We are glad to announce the next official release of Stimulsoft Reports. The new version comes with a number of changes aimed on creating a product with more features and capabilities. Please read below the detailed description of the most important implementations.
New Property Culture
The report may display a variety of data. Some data may be represented as a text. Other way of displaying other data, for example, date, time, numbers, currency may depend on the regional settings of the device.
By default, the regional settings of the operating system are used for rendering a report. This feature leads to the thing that the rendered report will look different on operating systems with different regional settings. In order to the data be displayed the same in the report, regardless of the specified device culture, you can use a new feature of our reporting tool. This is the Culture property of the StiReport object, which can be changed in the Properties panel of the report designer. In the field of the property you should specify the culture code (the format is xx-XX, for example, en-GB). The report generator, before report rendering, will setup a definite culture and apply regional settings to components. And it will be used to format data until rendering is finished.
If it is necessary the components do not depend on the culture, i.e. be displayed the same in any report culture, then you should use the Use Local Settings property and specify the desired parameters in it. In the report designer these parameters are specified in the group Text Format the tab Home.
Data Dictionary in Mobile Designer for MVC
As well as the Mobile Designer for ASP.NET contains the tab Data Dictionary on the panel next to the tab Properties. The same thing is now with the Mobile Designer for ASP.NET MVC. When you click the tab, the Data Dictionary displays an item tree with which you can control of all elements of the data dictionary.
Thus, it is possible to edit the data dictionary items including variables, business objects, and data sources. This significantly extends the functionality of the report designer. This increases productivity and adds new features when working with reports.
Styles in Mobile Designer
The Mobile Designer now has the Styles designer. In previous versions of this component was not implemented, which caused certain difficulties. Earlier, styles that have been created in our other products, can be used in the Mobile Designer component, but there was no possibility to work with these styles. It was impossible to edit styles, delete them and create new ones.
The new version of the StiMobileDesigner component now has the button Style Designer in the toolbar. When you click it a dialog is displayed where you can create, edit, and delete styles. Using the button Create Style Collection, you can create an entire collection of styles, that allows you not only to create each style separately but decrease time spent on working with styles. It is worth noting that a well-chosen value of colors in the styles Designer allows you to create nice and colorful reports.
Sending Reports by Email in MvcViewer Component
In the MvcViewer component we added a new feature - sending exported reports by Email.
Set the ShowButtonSendEmail property of the MvcViewer component to true and this functionality will appear in the report viewer. After that, the button Send Email appears on the toolbar of the report viewer. Clicking this button you can select the report format, options to save a report in the specified format, enter your email address, letter subject, and its text and send it.
Also, the dialog to input parameters of sending Email has been added for other ASP.NET components, namely MvcDesigner and MvcViewerFx, WebDesigner and WebViewerFx.
Support for Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013
In middle of October 2013 Windows 8.1 as an update on the Microsoft Windows 8 was released. Also Visual Studio that allows creating applications for Windows 8.1 was released in August this year.
Our products have been tested and adapted for using them in Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013.
Exporting images in WinRT
One should mention an important innovation in Stimulsoft WinRT – we have added support for images in exports, such as export to PDF. Unfortunately, this highly demanded feature could not be implemented in the previous versions of our product, but now, with the release of Windows 8.1, such a possibility is now created.
Extended Object Selection in Report Designer
In Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf and Stimulsoft Reports.Net we added the ability to select components that are placed on such elements as panels and bands. In order to select the necessary components which are placed, for example, on the panel component, you should hold down the Shift key and select (with the mouse cursor) the area that contains the necessary components.
Confirmation Dialog When Closing Web Browser
When using the Web Designer component and closing a web browser, the dialog box appears if the report is not currently saved. Besides the fact that it is very convenient, this feature will protect the user from accidental loss of unsaved data when closing a tab or a web browser.
New Event GetViewerLocalization of WebViewer Component
When loading a localization file in the WebViewer component, the GetViewerLocalization event is called. With this event you can load this file from the required location (e.g. from a database). Also, using this event, you can change some values in the localization.
New Option AutoPageScale
When printing the option AutoPageScale allows you to automatically scale the report page on the entire paper area. This option will make your work much easier in case there is no need to strictly comply with the sizes of all report items on the different sizes of paper. The report will always be printed on the entire area of the paper.
It is important to know that the option AutoPageScale is enabled by default in the viewer. Therefore, if you need to strictly keep the paper size when printing report items (e.g . bar-codes) then you should disable this option.
New Event CreateReport for Web Designer Component
The event CreateReport is called when creating a new report in the Report Designer. In the event you can change the new report before it will appear in the designer. For example, to register the data structure of the report, add a watermark to the page, company logo, etc.
By the links below you can see the full list of changes and download the latest version of the products
Stimulsoft Reports.Ultimate
Stimulsoft Reports.Net
Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight
Stimulsoft Reports.Web
Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf
Stimulsoft Reports.WinRT
In addition, we have prepared some Christmas Presents for you.
