Table of Contents. Part I Introduction. Part II Menu Account. Part III Toolbar. Contents. 2 Installation 3 Login Dialog 4 Structure.

Transcription

1 Contents I Table of Contents Part I Introduction 1 1 System... Requirements 2 2 Installation Login Dialog Structure Server... Controller 11 Part II Menu Account 15 1 Subscriptions Profile About Part III Toolbar 22 1 Menu... Create Report Data Source Connection Import Data New Query Data Columns Parameters 41 Retrieving... Data from Files Scheduler Type Settings Common Frequency Repeat Range Exception Notify Actions Run Report Run Scheduler Copy Send Delete Folder Calendar File File Storage Contact List Result Nam e Sharing... Settings Em bedding the access code to an item in the HTML page I

2 II 80 Pram eters in... URL 3 Versions Using Part IV Display panel 84 1 Recycle... Bin Part V Tabs 1 All Elements Reports Data Schedulers Users... Tab 101 Add Role Add User System... Tab Em ail Tem plate Part VI Report Designer File Info New Options Tabs Tab Hom e Clipboard Font Borders Alignment Text Formats General Number Currency Date Time Percentage Boolean Custom Styles Color Collection Editor Tab Insert Groups Components Tab Layout Arrange Tab Preview File Panels Tools

3 Contents III Status Bar Panels Properties Dictionary New Data... Source Report Tree 4 Keyboard... Shortcuts Context... Menu Charts... Editor 160 Tab Chart Tab Series Tab Area Tab Labels Tab Styles Wizard Image Sub-Report Cross-Tab... Editor Cross-Tab Tab Styles Tab Clone Part VII Report Viewer Toolbar Exports Available File... Form ats Com m on Export Settings Form ats w ith Fixed Page Layout PDF Embedded Fonts Encryption Compatibility of Different Versions XPS Microsoft Pow er Point File Wеb Docum ents HTML HTML MHT Text Form ats TXT RTF Word 2007/ ODT Spreadsheets Excel Excel XML Excel 2007/ ODS Data Im ages III

4 IV How to Create Report for Export? Index 0

5 Introduction 1 1 Introduction YouTube Watch our video tutorials on working with the report server. Subscribe to the Stimulsoft channel and be the first who watches new video tutorials. Leave your questions and suggestions in the comments to the video. Samples Check out the examples on our website how to work with our report server. All examples are individual projects, grouped in one solution for Visual Studio. Also, you can view and download these examples on GitHub. Stimulsoft Reports.Server is a client-server system for data management. This product provides the ability to simplify displaying of any data using reports, tables, charts. Data is automatically collected, visualized, converted to the required form and delivered to end users. Functionality and power of the reporting module is implemented by the time-tested, modern and fast Stimulsoft report engine. The main tasks that can be solved using the report server: Converting data from the database into multi-page reports with graphic elements; Building and editing reports using the built-in designer; Storing reports in the workspace of the server; Processing data using the powerful built-in scheduler; Notification of users about server events related to data processing, etc. Getting started: System requirements Installation Registration Workspace: Recycle Bin Adding new user Creating new role Scheduler: Type Other actions: Report designer

6 2 Settings Actions 1.1 Report viewer Exporting reports Creating items: Report Data source Folder Additional Options: Sharing Versions Result Name Other: File Calendar Contact List System Settings: Licensing Server Controller Templates System Requirements Minimum system requirements are: 2-core processor, frequency at least 2.31?GHz; 2 GB of RAM; At least 500 MB of free space; Installed Microsoft.NET Framework 4.5. Installed Internet Information Services. 1.2 Installation Download the package Stimulsoft Reports.Server. Installation of the report server goes in several steps: Step 1. The installer initiates configuration, checks the PC configuration. Step 2. After successful initializing you will see a window in which you have to click Install to start the installation process.

7 Introduction Step 3. No user interaction is required on this step. The installation process goes automatically. 3

8 4 Step 4. After a successful installation you need to click Finish.

9 Introduction 5 Install.NET Framework 4.5 and IIS Lets consider how to install.net Framework 4.5 and Internet Information Services. A prerequisite for the installation of the platform and service is the availability of an internet connection. Installing.NET Framework 4.5 Before starting the installation, you should review the system requirements. Criterion List Supported OS Windows 7 Service Pack 1; Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1; Windows Server 2008 Service Pack 2; Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Windows Vista with 2 (SP2) (x86 and x64) Windows 7 with 1 (SP1) (x86 and x64) Windows Server 2008 R2 with 1 (SP1) (x64) Windows Server 2008 SP2 (x86 and x64)

10 6 Windows 10 Hardware Requirements Processor 1 GHz and higher RAM 512 Mb 850 Mb free space (x86) 2 Gb free space (x64) After that, you need to download the installer from the official website and install the product. Installing Internet Information Services (IIS) The installation procedure of the service can be performed through the Windows OS interface: 1. Click the button Start and select Control Panel. 2. In the Control Panel, click Programs, and then Turn Windows Features on or off. 3. In the Windows Features dialog box, click Internet Information Services and then click Ok. Information To install IIS you need to be "Administrators". More information about IIS can be found on the official website of Microsoft. 1.3 Login Dialog When you run Stimulsoft Reports.Server, the first menu displayed is the user authentication. Here you must specify the username and password of an account in order to get to the workspace. Below is the login dialog:

11 Introduction 7 In this field, you enter a user name (login) of your account. Login account can be an address provided in the process of registration. In this field you specify the current password for your account. If you check this flag, the Login and Password fields will be automatically populated with authentication information, by means of which the last entry was made with the computer. When this button is pressed, the entered authentication information is verified. If authentication credentials are correct, there will be signing in. Redirects you to the registration form of a new account with a new workspace. Click this item, if you need to restore your password. If you want to register a new account and workspace, go to the Registration menu and fill in the user profile.

12 8 Put your first name. Put your second name. Type your address (login) of the future profile. You should remember that the address provided here is the login to access the account. Type the password to your account. Minimum 6 characters are allowed in the password. Go to the terms of the license agreement. Do not forget to read this! After clicking this button, a new account with a working space will be created. Click this menu item if do not need registration or already have the account. Sometimes you need to log in to your account but forgot your password. To recover your password, use the following menu.

13 Introduction 9 This field specifies the Username ( address) that is used for logging into your account. After clicking this button your current password will be reset and a new one will be created and sent to the address specified when filling the registration form. Redirects you to the registration form of a new account with a new workspace. Closes the menu. 1.4 Structure Stimulsoft Reports.Server is a client part of the server, using what actions are carried out on the server. Consider the structure in more detail.

14 10 The Bookmarks panel of the server. The Localization button. Click this button to expand the list of the server localization. The Notifications button. New notifications will be created when various operations with the server item will be performed. Click this button to show log of server notifications. Click this button to open an account profile. The toolbar contains basic commands to work with server items. The panel of view modes of the list of items. The list of items in this server workspace.

15 Introduction 11 Information The user may have another root folder and then the items list will be another for him. 1.5 Server Controller The server controller has the ability to control Stimulsoft Reports.Server. This utility is installed with the server and folded into a tray on the taskbar. With this utility, you can delete, stop, start, and restart the report server, change the database used by the server, check for server issues. All commands to control the server are separated into tabs: Service, Database, Check. Consider these tabs in more detail. The tab Service The install button of Stimulsoft Reports Server. The button is disabled when the server is install. The uninstall button of Stimulsoft Reports Server. Uninstalls the report server. The field shows the current state of the server.

16 12 The buttons to control Stimulsoft Reports Server: The button Start runs the report server. The button Stop stops the report server. The button Restart the report server. Information fields of the server: This field displays the status of the running server. If the server is stopped, this field is blank. This field displays the status when the server is stopped. If the server is running, this field is blank. The panel with the tabs. The tab Database Stimulsoft Reports.Server can be run only on the following types of databases MySQL, MS SQL, SQL CE. Information It is important to understand that the server saves its structure in these databases MySQL, MS SQL, SQL CE.

17 Introduction The Database field specifies the database for Stimulsoft Reports.Server. The Binary Storage field specifies a storage for server items. The Service Bus field specifies the storage of server tasks. The Signals field specifies the storage of server signals.. The tab SMTP For sending s you need to use a SMTP server. 13

18 14 The field SMTP Host. Here you specify the address of the SMTP server. The field SMTP Port. Here you specify the port of connection to the server. The field User. The username (login) to connect to the SMTP server is specified in this field. The field Password. In this field the password is specified to authentication on the SMTP server. The field Sender . Specifies the address that will appear to the recipient as a sender . Use SSL. This option provides the ability to apply a cryptographic cipher to s. If this box is checked, the cipher is applied. The tab Check

19 Introduction 15 The button to start the test of the report server on errors, warnings and information messages. By clicking the tabs Errors, Warnings, Information Messages the messages in the information panel can be disabled. For example, if you click on the Warnings tab then they will not appear in that panel. The panel that displays a general list of messages and alerts. 2 Menu Account From the menu Account you can setup a user profile. The menu is located in the upper right corner of the Navigator, under the window control buttons.

20 16 The field Account Information. Consists of a graphic part, user's full name and address. In the center of the graphic item the first letter of the name and the first letter of the last name is displayed. Select the Subscriptions command to activate the license or purchase the software. The menu Profile has controls to configure the server interface and navigator. Select the Change Password command to change the password for the current account. In the form opened you will need to enter the current password and new password. In order to Logout of the current profile, you should select this option. 2.1 Subscriptions When you click Subscriptions the window Subscriptions will be opened. Here you can find information about the current version of the report server and activate it.

21 Menu Account 17 As can be seen from the picture above, the version is trial. In order to get a licensed version of Stimulsoft Reports.Server click Activate and enter the registration information (username and password).

22 18 Information To obtain registration information, click Buy, choose the type of the license and follow the instructions. After successful activation, the field License Information will look like on the picture below. As can be seen from the picture, this field indicates the status of the license (activated) and contains the following information

23 Menu Account 19 Owner. Specifies the user name of the license holder. License. In the above example, the license up to 5 users. Order Date. When was the registration. Expired Date. The date when the subscription expires. There is also the button Deactivate. When you click it the license will be stopped. 2.2 Profile In the menu Settings menu, you can change your account settings. Parameters are located in the following tabs: The tab Profile. Provides information on the current account. It is represented by the following groups of items.

24 20 The group User includes personal data such as user name, address, and the ability to upload a picture (avatar). If the picture will not be uploaded, then, instead of the user's avatar the graphic element of a certain color, which is located in the center of the first letter of the name and surname will be displayed. The tab Role provides information on supplies of the current account to a particular role in this workspace. You may also see the description of the established role. The group Date contains information about the actions of the current account, i.e. date and time of creation, modification and last authentication. The tab Interface. In this tab, you can change the color scheme of the UI, as well as its style.

25 Menu Account About The window About contains information about the product, its version. In addition, this screen has a link to the official site of the developer.

26 22 3 Toolbar Toolbar contains the basic commands of the report server and its elements. At the same time, depending on the selected element, the list of commands may be different. The picture below shows the toolbar, with the commands for the Report item. The Create menu contains a list of items that can be added to the report server list. The Edit button is used to edit the selected item. Information If the report is selected, then selecting this command, the report will be uploaded to the report designer. In the Details panel you can edit the name and description of the report item, as well as other items of the server.

27 Toolbar 23 The Delete button is used to delete the selected item. The user will see the dialog box that is shown on the picture below. In order to attach a server element to the report, you need to select the report item and select the Attach command. It will call a menu in which to specify the items that you want to attach. The View button. When you select this command the report is rendered and loaded into the viewer. The Run command. With this command, you can export the report without loading it in the report viewer. The Share command is used to call the sharing menu; The...More menu contains other commands of item managment: The Versions button calls the appropriate menu. The Using button calls the appropriate menu. When creating an item the unique key of the item is automatically generated. In order to obtain this key, select the command. The unique key of the item is needed for future access to this item, when using API of the report server in third-party

28 24 applications. After selecting this command, the key will be displayed on the Access Key panel. The Upload command allows uploading the file to the server workspace. The Download button saves the item as a file of a certain type. After selecting this command the dialog box will appear. In the dialog you should determine a saving location and click Save. You should know that not every item has this command. Information Depending on the item type, a list of commands in the toolbar may be different. Below is toolbar for Excel, XML, JSON, CSV, DBF files: Some commands are not available, and there is a team of Import Data. Below is toolbar for schedulers: Toolbar contains commands for the scheduler: Run Once, Start, Stop. Below is toolbar for data sources Toolbar contains New Query and Import Data commands. 3.1 Menu Create The tab Create contains commands with which new items are added to the list of items.

29 Toolbar 25 The command Report calls a menu to create a report or upload it from the file. The command Data Source is used to create a new data source The command Scheduler is used to execute commands on the schedule, add new ones. The command Folder is used to organize and store items in right places. You can create a hierarchy of folders in the list of items. The command Calendar is used to create a calendar. For example, you can create a calendar to run the scheduler. The command File is used to add a file to the list of items. The command File Storage is used to create directory in which can save the contents of the server items. The command Contact List is used to create a list of contacts. For example, the contact list may be used by the scheduler, i.e. can form a permanent list of contacts by what users will receive the results by .

30 Report You can add the report to the list of items. After clicking the icon Report on the Toolbar the menu New Report will be opened. The Name of the report item is specified in this field. The Description of the report item can be put in this field. The Refresh Frequency provides the ability to set the frequency of the report rendering In this field you can attach additional elements to the report. If the Data Source is attached, its content (data tables, the results of execution of queries and stored procedures, views, etc.) can be used to create reports. The attached Image is a permanent resource of this template. In other words, the attached image can be used in a report, without loading it from external sources. The attached Text File can be a source of text when working with text components of the report, including RichText components Data Source Data source is a structural representation of data that is used to generate reports. Each data source belongs to a particular type of connection and may vary depending on the type of data source parameters. Creating a data source can be done in several steps: Select the type of connection;

31 Toolbar 27 Defining the connection parameters, i.e. creating a connection. Below is the menu of selecting the connection type: Information Data can also be obtained from certain types of files (XML, Excel, JSON, CSV, DBF). To get the data from these files, it is not required to initiate the Connection to these files but you should add them to the tree of items as the File elements. Then you should run the Import Data command.

32 28 Also, Data Source can be create from Report Designer Connection In order to create a description of the data source and retrieve the data itself from storage, it is necessary to create a connection to this storage. Some parameters of the connection may vary depending on the type of the data source. The picture below shows the menu, which specifies the connection parameters to the data storage: The field Name is the name of the data source in the item tree. By default, the data source name is automatically generated depending on its type. For example, if you select the data source ODBC, then the name of the data source is ODBC. In the field Description you can put some notes, information of the data source.

33 Toolbar 29 In the field Type you can specify the type of the data source without going back to the previous tab. Depending on the selected type, parameters can be changed. In the field Connection String you can specify the connection string to connect to the database. In addition, this field has some the controls. Calls the Connection String Wizard. This control is available for certain data types. The command Clean Connection String removes all information from the connection string field. The command Test sets the test connection to the data storage. When you select this command a pattern of a corresponding connection will be inserted. Once the connection is created you must retrieve data from the data source. This can be done in the following ways: Select the command Import Data; Select the command New Query Import Data After you create a connection to the data storage, you need to retrieve data (as tables, views, stored procedures, etc.). This can be done by choosing Import Data on the Toolbar.

34 30 As can be seen on the picture, in the item list of the server the OLE DB data source is selected. On the Toolbar you can find the command Import Data. When you select this command, Stimulsoft Reports.Server will check the data storage for presence of tables, views, stored procedures, etc. The result will be displayed as the Import Data:

35 Toolbar 31 In this window, the data to be added to the data source should be checked. As can be seen from the picture above: Selected data tables Categories, Products, and Suppliers. If there are multiple items, but not all, selected in the category, this category will be marked with. Selected Views. Checking this category (in this example, in the category of views) entails the installation of flags all sub-items. No stored procedures are checked. Once the necessary tables, views, stored procedures and other elements of the data storage are selected, press the button Ok. All data from the storage will be converted into a data table and displayed in the list of the server:

36 32 Now the data tables can be attached to the report. All attached tables will be displayed in the data dictionary of a report. It is also possible to attach a data source to the report. In this case, the data dictionary will have all the attached tables of the data source. Editing data tables Data tables can also be edited. For example, change the type and number of data columns. To do this, select a data table and click Edit.

37 Toolbar 33 A name of the table that is displayed to the user in the item tree of the navigator; A short description and annotations to the table can be specified in this field; Using the parameter Refresh Frequency you can set the length of time after which reconnection to the data storage will be done. The following options are available: Once - retrieving data is carried out once, when you create a data source; Every 10 Minutes - in this case, data will be carried out every 10 minutes; Every 30 Minutes - every half hour, the data will be updated; Every Hour - updates go every hour; Every 4 Hour - retrieving data will be every 4 hours;

38 34 Every Half Day - data will be updated every 12 hours; Every Day - once a day the data will be updated; Always - this option means that, every time, when you build a report the data will be updated. Query Type: Query of Stored Procedure. Field of Query Text. The control panel contains the following buttons: Add Column. With this button, you can add a data column to the data source. It should be considered that this column will contain a description. It does not contain actual data. The command Add Parameter. Using this command you can add an option to the category of Parameters. In this case, this parameter must be specified manually in the query. Delete Column. Clicking this button will delete the selected columns from the data source. The command Retrieve Columns. Once the query is created and checked, press this button to get a column with the data from the data storage. This panel displays a data column in the data source. The settings panel of selected columns New Query The second way to obtain data from the storage is a method of retrieving data from the query to the repository. Queries are script-like texts in one of the dialects of SQL that is used to extract data from tables and making them available to the report server. Queries get the data from database tables and, on their basis, create temporary tables. The data in the temporary table will be filtered, grouped, sorted and arranged according to the query parameters. Then, the temporary table is passed to the report server. Applying requests provides an opportunity to avoid duplication of data in the tables, minimizes the amount of data traffic between the database and the client side, and also provides maximum flexibility for searching and displaying data in a database. Below is the New Query dialog.

39 Toolbar The panel Query contains a text field for typing a query and controls. 35

40 36 The text of the query with parameters. As can be seen from this example, all the data columns will be retrieved from the table Actor under the following conditions. In the column Actor_Id the value is greater than 30. This means, if the number of entries in the column Actor_Id is an ordered array of numbers from 1 to 40, the entries will be obtained from 31 to 40. In the column Last_Name the value is greater than J. That means that all names beginning with the letter J and after this, will be obtained. Information It should be noted that the syntax of the query for any database is not the same and differs with the format of representations of parameters. The command Clear field, i.e., the query text will be removed; The command Check query. When you call this command the report server will generate a test query execution. The result will be shown to the user as a message. When you press this button then in the View Query window, data columns specified in the query will be displayed.

