HtmlTextBox with Anchor tag vs Hyperlink Action

AUTHOR: Stephania Tapela

DATE POSTED: April 26, 2017

PROBLEM
HtmlTextBox with Anchor tag vs Hyperlink Action.

DESCRIPTION
A frequently asked question is how to add links in documents produced by Telerik Reporting and which rendering formats will keep the link clickable.
An HtmlTextBox can display text-formatting HTML and CSS, including Anchor tags.
The Hyperlink Action (NavigateToUrlAction) is Telerik Reporting mechanism for adding navigation to external resources via URL.

SOLUTION

Telerik Reporting rendering mechanisms use native objects for the selected media.

When a report is rendered in HTML for a web viewer, you can provide clickable links by using an HtmlTextBox item with Anchor tag in its value. The link will not remain clickable if you export in other format.

Our recommendation is to use a Hyperlink Action, which will let the item be clickable in HTML, PDF, DOCX, XLSX, PPTX formats.

More details about the interactivity supported by each rendering mechanism can be found in the corresponding help article under Design Considerations for Report Rendering.