The Spectraforms^® ActiveX control (Spectre) allows you to easily write software with the electronic forms technology of Spectraforms.  Spectre controls the form display and data entry.  You use your favorite Windows programming language to write a "shell" application around Spectre.  Spend your programming time solving the customers problems and providing the best "look and feel" for your solution without having to waste time and money on implementing the forms technology.

• Seamlessly integrate Spectraforms electronic forms technology into your application.  You control how the user sees and interacts with electronic forms.  You provide the best user-interface to solve the customers problems. 
• Preserve your brand.  The user only sees your company name on the shell application.  They never know you used a third-party component for the electronic forms.
• Excellent for multi-lingual solutions!  The Spectre control is language-neutral, so it works well in non-English software projects.  You write your shell application in the preferred language for your customers.  Spectre is UNICODE based for the most comprehensive language support. 

Write applications that:

• Transfer your form data to a database
• Automatically populate form data from a database
• Automatically generate forms to document industrial process, such as automatically filling out and printed a quality control form for a defective part
• Automatically generate and print invoices, purchase orders, sales price quotes, and shipping labels with barcodes
• Process employment forms such sick leave, vacation, time cards, W2 forms, and travel
• Many other functions

Programming Languages

Spectraforms ActiveX supports all programming languages and platforms that support ActiveX including:

• Microsoft Visual C++
• Microsoft Visual Basic
• Microsoft .NET Languages, such as C#
• Borland Delphi and C++ Builder
• All other languages that support the use of ActiveX controls

Get Started at No Cost

Start by downloading the Spectraforms ActiveX Control Sample Programs and API Documentation.  See how easy it is to include electronic forms technology in your applications.

Then contact Starpoint Software for the complete free trial version of the Spectre control, including full documentation and source code for the example programs. Our free trial version has no time limit, and supports most of the functionality* of the commercially licensed control, so you can get started integrating the Spectre control into your software solutions at no cost and with no risk.

Licensing

The Spectre control is available for both seat-counting licenses or non-seat-counting licenses.  Our licensing packages are flexible enough to meet any need, including:

• Per-seat licensing
• Per project licensing
• Site licensing

Both perpetual and annual lease licenses are available.

Designing Forms

The Spectre control itself does not support designing forms.  Your form designers use the easy user-interface of Spectraforms to design forms for your electronic forms solution.  Each form is stored in a single disk file or embedded in a relational database BLOB field.  Your shell application access each form as needed, allowing users to enter data.  Data can be saved with the form, or separated out to an XML file, with the form acting as a template.

Use Scenarios

Easy and Secure User Interface

Do you need to get your electronic forms to users that aren't comfortable with the normal file operations of software applications?  Drop the File menu and write a shell application that provides easy access to forms without the user having to worry about file names and locations.  You provide easy-to-understand buttons on the shell, and program the shell to manage files transparently t the user.  The user clicks a button to open a form, fills out the form, and then clicks another to save the form, without having to understand disk files or other software concepts.  Great for turnkey solutions!

Intelligent Forms

Do you have forms where some fields are invalid when other fields are a certain value?  Are some fields mandatory?  Do you need to "score" a form based on value entered by the user?  The Spectre control gives you full programmable access to forms and form data to validate or score forms based on the form values.  The user clicks a button on your shell application and validates the form data or scores the form. 

Database Driven Forms

Use the Spectre control to automatically fill out forms with data from your company's database system.  The data can go the other way too!  Users enter data into forms.  Your shell application collects the data from the form and writes them to your company's databases.  You write a shell application to manage the user interface and data traffic between the form and the database.  Because you write the shell, you have total control over field mapping and data validation. The screenshot at right shows a sample application reading car information from a database and displaying it in a form.

Distributed Forms

Do you need to get forms and form data to people over the web or over a network?  Use the Spectre control in a client application, easily and freely available to all of your users.  Distribute forms over the web.  As the users fill out forms, the shell application extracts the form data to an XML file and sends it back to the server.  Works great with Microsoft solutions such as BizTalk Server.  Great for warehouse and inventory management applications -- print forms and barcoded labels at any computer terminal throughout your distribution system.

Report Engine

Use the Spectre control to generate reports with the most flexible formats possible.  It is easier to use and more flexible than Crystal Reports.  Generate summary reports, tabular reports, barcoded reports, invoices, and purchase orders directly from your existing systems.

 

*The free trial version supports all functionality except saving form data, and a watermark is displayed over every form.