StrataFrame Forum

XtraReports and parameterized SPs

http://forum.strataframe.net/Topic29266.aspx

By Charles R Hankey - 12/27/2010

Hope this will save somebody else some time.  There is a Joe Kunk webinar and while the technique of using a SQLDataAdapter is seductive, it doesn't work as shown.

Here's my solution :

http://www.devexpress.com/Support/Center/p/Q299515.aspx

Basically, you need to set the param and call the fill in the BeforePrint(), and be sure to reset the design-time sda param before you build (or export your reptx )

This was a head-scratcher but it is working great now - recommend you give it (and DevExpress in general ) a try.
By Edhy Rijo - 12/27/2010

Thanks Charles, good info.
By Charles R Hankey - 12/28/2010

I'm a little less excited about it today as I can't seem to get the preview to work with string based params ( you do need to set the param to string.empty to get the run-time to work at all, but setting a "default" param on the SDA doesn't seem to work as it does for integers.  I may see if I can get DevExpress to fix this, since it is their previewer that is the issue.

This only applies to previewing the report, however.  If you right-click on the SDA that is dropped on the report you can preview the data setting params and that works fine.  You just can't see your report populated with data as you can when the param is an int32.

I think the report previewer is just not wrapping the string param with single quotes before sending the exec.  They could probably fix it pretty easily 

( I have source but haven't checked yet to see if I have the source for the Xtrareport Designer.  I don't think I  do but I'm going to ask )
By Russell Scott Brown - 12/29/2010

Yes.  Thanks Charles. 

By the way, just as an interesting aside, Infragistics announced that they will be coming out with their own report writer in early 2011.
By Charles R Hankey - 12/29/2010

I decided life is too short for Infragistics :-)  

There property arrangement and the general layout of their designers just doesn't work the way my head does, I find their documentation either inadequate or obscure and the tech support seemed like they were annoyed to have to do that.

In contrast, DevExpress has been pretty much exceeding my expectations in everything and I very much like the way they integrate into the VS IDE.  ( though I have to admit I haven't warmed up to Coderush yet )

I guess it's just personal preferences.  I really learned to hate the interface to Report Sharpshooter and when I saw the designer in Xtrareports i fell in love Tongue
By Russell Scott Brown - 12/29/2010

I'm with you. 

I've already decided on DevExpress and XtraReports, etc., mainly because it was what people, especially including yourself, seemed to be using with Strataframe so I figured I'd make my life easier and just pick one and go with it.  It also helps that it is inexpensive.
By Edhy Rijo - 12/29/2010

Hi Charles, Russell,
I totally agree with Charles, even though I have not license DevExpress yet, just played a bit with their report engine and find it kind of easy and pleasant to work with, also tons of videos and most important, their support is what I am used to, they do care about their community and release updates on a regular basis so the developer knows what is going on and what to expect from their tools.

RSS came up with a new designer GUI and documentations which are pretty nice, but still no full IDE integration with VS nor preview while creating the report.

About Infragistics, I think it will take them a year or two to get developers confidence to use a new reporting tool.