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TFORMer Designer

1. Alt Align Elements for multiple selection Align Left 0ccee Ctrl ALIGHUPIGMM sescectcccucectseresies Ctrl gt Align TOP cccssscceeeeeees Ctrl A Align Bottom Ctrl 4 Page 138 of 139 Move Up cccccceeeeeeeeeees Alt N Move DOWN oann Alt 4 Datasource Cc Reload data cccccccsseee F5 Miscellaneous TFORMer Help F1 Cancel operation ESC e g cancel a mouse drag and drop WWW TEC IT COM Page 139 of 139
2. Ilf Condition TrueExpr FalseExpr gt string IsDate Text Format long long IsLastPage IsLeapYear Date lsOdd Number KeepChars Text KeepChars long long string LastValue VarName Left Text nLength Len Text Log Number Log10 Number string string long double double string Lookup Key NamedValues DefaultValue string Mid Text nStart nLenght Minute Date Month Date Pow Number Power Random Dbl long long date double double MinValue MaxValue long RandomLng MinValue WWW TEC IT COM IsEven Number Searches the string Text for SearchText in reverse order excluding nExclude characters at the end Returns the position of the string or 1 The first character of a string is found at position 0 Formats Number according to the specified pattern string Pattern Format placeholders digit or no value 0 0 or digit decimal point comma sign Formats Date according to the specified pattern string Pattern Format placeholders day of month 01 31 month double digit 01 12 month three digit Jan Dec year double digit 01 year four digit 2001 Example Format CDate 12 24 2009 MMM dd yyyy returns Dec 24 2009 See also section C 4 Formats R
3. 42 as Aggregation Summation Aggregation Type Region we Oa O Aggregation Filter Description Figure 46 Edit Datafield Dialog Computed If the datafield is supposed to return the result of a computation select the Computed option O In enter a name for the datafield In select the datafield type The computed value can either be a text an integer or a floating point number The field value is calculated by evaluating the expression in In you can choose whether the expression is computed for every record or for every record copy Example If you set the expression in to NumRecordCopies the datafield will return the number of copies which is adjusted in the datasource A typical application for computed fields is the aggregation summation of other datafield values In you can select one of the following aggregation types Do not calculate any sums Running Calculate the arithmetic average for all values within each enclosed region up to the current record Average This means the expression is calculated for each record respectively record copy see The result is then added to the series of values within region The datafield provides the average for these values Pease note The average of all records is not available before the last record Running Sum Calculate the sum for all values within each enclosed region up to the current record This
4. Datafield Figure 46 Edit Datafield Dialog Computed Figure 47 Calculate Sum Figure 48 Edit Datafield Dialog Serial Number Figure 49 Expression Builder Figure 50 Evaluation Order Figure 51 Select Tray Mappings in the Print Dialog Figure 52 Data View Figure 53 Edit Data Manually Figure 54 Data Source DSN WWW TEC IT COM 11 13 18 19 20 20 21 21 22 23 23 24 25 26 28 29 30 30 30 31 31 32 33 33 33 34 36 37 38 40 41 43 44 45 45 47 48 48 51 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 62 63 71 74 79 79 Page 7 of 139 Figure 55 SQL Query Figure 56 File Datasource Figure 57 XML Datasource Figure 58 Field Bindings Settings Figure 59 Computed Fields Figure 60 Example of an expression for a computed field Figure 61 SQL Query tab Figure 62 Select a Source Parameter Figure 63 Edit a Source Parameter Value Figure 64 Data for PickingListNo 1 Figure 65 Data for PickingListNo 2 Figure 66 Edit a Filter Figure 67 Picking List filtered for ProductGroup HARD DISC Figure 68 Preview Figure 69 Print Dialog with Advanced Settings enabled Figure 70 Options Dialog Figure 71 License Dialog Online Activation Figure 72 License Dialog Manual Licensing Figure 73 Simple Report Figure 74 Report with Columns Figure 75 Label Printer Figure 76 Label Sheets Figure 77 Label Sheets with Headers and Footers Figure 78 Label Sheets with Headers and
5. The record navigation allows you to navigate to the next previous first or last record or to a spe cific data record directly The data toolbar provides the following functions for manipulating datasources WWW TEC IT COM Page 74 of 139 Retesh Retadthecument data A EdtDatasource Edtthe detasouwee O gB Edit Source Parameter Edit the source parameters Edit Filter Edit the current filter expression Apply Filter Apply the current filter expression gt TFORMer Designer always uses the active datasource for printing gt TFORMer Designer only prints the records which are shown in the data grid This is usually the content of the active datasource but the number of records may be reduced by a filter see section 13 6 gt Sorting the records in the data grid is not supported If the printing order has to be changed please re arrange the records manually or adjust the appropriate datasource definition e g by inserting an ORDER BY instruction in the SQL statement 13 3 Datasources 13 3 1 Manual Datasource Default For each layout TFORMer provides a manual datasource see This datasource is always avail able It allows you to enter the required data directly into the data grid Datasource Edit manually default 0 Edit Parameter Reload Chair 558963 110 lt New Dotgfie Desk 778920 lt New Dott fie Monitor 775116 236 Mew Datofte Panel 544593 lt New Dotofte Coffe
6. gt lt New Datafield gt Insert Datafield Insert Expression Figure 36 Edit Dialog for Element Contents First choose the type of content that you want to assign The following options are available Datafield see 9 2 Formatted Text for text elements see 9 3 Simple Text for barcode elements see 0 File for picture elements see 9 5 Expression see 9 6 If you want to assign a datafield dynamic data with no additional text or whatsoever your choice will be option This option is typically used for output as barcode or as simple text element If you want to assign a fixed text or if you want to combine the content of a datafield with additional text other datafields and or expressions your choice will usually be option This option is the standard choice for text elements and barcodes It can be used for the creation of simple and complex contents Option will be your favorite choice only if you want to compute the content of an element based on the provided functions constants and datafields An example would be use of dynamic picture file names Depending on your selection O or one of the following dialogs is shown WWW TEC IT COM Page 47 of 139 9 2 Datafield m a Edit Text Datafields Description lt New Datafield gt lt New Datafield gt ArticleN ame ArticleNo 2 Quantity Unit Insert Datafield Insert Expression Figur
7. Formats the actual date e g Mon 29 Jan 2007 Format Now dddd d MMMM yyyy Formats the actual date e g Monday 29 January 2007 Table 8 Date Formats C 4 3 Time Format Now h m s tt Formats the current system time and appends am or pm according to the language settings of your system e g 9 6 5 am pm Format Now H m s Formats the current system time e g 21 6 5 Format Now h mm ss tt Formats the current system time and appends am or pm according to the language settings of your system e g 9 06 05 am pm Format Now H mm ss Formats the current system time e g 7 06 05 Format Now hh mm ss tt Formats the current system time and appends am or pm according to the language settings of your system e g 09 06 05 am pm Format Now HH mm ss Formats the current system time e g 21 06 05 Table 9 Time Formats C 5 Operators Please note that there may be more than one operator for identical operations In this case you can select your preferred notation beget NOT Comparative operaormotegua OOOO soaa oo m Comparative opertorema OOOO Comparative operatoreguak OOO WWW TEC IT COM Page 126 of 139 BCR tees OR OO BwseNOT Table 10 Operators C 6 Constants Logical value FALSE This value is usually the result of a
8. if the PickingListParameter is set to 1 the SQL Query SHUM IE EE ONE O Ee bole ec iV gUHeIe eskele Nc e E G a 2 ake lt LikGlabene e will internally be evaluated as WWW TEC IT COM Page 89 of 139 SHEE CE FROM coi Prekingitce WHIEREOPieckinguesino i 13 5 2 3 Set a Value for the Source Parameter For correct substitution of the source parameters you have to assign the required parameter values Therefore click on the Edit Source Parameter icon in the toolbar or select Data gt Edit Source Parameter from the menu Alternatively you can also click on the button Parameter in the design view or right click on the datasource entry in the design tree and select Edit Source Para meter from the pop up menu The following dialog will appear Edit ODBC ai required create or adjust Source Parameters These parameters are used for dynamic Datasources e g parameters for SQL WHERE instructions or file names in text Datasources Picking List Parameter Show Advanced Options Figure 63 Edit a Source Parameter Value Enter the required value for the source parameter in Then confirm with OK Using the settings as shown above TFORMer will only fetch records where the PickingListNo is equal to 7 PickingListNo ArticleNo CustomerNo Description 1 1 Hitachi Ultrast 2 1 1 4562656 4711 Hitachi Ultrast 3 1 1 4564616 4711 Fujitsu Allegro 4 1 1 45646
9. 24 02 2009 Phone Figure 42 Datafields as Part of the Printing Concept wes Page 1 of 1 Input Data with Datafields Reference Datafields in Text Barcode or Image Elements e g ArticleNo ArticleName Chair Desk Monitor Panel Coffee Machine Printer Fax Phone In the layout TFORMer displays each datafield in square brackets or angle brackets lt gt for HTML content see The current value of a datafield is available on the print out only The value of a datafield is either provided manually see section 13 3 1 provided by an external datasource e g imported from a database see section 13 3 2 a serial number see section 10 3 3 computed per record see section 10 3 2 computed for specific bands pre and post evaluation see section 12 4 or provided programmatically by a software developer see section 15 3 If no value was loaded or computed the datafield returns its default value see section 10 3 1 its start value see section 10 3 3 or zero see section 10 3 2 gt In order to provide the data from an external datasource the datafield has to be bound to the required field in the datasource to the so called sourcefield Please note Datafield and sourcefield need not necessarily have the same name see section 13 4 WWW TEC IT COM Page 53 of 139 10 2 Basic Operations 10 2 1 Create D
10. Due to the nature of HTML some output features may be limited or not available WWW TEC IT COM Page 11 of 139 Image Formats The built in image output supports BMP GIF JPG PCX TGA PNG and TIF formats including multipage TIF ZEBRA Print to ZEBRA printers without any additional driver ZPL II output is generated directly ASCII Pure ASCII output without any graphics for special purpose requirements 3 4 System Requirements 3 4 1 Operating Systems TFORMer Designer requires one of the operating systems listed below It works with 32 bit and 64 bit operating systems Microsoft Windows 2000 Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows Vista Microsoft Windows 7 Microsoft Windows Server 2003 including Terminal Server Microsoft Windows Server 2008 including Terminal Server TFORMer Designer includes the output kernel of the TFORMer SDK This output kernel is available for Linux and UNIX as well For details check out the Developer Manual 3 4 2 Memory 512 MB RAM is the recommended minimum 1 GB for Windows Vista or higher Actual memory requirements depend on the type and size of the generated output 3 4 3 Disk Space TFORMer needs approximately 30 MB on disk When using the NET based API of the TFORMer SDK or the printing utility TFORMer QuickPrint please also consider NET 2 0 requirements WWW TEC IT COM Page 12 of 139 4 User Interface This chapter will give yo
11. ZOOM Out Ctrl ZOOM In Out o ae Ctrl Mousewheel AUtO ZOOM Ctrl 0 ZOOM 100 b an Ctrl 1 ZOOM 200 b an Ctrl 2 ZOOM 300 b an Clues ZOOM 400 b an Ctrl 4 ZOOM 50 ceceeeseeeseeeeees Ctrl 5 Scroll vertically Mousewheel Scroll horizontally Shift Mousewheel WWW TEC IT COM File Edit Insert Layout Data Tools View Window Help DGGE PASS 458 xX 9 Cie AD EAS SO BS Ba Dow e 2 ee ee Arial 7 z A 2 iil e Chae Fe G TFORMer TFORMer1 TFORMer1 x v Repository Design 1 a i A TFORMer1 yj Datasources c 3 Datafields H Tray Mappings cut Umschalt Entf o EX ares Bands ca Copy Strg C P Report Headers a5 X Delete Standard Lal f is printed once for each d size f Label Printeditems on F zorder Assign Layer Standard Labelis print Arial 10 Fore Color 000000 Fill Color L No Color Line Color O No Line Set Default Format Apply Default Format EE Printing Condition Properties 44 gt gt I Layout Data y Preview z I lt Edit the content of Text Barcode and Picture Elements Right Click Context Menu If you are unsure which operations can be performed on a selected object open the context menu by clicking the right mouse button see Renaming To change the name of a datafield tray mapping layer band or design element select the entry in the tree view Af
12. gt Apply Filter from the menu 13 6 3 Print with a Filter To start the printing process press Ctr P or select File Print from the menu The dialog below will appear On the printing dialog select the required printer the datasource etc Form Print If you have already adjusted the filter in Device the data view or in the print preview no Output to Printer Options additional adjustments are required tinker However you have the possibility to Pages enable disable or to All Copies 1 modify From H to Collate the current filter expression O Simulate Copies Advanced Settings CREE To edit the filter expression click on the Miter ProductGroup HARD DISC P button The expression builder see Save serial values after printing section 1 1 2 will open ray eng Sarton SDK Options Open output file automatically Print j Cancel Confirm with Print to start printing For general information on printing please refer to chapter 15 Example For the following screenshot we use the picking list example File gt New Form gt 6 Samples gt Picking List To print only items in the product group HARD DISC use the following filter expres sion ProductGroup SHARD Disc TFORMer will only print data records where the content of the field ProductGroup is equal to the string HARD DISC Customer 47
13. means the expression is calculated for each record respectively record copy see The result is then added to the series of values within region The datafield provides the sum of these values Pease note The sum of all records is not available before the last record gt Please note These functions are only available for numeric data types integer floating point and not for text For Running Sums and Running Averages specify the region in which the values shall be evaluated see WWW TEC IT COM Page 57 of 139 Group Do a separate aggregation within the range of each new group In order to identify the group enter the same condition as for the group header footer property Group By in field Whenever the result of the expression changes a new group is started When using a filter in field single values will only be considered if the expression returns true Thus you can define which values are considered for the aggregation and which not In you can add an arbitrary description text 10 3 2 1 Example Calculate Sum In the following example we will summarize all listed prices in a report The result is printed underneath the last detail band Edit Datafield Sum_ArtidePrice DSe Data Type Compute per feos Expression ArtidePrice Aggregation Summation Aggregaton T ype Region secs iene Aggregation Filter ltem list with barcodes ooo 55
14. see below Licensing Please enter your license information system ID FsD71i2F Product Licensee Kind of License Number of Licenses Your License Key LIE E TTT YY Figure 72 License Dialog Manual Licensing The following steps are required to license the product 1 On the top of the dialog you see the System ID of your computer For single licenses we will ask you to send us the System ID of the target computer 2 Inthe field Product select TFORMer In the field Licensee enter the name of the license holder 4 Inthe field Kind of License select the kind of license that you have purchased Possible license types are Workstation Site 5 Inthe field Number of Licenses enter the number of licenses that you have purchased 6 Inthe field Your License Key enter the license key exactly as received from TEC IT 7 Confirm the dialog with OK a A message will inform you about the successful licensing In case of problems or errors please contact TEC IT 18 3 Notes TFORMer stores the license data in the registry of the current user HKEY CURRENT USER Software TEC IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH TFORMer 6 0 For workstation wide licensing copy this license data to the corresponding HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE registry path Another possibility to license TFORMer is to use a license file named TFORMer ini This file must be stored in the same directory as TFORMer e
15. 10 Luhn Algorithm long CheckDP Text Returns the Deutsche Post check digit Leitcode Identcode of the specified value as long CheckMod10 Returns the Modulo 10 check digit weighted as ASCII code Text E g CheckMod10 1203 will return 52 which is the ASCII code for the character 4 string Please use the function Chr CheckMod10 to get the result as a character char CheckMod36 Returns the Modulo 36 check digit of the specified value as character Text char CheckMod43 Returns the Modulo 43 check digit of the specified value as character Text Cst Expr Day Date long DayOfWeek Returns the day of the week of a specified date 1 7 1 Sunday 2 Monday Date double DayOfYear Returns the day of the year of a specified date 1 366 Date Exp Number Returns the value e where e is the base of the natural logarithms Exp10 Number Returns the 10 long Find Text Searches the string Text for SearchText starting from Position nStart Returns SearchText the position of the string or 1 The first character of a string is located at position 0 nStart WWW TEC IT COM Page 122 of 139 FindReverse Text SearchT ext nExclude long string Format Number Pattern string Format Date Pattern double long Fract Number Hour Date
16. 139 WWW TEC IT COM 15 2 1 1 Printing on PostScript and ZEBRA printers TFORMer generates PostScript or ZEBRA output directly This means that you can use such printers without any proprietary printer driver you have two options Print via a generic ASCII printer driver Print via a PostScript or ZEBRA driver In both cases the printer driver is used to send the data which was generated by TFORMer to the required device comparable to pass through mode No driver functionality is used 15 2 2 Pages Here you specify the range of output pages Examples All prints all pages From 1 to 1 prints the first page only 15 2 3 Copies Specifies the number of copies Collate If enabled always the complete range of pages will be printed at once one complete printout for each copy If disabled all copies of the first page are printed then all copies of the second page are printed and so on Simulate Copies If enabled the number of copies is not passed as printer commend but each page is repeatedly sent to the printer Choose this option if the printer driver does not support copies 15 2 4 Data Datasource Select the datasource to be used for printing Please note Before printing TFORMer always reloads the data from the adjusted datasource This guarantees that the actual data is used Filter Here you can optionally apply a filter expression If a filter is set only the records for
17. 3 2 6 3 3 Watermark Document Name Bands Introduction Band Types Basic Operations Insert a Band Band Selection Expanded Collapsed View of Bands Adjust Band Properties Change Size 7 3 5 1 Width 7 3 5 2 Height 8 8 1 8 2 8 2 1 8 2 2 Change Band Printing Order Delete a Band Printing Conditions Pre and Post Evaluations Elements Introduction Basic Operations Insert an Element Element Selection 8 2 2 1 Examples 8 2 3 8 2 4 8 2 5 8 2 6 8 2 7 8 2 8 8 2 9 8 2 10 Change Element Size Move an Element Element Properties Positioning and Measuring Delete an Element Printing Conditions Assign Elements to a Printing Layer Design Functions for Elements 8 2 10 1 Alignment 8 2 10 2 Size 8 2 10 3 Z Order 8 2 10 4 Spacing 8 3 8 3 1 8 3 2 8 3 3 9 4 9 5 9 6 10 10 1 10 2 10 2 1 Elements with Content Text Elements Barcode Elements Picture Elements Element Content General Datafield Formatted Text Text Elements The Toolbar Datafields and Expressions HTML Formatted Expressions Simple Text Barcode Elements File Picture Elements Expression Datafields Introduction Basic Operations Create Datafield Definitions 10 2 1 1 Create Datafield Definitions Manually 10 2 1 2 Create Datafield Definitions Automatically 10 2 2 10 2 3 Datafield Properties Use Datafields in Layouts 10 2 3 1 Element Content 10 2 4 10 2 5 10 2 6 10 3 10 3 1 10 3 2 Edit a Datafield Ren
18. Coffee Machine 549896 30 Printer 458962 100 Pan 445666 115 Phone 458932 50 WWW TEC IT COM First create a table with the desired data Make sure that every column has a column name see 0 The column names should match the names of the datafields used in the layout Then select Office Button Save as Other Formats from the menu Navigate to the desired output folder and enter a file name e g Data Under choose CSV Comma delimited csv Then click Save When opened in a text editor the CSV file should look like this All columns must be separated by semicolons Page 137 of 139 Files New Form ccecseeeeeeee Cirl N OB GI saraaa Ctrl O BAVC soit cate aceasta Citrl S Close FOM Ctrl W Ctrl F4 Switch between open Files Select the file from the menu Window respec tively by using the layout picker Alternatively use the following keyboard shortcuts Next File cccceceeceeeees Ctrl Tab Previous File Ctrl Shift Tab Layout and Printing Layout View 0008 Ctrl L Data View Ctrl D Preview ccceseeeeeeeeeeeeees Ctrl Space Page Setup cceeee Alt P PTI E E Ctrl P The Page Setup can also be opened via double click on the form selection area or via double click on the gray area Editor Customization Grid Visible on off Ctrl G Snap To Grid on off Ctrl R ZOOM A ee Ctrl
19. PickingLlist WHERE tbl PickingList EE eRe GctDoFaran Picking List No CustomerNa Description Express Product sroup 4711 Hitachi Ultras HARD DISC 4711 Hitachi Ultras HARD DISC 4711 Fujitsu Allegr HARD DISC 4 11 Seagate Che HARD DISC 4711 Seagate Che HARD DISC 4711 Pentium 4 Pr CPU 4711 Pentium Extr CPU 4711 Pentium Extr CPU i meal mili sh mmi ai i _t l Show Advanced Options Figure 61 SQL Query tab To insert a source parameter in the SQL query place the cursor on the required position in and then click on nsert Source Parameter The following dialog will appear Select Source Parameter ea T F r Expression Description New Source Parameter gt New Source Parameter gt GetD SParam PickingListParameter PickingListParameter K J Cancel Figure 62 Select a Source Parameter Select the required source parameter and confirm with OK In this case the source parameter PickingListParameter will be used in the WHERE clause of the SQL query to retrieve the data for a specific picking list only When TFORMer is fetching data from the datasource the expression GetDSParam PickingListParameter is substituted with the actual value of the source parameter Thus the resulting SQL SELECT fetches only records from the database which match the specified picking list number E g
20. The content may consist of static and dynamic data see also section 8 3 1 New Barcode Create a new barcode A barcode encodes the given data in a machine readable form The content may consist of static and dynamic data see also section 8 3 2 J New Roundec Rectangle Create a new rectangle wih rounded comes S New Picture Embed a picture A picture element renders the specified image file The name of the image file may be specified as fixed text or computed see also section 8 3 3 For a list of element properties please refer to Appendix A 3 WWW TEC IT COM Page 40 of 139 8 2 2 Element Selection In the layout view you can select elements in various ways Click with the left mouse button on an element Hold down the Shift key or the Ctrl key for multiple selection Click with the left mouse button in an empty area of the layout view and while holding the mouse button pressed drag a selection frame around the required elements Then release the mouse button Depending on the direction in which you have dragged the selection frame different selection criteria are used Drag frame from left to right Only objects that are entirely overlapped by the frame will be selected Drag frame from right to left All objects that are entirely or partially overlapped by the frame will be selected A thin border with small rectangles sizing handles on its corners and on its sides indicates that the element
21. Tree E Show all open Forms Grid settings Width 5 00 mm Height 5 00 mm Grid visible Ctrl 6 Snap to grid Ctrl R The settings which apply for the output generation see sections 17 4 to 17 10 are stored in the configuration file 7 ORMer xmI These settings are used for TFORMer Designer TFORMer SDK and for TFPrint For more information on the configuration file see section E 2 17 2 General 17 2 1 User Interface Settings Measurement system Use automatic zoom for new views y n Edit content of elements after insertion y n Show tooltips in design y n The measurement system can be set to System Default Uses the measurement system that is specified in the regional options of your operating system Metric mm U S System inch If enabled all files that are opened will be set to Automatic zoom level fit the width of the layout window By default this option is disabled If enabled upon insertion of a new text barcode or picture element the dialog for editing the content will be opened automatically see chapter 9 By default this option is enabled If enabled TFORMer will display tooltips when hovering the mouse cursor over design elements or bands These tooltips show information about assigned data comments and printing conditions By default this option is enabled WWW TEC IT COM Page 102 of 139 Highlight on mouse over Specifies the typ
22. a specified date time 1 52 Date Year Date The year of the specified date time Table 4 Functions C 2 System Datafields Function Description The name of the current band LogPage The number of the current logical page 1 NumLogPages Several logical pages can be printed per physical page NumCopies The count of all copies 1 x NumLogPages The count of all logical pages 1 x Several logical pages can be printed per physical page NumPages The count of all physical pages sheets 1 x NumPrintltems Total number of items to be printed Sum of the copy count of all records NumRecordCopies The number of copies of the actual record A logical page is usually the area of a label on the output page Every Row Column Break starts a new logical page WWW TEC IT COM Page 124 of 139 NumRecords The count of all inout records Page The actual page number 1 NumPages Every printed physical page sheet increases the page number by 1 Printedltems Number of currently printed items including the current item Project The name of the current project ProjectDir The directory of the current project ow tfDocumentName This name will be used for the spool job under Microsoft Windows Can be set via an expression YResolution Vertical device resolution in dots per inch 25 4 mm Table 5 System Datafields C 3 Common Expressions CStr Page Inserts the page n
23. and image elements see section 8 3 as printing conditions for bands and graphical elements see section 12 2 as printing conditions for layers see section 12 3 for computed fields and serial numbers see sections 10 3 2 and 10 3 3 for pre and post evaluations in bands see section 12 4 to compute the name of the generated output or spool file See section 6 3 2 to filter the input data See section 13 6 The syntax used by TFORMer is similar to the programming language C Example Page Footer Page Footer This text element contains formatted text In line with the text the expression Now was inserted It Date Now Q will return the current system date Date 02 05 2009 During print time the expression is evaluated Instead of Now the current date is printed 11 2 Expression Builder Expressions are edited using the Expression Builder WWW TEC IT COM Page 61 of 139 fr Expression Builder 5 Datafields Expression Description Constants I System Datafields E gt Functions IsDate sT ests Formats Test for a valid Date IsLeap year sO ates Test if Leap Year Minube sD ates Minute Month sO ates Month Now How Second s0 ates Second WeekO Pear D ates Week of fear Year Dates ear fom Formats F P m Please enter an Expression manually You can also add a predefined Expressi
