How do I start Report Designer in VS 2013?

[Don]

I am brand new to Telerik and focused on learning both HTMLChart and the ReportViewer for reporting in an ASP.NET web site. Got a simple HTMLChart working first day.  Now I want to learn the reporting side using the report-designer tools. I have come to conclusion that reports using the designer should be built using the design environment within VS 2013 (although I was able to display a simple, no parameters report from a .trdx file by using UriReportSource()). However, I cannot figure out how to get the report designer started in VS 2013.

The link below says to click on or right-mouse "report.cs". However, I don't have a report.cs file in my project. Any thoughts? What am I missing? I have installed both the DevCraft AJAX UI and Reporting using the "Control Panel" from Telerik. All of the tools are there. But no option to start the report designer in the Telerik menu.

- VS 2013
- Latest Telerik build Q2 2014 as of yesterday.
- Windows 8.1

http://www.telerik.com/help/reporting/ui-report-designer.html

TIA
Don

[Don]

I found the answer on my own. I was trying to create a report library in a "WebSite" but the option to choose a Telerik Report does not appear when "adding a new item". Apparently, you "must" be using a "Web Application" before this option appears. I think this may be due to the report needing to be in its own class library that can be compiled to a DLL and not a source file in the App_Code folder compiled at run-time which is the case with a "WebSite" project. Now at least I can move forward with learning.

Does anyone have opinions on creating reports in the "standalone" designer vs the one in VS? Are there advantages or disadvantages to using either?

[Peter]

Hi Don,

We are glad that you were able to solve the problem yourself and apologize that we could not help you right away. 

About the differences in the designers our recommendation is to review the Report Designers help article that elaborates on the topic.

Up to the report item templates due to some Web Site project peculiarities, the report designer has limited functionality when the report definition is created in App_Code. This is why we have stopped providing the report item template for web site projects. In such cases we highly recommend the best practices solution structure. First to create a class library that contains your reports and then reference that class library in applications that view the reports. 

Regards,
Peter
Telerik

 

 

[Lachezar]

Hi all. I have a problem and don't know how to fix. I add a reportviewer control to aspx and try to set the ReportSource from code behind. The report is rendering on page, but unfortunately there is no content. When debugging i see that the ReportSource of report viewer is the same, which i bind, but no table shows on screen. I'm creating the Report object programmatically. If load report, created from standalone Report Designer there is no problem. 

 This is the custom object I've tried to bind:

"[DataObject]
public class ReportSource
{
    [DataObjectMethod(DataObjectMethodType.Select)]
    public IList<Source> GetData()
    {
        var result = new List<Source>();
        var data = ActiveTradesCache.GetActiveTradeData();

        foreach (var item in data)
        {
            result.Add(new Source() { Rate = item.OrderRate });
        }


        return result;
        //trgOpendDeals.DataSource = new Object[0];
        //trgOpendDeals.MasterTableView.VirtualItemCount = 0;
        //trgOpendDeals.DataBind();
    }

}

public class Source
{
    public double Rate { get; set; }
}

"

 And the fill source method, which is in Page_Load event:

 "

Telerik.Reporting.ObjectDataSource objectDataSource = new Telerik.Reporting.ObjectDataSource();

objectDataSource.DataSource = typeof(ReportSource);
objectDataSource.DataMember = "GetData";
Telerik.Reporting.Report report = new Telerik.Reporting.Report();

report.DataSource = objectDataSource;

Telerik.Reporting.InstanceReportSource reportSource = new Telerik.Reporting.InstanceReportSource();

rvOpenDeals.ReportSource = reportSource;
// Calling the RefreshReport method in case this is a WinForms application.
rvOpenDeals.RefreshReport();


reportSource.ReportDocument = report;
​ 

"

 

[Stef]

Hi Lachezar,

Please check if you are using the correct fields in the report definition or if data is visualized via nested data items like Table. If the report uses a Table item, you need to set its DataSource property instead the report's one.

To get the Table item from the report instance, you can use the Find method as follows:

var report = new MyReport();
//set the report's Datasource
report.DataSource = GetReportData();

//set a nested data item's DataSource
(report.Items.Find("table1",true)[0] as telerik.Reporting.Table).DataSource = GetTableData();

Note that reports are not generating content automatically based on the assigned data. there must be a designed temple which uses the fields available in the data schema (How To: Create a Report (Visual Studio)).


Let us know if you have any further questions.

Regards,
Stef
Telerik