No rest for the wicked ... no sooner have the VCL development team here at Developer Express shipped Build 45, than they are back in the labs working on the next release. This time I was able to sneak a peek at the TODO list in front of the team working on the ExpressPrinting System™ v4 which should be available as a beta in Build 46 (Providing, as always, it has met our Quality standard).
The Printing System is a remarkable product that lets you take a grid that your user has specialized by sorting, grouping, re-ordering and filtering the data to get it looking just the way they want and then with one line of code print the data out, in that shape, as a report. It works with a whole range of controls from our Quantum, Vertical, and Pivot Grids, as well as Rich Edits, Schedulers, regular Forms, SpreadSheets and many more. It really is the fastest way to deliver printed reports in a Delphi application.
Did you notice the recent case study from EC Software the developers of Help & Manual, and the revolutionary UI they created using the Ribbon control from ExpressBars™? Well the Printing System team have become inspired and are adding the Ribbon control to the Print Preview dialog. So with v4 if you have the ExpressBars product installed you will be able to see the Ribbon in the Preview Dialog, and if you have the ExpressSkins™ library installed you can skin all the dialogs with any custom skin.
But that's just the appetiser, can you guess the biggest new feature from the following sneak peek?
That's right! With ExpressPrinting System v4 you will not only be able to print complex controls with ease, you can generate PDF files from the result.
Personally I can't wait to be able to drop a PivotGrid, a Reportlink and a Generate PDF button on a form, hit compile, and ship the exe to a particular middle level manager I know who is always trying to contract me into building him new reports on the same data.