TFORMer Designer: Version History

Fixes

• TFORMer SDK for AIX6.1 PPC
  A bug with font spacing (wrong font initialization) was fixed (all output formats). Bug occured only in V6.0.1 of AIX version.

Fixes

• TFORMer SDK Developer Manual
  Visual Studio dependencies and TFORMer SDK product name were corrected.

New Functions

• User Interface
  Modernized user interface style to comply with actual standards.
  Option dialog was reworked.
• Data View
  Added “Hide Unused Fields“ option.
• Image Printer
  Fixed a crash that occurred with clipped bar codes (bar code position outside of page bounds).
  Fixed ignored JPEG compression option.
• HTML Printer
  Fixed transparent color (some components always used “white“ as transparent color).
• Configuration (TFORMer.xml)
  Added bar code “drawing-mode“ option for Windows^® printers.
• Update Dialog
  Added online check for updates (Internet connection required).

Improvements for Developers

• Report Generator SDK
  Renamed TFORMer Runtime to TFORMer SDK. TFORMer SDK is now available through a separate MSI setup!
• Thread Safety
  Fixed a thread safety issue on startup (internal font initializing).
• C/C++ Runtimes
  Changed dependencies: TFORMer SDK now requires VisualStudio 2008 Redistributables.
• Java Wrapper
  Fixed several threading and memory issues.

Known Issues

• PDF / PostScript Output
  Non TrueType fonts like Script are printed as Arial.
• HTML Output
  The use of rotated text is not possible (will not be implemented because there is no cross-browser solution available).
• Issues for “Big-Endian (Non-Intel)“ Operating Systems like HP-UX and AIX
  The EURO-sign (€) can’t be used on AIX.
  The image format TIFF is not supported.
• Arabic Fonts
  Arabic fonts are not directly supported.
• Documentation
  Some outdated screenshots in the user documentation.

New Functions

• Improved User Interface
  Layout design and testing was simplified with the optimized graphical user interface. Switch between layout view, data view and preview with a single mouse-click.
• Unified Datasources
  A wizard will help you to quickly and easily create ODBC datasources and file based datasources (XML, CSV, TSV ...). You can also create multiple datasources for one single layout and then switch between them as required.
• Field Bindings
  The field names used in external datasources can now be mapped to datafields in the layout easily. No renaming is required!
• Computed Fields
  Extend your datasource with computed fields. Computed fields allow you to do custom computations in a central location (like creating serial numbers, etc.).
• Datasource Parameters
  Parametrize ODBC datasources (SQL query and/or authentication) and file datasources (file name) by using so-called source-parameters.
• User-Friendly Manual Data Input
  Per default TFORMer offers a manual datasource for each layout. This datasource allows the user to manually enter data in a data grid.
• Rounded Rectangles
  TFORMer now supports rounded rectangles. The radius of the rounded corners is adjustable.

General Improvements

• Preview
  The preview is no longer shown in a pop-up window. You can now directly switch between layout and preview.
• Filtered Data
  The data provided by a datasource can be filtered.
• Vertical and Horizontal Alignment
  The elements in a layout can now be aligned vertically and horizontally with a few mouse clicks.
• PDF Output
  Various problems with fonts, font-embedding (creation of subsets to reduce the resulting file size), watermarks (image background of a layout) and with the scaling of images were fixed.
• HTML Output
  The HTML output now supports human readable text for barcodes, circles, ellipses and diagonal lines.
• Microsoft^® Windows^® Vista^® and Windows^® 7 Compatibility
  TFORMer can be used with the coming Windows^® 7 without any restrictions. (Tested with Windows^® 7 RC!)

Improvements for Developers

• DLL, .NET and COM API
  The API was extended in order to allow the selection of the newly introduced datasources and the setting of source-parameters.
• JAVA JNI
  A JAVA JNI API is now available for TFORMer Runtime. A source-code example showing you the use of this interface is included.
• Security
  The size and the download time for images can be restricted via HTTP (see TFORMer.XML).
• Extended Search Paths
  The search paths for TFORMer.INI (License) and TFORMer.XML (configuration) were extended. The use with .NET and IIS is now possible without problems.
• API Usability
  The calling order of some API functions is now irrelevant. This simplifies programmatic printing.

Fixes

• Downloading or accessing of image files through https was fixed.

New Features:

JAVA Interface (JNI) for the Report Generator SDK (pre-release).

Bug Fixes:

• Symbol sizes of Data Matrix and QR-Code are not displayed (Designer property dialog).
• Crash when printing watermarks in PDF documents.
• Problems with printing to ZEBRA printers in ZPL-II mode.
• Wrong page layout computation when using printing conditions.
• Space suppression for text-fields was corrected.
• Page rotation for PDF and PostScript output works now correctly.
• Problem with toolbar display on Windows Vista.
• Barcode printing was fixed when using < or > in the barcode format.
• API: dependencies (execution order, parameters) for the functions TFormer_SetPrinterName, TFormer_SetOutputName, TFormer_SetPrinterType were minimized.
• The printing process can now be aborted correctly.
• A possible crash in the functions Left, Right and Mid when using UTF-8 was fixed.
• PDF: Output with fonts using more than 65535 glyphs was fixed.
• PDF: handling of bold, normal and italic fonts was improved.