24. by using the toolbar icon 1 or by clicking in the column lt New Datafield gt 9 For the manual datasource the content of the new datafield can be edited immediately When using an external datasource e g ODBC you need to provide the content for the new datafield via sourcefield binding See section 13 4 13 3 2 External Datasources In addition to the manual datasource you can specify one or more of the following external data sources ODBC Datasource see section 13 3 3 Flat Text File CSV TSV see section 13 3 4 XML File see section 13 3 5 For managing these datasources use the operations described below 13 3 2 1 Create a New Datasource Create a new datasource using either of the following methods g ArticleName Select lt Create New Datasource gt from the drop down list O s Data t C temp BEIT Datasources Mm a Right click on the Datasources entry a i Cut Strg in the design tree and select New j 23 Copy Strg C Datasource from the pop up menu a D G amp S Paste Strg V Click on the New Datasource icon in the data toolbar C eae ea i g Se Y SS gt The dialog New Datasource will appear WWW TEC IT COM Page 76 of 139 ry New Datasource Specify the name and the type of the new Datasource Datasources are used to print layouts with dynamic data Choose a Type ODBC Database Flat Te
25. click Next The following wizard will appear Create New Form Page Settings Specify the page size and the layout type Paper Media Orientation Format x Portrait x Width Landscape Height Printer Default Margins Output Top 1 51 Rotation Bottom ight 63 Figure 16 Simple Report Page Settings Choose the desired layout type in Normally this is the type Simple Report Then specify the page size the orientation and the page margins in Click Finish to open the layout The following layout was created with the settings as shown above Reports typically have a report header a page header followed by a list of data records detail bands a page footer and a report footer Upon creation of the new report 10 records are inserted automatically For each of these records TFORMer generates one row in the report WWW TEC IT COM Page 29 of 139 a ES EE EF ESE ESEE ee ee EEES EEE CEEL ETES ee EES DE TEES TEER EEES DE Report Header Report Header Report Header uds Page Header Page Header Page Header A Detal Detal Detail Band Printeditems To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the toolbar on the ef To delete an Elemert or Band select f and press Der To fi the Report with variable dats use Data ields Right click on E
26. click on the project and select Import Form from the pop up menu The dialog below will appear In select the file that you want to import Then click Next or Finish If you click Next you can assign a name and a description for the layout in the repository By default the name of the imported file will be used as layout name 16 2 5 Export a Layout from the Repository Exporting a layout from a repository creates a stand alone layout WWW TEC IT COM Page 99 of 139 sl sais iis In the design tree locate the project from which you Ef Demos fr C ProgramData TECIT TFORMer 6 0 Examples Want to export the layout Then right click on the oe Tray Mappings ca lfg Global Datasources layout and select Export Form from the pop up ea Global Datafields menu BS Empty Project g E Industry Templates An alternative method is to open the layout by ao gt double clicking it in the design tree Thereafter select fe rere File Save as 6 a Forms pu BarcodeLabels E BusinessCard_Fixed tk Busi x Delete New Form Import Form Open Form Properties 16 2 6 Close a Repository Mark the repository in the design tree the root entry Then right click on it and select Close Repository from the pop up menu Alternatively you can also use the menu File Repository Close Repository 16 3 Working with a Repository 16 3 1 Projects Before you can add layouts and datafield defi
27. condition If the condition is not fulfilled the resulting value is FALSE Logical value TRUE This value is usually the result of a condition If the condition is fulfilled the resulting value is TRUE Table 11 Constants WWW TEC IT COM Page 127 of 139 Appendix D Layout Schemes D 1 General Basically TFORMer distinguishes two layout types Labels and Reports Each of these two types allows different variations in the page layout When printing Labels usually one detail band is printed on each label A label is also referred to as logical page area This area can be printed once or multiple times on each physical page When printing Reports multiple details bands are printed underneath each other The page minus the headers and footers is filled with detail bands The area on which the detail bands are printed is internally also treated as logical page as label Figure 73 to Figure 81 use the following color keys for page areas and bands C The red frame marks the page area which may on demand be divided into multiple labels i The dashed frame marks one label one logical area _ Depending on the settings for this band it is either printed inside or outside of the label area Applies to page headers page footers report headers and report footers This band is always printed inside of the label area Applies to detail bands report headers and report footers TFORMer fills each physical page wi
28. enter a custom separator character Text qualifier The text qualifier specifies the character which is used to enclose data values in the file e g data values may be enclosed in quotes This may sometimes be necessary to differentiate field values from the separator character Select a predefined text qualifier cha racter from the list or enter a custom character First line contains column names Specify whether the first line in the text file contains the column names or not If selected TFORMer does not treat data in the first line as data values Instead these names are used as the names of the sourcefields Preview A preview of the datasource values is displayed For advanced users With the help of expressions and source parameters you have the possibility to build a dynamic file path and or file name First open the edit dialog for by clicking the button then use the corresponding button nsert Source Parameter or Insert Expression For details on expressions and source parameters see chapter 11 and section 13 5 2 WWW TEC IT COM Page 81 of 139 13 3 4 2 Field Bindings To complete the setup of the datasource adjust the required field bindings see section 13 4 13 3 5 XML File XML file datasources are used to retrieve data from a well formed XML file In addition to the XML file you can specify an optional transformation file XSLT file This file may be used to transform a custom XML file int
29. headers are printed when a group starts group footers are printed after a group ends Page Break Determines whether a page break will be inserted before and or after this band Possible values None Before this Band After this Band Before and After this Band Row Column Break Determines whether a row column break will be inserted before and or after this band Possible values None Before this Band After this Band Before and After this Band Pre Evaluation This expression will be evaluated before the band is printed See section 12 4 Post Evaluation This expression will be evaluated after the band is printed see section 12 4 A 2 2 Advanced Most settings in the group Advanced are available for Complex report and label layouts only For every single page of the output you can dynamically select a tray on the target printer E g this might be useful for printing the first page of an invoice on a letterhead The tray selection is performed by the first band on a new page e g by the page header The tray that is entered in the property of this band will be selected Tray 0 is the default tray uses the setting of the current printer driver Tray 1 to 10 can be pre configured Tray Mappings Trays For more details please refer to section 12 6 The band type Report Header Page Header Output Area The area in which the band shall be printed Page Label Print at Bottom By default the
30. in question 13 3 3 1 DSN Database Selection In the DSN tab specify the ODBC connection Edit ODBC ODBC Datasource Specify or select the DSN data source name of your ODBC database F required modify the DSN with Expressions and Source Parameters Data Source DSN DSN TFORMer_Sample User admin Password Connection E Show Advanced Options Figure 54 Data Source DSN Data Source DSN Enter the connection string which identifies your required ODBC connection You can select from a list of available datasources as defined under Microsoft Windows Control Panel gt Administrative Tools Data Sources ODBC by pressing the button amp Or you can enter the string manually by pressing the button Username Enter a username for the database connection by pressing the button Password Enter a password for the database connection by pressing the button Test Connection Use this button to test the connection settings For advanced users With the help of expressions and source parameters you have the possibility to build dynamic connection strings e g use a variable data source DSN user name and or password First open the expression builder for or by clicking the button then use the corresponding button nsert Source Parameter or Insert Expres sion For details on expressions and source parameters see chapter 11 and section 13 5 2 WWW T
31. prints one detail band per record of the datasource Please note that this data centric output scheme is maintained in all cases even when printing pure static documents like personal address labels In this case the number of records or the copy counter for records controls the number of printed labels A datasource can be seen as a simple table which is read row by row record by record by TFORMer during printing Each record each row provides the values for one or more datafields used in the layout e g ArticleName ArticleNo and ArticlePrice WWW TEC IT COM Page 25 of 139 Data Fields Datasource Edit rranually default v Edit ca ArticleName ArticleNo ArticlePrice D 1 Chair 558963 1 D 2 Desk 778920 150 Q 3 Monitor 775116 236 7 4 Panel 544593 40 5 Coffee Mac 549896 30 6 Printer 458862 100 7 Fax 445866 115 8 Phone 458932 50 Figure 14 Datasource Concept 5 4 Reading a Datasource and Printing Bands TFORMer processes an output request in the following way A datasource is read record by record in the native order of the datasource TFORMer does not change the order of the records After starting a print job the first data record is loaded If no record exists TFORMer does not pro duce any output Then for each available data record TFORMer internally iterates through all bands in the layout Whether a band should be printed on the current printing position
32. report footer will be printed directly after the last detail band By setting this value to True the report footer will be printed at the bottom of the page before the page footer A 2 3 Control Printing Condition The printing condition decides at print time whether the band is printed or not see section 12 2 A 2 4 Position Specifies whether the height of the band is increased if required This is useful if the band For group headers and group footers Not for page headers and page footers For report headers page headers page footers and report footers For report footers Availability depends on the layout type and on the band type WWW TEC IT COM Page 111 of 139 contains elements with dynamic size possible for text and picture elements Allowed values are No Height Can Shrink Specifies whether the height of the band is decreased if possible This is useful if the band contains elements with dynamic size possible for text and picture elements Allowed values are No Height Print across Pages Specifies if the band may be printed across pages Yes the band will be continued on the next page if it does not fit in the remaining space on the current page Avoid the band will be split only if it does not fit on an empty page No the band will be clipped if it does not fit on an empty page A 2 5 Documentation Name The name of the band used for display only A
33. repository 4 2 2 Edit Reverts the last change Shortcut Cir Z Redo Reverts the last Undo Shortcut Cirl Y Copies all selected objects rectangles texts printing bands datafield definitions the clipboard and remove them from the layout Shortcut Ctrl X Shortcut Ctrl C re Soran mm Shortcut Ctrl V Keyboard Del Shortcut Double Click the Element or press F2 Edits the group by expression for the selected group header or group footer WWW TEC IT COM Page 14 of 139 Pre Evaluation Edits the pre evaluations for the selected band see also section 12 4 Post Evaluation Edits the post evaluations for the selected band see also section 12 4 4 2 3 Insert Project Inserts a new project into the repository Form Inserts a new layout into the repository Inserts a new Datafield Create a new datafield see also section 10 2 1 1 Datasource Create a new data source see also section 13 3 2 1 Source Parameter Create a new source parameter see also section 13 5 2 1 Inserts a new band page header detail band see also chapter 7 Element 2 Inserts a new element text barcode line see also chapter 8 4 2 4 Layout Layout View Switches to the layout view see section 4 4 2 Shortcut Ctr L Changes the order of overlapping elements The selected element can be brought to the front or to the back see also section 8 2 10 3 Align Aligns tw
34. select the variation Complex Report Please make sure not to change the predefined settings for the page subdivision so the page will not be divided into multiple labels The correct settings are 1 row 1 column O width and 0 height Remove the Row Column Break for the detail band see In the section Columns enter the required column configuration If you want to print multiple different detail bands in one line you have to apply the same column settings for all of these bands Otherwise line breaks will be inserted Variant A Fixed number of columns with identical width Page Break Row Column Break Detail Band In this example the page width is divided in two equal columns see also Figure 80 left You can let TFORMer calculate the column width automatically or you can enter it manually Please note In the layout the detail band is drawn over the whole page width However you may only use the part of the band which corresponds to the column width in this case half of the band width Variant B Multiple detail bands with individual widths Detail Band 0 000 mm In this case TFORMer automatically determines the space which is required for each detail band Thus the page can be filled with detail bands that have different widths Example File gt New Form gt 6 Samples gt Report_5 Page 134 of 139 D 4 4 Labels with Detail Band Columns In order to print multiple columns per lab
35. starts a new paragraph lt p gt ends the paragraph lt strike gt Strike through text Everything between the start tag lt strike gt and the end tag lt strike gt will be striked through lt sub gt Subscript Everything between the start tag lt sub gt and the end tag lt sub gt will be subscript lt sup gt Superscript Everything between the start tag lt sup gt and the end tag lt sup gt will be superscript lt u gt Underlined text Everything between the start tag lt u gt and the end tag lt u gt will be underlined Table 1 Supported HTML Tags B 1 2 TFORMer Specific Used by TFORMer internally This tag embeds expressions lt HtmlExpr gt Used by TFORMer internally This tag embeds expressions which are returning HTML Table 2 Supported HTML Tags TFORMer Specific B 2 Named Entities samo OOO Ampersand seguo O e letande quotaton mae WWW TEC IT COM Page 120 of 139 Biddy i raquo gt Rightangle quotation mark a Soft hyphen Zero width space amp ZWS amp zerowidthspace Registered Trademark amp plusmn Table 3 Supported HTML Entity Names incomplete list WWW TEC IT COM Page 121 of 139 Appendix C Function Reference C 1 Functions Betum Function Deserition long Asc Text Returns the ASCII value of a given character or of the first character of text date CDate Text Converts the string text to a date Provides an empt
36. the gray area Alternatively you can select the form by clicking on the indicate that the form is selected 6 3 2 Watermark The Watermark is an image which is used as background for each page The image file name or an expression which computes the file name during print time the output size and the output position can be adjusted in the Watermark group 6 3 3 Document Name The Document Name is used as name for the generated output file or spool file If left blank the file name of the form is used The document name can be adjusted in the Advanced group WWW TEC IT COM Page 36 of 139 7 7 1 Bands Introduction A layout consists of one or more bands Each band is a vertical section which contains graphical elements like text elements lines or barcodes Each band fulfills a specific purpose and is printed in a Clearly defined position and sequence Besides that bands may be used for computations and they can be used to control the output behavior see chapter 12 7 2 Band Types TFORMer supports the following band types Report Header This band is printed at the top of the first page of the output Alternatively it can also be printed at the top of the first label This band is optional Page Header This band is printed at the top of each page on the first page after the report header Alternatively it can also be printed at the top of each label This band is optional Group Header This optional b
37. tray is always selected by its logical number The mapping of the device dependent printer trays to the logical tray numbers is done in the Tray Mappings These tray mappings have to be configured beforehand Then for each print job you can select the appropriate mapping Example Assume you are printing one layout on two different printer models Printer A and Printer B Tray Mappings for Tray Mappings for _PrinterA Printer B Automatically Select _ gt Upper Paper Tray lt _ gt Manual Paper Feed _ lt gt Envelope Manual Feed lt _ lt P The first page of the layout should be printed using the manual paper feed which is named diffe rently on both printers due to different printer drivers Using the tray mappings as shown above the tray number 3 can be assigned in both cases When printing take care to select the appropriate tray mapping for the actual output device WWW TEC IT COM Page 69 of 139 The following steps are necessary for tray control Create and configure the required tray mappings Perform the tray selection in the band properties Select the correct tray mapping for printing Please note The _Default_ tray mapping is always available You can define as much tray mappings as required this is useful when printing one layout on different pr
38. using the right mouse button a few insert options can be selected TFORMer Data_Sum tff File Edit Insert Layout Data Tools View Window Help DO id QS SS amp Gy WB XK A EES i FF tse SD Sy Sy yh o Bt St Arial 12 BTU F 3B A O e ihe JS E Base oer Data_Sum tff x v Repository Design it Pan Te ee 1E E Data_Sum tff R TECIT TFORMer_DOKU t E ug Datasources E ra Datafields Computed HR O Serials tT Article Name mT ArticleNo fut ArticlePrice H Tray Mappings ie es 3 A K Group Footer Group Footer W Figure 44 Drag and Drop a Datafield 10 2 4 Edit a Datafield To edit an existing datafield double click it in the design tree The Edit Datafield dialog will appear see section 10 3 Modify the required settings and then confirm with OK Alternatively use the properties window for editing the datafield properties WWW TEC IT COM Page 55 of 139 10 2 5 Rename a Datafield To rename a datafield select it in the design tree and thereafter press F2 or click again on the datafield with the left mouse button Now you can directly edit the datafield name Alternatively use the properties window or the Edit Datafield dialog to rename a datafield gt Attention When renaming a datafield TFORMer will NOT automatically update all referen ces to this datafield e g in text elements pre post evaluations printing conditions This has to be done ma
39. whether the element will be printed or not see section 12 2 Assign the element to one of the predefined layers See section 12 3 A 3 4 Position Fight Thorightmostcoowdnate ofthe sleme OOOO wan Thowisthofthestement O height Trereightofthe elemet 0 Can Grow Specifies whether the dimensions of the element are adjusted according to its content If a text is clipped inside the frame relevant for dynamic content only you can use the pro perty Can Grow The size of the text element will be increased automatically as required Allowed values are No Height Width Height and Width If the height of the band which contains this element should grow accordingly enable the Can Grow property of the band Can Shrink Specifies whether the dimensions of the element are adjusted according to its content Allowed values are No For text and picture elements WWW TEC IT COM Page 115 of 139 Width Height and Width If the height of the band which contains this element should shrink accordingly enable the Can Shrink property of the band Flush Top Adjust the top border to the specified band edge Useful for drawing column separator lines in tables Allowed values are No Last Printed Band Flush Bottom Adjust the bottom border to achieve a common baseline Useful for aligning an element to the bottom position of the band or other elements Allowed values are No Elements Band Adjust t
40. which the filter expression returns true are printed All other records are ignored In order to apply the filter the checkbox Filter must be activated Examples for filter expressions Record lt 3 Prints the first three data records only ProductGroup HARD DISC Prints only data records where the datafield ProductGroup has the value HARD DISC For a more detailed example see also section 13 6 3 Save serial values after If you are using TFORMer for generating persistent serial numbers see section printing 10 3 3 you can use this checkbox to suspend the saving for the current print out e g for a test print If enabled default TFORMer will remember the values from the current print out and it will continue with the first unused number when printing the next time 15 2 5 Additional Settings 8 Tray Mapping Here you can select one of the predefined tray mappings see also section 12 6 If you want to print on the default printer tray this selection is obsolete SDK Options Here you can enter additional TFORMer SDK options e g printing offset For more detailed information please contact TEC IT Start Row For label printing the Start Row and the Start Column can be specified Use this Start Column setting if you want to leave the first labels on the sheet blank Example Start Row 2 Start Column 0 Page 95 of 139 Columns Columns p Print order Dow
41. your address information Manual Activation key KXKX XXXX KXXX KXXX XXXX KXXX KXXX XXXX Company Country Email address to send your license information to Figure 71 License Dialog Online Activation The following steps are required to license the product 1 Infield enter the activation key 2 Infield enter your email address A license certification will be sent to this address automatically 3 Complete all remaining data Company Country ZIP Code City For a successful activation all fields are required 4 Confirm the entered data by clicking Send A message will inform you about the successful activation In case of problems or errors please contact TEC IT Page 107 of 139 18 2 2 Manual Licensing Manual licensing is the alternative method for licensing if your system has no Internet connection Select manual licensing and enter the license data as provided by TEC IT gt Please enter the license data exactly as you received it from TEC IT Spacing and upper lower case letters are to be considered To avoid typing errors it is recommended to use copy and paste whenever possible Copy the data from the license email which you have received from TEC IT and paste it in the license dialog Single licenses If you are interested in a single workstation license please tell us the so called System ID of the target computer You can find the System D in the licensing dialog
42. 11 Picking List Picking List Number 1 Article Group HARD DISC Article No 451165G Hitachi Ultrastar 15K147 147GB SAS l HUS151414V LS300 Hitachi Ultrastar 15K300 300GB SAS 4962696 HUS153030V LS300 Seagate Cheetah 15K 5 300GB SAS A5GA65Y Seagate Ch eetah 15K 4 147GB SAS ST3146854SS Group Total Figure 67 Picking List filtered for ProductGroup HARD DISC WWW TEC IT COM Page 92 of 139 14 Preview 14 1 Introduction TFORMer offers a preview which instantly renders the resulting output using the current layout and the active datasource This view offers functions for page navigation filtering the data and more TFORMer Picking List File Edit Insert Layout Data Tools View Window Help DG HES 4a a8 Customer 4711 Picking List Number Article Group HARD DISC continued Description 456265G Hitachi Ultrastar 15300 200GB SAS HUS153030VLS300 Picking List Bar TTY UT 456365G Hitachi Ultrastar C10K147 2 5 147GB SAS HUC101414CSS300 456A64G Fujitsu Allegro 10SE 2 5 147GB SAS 456A65Y MBB2147RC Seagste Cheetah 15K 4 147GB SAS ST3146854SS 456A65S Fujitsu Allegro 10LX 73 5G8 SAS MBA2073RC _ Hitachi Ultrastar 15K300 147GB SAS 456S65G Hus152014vLS200 Fujitsu All 973 5G8 SAS 456A99G AOT Hitachi Ultrastar 15K147 147GB SAS 451165G HUS151414VLS5300 Group Total Article Group RAM DDR2 800 Article No
43. 139 fc Expression Builder iT Expression Description Soe Paco pore lt GetDSField ArticleNa AtticleNo aS System Datafields GetO SField Customerno Customer ae Fedin GetDSField Description Description ES Formats GetOSField E xpress Express E Common Expressions GetDSField PickingListo PickingListh o GeL SField ProductGroup ProductGroup GetDSField Quantity Quantity GetOSField UritPrice UnitFrice Please enter an Expression manually You can also add a predefined Expression or Dataheld by double clicking it A static text must be specified between apostrophes Static Test Text values or D atafields may be concatenated by using E g concatenated text 7 A gu TI Insert Data GetDSField UnitPrice 0 2 Required type of Expression ANYTHING Figure 60 Example of an expression for a computed field gt To access a sourcefield from within an expression use the function GetDSField Sourcefield Name gt Accessing datafields is not possible For more advanced applications like computing totals for the whole report TFORMer supports aggregation functions The following aggregation methods are available You can choose from the drop down list None default No aggregation function is u
44. 26 4711 Seagate Cheet 5 1 1 45646057 4711 Seagate Cheet 6 1 1 87009800 4711 Pentiurn 4 Pr T 1 1 87009803 4711 Pentium Extre Figure 64 Data for PickingListNo 1 Changing the source parameter to 2 results in different data ArticleNo Description 4563656 Hitachi Ultrast 4564646 4711 Fujitsu Allegro 456 4656 4711 Seagate Cheet 4564655 4711 Fujitsu Allegro 456A666 4711 Fujitsu Allegro 87009801 4711 Pentium 4 Extr 87009806 4711 Pentium D Pr Figure 65 Data for PickingListNo 2 WWW TEC IT COM Page 90 of 139 gt Source parameters can also be used by software developers via the API or with the com mand line utility TFPrint Please refer to the appropriate documentation for details 13 6 Filter The filter is used to limit the records in the active datasource The filter criterion is specified with a Boolean expression see also chapter 11 Only records for which the filter expression returns true remain visible in the data view All other records are masked out Masked out records are neither used for the preview nor for printing The filter functions are available in the data view and in the preview This section covers the following topics Create a filter see section 13 6 1 Apply a filter see section 13 6 2 Print with a filter see section 13 6 3 13 6 1 Create a Filter To create a filter select Data gt Edit Filter from the menu or click o
