Is there someplace I can go to learn more about working with RTMs?

I've spent a lot of time there. However, there are still a number of things that don't make sense. For instance,  
 
- S/R notes won't print on the S/R packing list. Why? The notes file is opened for S/R order and invoicing. Is the ISSRDESC file not available for the T6SRD RTMs? That would be odd since you are asked if you want notes printed when you print an S/R packing slip. Is the program at fault or is it the RTM?
 
- Phantom assembly part numbers print on some RTMs and not on others. Why? There must be something in the report to cause the grouping and the printing of the characters "Phantom Assy" on the reports where it prints, right?
 
It is ridiculous how little information is provided for working with RTMs. Now ISTECH is planning to refashion more of the text reports into RTMs. That would be a good thing if RTM was a format that the user could work with reliably.
 
And yes, I know that Crystal Reports is much better at making reports. How is that an excuse for DBA?

Quote from GasGiant   on 12/13/06 at 06:23:23:

 
Well, the problem is that nobody seems to sell a TAS developed product... Except for DBA. Just go to one of the TAS providers and look at the websites. They're pretty proud that DBA uses it but it seems like DBA is it. In general you do not get great results with a small user base. It's just too time consuming and expensive to pour the blood, sweat, and tears into something you won't get a nice return on. So, there is a reason why Crystal Reports is so much better than TAS's RTM editor (and yes, DBA didn't make it, it comes from the programming compiler company.) Also, the unix way is validated here. It's hard to  be all things to all people so every piece of software should focus on doing one thing well and one thing only. You link various products together to come up with something good. CR is a specialized report program and it, from what I've heard, does a wonderful job.  
 
For my part, I think RTM sucks as a report format too. It looks like it started out as a nice WYSIWYG idea but ended up looking terrible and working nearly that well. I try my best not to edit RTM reports because the editor interface looks like a dog pile and the preview function is worthless.
I don't use CR but I do wonder about the possibility of EvoERP going to Crystal Reports instead of using RTM. I'd be willing to bet that a sufficiently motivated person could write a RTM -> CR converter that converts reports from one format to the other. It seems that CR can be integrated with another program to provide reports for that other program. Thus, it is technically possible for EVO to use CR for all reports. I'd be willing to get a copy of CR or pay more for Evo if it used CR.

ISTech's Programming 2 cents.
 
  RTM's in DBA/Evo are not reporting tools, they are a report formatter that is all. All the data mining and sorting and filtering is done in the programs. It is not like Crystal or other standalone report builders, where the users get access to everything.
 
 Now we could look into merging Crystal with Evo but then all users would have to buy Crystal, not sure we want to go down this road... for users who want to go the Crystal route, nothing stops you from doing so now.  
 
 I agree that the RTM's are limited, and I too had to learn how to use them the hard way (try, try, cry, and try again).
The current version in Evo is far better then what it used to be in the old DBA version, and now you can add fields. I would love the ability to add calculated or total fields and it is something I have asked the TAS developers to add. We shall see.
 
 
 
 
 

I think that is a great Idea, and hope that some users might do just that and make it available to all. That said, there are Crystal version issues, and users custom version of each report to deal with, but there is defiantly strength in numbers and you the users could get something done much faster then we would be able too.  
 
 We would even provide the FTP site to up/download any and all reports that users want to share.

Pervasive web site has a nice "Component Zone" page.
 
"...contribute and share various resources including, sample programs, code snippets, executable utilities, entire applications...."
 
This forum needs a page like that.
 
http://www.pervasive.com/componentzone/
 
Regards,
 
Kelloggs

That would also be a good format for sharing the web interface components that we have been discussing in another thread.