41 Toolbar The panel Column settings consists of controls and two categories. 37

42 38 The command Add Column creates a new columns. Keep in mind that this will be the description of the data columns and it will not contain real data. The command Add Parameter. Using this command you can add an option to the category of Parameters. In this case, this parameter must be specified manually in the query. The command Delete deletes the selected column or the parameter. The command Retrieve Columns. Once the query is created and checked, press this button to get a column with the data from the data storage. On the panel Columns the following tabs can be found: The category Columns. In this category data columns obtained after executing the query, as well as manually created data columns can be found. The category Parameters. This category contains a list of parameters that will be used in the query. Creating, editing, and deleting parameters is carried out using the controls. The panel of parameters of the selected item Data Columns Sometimes it is necessary to add a data column to the data source. In order to create a new data column, you must click Add Column. It should be noted that the data column created this way is a description of a (virtual) data column and it does not contain the actual data. If this column is absent in the data database then, when referring to the database, the server will return an error. All generated data columns are displayed in the list of columns:

43 Toolbar 39 Also you can change settings of the created column. In the field Name in Source the name of the column in the data source is specified; In the field Name the name of the column that will be displayed to the user is displayed; The field Type provides the ability to select the type of the column Parameters When creating a query it is possible to use the Parameter object. This object is designed to send additional conditions for selecting data into a query. For example, if you need a query to use a value entered by the user each time the query is executed, you can create a query using parameters. The Parameter object can only be used with SQL data sources. These data sources are typically have the Text Query field. To insert a parameter in the query, you must click the New Parameter button. The picture below shows the toolbar, on which the New Parameter button can be found. After clicking this button a new parameter will be created. This parameter will be displayed in the Parameters tab in the Columns panel. The picture below shows an example of the Columns panel with the Parameters tab.

44 40 Each parameter has a property with which you can change its settings. The picture below shows the panel of parameters properties. The Name property. Used to change the parameter name. This feature works only for named parameters. Use the Type property in order to change the parameter type. The values?of the properties are in the drop-down list, and are a list of types used in the parameters for a particular database. It should be noted that a list of types differs depending on the database. For each parameter, you can specify a value that is used to fill the parameter in the process of automatic request call without any action from the user. If this option is enabled, then the field Value will be unavailable. By default, null or value which is specified in the stored procedure on the server will be used. Also, you must specify the parameter in the query. Here is an example of schematic position of parameters in the query.

45 Toolbar 41 As a rule, symbol is used to specify a parameter in the query. symbol is used with named parameters, i.e. after symbol goes the name of the parameter. But in some databases (for example in OleDB), symbol cannot be perceived by the adapter and database queries with parameters will not work. In this case, you can use unnamed parameters. For specifying unnamed parameters in the query the? character is used. After the? character, the parameter name is not specified. In this case, the order of parameters in the Parameters tab is important. As indications of the? characters in the query, parameters will be taken sequentially from the Parameters tab in the top-down direction. Consider the following example. Suppose there are three parameters that are specified in the query. Since, in this case, unnamed parameters (marked with?) are used, then, when running, the query parameters will be taken from the Parameters tab in the top-down order. The picture below schematically presents a comparison of parameters of the Parameters tab to the parameters in the query. Moreover, parameters used in this example must have names, but when using the? they do not play a role Retrieving Data from Files The command Import Data provides the ability to retrieve data from files and convert them into tables. This command can be found on the Toolbar of the file from which it is possible to import.

46 42 Import Data from XML File Consider the example of retrieving data from the XML file. First, you need to add XML and XSD files to the list of the server item: XML and XSD files can simply dragged and dropped from anywhere into tree of items; Create the item File and load in it XML and XSD files. As a result, in the tree will have two items File:

47 Toolbar 43 Next, you need to attach the XSD file to the XML file: Hover the cursor on the XSD file, hold down the left mouse button, and, without releasing the mouse button, move the cursor to an XML file; Call the form for editing XML files. Select an XML file in the tree, and click Edit on the Toolbar. Attach the XSD file in the form of editing XML files. After this, you should select the XML file and call the command Import Data. The report server will extract the data from the file, converts them into a tabular form. The result will be displayed in the window New Table.

48 44 In this window you can select data tables. In the example above, the selected tables are Categories, Products, GlobalGrowth. After clicking Ok, the selected tables will be displayed in the item tree:

49 Toolbar Now, on the basis of these tables, you can generate reports. Information Also, data can be import from Excel (xls, xlsx), JSON, CSV, DBF files. 45

50 Scheduler The scheduler is one of the main tools of the report server, using which you can plan specific actions at certain time. To do this you need to create a scheduler and specify time and actions that you must perform. For example, at the beginning of each hour (at a certain minute), the report will be rendered, exported to PDF format and sent via to certain persons. The picture below shows a window to create a new scheduler: As can be seen from the picture, the scheduler consists of the following tabs: In the tab Type you can specify time when the scheduler should be run. In the tab Settings you can setup the scheduler.

51 Toolbar 47 In the tab Actions you can specify the list of what should be done with the scheduler Type On the Type tab you can set up when the scheduler should run, i.e. when the scheduler actions will be executed. Frequency can be set as follows: Hourly. The scheduler will perform some action every hour, i.e. at a certain minute of every hour (minute configurable). Daily. The scheduler is executed once a day, depending on the specified time (hour and minute). Weekly. In this case, the scheduler will be executed once a week on the specified day, at time (hour and minute). Also, you can specify the required days of the week. For example, you can specify all the days of the week, or only Monday or Monday + Friday + Saturday. Monthly. This type of scheduler provides the ability to create a schedule at a certain time during the month. Moreover, it is possible to select the months, i.e. schedule will only work on certain months. Monthly Scheduler can be configured in the following ways: Specifies time of a particular day of the selected month, when the scheduler will run. For example, 11:45 AM, on the 13th of February, May, August, November. Specifies the relative time of the day, selected month. For example, 11:45 AM, the first Monday and third Friday in February, May, August, November. Yearly. In this case, you can set the time (hours and minutes), a month and a day when the scheduler runs. Calendar. In this case, you should specify the calendar, a list of items of which will be a timetable for the scheduler. Once. Any action will be executed once, after running the scheduler. Typically, such a scheduler is started by another scheduler or manually Settings On the tab Settings you can define scheduling parameters. Depending on the selected type, the number and names of the parameters may vary. Scheduling parameters are presented in groups.

52 48 The panel Settings. This panel displays a list of options, depending on the selected group. This panel contains the list of parameters. Information The number of groups may vary depending on the type of the scheduler.

53 Toolbar Common This group of parameter contains general settings that do not depend on the type of the selected scheduler. In the field Name you can set the name of the scheduler. This field is used to provide a description for the scheduler. The description used for making notes and explanations for the scheduler. With this option, you can change the Type of the scheduler, without going back to the previous tab. This parameter defines the status of the scheduler after it is created. If you select the status Started, the scheduler will be active after saving and work according to the schedule. If you select the status Stopped, the scheduler will not be active when you save it, and schedule will not be executed. Information The parameter Status After Creation is not available if you select a single scheduler. The parameter Run After Creation is available instead of that parameter. If this box is checked, the scheduler will work after saving and perform defined actions. If the box is not checked, the scheduler does not work, and it is possible to manually start it or using another scheduler Frequency This group contains parameters by which the scheduler is running. Some of the parameters in this group will vary depending on the type of the scheduler. Here is an example of parameters of the hourly scheduler.

54 50 The parameter Run at Minute specifies the minute for each hour, upon the occurrence of which the scheduler will trigger. The parameter Time Zone indicates the time zone which will be considered by the scheduler. Suppose you want to perform an action for the scheduler at 14:00. Depending on the geographical location, i.e. due to differences in time zones, the response time of the scheduler can vary significantly. For example, the east and the west coast of the United States, refers to the different time zones. Eastern - (GMT -5:00), West - (GMT -8:00), so the difference in time will be 3:00 at this moment. In order to calculate time in a different time zone, you must specify the time and time zone. Therefore, if you set the time of 15:01, specify the time zone GMT -8:00, then the scheduler will work at 15:01 on the west coast or in 12:01 - the east coast. This parameter will be present in all types of the scheduler, except the Once. Information Always pay attention to the time zone, because wrong time zone definitions will cause the scheduler running at wrong time. The checkbox Exclude Weekend Days. With this option, you can exclude the operation of the scheduler on the weekend (Saturday and Sunday). If this box is checked, then the scheduler will not run on Saturdays and Sundays. The following actions will be executed to the next weekday - Monday. At the same time, the number of running will not change. If over the weekend planner should have been executed 5 times, then on a weekday it works 5 times. This option has in all schedulers, except the Once and Calendar. The parameter Run Every sets the shift when the scheduler triggers. For example, if the value is 1, the scheduler will be triggered every time as scheduled. If the value of this parameter is 2, the scheduler will be triggered through 1 time, i.e. every second time in the schedule, etc. This option has in all schedulers, except the Once and Calendar.

55 Toolbar 51 Daily Under this option, you must specify the exact time when scheduler runs. Then, every day, if there are no exceptions, the scheduler will perform certain actions at specified time. Weekly Under this option, you must specify the exact time when scheduler runs. Then, every week, if there are no exceptions, the scheduler will perform certain actions at specified time. You should select the days of the week on which the scheduler will run. This may be one day, seven days a week, or none. If no one day is selected, the scheduler will not run by this schedule. Monthly

56 52 Under this option, you must specify the exact time when scheduler runs. Then, every month, if there are no exceptions, the scheduler will perform certain actions at specified time. With this option you can select days of the month. Select the number of the month. Determination of the relative day of the month. In this case, it is necessary to choose the order of the day (eg first and second), and then determine the days of the week, such as Monday and Friday. And then, for this example, the scheduler will be triggered every first and second Monday and Friday of the selected month:

57 Toolbar 53 Month selection is carried out by means of this parameter. One month or several months can be selected. Yearly Under this option, you must specify the exact time when scheduler runs. Then, every year, if there are no exceptions, the scheduler will perform certain actions at specified time. With this parameter you can set the day of the month on which scheduler will be run.

58 54 Months of the year in which you will run the scheduler is defined using this parameter. If the month has already passed the selected schedule will work next year. Calendar When you select this option you must specify a calendar with a schedule (i.e. the calendar contains a list of specific dates): This field you should specify the exact time when the scheduler triggers. The calendar indicates only the dates, so the time of running is defined on the tab Calendar. The added item Calendar. The button is used to add the selected item from the tree to the panel of the scheduler. The is used ti button Delete an item from the panel of the scheduler. Once In this case, the scheduler works immediately after creation. It should be known that the scheduler will not work if to uncheck the parameter Run After Saving. In this case, the running must be implemented manually, i.e. select this scheduler and select the command Run Once on Toolbar. Also, the scheduler of this type can be started by another scheduler, through the action Run Scheduler Repeat Sometimes you need to repeat the scheduler operations after its actions by the schedule have been executed. You can enable the repetition and configure it in the group Repeat:

59 Toolbar 55 This radio button turns on/off the repeat mode. Includes the repeat mode and provides the ability to set the repeat options: The first parameter defines the number of repeats after the scheduler is executed; The second value defines the range of 0.5; 0.25; 1, etc. The third parameter specifies the unit: hours or minutes. Depending on the selected unit the repeat interval will be calculated. The picture above shows an example of the enabled repeat mode: 3 repeats with an interval of half an hour after each execution of the schedule. Suppose there is a scheduler which runs daily at AM. If the repeat mode is enabled (see the picture above), the scheduler will run: at AM on a daily schedule; at AM will be the first repeat; at AM will be made to the second repeat; at AM will be made the third repetition. The next day, the scheduler will run at AM, and if the repeat mode is enabled the repetitions will be performed Range The group of parameters Range provides an opportunity to specify the interval when the scheduler works. In other words, the scheduler will only work if its schedule falls within the range: With this parameter, you can specify the beginning of the range. Check the check box and select a date-time. The end of the range is set using this parameter. You must also check the check box and select a date-time.

60 56 For example, on July 30, 2014 we will create a daily scheduler, which must be executed at AM. Next we will define the range from July 31, AM to August 2, AM. In this case, the scheduler will run on July 31, August 1, August 2. On other days, the scheduler will not be executed because its schedule does not fall within the specified range Exception Sometimes, on certain dates, it is necessary the scheduler does not run. A list of these dates (exceptions) be made in the item calendar. Next, the item is added to the scheduler and will be considered as a list of exceptions. For example, a daily scheduler is running, but the 4th of July is a holiday and it is not necessary to run the scheduler. Therefore, it is necessary to create a calendar with the date July 4, and then drag it out of the item tree to the panel of exceptions. Now this scheduler will not run on July 4. The item Calendar that contains the dates of exceptions. Information When using exceptions, should take into account the value of the Time Zone. The button is used to add the selected item from the tree to the panel of exceptions. In this case, the item Calendar. The button is used to delete an item from the panel of exceptions.

61 Toolbar Notify In this group of parameters it is possible to set up a list of users who will get notifications of the executed scheduler. You can notify all users of the workspace, or users with a specific role, or users by selection. In order notifications of the executed scheduler send to all the users in this workspace, you should select this check box. If you check the role, all users in this role will be notified of the executed scheduler. In addition, it is possible to selectively notify users Actions The scheduler in the active (running) state performs a specific list of actions on schedule. The list of actions is generated when you create or edit the scheduler on the tab Actions.

62 58 The drop-down menu that contains a list of actions available for the Scheduler. Delete the selected action from the list on the panel. Actions are executed alternately in the scheduler, in the direction from top to bottom. The higher is the location of a particular action in the generated list of scheduler actions, the higher is the order of execution. Moves the selected action up and down, i.e. increase-decrease execution priority. The panel list of actions. This panel displays the added action, i.e. those that will be executed each time you run the Scheduler. The panel of parameters of the selected action.

63 Toolbar 59 Information Consider the ways to add items to the fields and : A method of dragging an item from the item tree into the field of action. To do this, hold down the left mouse button over the required element and, without releasing the button, move the item to a particular field. Another way of adding items is using the control buttons: the selected item in the action field, - this button adds - removes an item from the field of action. Actions performed by the scheduler: Run Report. Run Scheduler. Copy. Send . Delete Run Report The action Run Report provides an opportunity to start the rendering of a report at a certain time, or to convert the report to any of the available file formats. After rendering the report can be saved into the item tree, cloud storage, ed, etc. Below is a menu of the action run a report.

64 60 The field Report. In this field you can specify the report template or a rendered report, i.e. the item that you want to convert. If the report uses parameters, then click the button to change the default settings. The field Destination. It specifies the destination of the output file, i.e. location of the report after the conversion. This may be a folder, a list of contacts, etc. For example, if you specify a folder, the report will be converted and saved in it. If the destination is a list of contacts, the report will be converted and sent to all recipients present in the contact list. Information If you specify a contact list item as the destination, it will be necessary to determine the method of attaching the report to an . The report can be directly attached to the as a file or a link to this report will be attached. In the field of this parameter you can determine the Result Type the report should be converted to. If you want to automatically delete the result after a certain date and time, then it can

65 Toolbar 61 be done using this parameter. To do this, you must check the box and specify time. When the date and time come the file will be automatically moved to recycle bin. This field contains the template of the result name. The Overwrite If Exists parameter provides an opportunity to rewrite the result. If this option is disabled, then each time you perform this action, the result will be represented as a separate item, i.e. if the report is converted once an hour, then a new item in the tree will appear every hour or sent according to the list of contacts. In this case the names of these items may be identical. If this option is enabled, and the names are identical, then each new result is overwritten instead of the previous one. Information Consider an example. Suppose the report Test is converted to the PDF each hour. If the Overwrite If Exists parameter is disabled, then after four starts, this directory will have four elements with the name Test. If Overwrite If Exists is enabled, then after four starts, this directory will have one element Test Run Scheduler The action Run Scheduler provides the ability to run another scheduler. In other words, one scheduler can run the other, and that one is already carrying out any action. For this action, it is necessary to consider the following limitations: The slave scheduler is the one that will run another scheduler must be of the type Once; One level structure. You cannot run a scheduler that will run another scheduler that will run the third scheduler. In other words, it is impossible to build a multilevel hierarchy of the action. Below is a menu of the action Run Scheduler.

66 62 The slave scheduler. It will run when the Run Scheduler action of the main scheduler is executed Copy Copying elements can be done using the scheduler. And, at the same time, you can copy multiple items, but to one destination. You cannot specify multiple destinations for copying. In addition, you can copy items to the list of contacts. In this case, a copy will be sent to the addresses from your contact list. You can also copy the item to an item. In this case, you must consider the following restrictions:

67 Toolbar 63 Similar types of objects in the fields Source and Destination. It is impossible to copy Report to File, or vice versa. It is allowed to use only one item as the destination. Below is the action menu Copy. This field specifies the elements that will be copied. In the field of this parameter you should specify the destination for the copies. This can be a folder, list of contacts, cloud storage, etc. For example, if you specify a folder, the items will be copied to this folder. It is also possible to copy one item to another. Information If you specify the contact list as the destination, it will be necessary to determine how to attach items to . Items can be directly attached as an attachment to the letter or links to these items will be attached Send One of the actions that can be performed a scheduler is sending s. To do this, use the action Send . Below is a menu of this action.

68 64 This field To. specifies the address to which the will be sent. The list of addresses should be filled through a separator "," or space. Field is mandatory. The filed Subject. Here you need to write a subject of the message. Field is not mandatory. The filed Message. Here you need to write a text of the message. Field is mandatory. Attachments. If necessary, you can attach certain items into it. You should add items from the Navigator tree. Field is not mandatory. Attachment Delivery. Items can be directly attached as annex to the letter, as well as references to this item.

69 Toolbar 65 Information If you will create an empty Report item, i.e. create only a description without filling data, then there is no sense to attach this item to the . The recipient will get only a text (message) without attached elements Delete The item can be removed by a certain schedule. To do this, add the Delete action in the scheduler and specify the items that must be removed when the scheduler triggers.

70 66 The list of items that will be removed when the scheduler is triggered Folder Folders in the list of items are needed to organize and store in them in other items and folders. Also with the help of folders you can create a hierarchy of folders in the list of items. In addition, the folder can be the beginning of the item tree for certain users. Below is the menu to create a new folder.

71 Toolbar 67 This field specifies the name of the folder. Add description, explanation or label for the new folder. This field specifies the type of a folder. Depending on the type of the folder, it will appear on a particular tab: The Common type. In this case, the folder will be displayed on any tab, except for Users and System tabs. The Reports type. In this case, the folder will only be displayed on All Elements and Reports tabs. The Data type. In this case, the folder will only be displayed on All Elements and Data tabs. The Scheduler type. In this case, the folder will only be displayed on All Elements and Schedulers tabs Calendar In addition to the frequency of the scheduler, you can schedule the list of execution, set weekends, holidays and other dates of exceptions using the item Calendar. The schedule in the calendar can be of different types: for a date, weekly, annual, holiday and more. To create a schedule, call the menu New Calendar and define your calendar.