45. 5 Data View Figure 6 Preview Figure 7 Design Tree Window Figure 8 Delete a Datasource Figure 9 Properties Window Figure 10 Status Bar Figure 11 Change layouts quickly by using tabs Figure 12 Printing Concept Figure 13 Rendering the Layout Figure 14 Datasource Concept Figure 15 Create a New Layout Figure 16 Simple Report Page Settings Figure 17 Simple Report Layout View Figure 18 Simple Report Print Preview Figure 19 Label Sheets Page Settings Figure 20 Label Sheets Layout View Figure 21 Label Sheets Print Preview Figure 22 Label Printer Page Settings Figure 23 Label Printer Layout View Figure 24 Label Printer Print Preview Figure 25 Page Setup Figure 26 Page Setup for Standard Reports Label Sheets and Label Printers Figure 27 Form Selection Figure 28 Rendering Scheme for Bands Report Figure 29 Layout Figure 30 Layout View Figure 31 Element Selection Figure 32 Layout Toolbar Figure 33 Text Element Figure 34 Barcode Elements Figure 35 Picture Elements Figure 36 Edit Dialog for Element Contents Figure 37 Edit Dialog Datafield Figure 38 Edit Dialog Formatted Text Figure 39 Edit Dialog SimpleText Figure 40 Edit Dialog File Figure 41 Edit Text Dialog Expression Figure 42 Datafields as Part of the Printing Concept Figure 43 New Datafield Dialog Figure 44 Drag and Drop a Datafield Figure 45 Edit Datafield Dialog
46. 59 The month of the specified date 1 12 The actual date and time Returns the result of Number raised to the power of Power Generates a random number type double in the range MinValue MaxValue Generates a random number type long in the range MinValue MaxValue Page 123 of 139 aaa string RandomStr Generates a random string of given length using the given characters Length Example RandomStr 6 0123456789ABCDEF might return 12AF42 AllowedChars string RemoveChars Removes all characters in Text which are included in RemoveChars Text RemoveChars string Replace Text Replaces each occurrence of SearchText in string Text with ReplaceText SearchText Replace Text string Right Text Returns the last characters nLength of a string nLength double Round Number Returns Number rounded using precision digits If 0 is Precision the result will be Precision rounded to a whole number Second Date The second of a specified date time 00 59 Sart Number Returns the square root of Number long SumOfDigits The sum of all digits of Number Number long SumOfDigits1 Returns the one digit sum of all digits of Number Number Converts all character in the string Text to lower case Converts all character in the string Text to upper case WeekOfY ear The calendar week of
47. 866 Fax N Fax Ansan 458932 Phone THM NUH IE Phone 458932 fea ayeme Panel 544593 24 02 2009 Page 10f1 Figure 12 Printing Concept In contrast to a word processor which is mostly used for static content a report generator like TFORMer generates output based on dynamic data Good examples for dynamic contents are the article numbers on product labels the addresses in serial letters and the order positions in invoices The dynamic content is usually provided by an external datasource This is either a text file a database an arbitrary application or user specified data 5 2 Rendering the Layout Each print out is based on the form layout The form layout uses different design elements like text elements barcode elements shapes and pictures which are placed on bands see Figure 13 When generating the output each of the bands will be rendered repeatedly Usually a detail band is rendered for each single record see Figure 13 of the datasource Page header and page footer WWW TEC IT COM Page 24 of 139 are rendered at the top respectively bottom of each page automatically see Figure 13 The report header and the report footer are printed at the beginning and at the end of the report see Figure 13 In this way the output is assembled Output Input Data with Datafields Text Reference Datafields Text ao in Text Barcode or Image Eleme
48. 8963 Chair 110 00 MENINI III I 778920 Desk 150 00 MEEMUIII III 775116 Monitor 236 00 MEIMUINIINII 544593 Panel ooo MINNINNN 549996 Coffee Machine 30 00 UPI BNE 458862 Printer 100 00 A a 445866 Fax 115 00 DEUIEN AML 458932 Phone 50 00 NEUI II III Total price 831 00 Figure 47 Calculate Sum First create a new computed datafield e g Sum_ArticlePrice Set the data type to Floating point prices are usually given with decimal digits As expression enter the name of the datafield that you want to sum up in this case ArticlePrice Choose the aggregation type Running Sum and confirm with OK The newly created datafield Sum_ArticlePrice can now be used in the layout Place it in the report footer to print the sum underneath the last list item You can print the sum directly or you can format it Use the following expression to create a number with up to eight digits before the decimal point and exactly two digits after the decimal point Format Sum ArticlePrice 0 00 lf you want to you might also use additional digit grouping Format Sum _ArticlePrice 0 00 WWW TEC IT COM Page 58 of 139 10 3 3 Serial Numbers Tol New Datafield MySerial 1 Data Type Integer Oa 2 Start Value Step Size 1 O a 2 tore value after printing Update Condition Figure 48 Edit Datafield Dialog Seri
49. A 6 1 Common A 6 2 Trays A 6 3 Documentation A 7 Repository A 8 Tray Mapping Properties Repository A 9 Global Datafields Repository A 10 Projects Repository A 10 1 Common A 10 2 Documentation A 11 Forms Repository A 11 1 Common A 11 2 Documentation Appendix B Supported HTML Tags and Entities B 1 HTML Tags B 1 1 Standard B 1 2 TFORMer Specific B 2 Named Entities Appendix C Function Reference C 1 Functions C 2 System Datafields C 3 Common Expressions C 4 Formats C 4 1 Numbers C 4 2 Date C 4 3 Time C 5 Operators C 6 Constants Appendix D Layout Schemes D 1 General D 2 Report D 2 1 Simple D 2 2 Columns D 3 Labels D 3 1 Label Printer D 3 2 Label Sheets D 4 Complex D 4 1 Labels with Headers and Footers D 4 2 Reports in Labels D 4 3 Report with Detail Band Columns D 4 4 Labels with Detail Band Columns Appendix E Advanced Configuration E 1 Template File Path E 2 Configuration File TFORMer xml Appendix F Creating CSV Files with Excel Keyboard Shortcuts WWW TEC IT COM 116 117 117 117 117 117 117 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 118 119 119 119 119 119 119 119 119 119 120 120 120 120 120 122 122 124 125 125 125 126 126 126 127 128 128 129 129 129 130 130 130 132 132 133 134 135 136 136 137 138 Page 6 of 139 1 1 Table of Figures Figure 1 Architectural Overview Figure 2 User Interface Figure 3 Layout View Figure 4 Layout View Figure
50. Active Datasource Group Footers H Fage Footers Properties Report Footers A Design Repository Design Figure 7 Design Tree Window Figure 8 Delete a Datasource The design tree window lists all objects in a hierarchical tree structure You can expand single branches of the tree by clicking the symbol and you can collapse them by clicking the symbol To select an object click on it with the left mouse button Hold down the Shift key or the Ctrl key for multiple selection Figure 7 shows a selected text element which is located in the page header of a layout called PickList_10 tff If you right click on a tree item a context menu will appear see Figure 8 The context menu offers various functions for the selected object lf TFORMer encounters an error in a user defined computation the affected item is drawn red For more information please refer to section 10 4 4 5 2 Repository Tree If a repository is used a second tab will be shown next to the Design tab Clicking tab switches to the tree view of the repository A repository is a central database for layouts datafield definitions and tray mappings For details please refer to chapter 16 WWW TEC IT COM Page 21 of 139 4 6 Properties The complete layout structure in TFORMer is based on objects bands text boxes datasources etc To adjust the properties of such objects the properties window is used For a completive list o
51. Available trays forme for the selected printer S E Tray Names In order to refresh the try list for manually entered ny Automatically Select 3 printer names use the button aS Form Names E Letter Smal Click OK to assign the selection A Thid Q Ledger mA Legal Statement j Executive Ba H M E A4 Smal Printer Microsoft SPS Document Writer 12 6 3 Tray Selection in the Layout El Advanced To select a tray in the layout select the required Tray 0 Default ka tray number 1 to 10 in the Tray property Type Detail By default Tray 0 Default is pre selected for each band This means the settings of the current printer driver are used for printing Tray 0 default uses the settings of the current printer driver Tray 1 to 10 can be pre configured in the tray mappings The first band that is printed on a page e g the page header does the tray selection Tray settings of subsequent bands which are printed on the same page are ignored 12 6 3 1 Example If you want to print the first page of a report on a letterhead assign the required tray to the report header After the first page you have to switch back to normal paper Therefore enter the number for the default tray in the page header 12 6 4 Select the Tray Mappings for Printing Form Print Device Printer a Microsoft XPS Document Writer Settings Pages Copies All Copies 1 F From to Collate Pages E Simulate Copi
52. Description R47683D ECE CLs DOR2200 KVREQDESST2 Figure 68 Preview LL 99379 92 __Quantity __UnitPrice Barcode 510 NE 115 00 0 00 mm BA Repository Design B TFORMer1 E Tf Datasources J Edit manually default gj ODBC lra Datafields H Tray Mappings E Layers E Bands Properties AE Common Print Order Across then Down Orientation Printer Default Datasource Edit manually default Advanced Watermark H H H Position Margins 1 30 00 x 7 33 mm To switch to the preview click on the Preview tab Alternatively press Cirl Space or select File gt Preview respectively View Preview from the menu 14 2 Page Navigation The page navigation allows you to zoom to switch between single page or double page preview to show hide label boundaries to navigate between pages and to directly jump to a user defined page 14 3 Additional Functions Most functions which are available in the data view apply a filter change a source parameter switch the datasource can also be applied in the preview see The result is displayed imme diately gt Please note When applying a filter see section 13 6 or when switching between data sources see section 13 3 2 6 TFORMer reloads the data This ensures that the most actual data is used WWW TEC IT COM Page 93 of 139 15 Printing 15 1 Introduction The term printing
53. EC IT COM Page 79 of 139 13 3 3 2 SQL Query In the SQL Query tab you specify the SELECT statement for fetching the data Edit ODBC Specify the SQL SELECT statement manually or generate it automatically by double clicking a table name For advanced applications use Source Parameters and Expressions to modify your SQL query e g with dynamic WHERE parameters Avaliable Tables Bal SELECT Query C IO inset tbl_Example Select from thl PickingList WHERE tbl PickingList ARET Cet DSaren PickingListNo Description Express ProductGroup anti UnitPice Hitachi Ultras HARD DISC Hitachi Ultras HARD DISC Fujitsu Allegr HARD DISC Seagate Che HARD DISC Seagate Che HARD DISC Pentium 4 Pr CPU Pentium Extr CPU Pentium Extr CPU lh E Show Advanced Options Figure 55 SQL Query Available Tables O This window lists all available tables for the ODBC connection specified in the DSN tab SELECT Query The SQL query is used for data selection This statement can be typed manually Alterna tively you can also generate a Select statement by double clicking on the table name in or by selecting the table and clicking on the button 4 Preview A preview of the selected data is displayed To update this preview press the button For advanced users With the help of expressions and source parameters you have the possibility to build a dynamic SQL SELECT statement First p
54. Footers Figure 79 Reports in Labels Figure 80 Report with Detail Band Columns Figure 81 Label Sheets with Detail Band Columns 1 2 List of Tables Table 1 Supported HTML Tags Table 2 Supported HTML Tags TFORMer Specific Table 3 Supported HTML Entity Names incomplete list Table 4 Functions Table 5 System Datafields Table 6 Common Expressions Table 7 Number Formats Table 8 Date Formats Table 9 Time Formats Table 10 Operators Table 11 Constants WWW TEC IT COM 80 81 82 83 85 87 89 89 90 90 90 91 92 93 94 102 107 108 129 129 130 130 131 132 133 134 135 120 120 121 124 125 125 125 126 126 127 127 Page 8 of 139 2 Disclaimer The actual version of this product document is available as is TEC IT declines all warranties which go beyond applicable rights The licensee or reader bears all risks that might take place during the use of the system the documentation TEC IT and its contractual partners cannot be penalized for direct and indirect damages or losses this includes non restrictive damages through loss of revenues constriction in the exercise of business loss of business information or any kind of commercial loss which is caused by use or inability to use the product documentation although the possibility of such damage was pointed out by TEC IT We reserve all rights to this document and the information contained therein Reproduction use or disclosur
55. O oroo MNNM roosen penseme eaan o aoo ANT 8700002 PenwumO smiren v 1000 MENN BONO rmnerereesen erreen 2f 1200 I orsent Pew eeenecaton Pes 22 2300 MN s7ongsos Pentium 4 Cecar Milt 4400 TRIM 1 of2 O Preview 4 t Figure 6 Preview WWW TEC IT COM Page 20 of 139 Use the functions in to change the zoom factor switch between single page or double page preview show hide label boundaries navigate between pages or to jump to a specific page For details please refer to chapter 14 4 5 Design Tree Window 4 5 1 Layout Tree The design tree window shows a structured view of the layout It lists all objects in a single place and allows the selection of objects per mouse click Even such elements which are occluded in the design view can be selected in the design tree easily Repository Design a x Repository Design ax mE FickList_10 tt C temp E PickList_ 10 thf C temp s m ig Datasources i if Datasources ral Datafields ws Edit manually default H Tray Mappings p DETERE H Layers Bia SE nechalt Ent ey Bands el _ 5 Report Headers TD ie A amp E P Page Headers ES A Paste a f Page Header sae Customer Customerol Picking List 5 peg New Datasource Grafik Tec it Logo brp Fj Edit Datasource Hed Picking List Number Picki ad New Source Parameter a Fy Page Header InGroup l H Group Headers a Edit Source Parameter a ae t v Set as
56. Printed tems auf Seite Page Example File gt New Form gt 6 Samples Label_2 Page 131 of 139 D 4 Complex For lt Custom Label gt and for lt Custom Report gt you can choose the layout variation Complex which refers to the same design mode in both cases When using Complex you have full access to all band properties even to those which are hidden in the basic design variations otherwise For implementing the following layout schemes it does not matter if you are starting with the template lt Custom Label gt or lt Custom Report gt In both cases you have full control over the design The only difference is the different base design you are starting with D 4 1 Labels with Headers and Footers If you want to print headers and footers on labels start with ReportHeader o o the template lt Custom Label gt and select the variation PageHeader Complex Labels Insert the desired page headers and or page footers When setting the Output Area to Page default TFORMer will print the header footer across the whole physical page width When setting the Output Area to Label see TFORMer will print the header footer within the label Header Footer Output Area Label Report Footer o Please note PageFooter You can also use more than one header or footer in your design For example you can use one page header which Frer tabe eeo uan
57. QL Query 13 3 3 3 Field Bindings 13 3 4 Flat Text Files CSV TSV 13 3 4 1 File 13 3 4 2 Field Bindings 13 3 5 XML File 13 3 5 1 File 13 3 5 2 Field Bindings 13 4 Field Bindings 13 5 Advanced Options 13 5 1 Computed Fields 13 5 1 1 Create a Computed Field 13 5 2 Source Parameters 13 5 2 1 Create a Source Parameter 13 5 2 2 Assign the Source Parameter 13 5 2 3 Set a Value for the Source Parameter 13 6 Filter 13 6 1 Create a Filter 13 6 2 Apply a Filter 13 6 3 Print with a Filter 14 Preview 14 1 Introduction 14 2 Page Navigation 14 3 Additional Functions 15 Printing 15 1 Introduction 15 2 Printing Manually 15 2 1 Output Format and Device 15 2 1 1 Printing on PostScript and ZEBRA printers 15 2 2 Pages 15 2 3 Copies 15 2 4 Data 15 2 5 Additional Settings 15 3 Printing Programmatically WWW TEC IT COM Page 4 of 139 16 16 1 16 1 1 16 1 2 16 2 16 2 1 16 2 1 1 Demo Repository 16 2 2 16 2 3 16 2 4 16 2 5 16 2 6 16 3 16 3 1 16 3 2 17 17 1 17 2 17 2 1 17 2 2 17 2 3 17 3 17 4 17 4 1 17 4 2 17 4 3 17 4 4 17 5 17 6 17 6 1 17 6 2 17 6 3 17 7 17 8 17 9 17 10 18 18 1 18 2 18 2 1 18 2 2 18 3 19 Repositories Introduction Stand Alone Forms Repositories Basic Operations Open an existing Repository Create a New Repository Save a Repository Import a Stand alone Layout into a Repository Export a Layout from the Repository Close a Repository Working with a Repository Projects Inser
58. Save Form Layout View Data View Preview Page setup Print Layout peso bi gop a ee m e Ta Se h h e te et og Alignment Size Z Order Spacing Content and js E E Pu uF Expressions Element Content Printing Condition Group By Pre Evaluation Post Evaluation Format Arial ai E Font and Font size mjr U F Font style Text Alignment Colors Line styles A amp ill S Layer ERP B Assign Elements to a Layer Add Layer Layer Colors Barcode Codel28 i Choose Barcode Symbology bala ce naaa gl E Refresh New Datafield New Datasource New Source Parameter Edit Datasource Edit Source Parameters Edit Filter Apply Filter Repository S GS New Printer New Project New Datafield Elements FEE Insert Graphical Elements Bands APE Insert different kinds of Bands Report Header Page Header Detail Band WWW TEC IT COM Page 17 of 139 4 4 Layout View Data View and Preview 4 4 1 Introduction TFORMer offers three different views for a single form The default view is the layout view It is used to create the layout The layout usually utilizes datafields like Printed Items in the layout below as placeholders for the actual data For details regarding datafields please refer to chapter 10 The data for the datafields is provided by a datasource It can be edited in the data view TFORMer also offers a preview which instantly
59. WWW TEC IT COM TFORMer Designer Label and Report Designer Version 7 0 User Manual 16 February 2012 TEC IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH Wagnerstrasse 6 A 4400 Steyr Austria t 4 43 0 7252 72720 f 4 43 0 7252 72720 77 office tec it com www tec it com Content 6 1 6 2 6 2 1 6 2 2 6 2 2 1 6 2 2 2 6 2 2 3 6 2 3 6 2 3 1 6 2 3 2 6 2 3 3 6 2 3 4 6 2 3 5 6 2 4 6 2 5 6 2 6 6 3 6 3 1 Content Table of Figures List of Tables Disclaimer Introduction Professional Documents Created With Ease TFORMer Basics Output Formats System Requirements Operating Systems Memory Disk Space User Interface Main Window Menu File Edit Insert Layout Data Tools View Window Help Toolbars Layout View Data View and Preview Introduction Layout View Data View Preview Design Tree Window Layout Tree Repository Tree Properties Status Bar Layout Tabs Printing Concept and Workflow Introduction Rendering the Layout Datasource Concept Reading a Datasource and Printing Bands Typical Workflow Identify Dynamic Data Layout Design Provide Data Generate Output Forms Introduction Basic Operations Open an Existing Form Create a New Form Custom Report Custom Label Label Sheet Custom Label Label Printer Page Setup Paper Margins Orientation Output Label Settings Save a Form Switch between Forms Close a Form Form Properties Form Selection WWW TEC IT COM Page 2 of 139 6
60. a ule jw jn e EJE amp Common Print Order Across then Down Orientation Landscape Datasource Edit manually default Advanced Watermark DODOGGGE Record 4a O ld 4 gt gt I Layout Dain A Preview Os Figure 52 Data View The data view is divided into the following areas Datasource Selection Data Grid Record Navigation Data Toolbar In the drop down list you can set the active datasource or you can create new datasources see section 13 3 2 By default the manual datasource is selected This datasource is used for entering data within TFORMer directly The design tree gives you an overview over all available datasources The active datasource is displayed in bold Right click on a datasource to open the context menu The context menu allows you to perform various operations on a datasource e g set it as active datasource The data grid shows the data which is provided by the active datasource The grid is divided into rows and columns The rows represent the data records the columns represent the datafields ArticleName ArticleNo etc The first column in the data grid is the Copies column This column is always available It tells TFORMer how often each single record should be printed The datafield columns are ordered alphabetically by default Using the datafield property Display Order see section A 5 a custom display order can be specified
61. age of NumPages talUnits TotalPrice Figure 4 Layout View On the worksheet you can place all kinds of graphical elements like text elements lines rect angles barcodes and images Such elements can be moved resized or deleted Furthermore you can add and remove single print areas like page headers and page footers These areas are called bands see chapter 7 On the left and on the top of the layout there are rulers which assist you when positioning elements After starting TFORMer Designer for the first time the measuring unit is set to System Default You can change this value in the options dialog menu Tools Options It is possible to zoom the layout using the menu View gt Zoom or the hotkeys Cir and Ctrl You can also adjust the zoom factor by holding down the Cir key and by simultaneously turning the mouse wheel For more information on how to design layouts please refer to chapters 6 to 12 WWW TEC IT COM Page 19 of 139 4 4 3 Data View The data view is used to administrate datasources You can create switch and modify datasources Furthermore the content of the active datasource is shown This is the data which is used for printing the layout Datasource Edit manually default O Edib Parameter Mew Datafield Copies ArticleNo CustormerNo Description Express Flag _InGroup ProductGroup 1 1 BFOO9800 4711 Pentium 4 Prescott 2f CPU 2 1 argal 471
62. al Number If the datafield is supposed to be a serial number calculated by TFORMer select the Serial option 0 In enter a name for the datafield In select the datafield type A serial number can either be an integer or a floating point number Enter the start value in and the increment in If you want TFORMer to remember the last value which was printed you have to select option In this case TFORMer will continue with the next serial number on the next print out Instead of making TFORMer remember the last serial value you can also provide each starting value via an expression compute it read it from a datafield To do this click button The expression editor will open In field you can specify whether the serial number should be incremented for each new Document Label Page Record default or Record copy When using an update condition in the serial number will only be incremented if this condition re turns true In you can add an arbitrary description text After you are done with editing close the dialog with OK The serial number can now be used in the layout You can print the counter directly or you can format it Use the following expression to create an eight digit number with leading zeros Format MySerial 00000000 WWW TEC IT COM Page 59 of 139 10 4 Faulty Datafield References When renaming or deleting a datafield all references to this datafield wil
63. al comment can be entered Comment The expression in provides the values for the computed field You can enter the ers expression directly or you can open the GetOSField ArtidePrice expression builder by pressing button For details see section 13 5 1 1 1 Aggregation Running Average The aggregation function allows you to Aggregation Filter build running sums and running averages For details see section 13 5 1 1 2 The filter expression can be used to ex clude records from the computation For details see section 13 5 1 1 3 The expression in specifies the content of the computed field This expression may return a constant value e g to simulate a sourcefield which is not available in the current datasource or it can perform arbitrary computations The expression can be entered directly in or you can open the expression builder by pressing the button For more information about the expression builder please refer to section 11 2 Common applications are Modify a sourcefield convert it to uppercase remove leading and trailing spaces Example Trim GetDSField ArticleName Concatenate multiple sourcefields into a single sourcefield Example Group GetDSField ProductGroup Desc GetDSField Description Perform computations based on a sourcefield like evaluating the Value Added Tax VAT Example GetDSField UnitPrice 0 2 WWW TEC IT COM Page 86 of
64. ally defined by the page setup see 6 2 3 Each band gets the maximum available space which is available paper width minus the page margins For complex layouts certain bands can also be adjusted directly in the layout 7 3 5 2 Height For labels the height of detail bands group headers and group footers is preset and fixed according to the label size see 6 2 3 For reports the height of bands is freely adjustable It can be changed with the mouse by clicking and dragging the lower band margins see Figure 29 Alternatively you can also adjust the height in the group Position in the properties window 7 3 6 Change Band Printing Order lf your layout contains more than one band of the same type e g three detail bands TFORMer processes them from top to bottom This printing order of bands can be changed Select the band that you want to move and choose Layout Band Order from the menu You can also right click on the band and then select Band Order from the pop up menu Alternatively use the keyboard shortcuts Alt and Alt v 7 3 7 Delete a Band Select the band that you want to delete and then press the Del key Alternatively click on the icon in the Default toolbar or press the right mouse button and select Delete from the pop up menu 7 3 8 Printing Conditions For each band you can specify a printing condition A printing condition decides at print time whe ther a band is printed or not For more deta
65. ame a Datafield Delete a Datafield The Edit Datafield Dialog Standard Datafields Computed Fields 10 3 2 1 Example Calculate Sum 10 3 3 10 4 11 11 1 11 2 11 3 Serial Numbers Faulty Datafield References Expressions Introduction Expression Builder Evaluation Order WWW TEC IT COM Page 3 of 139 12 Smart Layouts 12 1 Introduction 12 2 Printing Conditions 12 2 1 Edit a Printing Condition 12 2 2 Visual Cues for Printing Conditions 12 2 3 Examples 12 2 3 1 Different Headers or Footers 12 2 3 2 Alternating Background Colors 12 3 Printing Layers 12 3 1 Create a New Layer 12 3 2 Assign Design Elements to a Layer 12 3 3 Display Layer Colors 12 3 4 Hide Layer Contents 12 4 Pre Evaluation and Post Evaluation 12 4 1 Edit Pre and Post Evaluations 12 4 2 Visual Cues for Pre and Post Evaluations 12 5 Invisible Bands 12 6 Tray Control 12 6 1 Create a New Tray Mapping 12 6 2 Configure Tray Mappings 12 6 3 Tray Selection in the Layout 12 6 3 1 Example 12 6 4 Select the Tray Mappings for Printing 13 Providing Data 13 1 Introduction 13 2 The Data View 13 3 Datasources 13 3 1 Manual Datasource Default 13 3 2 External Datasources 13 3 2 1 Create a New Datasource 13 3 2 2 Loading Data and Progress Bar 13 3 2 3 Edit a Datasource 13 3 2 4 Rename a Datasource 13 3 2 5 Delete a Datasource 13 3 2 6 Switch between Datasources 13 3 2 7 Reload a Datasource 1333 ODBC Datasource 13 3 3 1 DSN Database Selection 13 3 3 2 S
66. ame for the source para meter Specity the name and the default value of the Source Parameter Parameters are used to create dynamic Datasources e g for SOL WHERE instructions in ODBC Datasources or dynamic file names akal a The Default Value is used to initialize the source parameter after the layout was loaded Name PickingListParameter Q Default Value In you may enter an optional descrip 1 2 tion Description 13 5 2 2 Assign the Source Parameter Now that you have created a source parameter it can be used as placeholder in an ODBC datasource in the DSN username password and SQL SELECT statement as placeholder in a file based datasource in the file name and file path in computed fields WWW TEC IT COM Page 88 of 139 In this example we use the source parameter to parameterize the SELECT Query in an ODBC datasource Assuming the ODBC datasource is already created see also sections 13 3 2 and 13 3 3 open the Edit Datasource dialog e g by double clicking the datasource in the design tree and switch to the SQL Query tab Edit ODBC SQL Query Computed Fields Feld Bindings Specify the SQL SELECT statement manually or generate it automatically by double clicking a table name For advanced applications use Source Parameters and Expressions to modify your SQL query e g with dynamic WHERE parameters Available Tables Ya SELECT Query C Y inset tbl_ Example Select from thl
