FastReport

FastReports is a report generator developed by Fast Reports. The product is used in different operation systems including windows and Linux. The main important feature of FastReports is its designer which enables both professionals and non-professionals to develop reports.
The first version was released in 1998 and since then it has been updated several times upto the latest version 4.9.33. It can export reports to different formats as well as sending reports by email.
History
The first version of FastReport was developed in 1998. It was not developed for commercial purposes, just for personal use. But after a short use, it had a great demand from users who had tried it so that they can buy and use. And in the same year,1998 the first commercial product was released being named FastReport 2.
* 1998—2002 — FastReport VCL 2. for Delphi/ (win32 platform) and Kylix (Linux). In 2002 FastReport VCL stay the product of the year in delphizine.com
* 2004 - Released FastReport VCL 3 for Delphi/C++ Builder. Full multithread, changed architecture.
* 2005 FastReport Studio - COM server for Visual Basic 6, Visual FoxPro, etc.
* 2006 May - FastReport Server - standalone http reporing server
* 2006 October - FastReport VCL 4.
New: tumbnails, DATA tab with all report datasources, code completion (Ctrl+Space), breakpoints, watches, report templates, zooming and spliting pages on print, drill-down reports, "endless page" mode, reports crypting (Rijndael algorithm), report inheritance (both file-based and dfm-based), etc.
* 2009 FastReport.Net for .NET Framework platform released.
Applications and use
As a reporting tool, it can be used for creating reports for business like data statistics, workers performance, orders done and invoices. In accounting it is used for statistical presentation of the data. The designer contains business graphics which also has objects like “Line”, formation of individual line frame, and PNG picture support for displaying data. Other report components like data bands, chart object, sub-report, picture and summary objects are combined to form a graphical data presentation.
Support
To perform its function, FastReport supports different functions like report export, different data source support.
Export
The product supports almost all export formats, some of them include:
*PDF
*HTML web
*Text (txt),
*xls
*Image formats including gif,png, bmp,Tiff and others.
*Rich text format (rtf)
*Email
*CSV file
*Open document text
*Excel table (OLE)
*Open document spreadsheet
Supported Data sources
The following data sources can be connected to:
*All internal application sources
*ADO
*BDE
*DBX
*FIB
*IBX
*All other custom developed access
*Text files
*XML files
*Sheets like Excel
Report page designer
The designer is the main feature of the product. The designer supports WYSWYG developing system. It allows report developers to design the report, at the same time includes needed features in the report. It also allows placing needed components on the report form and then place data bands and makes the needed data connections.
The left side of the designer has the needed objects and the right side has functions and class which can be used in the report.
Report page components
FastReport page has many components, some of the notable ones include the following:
*Hand tools
*Zoom
*Page Edit
*Insert band
*Cross tab
*Db cross tab
*Rich text object
*Chat object
*Barcode
*Table
*Text object
*Picture object
*Gradient object
*Data
*Variables
*Functions
*Class
Important features
Important features include:
*Import from Fast Cube
*Wide Variety of band types
*Sub-reports
*Chart
*Graphical data presentation
*Rich data source support
*Report head and summary support
*Possibility to create reports by both computer literate and illiterate.
*Fast report-generation
*Small memory usage
*Easy tables creation
*Easy to design reports
*Data bands for data access
*Report preview before printing
*Report preview and printing
*Report page sorting
*Small report page combination into one big one
*Endless report page support
*Cross band support
Extra/Custom database access
FastReport has components for access to databases from within the report designer. Support for most common databases is delivered with the product. The unique architecture of FastReport also allows for database components to be created easily.
For some databases they are available from external sources, AidAim Accuracer database and Zeoslib components.

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