Generic reports (Delphi)

Note

This demo is available in your FlexCel installation at <FlexCel Install Folder>\Demo\Delphi\Modules\20.Reports\88.Generic Reports and also at https://github.com/tmssoftware/TMS-FlexCel.VCL-demos/tree/master/Delphi/Modules/20.Reports/88.Generic Reports

Overview

When you are reporting from an unknown database (for example if you are writing a DbExport app) you can't use a fixed template, because you don't know what the columns will be. While FlexCelReport is designed to handle fixed-form templates, there is some support also for generic reports. This example together with the Meta Templates and Generic Reports 2 examples show what can be done. For more advanced generic reports, you should probably use the API directly.

Concepts

You can use <#DataTable.*> to write a full row of data from a datatable. Cells at the right of the cell containing the <#DataTable.*> tag will be overwritten.
You can use <#DataTable.**> to write a full row with the column captions on a datatable. Cells at the right of the cell containing the <#DataTable.**> tag will be overwritten.
<DataTable.**> can be placed anywhere, it doesn't need to be inside a named range. <DataTable.*> should be inside a named range populating DataTable.
Dates: As dates on Excel are just numbers formatted as date, <#DataTable.*> will format the cell when the column has a DateTime value. If the time part of the datetime is 0, time will not be entered.
You can use expressions in cells with <#DataTable.*> and <#DataTable.**> tags. You can also get the current value of the tag in the cell by writing <#DataTable.*> or <#DataTable.**> again in the same cell. For example, the tags:
```
  <#Table.**><#Column Width(autofit;110)>
```
Will autofit all the columns in the range expanded by the <#Table.**> tag. While the tags:
```
  <#Table.*><#if(<#evaluate(mod(column(),2)=0)>;<#format cell(light)>;)>
  <#if(<#table.*>="BONAP";<#format cell(blue)>;)>
  <#if(<#table.**>="OrderDate";<#format cell(longdate)>;)>
```
will perform 3 things: On the first, it will paint alternating columns with the "light" format. On the second, it will it will highlight cells that contain the string "BONAP" in blue. On the third, it will format the cells in the "OrderDate" column to have a longer date format.
Autofilters will be automatically expanded with the <#DataTable.**> tag. You only need to set them in the cell with the tag.

Files

UMainForm.pas

unit UMainForm;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics,
  FlexCel.VCLSupport, FlexCel.Core, FlexCel.XlsAdapter, FlexCel.Report, FlexCel.Render,
  {$if CompilerVersion >= 23.0} System.UITypes, {$IFEND}
  ShellApi,
  Controls, Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls, ExtCtrls, DB, ADODB,
  Grids, DBGrids, ComCtrls, ToolWin, ActnList, ImgList;

type
  TMainForm = class(TForm)
    SaveDialog: TSaveDialog;
    ToolBar1: TToolBar;
    ToolButton1: TToolButton;
    ToolButton2: TToolButton;
    ToolButton3: TToolButton;
    ToolButton4: TToolButton;
    DBGrid1: TDBGrid;
    ADOConnection: TADOConnection;
    Table: TADODataSet;
    Actions: TActionList;
    ActionQuery: TAction;
    ActionExportToExcel: TAction;
    ActionClose: TAction;
    DsTable: TDataSource;
    ToolbarImages: TImageList;
    ToolbarImages_100Scale: TImageList;
    ToolbarImages_300Scale: TImageList;
    procedure FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
    procedure ActionCloseExecute(Sender: TObject);
    procedure ActionQueryExecute(Sender: TObject);
    procedure ActionExportToExcelExecute(Sender: TObject);
  private
    procedure RunReport;
    function GetDataPath: string;
    { Private declarations }
  public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  MainForm: TMainForm;

implementation
uses IOUtils, USQLDialog, UFlexCelHDPI;

{$R *.dfm}

procedure TMainForm.ActionCloseExecute(Sender: TObject);
begin
  Close;
end;


procedure TMainForm.ActionExportToExcelExecute(Sender: TObject);
begin
  RunReport;
end;

procedure TMainForm.ActionQueryExecute(Sender: TObject);
begin
  if EnterSQL.ShowModal <> mrOk then exit;
  Table.Active := false;
  Table.CommandText := EnterSQL.SQL;
  Table.Active := true;
end;

function DBFile: string;
begin
  Result := TPath.Combine(TPath.GetDirectoryName(ParamStr(0)), '..\..\..\SharedData\Northwind.mdb');
end;

procedure TMainForm.FormCreate(Sender: TObject);
begin
  ADOConnection.ConnectionString := StringReplace(ADOConnection.ConnectionString, 'Northwind.mdb', DbFile, []);
  Table.CommandText := 'select * from orders';
  Table.Active := true;
  RegisterForHDPI(Self, nil);
end;

function TMainForm.GetDataPath: string;
begin
  Result := TPath.Combine(TPath.GetDirectoryName(ParamStr(0)), '..\..');
end;


procedure TMainForm.RunReport;
var
  Report: TFlexCelReport;
begin
  if not SaveDialog.Execute then exit;

  Report := TFlexCelReport.Create(true);
  try
    Report.AddTable('Table', Table);

    Report.SetValue('Date', Now);
    Report.SetValue('ReportCaption', Table.CommandText);
    Report.Run(
      TPath.Combine(GetDataPath, 'Generic Reports.template.xls'),
      SaveDialog.FileName);
  finally
    Report.Free;
  end;

  if MessageDlg('Do you want to open the generated file?', mtConfirmation, [mbYes, mbNo], 0) = mrYes then
  begin
    ShellExecute(0, 'open', PCHAR(SaveDialog.FileName), nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
  end;


end;

end.

USQLDialog.pas

unit USQLDialog;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics,
  Controls, Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls;

type
  TEnterSQL = class(TForm)
    edSQL: TMemo;
    Label1: TLabel;
    btnCancel: TButton;
    btnOk: TButton;
  private
    { Private declarations }
  public
    function SQL: string;
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  EnterSQL: TEnterSQL;

implementation

{$R *.dfm}

{ TEnterSQL }

function TEnterSQL.SQL: string;
begin
  Result := edSQL.Text;
end;

end.