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The Dot-Matrix: Revolution

The Dot-Matrix: Revolution. Tim Page. TIM PAGE. QAD User since 1991 Progress Programmer DBA System Administrator IT Manager. Lexington Precision Corporation Lexington Rubber Group Lexington Metals Group. Rubber Group – Lexington Connector Seals.

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The Dot-Matrix: Revolution

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  1. The Dot-Matrix: Revolution Tim Page

  2. TIM PAGE • QAD User since 1991 • Progress Programmer • DBA • System Administrator • IT Manager

  3. Lexington Precision Corporation • Lexington Rubber Group • Lexington Metals Group

  4. Rubber Group – Lexington Connector Seals

  5. Rubber Group – Lexington Insulators

  6. Rubber Group – Lexington Medical

  7. Metals Group – Lexington Die Casting

  8. Metals Group – Lexington Machining

  9. Our Environment: • 6 MFG/PRO databases • Local servers • Eb SP7 • NT4 • GUI clients • Some remote character clients • Some remote Citrix clients

  10. The problem – Dot-Matrix Forms are : • Ugly • Costly • Hard to print • Require separate printer • Can’t email • Hard to fax

  11. Commercial forms printing software is costly. We looked at the following: • Formtrap • Optio • Streamserve • Cyberquery

  12. Other options for printing forms: • Crystal Reports • Report Builder • Direct Progress to HP PCL

  13. Report Builder was chosen because: • Free!! • Nice WYSIWYG design tool • Ease of integration with MFG/PRO

  14. REPORT BUILDER BASICS • Features: • WYSIWYG Page layout design • Font Size/Color/placement • Lines/Boxes • Calculated fields • Accumulated fields • Text string manipulation • Graphics/Logo

  15. REPORT BUILDER BASICS Master Table – Source of main data records Secondary tables – Linked with the “joins” window

  16. REPORT BUILDER BASICS Can define up to 8 levels of sorting Can group up to 8 levels of data – usually the same as sort levels

  17. REPORT BUILDER BASICS • Band Lines : • Title – One per report • Page Header • Group Header – may have 1 per group level • Record • Group Footer – may have 1 per group level • Summary • Page Footer

  18. REPORT BUILDER BASICS Calculated fields – Supports a wide variety of functions for calculations Use aggregate for accumulating values

  19. INTERFACING TO MFG/PRO PRINTRB INTERFACE

  20. First Attempt - Invoice and PO using direct database access from Report Builder. DEMO

  21. Results summary: • Nicer looking forms • Ran “live” on this for 6 months on a relatively small database (< 1GB) • Report Builder drawbacks: • Slow speed due to Report Builder not being able to use indexing

  22. ATTEMPT 2 USER INTERFACE DATA GATHERING INTERMEDIATE DATABASE REPORT BUILDER

  23. FRONT END INTERFACE

  24. DATA GATHERING PROGRAM

  25. DATA GATHERING PROGRAM

  26. DATA GATHERING PROGRAM

  27. INTERMEDIATE DATABASE

  28. REPORT BUILDER DESIGN

  29. REPORT BUILDER DESIGN

  30. Second Attempt - Invoice, PO and packlist using side database access from Report Builder. DEMO

  31. Results summary: • Same nicer looking forms • Near instantaneous output • Downsides: • Must maintain side database and extraction programs for each form you wish to output

  32. Output formats: • Report builder outputs to most printers • Outputs to windows screen • Would be nice to have pdf file • Email

  33. CHEAP PDF OPTIONS: • Freepdf – Free! - www.webxd.com/zipguy/frpdfdl.htm • Difficult to install • WIN2PDF – www.win2pdf.com • about $30/client • Docucom Driver – www.pdfwizard.com • About $15/User

  34. PDF - DEMOS

  35. Additional resources: • Progress Report Builder Deployment Guide • Progress Report Builder Users Guide • Progress Report Builder Tutorial

  36. CD Available • Freeware barcode font • Report Builder programs for PO, packlist, invoice • Data gathering programs - Progress • Forms database .df file • PDF drivers (WIN2PDF, DOCUCOM)

  37. Thank you for attending Questions

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