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Thanks to everyone who was there with us during our webinar! Below we collected questions that you asked along with our answers:   Q: USPS bar code - can you briefly show it in a report? How do you format data for the barcode to meet the USA postal regulations? Show how to format data for the USPS bar code to meet standards for the US postal service??? A:  It depends on your source data. The code should be 20 or 31 digits and you can use expressions to form barcode data, like <ID> + <ServiceID> + <MailerID> + <SerialNumber> + <Zip> in Expression property.   Q: Adding extra bands looks interesting. How about adding just one last row to occupy the rest of free space (but to leave just enough for the page footer)? A: You can use report script and set band height from the code to Engine.FreeSpace - 0.00001 in the band OnBeforePrint event.   Q: What is the difference between release and current versions in the user portal? A: Current version may have experimental features which will be removed later also you can encounter bugs as well.   Q: Can we transfer existing reports to Lazarus ? A: Yes, you can.   Q: Any plans to fix image transparency in the Lazarus version? It seems like such a trivial thing. A: We are going to investigate this issue. We will fix what we can, but lazarus itself works rather poorly with transparency.   Q: Older FR VCL gives very large PDF files; are the new ones smaller? A: It depends what content do you have in a report. FR6 now uses vectors for Charts , Rich Text and maps, so for these objects the size of the file will be smaller than in previous versions.   Q: QR code change its size whit it's content A: You can change this behavior by changing TfrxBarcode2DView.AutoSize property and set it to False.   Q: Can I print barcode from Lazarus ? A: Yes, you can.   Q: Can we use barcode in FastReport FMX too ? A: Yes, but some of barcode types from FastReport VCL are not available in FastReport FMX.   Q: Can we use FastReport FMX for Android and iOS devices ? A: No, we don’t have support of mobile platform, yet.   Q: Is/will be Cocoa/MacOS supported under Lazarus? A: We are looking at it. And partially it already works.   Q: Just double-checking about SVG images, are they now supported by image component? A: Unfortunately, no, we do not support SVG natively.        

In  the latest version we added Bezier curves for Polygons, new time format and JSON data connector.  [Engine] + added Bezier curve for polygons+ added new time format minutes:seconds [mm:ss]+ added a new Json data connection integrated into the engine+ added RepeatBandNTimes property for bands* updated a polygon object: now the polygon toolbar is displayed not near to the object, but in the main toolbar and in Ribbon; polygon modes are changed, new modes allow editing and adding curves> because polygons have got strong changes, we want to get more detail about the change, the polygon has 5 editing modes: the first allows you to work with the whole object, the second for selecting and moving points, the third allows you to add new points to the polygon, the fourth allows you to edit the curves, the fifth to delete the points of the polygon. For the 3rd and 4th mode, you must select a point- fixed image size calculation when AutoSize is enabled in the preparation stage- fixed RichText lists format- fixed a bug when font changed in parent report were not changed in inherited report- fixed a bug with changing the GroupHeaderBand hierarchy if it had a child GroupHeaderBand [Designer] + added feature to edit the SQL query for the QueryBuilder; if the QueryBuilder cannot process the query a warning will be showed* now when the name of data source changed, its name changes in expressions of TextObject.Text, PictureObject.DataColumn, DataBand.Filter and DataBand.Sort- fixed a bug with rising exception when double clicking on a TextObject- fixed a bug with shadow of report when designer is in Right-to-Left mode- fixed a bug when Query Builder adds extra comma- fixed a bug with adding extra spaces in QueryBuilder- fixed a bug with position of report shadow when zooming in Right-to-Left designer- fixed a bug with the inability to return and cancel actions when copying the format [Preview] - fixed a bug with breaking ManualBuild table with CanBreak = false- fixed a bug with display on the penultimate page with PageFooter PrintOn = LastPage [Exports] + added Hyperlinks to RTF-export+ added an ability to split pages with data in different sheets when exporting to Excel2007- fixed a bug with export of bitmaps in ZPL - fixed a bug with incorrect height of cells in Excel2007- fixed a bug with exporting empty sheet in Excel2007- fixed a bug with exporting the page with the wrong size in Excel97- fixed a bug with exporting empty cells in Excel2007- fixed a bug with strikethrough text in Excel2007 export- fixed a bug with strikethrough text in Word2007 export, when using html-tags and conditional formatting - fixed QR code position in ZPL export- fixed page init priority in ZPL export- fixed a bug with the same images duplication in the HtmlExport (properties: Layers, EmbeddedPictures)- fixed a bug with the lack of hyperlinks in pictures, figures, QR-codes when exporting to PDF- fixed a bug with exporting empty text to RTF, when using CanShrink = true and TextRenderType = HtmlParagraph- fixed RichObject bugs - parsing RTF, enumerated lists, and text colors