67. an be used in computed fields One good example for the use of source parameters is to insert them in the SQL SELECT state ment of an ODBC datasource Thus the user or developer has the possibility to instruct TFORMer to fetch only specific records or to change the sorting order per parameter Using source parameters requires the following steps Create the source parameter see section 13 5 2 1 Assign the source parameter see section 13 5 2 2 Seta value for the source parameter see section 13 5 2 3 In the following sections we demonstrate the use of source parameters by means of the picking list example as included in the TFORMer setup Please note This sample already includes all the adjustments as described below To open the sample select File New Form from the menu Then open the folder 6 Samples and select Picking List 13 5 2 1 Create a Source Parameter To create a new source parameter use one of the following methods Select the datasource in the design tree and click on the New Source Parameter icon in the data toolbar or select Data New Source Parameter from the menu Alternatively right click on datasource in the design tree and select New Source Parameter from the pop up menu A third method is to open the Edit Datasource dialog and then click on the New button in the source parameter tab The following dialog will appear New Source Parameter In enter the n
68. and in several other countries All other products mentioned are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies If any trademark on our web site or in this document is not marked as trademark or registered trademark we ask you to send us a short message mailto office tec it com WWW TEC IT COM Page 109 of 139 Appendix A Properties A 1 Form Properties A 1 1 Common Datasource Select the datasource which is used for printing By default the manual datasource is selected Whenever you change the datasource e g in the data view this setting is changed A 1 2 Advanced Document Name This expression will be used as name of the generated output or spool file If left blank the file name is used A 1 3 Watermark The watermark is a background picture which is printed per output page The file name of the picture See section A 3 1 4 Picture Mode The display mode of the picture See section A 3 1 4 Picture Alignment The alignment of the picture on the printed page See section A 3 1 4 A 1 4 Documentation An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes WWW TEC IT COM Page 110 of 139 A 2 Band Properties A 2 1 Common Group By The records of a datasource will be grouped based upon this expression Every time the computed value of the expression changes a new group will be started Group by expressions do not change the order of the records in the datasource Group
69. and is printed before a group starts A group is defined by the Group By property in this band Whenever the Group By expression changes a new group Is started Detail Band This band is printed for each single record Group Footer This optional band is printed after a group A group is specified by a Group By expression Page Footer This band is printed at the bottom of each page on the last page before the report header Alternatively it can also be printed at the bottom of each label This band is optional Report Footer This band is printed on the last page of the report after the last data record Alternatively it can also be printed at the bottom of the last label This band is optional First page Intermediate pages Last page Report Header Page Header Page Header Page Header Report Footer Page Footer Page Footer Page Footer Figure 28 Rendering Scheme for Bands Report WWW TEC IT COM Page 37 of 139 The figure above shows the printing of a report When printing labels typically no page and report headers footers are required The detail bands will be arranged differently see also section Appendix D 7 3 Basic Operations 7 3 1 Insert a Band MOULD LE is PE m once eT data record Label Ponteditems on Page Page EJ EJ EY EY LS OG Figure 29 Layout To insert a band click on the appropriate icon in the toolbar or select nser
70. asource select it in the design tree and thereafter press F2 or click again on the datasource with the left mouse button Now you can directly edit the datasource name Alterna tively use the properties window to rename a datasource 13 3 2 5 Delete a Datasource Datasources can be deleted in various ways Select the datasource in the design tree and press the De key Select the datasource and press the delete symbol in the toolbar or choose Edit Delete from the menu Right click the datasource and select Delete from the context menu 13 3 2 6 Switch between Datasources To switch to the required datasource the following methods can be used Use the drop down list to switch to the appropriate datasource see Figure 52 Right click on the appropriate datasource in the design tree and select Set as Active Datasource in the context menu 13 3 2 7 Reload a Datasource You can refresh the cached data any time by pressing the icon in the data toolbar or by pressing the Reload button in the data view WWW TEC IT COM Page 78 of 139 13 3 3 ODBC Datasource ODBC datasources are used to retrieve data from a database Microsoft Access SQL Server Oracle Each database with a suitable ODBC driver is supported On Microsoft Windows the drivers for Microsoft Access and SQL Server are pre installed For more information on how to install additional ODBC drivers please refer to the documentation of the database system
71. at least one element Then choose one of the following functions 8 2 10 4 Spacing Select at least two elements Then choose one of the following functions The element with the selection focus acts as master Ha Make Horizontal Spacing Ensure equal horizontal spacing between the selected elements Equal ne Increase Horizontal Increase the horizontal spacing between the selected elements Spacing gja Decrease Horizontal Decrease the horizontal spacing between the selected elements Spacing da Make Vertical Spacing Ensure equal vertical spacing between the selected elements Equal H Increase Vertical Increase the vertical spacing between the selected elements Spacing Decrease Vertical Decrease the vertical spacing between the selected elements Spacing 8 3 Elements with Content 8 3 1 Text Elements Text elements are used for printing formatted text Single phrases words and characters can be formatted individually Datafields and expressions can be embedded within the text _ i Report Header Report Header Inventory List ACME Laboratories Creation Date Now 0 Fage Pasg NumPages Figure 33 Text Element In the example above static and dynamic content is mixed The embedded expressions for the current date Now the current page number Page and the total number of pages NumPages are placed in line with the static text During print time these expressions will be replaced by the a
72. atafield Definitions Datafield definitions can be created manually or they can be imported from a datasource 10 2 1 1 Create Datafield Definitions Manually To create a datafield definition the dialog below is used You can open this dialog using one of the following methods Right click in the gray area of the layout or on the Datafields entry in the design tree and select New Datafield from the pop up menu Select nsert gt Data Datafield from the menu Select Data gt New Datafield from the menu General Name ArtideName Type Default value Figure 43 New Datafield Dialog Depending on its purpose choose the kind of datafield that you want to create The following options are available Datafield see 10 3 1 A conventional datafield provides values from a datasource Computed see 10 3 2 A computed datafield provides values which are computed via an expression Serial see 10 3 3 A serial number field provides consecutive numbers Once the datafield is inserted you will find the appropriate entry in the a Saids design tree Normal datafields are listed directly under the branch AtticleName Q N Datafields see Computed fields and serials are listed in the corres ArticleNo ponding subfolders Article Price Used datafields are displayed in black the datafield is used in the layout within a computation or in a printing condition Unused datafields are display
73. ault Upon creation of the new label some records are inserted automatically For each of these records TFORMer generates one label 6 2 2 3 Custom Label Label Printer Figure 20 Label Sheets Layout View ee Ld cae L a0 aD sprinted once foreach data record _ Label Prnteditems on Page Page Standard Label Standard L bel Standard Label apres coe O esc Cem recort a ortecos Sac cesaecc ona onos Gr eect Oem record Lae on Gage Los 2 on Pape ae I on Sage ttan dard Label Standard L bel itan dard Label Sorte oce 5 sen cee rno prie cna Cesc cee cec pme oc Cee ec ae 5S on Page abe C on Pape Standard Label Standard L bel ttan dard Label Oris oce amp ech cee reco a prie cona Cec ces ec ors oce O esc cee recoc Lae T on Sage Late 5 on Sage ae Son Mage ttan dard Label Standard L bel ttan dard Label ores ccs amp eec Cem recoc a pri ona Sea a soe apne onos E esc Gee reco Lads Con Page e on Pape Lads 2 on Page Stan dard Label Standard L bel Standard Label prisci once each cam recort ortecos rash ces ec a one once amp each cam reco abe Ion age Late 4 on Page Late Son Pape Figure 21 Label Sheets Print Preview For printing labels with label printers e g thermo transfer printers choose lt Custom Label gt and click Next The following wizard will appear WWW TEC IT COM Page 31 of 139 Page Settings Specify the page size and the layout type Predefi
74. bars see 4 3 Layout View Data View and Preview see 4 4 Design Tree Window see 4 5 Properties see 4 6 Status Bar see 4 7 Layout Tabs see 4 8 9SOo 000006 WWW TEC IT COM Page 13 of 139 4 2 Menu The menu gives you access to the following functions File seroma heir Shortcut Ctrl N Opens an existing layout or repository Shortcut Ctrl O Shortcut Ctr S Shortcut Ctrl W or Ctrl F4 Templates Templates can be used as basis for new layouts Save as Template Save the current layout as template Organize Templates Organize the templates in a hierarchical structure Layout View Switches to the layout view see section 4 4 2 Shortcut Ctr L Data View Switches to the data view see section 4 4 3 Use this view to manually edit or import data from external data sources Shortcut Ctrl D Preview Switches to the print preview see section 4 4 4 Shortcut Ctrl Space Page Setup Adjusts the page layout Layout type paper format orientation margins as well as the page layout for printing on label paper Prints the layout on a printer of your choice or generate file output PDF PostScript HTML Text Shortcut Ctrl P Repository A repository is a central location which references multiple layouts in a structured way see chapter 16 New Repository Create an empty repository Open Repository Open an existing repository Close Repository Close an open
75. button to open the Expression Builder a see section 11 2 Alternatively use the E icon in decina Empty the toolbar or right click on the element and select Seren Empty Printing Condition from the pop up menu Tray 0 Default 7 Type Page Header Use the Expression Builder to edit the printing Output Area Page a condition When you are done confirm with OK E Control Printing Condition IsOdd Page Position Documentation ki Printing Condition A logical Expression resulting in true or false The Element or Band will only be printed if this Expression returns true during WWW TEC IT COM Page 64 of 139 12 2 2 Visual Cues for Printing Conditions If you have applied a printing condition the band or the element will be marked with a small red dot Bands are marked in the layout view and in the design tree Graphical elements are marked in the design tree only Repository Design a x S E Data tf CATemp A E iir Datasources E Ita Datafields a k Tray Mappings Bands En Report Headers 5 T Fage Headers T Fage Header q n ped Print me on top of odd pages Group Headers e T Details Detail P Rectangle 1 Article Name fag ArticleNo E Fomat CLng ArticlePrice m ArticleNo m Rectangle Pan D Group Footers ak 12 2 3 Examples 12 2 3 1 Different Headers or Footers To print different heade
76. ce x EUR Format ArticlePrice HHH HHO 00 om Select Datafield 2 The computations are evaluated in the order as they appear in the dialog from top to bottom If you want to change the computation order or if you want to delete a computation use the buttons in Delete Move Up J Move Down Properties 1 Xx The Common group in the properties window of the Eaa band shows all datafields calculated in the pre E Common evaluation Page Break None The post evaluation is empty No datafields are Row Column Break None compu ted Pre Evaluation FormattedPrice Post Evaluation Empty Advanced Control H amp H Position E Documentation E Columns si Pre Evaluation A list of Expressions evaluated before the Band is printed A Printing Condition is evaluated after Pre Evaluations and can 12 4 2 Visual Cues for Pre and Post Evaluations m If you have entered a pre or a post evaluation FormattedPrice ArticleName expression the band will be marked with a small red sigma symbol in the layout view and in the design tree g O Bands ia Report Headers P Fage Headers P Group Headers a fv ey WWW TEC IT COM Page 68 of 139 12 5 Invisible Bands Invisible bands are used to perform computations or to control the output behavior of the layout An invisible band is a band with zero height It does not contain any graphical el
77. color of Elements saa Oe eS ee Right click on the form on a band or on the Layers entry in the design tree and select Name MyLayel 0 New Layer from the pop up menu Color a 2 Printing Conditiory m The New Layer dialog will appear Description 4 In this dialog enter the name the color and the printing condition for the layer In you can enter an arbitrary description text meee Repository Design cae Once the printing layer is inserted you will find the S E Data tif C Temp appropriate entry in the design tree E Uy Datasources ce aa For a description of all layer properties please refer Tray Mappings D Layers to Appendix A 4 O MyLayer Bands 12 3 2 Assign Design Elements to a Layer To assign design elements to a specific layer perform the following steps it code128 E First select all elements that you want to assign to the printing layer Then select the layer in Alternatively right click on the selection and select Assign Layer MyLayer from the pop up menu 12 3 3 Display Layer Colors If you want to see which design elements are assigned to which layer you can turn on the display of layer colors WWW TEC IT COM Page 66 of 139 RE RE SE eR By default all design elements are displayed in their FA Detail Detai printing color see left oe DA NEE Click on the icon Toggle Display Color in
78. ctual values automatically Such dynamically provided content is always displayed between square brackets see or angle brackets lt gt WWW TEC IT COM Page 44 of 139 Square brackets indicate that the content of the datafield respectively the result of the expression will be inserted as is Angle brackets indicate that the content of the datafield respectively the result of the expression will be interpreted as HTML This allows you to specify dynamic content with additional formatting see also section 9 3 3 For information on how to edit the content of text fields please refer to chapter 9 8 3 2 Barcode Elements Barcode elements encode the given data in a machine readable form Ea a ee ee ee ee F fs Detail Detail AaBb12 ArticleNo T Figure 34 Barcode Elements The barcode data can contain static content e g the fixed string AaBb12 see dynamic con tent e g the datafield see or a combination of both Dynamically provided content is always displayed between square brackets For information on how to edit the barcode data please refer to chapter 9 The Barcode Type and other barcode specific settings are adjusted in the properties window You can choose from 1D 2D and composite barcode symbologies Depending on the selected barcode type different property groups are available For more information on available barcode type
79. d Insert Expression OK Cancel Figure 41 Edit Text Dialog Expression If the content of the selected element is supposed to be the result of an expression select the Expression option However the use of pure expressions is only required in special cases e g calculating the file names for dynamic picture content For all common applications it is recommended to use the option Datafield or Formatted Simple Text Expressions can be embedded in line with such text content For more information on expressions see chapter 11 WWW TEC IT COM Page 52 of 139 10 Datafields 10 1 Introduction For providing dynamic content TFORMer uses so called Oatafields These datafields serve as placeholders for the actual data They can be used in text barcode and picture elements dynamic logos A datafield must be defined before it can be used This definition takes place directly in the layout see below or in a repository see chapter 16 One layout can use an arbitrary number of data fields 0 n Text Barcode Shape Picture rext HMI S ig i Barcode Output Desk Monitor Panel Coffee Machine FU Page item list with barcode 62 Printer Detal Oetm Fax ArticleNo ArticleName Dil Page Foote Page Footer Now 0 Page CStr Page of CStr NumPages Uy RepartFootse Repos Foote x pee A Sirs
80. d with square brackets or angle brackets lt gt in case of HTML content see section 9 3 3 Please note gt Datafields and expressions must always be inserted using the appropriate buttons gt If you try to enter the expression start and end markers or lt gt via keyboard the text be tween will not be evaluated as an expression WWW TEC IT COM Page 49 of 139 To format an in line expression font size color etc or rather the text which is returned as result use the format toolbar as you would do for the rest of the formatted text For dynamic formatting you can also use HTML formatted expressions see below To edit an existing datafield or expression place the cursor between the square brackets and click on the nsert Datafield or Insert Expression button The appropriate dialog will be opened Alter natively you can also double click on the datafield or expression which will always open the ex pression builder Hint The functions nsert Datafield and Insert Expression are also available via context menu when right clicking inside the text area 9 3 3 HTML Formatted Expressions In order to provide dynamic text formatting you can use HTML formatted expressions This feature allows you to control the appearance of a text element during print time lf the Gia button is pushed inside the expression builder see Figure 49 the result of the expres sion
81. ders Text Barcodes Images use the tbolbar on the left To delete an Ementor Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 5 2 Ostail Sand is panied reach cats Reon To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tbolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable date use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 6 2 Ostali Sand is pmnisd br each data eom To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the toolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fllthe Report with variable dats use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more options Detail Band 7 2 deta Sana ts prntes tor ezon cata econ To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more options Detail Band 8 2 Det Sana is pmtes resem cata Room To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tpolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fllthe Report wi
82. e Name Expression TotalPrice Get DS Field Article Price Lp Down Show Advanced Options Figure 59 Computed Fields Computed Fields The list of computed fields is empty by default Use the buttons in to create edit and delete computed fields New Create a new computed field see next section Edit Edit the computed field which is selected in O Delete Delete the computed field which is selected in O Computation Order TFORMer computes the fields from top to bottom as listed in To change this computa tion order use the buttons in Setting the correct computation order is essential if compu ted fields depend on each other n Up Move the selected item up one position Down Move the selected item down one position gt After a computed field was created it is treated exactly like every other sourcefield It has to be bound to a datafield before it can be used in the layout see section 13 4 gt Computed fields are not available in the manual datasource 13 5 1 1 Create a Computed Field When clicking the New button the following dialog will appear WWW TEC IT COM Page 85 of 139 LA Create a new Computed Field In you specify a name for the computed ea ae ere field The name is used to identify the field The additional filter may be used to exdude records from the It has to be unique within the datasource computation ae Oo In an option
83. e 37 Edit Dialog Datafield If the content of the selected element is supposed to be a datafield select the Datafield option O Then select the desired datafield in list and confirm with OK The creation of a new datafield is also possible When double clicking on lt New Datafield gt an appropriate dialog will be opened see section 10 2 1 1 9 3 Formatted Text Text Elements a E Edit Text Inventory List ACME Laboratories Creation Date Now Page Page of NumPages Figure 38 Edit Dialog Formatted Text If the content of the selected text element is supposed to be a formatted text select the Formatted Text option You can now edit the text in The toolbar may be used to apply different formatting single phrases words and characters can be formatted individually see section 9 3 1 Using the buttons and you can insert datafields and expressions see section 9 3 2 When you are done with editing confirm with OK WWW TEC IT COM Page 48 of 139 9 3 1 The Toolbar Toolbar provides the following functions k Undo Revert the last change Shortcut Ctrl Z Cul Redo Revert the last Undo Shortcut Cir Y ee ss Shortcut Ctrl B Shortcut Cir DE Shortcut Ctrl U Subscript Toggle text subscript on off Font Color Select the font color Align Left Align the text left This alignment is applied to the whole text element and not for single lines or
84. e Ma 549896 Mew Datofte Printer 458862 lt New Datofte Fax 445866 lt New Datofie Phone 458932 lt New Datofte Dummy Mew Datofte Figure 53 Edit Data Manually To insert a new record move the cursor to the last data row which is marked with a enter the required data and confirm with enter If a default value was assigned to a datafield this default value is displayed as gray text see It will be used if no other value is entered To change an existing value in the data grid select the required cell with the mouse and press F2 or double click on the cell This allows you to place the cursor at the required position inside the cell and to edit the content A new line within a cell is inserted by pressing Ctrl Enter Please note that this line break is not visualized in the data grid view Though it will be inserted on the print out To select a row click on the record number in the first column It is possible to select more than one row by holding down the Shift or the Ctrl key The selection can be deleted press the Del key or it can be copied and pasted into any of the other rows Ctrl C and Ctrl V WWW TEC IT COM Page 75 of 139 gt Read only cells are marked with gray background color gt Inserting new records is only possible in the last row You cannot perform an insert opera tion between two existing rows If required you can create a new datafield
85. e of highlighting and the highlighting color for elements which have the mouse focus in the design view The following options are available Border Border and Data Default 17 2 2 Design Tree Settings Locate in Design Tree y n Show all open Forms y n 17 2 3 Grid Settings If enabled TFORMer will automatically locate each element in the design tree which was selected it in the layout view By default this option is disabled If enabled the design tree shows the contents of all open documents Otherwise it is popu lated with the contents of the current layout only By default this option is disabled Width Horizontal resolution of the grid Grid visible y n Snap to grid y n 17 3 Language Vertical resolution of the grid Show or hide the grid in the layout view Keyboard shortcut Cirl G If enabled every graphical element that is inserted or moved will be positioned on the grid Keyboard shortcut Ctr R Hint If this option is enabled you may position elements off the grid as well Just press the Alt key during a drag and drop operation The language to be used in menus and dialogs 17 4 PDF 17 4 1 Properties Page Layout Orientation Color mode The page size Letter A4 for PDF output The orientation portrait or landscape for PDF output The color mode for PDF output Color Grayscale or Black amp White 17 4 2 Fonts Embedas__ y n I
86. e to third parties without express authority is strictly forbidden Fur dieses Dokument und den darin dargestellten Gegenstand behalten wir uns alle Rechte vor Vervielf ltigung Bekanntgabe an Dritte oder Verwendung au erhalb des vereinbarten Zweckes sind nicht gestattet 1998 2012 TEC IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH Wagnerstr 6 A 4400 Austria t 43 0 7252 72720 f 43 0 7252 72720 77 http www tec it com WWW TEC IT COM Page 9 of 139 3 Introduction 3 1 Professional Documents Created With Ease Many thanks for evaluating TFORMer The TFORMer product family represents a complete lean and powerful solution for generating arbitrary documents It combines the features of barcode labeling tools with the characteristics of report generators into a unified printing solution It provides professional layout and outout capa bilities an integrated barcode generator full featured UNICODE support and it supports direct PDF generation It can be used on client and on server side and it is available for all major operating systems Ship M ller To 1155994466 M PREYMESSER GMBH amp CO KG t Floor JOSEFG 8 MUENCHEN D 80000 Pee EAA D 7747748 2200 gin jan T UPS 2ND DAY AIR TRACKING 1Z 123 456 02 1114 114 2 The functionality of TFORMer is available for end users as well as for software developers End Users benefit from the graphical layout edit
87. eads and is printed per page and one page header which is printed Footers per label WWW TEC IT COM Page 132 of 139 D 4 2 Reports in Labels Report Heade Page Header Report Footer Page Footer Report Heade Page Header Report Footer Figure 79 Reports in Labels For printing multiple detail bands inside one label start with the template lt Custom Label gt and select the variation Complex Labels Remove the Row Column Break for the detail band see TFORMer will print as many detail bands as possible for the given row height Please make sure to use reasonable values for the detail band height If your label is 60 mm high and if your detail band is 20 mm high three detail bands will fit on one label Detail Band Row Column Break Position Height 20 000 mm Please note Headers and footers may be added as required see also section D 4 1 Examples File gt New Form gt 6 Samples gt Report_3 File gt New Form gt 6 Samples gt Report_4 WWW TEC IT COM Page 133 of 139 D 4 3 Report with Detail Band Columns Report Header Page Header Report Footer Page Footer Figure 80 Report with Detail Band Columns WWW TEC IT COM In order to print a report with multiple detail bands in one line start with the template lt Custom Report gt and
88. ease wait TEC IT TRORMer 1 Do you want te continue with incomplete data Loading of data was stopped You cancelled this operation The data shown can be used WWW TEC IT COM This bar shows you the progress of the loading operation By clicking Cancel you have the possibility to cancel the operation Yes aborts loading immediately All data read so far is Kept in the data cache This results in an incomp lete data cache Note below will be displayed at the bottom of the data view or preview No aborts loading immediately All data read so far is discarded This results in an empty data cache Note below will be displayed at the bottom of the data view or preview Cancel continues loading but may be incomplete Press F5 to refresh data Page 77 of 139 Loading of data was stopped You cancelled this operation No data is available 13 3 2 3 Edit a Datasource To edit an existing datasource open the Edit Datasource dialog using either of the following methods Click on the Edit Datasource icon in the toolbar or use Data Edit Datasource from the menu only available in the data view and in the preview Right click on the datasource entry in the design tree and select Edit Datasource from the context menu Select the appropriate datasource from the drop down list in the data view and click the Edit button 13 3 2 4 Rename a Datasource To rename a dat
