Use of Printers/Trays/Papers with Rave

Today I'll describe the basics of printer-control in a Delphi application with Rave (possible with all versions of Rave 3.x-7.x and BE/BEX!).

A lot of Rave-user haven't realize that Rave can manage the destination of the print result with out the way of the printer-class, especially the choice of the bin/tray ...

Of course, you can use function like the following to read out the tray from you printer-driver and develop a solution
....
GetPrinter(ADevice,ADriver,APort,hDMode);
pDevMode := nil;
Res := DeviceCapabilities(ADevice,APort,DC_BINNAMES,PCHAR(@(bin[0][0])),pDevMode);
....

But there is an easier way with Rave.
Nevrona Designs have built a "Printer device manager class" called RpDevice.
Insert RpDevice in your uses and then you can work with RpDev.
This function return the current RPDevice object for manage the printer in your app.

RpDev.InvalidPrinter is the first command and with this you can check on the user-machine if there is a correct printer installed or not, e.g. on some servers with running applications aren't installed any printer.

RpDev.Device shows the (selected) printer and RpDev.Printers shows the installed printers on the system.
RpDev.Bins read the installed trays for the selected printer.
RpDev.Papers for the papers (from the driver)

I use Duplex-Mode where ever I can...
With RpDev.SupportDuplex exits an easy way to check if the printer(driver) support duplex or not...

The previous commands only read informations, with RpDev.Select... you can define the destination printer, tray, paper and more

RpDev.SelectPrinter(ComboBox1.Text, true);

To save properties on the printer in the OS you can use RpDev.SaveToPrinter;

Before you execute a report you should define all the things in your code and the result is as expected .

In the RpDev-class you'll find many more and I hope I've opened the door to the possibilities!

A new virtualization player is on the horizont...

I develop in the meantime virtual, meaning I have on my workstation (an Intellistation with Dual-XEON 3,2 GHz and 4 GB RAM) for the XP-Prof-System with RAD Studio 2007 a SCSI-Ultra-320 solution with two 15k-harddrives and for the Windows 2003-Server a Firewire-800-system; it works under VMWare Server 1.0.4. The backup is on a USB2-HDD and I think this is a highly performance solution. I tested the MS-solution but the VMWare is in my IMO faster..
And today I received the info hat there is till tomorrow another player in the virtual-world (not the 2nd-life ): Oracle ....
Oracle VM is "is three times more efficient than other server virtualization products", wooow this is a big promise.... and:
"Oracle VM software is available for free download."

There are some interestings things of Oracle VM in the doc's:
"System Requirements
Oracle VM installs directly on server hardware and does not require a host operating system."
this means no guest-os-layer....

from the FAQ:
Who can use Oracle VM?
Any user can get Oracle VM and associated support from Oracle whether they use Oracle products or third party applications.

I wonder about the first impressions of this virtual-solution in the next days on my workstation....
Oracle VM can be freely downloaded starting Wednesday, November 14, 2007 at oracle.com

Namespaces and Types of the .net framework 3.5

I've done in the past few weeks some small projects with win32 (I know, it's death but it really works, believe me) and if I need things from the .net-world I've written the assemblies and application in BDS2006 and RAD2007 and it works fine, e.g. I noticed that the log-file from the Microsoft Fax solution in WinXP is Unicode and to read information I made an .net-application. The main application use this "translated" information in non-Unicode.

Today I noticed that there is a new poster from Microsoft.com about the namespaces and types in .net 3.5 (actually 2.x ) here available:
.net-Namespace-pdf-file

-> I think we must be on the top of any changes in the .net-world but it can co-exists with Win32-development and with Delphi we have both worlds, the old, stable and the new (not un-stable!) for our daily work.

F# in the next VisualStudio release ??

In the Blog from Soma Somasegar, Corporate Vice President der Developer Division of Microsoft he thought about including the language F# in one of the next Visual Studio release....

F# is a functional programming language, objectoriented and high performanced for a scripting language....

Delphi Code Camp on Tour

After Daniel and Olaf I'll announce the Delphi Code Camp, too.
We'll cover Vista, VCL for the web and Reporting with RAD Studio 2007.

The Reporting with Rave is my part of this CodeCamp.

On Tuesday, 04. December 2007 I will talk, show and discuss about Rave Reporting and Delphi / C++Builder 2007. We'll make a lot of practice and use RAD Studio 2007, Rave 7 (BE and BEX), InterBase2007 and the new database BlackfishSQL.net from (both with dbx4) CodeGear. We'll create reports in Win32 and VCL.net.

The language on this stop of the DCConTour will be German, d.h. ich werde ab hier in deutscher Sprache fortfahren:

Wir werden Rave Reports 7 intensiv kennenlernen und insbesondere die Architektur und effiziente Nutzung dieser Reportengine an diesem Tage ausführlich behandeln.
Insbesondere kommen die Möglichkeiten von band- und seitenorientierten Reports, GlobalPages, DataMirrorSection, PDF-Erstellung, Rave Scripting und RaveServer 7 zur Sprache.
Mehr zu den Themen im CodeCamp hier.

Auch Entwickler von älteren Delphi bzw. Rave-Versionen können einen Großteil dieses KnowHow-Transfer für ihre tägliche Arbeit nutzen.

Obwohl jedes der 3 Seminare auch einzeln gebucht werden kann, sollte man sich bei diesen drei interessanten Themen für alle drei Tage anmelden!

Rave AddOns for Rave 7.5x BE

On the AddOn-Page from Nevrona.com are some AddOn for Rave, e.g. JPEG, GridBox, GreenBar Rectangle.

I hope that I have in the next few days time for creating a version for the BE-versions of Rave 7.5x for the 2007-IDE's. At the moment you'll find there only versions for Rave 4-7.0 (without BE 6.5x, if you need a version for this, insert here a comment and then I'll create the 6.5x-AddOns, too).

I hope every Rave-User have looked into the GreenBar Rectangle-component.. This AddOn is really a must-have-AddOn because you can set to alternate colors each time it prints, e.g. every 2rd line on long list-reports different background color. Now is the reading of reports with a lot of lines much better! Your customer will love this feature in your reports, try it! (but please use only white and silver for background and not red and blue or other funky colors ).

Delphi 7 and the Rave 5 BE Patch

I read last week in the nevrona-newsgroup a question about the location of the Rave 5.0.8 BE update for Delphi 7. On the CodeGear-page this important patch seemed not to be there.. I looked there and found it, of course, but another said, he have checked too and no, it isn't there....
Then I go to the CodeGear-page again, and yeah, it's tricky to found on the first vist.
You must go to the Delphi 7.1 update and on the next page you'll find the 5.0.8 patch for Delphi 7.... see my hardcopy on the right side.

Sometimes I'm surprised about questions for the 5.0.8 patch because Delphi 7 and Rave 5 are in the meantime very old...
But a lot of developers use the old IDE successfully...
If you are a Delphi 5-7 developer: look into the 2007-version of Delphi, this is a fast, stable and very powerful IDE.
Delphi 8 was a first try, but not a delphi as expected, Delphi 2005 was version 1.0 of the new IDE and Delphi 2006 was version 1.1 and 2007 is 1.5; meaning the first Delphi with the same properties like Delph 7!
And on the Rave-side Nevrona in Arizona have developed with Rave7 a fast and stable version of the report engine too! Look to the Nevrona-page for the new features of Rave7. I like especially the new JPG-Render and the improved and stable Rave Scripting in Rave7.

Download the trial of RAD Studio 2007 and Rave 7.5 and you'll stay on the newer versionsfrom Delphi and Rave after some hours.....