Quartam Reports Update
Version 1.1 Available Now!

by Jan Schenkel

You've all been waiting for a while now, but guess what? The essential report generator for Revolution just got a lot more powerful.

Improvements for all editions :

• Stretching data fields
  The top feature request was data fields that would stretch to fit their content. Quartam Reports 1.1 delivers on the promise made at the launch of version 1.0 If the text does not fit on the current page, it is automatically split and new pages are added as needed.
• Relative positioning
  When you use stretching data fields, you also want to position other items in relation to this expansion - e.g. a line at the bottom of the band, below a stretching data field with remarks about the customer. Quartam Reports 1.1 lets you position items at a fixed distance from the top or the bottom border of the band in which they reside.
• Oval graphics
  In addition to lines, rectangles and rounded rectangles, Quartam Reports 1.1 allows you to draw oval graphics on the layouts of your reports and label sets.
• Title and summary bands
  A lot of reports benefit from a title section to provide introductory information, as well as a summary section to display aggregate information. Quartam Reports 1.1 lets you set flags to add title and summary sections to your report layout.
• Data groups for everyone
  This feature used to be exclusive for the Professional edition, but is now also available in the Standard Edition. Quartam Reports 1.1 lets you define data group, and print optional data group headers and footers, as well as track aggregate information.
• New page upon group change
  Sometimes you want to start printing the contents of a data group on a blank new page - e.g. when printing a commission report for your sales reps, you don't want to share the data of one sales rep with the other sales reps. Quartam Reports 1.1 lets you set a flag for the data group, and will print the necessary data group headers on the new page.
• Printing global variables
  Sometimes you want to print the content of a global variable on your report, or use it in a printing condition, without having to script your own data broker. Quartam Reports 1.1 adds an extra parameter to the simplified printing commands, so you can pass the names of the global variables that you want to use during the printing of a report or label set from the data of a stack, SQL result set or automated database query.

Improvements for Professional edition only:

• Barcodes
  Another new feature in Quartam Reports 1.1 is the ability to add barcodes to your reports and label sets - currently supporting the industry standards EAN 8, EAN 13, UPC-A, Codabar, Interlaced 2 of 5 and Code 3 of 9, as well as Postnet.
• 2D Charts
  Nothing helps you see numbers in perspective like a 2d chart (pun intended).
  Quartam Reports 1.1 lets you display numeric data in the following chart styles:
  • Bar chart
  • Column chart
  • Line chart
  • Pie chart
• Label and field text export
  You may want to take the data from your report and use it as the basis of an Excel worksheet where you can add charts, perform off-line analytical processing, etc. Quartam Reports 1.1 lets your user export the text content of the labels and data fields to the following formats:
  • Excel 2003 (Spreadsheet XML)
  • HTML
  • CSV
  • Text (tab-delimited)
• New data broker callbacks
  When you're implementing your own data broker, you may want to take certain actions before the report printing library moves on to printing a new page. Quartam Reports 1.1 will now send the callback message 'qrtReports_MoveNextPage' to your data broker after printing the page footer and before printing the header of the new page. Implementing this callback message is optional.
• New data broker functions
  When you're implementing your own data broker, you may want to take the current page number into account when resolving data expressions. Quartam Reports 1.1 now offers the function 'qrtReports_GetCurrentPage', allowing your data broker to retrieve the current page number.

This exciting new release is a free upgrade for all registered users of Quartam Reports 1.0. If you don't already have Quartam Reports you can buy it at our online store