed

RECORD MOVE tags

These tags can be used for moving dataset to another record. Usually is not necessary to use it.

\Next(X)\

\Prev(X)\

\First(X)\

\Last(X)\

Use bookmark tags to store and restore active record during report:

\GetBookmark(X)\

\GotoBookmark(X)\

IF and IIF tags

IF or IIF tags is used for inserting any text or dataset field dependently on any condition
IF tag is global, it means IF tag is processed before all scan function
IIF tag is inline tag, it means IIF tag is processed inside current scan, i.e. for each record (it is important if you use dataset value inside condition)

\If(condition)\...block if true...\ElseIf\...block if false...\EndIf\

\IIf(condition)\...block if true...\ElseIIf\...block if false...\EndIIf\

Note:

"ElseIf" tag and "block if false" is optional

CASE tags

Case tag can be used similar as IF but offer more conditions and results in one tag

\Case(SourceValue;ValueToCompare1,Result1:Format;ValueToCompare2,Result2:Format;....;#ELSE#,ResultElse))\

SourceValue is merged with ValueToCompare1 (2...x) and used as condition, if condition is valid then Result1 (2...x) is used
SourceValue can be any field, variable or calculation (without = in the beggining)
ValueToCompare can be any constant, variable, field or calculation
SourceValue or ValueToCompare must contain any sign for comparison: = ; == ; <> ; > ; < ; >= ; <= , see CONDITIONS description
set ValueToCompare to #ELSE# to use ResultElse in any case

Example:

\Case(A.Salary;<3000,Bellow 3000;<=5000,middle range (3000-5000);<10000,high;#ELSE#,very high)\
\Case(A.EmploTypeID=;1,internal;2,external;#ELSE#,unknown type)\
\Case(A.BirthDate;<#19000101#,error date;>#20200101#,error date;#ELSE#,A.BirthDate)\

CONDITIONS:

Conditions can be used in SCAN tags (While or SkipIf) or in IF and IIF tags.
Condition can contain:

signs: = ; == ; <> ; > ; < ; >= ; <= ; % (start with) ; %% (contains)
boolean field: X.Retired
text field: X.Field
text constant: "text"
datetime constant: #YYYYHHMM# or #YYYYHHMMhhmmss#
any expression (see above)
any number of brackets: ( )
logical operations: and or not
test if dataset is empty: X.0
test if dataset is eof : X.@

example of some conditions:

A.Name="Carl"
A.Name%%"ar"
A.Salary>30000
A.Salary>30000 and B.State<>"NY"
(not A.Retired) and (B.State="NY" or B.State="WA")

SPECIAL tags

\SepList("sep",X.Field1,X.Field2,...)\

insert list of values separated by text defined in first parameter "sep", it is usefull in creating separated list of any fields, because this function skips empty fields

\FirstValue(X.Field1,X.Field2,...)\

display first not empty value from list

\Picture(VariableName):Format\

insert external graphic file to report, VariableName define Variable, which must contain full path to graphic file (see VariableTags description), Format has the same possibility as for graphic fields

\BarCode(expression):Format\

Insert BarCode picture, expression defines displayed code and can be fieldtag, variable or constant (eg. "123")

Format can be made up from more parts divided by ;

Type=string - define type of barcode from following CodeEANAuto (auto detection according text length), CodeEAN8, CodeEAN13, Code_2_5_interleaved, Code_2_5_industrial, Code_2_5_matrix, Code39, Code39Extended, Code128A, Code128B, Code128C, Code93, Code93Extended, CodeMSI, CodePostNet, CodeCodabar, CodeUPC_A, CodeUPC_E0, CodeUPC_E1, CodeUPC_Supp2, CodeUPC_Supp5, CodeEAN128A, CodeEAN128B, CodeEAN128C

ShowCode - defines showing of numeric code

FontName - define font for numeric code + all tags for Pictures included Rotate, Wmax, Hmax and Quality (Quality should be 100 for barcode)

all tags for Pictures included Rotate, Wmax, Hmax and Quality (Quality should be 100 for barcode)

\InsertFile(FileName)\

insert content of external file to possition of tag, text is converted to RTF format

\InsertRTFFile(FileName)\

insert content of external file to possition of tag, content is not converted to RTF format

\DefVar(VariableName,Value)\

define variable which can be used everywhere in report, value can be any constant ("text") or expression

\Info(Name=Value)\

tag Info is used for backward communication from report to application
all Info tags are processed before any other action, so this tags can be anywhere in RTF template
tag body (Name=Value) will be added to property ExtendedInfo and event OnInfo will be called, so application can make any action according ExtendedInfo content

Example:

this tag can be used for specifying of active printer and application can process it
\Info(Printer=HP Laser Jet 5L)\

\ListAllFields\

insert list of all dataset fields name, it is usefull only during creating of new report

STRING functions and tags

String functions can be used in calc tags or as parameter in string routine

=StrLen[expression]

- evaluate expression and returns its length

=StrPos[expression;substring]

- evaluate expression and returns position of substring in expression

=StrPosCS[expression;substring]

- same as StrPos but case sensitive String tags can be used as common tags anywhere in report

\Str_Part(expression,from,count)\ or \Str_Part(expression,startstr,endstr)\

- evaluate expression and return part of it - e.g.: A.email = name@company.com

\Str_Part(A.email,1,"@")\ returns "name"
\Str_Part(A.email,"@",255)\ returns "@company.com"
\Str_Part(A.email,"@",".")\ returns "@company"
\Str_Part(A.email,=StrPos[A.email,"@"]+1,".")\ returns "company"
\Str_Part(A.email,=StrLen[A.email]-3,4)\ returns ".com"

\Str_PartCS(expression,from,count)\

- same as Str_Part but case sensitive

\Str_Replace(expression,oldsubstr,newsubstr)\

- evaluate expression and replace all oldsubstr by newsubstr - e.g.: A.email = name@company.com ; A.LastName = "King"

\Str_Replace(A.email,"@","(at)")\ returns "name(at)company.com"
\Str_Replace(A.email,"name",A.Lastname)\ returns "King@company.com"
\Str_Replace(A.email,Str_Part(A.email,1,"@"),A.Firstname)\ returns "King@company.com"