Hi,
I'm cosidering to make some reporting for customer using tms webcore.
Requirements are that report should be previewed and exported to pdf and excel.
I already have xdata server producing actual data in json, so I just need to present ir nicely and add headers/ footers etc.
Since I see many options in webcore + FNC components, I'm interested to hear if anyone has experience
what would be fastest components to use here.
I'm also considerign that xdata server might create .xlsx or pdf
I'm sure others will have some ideas for you, but it somewhat depends on the kinds of reports. There are generally better/more reporting tools you can use on the XData side, where you can create the reports there and then just send them to the client. This is likely the quickest and fastest method if you've already got experience doing that. This would also be perhaps the better choice if you have a lot of different reports to deliver as the code and infrastructure to manage the reports would not have to be coded into the client app.
If you were just looking for something simple and not too many variations were needed, then there are definitely client-side options, with examples available showing how to create PDFs and in some cases Excel files, from various sources of data. If you're displaying data in a grid of some kind, for example, often the grid itself will have options available for you to export to PDF, CSV, Excel, and so on.
So I guess the question is whether your reports are just exports of grids or if you need something fancier where you have report sections, charts, and so on?
Currently i'm looking pure numerical reports like
name / amont / quantity / profit / something else
customer-1
product -1 / 1000 / 15 / 400 /
product -2 / 100 / 1 / 40 /
product -3 / 200 / 2 /100 /
customer-1 total 1300 / 17 /540
customer-2 ... and so one
Do you currently use any kind of grid or table components in the client app? TWebDBGrid, FNCGrid, Tabulator, or something similar? Some of these have built-in options for exporting in different formats.
I have been using TMSFNCGrid and tWebStringGrid
Ah, very good. I'm not all that familiar with FNCGrid so others may be of more help here. I think it has some solid export options. It might be that you have to create an FNCGrid on the XData side to get at the Excel export file though, if memory serves. The FNCGrid Developer's Guide has details on all of its supported formats, which include PDF and CSV, and others.
The benefit of using a grid is that it can do a great deal of the layout/formatting for you, rather than having to do it yourself if you were to create a PDF from scratch, for example. The downside is that they are generally limited to simpler reports that look like, well, the grids themselves. Other reporting tools might be better if you need more complex presentations, like grouping or logos or subreports or better pagination, that kind of thing.
Thanks for you replies, I have been condirering options and like you told, it's most fastest to implement them to Xdata server. And in this case, where usebility was't customer requirements and we where only one to get even close to all requirements, I'd say that would be enough.
WIth Flexcell excel output is very easy ...
Yes, on the XData side, there are a lot of options, many of them quite easy. But on the TMS WEB Core side, things aren't (yet!) always as easy. It also makes some sense to do the reporting on the server side so that the client application remains small and easy to maintain.