We are glad to announce the release of Stimulsoft Reports. The most important additions to the version 2012.3 are two new AJAX viewers for MVC, improved work with charts, full support for export to PDF. There are, however, lots of smaller changes besides the ones mentioned above. Please read below the detailed description of changes.
Two New Report Viewers for MVC
Two new report viewers for using in ASP.NET MVC projects are developed. For working properly the report viewers require MVC Framework 2.0 or higher, support for ASP.NET MVC and Razor.
The first report viewer is MvcViewer. It is included in the reporting tool Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC. It does not use third-party technologies, such as Flash or Silverlight. The report viewer is based on HTML and AJAX technologies. A new component supports all popular Internet browsers. The report viewer uses all the necessary functions, such as report printing to the HTML and PDF format, with the ability to export the report display settings dialog box, bookmarks, parameters panel. The viewer has animated menus, supports different themes - currently implemented 8 options. Any viewer items can be optionally hidden. It also supports report caching, which provides better performance with large reports and reduces loading on the server.
The second report viewer is MvcMobileViewer. It is added to the report generator Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile. It was designed using the HTML5 technology and is optimized to run on mobile devices (tablet PCs, smartphones). Supports both mouse control and touch interface. The component works on all modern browsers that support for the HTML5 technology. The following features are realized in the viewer: viewing reports in one-page and multi-page modes, printing a report in HTML and PDF format, export the report tab. The full screen mode, which automatically adjusts the size of the mobile screen, is supported in MvcMobileViewer. The report viewer has a great menu. Any elements of the interface can be optionally hidden. The component supports report caching, which allows better performance with large reports and reduces loading on the server.
Culture Operations in Globalization
The Globalization Editor became more powerful and now has two new functions - "Get culture" and "Set culture." The "Get culture" function can be used to fill in the current report culture with values from the report. The "Set culture" function can be used to apply a customized culture directly into the current account when designing a report.
New Page Function in Context Menu
Now it is much more convenient and easier to control of pages in the web report designer, because all options are in one place. Just right click the context menu to create a new report page. Other page controls are located in the menu, for example, Delete Page, Change Page Order and others.
Keep First Row Together
In Master-detail reports it may be necessary to keep the detail bands along with the master band. For example, in our Demo application in the Master-Detail report, all the products that belong to the same category of products should be kept together with the category header (master-band) on one page. The KeepDetails property is used for this. It is set for the master band. Previously it was very simple: it could be true or false, but in the last builds we extended its values, and now it has several ones:
- KeepDetailsTogether - keeps all detail bands with the master (in full, with all sub-details);
- KeepFirstDetailTogether - keeps only the first detail band with the master (in full, with all subdetails);
- KeepFirstRowTogether - keeps only the first detail band with the master (with the first rows of sub-details, if there are any in a report).
Export to XPS and Navigation
When exporting a report, you can get hyperlinks and bookmarks. This greatly simplifies the navigation of complex and large report and allows you to instantly jump to the desired section of the report.
Export to PDF in WinRT
We added full support for exporting reports in the format of electronic documents, PDF. The dialogue form of this export offers many options to the user. This allows optimizing report printing in the PDF format and submitting a report, as close to the customer requirements as possible.
Images in Exports in WinRT
We added support for saving images in all export formats available in the reporting tool. Images in the documents are important because they carry visual part of the report, making it more informative, as well as a decorative element.
Strikeout Style in Conditions
We have added a feature to show a strikeout text in Conditions. This option extends the functionality of the Condition and improves text readability and enhances its visual perception.
Collapsing in Cross-Tab
The ability to collapse the text blocks in the Cross-Tab component is now available in the Interaction property. You can collapse the rows and columns in the rendered Cross-Tab component in the report viewer. This adds interactivity to the report and ease of using information.
New Samples
We developed new examples of our reporting tools in the ASP.NET MVC environment. They illustrate the basic features of the new report viewer for MVC. Examples will be useful both for beginners and users who have experience in developing reports based on report builders Stimulsoft Reports.
Conditions in Chart Series Labels
In the Chart component in the series labels it is possible to set special conditions to customize the chart. Conditions can be set using the Conditions property of the series label.
TextInCells Component and CanGrow Property
Previously, the TextInCells component was fixed and could not be changed automatically depending on the content. Now the component has the new CanGrow property. Applying of this property affects the size of the component. The TextInCells component may increase its size if the information contained in it does not fit into the size of the component.
Chart Table
The Chart component has now the new option - displaying the data table below the chart. With this innovation it is possible to display values for each series in detail. The option is available with the Table property of the component.
New Painting for Chart and Bar-Codes
We have radically redesigned the mechanism of rendering the Chart and Bar-code components. New techniques have been used to display clear lines, without blurring. This improved the quality of displaying charts and also improved the printing of bar-codes, and correspondingly their readability by bar-code scanners.
New Printing in WinRT
In WinRT we have done some significant improvements in printing reports. There is no need to manually set the page size for printing, using the non-standard size. The report writer will now independently choose the desired size.
Show Instead Null Values
This option allows you to display another text value instead of Null from a database in the web report designer.