89. ecific settings from the options dialog see chapter 17 are stored in the configuration file TFORMer xml This file is located in the application data directory of the current Windows user S LocalAppData TEC IT TFORMer 7 0 TFORMer xml Please note Each Windows user account uses its own configuration file The settings from the configuration file are used for TFORMer Designer TFORMer SDK and for TFPrint The standard settings defaults on the first program start respectively in case of a missing TFORMer xml file in the user application data directory are taken from the global application data directory see below The standard configuration file is located in the global application data directory ProgramData TEC IT TFORMer 7 0 TFORMer xml For a complete description of the configuration file please refer to the Developer Manual WWW TEC IT COM Page 136 of 139 Appendix F Creating CSV Files with Excel In order to create a CSV file with Microsoft Excel please follow these steps A B 1 ArticleName ArticleNo ArticlePrice 2 Chair 558963 3 Desk 778920 4 Monitor 7 5116 5 Panel 544593 6 Coffee Machine 549896 7 Printer 458802 amp Fax 415806 9 Phone 458932 LFU CLU ota File name 110 236 5 6 8 1 115 Save as type CSV Comma delimited csv ArticleName ArticleNo ArticlePrice Chair 558963 110 Desk 778920 150 Monitor 775116 236 Panel 544593 40
90. ect Tem plate Using the page setup dialog you specify the exact page layout WWW TEC IT COM Page 33 of 139 Paper Format Width Margin Top Margin Top Label Detail Band Margin Left Margin Left Paper Format Height Row Spacing Column Spaci Margin Right Margin Right Paper Format Height Margin Bottom Margin Bottom Paper Format Width Figure 26 Page Setup for Standard Reports Label Sheets and Label Printers For more information about different layout variations please refer to Appendix D 6 2 3 1 Paper Property Description Format The paper format e g DIN A4 DIN A5 lt Custom Format gt Width The paper width Height The paper height 6 2 3 2 Margins Property Description To The page margins are used to confine the printing area on the output page They are specified with respect to the physical borders of the output page Right 6 2 3 3 Orientation Orientation The page orientation Portrait Landscape Printer Default uses the orientation which is adjusted in the printer driver 6 2 3 4 Output Rotation Output rotation 0 90 180 or 270 degrees counter clockwise Instead of rotating the output page portrait landscape you can also rotate the output on the page 6 2 3 5 Label Settings In order to print multiple labels on one output page e g business cards on an A4 page you have to specify the size of the labels and the de
91. ed in gray WWW TEC IT COM Page 54 of 139 10 2 1 2 Create Datafield Definitions Automatically When editing a datasource all datafield definitions can be created automatically see section 13 4 TFORMer suggests to create and assign a new datafield for each field in the datasource which is not already used in the current layout or repository The data type Text is assigned automatically 10 2 2 Datafield Properties The datafield properties can either be edited in the properties window or in the Edit Datafield dialog For a description of datafield properties please refer to sections 10 3 and A 5 10 2 3 Use Datafields in Layouts Once a datafield was defined it can be used as element content in text elements see section 8 3 1 barcode elements see section 8 3 2 and picture elements dynamic logos see section 8 3 3 in control expressions e g printing conditions see sections 12 2 and 12 3 and in computations e g as operand for additional computed fields see section 10 3 2 10 2 3 1 Element Content To assign a datafield as element content use either of these two methods 1 Double click on the element An edit dialog will be opened see chapter 9 In this dialog select the desired datafield from a list 2 Drag and drop the datafield from the design tree to the layout view see below The left or the right mouse button may be used for the drag and drop operation When
92. el start with the RepotHeader O template lt Custom Label gt and select the variation E Complex Labels Remove the Row Column Break for the detail band see In the section Columns enter the required column configuration see also D 4 3 In this example two columns with the same width are printed on the label Detail Band Page Break Row Column Break 50 000 mm PageFooer oo O 80 000 mm Figure 81 Label Sheets with Detail Band Columns Width Please note The width of the detail band is the same as the label width When setting the number of rows to 2 the design on the detail band must not cover more than 50 of the detail band width in this case 40 000 mm WWW TEC IT COM Page 135 of 139 Appendix E Advanced Configuration E 1 Template File Path The file path for the template files can be set in the windows registry You can find the appropriate settings either under HKEY CURRENT USER or under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE KE WO CURRENTUSER So menace LEC lie Dabenvesavbenuuma i Gmloh ME ORMets 6 0 Diwecibon tes TemplateDir Some directory where the templates are stored When storing the setting under HKEY_ LOCAL MACHINE then it is valid for all users on the compu ter PpKE EO A MACHINE VSomeviace MHC ll sDawenvcrtanocumuno Gmlon LMORMee Von0 Disecworie s TemplateDir Some directory where the templates are stored E 2 Configuration File TFORMer xml All output sp
93. ements like text or lines and therefore nothing is being printed Invisible bands can be used for Computations pre and post evaluation You can initialize a datafield in the report header at the beginning of the printing process Feed Control insert page or column breaks triggered by printing conditions Tray Control see section 12 6 Please note gt If the printing condition for the band returns false it will not be printed This means no pre and post evaluations are performed no page or column breaks are inserted and no tray will be selected gt If the height of the band is not adjustable use the menu File Page Setup to change to the layout type Complex 12 6 Tray Control The tray control is used to select or switch printer trays during print time For every single page of the output you can dynamically select a tray on the target printer This is useful for printing the first page of an invoice on a letterhead or for adding an envelope to a print out You could also print a number of labels and add a cover sheet which is printed on non sticky paper In TFORMer all this can be done in one single print job The selection of the trays is performed during print time The tray selection works completely device independent TFORMer uses logical tray numbers tray 1 to tray 10 Thus it is possible to select the trays without having to take care for the actually used hardware or printer driver A
94. en icon amp in the toolbar You can also press the keyboard shortcut Cir O Then select the requested file and press OK to confirm Alternatively you can also double click on the tff file in the Windows Explorer or drag the file from the Explorer to the TFORMer window 6 2 2 Create a New Form To create a new form select File New Form from the menu or press the New icon in the toolbar You can also press the keyboard shortcut Cir N The following wizard will appear Create New Form Template Which Template should be used to create the new Form Choose a Template for the new Form oe H 3 Business Cards Figure 15 Create a New Layout Select the template that you want to start with Choose between WWW TEC IT COM Page 28 of 139 Custom report see section 6 2 2 1 Custom label see section 6 2 2 2 Ready to use label or report templates for industry logistics and the medical branch Sample and overview layouts demonstrating the functionality of TFORMer O00 Select the desired item and confirm your selection with Next respectively with Finish see If all required input is done the according layout will be opened in the design window The layout can be adapted to your needs by adding removing or modifying bands and design ele ments 6 2 2 1 Custom Report If you want to design your own report choose lt Custom Report gt and
95. enever you edit an external datasource it is essential to specify the field bindings In this step you associate the required sourcefields of the external datasource with datafields Only datafields can be used as placeholders within text boxes barcodes images etc Sourcefields are not directly available in the layout gt All sourcefields that you want to use in the layout must be bound to datafields To edit the field bindings switch to the Field Bindings tab in the Edit Datasource dialog There you see all available sourcefields and their datafield bindings Directly after the creation of a new data source no bindings are specified by default Edit New _Datasource i Bindings for Sourcefield ArticlePrice A Select the Datafields which you would like to Assign the fields available in the Datasource Sourcefields ta bind to the Sourcefield Usually each Datafield is assigned to a Sourcefield E DFArtideName Article Name ArticleN DFArtidePrice Article No ArticlePrice 1 Additional Settings Sourcetield for number of copies Escape sequences in XAJ W E Gorslate Escape Sequences Figure 58 Field Bindings Settings Sourcefields O This list shows all available sourcefields and their assigned datafields One sourcefield can be associated with one or more datafields Using the buttons in the field bindings can be edited or deleted Edit This button opens dialog In this d
96. es p Advanced Settings Datasource Edit manually default C Filter Save serial values after printing Tray Mapping _Default_ 2 Start Row 0 SDK Options Start Column 0 Open output fie automaticaly Figure 51 Select Tray Mappings in the Print Dialog WWW TEC IT COM Page 71 of 139 On the print dialog choose Advanced Settings Then select one of the pre configured tray mappings in For a more information on the print dialog please refer to chapter 15 WWW TEC IT COM Page 72 of 139 13 Providing Data 13 1 Introduction As mentioned in chapter 5 TFORMer requires data in addition to the layout for printing The follow ing datasource types are supported Manual Datasource The default datasource allows you to edit every single data value manually see section 13 3 1 ODBC Datasource The data will be imported from an ODBC connection see section 13 3 3 Flat Text File The data will be imported from a text file CSV TSV see section 13 3 4 XML File The data will be imported from a XML file see section 13 3 5 TFORMer SDK API This datasource is not selectable in the user interface The data will be provided program matically from outside TFORMer Designer This method can be used by software deve lopers For details see section 15 3 For each layout you can create multiple datasources and switch between them as required So you have the possibility to print one single layou
97. eturns the value of TrueExpr if Condition is evaluated as TRUE or not equal to 0 Returns the value of FalseExpr if Condition is evaluated as FALSE or equals 0 Checks if the given string can be converted into a valid date using the specified conversion format For information on how to specify the format please refer to the description of the function Format Date Format above IsEmpty Text Test whether the string Text is empty or not Returns TRUE if Returns TRUE if the page being printed is the last page of the document Number is even Returns TRUE if the specified date occurs within a leap year Returns TRUE if Number is uneven Removes all characters in Text which are NOT included in KeepChars Returns the last value of a given datafield the value of the datafield from the previous record Returns the first characters nLength of a string Returns the length of the given string Returns the natural logarithm of Number Returns the logarithm of Number Retrieves the value associated with the specified key If the key is not found the default value is returned Example Lookup KEY1 key1 value1 key2 value2 DefaultValue returns value1 Returns the substring of string Text starting at position nStart with length nLength The first character of a string is located at position 0 The minutes of a specified date time 00
98. f all object properties please refer to Appendix A The properties of the following objects can be modified Forms Bands Elements graphical design elements Datasources and Source Parameters Datafields Layers Tray Mappings Projects Repository Properties q Q 0 Common 2 Text Express Font Arial 18 Fore Color E ffoo00 Fill Color _ No Color l Line Color No Line Line Width 0 100 mm Line Style Text Alignment Center Right Justify False p Word Wrap True Text Rotation 0 07 Advanced Control Position El Margins w Fore Color Color of the Tert Figure 9 Properties Window All properties are grouped into categories like Common Advanced or Position see The categories help you to locate properties more easily Properties are accessible as field value pairs E g the property Text is currently set to Ex press The color Fore Color is set to red The area shows information on the selected property Button is used to turn the auto hide feature of the properties window on or off Click the symbol once to make the window slide away To recover its previous state hover with the mouse over the Properties button By clicking the auto hide button again the window will be fixed in its previous posi tion Button closes the properties window gt TFORMer Designer supports multiple object selection This can be u
99. f 139 12 Smart Layouts 12 1 Introduction TFORMer offers a number of features which give you additional flexibility for formatting the output Printing Conditions Control whether single bands or elements are printed Printing Layers Assign elements to layers and control the printing of the layers via printing conditions Pre and Post Evaluations Perform computations which are specific to a certain band Invisible Bands Control special document layout features Tray Control Switch printer trays even within a print job 12 2 Printing Conditions Printing conditions are used to control the visibility of elements layers or bands during print time A printing condition is an expression see chapter 11 which returns either true or false Printing conditions can be assigned to elements text elements lines to entire bands and to printing layers see below If a printing condition returns false the corresponding object will not be printed gt Please note The result of a printing condition will be converted to the data type Integer numerical value if required A value of 0 is interpreted as false 12 2 1 Edit a Printing Condition ee ee If you want to edit a printing condition first select mi the object e g the page header Then go to the properties window Page Header Page Header fe Activate the Control group and click anywhere in or on the
100. f this option is enabled all used fonts will be embedded within the PDF file This option ensures that the PDF document is always displayed correctly even if the required fonts are not installed on the system where the document is viewed Embedding fronts increases the size of the generated PDF document By default this option is enabled You can choose the method for font embedding TrueType The complete TrueType font is embedded in the PDF file True Type Subgroups Only the required parts of a TrueType font are embedded in the PDF file smallest output size Type3 Fonts are embedded as type 3 fonts in the PDF file Type 3 fonts should only be used when printing the resulting PDF on high resolution devices Simulate bold fonts if If this option is enabled TFORMer will simulate the bold font in the resulting PDF file if the not available y n bold typeface is missing By default this option is enabled 17 4 3 Image Resolution Reduce to __ y n If enabled all images of which the resolution is larger than the specified value will be re sampled Smaller images are stored in their original resolution If disabled all images are embedded in their original size WWW TEC IT COM Page 103 of 139 17 4 4 Image Compression The compression method that is used for storing images in the PDF output Auto All images which are provided as JPEG are embedded as JPEG All other images omp tif are stored as Zip compres
101. gefunden werden Label Sheets see section D 3 2 Complex see section D 4 D 3 1 Label Printer For printing on label printers e g ZEBRA thermo transfer printers start with the template lt Custom Label gt and select the variation Label Printer see also 6 2 2 3 In the page setup dialog you specify the label size Example File New Form gt 2 Transportation gt DHL gt DHL_EuroConnect Paper Format Height Paper Format Width Figure 75 Label Printer D 3 2 Label Sheets For printing on label sheets e g Avery standard formats start with the template lt Custom Label gt and select the variation Label Sheets see also 6 2 2 2 Hint If you intend to use different paper sizes for your printout you can set the number of rows and columns to auto In this case TFORMer will calculate the number of labels that fit on the output page Example File gt New Form gt 6 Samples gt Label_ 1 Figure 76 Label Sheets WWW TEC IT COM Page 130 of 139 Page Header Page Footer Figure 77 Label Sheets with Headers and Footers WWW TEC IT COM If required you can also insert additional page headers and footers respectively report headers and footers for label sheets Bere Sep Oe pM tee a fu Page Header Page Header Page header using the page width fA Detail Detail wid f r jeden Datensatz ausgegeben Etikett
102. he available space within one text line You can also define your own characters to be used as conditional hyphens e g the negation character Just enter the respective characters into the field Additional soft hyphens Please note Whenever a conditional word break is applied the specified separator character see above is printed The soft hyphen itself standard or user defined is never printed If you specify a dash as conditional hyphen the output of all dashes will be suppressed WWW TEC IT COM Page 106 of 139 WWW TEC IT COM 18 Licensing 18 1 License Types Please check out http Awww tec it com order for available license types and pricing 18 2 Entering your License Data To enter the license data select Help gt License from the menu The dialog below will appear TFORMer provides two methods for entering the license data Online Activation using the Activation Key see 18 2 1 This is the default method Internet access is required Manual Licensing see 18 2 2 Please get in touch us with us if your system has no internet access or if you prefer to use the manual activation for any other reason We will be glad to send you the license data which is suitable for manual licensing 18 2 1 Online Activation using the Activation Key If you have received an activation key from TEC IT please use the online activation O Licensing Please enter the activation key and
103. he compression factor which is used for creating JPEG output 17 8 Zebra ZPL Page Layout The page size Letter A4 and the orientation portrait or landscape for ZPL II output The orientation portrait or landscape for ZPL I output Resolution The resolution in dpi of the used printer The pre set value is 8 dots millimeter 203 dpi Scaling 4JM Selects the scaling factor for the output Switch to Doubled if the resulting output is half of the required size Normal default Doubled Please check out your ZPL II manual for the UMA and JMB commands for details Compression Selects the compression method that is used for compressing the bitmap which is sent to the ZEBRA printer The following options are available None The bitmap will not be compressed This kind of transfer may be very slow but it is sup ported by all ZEBRA models RLE The bitmap will be RLE compressed This option is supported by most ZEBRA models This is the default option PNG The sent bitmap is a PNG image This option is supported by newer ZEBRA models respectively newer ZEBRA firmware versions Dither Mode Selects the method used for simulating color output on a black amp white printer The following options are available Scatter grayscale simulation method 1 this is the default Ordered grayscale simulation method 2 Threshold no grayscale pattern just black or white Do not dither Text y n If enab
104. he design functions are available through the toolbar See Figure 32 or through the Layout menu Alignment Size Z Order Spacing B 50 yg ee SD Oy Sy Gh oe ST OST Figure 32 Layout Toolbar gt When changing the alignment or the size of selected elements the element with the selection focus see 8 2 2 1 acts as master all selected elements will be changed ac cording to its values 8 2 10 1 Alignment Select at least two elements Then choose one of the following functions The element with the selection focus acts as master e Align Left The selected elements will be aligned left Shortcut Ctrl br Align Right The selected elements will be aligned right Shortcut Ctrl gt 30 Align Bottom The selected elements will be aligned at the bottom Shortcut Ctrl V oo Align Top The selected elements will be aligned at the top Shortcut Ctrl 7 Align Vertically The selected elements are center aligned vertically st Align Horizontally The selected elements are center aligned horizontally WWW TEC IT COM Page 43 of 139 8 2 10 2 Size Select at least two elements Then choose one of the following functions The element with the selection focus acts as master Make same Width The same width is applied to all selected elements Make same Height The same height is applied to all selected elements The same size is applied to all selected elements 8 2 10 3 Z Order Select
105. he right border to achieve a common vertical line to the right Useful for aligning the right border of an element to the right position of the band or other elements Allowed values are a No Elements Band a This property is used to move elements relative to other growing or shrinking elements Always considers size changes of other elements immediately When overlapped only avoids intersections Allowed values are Always Don t shift When overlapped A 3 5 Margins These properties are available for Text Elements only Margin Left These margins are used to confine the printing area within a text element Margin Top Margin Right Margin Bottom A 3 6 Documentation The name of the element Comment An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 4 Layer Properties A 4 1 Common Display Color If Display Layer colors amp is enabled all elements which are assigned to that layer will be drawn in the specified color Visible Here you can toggle all elements of one layer visible or invisible Please note This is for editing purposes only The output will not be affected A 4 2 Control Printing Condition The printing condition decides at print time whether the elements which are assigned to that layer will be printed or not See section 12 2 WWW TEC IT COM Page 116 of 139 A 4 3 Documentation Description A simple description Only for documentation pur
106. ialog select one or more datafields which you want to bind to the selected sourcefield Delete This button deletes the bindings for the selected sourcefield Alternatively press the Del key on the keyboard Auto This button is used to create field bindings automatically It binds all sourcefields to existing equally named datafields If no appropriate datafield exists TFORMer prompts you if you want to create a new datafield with a suitable name New Datafield This button creates a new datafield A newly created datafield is automatically bound to the currently selected sourcefield WWW TEC IT COM Page 83 of 139 Sourcefield for number of copies The drop down list specifies which sourcefield is used as Copies column This column specifies how often each record is printed If no sourcefield is specified TFORMer prints each record once Escape sequences This option tells TFORMer whether escape sequences should be translated or not An escape sequence is an in text placeholder for special characters It always starts with a backslash followed by a character or character code Example The escape sequence n is a placeholder for a newline character gt Please note If escape sequences are activated you must use the sequence in the data source to encode a single backslash 13 5 Advanced Options When enabling the Show Advanced Options checkbox at bottom of the Edit Datas
107. ickly by using tabs WWW TEC IT COM Page 23 of 139 5 Printing Concept and Workflow 5 1 Introduction TFORMer uses one universal output concept to produce all different kinds of outputs like Reports a table a list or a letter usually spanning multiple pages Label sheets a layout which is printed repeatedly in multiple rows and columns on each page Single labels Label Printer a layout which is printed once on each page One page is one label Hybrid Layouts a mix of the first two variants The output concept is based on the logical separation of the Jayout into different printing areas e g report header page header detail area page footer and report footer Such a printing area is called band Each of these bands fulfills a specific purpose By combining bands and by adjusting their proper ties different layout schemes can be produced The figure below illustrates the printing of a simple report Output Input Data with Datafields ee Datasource Edit manually default Item list with barcodes Chair 558963 1 558963 Chair DINDIN WIN Desk 778920 T 778920 Desk l ONNAN M it r 775116 ArticleNo fArticleName ayete 775116 Monitor TUN A I n sc ihc Haat Coffee Mac 549896 Now Page CStr Page of CStr NumPages 549896 Coffee Machine TUM ANIM AN A Far Tr Reet 458862 Printer TL ennie _ eee his lt lt lt 445
108. ie These tray mappings are available for all fy Global Datasources layouts in all projects Orm Global Datafields Global Datasources QF Projects These datasoruces are available for all layouts ia EmptyProject in all projects a sense ee l Global Datafields j Datasources i 7 These datafields are available for all layouts in c r Datafields all projects EI Forms Projects E BarcodeLabels A collection of layouts and datafields Data BusinessCard_Fixed E BusinessCard_Multi E MailingFlowerPower E ProductCatalogue field definitions are only valid within layouts of the project they are defined in 16 2 Basic Operations 16 2 1 Open an existing Repository To open a repository select File Repository Open Repository from the menu Then select the repository file and confirm with OK Alternatively use the menu File Open TFORMer allows you to open both tff files stand alone forms and tfr files repositories Once opened the repository is displayed in the design tree in the Repository tab see figure above 16 2 1 1 Demo Repository The TFORMer installation includes a demo repository This repository is named Demos tfr and can be opened by selecting All Programs TEC IT TFORMer 6 0 Examples Demo Repository from the Windows Start Menu 16 2 2 Create a New Repository Select File Repository New Repository from the menu A file dialog will appear En
109. ils on printing conditions please refer to section 12 2 7 3 9 Pre and Post Evaluations For each band you can specify pre evaluation and post evaluation expressions These expressions will be evaluated before and after the band is printed For more details on pre and post evaluations please refer to section 12 4 WWW TEC IT COM Page 39 of 139 8 Elements 8 1 Introduction Elements or graphical design elements are all sorts of printable shapes like texts barcodes lines rectangles circles and pictures They are placed on the bands to create the layout 8 2 Basic Operations 8 2 1 Insert an Element TALL Figure 30 Layout View To insert an element e g a barcode into your layout first click on the appropriate symbol in the toolbar Then place the element on one of the bands inside the layout You can place elements in two different ways A single mouse click on the worksheet will insert the element with its default size If you click and drag a frame with the mouse pointer while holding down the mouse button the element is inserted in the given dimensions upon release of the mouse button Please note that the modifier keys which are described in section 8 2 3 will apply here as well Ep Select Elements Select existing elements or bands in the layout view This tool is enabled by default New Text Create a new text element A text element provides formatted text