In FastReport .NET 2019.4 we significantly improved polygons for which we added Bezier curves and new editing modes. Now you can work with the whole polygon, add a curve to it, change the curve created earlier, and you can also add, delete and move points of the polygon. Added new time format. Added JSON data connection, which is now available by default and does not require the installation of a plugin. For FastReport .NET Core, the graphics dependency has been changed from CoreCompat.System.Drawing to System.Drawing.Common.   Version 2019.4 ---------------   [Engine] + added Bezier curve for polygons + added new time format minutes:seconds [mm:ss] + added a new Json data connection integrated into the engine + added FontListFolder property in the Utils.Config + added RepeatBandNTimes property for bands * updated a polygon object: now the polygon toolbar is displayed not near to the object, but in the main toolbar and in Ribbon; polygon modes are changed, new modes allow editing and adding curves > because polygons have got strong changes, we want to get more detail about the change, the polygon has 5 editing modes: the first allows you to work with the whole object, the second for selecting and moving points, the third allows you to add new points to the polygon, the fourth allows you to edit the curves, the fifth to delete the points of the polygon. For the 3rd and 4th mode, you must select a point - fixed image size calculation when AutoSize is enabled in the preparation stage - fixed RichText lists format - fixed a bug when font changed in parent report were not changed in inherited report - fixed a bug with changing the GroupHeaderBand hierarchy if it had a child GroupHeaderBand     [Designer] + added feature to edit the SQL query for the QueryBuilder; if the QueryBuilder cannot process the query a warning will be showed * now when the name of data source changed, its name changes in expressions of TextObject.Text, PictureObject.DataColumn, DataBand.Filter and DataBand.Sort - fixed TypeConverter on the TextObject.ParagraphFormat property - fixed a bug with rising exception when double clicking on a TextObject - fixed a bug with shadow of report when designer is in Right-to-Left mode - fixed a bug when Query Builder adds extra comma - fixed a bug with adding extra spaces in QueryBuilder - fixed a bug with position of report shadow when zooming in Right-to-Left designer - fixed a bug with the inability to return and cancel actions when copying the format     [Preview]  + added the ability to subscribe to the PreviewControl.OnPrint and PreviewControl.OnExport events, which are called when the corresponding buttons are clicked - fixed a bug with breaking ManualBuild table with CanBreak = false - fixed a bug with display on the penultimate page with PageFooter PrintOn = LastPage     [Exports] + added Hyperlinks to RTF-export + added an ability to split pages with data in different sheets when exporting to Excel2007 * improved an example \Demos\C#\PrintZPL - fixed a bug with export of bitmaps in ZPL - fixed a bug with incorrect height of cells in Excel2007 - fixed a bug with exporting empty sheet in Excel2007 - fixed a bug with exporting the page with the wrong size in Excel97 - fixed a bug with exporting empty cells in Excel2007 - fixed a bug with strikethrough text in Excel2007 export - fixed a bug with strikethrough text in Word2007 export, when using html-tags and conditional formatting - fixed QR code position in ZPL export - fixed page init priority in ZPL export - fixed a bug with the same images duplication in the HtmlExport (properties: Layers, EmbeddedPictures) - fixed a bug with the lack of hyperlinks in pictures, figures, QR-codes when exporting to PDF - fixed a bug with exporting empty text to RTF, when using CanShrink = true and TextRenderType = HtmlParagraph - fixed RichObject bugs - parsing RTF, numerated lists, and text colors     [WebReport] + added PdfImagesOriginalResolution, PdfJpegCompression and PdfColorSpace properties + added rotation for pages with landscape orientation in printing from browser + added event CustomAuth     [.Net Core] * graphics dependency changed from CoreCompat.System.Drawing to System.Drawing.Common - fixed memory leak in PDF-export - fixed memory leak in font engine - fixed glyph widths in PDF-export - fixed errors of report building with complex expressions ("Requested operation is not available because the runtime library function '' is not defined.") - fixed display of fonts in PDF-export, reduced accuracy to 2 decimal places - fixed bug with incorrect display of Arabic characters - fixed TrueType font name conversion for extended weights > font name conversion affected to FR.Core. The existing font.list file must be deleted manually, and will automatically rebuild on next export to PDF. Note that rebuilding of font.list takes long time.

We are excited to be a part of PASS Summit 2019. Use promocode PASSExhibitor during registration to save $100 on your ticket. See you on November 5-8 in Seattle!  

On September 26 lead developer of Fast Reports Viacheslav Shamshin will hold a session on generating document templates using machine learning in Azure during Basta! conference in Mainz. The session discusses the current MS Azure cloud possibilities focused on artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies for automatical creation of reports and document forms. In addition, the speaker presents a new approach for report generation using machine learning for data blocks recognizing. Models for templates deploying of databases and report generators based on cloud structure finalize the session. Buy your tickets for Basta! conference here: https://basta.net/tickets/

We encourage Open Source revolution in Italy and are ready to be published in Developers Italia Open Source catalogue any minute now. Stay tuned!   https://medium.com/team-per-la-trasformazione-digitale/open-source-guidelines-for-acquisition-reuse-software-in-italian-public-administration-d6d5997d3e51