72 68 The name of the calendar is specified in the field Name. In the field Description you may specify additional information of the calendar or other information. The button Delete deletes the selected schedule item in the calendar If you want to remove all scheduler items in the calendar, click Delete All. The panel Calendar items shows all the elements of the schedule, i.e. the time and date by which the action of the scheduler will be implemented. On the panel New Calendar Items you can define settings of an item schedule. Depending on the Item type, other parameters may vary. Once the parameters are defined element, press the button Add to the element with the current settings written in the list of calendar items. Depending on the selected type, different parameters can be shown. Consider the types

73 Toolbar 69 of calendars: The type Date. The parameters of the schedule is a specific day, month, year and time. Also a day of the week corresponding to the selected date is displayed. The type Weekly. For the calendar of this type it is necessary to determine a day of the week. The type Annual. For the annual schedule, you should specify the month of the year and a day of the month. The type Relative day of the year. In this case, the calendar will not be "tied" to a specific date. The schedule parameters are: Priority: First, Second, Third, Fourth, Last. Day of the week. Month of the year. And then, for example, the third Thursday of November is the schedule for this calendar item. The type Easter. Schedule for this type will be calculated off-day of Easter, which is the start date and it measured the number of days to offset. You should know that if this year Easter has passed, the reference point is Easter next year. Consider the examples of indications of some values: The minimum value that can be specified is The calendar date will be a day before Easter days. The maximum value that can be specified is 365. The calendar date will be the day after the Easter day +365 days. If the number of days is not specified or is 0, then in this case the date of the calendar will be Easter (if Easter has passed this year, it will be a day of Easter next year, if the day of Easter had not yet arrived - in the current year). Information If the next year is a leap year and the date of the schedule falls on a day after February, then you should always add 1 to the offset. The type Holidays. This type of the calendar provides an opportunity to create a schedule considering country holidays. For this type you should choose a country. After

74 70 this, the list of holidays, which may be present in the schedule will be displayed on the panel of new items. If necessary, you can add one holiday or all at once to the items of the calendar File You should call the File menu to add the required file from the storage to the list of server items or create a new file based on an existing item. This command creates an object, which can contain any type of files. The attached item. The item can be attached the following ways: From any storage (cloud, local drive, tree of items), you can add files by simply dragging them (Drag & Drop); The Control button allows adding a file from a local user storage; Information These operations can be performed in the background. The background mode provides the ability to simultaneously perform an unlimited number of operations. In this case, the number of operations in the background mode depends on technical abilities of the server. To enable the background mode, you must set the Run in Background checkbox in the dialog.

75 Toolbar 71 In this field, you can specify a number of files, and then each attached file will be created in as a separate File item in the Stimulsoft Reports.Server tree. It should be considered that, in this case, the Name field will not be available, and the names of items in the tree will be generated automatically. Also, the Description field will not be available. So if you need to add or change the description of the item name that is automatically generated, then it is necessary to perform editing of the item. Clearing this field, deleting all files in this field, can be done by pressing the button. The Name of the file item is specified in this field. The Description of the report item can be put in this field File Storage The File Storage item provides the ability to save another element outside the server. To do this, create a file repository and specify this item as a Destination when performing actions with other items. For example, when copying items using the Scheduler, or when you run the report without previewing. To create a File Storage, select the appropriate command from the Create menu:

76 72 The Name of the file storage item is specified in this field. The Description of the report item can be put in this field. The path by which the items will be saved is specified. If the specified directory is not created, then, when the item is saved first time, the directory will be created Contact List The Contact List is used to send reports by groups of . Here you need to specify a list of addresses through a separator "," or space. It should be noted that the list of contacts can be used as the destination in the following actions of a scheduler: Send . In this case, text messages ( with the attached elements, if needed) will be sent by the list of contacts. Run Report. If your contact list is specified as the destination, then the report will be converted and the result will be sent to the addresses. Copy Report. When copying items, contacts can also be specified as the destination. Copies will be sent to the addresses. Below is the menu New Contact List.

77 Toolbar 73 The field Name. Here you should specify names of Contact List. The field Description. You should put a brief description of the item. The field List. Here you need to place addresses directly through the separator ",". In quotation marks you can indicate information about the recipient, but in this case, the address enclosed in <...>, i.e. like this < > Result Name By default, when you convert (export) the report, the result name is generated automatically. It will consist of the report name prior to the conversion date plus the conversion date-time. For example, there is the mrt report "Report1". Lets convert the report to PDF document using the command Run. This will create a PDF document with the name Report1-10/4/2017 2:26:55 PM, where 10/4/2017 2:26:55 PM is the start time (conversion) of the report. Sometimes it is necessary to set a mask (template). This can be done in the window Result Name. On the right side of the window you can find functions with which you can compose a name of the result. Left side of the window is a field in which goes creation of the mask (template). The function Report Name. When you add this function the name of the result will contain the report name that has been converted. For example, there is a report

78 74 template with the name List of Products. When you add the Report Name, the name of the result is the following - List of Products. The function Type. When you add this function the result will contain the name of the type of the result. For example, if you exported a report template to PDF, then the result has the following name - PDFXXXXXXX. The function Date and Time. When you add these functions, the name of the result will contain the date (if the function is Date) and/or time (if the function is Time). The field in what a mask (template) of the result names is displayed. This field specifies the above functions and any other characters that will be identified as text. For example, there is a report the name of which is formed according to the following pattern {ReportName}{Type}{Date: HH: mm: ss}. Then the name of the result is the name ReportPDF09: 19: 06. Lets format the mask (template), adding spaces between the functions and the delimiter "-" (see. picture above). Then, the result after the conversion will be the following - Report - PDF - 09:19: Sharing Settings Sometimes it is necessary to set the level of access to the selected item for a certain group of people. For example, a report named Report1 will only be available to users of its workspace or be able to be viewed by all users registered on the server.

79 Toolbar 75 The first mode sets the access only to users of the workspace. In other words, only users of the workspace will have access to this item. In this mode, access to the item will have all the registered users on the server, regardless of whether they belong to a particular workspace. Information Regardless of the access to the item (No Access Share or Authorized Access), it is necessary to take into account the rights of the user roles. For example, if the user does not have rights to view the report item (not allowed in the settings of the role), when setting the level of access No Access Share or Authorized Access, the user will still be able to view the item.

80 76 With this mode, there are no restrictions in the access level. The item will be public for any non-authorized user. In other words, everyone who has the link to this item can view it. This parameter sets the time and date after which access will be closed. If this option is disabled, then there is no period of access, i.e. access is always enabled. The link to access an item can be provided in the following ways: Link to Share. Get only a link to this item. Embed Code. Get the code for the HTML page with the link to this item. QR Code. Display the QR code. When reading this code you will automatically get a link to access the item Embedding the access code to an item in the HTML page The item to which it is possible to adjust the level of access can also be embedded into the HTML page. This requires the following conditions: The report server must be deployed on any web server. Access level of the item must Public Access. The algorithm for embedding code to access an item in the HTML page looks like this: 1. Select the necessary item in the navigator tree. 2. On the toolbar of the item select Share. 3. In the Sharing Settings menu do the following: Set the level of access to Public Access. Determine the mode of access to the item as Show or Download. Go to the Embed Code tab and copy it. 4. Open the HTML page in the editor and paste the copied code. 5. Save changes. Now consider the examples of embedding access to the items. Report Templates. Choose a report template in the list of items of the navigator or load it into the items list. Select it and click Share on the Toolbar.

81 Toolbar 77 Next set the public access, view mode, go to the tab Embed Code and copy the access code.

82 78 Now you need to open the HTML page in any editor and paste the code. For example, open the HTML page in Notepad.

83 Toolbar 79 Save the changes, open the HTML page in a web browser. As can be seen in the picture above, the viewer with the loaded report will be displayed on your HTML page. The same way you can access to viewing report snapshots, text files, images, PDF documents. For the remaining items only the Download mode will be available.

84 Prameters in URL Users can view reports depending on the access level. For example, a report can view any or only authorized users. However, the report parameters can be used. In this case, the transfer of parameters goes via the URL. To do this, you must specify the special character "?" at the end of the URL. After this character the name of the parameter and its value is specified. If you want to specify several options, they should be written with a separator "&". Consider an example of passing parameters to the report through a URL. Below is a report template. In the first and the last text component you can find references to variable - Name and CategoryID. The default values for these variables are Chai and 1 respectively. In the text component in the middle of the page you can see the expression with the keyword this and the parameter UnitPrice. Below is the rendered report. As can be seen from the picture above, the default values were passed to the report. At the same time, UnitPrice did not keep any value and, therefore, it is not present in the rendered report. Let's pass parameters via URL. The access link to an item - For the parameter Name the value will be Coffee;

85 Toolbar 81 For parameter UnitPrice - 15; For the parameter CategoryID - 3. Then the URL with parameters will look like this Name=Coffee&UnitPrice=15&CategoryID=3. Below is a report with the passed parameters. 3.3 Versions Sometimes, when editing items, especially when the same items can be modified by multiple users some issues may occur. As a consequence, it is necessary to cancel the last, previous and other changes, i.e. go back to the previous version of this item. It should be known that for each item change a copy of this item state is created. And this state does not overwrite its previous state. Therefore, you can always refer to any copy of an item. This can be accomplished in the menu Versions of a selected item. This menu contains commands, as well as all versions history of the item:

86 82 The version history of an item includes the version number, date, time, user name, and description of changes. In the above example you can see versions of the item Report, and therefore it has the following operations: Buttons to run a specific version of the report. When you press this button, the report will be rendered and loaded in the report viewer. Each version has its button for running the item. For example, Version 2 corresponds to the start button in the same line. The buttons to load a specific version of the report in the report designer. Each report version has its own button to open the report in the designer. For example, Version 2 of the report corresponds to the button in the same line. Information Depending on the item type (the version of the item), the operation performed with versions may be different.

87 Toolbar Using Items in the report server can be used by other elements or can be attached to them. For example, the data source may be attached to the report, and the folder can be used as the destination source in the scheduler. In this case, it is impossible to remove used or attached items. At the same time, the same item can be attached (used) by unlimited number of other items. In other words, the same data source can be attached to various reports, the same folder can be used in various schedulers. In order to find out where the item is used you should select it and click Using on the Toolbar. As can be seen from the picture above, the Using menu shows the following information: The name of the item about which information is requested. In this case, it is Demo.xml. Date and time of attaching to another item. The list of items where the selected item is used. In this case, these are InvoiceAll.mrt and Bestsellers_auto.mrt.

88 84 4 Display panel The display panel includes commands to control modes of displaying server items: The full path to the current directory, the folder in which the user is located. The button to enable the List mode. The items will be displayed a list of items with information about their type and date of creation.

89 Display panel 85 The button to enable the Grid mode. The list of items will look like big icons as a grid.

90 86 The button to enable the Details panel. If the button is clicked, it will display an additional panel with detailed information of items.

91 Display panel 87

92 88 Information On the Details panel you can change the Name and Description of the selected item. To do this, click on the name or description and change the text. The button to sort items. Contains the drop-down list, where you can define the type and direction of sorting.

93 Display panel 89 The button to enable the Recycle Bin mode. If the button is enabled, it will display the items of the bin.

94 Recycle Bin When you delete items, you can move them to the trash or completely delete from the

95 Display panel 91 server. If the Move to Recycle Bin is enabled, the item will be moved to the basket. If the Move to Recycle Bin is disabled the item will be removed from the server. In order to view the contents of the basket, you should click the button Deleted on the Toolbar. After that, the items in the basket will be displayed in the tree (marked as deleted items): As can be seen from the picture above, the deleted items are displayed keeping its location in the hierarchy. In other words, the deleted item retains binding to the location in the tree.

96 92 Information You should remember that when you delete a folder, all items and folders in it will also be deleted. Recovering items Any deleted item can be recovered. To do this, you should switch to the basket mode, select the item and click Recover on the Toolbar:

97 Display panel 93 The item will be restored to the directory from which it has been deleted. Also it is possible to recover several items at the same time (select them using the buttons Ctrl or Shift). Recovering the deleted folder involves the recovery of all items that are contained in it. Also, restoring items from the deleted folder leads to recovering this folder. The remaining items of this folder (or folders, if the nesting level is greater than 1) are not restored. Emptying the recycle bin There are no special commands to empty the recycle bin. You can remove items from

98 94 the recycle bin: Select the necessary items using the Ctrl or Shift buttons, and click Delete on the Home tab; Restore the files and delete them again without putting them into the recycle bin by unchecking the Move to Recycle Bin flag. Information These operations can be performed in the background. The background mode provides the ability to simultaneously perform an unlimited number of operations. In this case, the number of operations in the background mode depends on technical abilities of the server. To enable the background mode, you must check the Run in Background flag in the dialog window of the operation (removal, restoration, cleaning the recycle bin). 5 Tabs The tabs provide an opportunity to display the items of a particular type. In addition, the Users and System tabs contain system commands to control users and server system, respectively:

99 Tabs 95 The expand/collapse button to the tab panel. The All Elements tab. When you select this tab you will see all the elements, including folders. The Reports tab. When you select this tab, folders and report items only will be displayed. The Data tab. When you select this tab, folders, data sources, and only the files that contain the data (XML, Excel, CSV, DBF, and JSON) will be displayed. The Schedulers tab. When you select this tab, only folders and schedulers will be displayed. The Users tab. This tab will display workspaces, roles and user accounts. The System tab. License and Templates commands will be displayed. The command to navigate the Stimulsoft Reports.Server documentation. The help files will be opened in a new browser tab. 5.1 All Elements The All Elements tab provides the ability to display all the elements and all the folders in the current working server space:

100 96 At the same time, in the Create menu, the commands for creating all server components, unless otherwise is defined by the account role, will be available. Information The list of commands in the Create menu will depend on the Role account. The list of items will also depend on the role permissions and the user's account. Because you can specify any folder as the parent one for your account, then the list of the displayed items may be different.

101 Tabs Reports On the Reports tab, report templates, folders of the Common type and folders of the Reports type will be displayed: At the same time, in the Create menu, the commands to create Report and Folder items, unless otherwise defined by the account role, will be available. Also it is necessary to consider that only the file types like *.mrt, *.mrx, *.mrz will be shown. Rendered reports

102 98 and converted into other formats, including formats *.mdc, *.mdx, *.mdz, will not be displayed. Information The list of commands in the Create menu will depend on the Role account. The list of items will also depend on the role permissions and the user's account. Because you can specify any folder as the parent one for your account, then the list of the displayed items may be different. 5.3 Data On the Data tab, all data sources, files (Excel, JSON, CSV, XML, DBF), which contain information such as data, Common and Data folders, will be displayed:

103 Tabs 99 At the same time, in the Create menu, commands for creating the data source folder and, unless otherwise defined by the account role, will be available. Information The list of commands in the Create menu will depend on the Role account. The list of items will also depend on the role permissions and the user's account. Because you can specify any folder as the parent one for your account, then the list of the displayed items may be different.

104 Schedulers The Schedulers tab will display schedulers, Common and Schedulers folders: At the same time, in the Create menu, the command to create Scheduler and Folder items, unless otherwise defined by the account role, will be available.

105 Tabs 101 Information The list of commands in the Create menu will depend on the Role account. The list of items will also depend on the role permissions and the user's account. Because you can specify any folder as the parent one for your account, then the list of the displayed items may be different. 5.5 Users Tab All tools to control workspaces, accounts and a system of the report server are located on the Users Tab.

106 102 The report server is a complex software that has a client-server architecture. Data of different users are separated by different workspaces. The picture below shows a system with three workspaces:

107 Tabs 103 Users who have the role of Supervisor manage the server. They have absolute rights in all workspaces on the server. In particular they have rights to create and delete workspaces. In addition, each workspace has administrators, managers, users and other roles that perform certain activities within their workspace. On the Users tab you can control workspaces, roles, and accounts of other users. Add Workspace. Adds a workspace on the server. Available only for Supervisors. Add User. Creates a new user. You must first highlight the role to which a new account will be applied. Add Role. Adds a new role in a workspace. Edit. Select the user (or role) and click on this button. Predefined roles

108 104 (administrators, managers, users) cannot be edited. Delete.To delete a user or role, you must select a user (or role) and click Delete. Also with the help of this button, a supervisor can remove the workspace Add Role The Role is a category of users with specific rights and restrictions in the workspace. In other words, each user is assigned to a particular role, i.e. has certain rights. By default, the workspace is created with system roles: Administrator is a role in which there are no restrictions and all rights are included. Manager is a role in which the user has great number of rights, with the exception of features for managing the basic elements of the report server (for example, the Manager cannot create and modify Schedulers, Users, User Roles). User is a role in which the user can only view items and run some of them. Information System roles cannot be edited. You cannot change the rights of the members of one of these groups. When you create a new role you can inherit Permissions from one of the existing roles selecting the parental role from the list.

109 Tabs 105 The field Name. Here you can put the role name. The field Description. If you need additional description of the role, it can be put in this field. The field Permission. Consists of columns (rights) and rows (list of items). Also, the rows are split into categories. Each column defines a certain right. The right View provides the ability to view items in the current workspace. The right Create provides the ability to create items in the current workspace. The right Delete provides the ability to delete items in the current workspace. The right Modify provides the ability to edit items in the current workspace. The right Run provides the ability to run the items in the current workspace. In this case, the created role will be marked with checkboxes of the rights (permissions), which has a parental role. For example, if the parental role has only the ability to view reports (no other permissions), that only this permission will be given to the created role. At the same time, you can modify the role by enabling permissions or disabling them. Consider another example - inheritance of permissions. Using the inheritance of permissions, you can create role duplicates of pre-installed roles with some modifications. By default, users as Administrators have all the rights. You want to create a role with all the features but without the permission to run Schedulers. The easiest way to do this is to create a role based on the Administrator's rights and put the

110 106 restriction to run (uncheck the checkbox in the column Run -> row Schedulers). Information You should know that if the users of a certain role cannot view any item then the rest of the actions performed on this item are not allowed too. For example, the role is not authorized to view the Scheduler, but the role has the right to create and run the Scheduler. In this case members of this role CANNOT create or run the Scheduler. Permissions Table In this table you will find items (rows) and rights (columns) and short descriptions of permissions. Items / Rights View Create Delete Modify Allows creating Calendar Allows deleting Calendar Allows modifying Calendar Run Calendar Allows viewing Calendar Contact List Allows Allows Allows Allows viewing creating deleting modifying Contact List Contact List Contact List Contact List Data Sources Allows viewing Data Sources Allows creating Data Sources Allows deleting Data Sources Allows modifying Data Sources Files Allows viewing Files Allows creating Files Allows deleting Files Allows modifying Files Folders Allows Allows Allows Allows

111 Tabs viewing Folders creating Folders deleting Folders modifying Folders Report Snapshots Allows viewing Report Snapshots Allows creating Report Snapshots Allows deleting Report Snapshots Allows modifying Report Snapshots Allows running Report Snapshots Report Templates Allows viewing Report Template Allows creating Report Template Allows deleting Report Template Allows modifying Report Template Allows running Report Template Scheduler Allows viewing Scheduler Allows creating Scheduler Allows deleting Scheduler Allows modifying Scheduler Allows running Scheduler Add User You can add other user accounts to the workspace. Before you add a new user, you should define its role, i.e., select one of the predefined roles or create a new one. Then, click Add User in the Users tab and fill out the form shown below.

112 108 This field contains the first name. This field contains the last name. This field contains the that will be used as a user login and for authentication. In field you should insert a password to protect your account from unauthorized access. Keep in mind - the combined and complex password (consisting of letters and numbers) enhances account security and reduce the risk of loss of sensitive data. Activate or Deactivate the user. The account will be activated, if the checkbox is set to true. The account will be deactivated, if the checkbox is set to false and this account cannot be used to login in the server workspace. This field specifies the parent folder for the user account, the root folder for the server components in the current workspace. Below is a diagram of components for the root administrator: For example, if you specify a second level folder for the user, the Folder 2 is as a zero

113 Tabs 109 level: In the picture field, you can upload an image that will be the user's avatar. 5.6 System Tab On this tab of the navigator you can find the basic system settings and commands of the report server: Click this button to call templates editor Template When performing certain actions the user will receive a notification . For example, when registering a new account, the user will receive an to the address, specified in registration.

