User Guides In this section we cover the concepts that you need to know in order to use FlexCel effectively. The documents here are not a full reference for every type and method in FlexCel: If you are looking for the reference documentation in the methods and classes, you can find it in the API Documentation tab. In this section: Installation Guide Because before using FlexCel you need to install it. Getting started An introduction to start using FlexCel quickly. API Developer Guide How to use the FlexCel API to read and write Excel files. Reports Developer Guide How to create Excel files by replacing tags in a template. Reports Designer Guide How to design a template to be used with TFlexCelReport. Reports Tag Reference A list with all the tags available in a report. Performance Guide How to get the most of FlexCel performance wise. PDF Exporting Guide How to use FlexCel to export Excel files to PDF. HTML Exporting Guide How to use FlexCel to export Excel files to HTML. FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 1 of 2 iOS Guide Special considerations when working in iOS. Android Guide Special considerations when working in Android. Linux Guide Special considerations when working in Linux Migrating from FlexCel 3 FlexCel for VCL 5 was a whole rewrite of the code which put FlexCel for VCL on par with FlexCel .NET. A lot of stuff changed. If you are an old FlexCel user, you can keep using the old components with the new engines, or migrate completely to the newer versions. FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 2 of 2 FlexCel Installation Guide Automatic Installation In typical cases, installing FlexCel should be a matter of running setup.exe, then pressing Next- >Next...->Next->Finish. And in most cases that is just it. The setup under the hood handles the complexity, and it usually just does the right thing. But it is interesting to know more about what is happening when you run the setup, and this is what we cover in this document. WARNING When installing for Linux, make sure to read the Linux guide for important information about the Linux install. Speeding up the installation FlexCel is a complex suite of components which includes from a pdf engine to a chart rendering engine. It also runs in every platform supported by Rad Studio, and this all means that the setup process where we compile all the components for all the Delphi versions can be slow. There are a couple of ways in how you can speed up the process and save some disk space while doing it. Select only the platforms you want The mobile Delphi compilers are slower than the standard Win32 compiler, so if you are not using Delphi on mobile, just unselect all the platforms you don't need when running the setup. You can always reinstall the missing platforms later. FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 1 of 18 TIP There is a handy checkbox at the bottom of the select components dialog which will disable FireMonkey support and with it all the mobile targets: Unselecting unneeded platforms will not only speed up the install process a lot, but also require much less disk space. FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 2 of 18 Disable Debug DCUs if not needed By default, FlexCel will install Release and Debug dcus for all its classes. Debug dcus allow you to step through FlexCel source code when the Project compiler option "Use debug .dcus" is checked: And this can be really helpful: When you want to step in the FlexCel source code with F7, and you want exceptions to break in FlexCel code, you set "Use debug .dcus" to true in your project options. When you want to focus on your code and see FlexCel as a black box, set "Use debug .dcus" to false. But debug dcus come with a price: They double the setup time because each unit has to be compiled twice (with and without debug information). The also require a lot more disk space because all dcus are now repeated twice, and the debug information in debug dcus makes them bigger. So if you don't care about stepping through FlexCel code, you can just unselect "Compile Debug DCUs" when installing FlexCel: FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 3 of 18 TIP Even if disabling debug dcus, you will still be able to navigate in FlexCel source code by pressing ctrl-click in a FlexCel identifier. And of course you still have the full source code to look at. The only thing that gets disabled by disabling debug dcus is the debugger finding FlexCel symbols. Check your Antivirus If you are experiencing very long compiling times, check with the task manager if your Antivirus is not consuming most of that time. One would expect that in this time and age Antivirus shouldn't cause problems, but from time to time we get emails from people who have issues caused by the antivirus. We don't recommend you to turn off your Antivirus, especially considering that you are installing a new product you got from the internet. But if you determine that the antivirus is the one causing trouble, you might consider changing it for another brand. Manual Installation If for any reason you can't install the packages automatically with the setup, below are the steps to do it manually FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 4 of 18 IMPORTANT The setup by default hides all Delphi versions and platforms that you don't have installed. This permits a simpler install where you can select among what is available. But sometimes, when doing manual installation, you might want to install in a machine where no version of Delphi is installed. For those cases you can open cmd.exe and run: setup /showall=true This will show all Delphi versions and platforms supported, even if you don't have them installed. Of course, if you try to automatically install in a Delphi version you don't have, the installation will fail. For manual installation, remember to always select one version of Delphi so you can compile the sources Step by step manual installation 1. The first step is to get the sources. To get them, run the Setup.exe and unselect everything in the "Select Additional Tasks" screen: The setup is designed so when everything is unselected in that screen, it will just uncompress the source code and the packages and do very little more. Some registry keys will be created for uninstallation, but besides that, it should do nothing but unpack the sources. 2. Modify the Windows Path. You need to add the folder: FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 5 of 18 <place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\bpl\Win32 to the Windows path. You need to replace <dVersion> above by the actual folder for your Delphi version. (like for example dXE7 or dTokyo) TIP In newer versions of Windows, there is a nice dialog to modify the Windows path. If you are in an older Windows version (or don't like the built-in dialog) you can use any of the tools mentioned here: https://superuser.com/questions/297947/is-there-a-convenient- way-to-edit-path-in-windows-7 3. Edit the library path. How to modify the path depends in the delphi version you have. ◦ If you are using Rad Studio 10.2 Tokyo or older, then open Delphi and go to Main Menu->Tools->Options , then select Environment Options->Delphi Options- >Library in the treeview at the left: ◦ If you are using Rad Studio 10.3 Rio or newer, then open Delphi and go to Main Menu->Tools->Options , then select Language->Delphi->Library in the treeview at the left: FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 6 of 18 Press the "..." button at the right in "library path", and add the path: <place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\Win32\Release to the library path. Note that Delphi might complain that the path doesn't exist yet (we are going to create it in the next step). Just ignore the warning. 4. In Delphi, open the project group: <place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel.groupproj 5. Make sure all the packages are in Release mode: FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 7 of 18 6. Right click all the packages in order (from first to last) and select "install" for each one of them. FlexCel Studio for VCL and FireMonkey 7.11.0 Page 8 of 18 NOTE If you are using C++ Builder only and don't have a Delphi personality, you won't be able to do step 4. So to install into C++ Builder, follow steps 1 to 3, and then in the start menu look for "Embarcadero RAD Studio <version>" and select "RAD Studio Command Prompt". There, write the following lines: msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel_Core.dproj" "/ p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\VCL_FlexCel_Core.dproj" " /p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel_XlsAdapter.dproj" "/p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel_Pdf.dproj" "/ p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel_Render.dproj" "/ p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\FlexCel_Report.dproj" "/ p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" msbuild "<place where you installed FlexCel>\TMSSoftware\FlexCelVCLNT\Packages\<dVersion>\VCL_FlexCel_Components.dp roj" "/p:config=Release" "/p:Platform=Win32" This is to install for win32 and VCL.