Reporting — Video Tutorial, Enhancements, Documentation Updates, Tips & Tricks (November 2021)

New DevExpress Reporting Video Tutorial

A Few Recent Enhancements of Note

RDLC and Crystal Reports Conversion Tool Supports New Expression Functions

As of last month, our Report Conversion Tool recognizes the following third-party expressions: RDLC’s Right and Mid functions, Crystal’s Length & Mid functions, and Crystal’s CurrentDate special field.

XRChart - RTL Support

Our XRChart control is now RTL-enabled! XRChart maintains right-to-left orientation if its parent container is placed into RTL mode (default behavior), or if the chart’s RightToLeft property is set explicitly.

New PDF Content Demo (Desktop and Web)

Check out the following demos if you want to embed a PDF file directly into your report:

• End-User Report Designer for WinForms - Embedded PDF Content
  **(must install our v21.2 WinForms Demo collection to proceed).
• End-User Report Designer for Web - Embedded PDF Content.

DirectX WinForms Demo

Our WinForms Reporting demos (within the DevExpress Demo Center) now include a DirectX | GDI+ switch. If you have yet to explore the benefits of DirectX rendering on the WinForms platform (a DevExpress exclusive), be sure to specify DirectX mode before you execute our report demos (DirectX improves glyph rendering quality and scrolling performance).

Documentation Updates

We updated the WPF Application Security section of our help system:

• Data Access Security
• Custom SQL Query in the Report Designer
• Custom SQL Query Validation

We also added the following help topic:

• Create a Report with Embedded PDF Content

Since bitmap icons are no longer supported (v21.2), the following help topics have been rewritten:

• WinForms Reporting | Application Appearance | Customize Icons
• WPF Reporting | Application Appearance | Customize Icons

The following topics have been updated:

• Visual Studio Report Designer | SQL Query Builder
• End-User Report Designer for WinForms | SQL Query Builder
• End-User Report Designer for WPF | SQL Query Builder

Updates to our WPF Reporting Document Preview help section:

• Quick Guide to Print Preview Customization
• Invoke a Default Document Preview
• Add DocumentPreviewControl to WPF Application

The following help topic has been updated with new information:

• Reporting Application Diagnostics

Interesting Support Tickets

Reporting for Blazor

• How to set IEnumerable Data Source for Report in Blazor WASM+ ASP.NET Core Hosted Application (T1037952)

  Create a data retrieval class, map an object data source to this class, and bind a report to the object data source in the report storage’s GetData method.

Reporting for Windows Forms

• How to open Smart Tag from code (T1040435)

  Use our XRSmartTagService:
  

  var item = new BarButtonItem();
  item.ItemClick += Item_ItemClick;
  item.ItemShortcut = new BarShortcut(Keys.F3);
  item.ShortcutKeyDisplayString = "F3";
  ribbonControl1.Items.Add(item);
  // ...
  private void Item_ItemClick(object sender, ItemClickEventArgs e) {
      var service = reportDesigner1.ActiveDesignPanel.GetService(typeof(ISelectionService))
      	as ISelectionService;
      var xrControl = service.PrimarySelection as XRControl;
      if (xrControl == null)
          return;
      XRSmartTagService tagSvc =
      	reportDesigner1.ActiveDesignPanel.GetService(typeof(XRSmartTagService))
          as XRSmartTagService;
      tagSvc.ShowPopup(xrControl);
  }

• How to assign a hotkey in Report Designer (T1034171)

  Add a bar item in the Designer's ribbon and set a shortrcut for this item.

• How to use our your own progress bars in Reporting (T1038491)

  Subscribe to the PrintingSystem's ProgressReflector.PositionChanged event. Check the ProgressBarControl.Position property and update your progress bar.

• The XRDesignFieldList.AfterExpand event is not available in 21.2 (T1037040)

  Handle the IComponentChangeService.ComponentChanged event instead to modify queries in the End-User Report Designer.

• How to Hide the Main Menu on a Print Preview Form

  Use one of the following options:

  1. Drop a Document Viewer control onto a form, open its smart tag, and select Create Standard Toolbar. Select the appropriate toolbar and remove it.
  2. Use the ReportPrintTool to display a Standard Preview without the Main Menu toolbar. Get a Main Menu toolbar from the collection (use the ReportStringId.UD_Capt_MainMenuName to locate the bar) and remove it from the PrintBarManager.Bars collection.
• Export to DOCX - Picture Box is Displayed in Front of a Label and Overlaps Text

  Elements may appear in an unpredictable order, so an image may overlap a label. You can enable the DocxExportOptions.AllowFloatingPictures option at runtime to force our export engine to convert images into floating objects. The exported document will display images behind the main content.

Reporting for WPF

• How to hide the DocumentPreviewControl Toolbar but not the StatusBar (T1039973)
• How to use report templates with hidden Data Source (T1035836)
• Video card drivers affect the Report Designer (T1038312)

  The issue is related to how the drawing engine interacts with the system's video driver. In this particular case, the issue was resolved after the video driver was upgraded.

• How to add tooltips for XrLabel control (T1036559)

  Handle the DocumentPreviewControl.DocumentPreviewMouseMove event to add a tooltip. Use the XRLabel.Tag property to save additional label information within a report and display it in the tooltip.

Reporting for Web

• React Reporting Designer: onReportOpened event? (T1039133)

  The ReportOpened event is available for our Web Report Designer in React-powered web applications. The following help topic lists all events and methods available to you: Report Designer Client-Side API.

• canShrink does not shrink in the Web Report Desinger (T1039022)

  A control's position depends on controls placed to the left. To address this, place the controls (the ones you wish to appear on the right) in an XRPanel or XRTable.

• How to identify the currently sorted column (T1035451)

  Handle the client-side ASPxClientWebDocumentViewer.PreviewClick event to incorporate this capability in your web application.

• How to use reports in Linux-based docker containers with .NET 6 (T1043459)

Your Feedback Matters

As always, we welcome your thoughts/feedback. Please post a comment below and let us know how we can help.