110. in the context of this document incorporates generating output in general Besides direct printing via a printer driver in Microsoft Windows TFORMer also supports the creation of PDF documents HTML files PostScript files images ZPL II output for ZEBRA printers and ASCII output All output formats are generated directly There is no need for third party software This might particularly be interesting for PostScript or ZEBRA output see below 15 2 Printing Manually To open the print dialog press Ctrl P or select File Print from the menu The following dialog will appear Form Print Device Output to Printer Pages ea E From z Collate E simulate Copies Advanced Settings Cte Save serial values after printing Tray Mapping _Default_ O StartRow 2 SDK Options Start Column 0 Open output file automatically Figure 69 Print Dialog with Advanced Settings enabled In this dialog specify all output parameters as discussed below When finished click Print to send the job to the printer or to create the output file 15 2 1 Output Format and Device Output to Selects the output device respectively format Printer via a printer driver PDF PostScript HTML Text pure ASCII BMP GIF JPG PCX PNG TGA TIF or multipage TIF ZEBRA ZPL II Printer Depending on your selection in you can select one of the Windows printers and or the target file WWW TEC IT COM Page 94 of
111. inters When using form names e g A4 or Letter in the tray mappings be careful to configure your printer drivers correctly Otherwise the mapping between a form name and the printer tray will not work 12 6 1 Create a New Tray Mapping Repository Design Tr To create a new tray mapping right click on the S E TFORMer1 folder Tray Mappings in the design tree and select m ig Datasources New Tray Mapping from the pop up menu see E a Datafields A new entry New_Tray_Mapping_0 will be aS created H SD To rename the tray mapping select it in the design tree and thereafter press F2 or click again on the item with the left mouse button Now you can directly edit the name Alternatively use the properties window to rename a tray mapping Properties 12 6 2 Configure Tray Mappings Each tray mapping has ten logical trays which can be filled with device specific physical trays The trays are assigned as follows panei called Enter the name of the logical tray directly in or He 24 select it from the list provided by the printer driver El Common Click on the button to open the dialog below Name New_Tray_Mapping_0 El Trays i Tray 1 Automatically Select F Tray 2 AS Tray 3 Letter Q WWW TEC IT COM Page 70 of 139 Select Printer Tray First select the target printer in Then select one of the listed items You can choose a Tray Name or a Form Name
112. is selected gt To start a selection frame over an existing graphical element try to hold down the Shift or the Cirl key This will prevent other elements which might be under the mouse pointer from being moved 8 2 2 1 Examples Figure 31 Element Selection This element has the mouse focus bold outline If you click your left mouse button it will be selected This element is part of a selection Because it does not have the selection focus its sizing handles are drawn as outline 5 This element is part of a selection and has the selection focus This is indicated by solid sizing handles 2 If you adjust the size or the alignment of two or more elements see sections 8 2 10 1 and 8 2 10 2 the focused element will act as master This means its properties or property changes will be applied to the rest of the selection The last element that is added to the selection always receives the selection focus You can set the focus within a selection by clicking on the required element Do NOT hold down any modifier keys like Shift or Ctrl WWW TEC IT COM Page 41 of 139 This element is not selected 8 2 3 Change Element Size After selecting an element you can change its size by clicking and dragging the sizing handles While changing the size you can use the following modifier keys Modifier Key Shift Square Circle The width and the height of the element are set to the same value Ctrl Cen
113. ivider 5 Tabs 1x5 90 x 69 215 x 353 Avery 011990 2 Divider 5 Tabs ixi 100 x 315 215 x 353 Avery 011990 3 Divider 5 Tabs ix 100 x 315 215 x 353 Avery 01199 1 1 Divider 10 Tabs 1x10 90x35 215 x 353 Avery 011991 2 Divider 10 Tabs 1x1 100 x 315 215 x 353 Avery 3421 General Usage Labels 3x11 70x 25 210 x 297 Avery 3422 General Usage Labels 3x8 70 x 35 210 x 297 Avery 3423 General Usage Labels 2x8 105x 35 210 x 297 Avery 3424 General Usage Labels 2x6 105 x 48 210 x 297 Avery 3425 General Usage Labels 2x5 105 x 57 210 x 297 Avery 3427 General Usage Labels 2x4 105 x 74 210 x 297 Avery 3474 x3 very 3475 General Usage Labels 3x8 70 x 36 210 x 297 Avery 3478 General Usage Label 1x1 210 x 297 210 x 297 Avery 3483 General Usage Labels 2x2 148 x 105 297 x 210 Avery Laara General leane ahele INS v 27s 1N v 797 werul Click Finish to open the layout In order to select one of the predefined label templates use the button Select Template The selection dialog shows a list of all available format definitions see figure to the left Use the filter to narrow down the selection After you have chosen the desired format in confirm with OK The following layout was created using the settings as shown above 3 columns 5 rows label dimensions of 6 cm x 5 cm row and column spacing each 2 mm Labels typically use the detail band only No page headers or footers are used by def
114. l Pentium 4 Extreme Edition Prescott 2h CPU 3 1 BFOO9802 4711 Pentium O Smithfield CPU 4 1 700403 4711 Pentium Extreme Edition Smithfield CPU 5 1 oF OO98O4 4711 Pentium Extreme Edition Presler CPU fi 1 6700905 4711 Pentium 4 Cedar Mill D CPU T 1 ar0gg l 4711 Pentium D Fresler CPU i 1 ar0gga07 4711 Core Solo Yonah CPU 4009800 Pentium 4 Prescott 2M 4 nm t Record ha qa 2 gt mH vone Hide unused Datafields 4a eb Layout Data a Preview 4 hb Figure 5 Data View The data view mainly consists of a data grid showing the current data Use the navigation buttons in to select rows or to jump to a specific row in the datasource In you will find func tions for manipulating and selecting datasources When checkbox is activated all datafields which are not used in the layout will be hidden By default TFORMer assigns a manual datasource to a newly created layout This means that you can enter values for datafields manually in the grid It is also possible to create and edit other types of datasources e g ODBC database access in this view For more information regarding the data view please refer to section 13 2 4 4 4 Preview This tab shows an instant preview of the output using the selected datasource Customer 4711 Picking List Picking List Number A rticte Grou i CPU ArticleNo Description Ssds Ss Quantity Unit Price Barcode Pentium 4 Prescott 2M
115. l become invalid imme diately e g in a text element in the printing condition of a band etc The concerned bands and elements are marked as corrupted in red In order to fix the problem all broken references have to be replaced manually Repository Design ax 2 TORM A wi Datasources S i Datafields T Express x Flag_InGroup cee PickingListNo ProductGroup Z Quantity_renamed 1 a Sum_GroupPrice oe Sum_Group Units 2 Sum_TotalPrice Sum_TotalUnits _ UnitPrice nA Tray Mappings Mm Report Headers Page Headers Group Headers Details a ie Ei fa Detal of Rect Background pe Description peg Article No peg Format CDbI UnitPrice E gent B l Error Unknown name in Text Expression D Quantity Means Line Right ro M Cem Cantr fe Detail Detail gt ArticleNo Description Quantity WWW TEC IT COM In this example the datafield Quantity was renamed to Quantity renamed The original datafield name is still in use in various bands and elements For this reason some errors are displayed When hovering the mouse over one of the red objects a short error description is displayed Page 60 of 139 11 Expressions 11 1 Introduction Expressions are used for computing element content or controlling output behavior during print time Expressions can be used as dynamic content in text barcode
116. lable When pushed the evaluated expres sion in will be interpreted as HTML Thus you can provide additional format specifications within the text HTML formatted expressions are marked with angle brackets lt gt see section 9 3 3 WWW TEC IT COM Page 62 of 139 11 3 Evaluation Order The over all evaluation order for expressions is defined as follows see also figure below 1 Printing Condition of the band 2 Pre Evaluation of the band Can be used for computing Catafields 3 Printing Conditions of layers These are computed for every band the results are used later when printing the elements 4 Printing Condition of elements in the band 5 Dynamic contents for elements 6 Post Evaluation of the band Steps 2 to 6 will only be performed if the band is printed in other words if the printing condition of the band is true Process Band Printing Condition of Band False Do Pre Evaluation s Y Evaluate Printing Conditions of Layers Process all Elements of Band False Unprocessed y Do Post Evaluation s Band finished _ Figure 50 Evaluation Order Elements left Printing Condition of Layer Printing Condition of Element False Calculate Dynamic Content of Element y Print Element WWW TEC IT COM Page 63 o
117. lace the cursor in on the required text position then use the nsert button to insert an expression or a source parameter For details on expressions and source parameters see chapter 11 and section 13 5 2 13 3 3 3 Field Bindings To complete the setup of the datasource adjust the required field bindings see section 13 4 WWW TEC IT COM Page 80 of 139 13 3 4 Flat Text Files CSV TSV Text file datasources are used to retrieve data from a file CSV TSV 13 3 4 1 File In the File tab specify the text file to be loaded Edit New_Datasource Feld Bindings Text Datasource CSV TSV Please select an existing file f required the file name can be adapted with Expressions and Source Parameters The field separator character as well as the text qualifier can also be set File C Temp Data cev Field separator Text qualifier Semicolon 2 None 3 line contains column names Article Name ArticleNo ArticlePrice Chair 110 Desk 778920 150 Monitor Panel Coffee Machine E Show Advanced Options Figure 56 File Datasource File Enter the name of the file which you want to use as datasource You can select a file by pressing the button or you can enter the file path manually by clicking the button Field separator The field separator specifies the character used to separate the fields in the text file Select a predefined separator character from the list or
118. le and size Human Readable Text The distance between the barcode and human S text Distance Barcode rotation 0 90 180 or 270 degrees counter clockwise A 3 1 3 Line Rectangle Ellipse This property is not available for line elements The radius of the rounded corner This property is only available for rounded rectangles A 3 1 4 Picture The image file name The following file formats can be used bmp gif jpg pcx png tga tif File names can be specified using one of the following formats Windows file format e g C temp sample png URL format only available under windows e g http www tec it com pics sample png WWW TEC IT COM Page 113 of 139 You can use absolute file names e g C sample jpg and relative file names e g sample jpg or img sample jpg As base for relative path specifications the path of the TFORMer file tff or xmd is used The alignment of the picture within the bounding rectangle The following values are possible Center Left Center Right Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Right The display mode Clip The picture will be printed in its original size and might be clipped by the bounding rectangle Stretch The picture will be stretched to fit the bounding rectangle regardless of its aspect ratio Zoom The picture will be enlarged to its maximum possible size within the bounding rectangle keeping its a
119. led colored text is never dithered By default this option is enabled 17 9 Barcodes Barcode Printing on For the output on Windows Printers TFORMer offers the following barcode rendering Windows Printers methods Default method This method is given through the barcode DLL Currently the default method is the quality mode please see below However it may change in later versions Compatibility mode supported by all printers This method may result in suboptimal output quality but it is compatible to nearly all printers It uses the GDI rectangle functions for drawing the barcode symbols Quality mode supported by most printers This method results in the best quality but may not be supported by all printers It uses WWW TEC IT COM Page 105 of 139 advanced GDI drawing methods Dual a combination of above modes This method produces correct output on most printers but might decrease drawing speed 17 10 Formatted Text Hyphen used for Specifies the separator character which is used in case of a conditional word break Select output one of the list items or enter your own character or string Additional soft The standard character for conditional word breaks is the so called soft hyphen character hyphens ASCII 173 or ADh Unicode OOADh HTML amp 173 or amp shy Whenever this character is encountered in a string a word break may be inserted at this position Thus TFORMer can better utilize t
120. lements or Bands for more options Page Footer Page Footer Page Footer Tr Tetra e a Report Footer Report Footer f Report Footer gt z Figure 17 Simple Report Layout View 6 2 2 2 Custom Label Label Sheet Report Header Repor Heacer Banai printed once attop otme Report Page Header Pagetieader Band is printed at Ne top of each pag Detail Band 1 2 Detail Sand is pte reach data eom To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the polbar on the left To delete an Element or Band select it and press Del To fill the Report with variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 2 2 Deu Sand is panted reach dat To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tbolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable dats use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 3 2 o1 5270 cn reach dats Hoon To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tpolbar on the left To delete an Eement or Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 4 2 Dez Sana is ome To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Hea
121. llows you to specify the codepage for encoding characters outside of the standard ASCII range 0 127 This means this setting is relevant for specific 2D barcodes only others do not support the respective character range Please note If you choose any other page than the default codepage the characters might get mixed up or even unreadable For public applications you should therefore always use the default codepage If you try to encode special characters like A or N please make sure that the 2D symbology is able to encode these characters with the default codepage The format property is used for formatting the utilizable data of the barcode It is specified via a string that operates with substitute symbols to indicate how the data shall be structu red Specifying a format string you can Select subsets for Code 128 and UCC EAN 128 Define the desired Start Stop characters for CODABAR WWW TEC IT COM Page 114 of 139 Reposition the Check Digit in special cases Encode the date preamble service class postal and country code into the barcode data MaxiCode Bearer Width Adjust the horizontal lines above and below the barcode 0 inch or mm no line x inch or mm use the specified line width Module Width The module width is the width of the narrowest bar The notch height specifies how far the synchronization bars should jut out from the remain ing barcode E g the EAN code has synchronization bar
122. n Columns p then Across The first two labels in the left column will be left empty 15 3 Printing Programmatically Print order Across then Down The first two rows will be left empty Software developers can print layouts created with TFORMer Designer as part of their applications using TFORMer SDK TFORMer SDK is available for Microsoft Windows and for almost all Linux and UNIX platforms The following kinds of integration are possible Command line based printing application TFPrint Software component DLL COM component NET component and shared library For details please refer to the Developer Manual or to the API References of the TFORMer SDK WWW TEC IT COM Page 96 of 139 16 Repositories 16 1 Introduction TFORMer offers two different possibilities for organizing layouts 16 1 1 Stand Alone Forms gt Stand alone forms are the simplest way to create and to print layouts Each stand alone form designed with TFORMer can be used on its own A stand alone form contains all the necessary information which is required for printing Images are not embedded but stored as file references As long as no repository is used TFORMer always creates stand alone forms when selecting File New Form from the menu A stand alone form is using the file extension tff Organizing multiple stand alone forms in the file sys
123. n Filter An optional filter for aggregation values If a filter was entered single values will only be considered if the expression returns true Thus you can define which values are considered for the aggregation and which not A 5 4 Advanced Caption These properties may be queried with the TFORMer SDK API They have no functionality for printing Display Order This property is used by the data grid of TFORMer Designer and by the tool QuickPrint to determine the order in which datafields are displayed By default TFORMer sorts the data fields alphabetically A 5 5 Documentation A simple description Only for documentation purposes An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 6 Tray Mapping Properties A 6 1 Common Name The name of the tray mapping A 6 2 Trays For each of the 10 logical trays in TFORMer you can assign a device specific printer tray You can assign tray names or paper format names A 6 3 Documentation A simple description Only for documentation purposes WWW TEC IT COM Page 118 of 139 An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 7 Repository Description A simple description Only for documentation purposes Comment An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 8 Tray Mapping Properties Repository Same as the Tray Mapping Properties described in A 6 A 9 Global Datafields Repository Same as the Datafield Properties described in A 5 A 10 P
124. n arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 2 6 Columns The group Columns is available for detail bands only Columns Specifies how many columns are used for printing the detail bands If activated each new record respectively each record copy is printed in a subsequent column When designing the layout you have to consider that only the respective percentage of the column width may actually be used for design elements e g for 2 columns you may only cover 50 of the width The Row Column Break has to be removed Gap The gap between the columns Width The width of a column For the alternating output of two or more detail bands you have to consider that each involved detail band must have the same column settings Not for page headers WWW TEC IT COM Page 112 of 139 A 3 Element Properties A 3 1 Common A 3 1 1 Text Elements Font sekestretontsyleardsze O Text Alignment The alignment of the text within the bounding rectangle The following values are possible Top Left Top Center Top Right Center Left Center Right Bottom Left Bottom Center Bottom Right Justify Turn justify on off Word Wrap If enabled line breaks will be ignored Text Rotation Text rotation 0 90 180 or 270 degrees counter clockwise A 3 1 2 Barcode Elements The data which is encoded as barcode symbol The barcode data may contain static data and or dynamic data e g datafields Font Selects the font sty
125. n the 4 icon in the data toolbar Alternatively use the button Filter in the data view IE Edit Filter Bic Datatields Expression Description ee Chr Numbers Character 5 5 Functions CLng sE spre Convert to Long Integer 2S Formats Ctr xExpre Convert to String f Common Expressions Day Dates Day DayOMMeek Dates Day of Week DavOPy ear sD ates Day of rear Exp eM umber Exp Expl Numbers Expt 4 HI Please enter an Expression manually You can also add a predefined Expression or Datafield by double clicking it A static text must be specihed between apostrophes Static Test Test values or Datahelds may be concatenated by using E g concatenated kest wy th T Insert Data CLng ArticlePrice gt 10d Required type of Expression BOOLEAN Figure 66 Edit a Filter In the appearing dialog enter the required expression in Then confirm with OK The filter will be applied to the current datasource automatically An active filter can be identified by the activated filter icon W in the toolbar Example When using the filter expression below only records with an ArticlePrice greater than 100 will be printed Cling ArticlePrice gt 100 WWW TEC IT COM Page 91 of 139 13 6 2 Apply a Filter To apply or to cancel a previously defined filter click on the v icon in the data toolbar or select Data
126. nd com mon abbreviations for measurement units mm cm inch mil to the numeric input 8 2 7 Delete an Element You can delete selected elements in various ways Press the Del key on the keyboard Right click on the element Then select Delete from the pop up menu Select Edit gt Delete from the menu Click the delete symbol in the toolbar WWW TEC IT COM Page 42 of 139 8 2 8 Printing Conditions For each element you can specify a printing condition A printing condition decides at print time whether the element will be printed or not For more details please refer to section 12 2 8 2 9 Assign Elements to a Printing Layer A printing layer gives you the possibility to use one single printing condition for multiple elements It lets you control whether all elements assigned to this layer are printed or not By default only one layer the Base layer is available Newly created elements are assigned to the Base layer by default The printing layer does NOT affect the z order in which the elements are printed For more details on printing layers please refer to section 12 3 8 2 10 Design Functions for Elements These functions simplify the creation of layouts You can make all selected elements the same size you can adjust the spacing between selected elements and more The following properties can be adjusted Alignment Size Z Order Spacing horizontal and vertical T
127. ned Templates Paper Media Orientation Format Portrait a fi 4 F Width 6m Ci Landscape l mee E Printer Default Height Som Output ntti Figure 22 Label Printer Page Settings Choose the layout type Label Printer the output page is the label In you specify the label size and the page orientation f elect Label Template p ae In order to select one of the predefined label a D templates use the button Select Template CEE mee T ie The selection dialog shows a list of all oe ee e 2a 2 a available format definitions see figure to the 011991 1 Divider 10 Tabs 1x 10 90x 35 215 x 353 Avery ome Bee ii mas asm ei left Use the filter to narrow down the vis ama tie rai 3 a E 70 h 35 a si 297 aes P i eee ue 2 ae selection After you have chosen the desired 3424 General Usage Labels 2x6 105x 48 210 x 297 Avery i P 5 gaeau Lee axs mas O87 Mei format in confirm with OK Ser General Usage Labels 70 x 36 210 x 297 Avery 3478 General Usage Label 1x1 210 x 297 210 x 297 Avery 3483 General Usage Labels 2x2 148 x 105 297 x 210 A te a Click Finish to open the form The following layout was created using the settings as shown above label dimensions of 6 cm x 5 cm Labels typically use the detail band only No page headers or footers are used by default Upon creation of the new label one reco
128. nitions you first have to create a project Right click on the repository in the design tree Then select New Project from the pop up window Alternatively use the menu nsert gt Project The name and the description for the project can be edited in the properties window or using the F2 key 16 3 2 Insert a Layout Select File gt New from the menu or right click on any item in the Layouts branch in the design tree and select New Form from the pop up menu to open the following wizard WWW TEC IT COM Page 100 of 139 Create New Form Select Repository Select a Repository for the new Form Either create a new stand alone Form which can be used without a Repository or create a new Fom inside a given Repository TFORMer Server requires a Repository a Create a new stand alone Form B Create a new Form in the specified Repository Choose a Repository Repository Dems C ProgramData TECIT TFORMer 6 0 Example Create New Form Select Project Select a Project for the new Form Choose a Project Project EmptyProject My Project Industry Templates D m Use this Project for your Forms Predifned Industry Templates TFORMer_Runtime_Ex Example Labels and Reports Create New Form Template Which Template should be used to create the new Fom Choose a Template for the new Form Template 2 lt Custom Label gt 1 Automotive 2 Tra
129. nsportation 3 Business Cards gt 4 Company Specific Labels Tape Labels E 6 Samples B 7 Overviews 8 Medical Esue copes cael Le i WWW TEC IT COM In this dialog you select whether you want to create a stand alone form or if you want to add a form to a repository To insert the new layout into the repository select option Then select the repository in Click Next The following dialog will appear Select the project in Then click Next In this dialog you can finally select one of the available templates analogous to section 6 2 2 Click Finish to accept The selected layout template will be added to the selected project in the repository If you click Next you can assign a name and a description for the layout in the repository By default the name of the imported file will be used as layout name Page 101 of 139 17 General Settings 17 1 Options Dialog In the options dialog you can customize common TFORMer settings To open the dialog select Tools Options from the menu General Language PDF HTML PostScript Picture Zebra PL Barcodes Formatted Text Figure 70 Options Dialog Please note User Interface Settings Measurement system E Use automatic zoom for new views Edit content of elements after insertion Show tooltips in design Highlight on mouse over ae Design Tree Settings E Locate in Design
130. nts e g ArticleNo ei ee eae eS TO paree Desk TD l tTecir hf Monitor 23800 NMNIMN e Panel MIIAN Coffee Machine TO O rat 62 Printer TOT LN Chair TEETE Bpreseres Fax WAIUI Mt ArticleNo ArticleName see oor DNNE Desk 778920 8 0 Phone MO a ie eee 0S Page Header Pape Item list with barcode 1 f Page Footer Page Footer Panel 544593 Now 0 Page CStr Page of CStr NumPages Report Foote Repos Foose Coffee Machine 549896 Fax Phone 24 02 2009 Page 1 of 1 Figure 13 Rendering the Layout For providing the content you have various possibilities Text barcode and image elements can be filled with fixed data Aside from that they can also reference the fields in a datasource Such references will be resolved during print time and the actual data is inserted see Figure 13 However not only the fields in the datasource may be used to provide dynamic data TFORMer also provides system fields e g the current page number and functions e g the current date and you can perform your own arbitrary computations Besides that you can easily create your own serial numbers and use them in the layout 5 3 Datasource Concept For generating output TFORMer requires data The records and the datafields control the content and the appearance of the output As a rule of thumb TFORMer
131. nually see also section 10 4 Invalid references will throw an error and are marked with red color 10 2 6 Delete a Datafield You can delete a datafield in various ways Select the datafield in the design tree and press the Del key on the keyboard Alternatively use Delete in the pop up menu the delete symbol in the tool bar or Edit Delete from the menu gt Attention When deleting a datafield TFORMer will produce an error in all bands and ele ments where the datafield is used e g in text elements pre post evaluations printing conditions Affected elements are marked with red color see section 10 4 10 3 The Edit Datafield Dialog 10 3 1 Standard Datafields Edit Datafield General Name ArtideName Figure 45 Edit Datafield Dialog Datafield If the datafield is supposed to reference the fields in a datasource select the Datafield option O In enter a name for the datafield Depending on the field type in your datasource you may adjust a suitable type in Text Number Floating point However for most cases the type Text will be fine In you can specify a default value This value will always be used if no other value is computed respectively provided by the datasource In you can add an arbitrary description text WWW TEC IT COM Page 56 of 139 10 3 2 Computed Fields Edit Datafield General Mame MyComputedField 1 Data Type Compute per Expression
