Use of the Web Report Designer

In This Topic

Web Report Designer runs completely independently in the browser and does not require any local installation of a Windows program, as is the case with Web Designer.

In order to be able to use all Designer functions and objects, the Web Designer can still be used, but it requires a local Windows installation and is therefore no longer browser-independent.

Requirements

Assemblies: First of all, references to the two assemblies combit.ListLabel29.dll and combit.ListLabel29.Web.dll must be added in the project. This can also be achieved by adding the corresponding NuGet-Packages, for example.
The following external NuGet packages are also required:
- Newtonsoft.Json at least in version 13.0.1.
- System.CodeDom at least in version 5.0.0.
- System.Drawing.Common by Microsoft.
- Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.NewtonsoftJson with their specific .NET version.
  Additionally locate the line builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews(); and replace it with builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews().AddNewtonsoftJson();.

Integration - Create new Controller

Then create a new controller as usual - in the following the name MyWebReportDesignerController is used as an example. Derive the controller from the WebReportDesignerController class:

Integration - Override important Methods

Then implement the two abstract methods OnProvideListLabel and OnProvideRepository. Pass your List & Label instance with matching data source or the Repository to be used in the respective arguments provided.

C#
VB.NET

...
public override void OnProvideListLabel(ProvideListLabelContext provideListLabelContext)
{
    ListLabel ll = new ListLabel();
    ll.LicensingInfo = "<ToDo: insert your license here>"

    var dataSource = GetDataProvider(provideListLabelContext.RepositoryItemId);
    ll.DataSource = dataSource;

    provideListLabelContext.NewInstance = ll;
}

public override void OnProvideRepository(ProvideRepositoryContext provideFileRepositoryContext)
{
    provideFileRepositoryContext.FileRepository = DefaultSettings.GetRepository();
} 
...

...
Public Overrides Sub OnProvideListLabel(ByVal provideListLabelContext As ProvideListLabelContext)

    Dim ll As ListLabel = New ListLabel()
    ll.LicensingInfo = "<ToDo: insert your license here>"

    Dim dataSource = GetDataProvider(provideListLabelContext.RepositoryItemId)
    ll.DataSource = dataSource

    provideListLabelContext.NewInstance = ll

End Sub

Public Overrides Sub OnProvideRepository(ByVal provideFileRepositoryContext As ProvideRepositoryContext)

    provideFileRepositoryContext.FileRepository = DefaultSettings.GetRepository()

End Sub
...

For redistribution it is important that additionally the List & Label license key (see also LicensingInfo) is specified in OnProvideListLabel() for the List & Label instance.

Note: For a detailed implementation for DefaultSettings.GetRepository() in OnProvideRepository(), see the provided ASP.NET examples.

Integration - .NET Switch

The further procedure differs for .NET 6/.NET 7/.NET 8 and .NET 4.8.

.NET 6/.NET 7/.NET 8:

If you see a startup.cs file (otherwise see below), add the following lines to the end of the Configure method:

And in the ConfigureServices method, add this line:

If there is no startup.cs you should have a program.cs. In this case, add app.UseWebReportDesigner(); right after any other app.Use... call and add builder.Services.AddWebReportDesigner(); right after any other builder.Services... call.

.NET 4.8:

In the global.asax.cs/global.asax.vb file, add the following line before the RouteConfig.RegisterRoutes() call:

Using Web Report Designer

The configuration is now complete. Now the Web Report Designer can be inserted and used in the desired view as follows:

Without Project/RepositoryId
With Project/RepositoryId

...
@using combit.Reporting.Web
@{
    Layout = null;
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
@Html.WebReportDesigner() 
...

...
@using combit.Reporting.Web
@{
    Layout = null;
    string repositoryId = Request.QueryString["reportRepositoryID"];
    if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(repositoryId))
    {
        repositoryId = repositoryId.Replace("repository://{", "").Replace("}", "");
    }
}
<!DOCTYPE html>
@Html.WebReportDesigner("Web Report Designer", repositoryId)
...

Further

The List & Label installation contains corresponding ASP.NET examples that show the use of the Web Report Designer in detail.

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