Creating Custom Reports using Syncfusion

[@tchpowdog]

I've used Telerik Reporting and DevExpress reporting in the past in production environments. Although they were serviceable, I've found them to be limiting and can be memory hogs. And if you have a client facing designer, you better expand your support team. I have not used SyncFusion's reporting. So we switched to straight HTML reporting, using libraries like wkhtmltopdf and IronPDF. These libraries convert HTML to PDFs. So, internally, our non-developer implementers create reports in Dreamweaver or the like and we store the result as templates. The templates contain macros which we substitute at runtime when a report is queried. This works well for us and clients like it. Using HTML also allows us to dynamically create generic reports without the need of it having been designed by a human. Just bringing this up as an alternative...

[@AhmedMohammed23]

Crystal reports made me go straight to html razer engine core and webview2 and I never looked back since

[@IAmTimCorey]

Thanks for sharing. If you are already using Syncfusion for something else, you can also look at their HTML to PDF option. That way you don't have to use multiple vendors.

[@kirkrepository]

Thank you Tim. The next part of reporting is what I'm eagerly waiting for. :)

[@IAmTimCorey]

You are welcome. It won't be long.

[@bryanpaderes8963]

Thank you for the video. However, is there support for WPF similar to what is available in Telerik Report for WPF?

[@emmadkareem5247]

Nice video and nice tool. How to deploy such a report with a Windows Forms applicate to end-user? Would there be some code calling report viewer external application with the report name? What does the user need to have installed on their machine? Thanks.

[@AhmedMohammed23]

last time i tried Syncfusion reports arabic support was lacking is it still the case?

[@IAmTimCorey]

I do not know. Sorry, I didn't test that.

[@cinismovirtual]

Hi. Bold Reports Designer has a bad bug: corrupts RDL file in certaing scenarios, not sure exactly what is it. Any tip to solve this? Of course I make a copy BEFORE start, but sadly if you try to resume working, your file will break always and your work lost.

[@IAmTimCorey]

That would be something to ask on their developer forum or help channel. Sorry.

[@Dultus]

As far as I've read the Bold Reports Designer is not part of the community licence?

[@IAmTimCorey]

The Bold Reports Designer is actually free to everyone: www.boldreports.com/standalone-report-designer

[@Dultus]

@@IAmTimCorey I see! Didn't find that page and just saw that Syncfusion said that the Community License doesn't work. Confused myself I guess! Thank you!

[@PomegranateChocolate]

@@Dultus I just tried to download it. You need either a work or school email address to download.

[@IAmTimCorey]

I don't think that is correct. Try signing up for the Syncfusion Community License. In there, I had access to the report designer as well.

[@Vic-ky3cc]

I'm not sure I understand the licensing model. On the bold reports website it says that it costs 1000$ per month if I want to integrate the report in my software. That can't be, can it?

[@IAmTimCorey]

The Report Viewer SDK, which allows you to integrate the reports into your C# apps, comes with the Community License: www.syncfusion.com/report-viewer-sdk

[@pointlesspos8440]

@@IAmTimCorey So what does that mean? Does it mean you can integrate it for free, but pay if you sell your app to consumers?

[@pierreplourde]

@@pointlesspos8440 if you qualify for the community licence (5 or fewer developers, less than $1M annual revenue), you can include in your production apps for free. If you don’t qualify, you have to pay for a license, but at that point, you’re making money off the software you’re selling, so it’s only fair.

[@jayschwarz4365]

On their website, the only free Bold products relate to PDF functions.

[@guy7524]

How to covert all the reporting services reports. (rdl and rdlc ) files. Clients have invested a lot in these reports and now they can't be used

[@IAmTimCorey]

The report viewer can view RDL and RDLC files. I'm not sure why you would need to convert them. This is for creating new reports (and it creates an RDL file).

[@chrisjohansson9971]

Nice, just FYI you put "Bool reports" in your description.

[@IAmTimCorey]

Fixed it. Thanks.

[@kongvang8825]

what is the future of SSRS?

[@IAmTimCorey]

As far as I know, it is bright. It is being maintained and updated by Microsoft and they are still investing in it.

[@PomegranateChocolate]

@@IAmTimCorey There seems to be not a whole lot of activities by companies investing in the paginated reporting space. The new thing (or not so new) seems to be the business intelligence thing like PowerBI, Tableau...etc.

[@Terminator090909]

@@IAmTimCorey Hi Tim, we are using SSRS at work, your video caught my eye since I was looking for something different for a while now, would you recommend Syncfusion above SSRS in terms of what it offers you? Thanks.

[@PomegranateChocolate]

@@Terminator090909 What are some of the pain points you have with SSRS?

[@Vitalick15]

Tim, when do we have to wait for a video about microservices ? we are all very much waiting)🙂🙃

[@IAmTimCorey]

I'm actively working on an API course. That will be a prerequisite for a microservice course (along with a few others). Then I'll do some microservice content. The problem is that microservices is a HUGE topic. It isn't a technology, it is a way of thinking about things. So, you need to know a LOT of technologies to make microservices work (Azure Functions, APIs, gRPC, MongoDB, CosmosDB, Service Bus, Message Queueing, Docker, AKS, Kubernetes, and more). And that's just the prerequisites. Then you need to know how to use them in a microservice-style, as well as how to debug them, etc. I do have a plan for how to teach it, and the KZbin videos will follow my paid content. It is just taking a bit.

[@Vitalick15]

@@IAmTimCorey Thank you for the answer, we are waiting very much)