132. o or more selected elements See also section 8 2 10 1 Sie Adjusts two or more selected elements in size see also section 8 2 10 2 Horizontal Spacing Enlarges or reduces the horizontal distance between elements within a selection see also section 8 2 10 4 Vertical Spacing Enlarges or reduces the vertical distance between elements within a selection see also section 8 2 10 4 Band Order Re arranges the order of selected bands see also section 7 3 6 Shortcuts Alt 7 and Alt 4 4 2 5 Data Data View Switches to the data view see section 4 4 3 Use this view to manually edit or import data from external data sources Shortcut Ctrl D Reloads the data from the data source Shortcut F5 New Datafield Inserts a new data field see also section 10 2 1 1 Creates a new data source see also section 13 3 2 1 Edit Datasource Edits the current data source see also section 13 3 2 3 Eat Fiter Eats the fiter see algo secon 1361 4 2 6 Tools Customizes the toolbar not available in this version Options Opens the options dialog window see chapter 17 4 2 7 View Layout Switches to the layout view see section 4 4 2 Shortcut Ctr L Switches to the data view see section 4 4 3 Use this view to manually edit or import data from external data sources WWW TEC IT COM Page 15 of 139 Shortcut cis Preview Switches to the print preview see section 4 4 4 Shortcut Ctrl Space Laye
133. o a structure accepted by TFORMer 13 3 5 1 File Edit New _Datasource File Datasource XML Please select an existing file f required the file name can be adapted with Expressions and Source Parameters File Temp Data xml 0 i Optional transformation file xst 2 E Show Advanced Options Figure 57 XML Datasource File Select the XML file which you want to use as datasource You can select a file by pressing the button or you can enter the file path manually by clicking the button Optional transformation file xsit Select an optional transformation file which should be applied to the XML file Select the XSLT file via or enter the file path manually by clicking the button Test Connection Use this button to check if the XML file exists and if the transformation was successful For advanced users With the help of expressions and source parameters you have the possibility to build a dynamic file path and or file name for the XML file and for the XSLT file First open the edit dialog for or by clicking the button then use the corresponding button nsert Source Parameter or Insert Expression For details on expressions and source parameters see chapter 11 and section 13 5 2 13 3 5 2 Field Bindings To complete the setup of the datasource adjust the required field bindings see section 13 4 WWW TEC IT COM Page 82 of 139 13 4 Field Bindings Wh
134. on or Datafield by double clicking it static text must be specihed between apostrophes Static Text Text values or Datafields may be concatenated by using E g concatenated test O B 6 J h E TI In Data Required type of Expression ANYTHING Figure 49 Expression Builder Field shows the current expression To extend the expression in you can select one of the predefined Datafields The datafields available in your layout Constants True False and Linefeed n System Datafields Datafields that are maintained by TFORMer automatically the current page number the band name Functions Mathematical functions conversion functions string manipulation Formats Common formats for numbers date and time values Common Expressions Frequently used expressions like page numbering Page N of M the current date and time currency formatting First select the category in Then mark the required item in and click nsert or just double click on the list item The item will be inserted at the actual cursor position in The text area shows additional information on selected items If you click OK the expression will be validated Only expressions with a correct syntax are accep ted A list of all available functions constants system datafields formats and common expressions is available in Appendix C For text elements additionally the button is avai
135. on the output page depends on the following rules f the current record is the first record of the input data all defined report headers are printed If the current record is the first record within a group all defined group headers are printed All defined detail bands for the current record are printed If the current record is the last record within a group all defined group footers are printed If the current record is the last record of the input data all defined report footers are printed Printing page headers and page footers is triggered automatically It works completely independent from the current record Keep in mind that TFORMer supports multiple bands of the same type in one layout e g multiple page headers gt Whether a specific band is printed or not can be controlled via printing conditions For more information on bands please refer to chapter 7 WWW TEC IT COM Page 26 of 139 5 5 Typical Workflow The typical workflow when designing a new layout is outlined below 5 5 1 Identify Dynamic Data The first step before creating a layout is to identify the static and dynamic content of the layout Dynamic content is usually provided by the user or by external datasources via placeholders These placeholders are called datafields and are filled with current values during print time 5 5 2 Layout Design To create the layout you either modify one of the numerous available templa
136. or with instant output capabilities TFORMer Designer offers outstanding design and printing features for reports tables lists serial letters industry forms vouchers and barcode labels Furthermore the numerous ready to use label and report templates for industry and logistics e g VDA 4902 Odette GALIA AIAG will be a valu able assistance Software developers use TFORMer SDK as reporting tool for direct printing PDF generation PostScript HTML image or ZPL II output Layouts are designed graphically with TFORMer Designer The TFORMer SDK is then used to provide dynamic data for the layouts and to generate the output This core functionality for printing and output is available for all major operating systems 3 2 TFORMer Basics In contrast to a word processor which is mostly used for static content TFORMer generates output based on dynamic data Examples for dynamic contents are article numbers used in product labels or addresses used in serial letters Dynamic content is provided by an external data source like a database a file an arbitrary appli cation or by the user Such an external data source is read by TFORMer during printing So called data fields are used to access the external data They serve as placeholders for dynamic content in the layout To simplify usage TFORMer provides a mapping mechanism to bind external data to the data fields used in a layout WWW TEC IT COM Page 10 of 139 This data centric
137. original resolution If disabled all images are embedded in their original size 17 6 3 Image Compression The compression method that is used for storing images in the PostScritpt output Automatic The compression method is selected automatically The user can control whether the JPEG and or the Flate algorithms are basically allowed JPEG 1 bit images are auto compressed All other images are JPEG compressed Flate All images are flate compressed RLE All images are run length encoded None All images are embedded without any compression Enable JPEG Enables JPEG compression compression y n Quality The compression factor for JPEG images WWW TEC IT COM Page 104 of 139 Enable flate Enables flate compression requires PostScript Language Level 3 support compression y n 17 7 Picture Page Layout The page size Letter A4 for image output The orientation portrait or landscape for image output Output Resolution The output resolution in dpi for rendering images The pre set value is the screen resolution 96 dpi Color Mode The default color mode for image output Color Grayscale or one of various Black amp White modes e g Scattered Dither Ordered Dither Threshold Font Anti aliasing y n If enabled all fonts are anti aliased By default this option is enabled TIFF Compression The compression method which is used for creating TIFF output JPEG Compression T
138. ource dialog the following additional tabs will be shown Computed Fields see section 13 5 1 Source Parameters see section 13 5 2 13 5 1 Computed Fields A computed field adds an additional column to a datasource The content of this column is either specified as a constant value or it is computed using an arbitrary expression In the expression you may refer to other sourcefields and computed fields as basis for calculation The usual purpose of a computed field is to compute values which are based on sourcefields or other computed fields For example you might convert the content of an existing sourcefield to uppercase or remove leading and trailing spaces You can also concatenate multiple sourcefields into a single sourcefield Or you can perform numerical computations e g add the Value Added Tax VAT For examples see section 13 5 1 1 1 In addition computed fields support aggregation functions Thus it is pretty simple to calculate run ning sums and averages which are not directly available as fields in the datasource However please note If the aggregation value is not necessarily required as sourcefield you may also calculate it via a computed datafield in the layout see section 10 3 2 WWW TEC IT COM Page 84 of 139 Edit New_Datasource Fle Computed Fields F required add Computed Fields to your Datasource Computed Fields can be used like other Sourcefields The order of the computations is adjustabl
139. output scheme is maintained in all cases Even when printing pure static documents like personal address labels without any dynamic data a data source is required for controlling the number of printed labels Design ttt ttr Data DEA Generate automatically eue aa Enter manually J Import from File pree oe ee IFuelimenge IF ex SachNrLieferant _ PackmittelN Kunde dnni e wali Import from Database 7 Output paa 18123 LO_123 35000003 ee MaG a 0003221100 EEN AE 200000 ST TETE Tee 58518910 OT ac 32300001 Charge _02 OE aren QAetoaeE Bad Printer PDF PostScript HTML Text Figure 1 Architectural Overview Layouts created with TFORMer Designer are able to perform computations and to react on the values of datafields Thus TFORMer enables you to embed the complete output logic of a document into the layout 3 3 Output Formats Once a layout was designed it produces identical results across printer models operating systems and formats The following formats are supported Direct Printing Print layouts directly on all printers supported by Microsoft Windows PDF PDF export with full featured barcode support Unicode and font embedding PostScript Used for printing under Linux UNIX and for pre press applications HTML The built in HTML output is ideal for previewing and for web based applications
140. paragraphs Same as the Text Alignment property Top Left Center Center the text This property is applied to the whole text element and not for single lines or paragraphs Same as the Text Alignment property Top Center Align Right Align the text right This alignment is applied to the whole text element and not for single lines or paragraphs Same as the Text Alignment property Top Right ee Highlight Expressions Highlight all embedded datafields and expressions HTM HTML Source TFORMer internally uses a subset of HTML see Appendix B for storing formatted text With this button you can toggle between the WYSIWIG view and the HTML source view 9 3 2 Datafields and Expressions In order to provide dynamic content you have the possibility to insert datafields and expressions in line with the formatted text Use the following buttons for inserting For more information on datafields and expressions see chapters 10 and 11 Insert Datafield Opens the dialog Select Datafield analogous to section 9 2 In this dialog select the desired datafield from the list and confirm with OK Insert Opens the Expression Builder see sections 9 6 and 11 2 Expression In this dialog compose your desired expression using the available func tions constants and datafields Then confirm with OK The datafield respectively expression will be inserted at the current cursor position Datafields and expressions are always marke
141. poses Comment An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 5 Datafield Properties A 5 1 Common A 5 1 1 Datafield The name of the datafield This name can be used to address the datafield in expressions Data Type The type of the datafield Choose one of the following Text Integer Floating point We recommend the general use of the data type Text Default Value The default value for the datafield This value will be returned if no other value is given A 5 1 2 Computed The name of the datafield This name can be used to address the datafield in expressions Data Type The type of the datafield Choose one of the following Text Integer Floating point Expression The expression which is used to compute the value for the datafield Compute Per Choose if the datafield is re computed for every Record Record copy A 5 1 3 Serial The name of the datafield This name can be used to address the datafield in expressions Data Type The type of the datafield Choose one of the following Integer Floating point The start value for the serial number If the Store last value property is enabled see below the start value will be updated auto matically after each print job Step Size The step size in which the serial number is incremented Store Last Value y n If enabled TFORMer remembers the last printed value The next unused value will be as signed as start value for
142. r Colors Toggles the display color of the elements between layer colors and element colors see also section 12 3 3 Status Bar Shows or hide the status bar see Figure 2 Application Look Selects the appearance of the user interface Choose between Office XP Windows XP and Office 2007 blue black aqua silver styles Shows or hide the properties window see Figure 2 0 i Shows or hide the design tree window see Figure 2 Shows or hide single toolbars see Figure 2 Selects the zoom factor You will find the selected zoom factor shown next to the zoom symbol in the status bar GQ 200 au Shortcut Ctrl Ctrl or Ctrl Mousewheel 4 2 8 Window Close All Documents Closes all opened documents Document List At the bottom of the Window menu all open documents are listed with their names To select one of the documents click at the appropriate menu entry 4 2 9 Help TFORMer Help Displays the TFORMer manual Keyboard F1 Online FAQ Opens the default browser and navigate to the TFORMer Designer frequently asked questions web page TEC IT Website Opens the default browser and navigate to http www tec it com WWW TEC IT COM Page 16 of 139 4 3 Toolbars The most commonly used program functions are accessible via too bars Each of the toolbars can be shown or hidden menu View gt Toolbar The following toolbars are available veal DEE MAgas 428 x 9 e New Form Open Form
143. rd is inserted automatically Unless you insert more records TFORMer will generate exactly one label WWW TEC IT COM Page 32 of 139 i is printed once foreach data record Ciny rF ak _ Label Prnteditems on Page Page Standard Label is printed once for each data record Label 1 on Page 1 Figure 23 Label Printer Layout View Figure 24 Label Printer Print Preview 6 2 3 Page Setup lf you want to adjust the page setup for the opened layout select File Page Setup from the menu Alternatively you can also double click on the gray area around the layout The following dialog appears Label Settings Predefined Templates Paper Media __ Orientation Format A4 Portrait h Width 21am Landxape Height 39 7 om Printer Default Margins Burtt _ _ Top L5cm Left Rotation Bottom L5am Right Label Settings Width 6am Columns 3 Height 5m WS 5 Print Order Across then Down Down then Across Figure 25 Page Setup On this dialog you can do all necessary page adjustments You can change the layout type the paper format and the page orientation and the page margins For labels you can additionally adjust the row and column settings and the print order Across then Down Down then Across gt For labels you can access a large amount of predefined formats by clicking Sel
144. renders the resulting output using the layout and the data of the adjusted datasource Lizz e e dee dlefe ie Be Gegee deB e e Ge e0e e a e Te aeae a ede a edee dF H Report Header Report Header A Report Header Ta Report Header Band is printed onite attop ot the Report A en eee ne ie Page Header Page Header Ls Page Header fa PageHeaderSandispintedatthetepofeach page gt f Detail Detail o Detail Band Printedltems ta Detail Band is printed breach data recordy gt 0 e To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Test Barcodes Images 3 use the toolbar on the let To delete an Element or Band select t and press Del Ped Nae ee ae ee To fill the Report with variable data use DataFields Right click on Elements or Bands for more options 7 7 2 F Page Footer Page Footer Page Footer is Page Footer Band is ported atthe bottom of each pagel a F Report Footer Report Footer 4 4 WH Layout a Data Preview 4 mT t Report Footer a Repor Footer Band i s potted once atthe bottom ofthe Report 5 l l Figure 3 Layout View You can switch between the views by pressing the corresponding tabs or by using the File or View menus see 4 2 1 and 4 2 7 WWW TEC IT COM Page 18 of 139 4 4 2 Layout View The ayout view is used to create layouts a a E a De a a E a a a a r a a a a r ai a Mm _ Page P
145. rns expression highlighting on or off 9 5 File Picture Elements r E Edit File Name C Users Public Pictures Sample Pictures Penguins jpg 2 g Hint You can use absolute file names e g C sample jpg or relative file names e g sample jpg or ima sample jpq for pictures Relative Expression file names are treated relative to the base path of the layout file Insert Datafield Insert Expression Figure 40 Edit Dialog File If the selected picture element is supposed to show a statically defined image no different images for different records select the File option Then specify the file name in and confirm with OK The button EF opens a file selection dialog For dynamically assigned image files use either the option Datafield or Expression WWW TEC IT COM Page 51 of 139 9 6 Expression Edi X E Edit Text Datafields Expression Description Constants a a H E System Datafield lt New Datafield gt lt New Datafield gt Format H E Funct ArticleN ame H Formats ArticleNo Common Expressions Quantity Unit Please enter an Expression manually You can also add a predefined Expression or Datafield by double clicking it 4 static text must be specified between apostrophes StaticT ext Text values for Datafields may be concatenated by using E g concatenated text A II Insert ArticleName 7 E 7 Insert Datafiel
146. rojects Repository A 10 1 Common Name The name of the project A 10 2 Documentation Description A simple description Only for documentation purposes Comment An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes A 11 Forms Repository A 11 1 Common File The file name of the form A 11 2 Documentation Description A simple description Only for documentation purposes Comment An arbitrary comment For documentation purposes WWW TEC IT COM Page 119 of 139 Appendix B Supported HTML Tags and Entities B 1 HTML Tags B 1 1 Standard Anchor Used for embedding links Only the href attribute is supported E g lt a href http www google com gt Link to Google lt a gt lt b gt lt strong gt Bold text Everything between the start tag lt b gt and the end tag lt b gt is rendered bold lt br gt Line break Inserts a line break lt font gt Font The following attributes are supported color Only hexadecimal values no color names E g lt font color ff0000 gt name Selects a typeface E g lt font name Helvetica gt size Use one of the predefined HTML font sizes within the range from 1 to 7 E g lt font size 2 gt style Supports the font size attribute only E g lt font style font size 12pt gt lt i gt Italic text Everything between the start tag lt i gt and the end tag lt i gt is rendered italic lt p gt Paragraph lt p gt
147. rs and footers create at least two bands of the same type Then use the prin ting condition to decide which band shall be printed E g create one page header for odd pages and one page header for even pages The expressions IsOdd Page respectively IsEven Page will serve as printing condition 12 2 3 2 Alternating Background Colors To print rows with alternating background colors draw a filled rectangle in the background of the detail band Then set the printing condition to IsOdd Record 12 3 Printing Layers Printing layers are used to control the visibility of multiple elements with a single printing con dition The printing condition of the layer decides whether all elements assigned to that layer will be printed or not By default only one printing layer the Base layer is defined Newly inserted design elements are always added to this layer WWW TEC IT COM Page 65 of 139 Please note gt One element can be assigned to one printing layer only gt Layers do NOT influence the z order of elements gt Elements assigned to a printing layer may still use additional element specific printing condi tions 12 3 1 Create a New Layer You can create a new printing layer using either of the following methods Select nsert gt Layer from the menu Click on the Add Layer icon in the a Layer is a pool of Elements with a common Printing toolbar Condition Specify the display
148. s and their possible adjustments please refer to the Barcode Reference which is available for download on www tec it com 8 3 3 Picture Elements Picture elements are used to embed images in a layout Supported image formats are BMP GIF JPG PCX PNG TGA and TIF ture img iticleNo jpg Figure 35 Picture Elements The actual image is usually specified through a fixed file name see If you want to use different images for different records dynamic logos you can also compute the file name dynamically e g based on a datafield value see For information on how to edit the image file name please refer to chapter 9 WWW TEC IT COM Page 45 of 139 gt You can use absolute file names e g C sample jog or relative file names e g sample jpg or img sample jpg Relative file names are treated relative to the base path of the layout file WWW TEC IT COM Page 46 of 139 9 Element Content 9 1 General All text barcode and picture elements are filled with specific content This content can be edited using the following dialog When inserting a new element or when double clicking an existing element the editing dialog will be opened automatically Alternatively select the element and press F2 or right click on the element and select Element Content from the pop up menu r E Edit Text ns A Datafields Description lt New Datafield
149. s on the left in the middle and on the right Bar Space Ratio This property is used to specify the relationship between the widths of the single bars and spaces of a barcode The input format depends on the selected barcode type For Code 2OF5 Interleaved you could specify the ratio 1 2 1 2 e g Suppress Error In case of an error during the printing of a barcode e g wrong input data an error mes Message sage will be printed This option allows you to suppress the error message The space will be left blank instead Optimal Resolution Automatically adjust the module width of the barcode decrease it to avoid aliasing prob lems on the output device The module width is set to a multiple of the smallest available printing unit Bar Width Reduction When printing on inkjet printers the ink that is absorbed by the paper tends to diffuse Setting the bar width reduction allows you to work against this spreading of ink The bar width reduction is specified in percent of the module width E g when setting this value to 20 all bars will be narrowed by 20 percent of the module width Barcode Encoding Specifies how the characters should be encoded inside the barcode This setting is available for most 2D barcodes The barcode must be capable of encoding binary data Possible values automatic TFORMer tries to minimize the barcode data binary A 3 3 Control Printing Condition The printing condition decides at print time
150. sed Running Average TFORMer computes the mean value of all expression results up to the current record For the first record the running average is the value itself For the fifth record the running average is the average of the first five records Example If you want to provide the running average for the sourcefield ArticlePrice use Expression GetDSField ArticlePrice Aggregation Running Average Running Sum TFORMer computes the sum of all expression results up to the current record For the first record the running sum is the value itself For all subsequent records the values are added Example If you want to provide a serial number which is incremented by 1 for each record use Expression 1 Aggregation Running Sum When using a filter in field single values will only be considered if the expression returns true Thus you can define which values are considered for the aggregation and which not Example GetDSField ArticlePrice gt 100 This filter instructs TFORMer to consider only records where the ArticlePrice is greater than 100 WWW TEC IT COM Page 87 of 139 13 5 2 Source Parameters Source parameters provide a possibility to implement dynamic datasource definitions Thus you do not have to change the datasource definition each time for fetching different data Source parameters can be used to parameterize ODBC datasources and file based datasources Besides they c
151. sed bitmap data Zip All images are stored as Zip compressed bitmap data Jpeg All images are stored as JPEG images using the specified compression quality Quality The compression factor for JPEG images 17 5 HTML Page Layout The page size Letter A4 for HTML output The orientation portrait or landscape for HTML output Output Resolution The output resolution in dpi for rendering HTML pages The pre set value is the screen resolution 96 dpi Optimal Barcode If enabled the module width of barcodes will be optimized for the rather small output reso Resolution y n lution of HTML pages This option guarantees optimal barcode readability Please note As a result the size of the barcode may be reduced 17 6 PostScript 17 6 1 Properties Page Layout The page size Letter A4 for PostScript output The orientation portrait or landscape for Postscript output The color mode for PostScript output Color Grayscale or Black amp White Single sided and double sided printing Printer Default uses the settings from the printer driver Simplex single sided printing Vertical double sided printing using a vertical page turn Horizontal double sided printing using a horizontal page turn 17 6 2 Image Resolution Reduce to __ y n If enabled all images of which the resolution is larger than the specified value will be re sampled Smaller images are stored in their
152. sed to change the pro perties of multiple objects simultaneously A change will be applied to all objects within the selection WWW TEC IT COM Page 22 of 139 4 7 Status Bar The status bar displays information about position and measurement of the selected design element Furthermore the zoom factor of the layout view is shown Ready 0 00 0 00 mm i 18100x9511mm Aws Figure 10 Status Bar shows the coordinates of the upper left corner of the selected element or of the element with the mouse focus shows the dimensions of the selected element or of the element with the mouse focus The measuring unit used for displaying positions or dimensions can be adjusted in the options dialog menu Tools Options shows the current zoom factor used for displaying the content of the layout view The zoom factor can be adjusted via the menu View Zoom or by holding down the Ctrl key and by simulta neously turning the mouse wheel 4 8 Layout Tabs When working with multiple layouts each of these layouts is represented by a tab see To switch between layouts click on the corresponding tab in or use the layout picker To close the current layout click on the symbol inside the tab TFORMerL Picking List 4902 C ra a a Sc 2 l OO Oe S Le L S E E Express Picking List mM Page Page of NumPages taunts Totaled Figure 11 Change layouts qu
