I have this report which is taking about 15-24 seconds to show in my custom preview form, the preview form will show up blank with the "No Report" label (see image RSS slow loading), then the report will be shown normally.

I know that the data is coming out in less than a second, and the preview form is shown without the report, I have not found a way to display a message to the user letting him/her know that the report is being process.  The code to generate the report is splitted in two classes:

• ServiceCallRouteDataSource.vb will take care of getting the data and pass it to the report with the following code:

'-- Assign the populated datasource from the Dialog Browser to the Report Manager Object.
ReportManagerObject.DataSources.Item(reportDataSourceName) = Me.DataSource
ReportManagerObject.DataSources.Item(reportApplianceDataSourceName) = Me.DataSource.SourceBO.SC_Appliances
'-- Prepare Report to run
ReportManagerObject.Reports(Me.PerpetuumSoftReportName).Prepare()

• ReportEngine.vb will actually run the report in the custom preview form like this:

Public Shared Function RunReport(ByVal ReportName As FixTrackReports, _
ByVal ReportManagerObject As PerpetuumSoft.Reporting.Components.ReportManager, _
Optional ByVal tBDStringValue As String = "", _
Optional ByVal tEmployeePK As Int64 = 0) As Boolean
     Dim reportDataSourceObject As IReportDataSource
     '-- Get the data source for the report
     reportDataSourceObject = GetReportDataSource(ReportName)
     '-- Populate the data source
     If reportDataSourceObject.PopulateDataSource(ReportManagerObject, tBDStringValue, tEmployeePK) Then
          Dim f As New ReportViewerDialog()
          '-- Set the Report Viewer source with the Report to be used.
          f.rptViewer.Source = ReportManagerObject.Reports(reportDataSourceObject.PerpetuumSoftReportName)
          f.Title = MicroFour.StrataFrame.Tools.Common.GetEnumDisplayValue(ReportName)
          f.TitleDetailText = ""
          f.ShowDialog()
          Return True
     Else
          MicroFour.StrataFrame.Messaging.MessageForm.ShowMessageByKey("NoDataForReport")
          Return False
     End If
End Function

I have other simple reports which generates faster, so I must be missing something in my whole process.  I will appreciate if somebody can see what am I missing here?

Thanks.

Overridable would work in my case, since I will refactor those Custom Properties but since they are used in some forms I don't want to redo the whole thing, I want to refactor them for the report only, to see if I can gain some speed in the process.

The slowness was caused by the Custom Field Properties I had in the main BO, following your suggestions I did the following to overcome this issue:

1. Make my main BO CFP overridable.
2. In the report's BO I override the CFP using the logic suggested by Greg to create a temp BO with all the lookup data then seek the one requested by the report.

Here is some of my code used:

''' <summary>
''' Use to hold the Appliance Lookup BO
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Private _ApplianceBOLookup As New Business.bizAppliances
''' <summary>
''' The first time this property is used, it will check the 
''' lookup BO count > 0 if not it will load all the records
''' Then will use the BO.SeekToPrimaryKey to speed up finding
''' the description value.
''' This method is much more faster than using a Custom Field Property in reports.
''' </summary>
''' <remarks></remarks>
Public Overrides ReadOnly Property [ApplianceName]() As System.String
     Get
          If _ApplianceBOLookup.Count = 0 Then
               _ApplianceBOLookup.FillAllRecords()
          End If
          If _ApplianceBOLookup.SeekToPrimaryKey(Me.FK_Appliances) Then
               Return _ApplianceBOLookup.ApplianceName
          Else
               Return String.Empty
          End If
     End Get
End Property

With the above code the time to render the report was reduced from 37 seconds to 3 seconds.  I still need to figure out how to create my own class to implement the IRenderSite, but know that the report is rendering as it should, I will have more time to get that done.

Here you have a sample for the IRenderSite:

http://www.perpetuumsoft.com/ForumTopic.aspx?lang=en&topic_id=356&forum_id=9

Thanks for the link, I had downloaded this project sample before, but it did not work for me.  It is in C# and it is generating 2 compiled errors, which I believe are caused because the project was created for an old version of RSS.

I posted a request for a new sample from them, so let's see.  Thanks anyway for keeping this in mind.

Anyway, I used Trent's report sample and added a RenderSite class to it.

Hope it helps.

Thanks a lot for taking the next step and provide the sample.  It is clear now how it is done, without the sample and the poor help file it would be very difficult for me to really understand this.

Now I can have my own WinRenderDialog wich looks more professional and in synch with the application's look and feel.

Thanks again!