114 110 This panel displays a list of actions, under which, the user will be notified: The Item Send Attachment template. A letter in this template is sent by the scheduler, if the result (for example, a report in the converted PDF) is attached to the letter. The Item Send Link template. A letter on this template is sent by the scheduler, if the link to the result (for example, a reference to the document PDF) is attached to the . The User Activation Complete template. A letter for the given template is sent when the user account is activated. The User Reset Password template. When you change the password to the account, the user receives a message of this template. After changing the password to an account, the user will receive an

115 Tabs 111 according to the User Reset Password Complete template. The address is as specified during the registration process. The Edit window of the template contains the HTML code of the and the following buttons: The Save button. Click the button to save the changes after making changes in the template; The Reset button. Clicking this button you will reset all changes and the text will be returned to the default state. Below is a Localization panel. Depending on the location, the template text will be localized to a particular language. By default, the localization pattern will correspond to the localization in the Navigator. 6 Report Designer The report designer is used to create and edit reports. The interface of the designer provides the user with a broad set of tools, components and tools to create reports, their visual design and preview.

116 File In the File menu the key commands for working with reports in Report Designer are present:

117 Report Designer 113 The Info menu item contains the configuration commands, security and report checker. The New menu item contains a list of commands to create a new report. The Open command provides the ability to load the report into the report designer: The report can be opened from the server space; The report can be opened from the local storage; There is also a tab with a list of reports that have been previously uploaded to the report designer. The Save command provides the ability to save changes to the current report. The Save As command provides the ability to save changes to the current report and specify the folder to save this report: The report can be saved in the server space; The report can be saved by means of a browser in the local storage. The Options menu command defines the configuration of the report designer. The command to call the About menu provides information about the product, its

118 114 version, as well as the date of the assembly: The command to go to the documentation of the Stimulsoft Reports.Server. The document will be opened in a new browser tab Info This menu contains commands for working with the report template: Report Options

119 Report Designer 115 Parameters which affect on report rendering Convert Nulls. If the flag is checked, all Null values will be converted to the default values for the type. For example, you must find the arithmetic average in the prices of the product. If Null is not converted, the result is not correct, i.e. these values will not be considered. Therefore, you should enable this option, and then all Null will be converted to 0. In this case, the result of calculating the mean value will be true. Number of Passes. In most cases, one pass in the report rendering is sufficient, but sometimes there are cases when you need double pass. Consider an example. Suppose, on the last page of the report you should output some information. Before rendering of the full report, in fact we know that the account will be the last. Therefore, in this case, it is better to use a double pass when rendering a report, i.e. in the first pass the number of pages in the report will be determined and during the second pass the information on the last page will be added.

120 116 Defining units in the report. For example, if you select centimeters then all the calculations in the report will be made in centimeters. Protect Report The report template can be password protected. To do this, select the Security item of the report, specify the password and click the Ok button: In this case, the report will be packed and encrypted. To open the report in the report designer, you will need to specify a password. Check for Issues In order to check the report for errors you should use the Report Checker. The Report Checker will analyze the report, resulting in an errors, warnings, information messages, report rendering messages in this report. The picture below shows the Report Checker:

121 Report Designer 117 Click the Check for Issues button in the report checker to verify the report on problems New YouTube Watch our video tutorials how to create report with use Standard Wizard and MasterDetail Wizard. Subscribe to the Stimulsoft channel and be the first who watches new video tutorials. Leave your questions and suggestions in the comments to the video. This menu contains commands for creating report template:

122 118 A report can be created blank or you can create it using one of the wizards for building reports. Standard Report When you create a report using the Standard Report wizard, the report will contain one Data Band or one Data Table:

123 Report Designer 119 Select the data source on which a report will be created. This is a mandatory step. Select data columns to be output in a report. This is a mandatory step. Specify the order of placing the columns on the Data Band. The order of the columns from top to bottom corresponds to the order of the columns in the report from left to right. Changing the order in the report wizard is possible with the help of two buttons on the control panel of this step. Sort data if needed. Sometimes you need to show not the whole list of data but a specific range of data. For example, display the products cost from 40 to 200 dollars. In this case, the report is used to filter the data. Conditions of filtering are determined at this stage. The report, which has too large volume of data, can be easier to perceive, if to make grouping of data. For example, if the report contains a list of products, they can be grouped by the first letter of the product name. Parameters are determined by grouping in this step. Here you can define a function to calculate the totals for any of the columns of the

124 120 selected data source. In this step, you can choose the style of the report and apply it to it. Master-Detail Report Creating a master-detail report using the wizard includes 8 steps. Not all of them are mandatory. Select the data source on which a report will be created. This is a mandatory step.

125 Report Designer 121 Information You should understand that the Master-Detail Report at least two sources, one of which is the master, and the second is detail. At the same time, the relation between these sources should be organized. Select data columns to be output in a report. This is a mandatory step. Also, on this step, select the relation between data sources. Specify the order of placing the columns on the Data Band. The order of the columns from top to bottom corresponds to the order of the columns in the report from left to right. Changing the order in the report wizard is possible with the help of two buttons on the control panel of this step. Sort data if needed. Sorting can be set separately as a Master and Detail. Sometimes you need to show not the whole list of data but a specific range of data. For example, display the products cost from 40 to 200 dollars. In this case, the report is used to filter the data. Conditions of filtering are determined at this stage. Filtering can be set separately as a Master and Detail. Information If the Master entry will not fit in the filter conditions, i.e. data is output for printing, in this case, all its subordinate entries will not be printed. The report, which has too large volume of data, can be easier to perceive, if to make grouping of data. For example, if the report contains a list of products, they can be grouped by the first letter of the product name. Parameters are determined by grouping in this step. Here you can define a function to calculate the totals for any of the columns of the selected data source. In this step, you can choose the style of the report and apply it to it Options In the Options menu you can find advanced settings of the report designer. These settings are located on the following tabs:

126 122 The Main tab contains the basic settings. For example, headers, rules, etc. Select the check box to turn on the option you want. The Grid tab contains grid settings in the report designer. For example, on this tab, you can turn on the grid, alignment, the way to draw the grid (line or point), set the unit for the grid.

127 Report Designer 123 The commands to manage the grid: The Align to Grid parameter provides an opportunity to align components by the grid. The Show Grid parameter provides the ability to enable or disable the grid in the report designer. The grid drawing method. Lines or Dots. The grid settings in the various units. In the Auto Save tab specify settings to automatically save changes:

128 124 To enable the Auto Save mode, you should check the box for the Enable Auto Save Mode parameter, and to specify the interval through which the auto save will occur. 6.2 Tabs A tab is a part of the interface on the toolbar. The report designer has the following tabs: Home, Insert, Layout, Preview.

129 Report Designer Tab Home This is a basic tab of the report designer. Main commands for customizing report components are placed on this tab Clipboard This group allows working with the Clipboard of the report designer. Paste components from the Clipboard on the current page of a report. Copy the selected components on the current page to the Clipboard. Cut the selected components from the current page to the Clipboard. Delete selected components on the current page Font This group is used to output text with the specified font type, color etc. 125

130 126 Select the font type of the text components on the current page. Select font size of the text components on the current page. Sets the font style as Bold, Italic, Underlined. Set the font color of the text components on the current page Borders This group contains the commands to setup border components. Sets or removes borders from all sides of a component. Sets or removes borders from each side of a component. Sets a border color of a component. Sets the shadow of a component. Sets a background color of a component. Sets a type of the border line. The button to call the border editor.

131 Report Designer 127 Using the visual editor you can set the borders. In this field you can change the style of the border (e.g., solid, point, double, etc.). In this field you can set shadow options. The Drop Shadow parameter shows/hides the shadow of the border. Here you can change the size of the shadow. Here you can change the shadow color Alignment The group is used to align the content of components horizontally and vertically. Also it is possible to set the angle of the text rotation and control the WordWrap property. Align top, center vertically and bottom the content of a component.

132 128 Used for the WordWrap property of the text component. Align left, center, right or justify the content of a component Text Formats The tool Text Format allows formatting values in the special form. Formatting affects on the text object entirely. For example, if the text component is used to display the date, the formatting is very easy. If you want to format only a specific value of the expression, or to format multiple values?in a single expression, it is recommended to use the method string.format. Using this method you can perform almost all the types of formatting that you can do with the tool Text Format. The group of controls to format text is shown on the picture below. Select text format. Call a form of formats editing General The General format is used to show text and numerical values of any type. No formatting is done in this case.

133 Report Designer Number It is recommended to use the format Number to show numerical values. 129

134 130 Use Group Separator When the Group Separator is used then number will be separated into number positions. Use Local Setting When using the Local settings, numerical values are formatted according to the current OS installations. Decimal Digits Number of decimal digits, which are used to format numerical values. Decimal Separator Used as a decimal separator to separate numerical values in formatting. Group Separator Used as a group separator when numerical values formatting. Group Size The number of digits in each group in currency values formatting. Negative Pattern This pattern is used to format negative values.

135 Report Designer Currency It is used to output values as currency. The format Currency can be used to output other numbers. Use Group separator When the Group Separator is used then currency values will be separated into number positions. Use Local setting When using the Local settings, currency values are formatted according to the current OS installations. Decimal Digits Number of decimal digits, which are used to format currency values. Decimal Separator Used as a decimal separator to separate currency values in formatting. Group Separator Used as a group separator when currency values formatting.

136 132 Group Size The number of digits in each group in currency values formatting. Positive Pattern This pattern is used to format positive values. Negative Pattern This pattern is used to format negative values. Currency Symbol This symbol is used to define the currency name Date The format Date is used to show a date. The format has different output options - short date format, extended date format etc. In all formats, except the ones which are marked with the (*) symbol, the order of elements is not changed. Date Format The list of formatting types.

137 Report Designer Time The format Time is used to show time. The format has different output options - short date format and extended date format (with seconds). Time Format The list of formatting types Percentage This format is used to show percent values. When formatting, the value is multiplied by 100 and is output with the percent symbol.

138 134 Use Group Separator When the Group Separator is used then currency values will be separated into number positions. Use Local Setting When using the Local settings, numerical values are formatted according to the current OS installations. Decimal Digits Number of decimal digits, which are used to format numerical values. Decimal Separator Used as a decimal separator to separate numerical values in formatting. Group Separator Used as a group separator when numerical values formatting. Group Size The number of digits in each group in currency values formatting. Positive Pattern This pattern is used to format positive values. Negative Pattern This pattern is used to format negative values.

139 Report Designer 135 Percentage Symbol The symbol will used as a percent symbol Boolean This format is used to format values of the Boolean type. The string value to identify Boolean values as false. The string value to represent Boolean value as false. The string value to represent Boolean value as true. The string value to represent the Boolean value as true Custom This type is used to show values according to custom requirements. This type allows data formatting in the Format Mask.

140 136 Mask A string or an expression that set formatting mask. Predefined Values The list of predefined values to format a string Styles Group controls the styles and conditions, which are used for the automatic registration of the components in the report.

141 Report Designer 137 Opens a window of the Conditions Editor for selected components. Opens a window of the Style Editor. How it works: Select the component prototype from which you will copy the style; Click the button Copy Style; Hover the cursor over components to which you want to apply the style. Press the mouse button and the style will be copied. In order to exit the copy mode you should click on the button Copy Style again or press Esc. Calls a form to edit styles. The quick menu to select the style. It is a list of styles for the selected component of a particular type Color Collection Editor Color Collection Editor provides an opportunity to create a certain collection of colors for the style: The button Add. When you click it the collection of colors will be added. By default,

142 138 the color White is added. Then, press and select the desired color. The button Remove. When you click it the selected color is removed from the collection of colors Up and down arrows are used to move the selected color in the list. The list of color collections Tab Insert The tab Insert contains the main components for creating reports Groups This group contains report components. Contains bands. Contains cross-bands and a cross table. Contains text components - text, rich-text, image, sub-report and others. Contains shapes including cross-primitives and primitives. Contains infographics tools Components The toolbox is a group of components for easy access. Accordingly, this group is customizable, i.e. required components can be added to the group or removed from it.

143 Report Designer 139 Below is the default state of a Toolbox group Tab Layout This tab is used to control placing different components on a page and also to specify styles of docking components Arrange The group contains a large number of commands used to change the position of components on a page. Align all selected components to the page grid. Align selected components. This element contains submenu and short description in

144 140 this topic below. Bring selected components to Front. Send selected components to Back. Move selected components on one level forward. Move selected components on one level backward. Choose the size of selected components. It contains submenu and is described in this topic below. The Lock command prevents moving or changing the size of components. The Link command links the component to the container in which it is located. The description of the Align button, specified with number 2 on the picture above. Align all selected components to their common left margin. Align horizontally all selected components to their common center. Align all selected components to their common right margin. Align all selected components to their common top margin. Align vertically all selected components to their common center. Align all selected components to their common bottom margin. Make horizontal spacing of selected components equal by their width. Make vertical spacing of selected components equal by their height. Center all selected components horizontally. Center all selected components vertically.

145 Report Designer 141 The description of the Size button, specified with number 7 on the topmost picture. Make the same size of components as the size of the first selected component. Make the same width of components as the size of the first selected component. Make the same height of components as the size of the first selected component Tab Preview With the tab Preview, you can preview the report before printing, exporting, sending, or any other action. You can also see a preview of the report can be in a separate window of the viewer. Runs a report for printing. Saves the report. Shows or hides the parameters panel in the report. Shows or hides the bookmarks tree. The viewer automatically identifies whether there are bookmarks in the report. Enables the Search bar File In the group File of the tab Preview you can find commands for further actions in the report.

146 142 Clicking this button opens the window Print, in which you should define settings for printing the report. The button Save contains a list of file types the rendered report can be exported to. It is necessary to determine where the report will be saved - on a computer or sent by . After that you should determine the type of file in what a report will be exported Panels In the Preview window you can include additional panels. With this button, you can hide or show the Parameters panel in the report. It should remember that if the report does not contain parameters, then this button will be disabled. The Bookmarks panel, which displays the report bookmarks. You should know that if there are no bookmarks in the rendered report, the viewer will automatically hide the bookmarks tree when you display the report first time. If there are bookmarks in the report, the viewer will automatically display the bookmarks tree Tools In this group you can find tools for searching, editing information, as well as closing a tab preview.

147 Report Designer 143 The button the Search bar. On this panel you can specify search options. More information may be found in the chapter in the report viewer Status Bar The status bar is placed under the designer window. The picture below shows a status bar of the Standard UI. The bar contains 4 sections: Units. This field shows current units in a report. It is possible to change them. Start Report Checker. The Report Checker will analyze the report, resulting in an errors, warnings, information messages, report rendering messages in this report:

148 144 Name of Selected Component. Shows cursor coordinates on a page of a report template. (Х:0,0 ; Y:0,0) coordinates corresponds to the top left corner of a page of a report template. The slider to zoom reports. 6.3 Panels In this section you will find a description of the main panel of the designer, such as: Dictionary, Report Tree, and Properties. These panels contain functions and commands to control the various components of the report. They also contain in the fields for the notification and tooltips Properties The Properties Panel displays all the properties of the selected component and its events. The picture below shows the Properties Panel, showing the properties of the component (left) and the events of the component (right).

149 Report Designer 145

150 146 The Properties Panel includes: the Drop-Down List of Components, Properties Toolbar, Properties Tab or Events Tab, and Description Panel. Consider these components in more detail. Properties Toolbar is used to control the Properties Panel. The picture below shows the Properties Toolbar. The button is used to sort by category - Categorized. The list of properties or events are sorted by category. The button is used sort alphabetically - Alphabetical. The list of properties or events are sorted in alphabetical order from A to Z (from A to Z). The button Localize Property Grid. If it is disabled, then the properties panel will be displayed with the default locale. The Pin button. The Properties Tab or Events is a table with two columns. The first column shows the name of a property or event, the second - values of this property or event. The number of rows depends on the number of properties or events, as one property or event takes one line. In the Properties panel of the context menu there is the Localize Property Grid command. If this command is enabled, the the Properties panel will be translated. If this command is disabled, the names of the properties, events, values and a description of the Properties panel will be in English Dictionary The panel Dictionary displays attached data, available data sources, system variables and functions. In addition, the dictionary can create a new connection and connect data sources to set up new connections between data sources.

151 Report Designer 147 The panel Dictionary consists of the Dictionary ToolBar, Data Tree, and Dictionary Setting Panel. The basic elements to control data dictionary can be found on the control panel. The menu New Item. In this menu the basic commands to create new elements in the data dictionary are placed - new connection, new data source,new variable, business objects. The button Edit provides an opportunity to change any element, which can be edited. Using the button Delete one can delete any item in the data dictionary. The Data Tree represents a list of all the data dictionary, which are displayed in a tree.

152 148 The panel Panel Setting Dictionary contains controls that provide an opportunity to change auxiliary parameters of the data dictionary. If the option Create Field on Double Click is enabled, then when double clicking the data column data in the report data dictionary, the report template in the DataBand will create a text component with reference to this data column. The parameter Create Label is used to create two text components (one with the signature, the a second with reference to the data column) when dragging a data column into the report. If this option is disabled, then, when dragging, only one text component with reference to a data column will be created.

153 Report Designer New Data Source YouTube Watch our video tutorials how to Create Data Source. Subscribe to the Stimulsoft channel and be the first who watches new video tutorials. Leave your questions and suggestions in the comments to the video. The report is a set of structured data. The entire structure of the report is a report template. When you create a report template there must be a description of the data. You can create a description of the data in the following ways: The Data Source item is created on the server, the Import Data command is executed. Then the created data source is attached to the Report item. In this case, when the report is loaded to the report designer, the description of the attached data source will be created in the data dictionary. Based on this description, you can create report templates. When rendering a report, the report server will extract the data from the source and implement their transfer to the report. Information The description of data does not contain the actual data. Filling the data is carried out at the time of the report creation process. The second method is to create a description of the data from the report designer. To do this, go to the Dictionary panel and, in the New Item menu, select the New Data Source command.

154 150 In the menu of creating a data source, all types of connection are grouped: The Connection group includes already set connections to data stores. If no connection is set, this group will not be displayed. The Favorites group lists the types of connections that have been marked by the user. In other words, the user can create a list of connections, noting them with stars. To do this, move the cursor to the top right corner of the connection and click the left mouse button (if you are using the touch interface just click the pointer input). If the star becomes orange, the connection is added to the list of favorites. In order to remove the connection from the list of favorites, you should click on the "burning" star.

155 Report Designer 151 On the left image the star is not checked, so the connection is not selected, and the right image shows that the connection is favorite. If no one connection is highlighted with the star, this group will not be displayed. This group contains a list of all the connections that support the SQL connection string. This group contains data sources to connect to the data store using the REST protocol. The Other group is placed commands to create connections to the data stores such as XML, Excel, JSON, CSV, Dbase. To create a connection to databases containing objects you should refer to this group. For example, for passing business objects from the storage to the report. This group contains previously created connections. In other words, if a connection to the data store was ever created, but is not available in the current report, the connection will be placed in this group. The Skip Schema Wizard parameter. When you are creating a data source you can retrieve data from the storage in the following ways: Get the data schema. In this case, you will see a hierarchical list of data in the form of tables, views, stored procedures, etc. The user should select the sources with flags. Thus, if there is huge amount of data in the store, it is preferable to use the second method described below; Generate a request for retrieving data. Determine the method of obtaining the data is possible using the Skip Schema Wizard parameter. If you need to get data schema, you should uncheck this option of the parameter. If you need to go to the creation of a query you should check this option of the parameter. You should remember that you can go to the creation of the query by clicking the New Query button from the form of retrieving the data schema. Information Ignore getting data scheme applies only to data sources that are part of a group of SQL data sources.

