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Installation & Setup🔗

Ready to extend your Clarion application with runtime reporting? This guide walks you through how to install Fomin Report Builder (FRB), register its templates, and integrate it into your project.

🧩 System Requirements🔗

  • Clarion Versions: Clarion for Windows 2.0, Clarion 4, or Clarion 5
  • Template Chains Supported: Legacy and ABC
  • Target Architecture: 16-bit or 32-bit (FRB supports both)
  • Operating System: Windows 95 and later (including modern OS support via compatibility layers)

📁 File Structure Overview🔗

FRB consists of:

Folder Purpose
BIN/ Runtime DLLs and Help files
TEMPLATE/ FRB and FRBC template sets
LIB/ and LIBSRC/ Library files and Report Builder Classes
IMAGES/ Icons for ReportManager Tree
EXAMPLE.FRB/ Sample app (.APP, .DCT, .TPS, etc)
WINDOWS/ frb_nls.ini (for NLS support)

Place these files according to your installed Clarion version: C5/ ├── BIN/ │ │
│ ├── C5FRB.DLL │ │
│ ├── C5FRBx.DLL │ │
│ └── .HLP ├── LIB/ │ │
│ └── .LIB └── TEMPLATE/ │
├── frb.tpl │
├── frbc.tpl │
└── frblocal.tpw

ℹ️ DLLs must be included in your PATH or co-located with your executable.

🧰 Step-by-Step Installation🔗

1. Template Registration🔗

In the Clarion IDE:

  • Navigate to Setup → Template Registry
  • Click Register
  • Add the following templates:
  • frb.tpl (Legacy)
  • frbc.tpl (ABC)

🔁 Do this for each Clarion version you plan to use (e.g. C4, C5).

2. Global Extensions🔗

In your .APP:

  • Add RussianLocale extension (optional for non-English languages)
  • Add CorrectReportClosing to your Frame procedure (ensures proper MDI child shutdown)

3. Runtime Integration🔗

Create the following procedures using the FRB template set:

Procedure Type Description
RunTimeReport Core runtime editor/engine for .RPT files
ReportManager Tree-based interface for managing reports

You can use one RunTimeReport procedure per table group (VIEW structure), then reference them from one or more ReportManager procedures.

💡 Want to launch FRB from any point in your app? Use the LaunchRunTimeReport code template or invoke it manually using: ```clarion RTReportFileName = 'filename.rpt' RTReportSearchPath = 'path' RTReportEditAction = 1 ! 0=Print, 1=Edit

🌐 National Language Support (NLS)🔗

FRB supports multilingual UI out-of-the-box:

Language Method
English Built-in
Russian Built-in
Other Via FRB_NLS.INI file

📝 Setup Steps🔗

  1. Copy frb_nls.ini to your Windows directory (e.g. C:\Windows)
  2. Translate messages inside frb_nls.ini to your target language
  3. Set the CLACASE environment variable for correct runtime casing of non-English variables

ℹ️ If frb_nls.ini is missing, it will be generated automatically with English defaults when the app runs.

💾 Sample Application🔗

Explore the included inventory example at EXAMPLE.FRB\, which contains:

  • inventry.app, inventry.dct, inventry.tps: Application source and data
  • Sample .rpt files to explore reporting capabilities
  • Usage of IdentifyFields, InvokeDictionary, and formula-driven reports

This is a great starting point for testing, prototyping, or adapting into real-world systems.

✅ What’s Next?🔗

Time to empower your users! Learn how they can build and manage rich report forms—without writing a line of code.

“Just install once—your users handle the rest.”