Create FlexReport at Design Time

The Load Report option, described in Load FlexReport at Design Time, makes it easy to embed reports you already have in your application. In some cases, however, you may want to customize the report, or use data source objects that are defined in your Visual Studio application rather than using connection strings and record sources. In these situations, use the Edit Report command instead.

To create or edit reports at design time, right-click the C1FlexReport component and select the Edit Report menu option to invoke the C1FlexReportDesigner application (you can also click the smart tag () above the component to open the C1FlexReport Tasks menu and select the Edit Report option).

Note: If the Edit Report command doesn't appear on the context menu and Properties window, it is probably because the control could not find the C1FlexReportDesigner application. To fix this, simply run the C1FlexReportDesigner application once in stand-alone mode. The designer will save its location to the registry, and the C1FlexReport component should be able to find it afterwards.

The C1FlexReportDesigner application shows the report that is currently loaded in the C1FlexReport component. If the C1FlexReport component is empty, the Designer shows the C1FlexReport Wizard so you can create a new report.

This is the same C1FlexReportDesigner application that is used in stand-alone mode. The only differences you will notice when you start the C1FlexReportDesigner application in this mode are:

You can use the data source objects defined in your application as data sources for your new reports.
When you close the Designer, any changes you made will be saved back into the C1FlexReport component on the form (unless you choose to discard the changes by selecting File | Exit from the Designer's menu, and select No to saving the changes).

To use data source objects defined in your application, click the Data Source button in the Designer, then select the Tables option in the Select a Data Source dialog box.

The Tables page shows a list of data objects currently defined on the form (the page will not be visible if there aren't any valid data sources on the form). Alternatively, you can use the Connection string to build and select a connection string and record source as usual.

For example, if the main form contains a DataSet object with several DataTables attached to it, the data source picker dialog box might look like this:

Data Sources Dialog Box

Once you are done creating or editing the report, you can close the Designer by selecting File | Save and File | Exit from the menu. This will save the report definition directly into the component (as if you had loaded it from a file using the Load Report command).

If you change your mind and decide to cancel the changes, quit the Designer selecting File | Exit from the menu and choose No to saving the changes.