156 152 Now look at an example of creating a new data source. It is worth noting that before creating a data source you must have a created connection. If there is no connection, then go to the Dictionary, select New Data Source in the menu item New Item, and select the type of connection, for example, OLE DB. The form of the creation of the connection will be open: You should indicate the name of the connection, its alias, as well as the connection string. Here are the buttons to call the query builder, clear the connection, check the connection and the connection string template button (for OLE DB templates is as follows - Provider=SQLOLEDB.1; Integrated Security=SSPI; Persist Security Info=False; Initial Catalog=myDataBase; Data Source=myServerAddress). To verify the connection string, press the Test button. However, if the connection string does not contain errors, the user will be shown a window with the Connection was successful. If the connection string contains an error, the user will be shown a window with the text of the error that the database server returned in response to the attempt to create the connection. After clicking Ok, a new connection will be created and you will see a form of retrieving data. Depending on the type of connection and on the value of the Skip Schema Wizard parameter, the form of retrieving data will be open. In our example, the flag of

157 Report Designer 153 the Skip Schema Wizard was unchecked. Then data retrieval is carried out by the scheme. To get a list of tables from the database, it is necessary to click the Refresh button in this window. You can also enable/disable the Auto Refresh mode setting/ clearing the flag. If the flag is checked, the wizard will automatically update the list of data tables. The list in this window contains tabs, which are arranged in a hierarchical form. The main tab represents a category (for example, Queries, Tables, Views, Procedures). Select data table to create a new data source. It is also possible to exclude a column of data tables from the data source of the future. For this purpose, it is necessary to reveal the selected table and uncheck the box next to the name of the column that you want to exclude. By default, if the data table is selected, then all columns in this table are flagged, i.e. will be added to a new data source. Each selected data table will be a single source of data, ie, one table - one source. The picture below shows the Select Data window to the selected data tables, and columns of selected data. After clicking Ok, the data sources Categories, Products and Shippers will be created. The picture below shows the created data sources in the Dictionary.

158 154 Now, on the basis of these data descriptions you can create report templates Report Tree The panel Report Tree panel shows the hierarchy of the report, i.e. represents all the components of the report in the form of a tree. In addition, if an event handler is added to the component, it will also be displayed in the hierarchy of the report. The picture below shows an example of the panel Report Tree.

159 Report Designer 155 As can be seen on the picture above, hierarchy is represented on the principle of "nesting". The panel provides the ability to visually identify the submission of a "component to a component". 6.4 Keyboard Shortcuts The report designer supports many keyboard shortcuts. Using them can speed up the effectiveness of work in creating reports. Keyboard Shortcuts Buttons Description Ctrl+B Makes letters bold Ctrl+I Makes letters Italic Ctrl+U Makes letters Underlined Ctrl+ + Increases the font size Ctrl+ - Decreases the font size Ctrl+L Aligns selection or paragraph to the left Ctrl+E Aligns selection or paragraph to the center Ctrl+R Aligns selection or paragraph to the right Ctrl+J Justifies selection Ctrl+Shift+D Activates the panel Dictionary Ctrl+Shift+M Activates the panel Messages Ctrl+Shift+L Activates the panel Report Tree F4 Shift+Enter Activate the panel Properties Ctrl+C Ctrl+Insert Copies the selected text or object to the Clipboard Delete Ctrl+Delete Deletes the selected component

160 156 Ctrl+V Shift+Insert Pastes the text or object from the Clipboard Ctrl+X Shift+Delete Cuts the selected text or object Ctrl+A Select All Ctrl+Z Undo Ctrl+Y Redo Ctrl+F2 Shows Data Store Ctrl+F5 Shows Services Configurator Ctrl+N Creates a new report Ctrl+Shift+N Adds a page to the report Ctrl+Shift+F Adds a form to the report Ctrl+O Loads a report from the file Ctrl+Shift+O Loads a page from the file Ctrl+S Saves a report Ctrl+F12 Saves a report as... Ctrl+Tab Switching between pages in the report template F5 Report preview Ctrl+Enter Calls the designer by default for the elected component Enter Calls the text editor for the selected component F1 Select the tool Select F3 Selects the tool Text Editor F6 Selects the tool Copy Style F8 Selects the tool Hand Cursor keys Moves selection Shift+Cursor keys Resizes the selected component (one step = grid size) Shift+Alt Resizes the selected component (one step = half grid size)

161 Report Designer 157 +Cursor keys 6.5 Ctrl+Cursor keys Moves the selected component (one step = grid size) Ctrl+Alt +Cursor keys Moves the selected component (one step = half grid size) Ctrl+Drag mouse Copies the selected components Alt+Drag mouse Ignores Align to Grid when moving and resizing Ctrl+F4 Calls the page manager Context Menu The Context Menu is a menu in a graphical user interface that appears upon user interaction (a right mouse click). A context menu offers a set of choices that are available in the current state of the component.

162 158 As can be seen from the picture, the context menu has a range of instruments and a list of commands. First, we consider the toolbar. The command Design... invokes the editor of a selected component. For example, if it is a text component then the Text Editor will be called. The Copy command copies the selected component to the clipboard. The command Cut cuts the selected component to the clipboard. The command Paste pastes the copied or cut component from the clipboard. The command Delete deletes the selected component. The command Property. By pressing this button the properties panel of the selected component will become active. In addition to the range of instruments the context menu also contains commands and some properties of the component: Align. This item contains a submenu that contains commands to align components.

163 Report Designer 159 For example, align to grid. The group Order. Using these commands you can determine the position of the selected component. For example, a component can be placed in the foreground. Information With the simultaneous selection of two or more components, the Size command appears the context menu. This command contains a sub-menu, where you can define the parameters of the same size for all selected components. The sample size will be the size of the component from what the selection started. If you select all the components on the page, choose Select All in the context menu, or use the shortcuts Ctrl + A, then the size of the prototype for all the components will be the size of the component, which is located at a higher level above the rest of the components in the report tree on this level. Viewing the report tree can be done on the Report Tree panel. The component properties below are displayed depending on the type of the selected component. For example, a list of values for the text component:

164 160 In order to use HTML tags in the text, it is necessary to enable this option. The AutoWidth property provides the ability to automatically change the width of the text component, depending on the width of the text. Can Break. This property should be enabled if breaking a component is allowed. Can Grow. If the Can Grow property is set to true the component can automatically increase its size if the information contained within it does not fit in the space available. If it is set to false the information will be cropped to the component size Can Shrink. If the Can Shrink property is set to true the component can automatically reduce its size so that it fits exactly to the size of the text or image being displayed. If it is set to false the component remains the same size leaving unused space around the information it contains Editable. In order to edit the text component in the report viewer, using the Editor tool, you should enable this property. Enabled. If you want to disable the component you should disable the property (uncheck it). Grow to Height. If you set the Grow to Height property to true all components that do not change their size will have their bottom borders bound to the bottom border of the container. Hide Zeros. In order not to display zero values??, you should enable this property. If the property is enabled, the zero values?are not displayed. Only Text. The text component can contain expressions, text, features, HTML tags and more. If you enable this option, then the contents of the component will be processed as text. Printable. If you want the selected component be present in the report when printing, then you should enable this property. If this property is disabled, the component will be present in a report, but will be absent in the report when printing. Word Wrap. If the WordWrap property is set to false, then the text is output in one line, and if it does not fit in one line it will be cut. 6.6 Charts Editor When you add the component Chart in the report template, the chart editor is called. This editor is used to create the chart: defining the types of rows, data sources, styles, and other settings. A chart can be created using the wizard or manually. Below is a diagram editor.

165 Report Designer 161 The button Run Chart Wizard. When you press this button, a chart of a certain type with the specified parameters is created. Pressing this button cancels the creation of a chart but the component remains is the report template. As can be seen from the picture above, the chart editor contains the following tabs: Chart. Defined the Chart type;

166 162 Series. Defines the parameters of the series; Area. Sets areas with axes; Labels. Sets chart labels; Styles. Sets the style for the chart Tab Chart The tab Chart defines the parameters relating to the diagrams. These parameters are grouped depending on the selected group on the property panel.

167 Report Designer 163 The Preview window. This panel displays the chart and immediately previews changes made in real time. All chart parameters are grouped. A list of these groups is represented on this panel. When a group is selected, the Properties panel will display the parameters of the selected group: The group Common. Contains common settings such as a data source for the chart, the vertical/horizontal alignment, rotation angle and others. The group Legend. Contains settings for the legend such as enabling/disabling it, alignment options, direction, etc. The group Title. Contains settings for the title of the chart such as text, alignment options, etc. The group Constant Line. Contains settings for constant lines. Moreover, in this parameter group involves adding a constant line in the chart. The group Strips. Contains settings to control strips in charts. You can add a new strip here. The group Table. Contains settings to display values?as a table. It should be noted that in some groups you can add elements to the chart. In this tab, this note concerns groups Constant Lines and Strips.

168 164 The button is used to add the constant line. The button is used to erase the selected line. The buttons move the selected item in the list on the panel The panel with the list of items Tab Series Series of the chart component are the main element of the diagram. Series are important to visualize data. It should be understood that construction is not possible without series of the diagram.

169 Report Designer 165 The toolbar contains the basic commands to control the chart series: adding series, deleting the selected one, moving the selected series in the list. Information If the chart type is defined on the Chart tab, in the menu of adding rows, only series of this type will only be available, and those that can interact with the type of a chart. If the chart type is not specified, the type of a chart will depend on the selected series.

170 166 The list of chart series. As can be seen from the picture, this chart contains three rows. The preview panel. This panel displays the chart and immediately previews changes made in real time. The list of group of parameters of the tab Series: The group Common. You can find settings for the selected series. Among them are data source, data, etc. The group Conditions. Here you can set parameters for the selected series. The group Filter. Parameters of filtering of the selected series can be set here. The group Interaction. Here you can setup interaction of the series. The group TopN. In this group you can set maximum or minimum values??. The group Series Labels. This group of parameters are used to define position, rotation for series labels etc. Information Various displaying modes of series labels can be applied in the chart series - Show Series Labels: From Series and Show Series Labels: From Chart. The mode is defined in the tab Labels in the group of properties Series Labels. If the mode Show Series Labels: From Series is enabled, then on the tab Series, the group Series Labels you should define the type of labels. In this mode, you can specify a particular type of labels for each series. If the mode Show Series Labels: From Chart is enabled then the type of series labels will be the same as selected in the tab Labels. For example, you have a chart with 10 series in it and labels should have the same style, i.e. be of the same type. In this case, on the tab Labels, you can define the type and in settings of each series you can specify the mode Labels From Chart Tab Area The Area is a space that includes the basic chart items: rendered data series, axes, chart title and legend. The management of this space is carried out on the tab Area, in the editor Diagram.

171 Report Designer 167 The panel Preview. This panel displays the chart and immediately previews changes made in real time. The list of parameters groups in the tab Area: The group Common. The group contains settings such as rotation, horizontal, vertical display, border color etc. The group X Axis. The group contains settings for the X axis. The group Y Axis. The group contains settings for the Y axis. The group X Top Axis. The group contains settings for the X top axis. The group Right Y-Axis. The group contains settings for the right Y axis. The group Grid Lines Hor. The group contains settings for horizontal lines. The group Grid Lines Vert. The group contains settings for vertical lines.

172 168 The group Grid Lines Hor Right. The group contains settings for right horizontal lines. The group Interlacing Hor. The group contains settings of alternation of horizontal cells in the chart area. The group Interlacing Vert. The group contains settings of alternation of vertical cells in the chart area Tab Labels On this tab you can set the type of labels in the chart. The selected appearance of the title will be applied to all rows that have the mode Show Series Labels: From Series disabled. Information You can use a variety of modes of display labels. - Headlines from the series or title of the chart. If the mode Show Series Labels: From Series is enabled, then on the tab Series, the group Series Labels you should define the type of labels. In this mode, you can specify a particular type of labels for each series. If the mode Show Series Labels: From Chart is enabled then the type of series labels will be the same as selected in the tab Labels. For example, you have a chart with 10 series in it and labels should have the same style, i.e. be of the same type. In this case, on the tab Labels, you can define the type and in settings of each series you can specify the mode Labels From Chart. The picture below shows the tab Labels.

173 Report Designer 169 This panel displays a list of different types of labels. The preview panel. This panel displays the chart and immediately previews changes made in real time. The list of groups of parameters: The group Common. You can find settings such as Text before, text after, rotation etc. The group Conditions. Here you can set parameters for the selected series.

174 Tab Styles You can completely change the design of charts, ranging from basic colors and ending with shadows, borders, and so on. You can do this in the tab Styles. The button is used to call the style designer. In the designer, you can create a style for the chart and the collection of styles for other components. In this panel you can see the list of styles that are available by default. The panel Preview. This panel displays the chart and immediately previews changes

175 Report Designer 171 made in real time. The button More Styles. When you click it you will see the list of styles available by default. Information If the AllowApplyStyle is enabled then the style will be applied. If you disable the AllowApplyStyle then the parameters of series will be considered Wizard The Chart wizard provides an opportunity to create a chart in a few simple steps. To start the wizard, you should the button Chart Wizard in the chart editor. The wizard provides a step-by-step procedure to create a chart. By default, the first type (Clustered Column) is selected in the list.

176 172 Information In order to proceed to the next step, press the button Next. You should remember that you can always return to the previous step by clicking the button Back.

177 Report Designer 173 The chart component contains a collection of preset styles for the chart. Select one of them to create a chart. By default, the first style in the list is selected. In the next step, you need to create a series of charts and specify their values.

178 174 Clicking on this button a list of series opens. Depending on the particular type of chart, the list will have different types of series. To add a series to a chart you should select it in the list. Deletes the selected series of a chart. The buttons are used to move the selected number of series in the list of charts. This panel displays a list of chart series. In the field of this this option you can change the name of the series. By default, all series have the name as Series+"number". In this panel you can set chart arguments and values. This panel has two tabs:

179 Report Designer 175 The tab Data Columns?you must specify the data columns for arguments and values. For example, the column of arguments contains entries A, B, C. The values column?will contain entries: 23, 43, 56. In this case, the argument A will match the value 23, the argument B will match the value 43, and the argument C - the value 56. Besides data columns you can manually set the arguments and values. You can do this in the tab List of Values. Add new block that consists of fields Argument and Value. You should know that in the added block the specified value will correspond to the argument in this block. Remove the last inserted block of fields Value and Argument. The list of arguments fields, i.e. in these fields arguments of a chart are specified. For example, the arguments A, B, C, D. The list of values fields, i.e. in these fields the values?of the chart are shown. For example, the values?1, 2, 3, 4. Information It should be noted that for rendering the chart there must be at least one values, i.e. the value is required to be specified. Arguments, if they are not specified, they will be automatically created. On the next step, it is necessary to define the look of labels in the chart. By default, labels are disabled.

180 176 The list of labels for the chart, with examples of their placing on this type of a chart. Parameters of labels, their angle, the text before the header text after the header, etc.

181 Report Designer 177 Information You should know that when you create a chart manually, i.e. without using the wizard, you can specify label look as the entire chart and its our look for each row of the label. When you create a chart using the wizard, you can only define the general form of signatures for the whole diagram, i.e. one type for all series of the chart. On the next step, it is necessary to define axes settings.

182 178 The panel Preview. The most important settings are displayed on the axes. Moreover, this panel has tabs axis X and axis Y. The parameter Title. This group of settings specifies the text of the axis title and its alignment. The parameter Ticks. It is determined by the number of intermediate ticks and display mode - without labels, only the main, and all labels. The group Grid Lines. This group defines the parameters of the grid line.

183 Report Designer 179 The group Labels. In this group you can specify the parameters of axis titles such as on/off, reverse, etc. In the last step you need to define parameters of the chart legend. Legend is an area that displays the symbols of different data series in the chart. The panel Preview. The group Title. Here you can specify the title for the legend. The group Alignment. Legend can be located in different places in the chart. In this

184 180 group you can setup the vertical and horizontal alignment of the legend in the chart. The group Direction. Entries in the legend can be placed in different directions. Here you can indicate the direction in the legend in this group. The group Marker. The marker is an icon that helps you to visually recognize a series of charts. The number of markers corresponding to the number of rows. Setting markers is performed in this group of parameters. The group Spacing. Increasing or decreasing the vertical and horizontal indentation in the legend is carried out with the help of these parameters. Also, in this group there is a parameter Visible. If this option is enabled the legend is displayed. If not - the legend is not displayed. Click the button Finish and the chart will be created. 6.7 Image Sometimes you need to add an image to the report. It can be photos of goods, workers, statistics, etc. Images can be added from different sources. The component Image is used for this purpose. The Image component can be placed on a report page, data band, header, footer band etc.). When you put this component on the report page the form Image will be called.

185 Report Designer 181 The panel displays the uploaded image. The button Open. Pressing this button will call the dialog box where you can select an image to upload. The button Delete. Deletes an image. The Image Gallery is a list of images from the data dictionary items: data sources, variables, resources. The list of sources from where the image can be uploaded. As can be seen from the figure above, the images can be downloaded from various sources. Consider out in more detail.

186 182 The source Image In this case, you must click Open and select the image. This is the upload an image from a local source. The source Data Column The image may be contained in the data table, for example, a separate column of data with images. With this type of source, you must select a data column from which the image will be extracted. The source Expression Loading pictures from the expression. In this case the expression will be specified. For example, the image may be contained in a variable. Therefore, it is enough to specify the expression, that is a reference to the variable from which the image is taken. The source Hyperlink The image can be uploaded from a URL. You can also specify a link to the report resource by the next template resource://nameimage. The source File The image can be retrieved from a file that will be uploaded from a local source. With this type of source, you need to press the button and select a file. The source Cloud If the image will be attached to the report, they will be displayed in this source. 6.8 Sub-Report The Sub-Report is a report component that can be placed on a band, page, panel or any other component that can be a container for the sub-report. When placing this component, the reporting tool will add nested page into the report and bind it with the Sub-Report. When rendering a report, the reporting tool will build all sub-reports and place them in this container. On the nested page a report that has any structure can be created. Also the Sub-Report component can be placed on the nested page, so the nested page of the second level will be created. In other words it is possible to create complex hierarchy in a report.

187 Report Designer 183 In the image above, this field displays the list of pages in the report template. You must select the page on which the sub-report will be located. Tabs. Each tab is a definite source of sub-reports except the tab Parameters. Consider the other tabs in more detail. The tab File. You need to press the button and select a file (*.mrt). This file will be a sub-report. The tab URL You should specify the URL to a sub-report.