Fixes:

• ODBC DB2 (On importing data - an ODBC table - using the Data Import Wizard errors have been displayed: Tables couldn't displayed with the Wizard. Just a empty list was displayed).
• Computer crashed on generating PDFs with enlarged/scaled down images.
• Computer crashed on generating PDFs with fonts (65536 character sets).
• Problems with center justification in PDF.

Removed:

• UPS Labels from Templates (available to licensed UPS end users on request).

Bug-Fixes:

• On Windows Vista and Microsoft^® Windows XP SP3 printing on network-printers is now possible. This bug-fix affects both the report designer as well as the reporting SDK.
• The PDF output generator was improved to generate correct justified text output in all situations (the problem happened on unlicensed TFORMer installations in conjunction with bar-codes).

New Features:

• UNICODE: TFORMer now supports UNICODE and therefore covers almost all scripts in current use today. Examples are Chinese (汉语 / 漢語), Japanese (日本の), Hebrew (עברית), Arabic (العربية) or Russian (Русский).
• Direct Image Output: TFORMer is now able to print directly to image formats like BMP, GIF, JPG, PCX, PNG, TGA, TIF and multi page TIF.
• ZEBRA^® Printer Support: On demand TFORMer now generates ZPL-II compliant output. This feature is available on Microsoft Windows®, Linux® and UNIX®.
• Simplified use of Expressions and Data-Fields, expressions and data-fields can now be inserted into text elements much easier.
• Syntax Highlighting: The Expression Editor now supports syntax highlighting, auto-completion and call tips.
• Save as ZIP: Stand-Alone form layouts may be saved as ZIP-file from within TFORMer Designer.

Improvements:

• PDF Output with Embedded Fonts: Embedded fonts in exported PDF files produce less overhead.
• Performance: The performance of the .NET API of TFORMer Runtime was improved when retrieving form information.
• QuickPrint: The tool QuickPrint for fast and easy on-demand printing offers a better user interface.
• Serial Number Support: QuickPrint now supports printing of unique serial numbers. This also works in a multi-user or networked environment.

New Barcode Types:

• Aztec Code: 2D symbology with binary encoding support
• DPD Code: Linear symbology in use by "Deutscher Paket Dienst GmbH & Co. KG"
• Italian Postal Code 2of5
• DAFT Code: This is not a bar-code by itself. It allows low level (bar by bar) encoding of several postal codes.

COM / ActiveX Control Security Improvement:

In combination with Microsoft Internet Explorer the security of the COM version of TFORMer Runtime was significantly improved: TFORMer Runtime is now "site locked" as well as marked as "safe for scripting". Thus TFORMer Runtime V5.1 can be safely installed on any machine.

By default only the following zones are allowed to script TFORMer Runtime as part of web pages: local computer, intranet and trusted zones. All other zones are locked out. If you need to enable the full functionality of TFORMer Runtime within web pages please check out the documentation for details.

We recommend you to update all existing TFORMer Runtime installations as soon as possible!

New Features:

General:

• Windows^® Vista^® is fully supported. TFORMer is now compatible with Microsoft^® Windows^® 2000 or higher.
• Terminal Server is supported.

Design Features:

• Improved text capabilities: The text element is now able to mix arbitrary fonts, colors and styles within one element and can be formatted using the graphical user interface or directly using HTML syntax (e.g. Bold Text).
• Better support for special characters, especially when using Eastern European character sets.
• Embedded expressions: Expressions and data-fields are now embedded directly into text elements using the placeholders [ … ] and < … >. This feature simplifies form design substantially.
• Improved barcode engine: TFORMer 5 utilizes the latest version of TBarCode 7. EAN.UCC composite symbologies as well as RSS codes are supported.
• Additional barcode settings in TFORMer Designer: Bar-width reduction (“pixel shaving”) and optimize resolution for output device (better readability).

Output Features:

• PDF output performance improved, http-links to external sources are supported.
• The performance of the PostScript output was improved.
• The accuracy of HTML output was improved.
• Transparency is now supported for image files.
• Adobe^® Type 1 fonts are supported under Linux and UNIX.
• The error-handling of TFORMer Runtime was improved and may be configured via TFORMer.xml (ignore, abort, print errors).

Smart Reports:

• Auto font-size for text: The font-size of a text element is automatically adapted.
• Dynamic size of picture and text-elements: The bounding box of such an element adapts automatically to the content.
• Shiftable elements: Elements adapt their position within the layout automatically.
• Simplified multi-column reporting.

Software Developers:

• Application Programming Interface (API) revised.
• New .NET and COM support: TFORMer Runtime is now available as .NET 2.0 component, as COM component, as DLL, as shared library (on Linux^®/UNIX^®) and as command-line application.
• TFPrint now supports ODBC connectivity.
• Minimized dependencies: ImageMagick dependencies were removed from TFORMer Runtime – thus reducing setup and maintenance efforts on Linux and UNIX platforms dramatically.

Additional Tools:

• A new tool for fast manual data entry and instant printing of arbitrary forms (“QuickPrint”) was introduced. This tool is available with source code.