153. sired number of labels per page WWW TEC IT COM Page 34 of 139 Width The width of the label Height The height of the label Columns The number of labels which is printed besides each other If set to auto the maximum number of columns that fit on the output page will be selected automatically Rows The number of labels which is printed underneath each other If set to auto the maximum number of rows that fit on the output page will be selected automatically Spacing X The horizontal spacing between the labels Spacing Y The vertical spacing between the labels Print Order The print order defines the order Across then Down or Down then Across in which the labels are printed on the output page This setting is only available when printing multiple rows and columns see also 6 2 3 4 6 2 4 Savea Form To save an open layout select File Save or File Save as from the menu File Save saves the layout with the current file name Instead of selecting File Save you can also press the Save icon l in the default toolbar or you can press the keyboard shortcut Ctr S Choosing Save as allows you to specify a file name before saving the file 6 2 5 Switch between Forms To switch between open forms just click on the corresponding tab in the layout window Alterna tively you can also use the layout picker or the menu Window Using the keyboard shortcut Cirl Tab you will switch to the nex
154. spect ratio Tile The picture will be replicated row and column wise inside the bounding rectangle Transparent Color All regions in the image that are filled with the selected color will be printed transparently A 3 2 Advanced A 3 2 1 Text Elements Auto Font Size If set to True TFORMer automatically selects the biggest possible font size for which the text to fits into the bounding rectangle without being cropped Auto Font Size Specifies the lower font size limit in percent if Auto Font Size is enabled Minimum Auto Font Size Specifies the upper font size limit in percent if Auto Font Size is enabled Maximum Optimize Spaces If enabled multiple consecutive spaces will be printed as one single space character Sample TFORMer Designer will be printed as TFORMer Designer Suppress Blank Lines Sample TFORMer will be printedas TFORMer i 2 Designer Designer Line Spacing The spacing between text lines A 3 2 2 Barcode Elements For more information on the following properties please refer to the Barcode Reference which is available for download on www tec it com Escape Sequences Turn the translation of escape sequences on off Hex Data Enable this property if your barcode data is provided as hex string TFORMer will convert it to ASCII characters automatically Example The hex string 34373131 will be converted into the barcode data 4711 Codepage This setting a
155. t gt Band from the menu The selected band will be inserted as a vertical section on the worksheet New Report Header Add a new report header to the layout New Page Header Add a new page header to the layout New Group Header Add a new group header to the layout For each group header you have to define a group by expression New Detail Band Add a new detail band to the layout New Group Footer Add a new group footer to the layout For each group footer you have to define a group by expression New Page Footer Add a new page footer to the layout New Report Footer Add a new report footer to the layout 7 3 2 Band Selection To select a band click on the band header or on an empty area inside the band You can also select a band in the design tree Once a band is selected it can be copied deleted or its properties can be adjusted WWW TEC IT COM Page 38 of 139 7 3 3 Expanded Collapsed View of Bands Bands can be displayed in expanded or in collapsed view The collapsed view is used to hide a band during the layout design The resulting output is NOT influenced Click on the symbol to expand and on the symbol to collapse the band view see 7 3 4 Adjust Band Properties To adjust the band properties first select the band Then the properties can be edited in the proper ties window For a list of available properties please refer to Appendix A 2 7 3 5 Change Size 7 3 5 1 Width The width of bands is usu
156. t a Layout General Settings Options Dialog General User Interface Settings Design Tree Settings Grid Settings Language PDF Properties Fonts Image Resolution Image Compression HTML PostScript Properties Image Resolution Image Compression Picture Zebra ZPL Barcodes Formatted Text Licensing License Types Entering your License Data Online Activation using the Activation Key Manual Licensing Notes Contact and Support Information Appendix A Properties A 1 Form Properties A 1 1 Common A 1 2 Advanced A 1 3 Watermark A 1 4 Documentation A 2 Band Properties A 2 1 Common A 2 2 Advanced A 2 3 Control A 2 4 Position A 2 5 Documentation A 2 6 Columns A 3 Element Properties A 3 1 Common A 3 1 1 Text Elements A 3 1 2 Barcode Elements A 3 1 3 Line Rectangle Ellipse A 3 1 4 Picture A 3 2 Advanced A 3 2 1 Text Elements A 3 2 2 Barcode Elements A 3 3 Control A 3 4 Position A 3 5 Margins A 3 6 Documentation A 4 Layer Properties A 4 1 Common WWW TEC IT COM 106 107 107 107 107 108 108 109 110 110 110 110 110 110 111 111 111 111 111 112 112 113 113 113 113 113 113 114 114 114 115 115 116 116 116 116 Page 5 of 139 A 4 2 Control A 4 3 Documentation A 5 Datafield Properties A 5 1 Common A 5 1 1 Datafield A 5 1 2 Computed A 5 1 3 Serial A 5 2 Validation Datafield A 5 3 Aggregation Computed A 5 4 Advanced A 5 5 Documentation A 6 Tray Mapping Properties
157. t header may be used to evaluate one or more expres sions at the beginning of the report Please note gt When assigning a value to a datafield during print time computed field pre post evalua tion this datafield will be excluded from data import It will no longer be filled with any values from the datasource A datafield which provides the data from a datasource which is bound to a sourcefield may therefore never be filled with computed values Always use a separate datafield for computations WWW TEC IT COM Page 67 of 139 12 4 1 Edit Pre and Post Evaluations Mas nen Right click on the required band and select Pre FormattedPrice f By a a Evaluation or Post Evaluation from the pop up E pact ae menu Alternatively use the toolbar icons and 2 2 Delete A i The following dialog will appear 4 New Band Band Order a ua Post Evaluation ES Printing Condition 6 amp Properties i _2 Pre Evaluations Detail First select the datafield that you want to compute in Then enter an expression in Click on the button to open the Expression Builder see On the left side select the Datafields which should be computed On the right side enter an Expression with the Expression Builder The Expressions are evaluated only if the Band is printed see also Printing Conditions for Bands Datafieid Expression section 11 2 FomattedPri
158. t layout tab Cir Shift Tab switches to the previous tab 6 2 6 Close a Form There are different ways to close an open form Click on the small in the layout window tab see section 4 8 O Select File Close Form from the menu Click with the right mouse button on the form either in the layout window or in the design tree window and select Close Form from the pop up menu WWW TEC IT COM Page 35 of 139 6 3 Form Properties Using the properties window you can adjust some form related settings see also Appendix A 1 Among others you can apply a background image watermark specify a name for the output or spool file First select the form Thereafter the layout properties can be adjusted 6 3 1 Form Selection Start Page TFORMer1l X Repository Design i T ss _ _ ____ _ _ __ ______ _ EEE Eee Ee ee Wf by Detal Detal a H T 8 E it i Datafields Tray Mappings Standard Label 27 isprinted once for each data record Label Printedltems on Page Page Common a Datasource Edit manually default E El Advanced J Document name E Watermark File Name Picture Mode Clip ie Common Common properties Mlali bl Layout Dates Preview lt 0L Figure 27 Form Selection A form can be selected by clicking with the left mouse button in the upper left corner of the layout view or by clicking inside
159. t with data from different datasources without modifying the layout 13 2 The Data View For managing datasources TFORMer offers a separate view the data view In the data view you Can inspect the data which is provided by the currently selected datasource create edit rename and delete datasources switch between different datasources reload a datasource set parameters for a datasource bind sourcefields the fields provided by a datasource to datafields the placeholders which are used in the layout and apply a filter to the current datasource To switch to the data view click on the Data tab at the bottom of the application window see Figure 52 below or select Data Data View from the menu Alternatively press the keyboard shortcut Ctr D WWW TEC IT COM Page 73 of 139 File Edit Insert Layout Data Tools View Window Help ark AGa A Gy 9 MF ts i Fh So a eo me SE St Ee Les U F S A 2 m 4 i Data tff x v Repository Design i e ee ee i J Edit manually default lt New Datofie G ba ii lt New Datafie Serials Monitor 775116 lt New Datafie ArticleName Panel 544593 lt New Datafie ArticleNo Coffee Ma 549896 lt New Datafie ArticlePrice Printer 458862 lt New Datafie Tray Mappings Fax 445866 O new Datafie E D Layers Phone 458932 lt New Datafie Bands lt New Datafie mOl ojulo
160. tem is completely up to the user 16 1 2 Repositories If you prefer to organize your layouts and datafields in a structured way or if you plan to create multiple layouts which share the same data basis same datafields the use of a so called repository is recommended A repository is a central database for layouts datasources datafield definitions and tray mappings Layouts and datafield definitions are stored within a repository on a per Project base A project defines datafields and holds better references layouts Each of the datafields defined in a project is accessible within every layout contained in that project A repository can contain multiple projects and one special global project Datasources and datafields which are defined within the global project global datasources and datafields may be used by all layouts in all projects gt A repository is used for organizing multiple layouts within a structured data base A reposi tory holds tray mappings and is divided into projects A project stores datasources Catafield definitions and references ayouts A repository is stored with the file extension tfr All projects are stored in subdirectories Please take care to maintain this directory structure Do not change it manually WWW TEC IT COM Page 97 of 139 Repository Design sons In a repository you will find the following entries 5 6 Demos tfr C Program Data TEC ITTFORMere 0 Tray Mappings OPE fo
161. ter a suitable filename Then click Save PEPEO The new repository will be displayed in the design Bag NewRepo tr C 4ternp s tree H Tray Mappings a i Global D atasources fea Global Datafields vol Projects gt Important Each repository has to be stored in a separate folder Otherwise it will lead to problems So when creating a new repository you should always create a folder first then save the repository there 16 2 3 Save a Repository Select the repository inside the design tree and press Citr S or select File Save from the menu WWW TEC IT COM Page 98 of 139 16 2 4 Import a Stand alone Layout into a Repository You can import existing stand alone layouts into the repository by following these steps Repository Design a x El Ba Demos th C ProgramD ata TE C IT5T FOA Merb OSE samples Ee Tray Mappings alg Global D atasources ra Global Datatields 3 Projects Bey EroptyProject E E Industry Templates fi TRORMer Auntine Examples ne x Delete fim New Project New Datasource New Form fea New Datafield Properties 4 uy t Repository Design d i Create New Form Template Which Template should be used to create the new Fom Please specify the file which should be used as Template for the new Fom Template C Temp Data tff Ga In the design tree locate the project in which you want to import the layout Right
162. ter another click or after pressing the F2 key the name can be edited Layers Double click on the layer icon in the design tree to toggle the visibility Default Element Properties You can save the current format styles font style color line width These styles will be applied automatically when inserting a new ele ment Use the context menu right mouse button to Set Default Format based on current selection Apply Default Format to current selection XK 5 hs ke Ea D osool ti ool 4 Keyboard Shortcuts Editing Undo vrcivectetntncmesanciecteanaanes Ctrl Z Alt Backspace Redo ccccceccececcececenceceeess Ctrl Y CUD E Ctrl X CODY ee eer Ctrl C PASTC ccccccceccececeececeeess Ctrl V Delete c ccccececececeeeeeee Del Select all Elements Ctrl A Element Content Edit the content of selected text barcode and picture elements F2 Text Properties BoOld cccccccecececcececececeees Ctrl B NAG e Ctrl I Underline Ctrl U Move Elements While dragging elements with the mouse you can use the following modifier keys Snap to horizontal and vertical axis Shift Copy Mode ccccccccee Ctrl Fine Positioning Alt Insert Resize Elements While inserting or resizing elements with the mouse you can use the following modifier keys Square Circle 00ee Shift Centered ccccceeeeees Ctrl Fine Positioning
163. tered The element center is maintained The change is applied with respect to the center Alt Fine positioning Allows a positioning off the grid For setting up the grid see section 17 2 3 Alternatively you can also edit the element size in the properties window gt Please note If the selection contains more than one element all selected elements will be resized simultaneously 8 2 4 Move an Element An element can be moved by clicking and dragging While dragging you can use the following modifier keys Modifier Key Shift Snap to axis The movement of the element will be restricted to the horizontal and vertical axis Copy mode A copy of the original element s will be created on the release position In copy mode the mouse pointer changes its shape to 7 Fine positioning Allows a positioning off the grid For setting up the grid see section 17 2 3 8 2 5 Element Properties To change the properties of a selected object you can either Edit the desired properties in the properties window Use the format toolbar see section 4 3 to change frequently used settings like font style background color etc 8 2 6 Positioning and Measuring The rulers and the status bar assist you with measuring and positioning of inserted elements When entering measurement values manually TFORMer interprets such values as specified in mm or in inch depending on your system settings For your convenience you may also appe
164. tes or you create your own layout Layouts are composed of different logical areas called bands When designing a layout you can combine different bands to create different layouts schemes Each band can contain different graphical elements text elements barcode elements shapes and images Dynamic features e g printing conditions give you additional control over the output For more information on designing layouts please refer to chapters 6 to 12 5 5 3 Provide Data Before you can generate any output you have to specify the data to be printed The data can be provided in different ways It can be edited manually It can be imported from an external file or from a database It can be provided programmatically via the TFORMer SDK For more information on providing data please refer to chapter 13 5 5 4 Generate Output Once you have designed your layouts you can assign different datasources to generate output with different content For details please refer to chapter 15 WWW TEC IT COM Page 27 of 139 6 Forms 6 1 Introduction TFORMer files are called forms A form contains the graphical design the layout which consists of one or more vertical areas holding all graphical design elements Furthermore the form contains all datafields datasources tray mappings and layers 6 2 Basic Operations 6 2 1 Open an Existing Form To open an existing form select File Open from the menu or press the Op
165. th page headers detail bands page footers etc If no space is left a new physical page is started WWW TEC IT COM Page 128 of 139 D 2 Report For the layout type Report the following variations are available Simple see section D 2 1 Columns see section D 2 2 Complex see section D 4 D 2 1 Simple For a simple report start with the template lt Custom Report Heade Report gt and select the variation Simple Report see also 6 2 2 1 Page Header In the page setup dialog you specify the paper size and the page margins Examples File gt New Form gt 6 Samples Report_1 File gt New Form gt 6 Samples Report_2 Report Footer Page Footer Figure 73 Simple Report D 2 2 Columns For a report with columns start with the template lt Custom ReportHeader Report gt and select the variation Columnar Report In the page setup dialog you specify the paper size the page margins and the columns Hint When using a fixed number of columns and if you set Width 0 the available horizontal space is divided equally Example File gt New Form gt 6 Samples Report_5 Report Footer Figure 74 Report with Columns WWW TEC IT COM Page 129 of 139 D 3 Labels For the layout type Label the following variations are available Label Printer see section Fehler Verweisquelle konnte nicht
166. th variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Detail Band 9 2 dete Sana is omtes reach cats BOOM To insert additional Bands or Elements e g Report Headers Text Barcodes Images use the tolbar on the left To delete an EEment or Band select it and press Del To fll the Report with variable data use Data Fields Right click on Elements or Bands for more optons Page Footer a Page Footer Gand ls printed at Me botom of each page Figure 18 Simple Report Print Preview If you want to design your own label for laser or inkjet printers e g Avery standard label formats choose lt Custom Label gt and click Next The following wizard will appear Page Settings Specify the page size and the layout type Predefined Templates Figure 19 Label Sheets Page Settings Choose the layout type Label Sheets print multiple labels on one output page WWW TEC IT COM Orientation Portrait s Landscape Printer Default Output ntti Page 30 of 139 In you specify the paper size the page orientation and the page margins Furthermore you can specify the abel dimensions the number of rows and columns the number of labels per page the row and column spacing and the printing order for the labels f Select Label Template Manufacturer lt All gt O X Filter Label Description Layout Size WxH Media Manuf 011990 1 D
167. the Ea printed in the MyLayer layer toolbar or select View gt Layer Colors from the menu to change the display mode ER a ee Ee If the display of layer colors is enabled all design p Detail Detail elements are drawn in the color as adjusted in the printed in the Base layer layer properties see on page 66 Click the icon again to switch back to normal 12 3 4 Hide Layer Contents To hide all elements which are assigned to one layer first select the layer in the design tree and then use one of the following methods Right click on the layer in the design tree and deselect Visible in the pop up menu Double click on the layer in the design tree Inthe properties window go to the Common group and set the property Visible to False 12 4 Pre Evaluation and Post Evaluation The pre and the post evaluation can be used to compute datafields during print time With this type of evaluation each band can perform arbitrary computations You have the choice between computations before a band is printed Pre Evaluation and computations after a band was printed Post Evaluation lf the band is not printed at all if the printing condition of the band returns false no evaluations are performed Usually pre and post evaluations are used for implementing computations which are specific to a band implementing counters formatting data prior printing For example the pre evaluation in the repor
168. the next print job automatically Update on Choose the trigger on which the serial number is incremented Record Record copy Document Page Label Update Condition An optional condition controlling the increment of the serial number If a condition was entered the serial number will only be increased if the result of the ex pression is true WWW TEC IT COM Page 117 of 139 A 5 2 Validation Datafield The Validation group is only available for normal datafields Validation Rule This rule is verified when importing data Validation Message If the validation rule is violated this message will be prompted A 5 3 Aggregation Computed The Aggregation group is only available for computed datafields Aggregation Type Selects one of the available aggregation functions or disables aggregation Available values are None Running Average Running Sum Aggregation Region If aggregation is enabled select the region for which the aggregation values are calculated All do one aggregation within the whole range of the print job Page do a separate aggregation within the range of each new page Label do a separate aggregation within the range of each new label Group do a separate aggregation within the range of each new group If the aggregation region is set to Group use this field to enter the grouping condition Enter the same condition as specified in the group header or group footer Aggregatio
169. u an overview of the TFORMer user interface 4 1 Main Window r TFORMer Picking List DOM WERS 4 ae 9 EERE eR Bake a ot ot Se t t L St Pa OOOO O A p M T Pking ust A Fenostonesion a a a E pace amp 9 Datasources i c 3 Datafields i i i a Tray Mappings Express Picking List SS W Base 2 ______ ___ _ __ IIIa Picking List Number PickingListNo www TEc IT com aos Page Header Page Header InGroup P Report Headers S P Page Headers Article Group ProductGroup continued Gi Pe Header Article No Description Quantity Unit Price Barcode SOUUM EE Page Header InGroup _ Rectangle peg Description peg Article No Article Group ProductGroup Articie No Description Quantity Unit Price Barcode Ed Z E ArticleNo Description Quantity 200 WIINITILMEI Group Footer Group Footer Advanced Group Total sroupUnits 1 GroupPrice Columns Rows Page Footer Page Footer Column Width i Row Height Date Now Page Page of NumPages Column Spacing Report Footer Report Footer Row Spacing DOODOBGOOG 2 z Document name Pick List Total talUnits TotalPrice ENE Common properties ld 4 gt gt Layout Data y Preview 3 7 0 00 0 00 mm Figure 2 User Interface The main window is divided into the following areas Menu see 4 2 Tool
170. umber into the layout EUR Format Number HHHHHHOO OStr NumPages Now 0 Table 6 Common Expressions C 4 Formats C 4 1 Numbers Expression Description S Format Number 4 0 00 Formats a number with a trailing sign or e g 1 299 20 Format Number 4 4 0 00 Formats a number with an optional trailing sign only if negative e g 1 299 20 Format Number 0 00 Formats a number with leading starts and an optional trailing sign only if negative e g 1 299 20 Format Number 7 H 0 00 Formats a number with a leading sign or e g 1 299 20 Format Number 7 H 0 00 Formats a number with an optional leading sign only if negative e g 1 299 20 Format Number O 000 000 00 Formats a number with an optional leading sign only if negative e g 0 001 299 20 Table 7 Number Formats WWW TEC IT COM Page 125 of 139 C 4 2 Date Expression 0 Description Format Now dd MM yy Formats the actual date e g 29 01 07 Format Now dd MM yyyy Formats the actual date e g 29 01 2007 Format Now dd MM yyyy Formats the actual date e g 29 Jan 07 Format Now dd MM yyyy Formats the actual date e g 29 01 2007 Format Now ddd d MMM yyyy
171. will be interpreted as HTML content This means all supported HTML tags that are found in the result of the expression are directly applied For a list of supported HTML tags please refer to Appendix B SERRE REED MES EEE Col SEs ee In this example the datafields ColorOn and I Detail Detail ColorOff are utilized for dynamic text format lt ColorOn Hello World lt ColorOff gt ting In order to apply different font colors the ap propriate HTML tags lt font color xxx gt and 2 lt font gt are inserted in the Data window In 3 8 this case this is done for the first two records A The following eight records are printed with a a z z 37 default formatting as applied in the Edit Text dialog Hello World When printing TFORMer reads the content Hello World of the fields in the datasource The contained Hello World font tags are directly applied to the output Hello World Hello World Hello World Hello World Hello World Hello World Hello World WWW TEC IT COM Page 50 of 139 9 4 Simple Text Barcode Elements r B Edit Barcode Data Figure 39 Edit Dialog Simple Text If the content of the selected barcode element is supposed to be a simple text select the Simple Text option You can now edit the text in Using the buttons and you can insert datafields and expressions analogous to section 9 3 2 When you are done with editing confirm with OK The button L tu
172. xe For details please contact TEC IT WWW TEC IT COM Page 108 of 139 19 Contact and Support Information TEC IT Datenverarbeitung GmbH Address Wagnerstr 6 AT 4400 Steyr Austria Europe Phone 43 0 7252 72 720 Fax 43 0 7252 72 720 77 Email mailto support tec it com Web http Awww tec it com AIX is a registered trademark of IBM Corporation Avery and all Avery brands product names and codes are trademarks of Avery Dennison Corporation HTML DHTML XML XHTML are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C World Wide Web Consortium Laboratory for Computer Science NE43 358 Massachusetts Institute of Technology 545 Technology Square Cambridge MA 02139 JAVA is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc 901 San Antonio Road Palo Alto CA 94303 USA JAVASCRIPT is a registered trademark of Sun Microsystems Inc used under license for technology invented and implemented by Netscape Microsoft Windows Microsoft Word Microsoft Excel are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation Navision is a registered trademark of Microsoft Business Solutions ApS in the United States and or other countries Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation PCL is a registered trademark of the Hewlett Packard Company PostScript is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems Inc SAP SAP Logo R 2 R 3 ABAP SAPscript are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany
173. xt File CSV TSV XML File p Name New_Datasource Description 6 13 3 2 2 Loading Data and Progress Bar For all external datasources TFORMer cach Choose one of the available datasource types in Specify a name and an op tional description for the datasource Then confirm with OK A dialog for setting up the respective data source will appear Setting up the different types of datasources is described in sections 13 3 3 to 13 3 5 Additional adjustments which apply to all of these datasources are discussed subsequenily in sections Fehler Verweisquelle konnte nicht gefunden werden to 13 6 Once the datasource Is inserted and set up you will find an appropriate entry in the design tree A newly created datasource is set as the active datasource automatically es the data locally in order to provide a stable set of data for printing you see the cached data in the data view This means that the datasource is read completely before a print job or the rendering of the print preview is started Whenever a new datasource is created or when switching to an existing datasource see sections 13 3 2 1 and 13 3 2 6 the data from this source is read automatically However it is also possible to manually force the reloading of the data see section 13 3 2 7 For large amounts of data sometimes the loading may take several minutes While loading the records TFORMer displays a progress bar Pl
174. y date if no conversion is possible The date format in Text depends on the regional settings on your computer This setting is configured in the Control Panel Region and Language under Formats German Format 24 12 2004 English Format 12 24 2004 CDateEx Text Converts a string into a date The conversion format to be used is adjustable For infor Format mation on how to specify the format please refer to the description of the function Format Date Format below Example CDateEx 31 12 2000 dd MM yyyy date double CDbl Expr Converts any value to a double value floating point notation The result is 0 00 when a conversion is not possible char CheckChar_ISO706 Calculates the check character according to ISO 7064 Mod 37 2 4Mod37_2 Data CheckDigits Returns the check digit for the given string as text Possible values for Method are 2 Method Text Modulo 10 3 Modulo 43 4 Modulo 47 2 digits 5 DP Leitcode 6 DP Identcode 7 Code11 1 digit 8 Code11 2 digits 9 USPS PostNet 10 MSI 1 digit 11 MSI 2 digits 12 Plessey 13 EAN 8 14 EAN 13 15 UPC A 16 UPC E 17 EAN 128 18 Code 128 19 Royal Mail 4 State 20 Modulo 11 PZN 21 Modulo 11 W 7 22 EAN 14 23 Modulo 10 Korean PA 24 Modulo 10 Planet 25 Modulo 10 Italian Postal 2 5 26 Modulo 36 DPD Barcode 27 Modulo 16 28 Modulo

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