Use of the Web Report Designer
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
- In order to use the Web Report Designer in your own ASP.NET project, the two List & Label NuGet packages combit.ListLabel30 and combit.ListLabel30.Web must be added. The other external dependencies are added automatically. Further details on the use of NuGet packages and deployment can be found under NuGet Package Support.
- Additionally locate the line builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews(); and replace it with builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews().AddNewtonsoftJson();.
Limitations
General limitations in the Web Report Designer as compared to the normal Designer:
- no interactive formula functions (AskString$, AskStringChoice$, LibraryPath$, ProjectPath$, ApplicationPath$)
- no possibility to use local file paths or formulas as source for HTML objects
- no OLE objects
- no fax/mail features
- no custom DesignerActions
- no objects drawn using callback
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:
...
public class MyWebReportDesignerController : WebReportDesignerController
...
...
Public Class MyWebReportDesignerController
Inherits WebReportDesignerController
...
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.
...
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 8/.NET 9 and .NET 4.8.
.NET 6/.NET 8/.NET 9:
If you see a startup.cs file (otherwise see below), add the following lines to the end of the Configure method:
...
public void Configure(IApplicationBuilder app, IWebHostEnvironment env)
{
// do some other stuff here
// ...
app.UseWebReportDesigner();
}
...
And in the ConfigureServices method, add this line:
...
public void ConfigureServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
// do some other stuff here
// ...
services.AddWebReportDesigner();
}
...
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:
...
WebReportDesignerConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes);
...
...
WebReportDesignerConfig.RegisterRoutes(RouteTable.Routes)
...
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:
...
@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.