I always like to make sweeping claims like this as there is always someone (or somebodies) that know more than I do and can provide additional information that makes the tutorial even better. 

• Dynamically configuring a report based upon an SQL Server table (ReportEngine)
• Methodology for abstracting business objects (three layers are illustrated)
• Class Diagrams for Business Layer, BOL and Report BO classes
• Description of the Business Binding Source as it relates to Generics
• Creating a simple Customer List
• Filtering the contents of that Customer List by collecting information from the user
• Adding custom properties to Report Business Objects
• Illustrating how powerful the Report Engine table can be
• How to subclass an XtraReport so that common processing can be consumed over every report in your application
• Creating an Inherited Report
• Create a Master-Detail using the data "Flattening" methodology
• Create a Master-Detail report by using multiple Data Sources and Sub-reports

Here it is ... https://www.dropbox.com/s/1e82qqb7h96pfu6/DXStrataFlix.zip

DevExpress 13.2.7

Free, web based, UML Modeling tool (FREE)

Charles T. Blankenship
Senior Consultant
Novant Consulting, Inc.
704.975.7152
http://www.novantconsulting.com

... ha, ha, ha ... I was hoping you would take that as a subtle poke in the ribs ... but in all honesty ... if you did jump in and fix my problem I would have never gotten to the point where ended up ... IOW ... discovering all the idiosyncrasies for myself was a much better approach.  No offence intended.

I didn't provide a .DDT file because I included the .bak for the entire StrataFlix database ... I thought it would be easier just to let people restore it over their existing StrataFlix.mdf

Thanks for the USING suggestion ... I'll make those changes and then repost the .zip file.

As for including deployment data from the Database Deployment Toolkit ... the only data I know how to deploy from that is the Security and Messaging files.   How do I get the Customers, Customer Orders, Customer Order Items and Report Engine table data inside the DDT?

Thanks,

CT

Charles T. Blankenship
Senior Consultant
Novant Consulting, Inc.
704.975.7152
http://www.novantconsulting.com

Hi Charles,

None taken.  Your document is pretty good and very detailed, so I am sure it will help others here.

I didn't provide a .DDT file because I included the .bak for the entire StrataFlix database ... I thought it would be easier just to let people restore it over their existing StrataFlix.mdf

Sorry I missed the .bak file in your project, it is there and I restored it just fine.

As for including deployment data from the Database Deployment Toolkit ... the only data I know how to deploy from that is the Security and Messaging files.   How do I get the Customers, Customer Orders, Customer Order Items and Report Engine table data inside the DDT?

It is very easy, take a look at the "Deployment Data Package Properties" in the SF help file.  There you can import data from any table in any database and deploy that to specific table in your application's database.  It is good for static lookup data, or when initially deploying an application to upload this data with every new installation pretty much like they do when you install StrataFrame and they deploy the StrataFrameSample database.

After many years working with StrataFrame, I learned (sometimes the hard way ) that things are simpler than I expected in StrataFrame and once you learn to work with the framework and not fight it, then you can become very productive.  One example is the Business Object class, looks so simple and for some probably outdated, but in reality very, very powerful class and in my experience rock solid, I don't get calls from my customers because my applications crashed, it just keep working, I get calls for enhancements and new stuff. 

Because of that experience I have no doubt StrataFrame 2.0 will be a great for us and from what I have heard about the new Business Objects and DDT in 2.0 it will easy to bind to any 3rd party tools like DevExpress controls without the need of the SF Business Binding Source.

Edhy Rijo