User functions, Carriage Returns and Missing Information

[Dennis]

I am using Q1 2011 version of Telerik Reporting.

Scenario:
I am using User Functions to build an address (and some other key information) for Shipping information (contained in 2 subreports) that are used in an Order Detail report.

Here is the code for the User Function that builds the Ship To information:

Public Shared Function GetShipToInfo(ByVal Name As Object, ByVal Addr1 As Object, ByVal Addr2 As Object, ByVal City As Object, ByVal State As Object, ByVal PostalCode As Object, ByVal Country As Object, ByVal Carrier As Object, ByVal ShipDate As Object) As String
    Dim address As String = ""
    If Not IsDBNull(Name) AndAlso Name IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= Name.ToString.Trim & vbCr
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(Addr1) AndAlso Addr1 IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= Addr1.ToString.Trim & vbCr
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(Addr2) AndAlso Addr2 IsNot Nothing AndAlso Addr2.ToString.Trim.Length > 0 Then
        address &= Addr2.ToString.Trim & vbCr
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(City) AndAlso City IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= City.ToString.Trim
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(State) AndAlso State IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= ", " & State.ToString.Trim
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(PostalCode) AndAlso PostalCode IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= "  " & PostalCode.ToString.Trim & vbCr
    End If
    If Not IsDBNull(Country) AndAlso Country IsNot Nothing AndAlso Country.ToString.Trim.Length > 0 Then
        address &= Country.ToString.Trim & vbCr
    End If
    address &= vbCr & "Carrier: "
    If Not IsDBNull(Carrier) AndAlso Carrier IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= Carrier.ToString.Trim
    End If
    address &= vbCr
    address &= "Ship Dt: "
    If Not IsDBNull(ShipDate) AndAlso ShipDate IsNot Nothing Then
        address &= CDate(ShipDate).ToString("d")
    End If
    Return address
End Function

The Issue:
When this information is displayed in the Web Report Viewer, I see all of the information; however, there should be an empty line between the last line of the address and the "Carrier".  In the Web Report Viewer, this does not occur.  In addition, when you print the report (or export to PDF -- the same thing), the empty line occurs between the last line of the address and the "Carrier" (which matches the user function) BUT the Ship Dt goes misssing.

See the attached files UserFunctionAddress_In_Viewer.jpg and UserFunctionAddress_As_PDF.jpg.  Check out the Ship To Address information about 1/2 way across the image to see what I am talking about.

I went back through the main report and subreport and checked height settings for textbox report controls, sections, etc.  In addition, I confirmed that the textbox control has CanGrow=True.  All settings appear to be set correctly.  Certainly, the web report viewer agrees since the user can visually see all the information...but the export to PDF drops some information (in this case the Ship Dt).

Learnings:

1. If you are using User Functions to build text (especially if you are adding carriage returns) do not rely on the visual look in the Telerik Report Viewer.  You must check the visual representation of the report as a PDF.  [Note:  When Telerik Reporting prints a report, it renders it as a PDF first.]
2. Again, if you are using User Functions, you should set the size of any Textbox Reporting Control to the maximum size you expect to see from your data set.  You cannot rely on the CanGrow property to handle the data overflow.

Hopefully this may help some of the other Telerik Reporting developers out there.  The key is...ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS check the report as a PDF before deploying reports to your user community.