Inheritance / MasterReport

[Brian Limkemann]

One shortcoming of all repotring packages I have used is that they offer no form of inheritance, or what one could also call a MasterReport (like an asp.net MasterPage). What I would really like to see is the abililty to create a bacsi report template and then be able to derive my reports from that. I find I waste a lot of time reproducting headers (with grahpics, etc) where the only difference from one report to another is the title.

[Todd Anglin]

Great point Brian! The ability to create a report template file that could provide the basic header graphics and page layout would be a huge boost to the reporting product.

I would also suggest that the "MasterReport" be a file that can be maintained separately from the "ContentReport" files. In other words, if I make an update to the MasterReport file (or ReportTemplate), those changes should be applied to all inheriting reports without having to resave/"recompile" the content reports (just like MasterPages and ContentPages, as Brian suggested).

Perhaps this is something could be implemented is manner similar to .NET MasterPages? The TemplateReport could have one (or more?) ReportContentHolder tags in which would act like ContentPlaceHolders, allowing report content to be added in the actual report files.

Telerik- Are you planning any feature similar to this for the upcoming September beta? If not, you really should! :)

Thanks~

[Ivo]

Hi Brian and Todd,

Thank you for the suggestion. This idea is already being considered by our development team and we will apply the idea of reports inheritance in our product architecture.

The report is generally a class which can be inherited however you would need to recompile the solution whenever the base class is changed.

Once again, thank you for the feedback. Please, keep those comments coming.

Best wishes,
Ivo
the telerik team

www.telerik.com | dnn.telerik.com | www.sharepointcontrols.com | www.sitefinity.com | www.mcmscontrols.com

[Brian Limkemann]

Recompiling would not be a big problem for me.

Can the class you derive from Telerik's base report class include text, fields, images, etc (e;g;, in a page header / footer) so that all reports derived for it would have those elements?

[Todd Anglin]

Recompiling is not a "huge" deal to me, but it is a bit of a shortcoming. Ideally, I would create one "Master" report template with a site's logo, colors, footer, etc. I would upload that file and then begin creating a number reports that derive from that file (a la Masterpage with some setting like MasterReport="~/reports/default.masterreport"). If I updated the master report file and reuploaded it, I'd want those changes to show up the next time someone requested a repot that derived from that master.

But recompiling aside, I'd also like to see the Master Report concept extended to support cascading Master Report files and design time support for working with Master Reports and their content (like you get when you work with Master pages and Content pages).

I really don't want to be pushy on this issue, but these enhancements would put your reporting product SO far ahead of the competition (visually, at least) that you should have no problem stealing some reporting market share.

Thanks~

[armand datema]

Hi

A masterpage like structure for the reporting would be great. We could then define our own template and in there place the reporting component so we dont have to worry about headers footers etc.

If a masterpage is changed then next time a rport is called it would show in the new layout ( identity uprgrade, season layout etc )

This could be for simple masterpage like funbctionality but we could also apppy similiar templates to each of the reporting items on the page.

For example, could have a simple barchart with just a plain color as for the barcharts in that reporting template but you could also have a fancy report template and in there the barchart wouldnt be made out of cololerd bars but image bars

eg. A car company  and i have a report template for the sales of cars and vans. The cars master report template would have stacked images of cars to form the barchart and the vans report master template would have stacked images of vans to form the barchart.

Ideally I could create a nr of master templates that when used immediately give me a starting point for layout, type of chart or reporting item for each of the report items on the template .

And extensibillity to the rendering engines so that it would be very easy to develop/design our own chart or report renderings that could be reused by  others in the frm of downloads ( so a free marketplace sorta ). In case i want to make a very cool 3dish piechart thats isnt in the reporting app just yet it could be created?

well just some of my ideas of reusabillity on different levels

Armand

[Rossen Hristov]

Hello,

Inheriting and reusing already existing reports would be a very valuable feature indeed. Our development team will do their best to implement a similar kind of functionality probably for a later version. It might not be exactly like the masterpage structure, but its main goal will be the same -- reusing existing reports and/or templates. Thanks for the great ideas and suggestions. We will surely keep them in mind.


Best wishes,
Ivo
the telerik team

www.telerik.com | dnn.telerik.com | www.sharepointcontrols.com | www.sitefinity.com | www.mcmscontrols.com

[Mike Booth]

Looks like back in 2006 there was discussion of the ability to create a template report that would allow the developer to create a base header, footer, graphic and always inherit from this base page.

I'm new to the product, is there a way to do this now?  I see the StyleRules, but I don't think that gives me what I'm looking for.

Thanks.

[Steve]

Hello Mike,

Please review the following forum thread for more information on report inheritance.

Best wishes,
Steve
the Telerik team

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[Paulo]

Hello,

    I wonder if in Telerik Reporting Q2 2010 is possible to build something resembling a masterpage where it was possible to create the header and footer in a centralized manner.

Thanks,
Paulo Correa

[Steve]

Hi Paulo,

It has been possible for quite some time now - please refer to the referenced thread from my previous post.

Regards,
Steve
the Telerik team