188 184 The tab Server. On this tab, you should specify the report from the report server, i.e. specify a subreport from those stored on the report server. Consider an example. A report list of products is storing on the report server. This report will be a sub-report. Also the server has a report - list of categories, which will be the master report. Therefore, you must perform the following steps: 1. Select the report list of categories in the item tree of the Navigator and click the button Edit on the tab Home or select a similar command from the context menu. 2. In the field Attached Items add a report list of products and click Ok in the edit form. 3. Load the report list of categories to the report designer by selecting the command Design Report. After the report designer is running all attached items by category will be shown in the Dictionary. If images are attached then the Dictionary will have the category Images, if reports - the category Reports. In this example, the report is attached. This means that the category Reports should be created and the report list of products will be in it. More precisely, a description of the report list of products with reference to the object of the report server will be present. 4. Add the Sub-Report to a desired location, and, on the tab Server, specify a report by products (dragging list of products from the data dictionary to the field of the subreport editor or select it in the data dictionary and click the button ). Parameters The relation between the master and sub-report is done by passing parameters from one to another. For example, the parameters may be used in filtering data: If the product should be filtered by category, then it will pass the category ID. It is necessary to specify in the attached report (in band, cross-table, tables, etc.), a filter expression by CategoryID. The picture below shows the editor Sub-Report on the tab Parameters.

189 Report Designer 185 The button to add a parameter to the list of parameters. The button to delete the selected parameter from the list. Navigation buttons in the parameter list in the direction of "up and down". The panel with the list of the parameters. The name of the parameter. The field which indicates the expression of the parameter. The button is used to add an expressions, if a function, column data, variables, etc is selected in the the data dictionary. 6.9 Cross-Tab Editor When creating a cross-tab component or when editing this component, a special editor will be called. The editor has Data, Cross-Tab, and Styles tabs which contain settings of

190 186 the Cross-Tab. In addition, settings and parameters are grouped in tabs. The button New Data Source. Clicking this button will open a window to create a new data source. The button New Business Object. Clicking this button will open a window to create a new business object. This field displays the settings and parameters. The list of parameter groups can be found on this tab.

191 Report Designer 187 Data Source In this group you can select data source for the cross-tab. In addition, there is a button to create a window to call the data source and the new business object. Relation In this group, the connection between the selected sources is selected. There is also a new button New Relation to call the windows to create a connection. Sort In this group you can specify sorting parameters and its direction. Filters In this group you can specify filtering parameters, add a new filter, set filtering conditions Cross-Tab Tab The Cross-Tab tab contains options to define the structure of a cross-tab component, the column indicates the data for the rows, columns, summary cells.

192 188 The data source that will be used to create a cross-table. A list of data columns which will form a cross-tab. The button deletes the selected item from fields - Rows, Columns, Summary. If to add more than one item to the cross-tab fields (rows, columns, summary), the button will be available to move the selected item in the list. The reverse button between the columns and rows. Clicking the button changes the contents of the line to the contents of the column. The list of data columns, which will form the cross-tab columns. The list of data columns, which will form the totals of a cross-tab.

193 Report Designer 189 This panel shows the structure of a cross-tab Styles Tab The final stage of the creating a cross-tab is to define its style. The button calls the style designer. The list of preset styles available for cross-table. If you need a different style, you

194 190 should call a designer to create a new style. In order to select the desired style, simply select it. At the same time the preview panel will display the structure of a cross-tab with the applied style. The preview panel to see the structure a cross-tab. A red box around the cell indicates that the cell is selected Clone Components of Stimulsoft Reports include a unique one - Clone. This component is designed to continue a report in a certain location of a report. Information The Clone component can only work with the Panel component. Consider the process of using the clone. Suppose you need to display a list of products in different parts of the report page. To do this, put the Panel component (call it Panel1) somewhere in the report and place in it a DataBand with a list of products.

195 Report Designer 191 On the right side of the panel and below it you need to display any other component

196 192 (image, text, chart etc.). In the example above we put the ZIP code on the right and the bar-code below. In the rendered report the list will be interrupted within the borders of the panel. The ZIP code will be on the right and the bar-code below. The list will be continuing to output on the next page. Place the Clone component (call it Clone1) to continue the list on this page, minimizing the empty space and specify the component Panel1 as a source. Selecting the source for the Clone component is carried out in the Select Container form, which will be opened when adding of a clone in a report template or when editing the clone. It is also possible to arrange one more Clone components Clone2, but define Clone1 as a source.

197 Report Designer 193 When rendering a report, a list of products will be displayed in the component Panel1.

198 194 After the panel is filled the list of products will be output in Clone1, and then in Clone2. If not all data from the source will be displayed in the report, the rendering continues on the next report page, in the same sequence (Panel1 - Clone1 - Clone2). At the same time, the ZIP code and bar-code will be output. The picture below shows a page of the rendered report.

199 Report Designer 195

200 196 Information Panel components and their clones are output the order of placement of components on a page. 7 Report Viewer Stimulsoft Reports.Server has a report viewer that is used to view, print, export, send reports by . The report viewer can be found on a separate tab that opens when the action is associated with report items, for example, by the action of View. The picture below shows the tab Viewer with the report displayed in it:

201 Report Viewer Toolbar The main toolbar locates commands to control the report. Below is the structure of the toolbar with the description of each command:

202 198 Prints a report. After activation of this command the printing dialog with parameters of printing will be displayed. Saves the rendered report to other file formats. Opens the dialog for changing basic parameters of the rendered report. Shows/hides the tree of bookmarks. If there are no bookmarks in the rendered report then the viewer will automatically hide the tree of bookmarks. If there are bookmarks in a report, then the viewer will automatically show the tree of bookmarks. Enable the search panel. Status Bar On the picture below you can see the toolbar that is used for report navigation Set the first page of a report as the current page. Set the previous page of a report as the current one. Show the number of the current page and the number of pages in a report. Set the next page of a report as the current one. Set the last page of a report as the current page. Change zoom of the report to fit the page width to the screen width. Change zoom of the report to display only one full page. More than one page by the width can be output. Set the report zoom. Search Panel The search panel is used to search some text in the report. On the main toolbar this option can be enabled by clicking the binocular icon. All controls for search are placed on a single panel.

203 Report Viewer 199 Close the search panel. The field to put a text that should be found. The button Find Previous to run search. The button Find Next to run search. If the flag is set, then search will be repeated considering the case. If the flag is set, then search will be done considering the whole word. 7.2 Exports YouTube Watch our video tutorials on export reports. Subscribe to the Stimulsoft channel and be the first who watches new video tutorials. Leave your questions and suggestions in the comments to the video. This section describes principles of saving rendered reports to different formats, basic characteristics of methods for export, export optimization guidelines data structure which are used in export methods. Stimulsoft Reports.Server supports great many export formats to save rendered reports. Many clients think that there are too many formats. But when you need to get file of definite format type, write only one string of code and the format is not PDF, HTML or RTF, only Stimulsoft Reports may help. We do not think that too many export formats in our report generator is disadvantage and continually work on adding new formats. The more exports the better, as they say.

204 Available File Formats A list of supported file formats is represented in the table below. All exports are joined into groups. List of Exports? Export Name Formats with Fixed Page Layout 1 PDF (Portable Document Format) 2 XPS (XML Paper Specification)

205 Report Viewer Microsoft Power Point File Web Documents 4 HTML (HyperText Markup Language) 5 HTML5 (HyperText Markup Language) 6 MHT (MIME HTML) Text Formats 7 TXT (Text File) 8 RTF (Rich Text File) 9 Microsoft Word File 10 ODT (OpenDocument Writer File) Spreadsheets Microsoft Excel File 12 Microsoft Excel Xml 13 Microsoft Excel 2007/ ODS (Open Document Calc File) 15 Data (CSV, DBF, XML, DIF, SYLN) 16 Images (BMP, GIF, PCX, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, EMF, SVG, SVGZ) Common Export Settings These chapters describe export settings which are not unique and are met in a few exports. Therefore, to prevent describing them again and again, they are joined in this section. Image Quality Image quality is the compression degree of JPEG. If the compression is low then an image is of good quality and has big file size. If the compression is high then an image is of bad quality and has small file size. In Stimulsoft Reports an image quality can vary from 0.0 (the lowest quality) to 1.0 (highest quality). If an image quality is 1.0 it does

206 202 not mean that the image is saved without compression. The JPEG algorithm always compresses an image. The 1.0 quality means that an image quality will be the same as the quality of an original document but the file size will be smaller than the original. The 0.0 quality means that the image has slightest similarity to the original document. In practice, the 0.9 quality has not great distinction from the 1.0 quality but the image with lower than the 0.1 quality looks bad. By default, in Stimulsoft Reports the image quality is Image Resolution Raster images such as scanned photos consist of small cells called pixels. Image resolution depends on the pixel size and is measured in pixels per inch, ppi, and sometimes in dots per inch, dpi. The higher resolution the more pixels the image contains and, accordingly, the more size of the image. In Stimulsoft Reports it is possible to set any image resolution. But when increasing the resolution in 2 times the image size will increase in 4 times. Also it is not good to set the image resolution more than maximal resolution of an output device. For example, devices may have the following resolution: matrix printer - 72dpi; monitor screen - 96dpi; laser printers - 300dpi or 600dpi; high-end printers dpi and higher. By default the resolution is 100dpi. Image Comparer Sometimes repetitive image can be met in a report, for example, company logos on the header of each page. If do not process such duplicates then a report after export will have big size. Some formats allows exporting only one image and then refer to it from different parts of a document. In Stimulsoft Reports, there is a special class that calculates check sums and searches and processes duplicates. Image processing may slow down the process of exporting, so it is possible to disable this feature. Each export has its own property to enable or disable image comparison. By default this property is always enabled. Convert Digits to Arabic Arabs do not use Arabic digits. They use Hindi digits and Arabic digits are auxiliary (the same as Roman digits for us). But, in any case, all digits are written from left to right.

207 Report Viewer 203 This property indicates whether it is necessary to convert Roman digits (ASCII 0030h0039h) to Arabic digits (Unicode 0660h-0669h or 06F0h-06F9h, depending on the ArabicDigitsType property). In each types of export the digits conversion can be set by their own property. Arabic Digits Type Arabic digits have two variants of drawing: Standard and Eastern. The property allows selecting the type of Arabic digits that will be used in export: Standard or Eastern; by default the Standard type is used. In each export the type of Arabic digits is enabled or disabled by its own property. Divide Segment Pages Stimulsoft Reports.Server allows creating segmented pages. These are pages which horizontal and/or vertical size are increased in some times. Some applications, such as MS Excel, allows working with pages of any size, because breaking into small segments can is processed with the spreadsheet itself. Other applications, such as MS Word, cannot break pages into small segments. For such applications segmented pages are broken into separate pages on the stage of selected export; if property, for example, for Word2007, StiOptions.Export.Word2007.DivideSegmentPages, is set to false then pages are passed "as is" without breaking into segments. Each type of export has its own property for breaking segmented pages. Remove Empty Space at Bottom Many exports uses the table mode of export. In this mode data is converted into one table. If, in the initial report, there is an empty space on the bottom of a page then the table is broken. The following property allows removing empty space at the bottom of a page and resulting table is not broken. If it is necessary to save the initial view of a document then it is necessary to set this property to false. In each type of exports their own property is used. Use One Page Header and Footer When exporting to Excel then all report is converted in one table. Headers and footers of a page break this table. This property leaves only the first header and the last header of a page. All other headers and footers are removed. If it is necessary to save the initial view of a document then it is necessary to set this property to false. For each type of exports their own property is used.

208 Formats with Fixed Page Layout Stimulsoft Reports.Server supports three exports with fixed page layout. This means that all elements of a page can be placed at any part of a page. In this case, if to change a position of one element then other components position will not be changed. These are formats to PDF (Portable Document Format), Microsoft Power Point File and XPS (XML Paper Specification) PDF PDF (Portable Document Format) is a file format created by Adobe Systems for document exchange used to create electronic editions using the Adobe Acrobat package. The PDF format is a file text format that is used to publish documents on any platform and OS. The PDF document contains one or more pages. Each page may contain any components: text, graphic and illustrations, information, that provides navigation across the document. Information Export to PDF is based on the "Adobe Portable Document Format, Version 1.3, second edition", using some elements of latest format specifications. To reduce the size of the PDF file uses a different compression methods. To compress text material used algorithm LZW ("Flate"). To compress graphics algorithms used JPEG or LZW. Algorithm JPEG - is a lossy compression is recommended for full-color illustrations and images. LZW algorithm - is lossless, it is recommended for illustrations and images with a small number of colors, such as graphs, charts, diagrams. To ensure the independence of the PDF font file contains a description for each font used in the document. The description includes the name, size, style and font settings. While viewing the document, if the font is described in the document is available, it is used. If not available, then replaced with a similar of the same size and other characteristics. Fonts can be embedded in the document. This greatly increases file size but ensures the correct display of the document on any computer.

209 Report Viewer 205 The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. Image Resolution Mode. Depending on the values of this parameter, another resolution will be applied to the images: The Exactly value. All images after conversion will have a resolution that is set in the Resolution parameter of an image;

210 206 The No More Than value. If the original resolution of an image is smaller than the specified in the Resolution parameter, the resolution of the image, after the conversion of the initial report, will correspond to the original one. If the original resolution is greater than the specified image Resolution, the image resolution will match the value of the Resolution parameter. The Auto value. The image, after the report rendering, will have the original resolution. The Image Compression Method allows defining the mode of image compression in the PDF file. The following modes are available: JPEG - compression with loss; Flate - compression without loss; Simple - monochrome mode without dithering; Ordered - monochrome image with dithering; FloydSt. - the most precise monochrome mode with dithering. The option Allow Editable provides the ability to enable the mode in which, after exporting, it will be possible to modify components with the Editable property enabled. If No is set, then you can edit all components, unless it is not limited with safety parameters. If you select Yes then you can only edit components with the Editable property enabled. Notice Please note that restrictions on editing a Word document do not use encryption algorithms strong to cracking. Therefore, for the security of the document it is recommended to use a digital signature and security group. The Image Quality will be available only if you select the compression method JPEG. This option allows you to change the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The flag Embedded Fonts provides the ability to embed the font files into the created PDF file. If this option is enabled, then when you export a report, the files of all the fonts used in the report will be included in a PDF file, and fonts in the resulting file will be displayed correctly in any PDF viewer. If the property is disabled, then to display the file correctly all the fonts used in the report must be installed on the computer.

211 Report Viewer 207 Information If you enable this option, the file size may increase significantly. Especially when using a large number of fonts with different characters, for example Asian. The flag Export Rich Text as Image as Image enables/disables the conversion of the RTF text into the image. If the option is disabled, the Rich Text is decomposed into simpler primitives supported by the PDF format. The Rich Text with complex formatting (embedded images, tables) cannot always be converted correctly. In this case it is recommended to enable this option. Information When you enable this option, the file size may increase significantly. The flag PDF/A Compliance enables/disables support for standard long-term archiving of electronic documents. Compliance ensures that the document will have the same look in later versions of Adobe Acrobat. Enabling this option will also automatically include the options Embed Fonts and use Unicode. The Document Security Embedded Fonts By default all embedded fonts are optimized. Characters which are not used in a report are excluded. It allows decreasing the size of a file. But, for correct work of the editable field, the font should be complete. Therefore, for fonts, which are used in editable fields, optimization is not done. This increases the output file size. If Asian languages are used, the file size can be 15-20mb. Font Styles There is one peculiarity of the export: all fonts for embedding to PDF files should be installed in the system. And for each font style a single font file should be installed. For example, for the Arial font 4 files should be installed: "arial.ttf" - the style regular,

212 208 "ariali.ttf" - the style italic, "arialb.ttf" - the style bold, "arialbi.ttf" - the style bold-italic; The Lucida Console font is usually represented with one file that contains the regular style (other styles are generated by the system). Therefore, when embedding such a font to the PDF file, only regular style will be output, instead of all styles of this font Encryption The PDF document can be encrypted to protect the content from illegal access. The user can set the following encryption patameters: In the field User Password, specify the password required to open the document. If you set the password, access to the opening file is limited and will occur only if you specify the correct password. If no password is specified, i.e. the field is left blank, then the file may be opened without restrictions. In the field Owner Password, specify the owner password to access the file. If you specify a password, access to the file operations, such as printing, copying etc will be available only after entering a password. If no password is specified, i.e., the field is left blank, the file operations will be available without restriction. The flag Allow Print Document enables/disables the restricted access to the printing operation. If this option is disabled, specifying the owner password is required to perform this operation. If enabled, then printing will be available for everyone who opens the document. The flag Allow Modify Contents enables/disables access to editing the text in the report. If this option is disabled, specifying the owner password is required to perform this operation. If enabled, then editing will be available for everyone who opens the

213 Report Viewer 209 document. The flag Allow Copy Text and Graphics enables/disables access to copying the information. If this option is disabled, specifying the owner password is required to perform this operation. If enabled, then copying will be available for everyone who opens the document. The flag Allow Add or Modify Text Annotations enables limited access to work with the annotations in the document. If this option is disabled, specifying the owner password is required to perform this operation. If enabled, then this operation will be available for everyone who opens the document. The flag Encryption Key Length allows selecting the length of the encryption key. The longer the length is, the more difficult is to decrypt the document, and, therefore, the safety of the document is higher. Passwords and Access Permission According to the PDF specification, it is possible to set the access and two passwords: the public password and the owner's password. If there are no passwords and everything is allowed to do with the document, then the document is not encrypted. If even one password is set or access is not allowed, then the document is encrypted. The public password allows opening and viewing documents, and also some actions are allowed: edit document; copy text and graphics from the document; add and change commentaries; print document. The owner password provides access to the document, including password changing and access permission. If the owner's password is set, and the public password is not set, then, when opening a document, the password is not requested. Key Length The PDF Reference defines both 40-bit, 128-bit, 256-bit encryption. By default 128-bit key is used. 256-bit key is more secure the 40-bit and 128-bit key. But is some countries the key length of encryption is limited. Quote from PDF Reference "A PDF document can be encrypted to protect its contents from unauthorized access.

