Disable Data tab in ppDesigner

Hi Daniel, If you would not like the Data tab to show up, you need to remove "daIDE"fro m your uses clause. See the article below for more information oncontrolling t he end-user environment. ------------------------------------------------------------Article: Controlling the EndUser Environment-----------------------------------------------------------If you are having difficulty getting the Data tab, the Calc tab, thecrosstab com ponent or the TeeChart component to appear in your end-userapplication, or yo u are trying to eliminate one of these capabilities fromthe app, then this help topic is for you. The following paragraphs explainthe unit registration scheme used by ReportBuilder Pro, and how you can usethis scheme to get control over the feature set presented to your end-users. In order to minimize the overhead in end-user reporting applications,ReportBui lder employs a unit level registration scheme (similar to componentregistration in Delphi.), whereby components and functionality can be addedat the discreti on of the developer. In other words, you can control whetherthe 'Data' workspa ce, the 'Calc' workspace or certain components appear inyour end-user reportin g application simply by specifying or omitting certainunit names from the uses clause of your main end-user reporting unit. Theadvantage of this approach is that overhead associated with features such asDADE, RAP or the crosstab com ponent can be eliminated from your applicationif you do not wish to pass thes e features along to the end-user. Thedisadvantage is that you must manually add certain units to the uses clauseor these capabilities will not appear in the application. In the end-user reporting demo project (located in the ...\RBuilder\Demos\1.Re port Explorer directory), the main unit is a form entitled myEURpt. Atthe top o f the unit for this form there is a series of conditional compilerdirectives which, when enabled, cause certain functionality to appear in theapplication. The co nditional compiler directives in this unit are anattempt to simplify the configur ation of the demo application. However,these directives do nothing more than add or omit certain unit names fromthe uses clause of the form. The importa nt thing to know is the unit namesand the functionality that including those un it names will provide. Thetable below provides this information.

Unit Name Feature-----------------------------------------------------------------------daIDE DADE user-interface ('Data' tab) raIDE RAP user-interface ('Calc tab)

ppCTDsgn User-interface for the configuration of the crosstab. Norm ally the Crosstab Designer is displayed by accessing the'Configure...' context menu option of a crosstab component. If this unit is not included th en this menu option is notdisplayed. myChkBox Checkbox components appear on the component palette when this u nitis included. If you want to check out the source for thesecompon ents it is in ...RBuilder Pro 4\Demos\RCL ppChrtUI User-interface for editing charts. Normally the chart editoris disp layed by accessing the 'Edit...' context menuoption of a chart co mponent. If this unit is not included then this menu option is notdis played.

ReportBuilder also uses the unit registration scheme to control whichdatabase connectivity options are provided by the application. Whileincluding the daDat Man unit will cause the 'Data' workspace to appear in theReport Designer, that workspace will not be functional without a supportingimplementation. In Rep ortBuilder we call these implementations DADEplug-ins. A DADE plug-in is not hing more than a Delphi unit which containsthe appropriate descendant class i mplementations needed by DADE tocommunicate with a given database. Placi ng the data access implementationin a separate unit gives us at least two ben efits. One is that the userinterface is not tied to any specific database connec tivity scheme. Theother is that the overhead associated with database suppor t is limited tothe database connectivity products you are actually using. This means thatif you are using ADO to access your data, you need only include the daADOunit in your uses clause and your application will use ADO only. Mostde velopers use DADE plug-ins to gain access to databases not supported bythe B DE, or to gain access to databases without the use of the BDE. Thefollowing DADE plug-ins are provided with ReportBuilder Pro: Unit Name Feature-------------------daDBBDE BDE support for the Quer y Wizard and Query Designer daADO ADO support for the Query Wizard and Query Designer daIBExpress Interbase Express support for the Query Wizard and QueryDesig ner. daADS Advantage support. daDOA Oracle support via the Direct Oracle Access components. daODBC98 ODBC support via the ODBC98 components. daIBO InterBase support via the InterBase Objects components. daDBISAM DBISAM support.

You can use DADE plug-ins at Delphi design-time by generating a packagewhic h contains one of these units and then installing it into Delphi. Thiswill allow y ou to use your preferred database product within the 'Data'workspace at Delphi design-time. You can locate the various DADE plug-inunits in the ...\RBuilder\ Demos\EndUser Databases directories. A Delphipackage project has been pro vided for each DADE implementation so that youcan generate and install the pl ug-in at Delphi design-time. For moreinformation on how this can be done, see the ReadMe files in the EndUserDatabases directories. Additional DADE Plug-ins are always being developed. Check the DigitalMetap hors web-site for the latest information (see the sectionFriends:Data:DADE Plu g-Ins.)