Visual Graph Getting Started - Detail Report

You need to design a template first to make any report, the detail report template is bin\report.tbl. Now we use it to make an employee report in Delphi.

Please follow these steps to make it.

1. Create a new file in Visual Graph IDE, click File -> Set page... menu item and check Show paper option, and then click Tools -> Document settings... menu item and check Paper as work area option, save current document as h:\template1.tbl.

2. Draw the title (use autosizerect basic element in library group) and a table (Table -> New table... menu item) like this:

Detail Report 1

3. Select the table through drawing a rectangle area by mouse, click Edit -> Groups... menu item to create group1 like below, and then click this dialog box and save current document.

Detail Report 2

4. Create a new application in Delphi and place a Visual Graph ActiveX control on default form, set its Align = alClient, and then place database control Table1 on default form, set its Databasename = DBDemos, TableName = Employee.db.

5. Write the following code in FormShow event:

procedure TForm1.FormShow(Sender: TObject);
var
i : Integer;
sheet : ISheet;
begin
vgctrl1.Run( vgctrl1.DefaultPath + 'report.tbl' );
sheet := vgctrl1.vg.ActiveSheet;
sheet.SetPropertyValue( 'template', 'h:\template1.tbl' );
Table1.Active = true;
while not Table1.Eof do
begin
sheet.Execute( 'Append()' );
sheet.Execute( 'SetFieldValue(0,"' + Table1.FieldByName( 'Empno' ).AsString + '")' );
sheet.Execute( 'SetFieldValue(1,"' + Table1.FieldByName( 'LastName' ).AsString + '")' );
sheet.Execute( 'SetFieldValue(2,"' + Table1.FieldByName( 'FirstName' ).AsString + '")' );
sheet.Execute( 'SetFieldValue(3,"' + Table1.FieldByName( 'Hiredate' ).AsString + '")' );
sheet.Execute( 'SetFieldValue(4,"' + Table1.FieldByName( 'Salary' ).AsString + '")' );
Table1.Next;
end;
sheet.Execute( 'Build()' );
end;

The report template bin\report.tbl declares 3 functions: Append - appends a new row, SetFieldValue - sets the value for some cell at the last row, Build - generates the report data.

6. Run this program, you will get the following report:

Detail Report 3