fyiReporting Software - Help for the Open Source RDL Project

RDL Project Release 3 Notes

These release notes specify the major differences between release 2 and release 3 of the RDL Project. If you want a more general overview you should visit www.fyireporting.com or the online help system.

Licensing

The fyiReporting Software RDL Project 3 is released under the terms of the Apache License Version 2. This license allows you to use the RDL Project 3 libraries and programs in either open source or commercial applications as long as you credit fyiReporting Software, LLC.

.NET 2 Support

Release 3 is based on .NET 2.0.

Report Runtime

.Net Control & PDF rendering: Complex reports with bodies can now span multiple pages.
CustomReportItem: Extensions can be added using the CustomReportItem implementation. Examples BarCode EAN-13 and BarCode Bookland demonstrate how this is done.
Oracle Stored Procedures: OracleSp is a data provider for handling Oracle stored procedures.
Bookmarks: Bookmark support has been added to PDF generation.
HTML formatted string: <img>, <font> support in html formatted strings
iTunes Data Source: The iTunes data source reads the XML file that iTunes maintains as backup for its database.
VB compatibility: Additional VB support, Not, <>, Round, OrElse, AndAlso Note: Or and OrElse will behave identically (like OrElse). And and AndAlso will behave identically (like AndAlso).
Viewer: left/right arrow support to Viewer for scrolling
Chart: Sorting implemented
Matrix: Sorting implemented
Viewer: Hyperlink event added.
Report Parameters: MultiValue support for report parameters: e.g. Select ... WHERE fld in (@flds) ; methods Contains, BinarySearch, Count, IndexOf, LastIndexOf
CSV Rendering: CSV rendering donated by Dr. Manoj Kumar Singh of crmnext.com
Viewer: Find supported within a rendered report
Viewer: Home and End keys force scroll to top of report and last report item in report respectively
Subreport: Subreports now honor the NoRows property
Chart: Extension: fyi:CanOmit when true line/bar when category axis values won't fit; display values are skipped as needed
Data Source: SQLite database added to config file: http://sqlite.phxsoftware.com/ for a .Net version of the database. Makes a nice embedded database for ASP.NET applications. However, application must be fully trusted due to embedded C code.
New aggregate function: Aggregate function that creates an ArrayList of the values; display with following function: =Code.AggrToString(Aggregate(Fields!Year.Value))

Report Designer

Tabbed Design: Designer files now shown in tabs. MDI is still optionally available.
Property sheets: Property sheets are available as well as property dialogs.
Rulers: Rulers can be optionally shown on designer surface
Syntax Editor: Line numbering can be optionally shown. There is a slight performance overhead when line number is enabled.
WYSIWYG: Option to outline report items in designer.
WYSIWYG: When resizing body, status bar shows the height.
Copy: Selecting two or more items in table or matrix prompts for copy of table or matrix
Toolbar: left/right/center toolbar item added
Toolbar: TextAlign toolbar item added
Toolbar: Color and Background color control changed to be more compact

Bug fixes

Runtime: HTML rendering: table header with column with colspan space calculates incorrect width for header; PDF doesn't handle text with embedded newlines correctly
Runtime: When subreport not found exception is thrown instead of report error.
Designer: After insert of textbox then do 2 undos and then a View/Properties causes exception
Runtime: HTML render of Table with hidden column generates incorrect Table width.
Runtime: Report Items in hidden table columns are being used to calculate row height but should not be.
Runtime: passing parameters to subreports throws exception
Runtime: parameters need to be refreshed prior to rerunning report in RdlViewer
Runtime: Rectangles don't show subitems when pagebreakatend on
Runtime: Subreports don't use shared data stores
Runtime: PDF render of TextAlign Right and Center when multiple lines is incorrect
Runtime: exception when list contains no report items
Runtime: exception when null value passed in FunctionSystem.cs
Designer: NoRows property should be removed from report defn when empty string defined in property sheet
Runtime: Can compile with MONO defined to target mono. Designer also dynamically detects mono via a hack.
Runtime: List: the page break check needs to be performed before the List items are displayed
Viewer: Scroll in very large report doesn't go to end
Runtime: Incorrect result adding two decimal numbers
Designer: Designer open and save dialogs missing separator for file types
Viewer: Print margins are in addition to the non printable margins of the printer. Should be absolute margins. Fix by Vernon Larcombe.
Runtime: Report Parameter: MultiValue Assumes Delimited String Fix by gheeres
Viewer: Setting SourceRdl or SourceFile should only null the other when itself is not being set to null.
Runtime: vb functions (e.g. Today()) don't work when code module associated with report
Runtime: RdlEngineConfig.xml file loading has been changed. The config file is now dynamicly reloaded in an ASP environment when it has been modified. When a report is compiled a check is made to see if the config file has changed triggering a reloading of DataSource DLLs. The new public API: RdlEngineConfig.RdlEngineConfigInit(params string[] dirs) forces a reloading of the configuration file. The dirs parameter allows you to specify a number of directories that will be used to load the config file as well as loading any code modules (data sources or reports). In the ASP environment the main Bin directory is specified. Note: due to changes in ASP.NET 2 security handling you'll probably need to specify any loaded DLL as [assembly: AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers] in the Assembly.cs file or the load will fail.
Runtime: Isharp dll is now version 2.; private compiled version has AllowPartiallyTrustedCallers
Viewer: When html formating and zoom set the sizing of text is calculated incorrectly.
Runtime: Group header _RepeatOnNewPage defaulting to true; should default to false.
Runtime: DataSets and DataSources: fix IEnumerable implementation
Runtime: Rows data is now stored and retrieved as Culture Invariant affecting numbers and dates. This may cause a compatability problem with reports storing data from previous releases.
Runtime: specified in Chart Value axis is handled incorrectly
Runtime: PDF generation Times New Roman font using incorrect font when italic.
Runtime: Show for Page Header and Footer incorrectly defaulted to true. Warning this change will likely affect how your existing reports look.
Runtime: Parser loosened restrictions on names: whitespace allowed between . And values e.g. Fields!fld1 . Value will now parse
Runtime: =1e4 not parsing correctly
Design: DataSet dialog; when deleting fields you can delete too many; don't allow OK if there are no fields
Design: globalization problems with Padding and Spacing menu items
Runtime: VB compatibility: support for doubling quotes inside of quoted strings
Design: Replace and ReplaceAll not setting modify flag in editor
Runtime: TextAlign General should right align numeric fields
Design: move Textbox that is in a Rectangle that is in a Table fails
Design: Datasets dialog; refresh fields should fill in typename
Runtime: List: subreport in list can cause overlapping pages
Runtime: Globals!PageNumber & Globals!TotalPages are now integer (from double)
Runtime: PDF render JpgParser donated by jonh (see http://www.fyireporting.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=403
Runtime: Contents of Rectangles don't always position properly
Runtime: Add imports for Microsoft.VisualBasic, System.Convert, System.Math for Code element.
Runtime: recognize \n and \r escape sequences in strings; not VB compatible