AD2 2001 Toolkit for Rapid Database Application Development with Clipper and Zachary

Yes! You already know that for heads down fast data-entry good old Zachary/Clipper DOS database programs really excel. More reliable, and faster!

Where Windows really has DOS beat with database systems is reports! You and I probably agree that a Windows report writer writes prettier reports. You display graphics and logos. You choose attractive Windows fonts. You print using Windows print spooler. Yes, in DOS you can accomplish the same thing, but it´s not easy. “Fast and easy” is the battle cry today, remember?

What´s this mean with Zachary? Our Zachary upgrades have added certain improvements to both of the old Zachary report systems, the defined reports and the ZFREE user report generator. Reports work a little better, and work with various RDDs, which wasn´t always true before. But they´re still DOS reports. There is a better way...

We recommend the R&R Report Writer for Windows from Liveware Publishing. You can design reports quickly, using graphics and logos, and various Windows fonts, printing to Windows printers.

In the AD2 Toolkit we include a flexible interface to launch your defined R&R reports directly from your application. That´s right. From your Zachary generated DOS application, running in a DOS/Command Window in Windows 95/98/NT/2000/XP, you launch a report that is generated by the R&R runtime.

R&R Version 9.0 has new features that let you:

• Generate reports directly to PDF files.
• Generate reports to email (using a “Send via MAPI” button). You can even divide a report based on group definitions and send each section to a different address specified in the database.
• Generate special indexes at runtime for unique report requirements.
• Accept runtime parameters so you don’t have to program them all into your interface. (For example, now you can let the user specify start and end dates for  report without designing that into your Clipper code, or even the AD2 interface, like you did before. Now R&R will prompt for those values, if you prefer.)
• Print Page xx of yy using functions that will print the number of pages in a report, or in a section of a report.

Yes, you have to buy R&R to make this happen. In the AD2 toolkit, we´ve include the routines and functions to make it work. You could spend a few weeks figuring out how to do this with Clipper code, and then months debugging it, like we did, or you can export our R&R routine into your application, set a few parameters, and start printing reports.

Now you truly have the best of both worlds, as you develop a “hybrid” Windows/DOS program, using DOS where it´s best, and Windows where it´s best!

This is only a tiny part of all that you get in the AD2 Toolkit, but it´s so valuable, I thought you´d want to know about it.

Tortuga Tortoise™

Richard Hamilton Associates
Box 50186, Phoenix, AZ 85076 USA • Tel. (602) 438-2345   Fax (480) 287-9233
Another Dimension, ADS/Interactive, and AD2 are trademarks of Richard Hamilton Associates.
Zachary and Zachary the Software Machine are trademarks of ZAC Corp.