Global Clipboard
You can now copy the components from the WinForms report designer and embed them in a web report designer, and vice versa. This greatly improves usability when working with our products. The user does not need to save the file and upload it to another report designer.
Two New Report Viewers for MVC
Two new report viewers for using in ASP.NET MVC projects are developed. For working properly the report viewers require MVC Framework 2.0 or higher, support for ASP.NET MVC and Razor.
The first report viewer is MvcViewer. It is included in the reporting tool Stimulsoft Reports.Web for MVC. It does not use third-party technologies, such as Flash or Silverlight. The report viewer is based on HTML and AJAX technologies. A new component supports all popular Internet browsers. The report viewer uses all the necessary functions, such as report printing to the HTML and PDF format, with the ability to export the report display settings dialog box, bookmarks, parameters panel. The viewer has animated menus, supports different themes - currently implemented 8 options. Any viewer items can be optionally hidden. It also supports report caching, which provides better performance with large reports and reduces loading on the server.
The second report viewer is MvcMobileViewer. It is added to the report generator Stimulsoft Reports.Mobile. It was designed using the HTML5 technology and is optimized to run on mobile devices (tablet PCs, smartphones). Supports both mouse control and touch interface. The component works on all modern browsers that support for the HTML5 technology. The following features are realized in the viewer: viewing reports in one-page and multi-page modes, printing a report in HTML and PDF format, export the report tab. The full screen mode, which automatically adjusts the size of the mobile screen, is supported in MvcMobileViewer. The report viewer has a great menu. Any elements of the interface can be optionally hidden. The component supports report caching, which allows better performance with large reports and reduces loading on the server.
Culture Operations in Globalization
The Globalization Editor became more powerful and now has two new functions - "Get culture" and "Set culture." The "Get culture" function can be used to fill in the current report culture with values from the report. The "Set culture" function can be used to apply a customized culture directly into the current account when designing a report.
New Page Function in Context Menu
Now it is much more convenient and easier to control of pages in the web report designer, because all options are in one place. Just right click the context menu to create a new report page. Other page controls are located in the menu, for example, Delete Page, Change Page Order and others.
Keep First Row Together
In Master-detail reports it may be necessary to keep the detail bands along with the master band. For example, in our Demo application in the Master-Detail report, all the products that belong to the same category of products should be kept together with the category header (master-band) on one page. The KeepDetails property is used for this. It is set for the master band. Previously it was very simple: it could be true or false, but in the last builds we extended its values, and now it has several ones:
- KeepDetailsTogether - keeps all detail bands with the master (in full, with all sub-details);
- KeepFirstDetailTogether - keeps only the first detail band with the master (in full, with all subdetails);
- KeepFirstRowTogether - keeps only the first detail band with the master (with the first rows of sub-details, if there are any in a report).
Export to XPS and Navigation
When exporting a report, you can get hyperlinks and bookmarks. This greatly simplifies the navigation of complex and large report and allows you to instantly jump to the desired section of the report.
Export to PDF in WinRT
We added full support for exporting reports in the format of electronic documents, PDF. The dialogue form of this export offers many options to the user. This allows optimizing report printing in the PDF format and submitting a report, as close to the customer requirements as possible.
Images in Exports in WinRT
We added support for saving images in all export formats available in the reporting tool. Images in the documents are important because they carry visual part of the report, making it more informative, as well as a decorative element.
Strikeout Style in Conditions
We have added a feature to show a strikeout text in Conditions. This option extends the functionality of the Condition and improves text readability and enhances its visual perception.
Collapsing in Cross-Tab
The ability to collapse the text blocks in the Cross-Tab component is now available in the Interaction property. You can collapse the rows and columns in the rendered Cross-Tab component in the report viewer. This adds interactivity to the report and ease of using information.
New Samples
We developed new examples of our reporting tools in the ASP.NET MVC environment. They illustrate the basic features of the new report viewer for MVC. Examples will be useful both for beginners and users who have experience in developing reports based on report builders Stimulsoft Reports.
Conditions in Chart Series Labels
In the Chart component in the series labels it is possible to set special conditions to customize the chart. Conditions can be set using the Conditions property of the series label.
TextInCells Component and CanGrow Property
Previously, the TextInCells component was fixed and could not be changed automatically depending on the content. Now the component has the new CanGrow property. Applying of this property affects the size of the component. The TextInCells component may increase its size if the information contained in it does not fit into the size of the component.
Chart Table
The Chart component has now the new option - displaying the data table below the chart. With this innovation it is possible to display values for each series in detail. The option is available with the Table property of the component.
New Painting for Chart and Bar-Codes
We have radically redesigned the mechanism of rendering the Chart and Bar-code components. New techniques have been used to display clear lines, without blurring. This improved the quality of displaying charts and also improved the printing of bar-codes, and correspondingly their readability by bar-code scanners.
New Printing in WinRT
In WinRT we have done some significant improvements in printing reports. There is no need to manually set the page size for printing, using the non-standard size. The report writer will now independently choose the desired size.
Show Instead Null Values
This option allows you to display another text value instead of Null from a database in the web report designer.
Global Clipboard
You can now copy the components from the WinForms report designer and embed them in a web report designer, and vice versa. This greatly improves usability when working with our products. The user does not need to save the file and upload it to another report designer.