214 210 The encryption of data in a PDF file is based on the use of an encryption key computed by the security handler. Different security handlers can compute the key in a variety of ways, more or less cryptographically secure. In particular, PDF s standard encryption handler limits the key to 5 bytes (40 bits) in length, in accordance with U.S. cryptographic export requirements in effect at the time of initial publication of the PDF 1.3 specification." Compatibility of Different Versions The information below shows the compatibility of Adobe Acrobat versions. Adobe Acrobat 5 The PageScaling option from the file is ignored. By default the option in parameters of Adobe Acrobat is set to "None" but "Fit to printable area" value is used. Adobe Acrobat 5 & 6 When editing Adobe Acrobat does not recognize the Unicode - only Latin characters are output (Latin-1 encoding), other characters are output as dots; If the "UseUnicode" option in export parameters is enabled, then it is necessary to embed fonts (the "Embedded Fonts" option), otherwise the will be output incorrectly. Adobe Acrobat 7 It is necessary to embed fonts to the PDF file. Otherwise, when editing, any font will be replaced on the default font (usually on Tahoma). Adobe Acrobat 7 Reader There are some problems with versions. In these versions the field is not included into the editing mode, if there are non Latin characters present in the text field (different from Latin-1) XPS XPS (XML Paper Specification) is the open graphic format of fixed page layout on the base XML (more precisely XAML-based) used to store printed output as electronic documents. This format was developed by Microsoft as alternative to the PDF format.the XPS document format consists of structured XML markup that defines the layout of a document and the visual appearance of each page, along with rendering rules for distributing, archiving, rendering, processing and printing the documents. The

215 Report Viewer 211 markup language for XPS is a subset of XAML that allows including vector graphic elements, using XAML to mark up the WPF-primitives. The XPS is a ZIP-archive that contains the files which make up the document. The archive includes page mark up (one file per each page of a document), text, embedded fonts, raster images, 2D vector graphics and other information. The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The flag Export Rich Text as Image as Image enables/disables the conversion of the RTF text into the image. If the option is disabled, the Rich Text is decomposed into simpler primitives supported by the PDF format. The Rich Text with complex formatting

216 212 (embedded images, tables) cannot always be converted correctly. In this case it is recommended to enable this option. Information When you enable this option, the file size may increase significantly Microsoft Power Point File Microsoft PowerPoint is a presentation program developed by Microsoft. It is a part of the Microsoft Office suite. PowerPoint presentations consist of a number of individual pages or "slides". Slides may contain text, graphics, movies, and other objects, which may be arranged on the slide. The presentation can be printed, displayed on a PC, or navigated through at the command of the presenter. In Stimulsoft Reports each report page corresponds to one slide. The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range

217 Report Viewer 213 separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The flag Export Rich Text as Image as Image enables/disables the conversion of the RTF text into the image. If the option is disabled, the Rich Text is decomposed into simpler primitives supported by the PDF format. The Rich Text with complex formatting (embedded images, tables) cannot always be converted correctly. In this case it is recommended to enable this option. Information When you enable this option, the file size may increase significantly Wеb Documents There are two formats HTML (HyperText Markup Language), HTML5 and MHTML (MIME HTML) are described in this chapter. The first and second formats are used for web page layout. The second format is a web page archive format used to bind resources together with the HTML code into a single file.

218 214 The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The option Type provides the ability to determine a type of the file the report will be converted into.

219 Report Viewer 215 Information If Html5 is selected the following additional options are available: Continuous Page, which provides the ability to set the location of pages in the report as a vertical strip; The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file; The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The option Scale provides the ability to determine the size (scale) of report pages and items of the report after the export. With the Image Format it is possible to specify the format of images, which will be transformed into the image of the report. The option Export Mode provides the ability to determine the markup for the HTML page. The page layout is possible using tags div, span or table. The flag Embedded Image Data provides the ability to embed images directly into the HTML file. In this case, it is necessary to consider that the correct displaying of this file depends on the browser being used. Not all browsers support the option to view the HTML file with embedded pictures. The flag Add Page Breaks enables/disables the visual separator of report pages. If, for example, a few pages of the report are exported to a HTML page, it is not always possible to identify the beginning of the report page. To do this, you should select this option, then it will be, the beginning of the report page will be indicated by the appropriate delimiter. The flag Compress to Archive provides the ability, when exporting to HTML, to get the zip file after conversion. If this flag is on, the report processing occurs first, and then all the files and folders will be packed in a zip archive HTML HTML (HyperText Markup Language) is the predominant markup language for Web pages. The majority of web pages are created using the HTML language. The HTML language is interpreted by browser and shown as a document. HTML is a tag language of the document layout. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based

220 216 information in a document by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, etc. Elements are the basic structure for HTML markup. Elements have two basic properties: attributes and content. Each attribute and each element's content has certain restrictions that must be followed for a HTML document to be considered valid. An element usually has a start tag (e.g. <element-name>) and an end tag (e.g. </ element-name>). Export Modes There are three mode of export to HTML: Div - in this mode all objects of a report are converted to the div block element; the report is converted precisely, except for vertical text alignment; Span is the same as the Div mode but the span element is used; Table - in this mode all objects of a report are converted to the table block element; in this mode the vertical text alignment is correct but, if the WordWrap is disabled then the problem may occur with long lines of text. Exporting Images in HTML Format Also it is possible to specify how to export images of a document. Images with transparency can be saved to the PNG format. It is important to remember that some browsers (for example Internet Explorer 6) do not support images with transparency. Compatibility of Different Versions The following minimal web-browsers versions are required for correct HTML export: Internet Explorer 6.0 and higher; FireFox 1.5 and higher; Opera 7.5 and higher. Exporting text Components When exporting reports to the HTML format, it is necessary to take the following features of this format into consideration: if a text does not fit a table cell horizontally, then a browser automatically carries a text to the next page; if a text does not fit a table cell vertically, then a browser automatically increases height of a table cell. Such a behavior of a text can be obtained in the Net and WPF viewers (Win-viewers) by

221 Report Viewer 217 setting WordWrap and CanGrow properties of a text component to true. In the HTML format (and in the Web viewer correspondingly), no matter what is the value of these two properties, the text component will be shown the same way. For example, put 2 text components on a report template. Insert long text to the first component and a short one to the second. Set WordWrap and CanGrow properties to false. The picture below shows a report template: After rendering a report in the Win-viewer, a report will look like on a picture below: As seen on the picture, a text in the first text component did not fit and was cut, in the second text component the text fits a text component and shown without changes. Now set the WordWrap property to true for both components. After rendering, a report will look in the Win viewer like on the picture below: As seen on the picture, a text in the first text component is wrapped to the second row. But the component is not grown by height, so the text does not fit this component and was cut. In the second component the text fit this component and shown without changes. In both ways the text in the HTML format in the Web will look the following way:

222 218 If to set the Can Grow properties of these texts components to true, then the report will look the same in the Win viewer and Web viewer: HTML5 HTML5 is a language for structuring and presenting content for the World Wide Web, and is a core technology of the Internet originally proposed by Opera Software.[1] It is the fifth revision of the HTML standard (created in 1990 and standardized as HTML4 as of 1997)[2] and as of December 2011 is still under development. Its core aims have been to improve the language with support for the latest multimedia while keeping it easily readable by humans and consistently understood by computers and devices (web browsers, parsers, etc.). HTML5 is intended to subsume not only HTML 4, but XHTML 1 and DOM Level 2 HTML as well MHT MHTML (MIME HTML) is a web page archive format used to bind resources which are typically represented by external links (such as images, Flash animations, Java applets, audio files) together with HTML code into a single file. This file is a web archive and has the «.mht» extension. The content of a file is written as an message using the MIME standard: in the beginning of a file the HTML file is written. Then all resources in the base64 encoding with headers are written. Internet Explorer, Opera, Microsoft Word can work with the MHTML format Text Formats This chapter describes exports formats of text files. In other words the files which are

223 Report Viewer 219 used to create text documents. TXT (Text); RTF (Rich Text); Word; ODT TXT Text file (TXT) is a kind of computer file that is structured as a sequence of lines. A text file exists within a computer file system. The end of a text file is often denoted by placing one or more special characters, known as an end-of-file marker, after the last line in a text file. Text files are commonly used for storage of information. Export options in TXT: The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be

224 220 processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The checkbox Kill Space Lines provides the ability to delete blank lines in the document. If there are blank lines in a report, setting this flag will make the report more compact, but it should be taken into consideration that removing those lines can disrupt the formatting of other report elements. The checkbox Put Feed Page Code provides an opportunity to select the end of the page with a special character. The checkbox Draw Border enables/disables drawing borders of components with graphic symbols. The checkbox Cut Long Lines provides the ability to cut lines by the margins of the component. If this option is enabled, the line length is limited to the margins of the component. If this option is disabled, the line will be displayed in its full length. The option Border Type is used to enable a certain type of borders of components. The options are: Simple - drawing the borders of components with characters +, -,. Unicode-Single - drawing the borders of components with box-drawing characters. Unicode-Double - drawing the borders of components with double box-drawing characters. The option Zoom X provides the ability to set the report zoom horizontally. The option Zoom Y provides the ability to set the report zoom vertically. The option Encoding provides the ability to set the text encoding of the report after exporting. Border Types The border in the text mode can be drawn using simple symbols or using pseudographics. Using the BorderType property it is possible to choose the mode of border drawing. It may have the following modes: Simple - drawing a border using simple symbols such as "+", "-", and " "; UnicodeSingle - drawing a border using the symbols of pseudographics; symbols of solid border are used; UnicodeDouble - drawing a border using the symbols of pseudographics; symbols of double border are used. Column Width When exporting to the text format, all coordinates and sizes of objects are recalculated

225 Report Viewer 221 to get the text appearance the same as it is in a report. You can control the conversion, by changing the zoom coefficients of ZoomX and ZoomY. The width of the columns of the output text is proportional to the width of the initial report. If you want to change the column width, it is possible to use the following methods: change the width of a column: it is necessary to specify the column width in characters in the Tag text box, the width will be set only for those lines which contain this text box; column width can be set globally via the ColumnWidths static property; in this case, the width of the columns is indicated starting from the left column, through the separator (a semicolon), for example, "10, 12, 45, 10, 10, 5, 20, 50 "; zero width of columns is ignored. New Export Mode The old/new export mode is set using the UseOldExportMode property. The new mode is created on the base of the StiMatrix: if the Word Wrap is enabled and a text cannot be placed in a cell then the cell height is increased automatically. By default the new mode is enabled RTF Rich Text Format (RTF) is a free document file format developed by Microsoft for cross-platform document interchange. The first version of the RTF standard appeared in Since that time format specification was changed and added. RTF-documents are supported by many text editors. Export options in RTF:

226 222 The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The checkbox Export Mode provides the ability to define the presentation of the report data after export. If you select Table, then, after exporting, the entire report will look like a table, where each report component is a table cell. All components are located in different cells with relations created between them. If the Frame is selected, then, after export, each component will be a single frame, but without relations between them. The checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is used to define the Page Header

227 Report Viewer 223 and Footer as the header and footer of the Word document. If this option is not set, then, after exporting, page header and footer will be a table cell or an individual frame. In case of editing a report they may change its location. If this option is enabled, the data bands will be output as objects a header and footer in the Word document. Information If the checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is on, it should be taken into consideration that, in this case, the height of the lines will be minimum allowable. The checkbox Remove Empty Space at Bottom of the Page is used to display data one after the other while minimizing empty space at the bottom of the page. If this option is enabled, then, if empty space is available, the part of data from the next page will be moved to the empty space. If this option is disabled, the empty space is ignored and the report will be displayed in the viewer or in the tab Preview. Export Modes The export to the RTF format has 2 basic modes: Frames - in this mode all objects of a report are converted to the frame rtfobjects; the report is converted precisely, but it is difficult to edit such a document. Table - in this mode all objects of a report are converted to the single table; when converting, objects can be changed, but this document can be easily edited, and, therefore, this mode is more frequently used and this mode is the default mode of this export. Also there are 2 modes of operation, which are obsolete and retained for compatibility: WinWord - similar to Frames, but all the objects passed as "frame" objects of MS-Word. TabbedText - the same as the export the Text format, the position of a text is set using blank spaces and tabulations. Table Mode In this mode the whole report is converted into a single table. When exporting the report is converted into a single table. The document is easily editable but some objects can be changed. Depending on the value of the Use Page Headers and Footers property the report is

228 224 exported as follow: value is set to false - the report is exported "as is" and will look the same as in preview; value is set to true - the report is additionally processed, all changes are described in the text below. The list of document changes: PageHeaders and PageFooters are exported as MS-Word objects. So they are cut from the table and other bands are converted into a single page. It is very convenient because it is easy to correct the document, for example, to put or edit text in cells, change the cell size; all data are moved, and headers and footers of a page stay on their place. (Notice: the header and the footer are exported from the first page of a report, others are ignored; in addition the improvement was done: now the header is searched on the second page; if the property PrintOn of this header is set to ExceptFirstPage, then everything is exported correctly (using the RTF tags) - the header will not be output on the first page. If the Header of the PrintOnAllPages property is enabled, then it is exported as the table header, and is correctly output on each page. The height or rows in not exported (the "not set" mode; by default the "precise" mode is set). If the Tag field is not empty, then the content of the Tag field is exported. The Text field is not exported. The following expression can be used to change MS-Word commands: Tags Description #PageNumber # The number of the current page (PAGE) #TotalPageCou Total number of pages in the document (NUMPAGES) nt# #PageRef Bookmark# The number of pages on what the bookmark is placed (PAGEREF) For example, the following expression can be written in the Tag field: Page #PageNumber# of #TotalPageCount# When exporting, #PageNumber# and #TotalPageCount# will be substituted on the "Page number" field and "Total Page" field. And they will be automatically changed.

229 Report Viewer 225 The following string-commands can be written in the Tag field: Commands Description rtfparagraph The TextBox, RichTextBox and Image content is output as simple text, in the table break; rtfnewpage The page break is put before the text box. Also it is possible to export a separate sheets of a template to separate sections of the document with the headers/footers. To do this, use the ExcelSheet property. in this case all pages of a report with the same value of the ExcelSheet property are combined in groups, then each group is exported as a separate section of the document with its headers/footers. By default, this property is not filled, and the report is exported as a single partition. Issues MS-Word: if to set top and bottom margin of one of cells in the table row, the same margin will be set in all cells of the row. Therefore, if to set the top and bottom margins of the text box, then, after exporting, the same margin will be set for the row of the table and the text will be moved. In OpenOffice this works without problems. Compatibility of Deifferent Versions The RTF format is based on the RTF specification version 1.4 from 9/1995. The RTF files can be opened in Microsoft Word starting with the 97 (Office 97) version. In Microsoft Word 95 the RTF will have the following limitation: does not support vertical alignment in cells; does not some parameters of a page; some colors and not shown correctly Word 2007/2010 Microsoft Word is a text processing software produces by Microsoft. It is a component of the Microsoft Office system. The first version was released for IBM PC's running DOS in Later there was a release for Apple Macintosh (1984), SCO UNIX, and

230 226 Microsoft Windows (1989). Microsoft Word is the most popular text processors. Starting with first versions MS Word could write files in binary code with the «.doc» extension. The Word specification was secret and only in 2008 was published. The latest version of Word 2007/2010 "uses by default" the XML based format: Microsoft Office Open XML. For a new format the «.docx» file extension is used. This format is a ziparchive that contains a text as XML, graphics, and other data. When exporting, a report is converted into one table. Such a document is easy to edit. Export options in Word The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Remember that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the

231 Report Viewer 227 larger is the size of the finished file. The parameter Restrict Editing provides the ability to restrict editing the Word document. The available modes are: No without editing; Yes- editing is not allowed; Except Editable Fields - editing is allowed only for editable fields in the report. In this case, the Editable property of components must be set to true. Information Restrictions on editing a Word document do not use encryption algorithms resistant to cracking. Therefore, we recommend using the export to PDF, if you want to get a document with restrictions on editing, and a good level of protection. The checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is used to define the Page Header and Footer as the header and footer of the Word document. If this option is enabled, THESE bands will be output as a header and footer objects in the Word document. If to attach XML and XSD files to the report, then a data source will be generated on the base of them. This source can be used when creating reports. Information If the checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is on, it should be taken into consideration that, in this case, the height of the lines will be minimum allowable. The checkbox Remove Empty Space at Bottom of the Page is used to display data one after the other while minimizing empty space at the bottom of the page. If this option is enabled, then, if empty space is available, the part of data from the next page will be moved to the empty space. If this option is disabled, the empty space is ignored and the report will be displayed in the viewer or in the tab Preview. Headers and Footers Depending on the value of the Use Page Headers and Footers property a report is exported in the following way: the value is false - a report is exported "as is" and looks as in preview;

232 228 the value is true - a report is additionally processed. All changes are described below. The list of changes of the document: PageHeaders and PageFooters are exported as MS-Word objects. So they are cut from a table and all other bands are exported as one table. It is very convenient, if it is necessary to elaborate the document (add rows or edit a text in cells, change cell size); in this case all data are moved but headers and footers stay on their place. (Notice: a header and a footer of the first page are taken, others are ignored). Row height is not exported (the "not set" mode; by default - the "precise" mode). Page Numbering If the Tag is not empty then the content of the Tag property is exported. The Text field is not exported. Also the string may contain the following expressions, which are changed on MS-Word commands: Commands Action #PageNumber # The number of the current page (PAGE) #TotalPageCou Total number of pages in a document (NUMPAGES) nt# For example, in the Tag property the following expression can be written: Page #PageNumber# of #TotalPageCount# When exporting #PageNumber# and #TotalPageCount# will be replaced on "PageNumber" field and "TotalPageCount" field and will be automatically changed together with text ODT Open Document Text (ODT) is the open document for storing documents of the OpenOffice Writer, which is included into the OpenOffice.org package. OpenOffice.org is the open package of office applications created as alternative to Microsoft Office. OpenOffice.org was one of the first what supported the new open OpenDocument.

233 Report Viewer 229 Works on Microsoft Windows and UNIX systems: GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, Irix. OpenDocument Format (ODF) is the open file format for storing office documents, including text documents, spreadsheets, images, data bases, presentations. This format is based on the XML format. OpenOffice Writer is the text processor and visual HTML editor, included into the OpenOffice. It is open software (LGPL license). Writer is similar to Microsoft Word and has approximately the same functionality. Writer allows saving documents in different formats including Microsoft Word, RTF, XHTML, and OASIS Open Document Format. Starting with the OpenOffice version 2.0, the OpenDocument Format is the default format for saving documents. File have the «.odt» extension. When exporting the report is converted into a single table. The document is easily editable but some objects can be changed. The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The

234 230 higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is used to define the Page Header and Footer as the header and footer of the Word document. If this option is not set, then, after exporting, page header and footer will be a table cell or an individual frame. In case of editing a report they may change its location. If this option is enabled, the data bands will be output as objects a header and footer in the Word document. Information If the checkbox Use Page Headers and Footers is on, it should be taken into consideration that, in this case, the height of the lines will be minimum allowable. The checkbox Remove Empty Space at Bottom of the Page is used to display data one after the other while minimizing empty space at the bottom of the page. If this option is enabled, then, if empty space is available, the part of data from the next page will be moved to the empty space. If this option is disabled, the empty space is ignored and the report will be displayed in the viewer or in the tab Preview Spreadsheets This group of exports create spreadsheets. They are exports to both different formats of Microsoft Excel (Excel, Excel XML, Excel 2007/2010) and to OpenOffice Calc. Export options in Excel

235 Report Viewer 231 The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The option Type provides the ability to determine a type of the file the report will be converted into. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file. The checkbox Export Data Only enables/disables the export of data only. If this option is enabled, information from the Data bands (component table, Hierarchical

236 232 band) will be exported. Only these bands are processed. The rest bands and components are ignored. If this option is disabled, the entire report will be exported. The checkbox Export Object Formatting is available only when you export the data. It provides the opportunity to apply formatting to them. If this option is enabled, the data will be exported with formatting applied in the report. If this option is disabled, the data formatting will be lost. The checkbox Use One Page Header and Footer is used to get rid of repeats of headers and footers on the report pages. By default the page header and footer in the report are located on each page. The report in export to Excel is printed on a sizeless page. The page is able to grow in height as long as there are data. In this case, when you view the document in Excel, page headers and footers are output on the top and bottom of each report page. For example, if the report consists of 15 pages (in the Excel document it will all be placed on a single sheet), the page header and footer page will be output 15 times (each time on the top and bottom of the report page). To avoid this, you should enable this option, and then the page header will be displayed only on the top of the Excel sheet, and the page footer - in the end. Information Enabling this option may have residual effects. For example, if the page header or footer has borders, then, when this option is enabled, these borders may be shown. It is recommended, before rendering the report, to enable the parameter of the report page, Unlimited Height. In this case, the report will be rendered on a sizeless single page. The page header and footer will be printed only once on the Excel sheet. The checkbox Export Each Page to Sheet is used to export each report page on a separate Excel sheet. If this option is enabled, then each report page will be located on a separate sheet in Excel. If this option is disabled, the entire report will be printed on a single sheet of Excel. The checkbox Export Page Breaks is used to display the borders of the report pages on the Excel sheet. In other words, if the report contains 10 pages, all of them are placed on one sheet after export. Enable this option to define the borders of pages. If this option is disabled, all report pages will be printed, and, if no other delimiters present, will be output in one sizeless page Excel Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application written and distributed by Microsoft for

237 Report Viewer 233 Microsoft Windows. It allows using calculation, graphing tools, pivot tables and a macro programming language called VBA. So, it is the most popular table processor available for these platforms since version 5 in Microsoft Excel up until Excel 2007 version used a proprietary binary file format called Binary Interchange File Format (BIFF) and.xls file extension. Specification was closed but since 2008 it was published. Besides, most of Microsoft Excel can read CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and other formats. Excel Sheets By default a report is exported as one table to one sheet of Excel. Maximal number of rows on a sheet is unlimited. It depends on the Excel version and is set using the MaximumSheetHeight static property (by default 65534, for Excel XP and Excel 2003). If the number of rows is more than default then odd rows will be carried on the next sheet. Also it is possible to export each page of a report on a single sheet of Excel. To do this it is possible to set the ExportEachPageToSheet property to true. Besides the forced Excel sheets creation they can be created using the ExcelSheet page property to what any value can be assigned. If some sheets has the same ExcelSheet value then they are joined and exported as one sheet. In this case the name of a sheet is a name of a value. Compatibility of Different Versions The XLS format is based on the BIFF8 specification. Full support of this format is realized starting with the Excel 9.0 (Excel 2000). Excel 8.0 (Excel 97): does not support correct color; does not fully support the Right to Left mode. Excel 7.0 (Excel 95) and earlier versions: does not support vertical alignment in a cell; does not support integrated cells; does not support some other parameters.

