Reports, PDF, and grid widget for Python?

Adams-Blake Co. aremovethiscanton at adamsremovethis-blake.com
Mon Oct 21 13:19:00 EDT 2002


John Hunter wrote:

>>>>>> "Adams-Blake" == Adams-Blake Co
>>>>>> <aremovethiscanton at adamsremovethis-blake.com> writes:
> 
>     Adams-Blake> Finally, I want this to run on the Mac,
>     Adams-Blake> Linux, and Windows.... with an install as easy as
>     Adams-Blake> possible and able to be performed by a
>     Adams-Blake> non-techie. Thus, I don't want to get "involved" with
>     Adams-Blake> a 3rd party widget library (wxW.., Qt, etc.) that
>     Adams-Blake> might make the install a nightmare for the user.
> 
> Umm.. The *whole* point of the wx library is that it is cross
> platform.  You write to their interface, which is then linked with the
> appropriate platform specific widget library -- Linux GTK+ / MS
> Windows / Mac OSX are all supported.
> 
> Check out the demo in wxPython that comes with wxPythonSrc-2.3.3.1.
> There is a wxWizard for designing cross platform install wizards.
> 

Hmmm. This is very interesting. I WILL check it out. The one reason I 
resisted 3rd party widgets was that I need this to be a slam-dunk, no-brainer 
install for the user.

Here is a good question. What is the advantage of using wxPython as opposed 
to Jython. It seems to me that having the entire Java library (Swing, AWT, 
etc. ) at your disposal would be a distinct advantage.... and (my guess) is 
that installing a JRE is not too difficult for the average user? And if I 
have Java behind me, I can use some of the Java 3rd party libraries that will 
help me do the reports (like Datavision). 

Is there a downside to Jython and Java/Swing/AWT (I'm NOT a Java programmer 
but I've read a few books.) 


> You may be interested in http://www.reportlab.com for pdf generation.
> 

Yes, I have seen this. It's really "low level." I was looking for a tool 
similar to Crystal reports for layout and which might work in Python.... but 
I have not seen any.  I've got some 50 reports to this system and don't want 
to spend between now and New Year's Eve laying them out and bit-twiddling 
them. There is a new and interesting product for Java called 
http://www.windwardreports.com/ which allows you to layout your reports in a 
Wordprocessor .RTF /mail-merge-like format and then then call their Java 
classes that create the report. It reads in the RTF file and creates an XML 
file that the report engine uses as a template against the data you send it. 
Something like this for Python would be terrific. 

The problem with most report solutions that I've seen is that they won't work 
directly from the database. You have to write a module for each report to 
turn your resulting recordset into an XML file... and do your own sub-totals, 
grand totals, etc. What the world needs is a robust open source "Crystal 
Reports" tool. Maybe one day!

Al





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