Reports without compilation?

[Ryan]

RESOLVED: We have come up with a solution to use XML config file for report definitions that reference reports in a newly deployed class.
 
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Our company would like to be able to distribute a set of reports and update them or add new reports without compiling or using a "Report Server" of any kind.

Does Telerik have any plans to support this anytime soon?

Thanks!

[Steve]

Hello Ryan,

If you look at the Q3 Roadmap, you would notice that we're working on XML Report Serialization Engine which would allow you to do just that. Q3 has just been released yesterday and our suggestion is to give it a try.

All the best,
Steve
the Telerik team

[Paul Patterson]

Steve,

Is the XML Report Serialization Engine used via the designer? For example, how do we design the report using the designer and save the XML report definition?

Cheers,

Paul

[Steve]

Hi Paul,

Currently there is no design-time support for saving the reports in XML. The only approach is by using the System.Xml.Serialization.XmlSerializer class. More info and sample code is available in the Serializing Report Definition in XML help article.

Kind regards,
Steve
the Telerik team

[Paul Patterson]

Thanks Steve,

So, essentially, we have to build our own processing to serialize a report (class) to an XML file, and then distribute that XML file? 

Not sure what value that has to us (developers) - creating our own tool to create an xml file. For example we want to create a library of reports that we want to deploy with our client applications. Instead of an assembly of report classes, we want to simply deploy the application with a folder of XML report definitions (similar to what can be done with .RDLC files).  

If we want to include processing in an application that users can use to create and save their own reports, then this is great, but from a developer standpoint, I would prefer to have the designer take care of that work for me - E.g. right-click the Designer and have a "Save XML Definition to File" option.

 Cheers,

Paul 

[Steve]

Hello Paul,

As you can see from the referenced article in previous post, the code is not that complex and can be executed upon any event e.g. button click. I've attached a very simple project that shows this functionality at hand. We admit that ability to save the report from the designer would be great and we would work towards that, but then again this is only for developer benefit, as most regular users do not have to use Visual Studio.

Sincerely yours,
Steve
the Telerik team

[Paul Patterson]

Thanks Steve, that reference is invaluable!

Any other folks out there want to colab' on a VS2010 addin?

Paul