approach to use in order to implement a report generation project

[Wassim]

Hello,

I am a new in telerik reporting.

I want to create a new ASP.NET MVC solution that displayed differents modules and each module generate a report.

After reading documentation and samples.. I want to know the difference between creating solution using 

I am confused between using HTML5 ASP.NET MVC Report Viewer With REST Service (by using Standalone Report Designer; i find this more simple ) or  using a soltion with same architecture of CSharp.NetFramwork.AspNetMVCIntegration (by using Visual Studio Report Designer; project MVC + project ReportLibrary ) ??

 

I would like to know the difference between these two and if there are any disadvantages using the 1st approach ? 

 

Thank you for your help.

[Dimitar]

Hi Wassim,

From what I can understand, the only difference between the 2 approaches is that the first uses the Standalone Report Designer while the latter uses the Visual Studio Report Designer and a Report Library.

 The Standalone Report Designer is a standalone desktop application that features an easy to use environment

• The executable file starting the application is Telerik.ReportDesigner.exe. By default it will be deployed upon installation of the product in '(Telerik Reporting installation folder)\Report Designer' folder. For example, 'C:\Program Files (x86)\Progress\Telerik Reporting R3 2019\Report Designer'.

• Does not require Visual Studio;

• Works with XML report definitions packaged in a zip archive (.TRDP) or in plain legacy format (.TRDX):

• No need to recompile your projects when modifying the report definition;

• No need to upgrade - you can directly open older report definition with a newer version of the Standalone Report Designer, report viewer, or report service; The report definition will be automatically upgraded when edited and saved with the Standalone Report Designer;

• This format can be stored and managed with the Report Server and other kinds of storages such as a database;

The Visual Studio Designer is a report authoring tool that runs in Visual Studio:

• Works with .NET type report definitions (.CS or .VB files)

With all that being said, I would suggest using the first approach since it's easier to use and maintain.

For more information, you might also have a look at the following articles:

- Standalone Report Designer

- Visual Studio Report Designer

- Report Designer Tools

- How to Use HTML5 ASP.NET MVC Report Viewer With REST Service

Please let me know if you have any other questions.

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik

[Wassim]

 

Hi Dimitar,

Thank you for your reply.

It is very clear that you explained to me.

I prepared my working environment like this:

Standalone Report Designer  as an option for defining and creating reports.
Telerik Reporting REST service as an engine for generating and exporting report documents in all supported rendering formats.
HTML5 MVC Report Viewer as report viewer.

A quick question: from this architecture, can I use the "ReportsController" REST service for all the reports that I will define?

That's mean the rest of the work is on the report definition tool (Standalone Report Designer). Or there are other elements that I have to take into consideration ?

Regards.

[Dimitar]

Hi Wassim,

I am glad to hear that my reply was helpful.

Yes, with a setup like this the ReportsController will handle the serving of all the reports, and the Standalone Designer will handle their creation. You may also find helpful our First steps articles:

• Creating the Demo report
• Setting the page header
• Populating the table with data
• Creating the graph
• Setting the page footer
• Integrating the report in Visual Studio Application
• Parameterizing the graph
• Adding the column graph

Please let me know if you need further assistance with setting up the project and thank you for using Telerik Reporting. 

Regards,
Dimitar
Progress Telerik