I am using DevExpress XtraReports and have been able to make it work using a BusinessBindingSource as a DataSource, and then linking that BBS to a BO which has my report data in it.  I have done this many times already and have had no problems thus far.  I have been working on a problem for the past few days and haven't been able to figure out a solution.

I have several custom field properties on my BO which I have bound to fields in my report.  There are also several "regular" BO properties which link directly to fields in the db table.  The custom fields are all showing as blank, but the regular properties are showing as the correct values.  I don't think it is even getting to the code for the custom properties since I have set break points in them which are not getting hit.  I even tried hardcoding one of them to return a string value which also didnt show up. 

Its almost like it doesnt know how to find the custom properties.  I thought it was a problem with the binding, but if it can find the non-custom properties then it is binding correctly (I think).  Here is an example of one of the custom properties:

<Browsable(False), _
BusinessFieldDisplayInEditor(), _
DesignerSerializationVisibility(DesignerSerializationVisibility.Hidden)> _
Public ReadOnly Property TransferAmt() As Decimal
  Get
    Return FixAmt(Me.CurrentRow.Item("TransferAmt"))
  End Get
End Property

And I am also adding the custom property descriptors as I am supposed to, like the following:

Protected Overrides Function GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors() As MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor()

Return New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor() { _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("FacilityDescr", GetType(DailyTransactions)), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("DisburseAmt", GetType(DailyTransactions)), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("PaymentAmt", GetType(DailyTransactions)), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("StmtAmt", GetType(DailyTransactions)), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("FeePostAmt", GetType(DailyTransactions)), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("TransferAmt", GetType(DailyTransactions))}

End Function

Any advice, ideas, suggestions, etc?  Thanks!  I'm really stuck on this one.

Is this business object inheriting from the another business object?  For example, do you have a CustomersBO and then this would be something like Customers_ReportBO that inherits the CustomersBO class?  There could be some "gotchas" there if this happens.  More than likely this is related to the .NET binding not reevaluating the type descriptors.  You can override a property on the BO called AreCustomDescriptorsEvaluated.  You can override this and, just for a test, return False.  This will be slow and if it resolves the issue I can tell you a permanent work around.

Note: DO NOT LEAVE THIS CODE AFTER TESTING!!!

You are right on the money.  Yes, I am inheriting from another business object, and yes when I overrode that property it fixed it.  So now....how about that permanent solution you were talking about?? 

Just create a private and manage this manually for this BO.  If will look like this:

Notice that the private is shared...this is an important step.  Add this and you will be good to go.

Hi Andria,

Don't know if this will help or not but this is another approach to Type Descripters that Trent or Ben gave me advice on a little while ago:

Protected Overrides Function GetCustomBindablePropertyDescriptors() As MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor()

Dim DailyTran As System.Type = Me.GetType()

Return New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.FieldPropertyDescriptor() { _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("FacilityDescr", DailyTran), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("DisburseAmt", DailyTran), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("PaymentAmt", DailyTran), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("StmtAmt", DailyTran), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("FeePostAmt", DailyTran), _
  New MicroFour.StrataFrame.Business.ReflectionPropertyDescriptor("TransferAmt", DailyTran)}

End Function

Cheers, Peter

Ah, thanks.  That seems like an obvious time saver but I never noticed it before.  Good tip!

Trent, I'll try adding that in and see if it works for me.  Thanks!

Peter is right in that this can be a time saver....however, in this particular scenario, I would caution you against using the me.GetType().  In this particular scenario since you are inheriting from another business object and extending that object, this can cause an issue when binding. 

Using the GetType(MyBo) is actually safer here since it is not pulling from the reference.  You can take the shortcut that Peter mentioned though, just use the GetType(MyBo) instead of the me.GetType() to get that reference:

Hi Andrea,

Actually I wasn't suggesting this as an alternate way of doing the same thing. It actually fixed a problem I had in that it forced .Net to do the 'right thing'. Refer:

http://forum.strataframe.net/Topic13021-10-1.aspx

Cheers, Peter