New Property Culture
The report may display a variety of data. Some data may be represented as a text. Other way of displaying other data, for example, date, time, numbers, currency may depend on the regional settings of the device.
By default, the regional settings of the operating system are used for rendering a report. This feature leads to the thing that the rendered report will look different on operating systems with different regional settings. In order to the data be displayed the same in the report, regardless of the specified device culture, you can use a new feature of our reporting tool. This is the Culture property of the StiReport object, which can be changed in the Properties panel of the report designer. In the field of the property you should specify the culture code (the format is xx-XX, for example, en-GB). The report generator, before report rendering, will setup a definite culture and apply regional settings to components. And it will be used to format data until rendering is finished.
If it is necessary the components do not depend on the culture, i.e. be displayed the same in any report culture, then you should use the Use Local Settings property and specify the desired parameters in it. In the report designer these parameters are specified in the group Text Format the tab Home.
Data Dictionary in Mobile Designer for MVC
As well as the Mobile Designer for ASP.NET contains the tab Data Dictionary on the panel next to the tab Properties. The same thing is now with the Mobile Designer for ASP.NET MVC. When you click the tab, the Data Dictionary displays an item tree with which you can control of all elements of the data dictionary.
Thus, it is possible to edit the data dictionary items including variables, business objects, and data sources. This significantly extends the functionality of the report designer. This increases productivity and adds new features when working with reports.
Styles in Mobile Designer
The Mobile Designer now has the Styles designer. In previous versions of this component was not implemented, which caused certain difficulties. Earlier, styles that have been created in our other products, can be used in the Mobile Designer component, but there was no possibility to work with these styles. It was impossible to edit styles, delete them and create new ones.
The new version of the StiMobileDesigner component now has the button Style Designer in the toolbar. When you click it a dialog is displayed where you can create, edit, and delete styles. Using the button Create Style Collection, you can create an entire collection of styles, that allows you not only to create each style separately but decrease time spent on working with styles. It is worth noting that a well-chosen value of colors in the styles Designer allows you to create nice and colorful reports.
Sending Reports by Email in MvcViewer Component
In the MvcViewer component we added a new feature - sending exported reports by Email.
Set the ShowButtonSendEmail property of the MvcViewer component to true and this functionality will appear in the report viewer. After that, the button Send Email appears on the toolbar of the report viewer. Clicking this button you can select the report format, options to save a report in the specified format, enter your email address, letter subject, and its text and send it.
Also, the dialog to input parameters of sending Email has been added for other ASP.NET components, namely MvcDesigner and MvcViewerFx, WebDesigner and WebViewerFx.
Support for Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013
In middle of October 2013 Windows 8.1 as an update on the Microsoft Windows 8 was released. Also Visual Studio that allows creating applications for Windows 8.1 was released in August this year.
Our products have been tested and adapted for using them in Windows 8.1 and Visual Studio 2013.
Exporting images in WinRT
One should mention an important innovation in Stimulsoft WinRT – we have added support for images in exports, such as export to PDF. Unfortunately, this highly demanded feature could not be implemented in the previous versions of our product, but now, with the release of Windows 8.1, such a possibility is now created.
Extended Object Selection in Report Designer
In Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf and Stimulsoft Reports.Net we added the ability to select components that are placed on such elements as panels and bands. In order to select the necessary components which are placed, for example, on the panel component, you should hold down the Shift key and select (with the mouse cursor) the area that contains the necessary components.
Confirmation Dialog When Closing Web Browser
When using the Web Designer component and closing a web browser, the dialog box appears if the report is not currently saved. Besides the fact that it is very convenient, this feature will protect the user from accidental loss of unsaved data when closing a tab or a web browser.
New Event GetViewerLocalization of WebViewer Component
When loading a localization file in the WebViewer component, the GetViewerLocalization event is called. With this event you can load this file from the required location (e.g. from a database). Also, using this event, you can change some values in the localization.
New Option AutoPageScale
When printing the option AutoPageScale allows you to automatically scale the report page on the entire paper area. This option will make your work much easier in case there is no need to strictly comply with the sizes of all report items on the different sizes of paper. The report will always be printed on the entire area of the paper.
It is important to know that the option AutoPageScale is enabled by default in the viewer. Therefore, if you need to strictly keep the paper size when printing report items (e.g . bar-codes) then you should disable this option.
New Event CreateReport for Web Designer Component
The event CreateReport is called when creating a new report in the Report Designer. In the event you can change the new report before it will appear in the designer. For example, to register the data structure of the report, add a watermark to the page, company logo, etc.
By the links below you can see the full list of changes and download the latest version of the products
Stimulsoft Reports.Ultimate
Stimulsoft Reports.Net
Stimulsoft Reports.Silverlight
Stimulsoft Reports.Web
Stimulsoft Reports.Wpf
Stimulsoft Reports.WinRT
In addition, we have prepared some Christmas Presents for you.