Entity Data Source on standalone report designer.

[Sudarshan]

I have Visual Studio 2015.I have downloaded Telerik.ReportDesigner application file.I am able to use data source like csv data source , SQL data source. To use Entity Data Source i built an Entity Data Model (ADO.Net Entity Data Model) and i copy their connection string from web.config to the connection string which is asked when i create Entity Data Source but it doesn't show anything on Choose a Context window. would anyone please help.

[Stef]

Hi Sudarshan,

In order to use ObjectDataSource, OpenAccessDataSource or EntityDataSource component in the Standalone Report Designer, the data access layer must be built in an external assembly. By extending the Standalone Report Designer to load the assembly, data objects get available for designing reports.

For more details, please check Extending Report Designer and the tutorials linked at the bottom of the help article.

I can suggest you the following approach:

1. Create a ClassLibrary project and add the EF model in it;
2. Build the project and open the folder containing the produced DLL;
3. Copy the Standalone Designer's exe in that folder, next to the DLL and update the config file to load the DLL;
4. Start the Standalone Designer which will load the DLL and all dependent EF assemblies.

The attached video (SWF file) illustrates the above suggestions, and it can be previewed in IE browser.


Let us know if you need any further help.

Regards,
Stef
Telerik

[Sudarshan]

First of all a great thank to your reply.

still i am not able to get it successfully

Here is the step i follow

     1. in Visual Studio New -> Project -> Windows -> Class Library

     2. Added ADO.Net Entity Data Model (into class library)

     3. It  added one App.config file in the connection string of the class library

     4. I copied Telerik.ReportDesigner.exe,Telerik.ReportDesigner.exe.config     ,Telerik.ReportDesigner.x86.exe,Telerik.ReportDesigner.x86.exe.config into bin/debug folder of the class library

    5.copied connection string from App.config and pasted into Telerik.ReportDesigner.x86.exe.config

    6. now started the Telerik.ReportDesigner.x86.exe and followed the steps to add the entity data source but

       its not showing any Dbcontext

[Sudarshan]

Hi Stef , Now its working fine. Thanku so much.

[Sudarshan]

Hi , Stef , Now i am able to Use Entity Data Source. Problem is when i save report to server then no data is getting displayed , when i save to local disk it works fine.

[Stef]

Hi Sudarshan,

If you refer to Telerik Report Server, there is no UI or tool for configuring the server to load the external assembly. At the present time, the data sources that are supported out-of-the-box are the SqlDataSource and CSVDataSource components.
Other data source components work with data models and/or require additional assemblies and settings in the Report Server application and the Scheduling windows service. We do not recommend using these data sources at this time, as these would require additional settings as covered in these documentation articles: Extending Report Designer and Previewing a report definition that uses an external assembly.

If you refer to your own custom web application, the application must be extended similarly to the Standalone Designer tool - Previewing a report definition that uses an external assembly.


If you have further questions, please let us continue the discussion in this thread, or feel free to open a support ticket and send us more details about the case.

Regards,
Stef
Telerik

[rwb]

[quote]We do not recommend using these data sources at this time[/quote]

So are you saying that in the Report Server we should only use the data sources that are supported through its UI, i.e., we should not use Entity Data Source with Report Server?

[Stef]

Hi rwb,

In general, Telerik Report Server uses Telerik Reporting libraries and you will be able to manually configure the server and the installed Scheduler service to load data from an external assembly - Previewing a report definition that uses an external assembly.

Yet we do not provide design time support for loading external assemblies. These modifications have to made manually, and you will have to restart the IIS process of the Report Server and the local Scheduler service. Any change in the EF model will require you to repeat the manual configurations.

Having this into account, we recommend the usage of the Data Source components having design-time support - CsvDataSource and SqlDataSource.

Regards,
Stef
Telerik by Progress