238 Excel XML For storing documents as the basic Microsoft Excel format, right up to the Excel 2007 version, used its own binary format of files (BIFF) and the file extension was «.xls». In Excel 2003 additionally, a new format based on XML (XMLSS) was used. This opened format is convenient for developers and is data oriented. The basic disadvantage of the format is impossibility to embed raster images Excel 2007/2010 For storing documents as the basic Microsoft Excel format, right up to the Excel 2007 version, used its own binary format of files (BIFF) and the file extension was «.xls». In Excel 2007/2010, the basic format is the Microsoft Office Open XML format and stores document in files with the «.xlsx» extension. The Excel 2007 is compatible with binary formats such as CSV, DBF, SYLK, DIF, and others. By default a report is exported as one table to one Excel sheet. Maximal number of rows on a sheet in limited. It depend on the version of Excel and is set using the MaximumSheetHeight static property (by default for Excel 2007). If rows are too many then redundant rows will be output on the next sheet. Also it is possible to export each page of a report to the single sheet Excel. To do this, it is necessary to set the ExportEachPageToSheet property to true. Each page of a report has the ExcelSheet report property to what any expression may be assigned. Numbers of pages with the same value in the "ExcelSheet" are combined and exported to a single sheet of Excel. The name of the sheet becomes the value of the expression ODS Open Document Spreadsheet (ODS) is the opened format to store OpenOffice Calc spreadsheet documents, that is included into the OpenOffice.org package. OpenOffice.org is a free package of office applications developed as alternative to Microsoft Office. The OpenDocument is one of the first what started to support the opened format. it works on Microsoft Windows and UNIX-like systems: GNU/Linux, Mac OS X, FreeBSD, Solaris, Irix.

239 Report Viewer 235 OpenDocument Format (ODF) an open document file format for storing and exchanging editable documents including text documents (such as notes, reports, and books), spreadsheets, drawings, databases, presentations. The format is based on the XML-format. The standard was jointly developed by public and various organizations and is available to all and can be used without restrictions. OpenOffice Calc is the table processor that is included into the OpenOffice and is a free software (LGPL license). Calc is similar to the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and functionality of these processors is approximately equal. Calc allows you to saving documents to various formats, including Microsoft Excel, CSV, HTML, SXC, DBF, DIF, UOF, SLK, SDC. Starting with version OpenOffice 2.0, for document storage format by default OpenDocument Format, files are saved with the extension «. Ods». Starting with the OpenOffice version 2.0 for storing documents, by default, the OpenDocument Format is used. Files are stored with the «.ods» extension. Consider the basic parameters when exporting to ODS: The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It

240 236 should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The Image Quality allows changing the image quality. Keep in mind that if you change this option the size of the finished file will increase. The higher the quality is, the larger is the size of the finished file Data This is a group of file formats which are used to store table data. Export options in Data: The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The parameter Type provides the ability to determine a type of the file the report will be converted into.

241 Report Viewer 237 Information Information:Depending on the file type, parameters, and their number may vary. For example, when you select a format DIF or Sylk, the following options will be available: The option Data Only enables/disables the mode of exporting data only. If this option is enabled, information will be exported from the Data bands (the component table, Hierarchical band). Only these bands are processed, the rest are ignored. If this option is disabled, the entire report will be exported; The option Use Default System Encoding allows you to use the system encoding by default. Different encoding can be applied depending on the installed system. If this option is disabled, you must set the encoding by the standard. The parameter Encoding is used to define file encoding. The parameter Separator specifies delimiter between the data in the CSV file. The parameter Bands Filter is used to apply a filtering condition in the export. The following options are available: Data Only - in this case only Data bands will be processed (the Table component, Hierarchical band); Data and Headers/Footers - Data bands will be processed (the Table component, Hierarchical band), and their headers/footers, if any; All Bands - all bands of the report will be processed. The checkbox Skip Column Headers enables/disables the column headers. If the option is enabled, then column headers will not be displayed. If this option is disabled, then column headers (if present in the report) will be displayed. CSV CSV (Comma Separated Values) is a text format that is used to represent table data. Each string of the file is one row of the table. The values of each column are separated by the delimiter that depends on regional settings. The values that contain reserved characters (such as a comma or a new string) are framed with the double quotes ( ") symbol; if double quotes are found in the value they are represented as two double quotes in the file.

242 238 Information Only those data (components) can be exported to the CSV format which are placed on data bands. If the SkipColumnHeaders property is set to false then, additionally, column headers are exported as the first row. Controlling Exports The Tag property of each textbox in a Data band can be specified with the following elements that control the export: Export Type : "FieldName" Column: "FieldName" "DataRow" Several elements should be separated with the semicolon. The "Export Type" element indicates for which export the field name is set. The values can be used: dbf, csv, xml, default. The "FieldName" element indicates the field name in the file. The own name can be specified to each type of export. If the name for each export is not specified then the name for the default type is taken. For example: DBF : "Describe" ; CSV : "Description" ; default: "Default name" The "Column" element indicates that additional field is added to exported data. The "FieldName" element indicated the name of a new field. The "DataRow" element indicates the content of a new field and can be an expression. For example: Column: "SortField" "{Products.Categories.CategoryName}" DBF DBF (DataBase File) is the format to store data and it is used as the standard way to store and pass information. The DBF file consist of a header section for describing the structure of the data in the file. There are several variations on the.dbf file structure. Information Only data can be exported to the DBF format, in other words only the components, which are placed on data bands.

243 Report Viewer 239 Controlling Exports The following elements can be specified in the Tag property to control export: DataType [ : FieldLength [ : DecimalPartLength ] ] ExportType : "FieldName" Column: "FieldName" "DataString" Several elements should be separated with the semicolon. The DataType" element should be only one and should be placed first, other elements if necessary. Values of the "DataType" element are shown in the table below. If the data type is not set, then the string data type is taken by default. The "FieldLength" element sets fixed width of a data field. If the field width is not set, then the width is taken from the table. For the string type the default width is the longest string. The "DecimalPartLength" element sets the number of characters after comma. If it is not set, then the default number is taken. Data type DBF data type (default size) Description int Numeric (15 : 0) Numeric long Numeric (25 : 0) Numeric float Numeric (15 : 5) Decimal double Numeric (20 : 10) Decimal string Character (auto) Text date Date (8) Date Sample of using elements are shown in the table below. Type Description string : 25 set the column width (25 characters) and cuts all long strings float converts decimal digit with the length 15 characters, 5 characters after comma float :10 converts decimal digit with the length 10 characters, 5

244 240 characters after comma float :10 : 2 converts decimal digit with the length 10 characters, 2 characters after comma int :10 : 2 converts integer digit with the length 10 characters; the second parameter is ignored Information If the integer part of a digit is long and cannot be placed into the specified field, then it is cut, so data are lost. For example, if the write «-12345,678» in the «float:8:3» field, then the «2345,678» will be output. The "ExportType" element indicates for which export the field name is set. The values can be used: dbf, csv, xml, default. The "FieldName" element indicates the field name in the file (for the DBF the is automatically cut up to 10 characters). The own name can be specified to each type of export. If the name for each export is not specified then the name for the default type is taken. For example: DBF : "Describe" ; XML : "Description" ; default: "Default name" The "Column" element indicates that the additional field is added to the exported data. The "FieldName" element indicates the name of a new field. The "DataRow" element indicates the content of a new field and can be expression. For example Column: "SortField" "{Products.Categories.CategoryName}" XML XML (extensible Markup Language) is a text format that is used to store structured data (in exchange for existed files of data bases), for exchange of information between programs and also to create on its base the special markup languages (for example, XHTML), sometimes called dictionaries. XML is the hierarchical structure that is used to store any data. Visually this structure can be represented as the tree. XML supports Unicode and other encoding.

245 Report Viewer 241 Information Only those data (components) are exported to the XML format which are placed on data bands. Controlling Exports The following elements can be specified in the Tag property to control export to XML: DataType ExportType : "FieldName" Column: "FieldName" "DataRow" Several elements should be separated with the semicolon. The DataType" element should be only one and should be placed first, other elements if necessary. Values of the "DataType" element are shown in the table below. If the data type is not set, then the string data type is taken by default. Data type Description int Numeric long Numeric float Decimal double Decimal string Text date Date The "ExportType" element indicates for which export the field name is set. The values can be used: dbf, csv, xml, default. The "FieldName" element indicates the field name in the file. The own name can be specified to each type of export. If the name for each export is not specified then the name for the default type is taken. For example: DBF : "Describe" ; XML : "Description" ; default: "Default name" The "Column" element indicates that additional field is added to the exported data. The

246 242 "FieldName" element indicates the name of a new field. The "DataRow" element indicates the content of a new field and can be expression. For example: Column: "SortField" "{Products.Categories.CategoryName}" DIF DIF (Data Interchange Format) is a text format that is used to exchange sheets between spreadsheets processors (Microsoft Excel, OpenOffice.org Calc, Gnumeric, StarCalc, Lotus 1-2-3, FileMaker, dbase, Framework, Multiplan, etc). The only limitation of this format is that the DIF format may contain only one sheet in one book. SYLN SYLK (Symbolic Link) format- this text format is used to exchange data between applications, specifically spreadsheets. Files of SYLK have «.slk» extension. Microsoft does not publish a SYLK specification, therefore work with this format in different applications can be different. Information A SYLK file can be written in Unicode and read by some applications but anyway many applications which do support Unicode writes SYLK files into ANSI but not Unicode. Therefore, symbols which do not have representation in the system code page will be written as ('?') symbols Images Export groups to graphic formats. All graphic formats can be divided in to types: bitmapped images and vector formats. Notice. On the current moment the export of a monochrome image is supported only to BMP, GIF, PCX, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, EMF, SVG, SVGZ format. So the DitheringType property works only for these exports.

247 Report Viewer 243 The checkbox All enables processing of all report pages. The checkbox Current Page enables processing only the current (selected) report page. The checkbox Pages has the field. This field specifies the number of pages to be processed. You can specify a single page, several pages (using a comma as the separator) and also specify a range by defining the start page and end page range separated with "-". For example, 1,3,5-12. The option Type provides the ability to determine a type of the file the report will be converted into. The option Scale allows you to increase/decrease the size of the report after export. It should also be taken into consideration that the smaller the scale is selected, the greater is the number of pixels per inch, and vice versa. The Image Resolution is used to change DPI (image property PPI (Pixels Per Inch)). The greater the number of pixels per inch is, the greater is the quality of the image. It should be noted that the value of this parameter affects the size of the finished file. The higher the value is, the greater is the size of the finished file. The option Image Type provides the ability to define the color scheme of the image. Color - an image after export will fully comply with the image in the report;

248 244 Gray - an image after export will be gray. Monochrome - images will be strictly black and white. At the same time, it should be taken into consideration that monochrome images have three modes None, Ordered and FloydSt. The option Monochrome Dithering Type allows you to determine the type monochrome color mixing: None - no dithering, Ordered, FloydSt. - with dithering. The option TIFF Compression Scheme provides the ability to define a compression scheme for TIFF files. The checkbox Cut Edges provides the ability to display a report without page edges. If this is enabled, then when you export the report the page edges will be cut off. If this option is disabled, the report page will be displayed with the specified edges. BMP BMP (Bitmap) is an image file format used to store bitmap digital images. Initially the format could store only DDB (Device Dependent Bitmap) but today the BMP format stores device-independent rasters (DIB - Device Independent Bitmap). Color depth in this format varies from 1 to 48 bits per pixel. The maximal image size is pixels. An image can be compressed but often is stored in uncompressed and has big size of the file. Many programs work with the BMP format because its support is integrated into Windows and OS/2. GIF GIF (Graphics Interchange Format) is a format to store graphic images. The GIF format can store compressed images, supports up to 8 bits per pixel, allowing a single image to reference a palette of up to 256 distinct colors. The GIF format was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and has since come into widespread usage on the World Wide Web. In 1989 the format was modified (GIF89a), and transparency and animation was added. GIF uses LZW-compression. It allows reducing the file size without degrading the visual quality (logos, schemes). GIF is widely used in World Wide Web. PNG PNG (Portable Network Graphics) - is a bitmapped image format that employs lossless data compression. PNG was created to improve and replace more simple GIF format, and to replace more complicated TIFF format. In compare with the GIF format, the PNG format supports RGB images without color losses, supports alpha channels, and uses DEFLATE (open algorithm of compression), that provides higher compression

249 Report Viewer 245 of multicolored files. The PNG format is usually used in World Wide Web and for graphic editing. TIFF TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) is a file format for storing images. Originally, the TIFF format was created by the Aldus company in cooperation with Microsoft for using with PostScript. TIFF became popular for storing high-color-depth images, and is used for scanning, fax, to identify text, polygraphy and widely used in graphic applications. This format is flexible. It allows saving photos in different color spaces, and to use different algorithms of file compression, and to store a few images in one file. JPEG JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group) is a format to store images. This format was created by C-Cube Microsystems as effective method to store high-color-depth images. For example, scanned photos with smooth variations of tone and color. Algorithm of compression with losing information is used in the JPEG format. This means that some visual quality is lost in the process and cannot be restored. It is necessary to get the highest coefficient of compression. Unpacked JPEG images are rarely have the same quality as original image but differences are insignificant. Compression ratio is usually set in conventional units, for example from 1 to is the best quality and 1 is the worst quality. The better quality the bigger file size. PCX PCX is a format to store images. This format was used in the ZSoft PC Paintbrush graphic editor (one of the most popular programs) for MS-DOS, text processors and Microsoft Word and Ventura Publisher. This is not so popular format analogue of BMP but is supported with such graphics editors as Adobe Photoshop, Corel Draw and others. The algorithm of compression is very quick but is not effective for compression of photos and other detailed computer graphics. Today this format is not displaced with formats which supports better compression. These formats are GIF, JPEG, and PNG. EMF WMF (Windows MetaFile) is a universal graphics file format on Microsoft Windows systems. This format was created by Microsoft and is an integral part of Windows because this file stores a list of function calls that have to be issued to the Windows graphics layer GDI in order to display an image on screen.

250 246 WMF is a 16-bit format. This format was introduced in Windows 3.0. A 32-bit version is called Enhanced Metafile EMF (Enhanced Metafile). The EMF format supports many new commands, supports work with the GDI+ library, and also is used as a graphic language for drivers of printers. SVG SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) is an XML-based file format for describing twodimensional vector graphics, both static and dynamic. The SVG specification is an open standard. SVG supports scripting and animation. The vector image is composed of a fixed set of shapes. SVG allows three types of graphic objects: Vector graphics; Raster graphics; Text. The Images below shows the difference between exporting Bitmap format and SVG (vector) format. Bitmap Formats SVG Format SVGZ In addition to the SVG file format, there is a compressed SVG (with file extension SVGZ), which applies industry-standard, nonproprietary "gzip" compression (an open

251 Report Viewer 247 source variant of Zip compression) to SVG files. Compressed SVG files are typically 50 to 80 percent smaller than SVG files. SVG files are compact and can be used to provide high-quality graphics on the Web. Dirher Dither is an intentionally applied form of noise, when processing digit signals. It is used in most often surfaces in the fields of digital audio and video. The following image shows (from left to right) original image and the result of export to monochrome image. There are three modes of DitheringType: Ordered, FloydSteinberg, None. Information On the current moment the export of monochrome image is supported only to the PCX format. So the DitheringType property works only for this export. Different images may look differently in these modes. The FloydSteinberg is the best mode to output an image but the file size is too big How to Create Report for Export? Many exports have the table mode. In this mode the whole report is converted into one table. Creating correct templates from the source code allows making the table look

252 248 much better, decrease the size of the file, increase the speed of working with export. Therefore, when using the table mode of export it is important to follow some recommendations: use the "Align to Grid" button of the designer. This will decrease the number of rows and columns in the output file; also this allows avoiding very small gaps between components (some formats "do not like" table with very small columns); put components on the data band at the same level (see the picture below); this will decrease the number of rows and columns in the output file; For example: put three components in the designer. They should be placed without gaps. See the picture below: As a result we get a simple table: one row and three columns. Put three components as seen on the picture below.

253 Report Viewer 249 As a result we get the Excel table: five rows and three cells (see the picture below). It is not convenient to edit such a table, the file size, time of export, and required memory are increased in some times. The Excel sheet consists of cells that are formed at the intersection of rows and columns. All items (text, images, and other data) are arranged in cells and can take only an integer number of cells, both by width and height. Therefore, when the location of components, column width and row height is adjusted so that the margins of components coincide with the boundaries of columns/rows: When you export a report, the column width and row height is calculated automatically, so as to place all components using as the smaller number of columns and rows as possible. If all components are arranged in columns/rows, the number of result columns/rows in the Excel file will match the number of columns/rows in the report components. If the template structure is more complex, for example components as headers are not placed in the columns, then additional columns/rows will be added the Excel file. Consider the following example:

254 250 As can be seen from the picture above the text components in the report template are located on different levels (rows) and not in the same columns. In this case, when you export a report to Excel, the result will be as follows: As can be seen from the picture above you add more columns/rows. Do not use the Autowidth property. This property increases the number of columns in the exported file which is proportionally to number of records.