Introduction

Interoperability and standards use

Natively supports (compiled inside the executable):

• Delphi 4/5 Enterprise, Delphi 6/7 Prof. , Ent., Architech.
• C++ Builder 4/5 Enterprise, C++Builder 6 Prof, Ent.
• Kylix 1/2/3 Desktop, Pro or Enterprise
• It's reported to work with Kylix Open Editions and FreeCLX.
• Delphi 8 for .Net
• Visual Studio .Net

With ActiveX

• Delphi 4/5 Profesional and personal
• C++Builder 4/5 Professional and personal
• Delphi 6-7 Personal and upper
• Delphi 8 for .Net
• C++Builder 6 Personal
• C# Builder
• Visual Basic
• Visual FoxPro
• Python
• Visual Studio (C#, Basic...)
• Any language with ActiveX client feature
• Early binding (VTables) and late binding (OleAuto) is supported
• IIS ASP access

With shared libraries functions

• Delphi, C++Builder, Kylix
• GNU C (Windows and Linux), Visual C++
• Visual Basic
• Any development environment capable of calling shared library functions, library headers are currently in pascal, ANSI C and Visual Basic formats

With command line tools

• Any language capable of calling external programs, the external comand line tools can work with file input and outputs or also with standard input and standard output, allowing the use of pipes or files for interprocess comunication.

With web server

• ASP
• PHP
• Python
• Over Apache, Microsoft IIS or any web server capable of processing standard cgi applications

For more information see installation documentation.

A report file (we refer as .rep extension files) can be openened in any platform, they are compatible between platforms and development enviroments.

To allow the use of the engine in other languages command line tools and ActiveX are provided. You can also link to the report library.

Database connections abstraction is done throught dbxconnections.ini and dbxdrivers.ini files provided by Report Manager Designer or Borland tools, the engine will search an alias and read the parameters to connect to a defined database or dataset. If you use Delphi/Builder/Kylix you can assign opened connections or datasets to a ready loaded report, you can also show the designer to the end user embedded in your application.

The result of processing a report is a set of pages containing graphic elements, they can be stored with a native format (Report Metafile .rpmf) to open or print with other provided tools (metaprint, metaview). You can also save the result in Adobe pdf format. This formats are also portable between platforms.