U2lwin32 UFL

Most of the functions deal with extracting information about Windows and its current setup. This includes getting information about the logged in user, language and other formatting settings. There's a number of functions to read and write from the System Registry, INI files and from basic text files.

The FileReadArray function is quite usefull to create reports that are translatable: Add the label translations in separate text files, then use the CurrentLanguage to load the appropriate text file. Finally create formula fields for each label to return the indexed text from the string array.
Use the FileAppendLine function to create a log file of who is watching your report. And use the SysColor to smoothly integrate the Crystal Report ActiveX viewer inside your application, so your report colors match the dialog/window of your app.
Note that the DateTimeToEpoch is replacable with the native Crystal function DateDiff("s", #1 Jan 1970#, Date1) which is slightly faster, but less readable. DateTimeToEpoch and its friends are highly needed if you store dates in your database as seconds since 1 Jan 1970 UTC or GMT.

The download contains an installation script for Crystal Reports 9. It can easily be adapted to later versions. It's a simple JavaScript file that copies the DLL file to the appropriate folder.
After installation, the new functions are available under the Additional Functions item in the Function Tree, in the module named Win32.

Interface

	Name	Description
	DateTimeToUtc	Adjusts a local DateTime to UTC.
	UtcToDateTime	Adjusts a DateTime value in UTC to local time.
	DateTimeToEpoch	Converts a DateTime value to an Epoch date (known as "Unix time"; or the time_t structure). Expects local time and returns UTC number.
	EpochToDateTime	Converts an Epoch date to a DateTime value. Returns a local time DateTime value.
	TimezoneBias	Returns the current UTC timezone difference in minutes (daylight saving).
	SysColor	Returns a Windows System color. Use Windows native constants such as "COLOR_WINDOW" to specify what information to extract.
	ReadIniValue	Reads a string from a Windows INI file.
	WriteIniValue	Writes a string to a Windows INI file.
	ReadRegistryValue	Reads data from the registry. Both String and Integer values are read, but a string type is always returned.
	WriteRegistryValue	Writes a string to the registry.
	WindowsDir	Returns the path where Windows is installed.
	SystemDir	Returns the Windows System path.
	AppDir	Returns the path where the viewer is installed. When run from the Crystal Reports Designer this is the location of CR.EXE.
	LoginName	Returns the login name of the current user.
	ComputerName	Returns the Computer name.
	RegisteredUserName	Returns the name of the registered user.
	RegisteredCompany	Returns the company name of the registered user.
	CurrentDir	Returns the current directory.
	CurrentLanguage	Returns the current language identifier (abbreviated name of the language based on the ISO Standard 639).
	CurrentCodePage	Returns the active CodePage.
	PrintDebugOutput	Sends a string to the Windows debug stream (Win32 OutputDebugString() function)
	DriveSerial	Returns the serial number of a disk drive/volume.
	FileDelete	Deletes a file. Pass a complete filename to the function.
	FileExists	Returns whether the file exists or not.
	FileAppendLine	Appends a line to a file. A newline character is automatically added.
	FileReadArray	Reads a file as an array of strings.
	FormatArgs	Formats a string with tokens, such as "Insert $1 here". Second argument is an array of strings which contains the replacement tokens.
	LocaleInfo	Returns Windows locale (country) information. Use Windows native constants such as "LOCALE_SCURRENCY" to specify what information to extract.
	SystemMetrics	Returns Windows System Metrics, such as screen size. Use Windows native constants such as "SM_CXFULLSCREEN" to specify what information to extract.
	WindowsVersion	Returns the Windows version as a decimal number (eg. 4.0 for Windows NT 4)
	ShellExecute	Launches an external application.
	PlaySound	Plays a wave (.wav) file. Use an empty filename to stop playing.
	SetClipboardText	Assigns text to the clipboard.
	AnsiToOem	Convert from ANSI charset to OEM.
	OemToAnsi	Convert from OEM charset to ANSI.
	BAND	Binary AND.
	BOR	Binary OR.
	BXOR	Binary XOR.

Source Code Dependencies

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Installation and sample (48 Kb) Source Code (61 Kb)