Templates in the executable (Delphi)

Note

This demo is available in your FlexCel installation at <FlexCel Install Folder>\Demo\Delphi\Modules\20.Reports\60.Templates In The Exe and also at https://github.com/tmssoftware/TMS-FlexCel.VCL-demos/tree/master/Delphi/Modules/20.Reports/60.Templates In The Exe

Overview

Sometimes you might want to distribute your templates embedded in your application, instead of shipping the separately.

Concepts

How to embed a template directly in the exe file. For step-by-step instructions please read Embedding Excel files in your application
Dealing with includes. Included files are normally searched on the same path as the original file, but here, as we are reading from a stream, we must tell FlexCel where to find the embedded template. This is done with the TFlexCelReport.GetInclude event.
While here we show how to use a stream to read a template from the executable, you can use a very similar approach to store your templates in a database, or in any place you like. Just call the TFlexCelReport.Run with a stream with your data, and assign the TFlexCelReport.GetInclude event to assign the data for the included files.

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;

type
  TMainForm = class(TForm)
    btnCancel: TButton;
    btnGo: TButton;
    SaveDialog: TSaveDialog;
    Label1: TLabel;
    procedure btnCancelClick(Sender: TObject);
    procedure btnGoClick(Sender: TObject);
  private
    procedure RunReport;
    procedure GetIncludes(const sender: TObject;const e: TGetIncludeEventArgs);
    { Private declarations }
  public
    { Public declarations }
  end;

var
  MainForm: TMainForm;

implementation
uses IOUtils, DemoData;

{$R *.dfm}

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

procedure TMainForm.btnGoClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  RunReport;

end;


procedure TMainForm.GetIncludes(const sender: TObject; const e: TGetIncludeEventArgs);
var
  IncReport: TResourceStream;
  b: TBytes;
begin
  IncReport := TResourceStream.Create(hinstance, TPath.GetFileNameWithoutExtension(e.FileName), RT_RCDATA);
  try
    SetLength(b, IncReport.Size);
    if (Length(b) > 0) then IncReport.ReadBuffer(b[0], Length(b));
    e.IncludeData := b;
  finally
    IncReport.Free;
  end;
end;

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

  Report := TFlexCelReport.Create(true);
  try
    Report.GetInclude := GetIncludes; //this is only needed if you have includes.
    Report.AddTable(DemoTables);
    Report.SetValue('Date', Now);

    TemplateStream := TResourceStream.Create(hinstance, 'TemplatesInTheExe', RT_RCDATA);
    try
      OutputStream := TFileStream.Create(SaveDialog.FileName, fmCreate);
      try
        Report.Run(TemplateStream, OutputStream);
      finally
        OutputStream.Free;
      end;
    finally
      TemplateStream.Free;
    end;
  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.

Table of Contents

Templates in the executable (Delphi)

Note

Overview

Concepts

Files

UMainForm.pas